us as proportionable to our extraction God knoweth that the Angels are not Dust and therefore he may justly expect from them and require of them to serve him in altitudinibus in height of performance having a fourfold advantage above men by their very origination First the Angels are incorporeal who can act quicker then I can think My sluggish imagination cannot keep pace with their performances It was but a Poetick fiction that the Spanish gennets were conceived of the Wind. But it is a Theological truth Heb. 1.7 He maketh his Angels Spirits and his Ministers a flaming fire Whereas we poor men do drale and drag a cumbersome corps about us which much hindereth us in all our devotions Secondly Angels have no flesh and we have flesh this will some say interferreth with the former Oh no. Our Saviour had a body and that a real one but no flesh in this sence that is no relique and remnant of original corruption whereas we have both body and flesh too in the worst acception of the latter This Esquire of our body as I may call it is over officious in his dayly attendance so that whilst the Wind of Gods Spirit bloweth us one way the tide of our corruption hurrieth us another way a mischeif from which Angels are secured by their nature Thirdly Angels have no World to tempt them We live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the middle of Snares so bad that we should not look upon them but so common that we can hardly look beside them Fourthly and lastly Angels are free from any Devil effectually to tempt them should Satan indeavour he could not accomplish it The match cannot be lighted where there is no tinder to take fire Whereas such our corruption it is quickly enflamed with Satans temptations Angels having thus a fourfold advantage above men and seeing they Psal 103.20 Excell in strength whilst we poor mortals exceed in weakness God will expect from us service sutable to the mean matter we are made of and in his accounting with us will give us grains of allowance make favourable abatements and accept of proportionable defalcations remembring that we are but Dust Let me hear make a supposition not only seasable in it self but which de facto we see dayly performed suppose a man had two Sons the one grown to the full strength and stature of a man the other which usually happeneth by the same venter an infant which hath newly learned the method of going alone Suppose further that the Father at the same time commandeth them both to come to him and bring with them somewhat proportionable to their strength in obedience whereunto the man-son bringeth a Beam or Log on his shoulders The Child-son cometh also and what doth he bring with him It is very well if he bringeth himself for every step he stirreth he ventureth a stumbling if not a falling but what if also over and above himself he bringeth a straw or reed in his hand I appeal to you who are Parents of Children others being but incompetent judges of the case in hand to you I say who have paternal affection resident in your breasts and maternal legure in your bosomes whether you would not take it in as good part a reed of your Child-son as a Beam of your Man-sons bringing I trough you would Have earthly Fathers who are but parcel-pittiful such a Court of Chancery in their hearts and shall not God whose mercy is over all his works exceed us in all bowels of compassion God I say who may be said to have two forts of Sons Angels already arrived at their full strength and perfection In the laws of England the Kings eldest Son as Duke of Cornwel was presumed to be to all legal intents and purposes of full Age on the first day of his Nativity sure I am that Angels at the very instant of their creation were out of their non-age and in full maturity whilst men during their living in this life are still in their minority Until Ephes 4.13 we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledg of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ and therefore God will dispence with our dusty performance remembring that we are but Dust However none can without manifest usurpation entitle themselves to the least share in this Use of comfort if the connection of Davids words whereon they are founded be seriously considered Psal 103.13 14. Like as a Father pittieth his Children so the Lord pittieth them that fear him For be knoweth our frame he remembreth that we are dust See here God only reflecteth with favours on the dusty extraction of those that fear him and no others Therefore let no prophane person suck poyson out of the sweet flower of our comfortable use and dispose himself to leudness or at the best laziness in Gods service presuming that God knowing his Original of Dust will therefore accept of his as of but dusty performance Here let me distinguish betwixt dusty and Dung-hil serving of God Dusty serving of him is when men endeavours to the utmost strength of their weakness to serve him when they present him as Jacob did unknown Joseph Gen. 43.11 with the best and those God knowes but had fruit of our Land in our vessels doing all in sincerity which is Gospel perfection and the mean time confessing of groaning for and fighting against those many corruptions and more imperfections which cleave unto their most perfect performances This is Dusty serving of God Dung-hil serving of him is which proceedeth from persons Dead in Trespasses and sins Ephes 2.1 sending forth the same savour in the nostrills of the God of Heaven with Lazarus when he had been three dayes buried John the 11.39 And although such actions may appear spetious to the beholders yea and breath forth no bad sent at all to wicked men in the same condition one rotten corps is not offensive to an other yet as dead flies cause Eccles 10.1 Ointment of Apothecary to send forth an ill savour so Hypochricy appendant to such actions rendereth them noisom to that infinite being who is Emunclissiminaris most exact and critical in his smelling This is Dung-hill serving of God most odious unto him and therefore the Godly do detest and abhor it whilst they only grieve and bemoan at their dusty service of God which notwithstanding if qualified as formerly stated is acceptable in Jesus Christ Come we now to the Mark to which we all run and unto dust shalt thou return Whence we observe this Doctrine All humane art cannot preserve a corps from final returning to dust I say final although for a time it may repreive the same from being pulverized Far be it from me dispitefully to decoy the ingenious indeavours and they be but endeavours of any in Chyrurgery I will not add any to my ignorance in that mistery yet I say Art must cry craven in
ariseth out of this This is necessary to awaken mens drowsinesse and to quicken up mens dulnesse to a serious consideration of that that is so usefull to themselves A man would wonder that in the Wildernesse where so many thousands died for the hand of God was out against them for their murmuring and rebellion and they were destroyed by the destroyer as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 10. that there Moses should pray Lord teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdome though they had a sight of so many dying before them and that continually yet they needed to be stirred up to pray that God would teach them to make use of it So it is with us We have seen not only one or two die before us but there was a time not long since and you cannot forget it wherein the destroying Angel did walk at liberty about the Citie and kill thousands in our streets yet when so many died what security was there even among those that lived in so much that after awhile the sicknesse grew common and usual and so unregarded Have we not need then as much as ever Moses had in the Wildernesse to crie to God to teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdome Nay much more now when there is scarce one or none in comparison of those multitudes that were swept away in that visitation we have need of such helps as these are and to joyn our prayers with them too that we may be stirred up to a serious application of it to our selves That 's the first thing it is necessary for living men to take to heart the death of those that are departed that they may see and be brought seriously to think of the certainty of their own death Secondly therein also we see the nature of death what the proper work of it in the world is It is of singular use too The nature of death the proper work of it is to dis-unite to separate to dis-joyn things here you have the soul separated from the body the estate separated from the man the man separated from his friends and all by Death First I say ye have the body separated from the soul and this is a useful consideration The soul and the body while they keep together in a man they may be helpful and useful one to another the time will come when they must be separated Alas the not considering of this is the cause of those great errours that are in the lives of men that they bestow so much time upon their bodies that they so much mind the present things of this life and their outward welfare as if they had no souls at all to regard as if there never should be a separation of body and soul one from another What is the reason that there is all that care took for food for the body for apparel for the body for health for the body and such an utter neglect of the soul but because that men doe not dream do not thing of a time of separation of a time of dis-junction of a time of parting these two All the work of a mans life should now be to make a good use of the faculties of his soul that the body may be happy by it the soul will draw the body after it to its own estate Now they are together if they joyne now in sin after there separation there shall come a time when they shall be joyned in punishment if they joyn now in the service of God after they have been separated a while by death there will come a time when they shall be again joyned in glory and happinesse That is the first There will be a separation of soul and body therefore make good use of them while they are together let the body be serviceable to the soul by all its senses and members let the soul rule and order the body by its understanding and affections c. that both body and soul may be made blessed in an eternall conjunction together after death and in an everlasting union in the sight of God Secondly Death makes a separation between a man and all his outward estate in the world The rich man in Saint Luke 12. thought not upon this Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years he thought his soul and his goods should never have parted therefore take now thine ease saith he See what the end of it was Thou fool saith the Lord this night they shall fetch away thy soul and then whose shall these things be The time is coming that these things shall be none of thine they shall be another mans they shall be some bodies else they shall be taken from thee How necessary is this consideration to take off mens affections from the world and to stir them up to use their wealth and their estates while they have them so as may make for the glory of God A time shall come that they shall not have it to use that nothing shall be left them but a bare account to be given up Give an account of thy Stewardship Luke 16. The main businesse is now to be done while a man and his wealth are together while a man and his estate continueth together to use it to Gods glory otherwise it will be a woeful and heavy parting when death shall come to make a separation The young man went away sorrowful when Christ would have his wealth from him because he had great possessions How sorrowful will a man go out of the world when he hath a great deal of wealth but he hath not prepared his account he cannot give up a reckoning of his getting of it of his using imploying of it it is necessary therefore I say that men take to heart the death of those that die before them that when they see the bodies and souls of men parted men and their estates parted they may learn how to use their bodies souls themselves and their estates while they are yet joyned together Thirdly Death doth not only part a mans body and soul a mans self and his wealth but it parteth a man from his friends from all his worldly accquaintance from all those that he took delight in upon earth Death makes a separation between husband and wife see it in Abraham and Sarah though Abraham loved Sarah dearely yet Death parted them Let me have a place to bury my dead out of my sight It parteth father and child how unwilling soever they be see it in David and Absolom Oh Absolom my son would God I had died for thee and Rachel mourned for her children and would not be comforted because they were not It parteth the Minister and the people see it in the case of the people of Israel lamenting the death of Samuel and in the case of the Ephesians at the parting of S. Paul sorrowing especially when they heard they should
not rightly apprehend the thing Other things I should have added but I am loth to hold you too long A word for the occasion and so I will conclude the departure of our Sister here was the occasion as of this meeting here so of this Text in particular She gave good evidence to those that knew her more inwardly that she was in Christ that the was delivered not onely from eternal death but from fear of tempor all death too It pleased God to exercise her a great while under the fear of death the apprehension of it was of some terrour to her but neverthelesse when God called her to it indeed then the fear of death was hid from her and Christ then applied the fruit of his death in freeing her from those fears She was not freed from them out of a Stoycal Appethy or want of natural affection and passion but out of a spiritual and faithful application of Christ to her selfe upon good grounds She looked upon God as her Father and much delighted to expresse her apprehension of him under that notion and she very often manifested her rejoycing in that interest she had in God as his child no marvel then if the fear of death were taken away we see here in the text that they are children that are delivered from the fear of death When we are in the state of Gods children by adoption and grace then there is rather a desire then a fear of death It is but as our Fathers white Horse so it is called in the Revelation A child at school when he seeth one riding post through the streets as if he would run over him or tread upon him he cryeth out But if he sees that it is his fathers man sent to bring him from school to his Fathers house all his fear is past and he laugheth and rejoyceth So when we are the sons and daughters of God by adoption we apprehend Death as our Fathers pale Horse sent by him to bring us from a place of prison on earth home to our Fathers house a place of liberty in heaven So it was with her She looked upon Christ as her Husband and though she left a husband upon earth yet it was her owne expression she was to go to her Husband in heaven which was farre better for her And therefore I say having these apprehensions of God as her Father and that she was adopted to the estate of a child by grace and looking upon Christ as her husband no marvel she was freed from the fear of Death And that these were upon good grounds those that knew her course best knew that she expressed it by her abundant care to please God by her desire to serve God by her endeavour to mortifie and subdue ill in her selfe by her growth in grace in her latter times these good evidences did shew that it was not a rash and groundlesse perswasion but a true and real apprehension of God and Christ that freed her from this Fear of death Beloved many times the life of Gods servants is uncomfortable to them because for some of those reasons I have spoken of before they are afraid of Death and they apprehend it not with comfort and this they doe because they see not the interest they have in better comforts then Death can take from them I have the rather therefore spoke this of her that you may take notice of it and apply it to your selves And to conclude make this use of all to grow more humble and watchful and holy to strengthen faith more and by dying daily to prepare more for Death For faith is the rectified apprehension of things Death it is not so fearful as you think it is you lose not so much as you think you lose Nay again because this trouble and this fear dishonoureth God therefore when God calleth us to Death he hideth these fears from us as he did from this servant of Christ at this time before us though she were fearful before yet she was exceeding comfortable all the time when the apprehension of Death approached upon her So it shall be with thee if thou be careful to use the means to prepare for Death mind thou the dutie that God enjoyneth thee in thy life and leave the event and issue to him either he will glorifie himself by thy fears or else he will glorifie himself by delivering thee from thy fears THE PERFECTION OF PATIENCE OR THE COMPLEATE CHRISTIAN SERMON IV. JAMES 1.4 But let Patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and intire wanting nothing IN the second verse of this Chapter the Apostle perswadeth the distrest servants of God to bear their afflictions chearfully My Brethren saith he count it all joy when you fall into divers tentations This Exhortation he presseth in the third verse by shewing the gracious effects of tentations when God sanctifieth them Knowing this that the tryal of your faith worketh patience Yea but if this be all the fruit of our afflictions and tentations that we shall be made patient what great matter is that what great advantage cometh by patience It is but a dull grace it is meerly passive He telleth them that it is such a grace as is necessary to the beeing and perfection of a Christian in the words that I have now read to you Let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and intire wanting nothing I shall speak something for the explication of the terms and phrases used here and then come to elect such points as shall offer themselves to us from them First I will shew what is meant by patience Secondly what is meant by Patience having her parfect work Thirdly what is meant by this that doing of this they shall be perfect and intire wanting nothing Patience in a word it is a grace or fruit of Gods spirit whereby the heart of a beleever willingly submiteth it self to the will of God in all afflictions and changes in this life I say it is a work or fruit of Gods spirit In respect of this work the efficient is called The God of Patience and long suffering which is the same with Patience is made a fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 The subject of this is the heart The act of this Patience is to submit a mans self willingly to God in afflictions I say willingly for there is a submission which is by force when God subjects a man to himselfe not by a gratious and sweet inclining of the will but by a powerful subduing of the person Now when I say there is such a willing submission to God in afflictions the meaning is thus That there may be in a believer in a child of God a Velietie an inclination of the will a natural desire to be freed from Afflictions yet nevertheless there is in him that willingness that is here the Patience of a Christian There may be a willingness an unwllingness in one
commanded fire from heaven yet you see how he bore with them and rebuked his Disciples You know not of what spirit you are He was lead as a lambe dumb before the shearers and he opened not his mouth Again you have the examples of the servants of God Take my brethren faith Saint James the Prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an ensample of suffering affliction and of Patience The Prophets suffered long and endured the frowns of the world and the rage of Princes they endured a thousand miseries and all to discharge their duty But amongst all the servants of God You have heard of the Patience of Job and what end the Lord made with him Every man can speak of the patience of Job but this was written for our ensample to teach us to be patient as he was Whatsoever things were written afore-time were written for our learnings that we through Patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Again secondly as it is necessary for a Christian to strive for the perfection of Patience in the degrees of it because of the conformity that should be between him and those examples of God of Christ and of the Saints between God the Father and beleevers his children between Christ the head and beleevers his members between the Saints of God children of the same Father and servants of the same Master that should honour him in the same grace of Patience So There is a necessity likewise of it in respect of the tryals whereunto a Christian may be put you had need to strive that you may be perfect in Patience because you know not what tryals ye shall be put to what times ye are reserved to Every man must expect troubles and afflictions they are called Tribulations and you know what Tribulum was the Iron ball that was full of pikes round about so that wheresoever it was cast it did stick and Engine used in war Tribulations are unavoydable they will fall and stick ye cannot escape them on any side by any turning to the right hand or to the left It is the will of God that through many tribulations we should enter into the kingdome of heaven and whosoever will live Godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution Now beloved is this so that this is a Statute in heaven decreed and ordained by God and will not be reversed like the lawes of the Medes and Persians that every man must passe to heaven through tribulation and affliction upon earth then it concerns every one to be armed to get such a measure of patience as may support him in such afflictions Ye know not what afflictions ye may have what particular tryals God may put ye to In what a miserable case then is a man if he be to seek of his armour when he is in the middest of the pikes if he be then to get patience when he is in the middest of tryals when he is disturbed and distracted with vexation of spirit What foolish disorderly speeches proceed from men in the time of affliction We may see it in David so foolish was I and ignorant and in this point a beast before thee What foolish sensual beastly speeches unreasonable absurd passages proceed from men in those times of trouble if they have not got to themselves before hand this grace and are not fitted to a Christian carriage in time by patience Thus ye see the necessity of patience to the perfection of a Christian and the necessity of the perfection of patience to the ornament of a Christian Now we come to make use of both these together First it serveth for the just reproof of Christians that are careful for other parts and acts of religion and are not so seriously mindful of this duty of patieuce as they should be but are so farre from striving for patience that they seem rather to strive for impatience that make their crosses more heavy and their afflictions more bitter then they would be Indeed we make Gods Cup that of it self is grievous enough to nature and to sense by putting into it our own ingredients that are inbred in our own passions and pride and self-will and our own earthly minds farre more bitter then else it would be But how doth a man make afflictions worse There are divers wayes that men take wherein they are so far from perfecting Patience in themselves that they wholly destroy Patience The first is by their agravating of their afflictions by all the several circumstances that possible they can invent All their eloquence is used in expressing the grievousness of that cross and affliction that is upon them They that in the times of mercy could scarce ever drop a word in thankfulness and acknowledgement of Gods goodness to them now they can pour out flouds of sentences in expression of Gods bitter and heavy dealing with them in such afflictions and crosses and distresses that befal them As the Church speaks in the Lamentations Consider all that pass by is there any affliction like my affliction wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me The like speech you have ordinarily in the mouths of persons Is there any affliction like mine there is no body so wronged in their name as I nor hath such pain in their body nor never went with such an heavy heart as I never any man suffered so many injuries by freinds and enemies and all sorts of people as I have done at if all the afflictions in the world the flouds and waves of tryalls were all met upon one person This is the language of men whereby they aggravate their afflictions and increase impatience in themselves Again another way whereby they do is is this By giving vent and free course to their passions Passions are like a wild horse if they have not reines put upon them if they be not pulled in they will flie out to all excesse If once we give our Passions vent there is no stoping of them David we see checks himself he had a curb to bridle his passions Why art thou cast downe oh my soule But otherwise when men give the reines to their passion and doe not stop their course but think they have reason for it they break out into all exhorbitancie Ionah when the Lord challenged him for his anger Dost thou well to be angry I saith he I doe well to be angry even to the death So David Oh Absalom my sonne would God I had died for thee Oh Absalom my sonne my sonne What hurt was done to David what wrong had the man to take on thus his sonne was tooke from him but it was Absalom Absalom died but it was Absolom that would have killed his father and yet he takes on as if the father could not live because the sonne that sought his death was tooke from him Such unreasonable Passions such causelesse distempers oft-times are in the soules of men that
be upon us and we pine away in them how shall we then live The Prophet had incouraged them notwithstanding their great sins to return by true repentance and they should not perish nevertheless they are muttering discouraged with fear breaking their spirits withdrawing themselves from God the judgements of God are begun upon us the hand of wrath is gone out against us we are pining away in them though we are not wasted yet yet we are like a man in a consumption that wasteth by degrees how shall we live certainly we shall die Saith the Lord say not thus among your selves but know if ye turn ye shall live As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live turn ye turn ye from your evil wayes for why will ye die oh house of Israel Beware of discouragment therefore it is Sathans device that when once he hath drawn men from God by a path of sin to hold them under discouragement that so he may ever after keep them from turning to God again It was his device whereby he would have kept Adam from turning to God after he had committed that great sin in eating of the forbidden tree He thought of nothing but hiding himself from God and so he did hide himself amongst the bushes of the Garden I heard thy voyce and was afraid and I hid my self Mark here was a fear of discouragement in Adam that whereas he should have come and fell down before the Lord and have begged mercy and said as David here Who knoweth whether the Lord will be gracious to me He run clean away from God There is a fear of reverence that keepeth a man with God and there is a fear that draweth a man to God but this fear of discouragement driveth a man from God and that is the temptation of Sathan to keep a man from God when once he hath turned aside from him Therefore that is the first thing take heed of such inward discouragements as may drive you quite off Secondly Take incouragement then to seek the face of God in his own means and way He hath threatned judgements against others for the same sins that ye find your selves guilty of when they have returned to him they have found mercy Return ye to him in truth and seek his face aright and ye shall find the same mercy In the prophesie of Joel ye shall see there that though God had threatned judgements nay though he had begun judgement for that was the case of those times judgement was begun upon them yet neverthelesse the Prophet calleth them to fasting and weeping and telleth them that the Lord is gracious and merciful and ready to forgive and who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him Therefore let us do our parts and seek God in truth amend our lives and then no question of this but that God will return It is an old device of Sathan to draw men instead of Gods revealed will to look to Gods secret will whether I be absolutely rejected or cast off or not But this is not the thought wherein a Christian should exercise himselfe his main business is this to make his calling and election sure by all the evidences of it hy a holy life walk obediently to Gods revealed will and be certain thou shalt not be rejected by Gods secret will He never rejecteth those by his secret will and purpose and decree to whom he giveth a heart to walk obediently to his revealed will So much for that Who knoweth that the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live The incouragement is this That the child may live But mark his expression Whether the Lord will be gratious to me that the child may live If he had said no more but this Who knoweth whether the child may live A man would have thought this would fully enough have expressed his mind but there is more in it that could not be expressed without this addition Who knoweth whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live The life of a child is a mercy to the father David expresseth herein both his Pitty and his Piety His pitty He accounteth all the good or ill that befalleth his child as his own if death befalleth it he accounteth it as a misery that befalleth himself if sickness befalleth his child he accounteth it as an affliction upon himself This is his natural pitty that some natural affection of a father to his Child See such an expression of the woman of Canaan have mercy on me thou son of David my daughter is miserably vexed of a divel The Daughter was miserably vexed and the mother cryeth out Have mercy on me There is such a simpathy ariseth hence from the natural and free course that love hath in descending from the Father to the Child There are not only moral perswasions that may invite and draw on love but besides that there is a course of affection that floweth naturally and kindly from the Father to the child as it is with those rivers that fall downward they fall more vehenently then those that are carried upward so the more natural the affection is the more vehement it expresseth it self in the motion to such objects Now when the Father expresseth his affection to his child this is more vehement because it is more natural there is more strength of nature in it I cannot stand upon this only a word by way of inference and application to our selves First are natural parents thus to their children Then here is a ground of faith for the children of God that he is pleased to stile himself by the name of Father and to receive them into the adoption of sons and daughters This was Davids expression of God As a father hath compassion of his children so hath the Lord on those that fear him And the Prophet Isaiah expresseth it fully In all their affliction he was afflicted and the Angel of his presense saved them in his love and pitty he redeemed them and he bare them all the dayes of old he bore them upon his wings This giveth confidence and boldness to Gods children in making their requests known to him This was it that incouraged the Prodigal I will arise and go to my father and say Father I have sinned against heaven and bofore thee c. God saith S. Barnard alwayes grants those petitions that are sweetned with the name of father and the affection of a child I should hence speak somewhat to children to stir them up to answer the love of their Parents but other things that follow forbids me any long discourse of this Secondly here is Davids piety expressed in this Who knoweth whether the Lord will be gracious to me He exprest not only the Pitty and affection of a natural father to a child but piety
also arising from the sense of his guilt He was guilty of sin and by sin he had brought this sorrow upon himself and therefore who knoweth whether the Lord will be gracious to me in sealing to me the pardon of my sin this way in adding this mercy as a further assurance of his love in granting me the forgiveness of my sin God had told him by Nathan that his sin was pardoned though he told him the Child should die it may be by the same mercy he will release me from this sentence of death upon my Child whereby he released me from the guilt of my sin before Here I say is the sense of his own sin The point I note hence is That Parents in the miseries that befal their children should call their own sin to remembrance All the sorrows and sicknesses and pains and miseries that befall children should present to Parents the remembrance of their own sin It was the expression of the Widdow of Sar epta to the Prophet Eliah Art thou come to call my sins to remembrance and to slay my child She saw her sin in the death of her Child So I say in all the afflictions and crosses that befall children the Parents should call to remembrance their own sin But some men will here say There seemeth to be no need of such a course for God hath said plainly That the child shall not die for the sin of the Parent And after God cleareth his own waies from inequality and injustice by that argument The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father Therefore what reason is there that Parents should call their sins to remembrance in the miseries that befall there children I answer Though he say the child shall not die for the Parents sin yet we must understand it aright for what doth he mean by the sins of the Parent And what doth he mean by death By sins of the Parent he meaneth those sins that are so the Parents as that the children are not at all guilty of those sins then the children shall not die By Death he meaneth as the word signifieth the destruction of nature So death shall not befall the child for that sin that himself is not guilty of But how then come little children to die before they have committed any sin actually was this for their own sin or for the sin of their Parents I answer for their own sin they die for the soul that sinneth it shall die and all children have sinned they brought sin into the world and sin brought death as the Apostle speaks therefore death reigneth over all even over those that have not sinned according to the similitude of Adams transgression that is that have not sinned actually as Adam had done yet nevertheless they die because they have sin upon them they have the corruption of nature In sin they were born and in iniquity their mother conceived them and the wages of sin is death therefore they die for their own sin But what if temporal judgments and afflictions befall them is this for their own sin or for the sin of their Parents I answer for both both for their own and for the sin of their Parents for as death so all the miseries of this life are fruits of original sin which is an inheritance in the person of every child by nature as soon as it is born but yet if the sin of the Parents be added to it that may bring temporall judgments There are many instances and examples of this how God hath visited upon the posterity of wicked persons the sins of their Fathers according to that threatning in the second Commandement And this you shall see either in godly children of wicked parents or in ungodly children of godly Parents Suppose a man leave a great deal of wealth to his children and have one that fears God amongst them it may please God to lay some losse or crosse upon him to the undoing of him he may utterly be impoverished and beggered and deprived of all that means that his father left him by unrighteousness He getteth an heir and in his hand is nothing saith Solomon that is God deprived him of all that estate his father left him by unrighteousness Now I say here is a judgment upon the father and yet a mercy upon the child A judgment upon the father that all that he hath laboured for that which he lost his soul for should be vain should come to nothing and not benefit his posterity as he thought Yet it is a mercy to the child to the child of God He by this means is humbled it draweth him from the world Nay when God emptieth him of these things that were unrighteously gotten he giveth him it may be an estate another way wherein he shall see God his Father provide for him without any indirect and unlawful courses So sometimes the very shame and reproach that falleth upon wicked children here it is a judgment to the parents and to the children too Upon the parent as far as he is guilty of the neglect of his duty and of evil example and the like so he is punished in the shame that befalleth his posterity As it is a blessing upon a man that he is not ashamed to sit in the Gates as Solomon speaks no man can upbraid him with his children So it is a correction to Gods children even when their children prove ungodly so farr as they have been negligent and careless of their duty This was the case of old Eli a good man yet nevertheless the hand of God was gone out against his house and family and what was the reason of it Because thou honourest thy sons above me they made themselves vile and thou restrainest them not therefore will I bring a judgment upon thy house at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle I say it may come to pass and that by reason of that natural affection that is in Parents that that misery that befalleth their children may be an exceeding cross and an affliction to them God layes sharp corrections on them when he makes those children which they accounted as comforts and the hope of their life to be the very cross and vexation of their life There is then ye see such a course of Gods dealing with men to visit the sins of the Fathers upon the children that is if the children walk in their fathers steps if the child and the father agree in a course of sin if the father by omission or commission make himself guilty of the sin of the child c. and so if the child either by imintation or allowance go on in his fathers way he draweth a greater judgment upon himself by adding to his fathers sin and as they are alike in sin so they shall be alike in judgment You see likewise for temporal judgments that God may and often-times doth lay many
sicknesses and crosses upon the children for the sin of their parents that they may be smitten by the judgment that is upon their children and yet nevertheless the children may be free from sin for who ever was afflicted being innocent Is this so then in the first place it should teach Parents to take heed of making themselves miserable in their posterity by sinning against God There are specially three sorts of sins in Scripture for which God continueth his judgments upon mens posterities and families The first are sins against the first Table against the worship of God Idolatry and such like for these God smiteth mens posterities as we may see in Jeroboam and others And so the neglect of dutie prophaness and negligence in Gods worship Let thy wrath come upon the heathen and on the families that call not upon thy name A family I know in a large sense signifieth a Nation but in a strict sence a family or posterity in that place it signifieth both A Family or people that lay aside the worship of God and the sanctifying of his Name those that lie under this charge of not calling upon the name of God let thy wrath come upon them A second sort of sins are those against the second Table unrighteousness injustice uncleanness and the like for those sins God visiteth mens posterities punisheth them in their children sometime by taking them away sometimes by smiting them with such sicknesses and temporal afflictions and chastisements as Parents have continual matter of sorrow and humiliation and calling their sins to mind The Scripture is full of instances of this kind Thirdly for the neglect of duty to their children when Parents are too fond and remiss in their education and careless in their duty therefore Job was fearful of this lest his sons should sin against God and he was continually in prayer that God would keep them in his fear Parents if they would have a blessing continued on their posterity they should be careful of sanctifying their Families by the worship of God and by their walking with an upright heart in the midst of their house by dealing righteously with men in all their business not to strive to rear their posterity by wealth but by grace to leave them heirs of the bâ—essing rather then of much money That is the way to have comfort in children and posterity Ye see how few of those that in this Citie or other places that have got such wealth thrive in many generations nay it may be not in the next generation but come some to notorious beggary in the sight of others that others may be warned how they get estates by unjustice and unrighteousness to leave to their families There is the judgment of God going along with unrighteous gain and a sinful life and falleth upon posterity as far as they approve of or walk in their fathers waies In the second place it should teach children to take heed of the sinful courses of their Parents if they will not joyn with them in their punishment nay if they will not have the increase of their punishment take heed I say take heed of going on in their sins Remember the charge that the Lord gave concerning Babylon Come out of her if you will not partake of her Plagues if we will not partake of their plagues take heed of partaking in the sins of your Parents Here was Davids piety he calleth his sins to remembrence So ought Parents in all crosses that befal their families or posterity if any child be sick or weak or if their be any cross in their estates or trade or success in their business whereby they should maintain their Families to call their own sins to remembrance to look over the several commands of God to see what sins they are guilty of that they have not yet repented of Now we come to Davids carriage when the child was dead But now he is dead wherefore should I fast Can I bring him back again I shall go to him but he shall not return to me Here ye have Davids carriage and the reasons why he did not fast First because it was against reason wherefore should I fast in this expression he implieth that he saw no reason for it and that made him forbear it Secondly it is altogether bootless and needless Can I bring him back again Thirdly I shall go to him I have somewhat else to do then to spend my time in unprofitable forrow there is a matter that concerneth me more neerly to think upon that is concerning my own death to prepare for that And Lastly the last reason is He shall not returne to me These are the reasons of the alteration of his carriage upon the death of the child Concerning sorrow for the dead ye must understand it of excessive sorrow Here is not forbidden a due measure of sorrow that is allowed but he speaks of sorrow in the excess Why should I do this The reasons he giveth against excessive sorrow are first I can but give you the heads of things because it is a thing against reason Hence I will note this to you That one way to moderate our sorrows and to regulate them aright is to bring them to the examination of reason and judgment When passions sway when they do not look to the commands of reason to be subject and ordered according to that but usurp a rule in the soul above reason then there is nothing but confusion and distemper and disorder in a mans afections actions and in his whole course A man should therefore consider what reason there is for every thing If he sorrow for a thing what reason have I for it If he rejoyce in any thing what reason have I for it Is it worth this sorrow or this joy I say his is the way to rectifie and moderate our passions and to order them aright if we trie them all by sound reason David took this course at other times Why art thou cast down oh my soul why art thon disquicted within me Is there any good reason for it Reason I say is a curb and bridle to stop passion when it is running on its free course If David had done thus would he have run out to that excessive expression for his son Oh Absolom my son my sow c. What great reason had he for this that Absolom a rebellious son was took away that sought the death of his Father that God glorified himself in the punishment of a disobedient proud insolent child in the sight of all the world Was this a matter for David so much to grieve and to be troubled at If Jonah had done thus if he had considered what reason he had to be angry as GOD putteth the question to him dost thou well to be angry Would he not have stopped that Passion If Cain had done thus if he had put the question to himself as GOD did Why art thou wrath
why is thy conntenance fallen Or as that great King said to Nehemiah Why is thy countenance sad So if men would put the question to themselves concerning their affections as concerning love why do I set my heart upon such and such things and so likewise concerning their sorrow and anger and every thing Why is it thus As Rebecca said when the children did strive in her womb so when there is a conflict of passion in the soul against reason since it is so why am I thus Who art thou that fearest mortal man saith Isaiah to the Church If men I say did thus they would not break out into such exorbitancy of passions as commonly they do The way then to order any affection aright is to reduce it to the principles of sanctified and rectified reason and judgement Let reason be guided by the Word of GOD and let the affections be ordered by that reason so rectified Thus it was with man in the state of innocency and experience telleth us that in the state of corruption all disorder cometh from the want of this subordination of the affections to reason in their several actions and motions When a man goes hood-wink'd up and down he is in danger of stumbling and falling into one hole or other this is for a man to walk in darknesse then a man-walketh in darknesse when he is not guided in all his actions and affections by the light of truth shining in his understanding A man should therefore strive to check himself and to suffer others to check him Why is it thus If a man cannot give a cause and a reason it is a passion to be rejected a distemper o be repented of This is the first thing He saw no reason therefore he would not do it The second is this It was altogether bootlesse Why should I fast I cannot bring him back again He meaneth bring him back again to live on the earth So Job meaneth when he speaks in the same manner If a man die shall he live again he cannot be brought again to live and converse among men The point I note hence is this That all the actions and opportunities of this life cease in death There is no calling of them back again No bringing of a man back to take new opportunities to enioy the comforts he hath lost and to make use of the means he hath neglected and to redeem the time he hath slackly let passe When the request was put to Abraham by Dives that some might come from the dead to tell his brethren upon earth where he was No faith he that request shall never be granted that a man should come from the dead to give warning to the living much lesse that a man himself should return from thence to begin upon a new score a new reckoning to have a new time appointed when that time is past over They have Moses and the Prophetes let them hear them God hath appointed the means and a time to use the means Now they have Moses and the Prophets After this life they shall have none of these means no time of using them The child shall not come back again nor the man shall not come back again Death is a strict door-keeper all that passe out that way the door is shut on them they shall never return back We read of many several Ages that have gone to the place of silence we never read of any that came thence to tell what is done there we never heard of any yet that came back again to reform his course A friend with all his prayers and tears cannot bring back a friend that is dead It teacheth us a point of wisdom to make good use of our time the time of grace we have We draw neerer death every day then other and when once we are dead we shall never be brought back again upon the earth If a man had all the world and would give it to obtain an hours time upon earth to do what he neglected before he cannot have it therefore while it is called to day harden not your hearts yet a little while and you shall have the light saith Christ while ye have the light walk in the light Make use of the means of grace the time may come when ye may wish as Dives is described to wish that some body much more that you your selves might come from the dead Certainly if those in Hell were to come from the dead again though it were to live a hundred years on earth a holy strict and concionable life to watch over all their wayes to keep a good conscience towards God and men they would not omit a duty nor slight a duty they would not omit an opportunity a minute but spend their whole life in working out their salvations with fear and trembling they would sleep and awake with fear lest they should sin they would be careful that they had no sinful thought they would be patterns of the strangest expressions of conformity to the rule that can be imagined if it were possible to be granted You may easily be perswaded of this do you that now which they wish for and wish in vain make use of the time of grace now there is no coming back again afterward Thirdly A third reason is this I shall go to him As if he should have said I have another business in hand now the child is dead it is not for me to stand blubbering and spending my time for a dead Child I am going to him The word here is I shall return to him Return signifieth to go back to a place where one was before So David shall return to his Child for he was there before there in respect of his body the principles of that is in the earth where the Child is and in heaven in respect of his soul where the Child is The Body returneth to dust whence it was taken and the soul to God that gave it The body is of the dust and returneth to dust the soul cometh from God and returns to God again Therefore he saith here I shall return to him because I came from him When things are reduced to their principles the body to the earth and the soul to God they are said to return Ye see the phrase then The point briefly is this That the greatest care of a mans life the greatest business he hath to do on earth is to prepare for death His business is not to care for his children that are dead and to spend unprofitable sorrow for them the main business of my life is how I shall make my peace with God and be fitted for death for I am going thither We should observe the death of others to stir us up to a serious preparation for our own death the Father should be stirred up by seeing his Child dead before him the elder by seeing the younger die before them we see how death hath shot his arrowes
resolute that you should be as if not in all things in this I am bold This is the drist of the Apostle that he would bring in one thing wherein he is consident after the resolution of divers Questions wherein he could not be so consident So then the words I have read contain two general things First the Apostles Preface to his Exhortation Secondly the Exhortation it self The Preface in these words But this I say brethren The Exhortation in the rest of the words The time is short c. In the Exhortation there are likewise three things that I would note unto you Eirst the ground of the Exhortation in these words The time is short Secondly the Exhortation it self in these words It remainech that they that have wives be as though they had none and they that weep as if they wept not and they that rejoyce as if they rejoyced not and they that buy as if they possessed not and they that use the world as not abusing it Here is the Exhortation Then the third thing is a spur the Apostle addeth to quicken them up to practise all these things in these words For the fashion of this world passeth away The first general thing in the words is the Apostles Preface But this I say brothren And in this I would note but two things I will but name them because I would not be straitned in two principal points that I would gladly open First here I would note How consident and earnest and resolute a faithful minister will be when he cometh to a point that mainly concerns his people In all other things the Apostle giveth them his Answer so as it might seem he had not fully resolved them I give my advise faith he and again I suppose this But now when he cometh unto the right use of the world that it be not abused and the thought of heaven that they might set themselves about it Here he cometh without ifs and ands he setteth it down resolutely and positively Brethren this I say or this you must do This is one thing that I might note Secondly I might note The compellation or term that he giveth them Brethren In which note who they are to whom Saint Paul giveth the Exhortation And it seemeth to me as if the Apostle should say I am putting you now upon a duty that if I could not give you the term brethren I should hope to prevail little with you To come and tell a young gallant that is in the middest of his russe and his jollity and all pleasures the fashion of this world passeth away and I would have you use these things as if you used them not I know he would not receive it Or to come to an old soaked worldling whose Mammon and penny is his God whose thoughts run altogether upon his wealth and to tell him that he should use the world as if he used it not Or to come to another that is newly married and it may be hath made a Goddesse of his yoak-fellow for a while and tell him that he must be as if he were not married I should have little hope to prevail with these But you are brethren and because brethren you know the good things of God you are acquainted with things concerning eternal happiness therefore as long as I can call you brethren I am bold to put you upon the duty So brethren this is my Preface to you I shall anon speak to a point that I shall have little hope to prevail with many in the Congregation when I come to speak of the immoderate use of the world and all the blessings in it it may be both your eares will be so stopped against it But as many of you as are brethren that have given up your selves to God and have taken him for your portion and his Word for your guide in all things I hope you will bring willing and yeelding hearts to resolve that what is delivered out of the word of God to embrace it and to endeavour it concerning the course of your lives And so this will suffice for the Preface because as I said I would not be straitned Now I come to the Exhortation It remaineth that they that have wives be as if they had none c. First I will in brief open the words and then come to some matter of instruction I begin first with the ground of the Exhortation The time is short The word translated short signifieth in the orignal Time cut off And so the Apostle aluded as the best Expositors agree to Seafayring-men that have almost done their voyage and begin to strike sayle and to fold them up together and are even putting into the Harbour and are going to unlade their goods So faith the Apostle the time is short as if he should say if a company that are going out a long voyage should strive who should be Master and who be Masters-Mate and who should have this or that office in the Ship I could not greatly blame them But when they are almost at home when they are within a flight-shot of the shoar when they begin to strike sayle to take in all and to go themselves out of the ship then if they should fall a quarrelling for places and contend and use all the friends and means they could make it were a ridiculous thing and folly So it is with us Time was when the world was in beginning and then when a man came into the world he might say by the course of nature I have a matter of six or seven or eight or nine hundred years to go on in my pilgrimage before I shall end my voyage and then if a man should bestow a little time to think with himself Well if I can live but to see my self the father of a thousand children and might come to people almost a whole Couutry c. then I say if a man should greet the world he might be excused But brethren God hath cast out the time of our age so that as soon as we begin our voyage we are ready to strike sayle presently We have but a little time to continue and much work to be done for another life therefore for us to stand striving about wives and children and courtesies to cry out of afflictions when we are ready to strike sayle and even to go out of the ship into the harbour it is a meer folly These things are not worthy the while heaven is the thing we should look after therefore let us be moderate in all these things This is the meaning So that the ground of the Exhortation affordeth two things The one I will but name The other I will stand upon First The time of our life in this world is very short We have a very little time to continue in this world This is a very fruitful and profitable point but because I would not
comfort if he have carried it well and much sorrow and griefe if he have carried it ill Thus a religious heart carrieth it self in this duty Now a worldly man doth the duty too but how as if not that is he hath none of this care before he cometh to it he hath none of this trouble when he is at it he hath none of this perplexity when he hath done if he have miscarried in it if he be able to come off it is well enough though it be performed in never so ill a manner Why his mind is after other things he intends greater matters as he thinks The Minister hath taught him to pray and he can say his prayers and so he doth the duty but still as if not Or again suppose a man whose heart is set upon Mammon put this man to recreation he may perhaps find time to play at Bowles or Cards or Tables with a friend but how he cares not whether he wins or loses he whiles away the time but this is not the thing his heart is set upon that giveth him contentment but that which his mind is on is his commodities his trade his merchandize his business in the world Just thus beloved it must be with every true beleever in the using of all the things of this life that is without care without fear without perplexity without distraction and if they come on so if they go so he must be pleased if he have them and content if he want them and howsoever his thoughts must be carried higher and better To think thus I am the servant of God I have a Calling here I will follow it in obedience to God I have a Wife I will use her as a wife should be used I have children I will have a care of their education But I must not come to be distracted about my calling about my wife and children and servants and good name or any thing that is here below I am here to day it may please God I may be gone to morrow my hearts desire must be to be content with this that God is my all-sufficient portion if I be in prosperity to be as if not if in affliction to carry my self so that in the middest of sorrow and trouble to be as if God freed me from all remembring still that my portion is in another life Thus you have seen both the lesson arising from the Text and what that is that in it is required of every true beleever And this point I am now to prove and still I must use the compellation of the Apostle Brethren for as for others I have little hope of I will as I promised make it plain out of the Scripture That a true beleever that would have comfort of it that he is a true believer must be as if not in all the things of this world There is one eminent place for this purpose viz. 1 John 4.10 Saith the Apostle there Love not the world nor the things of the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him Hence I argue thus He that must so use wife children credit freinds good name prosperity without loving of them it is likely he useth them as if not for love is the great wheel that setteth all the faculties awork Now the Spirit of God doth directly forbid all Christians to love the world or the things of the world as they do the Scripture absolutely injoyneth that we should not love them that is that our hearts must not be fixed on them Another place you have likewise in Colloss 3.1 Set not your affections on things below Now as I said before if any man do any thing that his affections are not upon that he doth not love and joy and delight in that he doth not take care for and the like certainly that man useth it as if not but so must every true beleever use the things of the world so as that he must not set his affections upon them Other Scriptures I might give you to make good this point but I am somewhat afraid to be straitned Two or three arguments I will add to make it plain Why every true beleever must be as if not in all these things First because all the things in this world which are contained in the Text they are all but empty poor things to a beleever To another man who makes them his God in his conceit they are full but to a true beleever these things are well known to be but empty things I need give you no better proof to make this evident then that which followeth in the Text For the fashion af this world passeth away The fashion of the world What is that That is a thing that is a shew without a substance Nay the world signisieth such a fashion as is in a Comedy or stage-play where all things are but for a while to please the eye A man it may be acts the part of a King that is no better then a begger or a varlet so all things in the world are no better then shadowes and empty like a piece of a stage-play and no marvel if beleevers that know this use them as not Secondly another argument why beleevers must in all these things use them as if not is because they are none of a beleevers and being none of his it is a meer folly for him to set his heart upon them How are they none of his you will say First for the truth of it these things below they belong to the men of this life but the treasure and estate of a Beleever is laid up in another life he is but as a stranger and pilgrim here below and therefore they are none of his And then likewise they are none of his because he hath resigned them all up to God in the day when he made the bargain for Christ For when we come to be Christs we must sell all to buy that Pearl and in selling all we sell not only our corruptions and lusts but wives and children and pleasures and credit and all we have them not now to have and to hold to do what we will with them but now that we have Christ we return all to him and have them as Coppy-hold to be tenants at will to that great Land-lord we have only a little time in them And if it be so that every beleever hath no more to do in this world but thus that he is meetly at the pleasure of God and can properly call nothing his own but God and Christ then certainly he must use all these things as if not Conceive it thus A Traveller goeth a long journey hee cometh at night to his Inn when he is there he is woundrous glad of his table of his bed of his fire of his meat and drink and every thing and he is woundrous welcome but he doth not so delight in them as the
they will never be comforted for their brother for their sister for their children c. What shall we say to these things Do you think the Lord speaks not as he meaneth or that the Apostle when he saith here absolutely and determinatly that thus and thus you must do if you be Christians if you be brethren Shall we do the contrary to all this and yet think that all will be well I know you may put it off many of you and alledge many things we have callings and we must follow our Callings if God brings me in imployment blame me not if I follow it And I know not how to live if I do not do thus and thus But be not deceived God is not mocked In a word therefore to put you on the tryal If thou findest in the middest of thy trading and merchandizing or whatsoever calling thon art of thy heart daily gathering towards heaven that thou canst say blessed be God for this and other commodities but Christ is my darling this is good And then in these things if thou hast a care to use them aright as well as to get them and to thank God for them and that thy project is how thou shalt do good with that thou hast that thou art alwayes saying with thy self Lord how shall I do good with so much as I have got by such a bargain God forbid I should say against thee though thou be full of business from morning to evening But alass there are many good people and godly that have hope that they serve God yet if they go home and examine themselves throughly their own consciences will tell them that in the things of this world they are not as if not but rather that they have been over-careful and too full of distractions in business And so for matter of joy if a man have a little pleasure or preferment given him his heart is so up that he knows not where he is he is so transported that he hath clean forgot himself This cannot stand this is not to be as if not and therefore I beseech you in the fear of God think of it Now if a man would know how he should come to have his heart in a good temper to be in these things as if not In one word let me tell you that rule of Saint Paul In all things be filled with the Spirit and then thou wilt not take thought much for other things if once you let your souls be filled with the things of a better life then wife and children and wealth and pleasures or any thing else will not draw away your heart Get a good hand-fast of Jesus Christ work out your salvation and that you may know that you are beleevers upon good grounds and that you have the graces of the Spirit of God in you indeed and in truth that you are new creatures And then often think of the rare things that are provided for you in another life What to have God to be your Father and Angels your keepers to be children to be the companions of Angels Weigh these things daily and then you will be as if not in all these outward and worldly things And untill thou dost this and thinkest withall of that I have formerly said that thou art ready to strike sayle I will never beleeve that thou wilt be as if not This is the second thing A word or two of the Third and so I have done And that is the Spur that the Apostle Saint Paul useth And it is necessary he should use such a spur for it is a very hard lesson If you would be as if you were not consider this The fassion of the world passeth away That is it signifieth I touched it before such a fashion as is on a stage All these things below they are but as the Acting of a Comedy as a Scaene it may be it is done in half an hour and though it make a fine shew yet in truth there is no substance in it There is one it is a fashion besides it passeth away So then in this spur there are two things I will but name the heads First That the things of the world all that I named before are but a shew without a substance Even as a Scaene or Comedy things that have a glorious glittering shew to the eye but if you look indeed and in truth upon them there is no such matter That is one thing that I note that our life is but as the acting of a part in a Comedy and so by consequence in all these outward things thy contentment in wife or children or credit or pleasures thou dost but act a glorious part it may be thou hast a goodly outside fine clothes rich apparel an outward representation of comfort but look thorow them and there is no such matter But the second thing which I rather would presse is that it is suddenly gone it passeth away saith the Apostle As a man hath but a little time to tarry in the world so all the things he enjoyeth in the world are wondrous inconstant That look as it is in a Play he that now acts the part of a King it may be next he may act the part of a Begger or as it is with some of your delicate fashions that while you are speaking of them the fashion is spoyled Even so the fashion of this world it will not continue That is the sum of that I desire you to take notice of that if you will not be perswaded by me or by the Spirit of God in his unworthy minister to use the things of this world morderately and carry your selves as you ought in crosses and afflictions yet know this that the fashion of these things will shortly be spoyled And if they be all so unconstant what a fool art thou to set thy heart upon them We may learne this wisdome from the foolery of our English Nation esteemed now the idlest people of the world for changing their fashion They will never make clothes twice of one fashion but one gown of this fashion and another of that and though he be never so good a Taylor that makes it yet he must make no more of the same fashion but the next Terme they will come to another Learn I say this wisdome from that foolery Now the Lord giveth thee comfort in thy wife set not thy heart too much upon her the next Term the fashion may change Now thou art rich let not thy heart dote upon thy riches it is but a fashion a shew it passeth away to morrow thou maist be a begger to day a man to morrow none But if thou wouldest keep the fashion get the fashion of grace get a right to heaven an interest in God and be content in Gods name to follow his fashion If the fashion that God will have thee be in be to be an humble dejected man be content with that fashion if anon
only in brief run them over this being not the thing that I purposely aym at First in Cities and Corporations there is a Register wherein the names of the Free-men are inrolled So in heaven also there is a Register a certain book of Records as it were wherein are written the names of as many as God hath appointed to life Rejoce not faith our Saviour in this that the divels are subdued unto you but rejoyce that your names are written in heaven And all that are not found written in the book of life are cast into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone Rev. 20.15 God in his secret counsel and purpose in his special providence and love takes notice of all his servants even of their names and he hath them as sure as if they were written down in a book there is not one man that cometh to heaven but the Lord knows him already to be a man ordained to that estate and condition Secondly as in all Cities and Societies there is a certain law whereby they are all governed in obedience to which they live So there is a law whereby all the Citizens of heaven all the houshold of God are governed that law which the Apostle Saint James calleth the royal law a law which commandeth the very spirits of men a law that disposeth the whole man to a heavenly frame and subjection to the will of God the great King of Heaven so that a man while he is here below by degrees is drawn off from the world in his affections and disposition and carriage and madesutable and conformable to the rule of righteousness Thirdly as in all Cities there is a kind of safety and security to those that dwell there not only as they are incompassed with walls but also as there is watching and warding some waking while others sleep to keep the rest in safety So in this heavenly society the Angels pitch their Tents about those that fear God nay the Lord himself is the Shepheard of Israel that neither slumbereth nor sleepeth while men oppose them God defends them while men are labouring and plotting and devising against them and they it may be are secure and fear no danger God disperseth and disappointeth a thousand projects intended against his servants It was so with his own people Israel while they were in the plains securely lying in their tents there is Balack and Balaam consulting upon the mountains how to curse them but the God of Israel that is above the mountains that sitteth on the highest Heavens he ordereth the matter so that Balaam for his life though he might have had all the wealth and honour of the Kingdome could not pronounce one curse against Israel because God had said to him that he should not curse Fourthly As in Cities and societies on earth men have communion and society one with another the less have interest in the greater and the greater in the less and all have interest one in another the inferiours receive from the superiours protection and provision and the superiours receive from the inferiours subjection and submission So it is in this heavenly Corporation in this spiritual Jerusalem Jerusalem is a City at unitie in it self There is a communion and fellowship that the Saints have with God the Father with Christ with the Angels with the Saints in heaven and one with another on earth With God the Father they have an interest in him as subjects of his kingdome as servants and children of his family there is not the meanest subject in this kingdome but he may make his request known to this Prince there is not the least servant in this Family but he may make his complaint to this Master they may as children go boldly to the throne of grace and make their request known unto him though it be but in sighes and groans Hence it is that God takes notice of them your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things and therefore he will supply them If you that are earthly can give good things to your children how much more shall your heavenly father give good things to them that ask him They have interest in Christ also he is their Intercessour therefore hence it is that he is said to sit at the right hand of God making intercession for us He is their Advocate if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father even Jesus Christ the righteous He is their Lord and Captain the Captain of the Lords Army to defend his Church Michael the great Prince standeth up for the children of his people They have interest also in the holy Ghost the third Person in Trinity they have not only the love of God the Father but the communion and fellowship of the holy Ghost as the Apostle wisheth for the Corinthians Hence it is that the Holy Ghost is ready to help their infirmities to in able them to put up their requests when they know not how to pray as they ought Hence it is that he sanctisieth them and therefore they are said to be Born again of water and of the spirit that he comforteth them therefore he is called the holy Ghost the Comforter As the Saints have interest in the three Persons in the Trinity in respect of their dependance upon them so the blessed Trinity hath an interest in them also If I be a Father where is my honour if I be a Master where is my fear Because they acknowledg God to be their Father they honour him because they acknowledg him to be their Lord they fear him c. They have interest in the Angels also Hence it is that they are called Ministring spirits sent forth for the good of the Elect They were Christs messengers his Angels and now they are made Messengers Angels to the Saints therefore faith Christ Offend not one of these little ones for I tell you that their Angels behold the face of my father in heavenâ—… They have interest in them not as worshippers of Angels which the Apostle condemneth Coll. 2. as foreseeing to what a height Popish superstition would rise in this kind I say not to worship them to invocate them to pray to them we know no such will-worship which is without the rule We have an Angel comforting Hagar we have an Angel defending Elisha we have an Angel incouraging Jacob we have an Angel carrying Lazarus into Abrahams bosome But we never had any Angel that stood in this place to have worship and adoration This indeed the Angels have from us imitation of their obedience we pray thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven They have interest in the Saints also yea in those that are dead not as though they paayed for us yet they have a common desire of the welfare of the whole Church The souls under the Alter cry How long Lord holy and true wilt thou not
avoids the corruptions that are in the world through lusts But this looking for the second coming of Christ This Argument John the Baptist used to press upon his hearers the Doctrin of repentance because the king dome of God was at hand This is that upon which Saint Peter groundeth his exhortatoin unto the people Acts 3.18 Repent saith he and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord Therefore repent and return unto God do away your sins because there will a time of refreshing come and you had need then to be found in another hue in another state then in your old rotten withered condition and sinful lusts This is the Argument that the Aposte used to the Athenians to bring them from Idolatry to serve the living God because God hath appointed a time to judg the world in righteousness by that man whom ho hath ordained Even for that reason because God hath appointed a time to judg the world in righteousness therefore they should turne from their Idols to serve the living God There is nothing that doth so unbottome the heart nothing so shakes and looseneth a mans hold of sin and unrighteousness as the consideration of Christs coming to Judgment What will it boot me will the soul reason to keep my sins when Christ will come to judg me for my sins What shall I get by going on in a course of sin when I can look for nothing then but a sentence of wrath to be denounced against me This then is that that doth settle a man in a holy conversation in that respect Nay fourthly this is that also which quickneth a man to the practise of all holy duties in his place both in his general and particular Calling It is the very argument which the Apostle Saint Peter useth to stir us up to holiness of conversation Seeing saith he that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for the coming of the day of God wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat As if he should have said Look now about the whole world and see what it is that now can comfort you if you be such as go on in a course of sin It may be you will say I fear not much for I have many friends Yea but all these shall die It may be thou hast store of lands but all that shall be burnt with fire It may be thou hast many pleasures but then there shall be nothing but Judgment The coming of the Lord that shall then put an end to all these and turn the course of things the expectation thereof is a special means to take us off from a course of sin and put us on to a course of obedience to make us walk in another kind of fashion while we are in the world Therefore the Apostle Saint Paul when he would â—…ir up Timothy to the work of the Ministry what is the Argument that he useth I charge thee before Christ who shall judg the quick and the dead As if he should say there shall be an appearing before the Lord and therefore if thou wilt give thy account up with joy at that day I charge thee to look to thy Ministry So may I say to every man in his place I charge thee that art a Master of a Family look to the business of thy family to the salvation of the souls of thy people I charge thee that art a father or a mother to look to the salvation of the souls of thy children I charge thee that art a Christian to look to the salvation of thy own soul And how is the charge I charge thee before the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judg the quick and the dead Because there shall come a time when both thou and they shall be present before Christ at his appearing therefore if thou wilt have comfort in them and in thy self and in Christ be careful to do the duty that concerns thy place Looking for the coming of the Lord Jesus So then you see in this respect also there is nothing so forcible an Argument to settle a man in a holy conversation in a heavenly course as this for a man alwayes to look for the second coming of Christ Lastly there is nothing fixeth a man so constantly in a holy course as this Our conversation faith the Apostle is alwayes in heaven We alwayes walk on earth as those that aspire to heaven because we alwayes look for the coming of Christ Wert thou carefnl to serve God yesterday do it to day also it may be Christ may come now and take thee away by death to day and there is no preparation for judgment afterward Little children saith Saint John now abide in him that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming What is it that giveth a man boldness and takes away shame from him at the coming of Christ What is the reason that a man hath not that spirit of fear and trembling upon him that shall be upon the hearts of all those that go on in sin when they shall cry to the mountains to fall upon them but this that he hath continued in a holy conversation and constantly walked before the Lord with an upright heart I have finished my course saith the Apostle I have fought a good fight I have kept the faith hence-forth is layd up for me a crown of righteousness which Christ the righteous Judg shall give to me and to all them that love his appearing Still the servants of God have incouraged themselves to persevere in a holy course from the expectation of the coming of Christ that will give them a reward for their constancy in his service It is the Argument that the holy Ghost useth to the Church of Philadelphia Rev. 3.11 Hold fast that thou hast and let no man take thy crown As if he should say There is a time coming when Crowns shall be given but to whome to those that hold out that persevere in a godly course Be thou faithful to the death and thou shalt receive a crown of glory This is that I say that will make a man go on will make him that is good in youth be good in age also because whensoever he dieth he shall receive his Crown This will make a man that he shall not begin in the spirit and end in the flesh this will make him that having put his hand to the plough he will not look back because he no further looks for comfort in the appearance of Christ then he hath had care to walk on constantly in a good course Thus you see the point proved to you that a Christian soul hath a main benefit by his looking for the second coming of Christ
for so witnesseth the Wise-man Prov. 28. If we confesse and leave our sins we shall have mercy So David saith Psal 32.3 4. I said I will confesse my sins and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin And Saint John telleth us in his 1. Epist 1.9 If we confesse our sins God is faithful and true to forgive us our sins So you see Confession as well as sorrow absolutely required to obtain remission A man must even Arraigne and as it were indite himself before God plead guilty acknowledg his trespass whatsoever it be and judge himself worthy to be destroyed for them or else he repents not though he weep out his eyes with mourning and lamentation The third thing requisite is a firm purpose of amendment of life Whosoever will have God to accept his teares and bend a favourable care to his humiliation and acknowledgement he must so acknowledge what evil he hath already done that he put on a stedfast purpose of doing so no more according to the direction that our Saviour Christ giveth to the man that he had healed Joh. 5. Goe thy way and sin no more and as Saint Paul speaks Let him that stole steal no more And therefore the Wise-man putteth on this part to the former in the before alledged place If we confesse our sins and leave them we shall find mercy There must be I say a settled purpose and a fixed flat determination in the soul of every man to cast off those transgressions that he hath confest and to return no more to commit them at least not to allow those sins that he hath acknowledged Lastly there must be added to the former three or else they will not availe neither an earnest supplication to God for mercy and forgiveness through the mediation of his wel-beloved Son Jesus Christ which was wont to be craving mercy without this mentioning of Christ before he was offered and revealed to the world But now it must be so done as we must specially and particularly prefer our thoughts and desires to him in begging mercy at his Fathers hands for his sake alone So David after the numbring of the people I have done exceeding foolishly but Lord blot out for give the sin of thy servant So God commandeth Hos 14.2 Take to you words and say to the Lord receive us graciously So did David when he renewed his repentance and so must all men do when they begin to repent Have mercy upon me according to the multitude of thy mercies and blot out my transgressions c. These are the parts of repentance And this is the first thing required at our hands as the condition of the Covenant of Grace without which we can never obtain life eternal And this repentance consisteth of sorrow for sin and acknowledgment of it to God with a firm purpose of amendment and earnest petition of pardon for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ And this is such a Doctrine as the Covenant of works the Law never taught to the sons of men Nay verily it will not admit it the Law scorns as it were to admit repentance for it excludeth sin Repentance implieth sin in all the degrees and kinds therefore it is far from accepting Repentance if thou hast once broke the Law repent or not repent amend or nor amend be sorry or not sorry thou shalt never be pardoned or forgiven It is a rough and stern School-master that will whip and scourge offending children though they crave pardon never so much It is a rough Creditour that will throttle the Debtour and cast him into Prison though he confess the debt and be never so importunate in asking favour and patience But the Covenant of Grace it is a sweet Doctrine a comfortable Doctrine Thou hast sinned oh man and broken the Law and fallen from the favour of God and all possibility of salvation in thy self but come be sorry for thy sin acknowledg it to thy Maker resolve to run on in it no longer cry to him for pardon of it he will graciously pardon thee This is a sweet Doctrine you see full of comfort and consolation yet it is a Doctrine that tendeth to the honour of the Justice of God as well as to the honour of his grace and love the Lord could not prescribe other conditions for receiving us to favour but that we should repent What Judg would so abuse mercy as having past the sentence of death upon a Malefactour will yet pardon him and save him from the halter if he be not sorry for his crime and come and intreat for mercy and favour and confess that he hath offended and promise never to do so again there is no mercy and pardon for such a one because mercy must not oppose Justice though it may somewhat as we may say mitigate Justice The bloud of Christ if it were shed ten thousand times over it could never corrupt the Justice of God it may satisfie it but not corrupt it now the Justice of God were corrupted if it should admit an impenitent and hard-hearted sinner to favour and bestow upon him remission of sins and life everlasting that would never leave it nor forsake it nor be sorry for it but still go on to offend God and trample under foot his authority this being coutrary to Justice in the very nature and essence of Justice it cannot possibly be effected no not by the shedding of the bloud of Christ the bloud of Christ is of that vallue that it satisfieth the Justice of God and causeth him upon the penitence and humiliation of a sinner to receive him to grace and favour You see now what is the first part of the Condition required on our side for the obtaining of life by Christ that is Repentance The next is Faith in Christ This we are taught every where If thou beleeve in the Lord Jesus Christ saith the Apostle to the trembling Jaylour thou shalt be saved And saith our Saviour this is the work of God that ye beleeve on him whom he hath sent This beleeving on Christ is I suppose nothing else bnt a staying and resting and depending and relying upon the merits and satisfaction of our blessed Saviour by the vertue and merit thereof to obtain remission of sins and eternal life and all good things promised in the New covenant at the hands of God He that goeth quite out of himself forgetteth all his own actions casteth behind him whatsoever seemed good in him and wholly claspeth on Christ and cleaveth to him staies on him resteth on him for the remission of sins and for the favour of God and for grace and salvation this man beleeveth in the Lord Jesus Christ and this man performs that duty which makes him one with Christ that causeth him to become a member of that mystical body whereof Christ is the head and that causeth him to be one with the Father and to be the child of
there shall be a Judgement For let a man commit secret sins that none knoweth but God and he yet many times he feeleth hellish horrour which is a manifest proose that conscience seeth and apprehendeth God as the supream Judge that will call all men to an account for their sins Thus you hear the reasons why there must be a Judgement The manner of this Judgment consisteth in these particulars First it shall be the last Judgment after which there shall be no other which declareth the terribleness of it In this life while there is life there is hope Let the wicked forsake his wayes and turn to the Lord he will be gracious to him But then the sentence shall not be reverst then there can be no appeal from that Judg and judgment Again it shall be a General Judgment which is the second thing God judgeth in this world and that both in life and in death He judgeth in life by chastising his children for their faults and avenging himself upon his enemies He judgeth every man at death But then there shall be a General Judgment of all 2. Cor. 10. We must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ In the third Place It shall be a manifest Judgment Sometime the Lord Judgeth men secretly by raising up in them fears and horrours in their hearts causing his curse in theâ—… as water in their bowels and oyl in their bones But then God shall open his wrath against the children of wrath before a world of men and no eye shall pitty them Fourthly it shall be a sudden Judgment Even as the flood came upon the old World when they were sporting themselves and deriding Noah that preached to them of the flood so shall the fire come upon the World that shall pass before the face of Christ when he shall judg the quick and the dead As asnare saith Christ shall it come upon all that dwell upon the earth When the Fowler layeth a snare to take a Bird he giveth not warning to the Bird but surprizeth it suddenly so will Christ Jesus surprize the sons of men suddenly beyond their expectation The Evangelist faith he shall come as a theef in the night A theef knocks not he giveth not warning so Christ Jesus beyond the thoughts of men will be on them suddenly before they are aware by his dreadful Judgement Fifthly it shall be a most righteous Judgment Then God as the Apostle saith Rom. 2. will render to every man according to his deeds He will not regard the face of any He will not be bribed by wealth or reward He will not heare the testimony of the world for the wicked or against the godly but deal impartially and give to every one according to his doings Lastly It shall be an Eternal Judgment So saith the Apostle Heb. 6.2 The meaning is not that God shall sit for ever sifting matters and surveying causes but it is so called from the effect for the conclusion shall be this the Eternal weale and happiness of the godly and the eternal wo and misery of the wicked that shall be plunged by the justice of God into the severest torments The Use of this Doctrine First it serveth as a preservative against temptation for so Solomon hath made it in the Text a preservative and bridle to young men God will bring thee to judgment saith he and let me make it so to you When Sathan tempteth you to sin remember God will call you to Judgement even for those faults for which you may possibly escape the penalty of men yet not withstanding is is impossible for you to avoid the righteous Judgment of God If Sathan would have thee do any thing that the word of God and thy own conscience sheweth thee to be hateful and wicked in the sight of God say to him No no God will bring me to Judgment This is the pollicy of our Adversary when he induceth us to evil he makes sin sweet and pleasant to us but it should be our wisdome to make sin bitter and loathsome even in this meditation God will bring us to Judgment for the same The Apostle saith Resist the divel and he will fly from you But how must we resist him not by arguments of our own making but by arguments of the word of God and amongst other weapons remember to list up this when Sathan would have thee sin say No no God will bring me to Judgment When the Divel solicited Eve and circumvented her she spake in the Serpent to Sathan concerning the Judgment of God We may eat saith she of all the trees of the Garden but not of the tree in the middest of the Garden least we die here she brought an argnment from the judgment of God but here was her weakness she presently let it fall It should be otherwise with us when Sathan tempts us let us say we shall die and be condemned for sin say so and continue in it If any revolt from the truth he professeth he shall die in his sin If any man disquiet the people of God by vexation or oppression he shall die in his sin If any man be a drunkerd or Epicure he shall die in his sin If any man be a whoremonger or adulterer he shall die in his sin If any man be a swearer God hath vowed he will not hold him guiltless he shall die in his sin If any man be an ignorant person disobeying godliness and obeying unrighteousness he shall die in his sin If any man continue in gross wickedness in any wickedness without repentance he shall die in his sin Oh remember this Judgement of God this death that God will inslict on sinners for sin For the wages of sin is death and arm your selves with this when Satan tempteth you if you forget Death and Judgement you are naked and unarmed your spiritual Adversary may hit you on the bare and spoil you as he will The second use is for instruction Will God bring us to Judgment for our sins Oh then let us hast to repentance Beloved this is one of the last things that God will do and this is the greatest thing that Ministers can say God will judge you for your sins The Apostle Saint Paul he moveth the Atheniaus Acts 17.31 to repentance upon this very ground because God hath appointed a day in which he will Judge the world in righteousness And surely if this will not awaken us nothing will nothing can What do we mean beloved to suffer our sins to stand upon the score Where is our wisedome Our grace Are we able to stand before God when he is angry with us Why do we not take off our sins by godly sorrow If a Judge should say to a Malefactour except thou mourn for thy offence thou shalt die and be execnted Doe we not think he would mourn to save his life Behold God faith to you except you mourn for your
moderated himself as first to shew by his sorrow that he was a loving husband and then to shew in the ceasing of his sorrow that he was a wise man and a faithful Christian he cometh now to the chief and main point whereby to make an end of his sorrow and take away the cause of further grief the sight of his dead He cometh to desire a possession of burial and because he was a stranger here he cometh to those that were Lords chief ones and desireth them to intercede for him to the chief Lord to bargain with him for a place that he had sought out and as it seemeth by Gods direction too chosen But I will go no further then the Text. Wherein first consider a certain preamble that the holy man useth to the people that he now converst with in these words I am a stranger and a sojourner among you Wherein the sweetness of his nature doth shew it self that he was both humble-minded to know and confess that he was a stranger and also that he was full of reverence and respect to those that he dwelt with I am a stranger among you You are the Lords I a poor Tenant You the Masters of the soil I but an In-mate that came in and was first lodged by you and with your consent and without your consent I will not attempt any thing That is the permonition whereby he insinuateth into their affections and makes way for his speech and petition that after he was to propound and tender to them And then the Petition followeth Give me because I will not take it of my own head Give me What A possession such a thing as I may call my own as I may have to my own use sequestred from all other mens And Give it me not upon gift meerly but for my money give it me for price answer me what I shall pay that I may acquire and make this purchase Thirdly for what he would have this possession To bury his Wife and himself and his posterity A burying place for them A strange thing a strange purchase for a man to purchase no other ground but to buy Land for a burying place Lastly whom he would bury there my dead He calleth her not his Wife but his Dead because now the contract was ended by Death and she was no more his Wife but one of his loving friends Burial care after Death it is committed to men by God and by the voyce of Nature therefore give me a place to bury my dead out of my sight It grieved him to see that beauty turned to pale black darkness that now had over-faced the face of that beautiful woman to see that sweet composed body that was the mirrour of the times and the miracle of woman in those ages that it was now subject to rottenness and putrefaction and did now grow noisome that it made men flie from it that they could not look upon it That I may bury my dead out of my sight These are the branches of my Text. First concerning the humble preface that Abraham makes I am a stranger and a sojourner among you A marvellous thing to consider the great faith of our Father Abraham and patience that he used in the apprehension of Gods promise for all this land was Abrahams land yet he confest himself a stranger and Saint Steven saith in Acts 7. that he had not one foot of ground not a foot in all the land that he could own This is that wherein God is most glorious in his Saints their expectation their patient expectation of Gods promise that they think themselves as well for the time to come for that which shall come as if they were in present possession When the Lord brought Abraham out of his native Country out of Ur of the Chaldees from the furthest part of Syria he brought him many hundred miles to an unknown Land and he promised to give him that Land and to his seed after him who would have thought but he meant to give him personal possession But no as soon as he was there the Lord drives him out by famine into Egypt and then he understood that Gods mind was not to give it him but when the sins of the Amorites were ripe and the people of Israel were grown to a number that they might come by some claime and right and be such a multitude as should not be contemned that they might not come by way of miracle to take possession then God purposed to give it him So that this thing we may learn hence that God is infinitely gracious to his children when they are content with the appearance of things to come as well as if they had present possession This is that which the Apostle Saint Paul frequently speaks of in Heb. 11. that the Fathers had regard to the promises and trusted upon God that that should be truly performed that was spoken to them and therein they rested themselves and were aswell contented with the good word of God for the future times for their posterities as if they had it performed in their own persons I am a Stranger and a Sojourner Here are two words the one A sojourner signifieth he that passeth by as those that come to see divers Countries and stay not but are making homewards the other A stranger signifieth one that sitteth by in a place Abraham was both of them for when God commanded him he was ready at any time to dislodge and go his way as long as he found the mercy of God to him that is as long as there was peace and plenty in the land he rested there in that place in his Calling God appointed him to sit there and there he sate but not as heir of the ground as a Lord but as one that did sit there by favour as enjoying a piece of ground for his cattel to feed upon for the Land was not full but they might afford some room to strangers such was he ready to flie when God called him Therefore when God called him to Egypt he presently changed the place and went to that and from thence when God called him again he came to Mamre and there he dwelt with the Inhabitants of the Land because he understood that that was the place that God had selected for him to make his possession It teaches us to learn this voyce of our Father Abraham as children learn to speak by their Parents and delight in their language so we should still delight our selves in this language of the Eather of the faithful to be and account our selves strangers and sojourners among you that be the world among you that have your cares so fixed on the world that you have no care of heaven among you that will give nothing but hoard up riches and you know not to whom you shall leave them among you that have no dwelling above in that City whose builder and maker is God among you that live only on earth I
service of God our reward shall be eternal life not that we deserve it but that it is the pleasure of our heavenly Father to bestow it upon us For the wages of sin is death and the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. THE PROFIT OF AFFLICTIONS OR GODS AIM IN HIS CORRECTIONS SERMON XXX HEB. 12.10 For they verily for a few dayes chastned us after their own pleasure but He for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness THere are two things among many others eminently in Jesus Christ which declare him to be an all-sufficient Saviour of his people and these the Scripture frequently setteth forth unto us in a most sweet conjunction Righteousness and strength So the Prophet Surely shall one say in the Lord have I Righteousness and strength There are two things likewise in a Christian which are of eminent sufficiency in order to his salvation and his possession of the Glorious Inheritance purchased by this Saviour Faith and Patience often spoken of severally and in particular but withal jointly and together as might be manifested by the allegations of Scripture as be not slothful but be ye followers of them that by Faith and Patience inherit the promise c. Concerning these two which are so eminent in the called of God and are sufficient in order to their possession of the purchased inheritance as the Scripture abundantly treateth of so most frequently in the Epistle and more especially in the 10 11 and 12. Chapters In the latter end of the tenth Chapt. you have the Apostle there first dogmatically handling the doctrine of Faith as the necessary means to attain everlasting life and as the principall conducement to the possession of glory and to the saving of the soul The just shall live by Faith In the beginning of the eleventh Chapter he sheweth the absolute necessity of Faith to an acceptable walking and well-pleasing of God For without faith vers 6. it is impossible to please God and the whole Chapter is further spent in setting down the glorious Examples of Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and the rest of the Elders eminent for then Faith by which saith he they received a good report All whom did worthily in their dayes and are now become famous to posterity standing out to this day also many living voyces calling upon us to become followers of them that we might together with them be at length made partakers of the glorious inheritance of the Saints in light The Apostle have spoken much to this purpose goeth on to that other grace we spake of so necessary to the constitution of a Christian and to the enabling of him to a well and faithful managing of his Calling and condition and that is Patience Propounded by way of exhortation in the first part of this twelfth Chapter and urged with respect to the necessary uses of it both concerning duties done and afflictions to be endured in the verses following First with respect to duties which the Apostle propoundeth under the Metaphor of running in a race for such is the course of a Christian life which the Saints of God are called to the finishing of Let us run the race that is set before us and run with Patience Secondly it is urged with respect to sufferings and that of two sorts from men from God From men from whom the faithful are to make account of sufferings in divers kinds in shame and derision in proud and insolent contradictions and according to their power and opportunity in bloudy persecutions You have not yet resisted unto bloud vers 4. From God and here the Apostle is more large urging his exhortation to Patience and a quiet applying of our selves to God according to all the states and conditions he is pleased to bring us unto and according to all his several administrations towards us very strongly labouring to fasten it in the hearts of the Saints of God as a nayle in a sure place first alledging that same passage of Solomon in the Proverbs My son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord. And then he further strengthneth his exhortation by invincible arguments I do but touch upon these things hast ening on to the main thing I intend only desiring to give you a plain and brief Analasis of this Scripture with the context of it The Apostle I say driveth on this exhortation by strength of argument And that first of all by propounding to the godly that whereas the Lord is pleased to exercise them with afflictions to make them drink many times of a cup of bitterness yet they have reason to be quiet and patient because this way the Lord giveth a proof of his love to his children and those that are wise and godly will be glad they have reason so to be that God should take such a course with them as whereby he may give them a demonstration of his dear love and affection Now herein the Lord evidenceth his love and affection to his people for all the afflictions and chastisements that he exerciseth them withall flow from his love and are as fruits thereof For saith he whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth vers 6. Secondly he propoundeth it to their consideration as a course wherein the Lord giveth an evidence of his peoples adoption For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not But if ye be without chastisement whereof all his children are partakers then are ye bastards and not sons vers 78. Now the godly should be glad to have the Lord take such a course with them and so to order out his administrations concerning them as that they may have some comfortable evidence to their souls that they are his adopted ones and such as he will one day acknowledge for to be his children But thirdly and that which more concerneth our present purpose the Apostle urgeth his exhortation by a comparison that he frameth between God the Father of spirits and men that are fathers of our flesh we have had fathers of our flesh and they verily for a few dayes chastened us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live they chastened us for their pleasure but He for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness Wherein you see the comparison is laid out in several particulars and the preheminency the advantage of the comparison is given to God for so is the scope and intent of the Text. It lieth thus briefly First We have had fathers of our flesh and God is the Father of Spirits if we have been contented to undergo the discipline of our earthly fathers much more have we reason quietly and patiently to submit our selves to the proceedings of the Father of our spirits Secondly They for a few dayes chastened us and we gave them reverence it is but a few dayes neither that the Father of
their profit he heareth them as one well said according to their profit though not according to their wills so he delt with Moses concerning his request of entring into the Land of Canaan Again the Lord is pleased to keep his people many times in a low condition and in mean estate to put them into bare commons and hard pastures while others are grazing in full meddows it is with respect to their profit to teach them the more to depend upon him to enable them the better to live by Faith Again for this purpose he takes from his servants dear blessings the Wife from the Husband the Children from the Parents as we see verified this day in this place concerning our friends here the mournful survivers and attendants upon this sad occasion but in these administrations he intendeth his peoples profit as we may see in the case of Job the Lord takes away all his children but saith the Apostle ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord he was no looser in the conclusion but God returned at length all into his bosome again nay double In a word for this very purpose it is even for their profit for alas it is not Gods own benefit he seeks after but his peoples in all his administrations that they live that they do that they suffer that they die their death is in order to their gain as the Apostle saith to me to live is Christ and to die is gain To make some application of this and so to proceed First let us here take occasion as many as are the called of God according to his purpose and implanted in this glorious relation of children to a father let us learn to advance his name and according to his name let his praise be in all the Congregations of the Saints Truly as Moses said once their Rock is not as our Rock So may we say other fathers are not as this Father our Father is set for the good and profit of his children The devil 〈◊〉 a father so our Saviour speaks you are of your father the devil he hath children and he studieth nothing so much as that they may live all their dayes in pleasure striving to lead his followers altogether in pleasant paths But alas he hath no aim at their profit it is their loss he seeks and therefore at last he makes them pay full dear for all their pleasure and content But now God he is a wise Father and in all his dispensations to his children though they seem for the present unpleasant he hath an aim at their profit Let this be for his praise Secondly let us labour to beleeve this that God in all his dealings and administrations towards us hath an eye to our profit How hard soever the condition be that he putteth us into if he take from us the desire of our eyes the delight of our hearts our liberties our estates our children yet be perswaded of this that God doth it for my good and benefit And thirdly labour to reap the fruit and benefit that God aimeth at and intendeth and would have us receive from all his administrations When we are called together to give attendance upon the preaching of the Word then think what am I come hither for is it not for my profit would God have me trifle out my time surely the Lord would never have singled out a day of seven for himself but that he might likewise make his people partaker of spiritual advantages and heavenly benefits and therefore I lose a day and never hear well except I hear to profit And thus what I say of this Ordinance I might likewise speak of the rest before named And so for this present occasion the Lord now you see is pleased to call us to the house of mourning Was it think ye the purpose of God that we should meet together here in a customary complemental manner to do things in a common garb only to eat together and drink together No the Lord calleth us to a house of mourning for our profit that we might consider the end of all men and that we that are living might lay the thing to heart And for you that are in present distress in regard of this particular affliction reckon upon this that God hath done this for your profit labour ye therefore to reap the fruit of it be not so much poring upon the affliction and altogether complaining of the bitterness of the cup but follow on after the profit and benefit that God intendeth you thereby And let every one labour to improve all administrations of God to this purpose that as he in them all intendeth our good so let us pursue after the benefit Secondly let it instruct us further concerning our duty even to walk worthy of such a God as namy of us as are in relation to him as children to a Father and servants to a Masler How should this first of all win us over to such a Father to such a Master and to make it our highest ambition to be the people of such a God the children of such a Father that is devoted to the profit and advantage of his children and servants This is the gracious goodness of God he takes pleasure in the prosperity of his servants their profit is his pleasure Let us therefore walk worthy of such a Father of such a Master And seeing he intendeth our profit and that we cannot profit him let us labour to walk in all well-pleasing We cannot profit him let us labour to please him Lastly here is a word of instruction for Ministers we should in this case as those that are intrusted with the sacred ordinances of God labour to put on the mind of God so the Apostle we have saith he the mind of Christ We in the course of our Ministery as God aimeth at his peoples profit so should we not aim at our own praise and at our profiting by them but that we might profit their souls O blessed preaching when people profit by our preaching when they are by that increased in knowledg in love in faith in every grace Such a Preacher was Saint Paul I please all men saith he 1 Cor. 10. ult but how not seeking mine own profit but the profit of many that they may be saved Oh labour to preach profitably that our people may thrive under our ministery This is that which God aimeth at and this is that which we should aim at too And thus I have done with the first and more general proposition arising from the words of the Text. I come now to the second and more particular thing that we are to consider hence and that is that As God graciously setteth himself to procure his peoples profit in all his administrations so this is that he aimeth at in all the afflictions and chastisements he exerciseth them withall It is no pleasure for him to be lashing and
is with the eye in tears that cannot see a thing clearly so the mind cannot judge of things distinctly when the soul is disturbed Let not your hearts be troubled But that which our Saviour aims at here hath a particular respect to the affections of fear and grief when these are in the excess the mind is troubled when a man over-fears any thing or over-grieves any thing he is troubled and disquieted Let not your hearts be troubled that is grieve not for things more then they are to be grieved for and fear not things more then they are to be feared For all these will dis-joynt the soul as it were it will put the spirit to much pain and disquiet as a bone out of joynt Therefore by all means keep your hearts in a right state in that order that God hath set them Let not your hearts be troubled That that I will briefly note here shall be but thus much that Men are wondrous prone even the very best men to be disturbed in their passions and affeictions Our Saviour Christ speaks it here to his Disciples to those that he had taught before whom he had gone as an excellent example all his dayes yet these holy men these followers of Christ that had followed him through so many dangers and after so many teachings and instructings of them he had need to call upon them to stir them up to consider of their own estate that their hearts might not be troubled You may see the Malady in the Medicine Every prohibition in the word supposeth a corruption and an aptness in the natural heart and spirit of man to sin and transgress in that particular Therefore when Christ speaks to his Disciples and tells them they should not be troubled It shews that even the best men are subject to excess of passion and affection to be disturbed and troubled through immoderate fear or grief for that was the case of the Disciples Now briefly I will shew the grounds of it and come to the Application because I will hasten This trouble that is upon the spirits sometimes of the best men it ariseth Partly from Gods providence and hand upon them And partly from Satan And partly from themselves I will shew you the causes in these particalars and then apply it First it ariseth many times from the hand of God The Lord is said to be a Sun and a shield The Lord will be known to be a Sun and a shield to his people Now look as it is with the earth when the Sun withdraweth his light it is all dark and cold and dead So it is with the hearts of the best men when God withdraws the light of his countenance from the soul it is as the earth at midnight And as it is with Souldiers in the battel if their shields be taken from them they are exposed to every dart and danger every thing may annoy them and wound them So it is in the state of the soul if God withdraw himself from it and do not now support it as before and do not fence and strengthen it as at other times the fiery darts of Satan will pierce deep into the soul and the spirit will not be able to uphold it self against these assaults Now God withdraws himself sometimes from his servants and that in special wisdome In respect either of the time past present to come Sometimes God doth it in respect of the time past and so he doth it by way of correction First to correct his children for their former wantonness they have abused the expressions of love and now as a Father takes away the light from his child when he sees he makes no better use of it then to play with it So God sometime takes away the light of his countenance that is he casts clouds before himself he doth not manifest himself in that loving favour when his servants neglect that reverence and fear that he expects from them in the midst of his mercies Secondly this he doth sometimes as a correction of their negligence when God hath called on them from time to time and they have neglected calling on God he hath called upon them for duty and for the leaving of such particular evils and they have neglected it Now God withdraws himself to make them know what it is to do so And because they will not know what it is to hear his voyce when he calls he will make them feel it by his not hearing their voyce when they pray Sometimes he calls to them as he did to the Church in the Canticles Open to me my sister my Spouse my love c. The Church is negligent and careless I have put off my cloaths how shall I put them on I have washed my feet how shall I defile them Now he withdraws himself from the soul and what is the the end of it The keepers strike her and the watch-men take away her vail and now she is left to trouble and perplexity because Christ had absented himself whom she would not entertain when he offered himself Thus God doth to correct that that is past And farther God doth it sometimes to correct that carnal considence and security whereunto men are wondrous prone when they go on in a clear way with much comfort with wind and tide I said in my prosperity saith David I shall never be moved thou Lord hast made my mountain so strong but what followeth upon it saith he Lord thou hidest thy face and I was troubled now trouble came upon him trouble of Spirit because he rested too much in that outward mountain in that outward condition whereunto God had exalted him and he placed his hope too much on this and thought it should be alwaies thus now God turns his hand and then David is troubled and that is the first particular in the first cause But secondly God hath a further aim and that is for the time present and that is First to inform all his servants where there strength lies where all their good lies it lies not in themselves it lies not in any creature And therefore God will have them seek it in him and that they may do it he draws them to it by sence they shall be deprived of comfort in respect sometime of outward conveniences and in respect sometime of the light of his countenance shining upon their souls How do we know that the Moon shines on the earth by a borrowed light but because we see it is not alwayes alike in its light we see sometimes it hath a full light and sometimes it is enlightned but by the half and sometimes by some little part where we see this disproportion that it is not alwaies alike we know by this that the light of the Moon is borrowed from somewhat else from the Sun Now how do we know that the heart of man is fed and relieved and supported with comfort from without it self
man of a stammering tongue saith the Lord I will be with thy tongue He bids him quiet his heart in that perplexity and rest on him that made the tongue to be with his tongue And because there was another secret that troubled him the Lord knew his heart God saith go the man that sought thy life is dead as if he should say Moses though thou wilt not confess it I know what troubleth thee thou art afraid that the men that sought thy life are alive in Pharaohs Court and that therefore when thou comest thither thou shalt be executed No saith he they are dead he would have him rest on him and that would revive his heart that he should not be troubled and disquieted So you may see in other servants of God that this was alwaies the reason of any indirect course they took Jacob and Rebecca in that case why did Rebecca use that device in getting the blessing with Jacob Because she failed in her trust in God she saw how she was perplexed with the daughters of Heth Esaus wives and many troubles that way And Isaac was dim-sighted and had many weaknesses upon him she knew not how he might mistake and give the blessing to the other therefore she deviseth a way to get the blessing but she got many sorrows you know what a hard service it cost Jacob and how many evils it exposed him to and all was because through fear and disquiet of heart he cast not himself upon God in his way but they would find out wayes of their own It should teach us in all disquiet of spirit to look principally to the strengthening of our faith This is called a shield Eph. 6. when all the darts of temptation that fire the soul and perplex it many wayes are cast upon a man here is a shield to preserve and keep him safe Therefore let us ever have this for our use whose and found You shall find that even the servants of God have so far been in a comfortable estate as they have been in the exercise of their faith Take David for an example when Ziglag was burnt and his Wives and servants and goods and cattel were all carryed away and the Souldiers in the rage of their hearts and discontent began to think of stoning of him yet faith the Text Then David comforted himself in the Lord his God When there was no comfort in his Souldiers about him or in those that were neer him every thing was taken away at this time David comforts himself in the Lord his God So Job see how quiet his heart is and well satisfied when he rested on God in the greatest occasions and troubles his goods was carried away his sons were slain all added to Jobs misery but he comes to this The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the Lord when he can look above the creature to God and settle his heart upon this rock he finds comfort in it On the other side the servants of God are never out of trouble and disquiet when they neglect this as the Disciples in the tempest upon the Sea Math. 8. they cry out they are utterly undone Save Master saith Christ Oh ye of little faith The not exercising of their faith did so perplex and disquiet them as it did and if you look upon all the complaints of the lives of men for the loss of such friends and the decay of trading for the ill dealing of Customers for sickness c. Men are always complaining What is the reason Because they place too much hope and confidence in the creature they look not above these things with the eye of faith and hence comes that disturbance and disquiet if the outward means be taken from them they look not upon that God that hath all means and opportunities in his own hand You beleeve in God beleeve also in me They that would have their hearts quiet by beleeving in God should especially exercise faith in resting on Christ Beleeve in me saith Christ for the heart of man flies off from God Alas the Lord is holy and I am a sinful man he is righteous and I am sinful who shall come before this holy and righteous God Now when faith can look upon Christ and set him between God and me and look on God through him now the soul rests he looks on God as a Father through Christ his Son when the soul looks on Christ as my husband married to me as my head and I am united to him as a member as my Lord that hath taken me into his protection when the soul thus looks on Christ now it looks upon God in all his attributes wondrous glorious and comfortable to the soul This is the thing that I can but touch at this time There are two things considerable in it First there is no ground of reposing the soul upon God but by beleeving in Christ he is the Mediatour Therefore in John 8.24 saith Christ Except you beleeve that I am he whom the Father sent you shall die in your sins The Jews they did beleeve in God they were the children of Abraham and worshipped the God of their Fathers and beleeved in God but saith he except you beleeve in me that I am he that God hath sent as Mediatour you shall die in your sins And so in this Chapter I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh to the Father but by me there is no other way to the Father That as the high Priest under the law was in all things pertaining to God he was between God and the people So Christ our great high Priest is in all things that concern the glory of God and the salvation of man and the acceptance of a sinner in all things between God and us Here is the first thing Secondly it is worth our consideration how Christ comes to be thus he was willing to die a cursed a shameful and cruel death of the Cross and to be despised and abased and all this for man and yet Christ crucified is despised and scorned in the world therefore if ever you will have acceptance of God beleeve in me In me that am now going from you that am to be taken away by a cursed ignominious death Here is another truth then They that believe in Christ must believe in Christ abased and Crucified as well as in Christ in Glory That is a thing that flesh and blood despiseth indeed all the World speaks well of the profession of the Faith and believing in Christ when Christ is in triumph Conquering to conquer every man glories in Christians but when Christianity and profession is cryed down in the world when Christ is Crucified when all the World speaks ill of the wayes of Christ and of the obedience of Faith now to obey a crucified scorned despised Christ in the sight of the world to rest on him in the midst of his abasement this will comfort the
son and he that had received the promise offered up his only begotten son Now I cannot handle all these parts by several peeces as they lye therefore I will deliver to you the juyce and substance of all that I have to say in two Propositions there might be many more collected from these words but I will speak of no more the first is this That strong and great trials may befal strong and great Christians The second Proposition is this That faith will make a man acquit himself in great trials Now for the first That strong and great trials may befal strong and great Christians The Text clears it in Abraham about his son his only son a great trial there are ten remarkable steps in this trial of Abraham in oftering up his Son First had it been to part with a dutiful servant this had been something but to part with a Son this is much more this we know that the relation of a servant is much less then that of a child Again if he had been to part with a faithful friend such a one as Jonathan was to David this would have tried him but to part with a tender Isaac this is much more Again if it were an adopted son that he were to part with it were not so much but to part with a natural son one that was a part of himself a part of his own body Again if he were a son amongst many more but he must part with his only son his only son Isaac Again if Abraham had been young and might have enjoyed another son it had not been so much but he is the only son of his old age Again if it were the son of his old age if it had been an Ishmael this had not been so much but his only son Isaac a child of promise and of prayer a child of many tears Again if it had been a son wherein he took no great delight that his affections were not so much set upon it had not been so much but it was the son of his love he must not onely part with his only son and the only son of his old age but his only son whom he loved Again if it were but only to part from him to have him taken away this had not been so much but he must kill his son he must cut his son all in peeces and so offer him up to God wherein his heart might have disputed with that sinful act of murder Again if another had been to do it to cut his son in peeces but Abraham must do it himself the tender Father must take away the life of his tender child Again it had not been so great if Abraham had been to do it presently or neer to some of his friends that might have hindered him from this Act but Abraham must go three dayes journey and must go to an unknown place and there must pour out the heart and bloud and life of his Isaac In these many particulars we may see the greatness of Abrahams trial O the heighth and depth and bredth of this trial no one could impose such a trial but a God and none could answer such a trial but an Abraham Job may come in as another instance God gives Job this testimony that he was an eminent person None like him in the earth a perfect and upright man and one that feared God and eschewed evil He seemed to be the tallest Cedar and yet he had the sharpest winds his eminency in grace would not deliver him from trouble he is tried many wayes in the loss of his cattel and then in the loss of his servants and then in the loss of his children and in the loss of all his children at once and all on a sudden and at such a time the time of his greatest prosperity he is tried by his neer friends condemned for an hypocrite and by his own wife contemned and tempted to curse God and he was tried by God himself He wrote bitter things against him and fastened his arrowes in his spirit But to leave these instances let me crave leave a little to touch upon two things for the full and cleer opening of this point First I will shew you wherein the strength of a trial may consist And secondly I will shew you why God is pleased to lay strong and great trials upon strong and great Christians First wherein the strength of a trial may confist and I will observe six things which may make a trial great First one is the goodness and kindness of the agent that deals with us when any neer to us in a singular relation to us shall seem to turn against us and spoil us and persecute us when a dear friend shall prove a bitter enemy O this is a heavy trial no sword cuts so sharp as this nothing makes a greater wound then this when God himself shall seem to reject He who had said thus much I will be a God to Abraham and I will bless thee and multiply thy seed and yet now to command him a Duel with his son for a man to meet with a condition of trouble and sorrow when he expects all mercy and compassion and tenderness of love O this doth cause singular sorrow to meet with waves in the middest of the Ocean it is a common thing but to thrust the ship into some harbour and there to meet shipwark O this is very much for a Christian to find scorns and hard usage from the world this is but an ordinary thing but when he looks up to heaven and receives such looks and frowns from God that fetch tears from his eyes and from his heart this is much more Secondly the strength of a tryal may consist in the neerness of an object when the tryal is not that which rends the garment but rends the heart for a woman to lose her ring is not so much but to lose her husband this is much more for a man to lose an outward thing is something but to lose a child is much more this many times is the renting of the loyns a sunder for David to lose a servant is not so much but when David loses Absalom then he cries out O Absalom my son would God I had dyed for thee O Absalom my son my son God is pleased many times to try his servants by taking away the delight of their eyes and the joy of their heart and the hope of their lives Thirdly the strength of a tryal may consist in the neerness of a comfort a tryal is strongest when it seems to pluck away the thing that is neerest the heart when God plucks away a Child sucking at the breast when he takes away that whereon our delight is fixed when God on a sudden doth take away and cousume the Gourd that shadowed Jonah when he snatches away the thing that we take content in O this will enter to the quick
we must part and in this respect a man who wants a lively faith may acquit himself in a tryal when he sees that floods of tears will not help him specially when he sees it is past recovery he resigns up a comfort when he can keep it no longer he will part with a blessing when he cannot avoid it But then there is a pious acquitting of our selves when God calls for a comfort back the hand of Faith presents the comfor to God again when God calls for Isaac Abraham presently resigns up his beloved Son again upon this ground God is the Lord who gave him and now the Lord calls for him back again I and the Lord shall have him thus Faith acquits the soul in great tryals and joyns with God against all our own contentments to set down with much patience in great losses to submit to Gods call and Gods appointment Now the reasons why Faith can acquit a man in great tryals may be these First Faith can exalt Gods will above all and submit our wills to Gods will remember this God is the Author of mercy when he will he gives us and when he pleaseth he takes it away again It is well to have abundance saith nature and sence we cannot be without it no saith Faith I will yeeld to Gods will it is good to enjoy this saith Sence it is better to part with it saith Faith when God calls for it Secondly Faith can give God the glory of all outward comforts this is a great occasion of stilling our souls to find out the right owner of our comforts if a man did once discern that by faith that God is the Author of all comfort and that all mercies come from God this would make us submit in the day of tryal this is certain God is the God of our bodies and of our souls and of our comforts who hath more right to a possession then the owner all our comforts are but Gods servants God is the great Land-Lord of heaven and earth the God of all our possessions what if he be pleased to gather a flower we are but tenants at will and whatsoever our outward estate is Faith over-looks all and submits all to God and receives it by Gods permission and doth as it were hear the Lord say I must do what I will with mine own Faith makes a man say nothing is mine own my Child is not mine own my Wife is not mine own it is Gods possession when God calls for it Faith resigns it up as Gods due faith renders unto God the things that are Gods Thirdly Faith can make the soul acquit it self in great tryals because faith finds no loss by obediencial submission for all our unwillingness to resign up and to part with any comfort it doth arise from infidelity or from the stubbornness that is in a person when a man haves and holds his comfort contrary to Gods will or else it doth arise from a conceit that some dammage will redound to our selves â—…parting with such a blessing but faith sees safety enough to yeeld up all into Gods hands who is the Father of mercy and God of all consolation Thus we see Abraham being put to it about his only son he gives up his child his Isaac and God bestows Isaac upon Abraham again nay a further degree of blessing confirmed with an oath In blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I will multiply thee and will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven This is ever true faith makes a man give back a blessing with this conclusion either God will continue the comfort to a person or else he will give him more or a better for it Fourthly a fourth reason why Faith can make a man acquit himself in great tryals because Faith can find all losses made up in God alone Faith can find God as a most ample and universal good Faith doth look upon God as a particular good and such a good that answers all again that abundantly makes up all losses There be many broken peeces of comfort that must concur to make up our outward good for our good here below is a compounded good the Wise is a part that makes up our good below and our children are a part that makes up our good below and our health and our riches and our friends many of these concur together to make up our good here below is a compounded good the Wife is a part that makes up our good below and our children are a part that makes up our good below and our health and our riches and our friends many of these concur together to make up our good below but God is all this in himself and much more whatsoever good whatsoever comforts are in a Child a Wife a Husband or in friends in riches in health all that is in God and much more to faith what is that thou seest in a Husband or in a Wife or in a Child that thou mayest not see in God What is that thou findest in a friend that thou mayest not find in God and what is there in riches that thou mayest not have much more in God the Husband can do thee no good without God who can do thee so much good as God the Husband can comfort thee who can comfort thee so much as God a friend may counsel thee and direct thee but he cannot deliver thee Faith sees more in God than in riches more in God then in all outward blessings bring all the outward comforts together they cannot make up a Christians comfort Faith is never satisfied with these things it is not a Child alone nor a Husband alone nor a Wife alone nor a friend alone that makes up a Christians comfort but God alone can do it whatsoever is in any outward comfort Faith find it much more in God God and his favour God and his gracious countenance these make up a Christians comfort this alone supports the Christian and in the want of all things Faith can comfort it self in the favour of God in the loss of all things Faith can find all again in the favour of God This is a fourth reason why Faith makes a man acquit himself in great Tryals A fifth reason why Faith makes a man acquit himself in great troubles because Faith knows upon what terms we possess all these outward comforts upon what small grounds we possess them upon moveable and changeable titles Faith looks upon all these things as upon things that he must part from we have here no abiding City our place and being here is but for a short time and remember this God never bestowed any comfort upon thee and me with an assurance of an immortal possession all the assurance that he hath given thee is nothing all the creature is but vanity it is of a shifting nature and therefore it is said of riches that they do take to themselves wings they skip away honour is soon
gone riches are soon gone the life of man is soon gone the life of man is but a breath a vapour which is presently consumed but a glass of a brittle substance all our comforts are of a changeable nature that whereon we set our affection is taken from us in a moment Thus I have opened these two points now give me leave to make some use I will spare to speak to you of the occasion of our meeting together for Funeral Sermons are not for the advantage of the dead but for the instruction of the living there are two Uses that I will make of those two propositions I know many more may be produced but I consider the time The first Use is this Since great tryals may befal great Christians then let us prepare for great tryals for as much as such kind and degrees of affliction and crosses may besal us There are two things that a man should alwaies provide for one is while we live to provide for Death the other is while we are in prosperity to provide for affliction for a change and for this consider two things First our outward condition is but a shadow it hath a natural aptness to change there is not a person that hears me this day but this may concern his outward condition Man is born unto trouble saith Job as the sparks fly upward as if trouble were his natural sphear wherein he is to move Thou canst not assure thy self of life no not a moment nor of any of these outward comforts neither canst thou promise thy self security in any state or condition though thou maist get assurance that God wil save thee yet thou canst never get assurance that God will never try thee we see that Death enters into many houses of this City at this time in one house one hath lost a Father another hath lost a Wife another hath lost a Husband another hath lost a Child another is in sorrow for the loss of a dear friend and therefore we should provide for a change because the next commission of Death may enter into our houses it is our sins that puts our lives upon these conditions our sins do alwayes leave something contrary to our comforts to alter and change our present condition Death takes away our life and plucks away our comfort and dis-inherits us of all these outward things how soon doth Death lay honour in the dust how soon is beauty ecclipsed by deformity our strength laid down by weakness our health overcome by sickness our life overtaken by Death all these may ecclipse our comforts these clouds may soon darken our sun one thing or other every moment is ready to put out our candle to darken our day to cease our life alas what is life but a shadow What is honour but a blast what are the things we do so much pride our selves in they are but as Jonahs Gourd which perisheth in a moment and many times the cause of our sorrow and affliction the loss of them a greater griefe then the want of them this staffe on which we lean will soon be broken a Ship may last for a while but she will sink at the last What is the Wife mans verdict of all things under the Sun he concludes they are all vanity that is not enough they are nothing but vanity that is not enough neither they are nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit things less then nothing then how little is it that we are to expect from them we should provide for a change not only our outward condition is thus changeable but our inward condition too our spiritual comfort is changeable though there is stability in the main yet a Christian meets with many intermissions Beloved if our condition were not changeable I would hold my tongue from exhorting you to provide for a change Secondly as our outward condition is cast upon many changes so when these changes do befal us when they come to strip us of our comfort verily they will put us to it Thou art mistaken thou thinkest thou canst bear a loss or a cross it is not so easie a matter to bear the loss of a Child or a Husband or a Wife or a Father or the loss of a dear friend it is not so easie a thing to bear the loss of an estate as thou thinkest thou shalt find it a hard matter to bear in worldly sorrow we may seem to take courage before affliction comes but when afflictions and trials fall upon us then we are put to it it is with us as with a Ship when the Sun doth shine and the Seas are calm and the Wind fair then she goes on pleasantly in her motion but in a storm all little enough to keep her steady in our easie dayes in our dayes of peace in our calm estate then we can hold up our heads well enough but in our losses and crosses we shall hardly bear up unless the Lord do mightily support us We may observe two sorts of persons in the world some are insensible persons who are like the Rock that nothing can break it who are so hardened that though God do scourge them yet they feel it not though God doth threaten them they fear not though Gods hand be already upon them they regard it not a condition not so much now to be checked as to be deplored To such persons it is all one whether God bless or whether God curse whether he speak by his Word or by his Rod it is all one to them they feel nothing nor fear nothing Secondly there is another sort of persons who are sensible persons sensible of Gods love and sensible of Gods anger they know that God is good and wife that he doth not strike off our comforts from us but upon some special cause Now to stay upon God and to yeeld to the Lord It is the Lord let him do what seems good unto him God doth not deprive me of such a comfort but he sees it best for me Beloved it were good to learn this lesson it will cost thee something in a neer trial to acquit thy self by faith to acquit God and to submit to his chastisement to kiss the rod to judg the sin to bend the soul to better the life this were an excellent lesson to learn in all our trials and afflictions Secondly if great trials may befall great Christiaus and faith is that which will make a man acquit himself in great trials then get faith use faith What faith is I have divers times discovered in this assembly whence it comes from heaven how we may attain it by the word and Prayer but to omit these I say get faith labour for this grace of faith if there were no other reason but this it is able to support us in our dayes of trial it is able to give us comfort in our greatest sorrow this were motive enough to make us labour to get faith the day of trial
gift that he doth give and the freeness of it For who can give life but the God of life that hath life in himself And then again to do this altogether upon meer grace upon his own good pleasure it is a divine property And this is it that doth encourage us to come unto God notwithstanding our unworthiness And in this respect in the second place we have here a Use of instruction to acquaint our selves with God with the freeness of his Grace to plead it unto God when we come unto him and notwithstanding our unworthiness and our wretchedness yet to press this Lord what thou dost thou dost for thy own sake out of thy meer grace this makes me bold to come unto thee Specially upon the consideration of that greatest evidence of Gods free grace and rich mercy in giving his Son to do whatsoever is requisite for the satisfaction of his Justice so that here Grace Justice do sweetly go together for the strengthening of our Faith Grace in regard of our unworthiness Justice in regard of our rebellion God doth what he doth for his own sake his own Son hath made full satisfaction to his Justice And finally this should the more enlarge the heart to God again a gift the freer it is the more worthy of praise it must needs be the more acceptable to him that receiveth it when he receiveth it from meer Grace and he that giveth it is thereby the more worthy of praise so that lay these two together life and the grace of life and then tell me what sufficient thanks can be given to him who out of his Grace doth bestow this life Thus from the priviledge in the second part thereof come we to the partakers of this priviledge And first of the simple consideration of it Heirs so that we come to a right unto that eternal life by inheritance as we are Heirs So do the Texts before-noted expresly set it forth We are justified by his grace that we should be heirs of eternal life Tit. 3.7 And Saint Paul giveth thanks to God for the Collossians that he had made them partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light And our Lord when he doth give us possession hereof inducts us thereunto with this inherit the Kingdom prepared for you Mat. 25.34 take it by inheritance here is your right Now we may not think that this ground of right to our eternal inheritance cometh by our natural generation for so we are heirs and children of wrath as the Apostle noteth in Eph. 2.3 It cannot come by nature for so it is Christs prerogative the true proper natural Son of God and thus as the Apostle faith God hath appointed him heir of all things Heb. 1.2 but it is by another grace whereby we are made children A double grace in this respect a grace of Adoption and a grace of Regeneration A grace of Adoption for God giveth to us the spirit of Adoption whereby we are moved to cry and call Abba Father and by this grace we are children and being children we are heirs Co-heirs not only one with another but as it is there noted heirs together with Christ Co-heirs with him by vertue of this grace of Adoption So likewise by the other grace of Regeneration we are qualified hereunto Saint Peter in his first Epistle chap. 1. verse 3. blesseth God Blessed be the God saith he and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again to an inheritance incorruptible c. We are begotten to this inheritance This might again be pressed as a further Argument against the fore-mentioned presumptious Doctrine of Merit that that cometh by Inheritance cometh not by Desert But I pass it over This doth afford to us matter of consolation for this Text is full of consolation every word of it against the baseness whereunto in this world the Saints seem to be subject that are scoffed that are despised howsoever they appear here in mortal mans eye yet notwithstanding in truth they are Heirs they have an Inheritance And as it doth administer to us matter of comfort and a ground of holy boasting and glorying in the Lord so it affordeth to us direction to carry our selves as becometh Heirs not to set our love too much upon this world not to dote upon it but to be lofty minded to have our heart and affection where our inheritance is namely in Heaven to wait with patience for it Be followers of those saith the Apostle that through saith and patience inherit the promise And likewise to make sure to our selves our inheritance look to our evidences Give all diligence saith the Apostle to make your calling and election sure Do but make your Calling sure that you are truly and effectually called then it solloweth by just and necessary consequence you were elected before the foundations of the world and shall be saved Many other Meditations do arise out of this right we have to that life which by Grace is conferred upon us Consider we the extent hereof Heirs together joynt-heirs so as all of all sorts have a right to the life of Saints I speak here of outward conditions whether they be great or mean rich or poor free or bond whatsoever they be they have all a right they are joynt-heirs they are heirs together As it is with us in some places there is a title of Gavil kind that giveth a joynt-right to all the Sons that a man hath and so for Daughters all Daughters are co-heirs so this tenour is as I may say Gavil kind all have a right thereunto no exception of any because God is no respecter of persons This my Brethren serveth as an admonition to those that are great or may seem to be higher than others here in this world if they be Saints let them not despise others who are Saints too they are Co-heirs with them they are fellow-brethren there is not an elder Brother among them Christ only is the Elder Brother There may some have a greater degree of glory there may some have greater evidences thereof in this world and greater assurance yet not withstanding they have all a right to the inheritance they are all Co-heirs And this again is another comfort to the meaner and weaker sort that howsoever there may be some difference in regard of outward condition here yet notwithstanding in the greatest priviledge there is no difference at all and therefore to conclude concerning these and other consolations ministred to you I will use the Apostles words Comfort your selves with these things 1 Thes 4.18 And particularly concerning the Female Sex because the Apostle here applyeth it to them and saith of them as well as of men that they are Heirs Co-heirs of the same inheritance this therefore is to be applyed to them for when the Apostle makes distinction of outward conditions in Gal. 3.28
passion and she cryed to her Husband give me children or else I die but nothing of all this prevailed till she sought it of the Lord and then she was fruitful that is the first Secondly it is recorded of her that she was not only fruitful but that with this fruitfulness of hers there came an increase of Gods people she built up a great part of Israel and what else were the Isralites but Gods peculiar people A right christian indeed is called a true Israelite and the elect are termed by Saint Paul Gal. 6.16 the Israel of God So then hence you may infer that The desire of having Children must aim at the increase and ealargement of Gods Church This is a blessing indeed when the wife by her off-spring builds up Israel not Babel Bethel Gods house not Bethaven the house of iniquity This was the desire of holy people of old when they prayed that their children might be as corner-stones couched into the wals of the Temple meaning thereby that they might grow into the Temple of the Lord to be a habitation of God by his Spirit Blessed is the man saith the Psalmist that hath his quiver full of them it is of such children that are as the arrows of a strong man Whence it follows that they must have more in them then nature for arrows are not arrows by growth but by Art so they must be such children the knottiness of whose nature is refined and reformed and made smooth by grace Ishmael the son of the bond-woman had twelve sons and all Princes in their Nations but what did all these titles of dignity do them good as long as they were out of the promise Questionless Hanna's drieft in desiring a son of God was that out of her might come one by whom Gods glory might be advanced among men therefore she vowed him to the Lord all the daies of his life The Angel told Zachary that he should have joy and gladness at the birth of his son why Because he should be great in the sight of the Lord and silled with the holy Ghost and turn many to the Lord Luk. 1.50 He that begets a fool that is an ungodly irreligious son for that is one of Solomons fools he gets himself sorrow and the father of such a one shall have no joy but he shall be his very calamity and his meer vexation It is a rule set down in Scripture that whatsoever is done should be done to the glory of God therefore our desire of having children must aim at this that out of our loyns may come such by whom Gods glory may be promoted and the number of the godly increased in the world Thirdly she is recorded to have yeelded in all willingness and readiness to the desire of her Husband When Jacob was warned by an Angel from God to return from Laban to the Land where he was born he made his wives acquainted with the matter and discovered to them his whole intent and purpose they forth-with gave him this yeelding and respective answer Whatsoever God hath said unto thee that do Gen. 31.11 The like is to be seen in Sarah she was no hindrance to Abraham in his removal from his own Country to Canaan no nor at such time when she was ignorant whither he went she was no hindrance to him in the speedy circumcising of his son No nor she did not go about to hinder him in the very sacrificing of his son Out of all doubt if she had been a clog to him in any of these respects the Spirit of God would never have concealed it because the wrestling with her unwillingness and gain-saying had been a strong evidence of Abrahams faith that the Scripture is very careful to set out to the full for his credit and our instruction There are two Women storied in the Scripture above others as examples of Gods judgment upon the untowardness of Wives not joyning with and incouraging their Husbands in good-doing The one is Lots Wife whose love no question was a great delay to Lot in his departure from Sodome that when she should have gone on with her Husband in hast to the place which was appointed for their refuge without looking back she drew behind still lingring after her wonted home but what was the issue she was turned into a Pillar of salt The other was Michal the wife of David when she looked out and saw David dance before the Ark she despised him in her heart and was so far from approving his zeal that when he returned she entertained him with a frump saying to him What a fool was the King of Israel this day but what was the issue of it a punishment was inflicted on her for her fault that she had no child all the dayes of her life 2 Sam. 6.23 I remember a policie of Saint Paul in his Epistle he wrote to Philemon he writes to him for the re-entertainment of a runnagate servant that he had begotten to God in his bonds and for the better effecting of it in his inscription he not only writes to Philemon but joyns with him Philemons wife To Philemon our dearly beloved and to our beloved Apphia Philem. 1 2. Wherefore was this For nothing else I beleeve but to warn her of her duty that when the receiving of Onesimus was manifested to her Husband as a needful duty and a thing pleasing to Almighty God she should not put in her spoke to withstand the motion but further it by all the means she could It was to this end that the woman was created that she might be a help to her Husband in all honest offices to joyn with him to incourage him to provoke him and assist him in the performance of them Fourthly and lastly to omit many other things recorded of her that I might here relate to you and to come to that that more neerly concerns this present occasion it is said of Rachel she died in travel God had commanded Jacob to rise and go up to Bethel and dwell there he obeyed and erected a Pillar in the place where God talked with him thence he journeyed a little further to Ephrath and there Rachel travelled and had hard labour in the sufferance of which which might be some ease she received a great deal of comfort from her Midwife who bad her not fear for she should have this son also but it came to pass as her soul was departing for she died that her sons name was called Benoni that is a son of sorrow as we see verse 18. Who can express the woe of that day and the bitterness of that loss to Jacob who was now berest of his dearly-beloved Wife by the fruit of whose wombe he had reaped such increase of blessing before the children had the care of two watching over them now only of one and that such a one as was not accustomed to interest himself in training up young Children but left it to her and she took
gained the knowledge of Christ When a man himself is united with the principle of life when he lives in Christ he desires that others may live in Christ too and this desire and endeavour to gain many to Christ it appears in their place and relation A Christian master that lives a spiritual life will labour that his servants under him may live the life of grace with him too A Christian Father will labour that his children may live to God as well as himself a Husband will labour to draw his Wife to Christ as himself is drawn and every one father and friend and acquaintance as much as in them lies by any advantage and opportunity that is put into their hands they will draw others to Christ because there is life in them And this is not done out of faction out of a desire to make their party strong as many in the world desire to strengthen their party but as in living things there is a natural desire to convey that life to others Parents begat not children out of faction to increase the party but out of a natural affection to convey the natural life they have to others so Christians that they do is out of spiritual affection out of simple have to the salvation of others out of a naturalness in their disposition to indeavour that all may be like them As the Apostle Saint Paul wisheth that all that heard him were like him except those bonds So much for that you see how fitly the Apostle useth these terms of life and death to express the change of one that is in Christ when he turns from sin to God Now we come to see the order wherein the Apostle expresseth them make account of this conclude of this that you were dead but are alive First you were dead to sin and then alive to God These certainly are knit together but they are done in order so we joyn both these points in one and that is thus much that All that are in Christ he works in them by his spirit in this order they first die to sin and after live to God These two are inseparable but yet they are joyned in order that first men die to sin and secondly live to God The Scripture expresseth this in fit similitudes Ephes 4.22 24. faith the Apostle there Seeing you have put off the old man that is corrupt through deceivable lusts and put on the new man that after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Here is the order there is not only an effectual change but this is wrought in a method first putting off and then putting on He seems to allude to apparel there that as a man that is cloathed with rags he puts not on ornaments and robes till he have put off his rags as it is Zach. 3. when Jehoshua came before the Angel of the Lord with filchy garments with vile rayments faith the Lord take away those rags and put upon him change of rayment Just thus God deals in the conversion of a man in the change of a man that is in Christ he takes away his filthy rags first his love to sin he is no more cloathed with them as he was wont he accounts them not or naments as they were wont to do but filthy clouts to which he faith Get ye hence he detests them and then he is clothed with rayment then he expresseth the fruit of holiness and righteousness Another expression there is Ephes 5.8 Ye were darkness but now ye are light in the Lord walk as children of light There is not only a change of apparel that is from rags to robes but of your state and condition you were in darkness now ye are light Mark the order from darkness to light That look as it was in the Creation first darkness covered the face of the deep Gen. 1. all was without form and void and then God said Let there be light so now first there is a removing of the darkness the soul was held in and now ye are light in the Lord so they come to walk as children of light Well this is the expression of it in Scripture let us see the ground of it in reason It must be so that in this order God proceeds in this effectual change first to turn men from sin and then to GOD first to die to sin and then to live to God The first reason shall be taken from our union with Christ We are planted into Christ faith the Apostle Rom. 6.4 5 6. By being planted with Christ there grows a similitude between Christ and us We are baptized and buried by baptisme saith the Apostle into his death and we are raised and quickned faith he by the resurrection of Christ that like as it was with Christ so it is with us He was dead and raised so we are first dead to sin and then alive to God Secondly it must be so from the nature of contraries for these two things are contrary one to another there is an immediate opposition between them so as there must be a removing of the one if there be a possession of the other and there must be first a removing of the one before the other can be in the soul As you see in sickness and in health there must first be a removing of sickness before the body be in a right state of health And as in life and death this is the order they are brought first from death to life and then one necessarily followes the other as life necessarily followes upon the removal of death and health upon the removal of sickness Thirdly it must be so or else if both these were not and in this order wrought what difficulty were there in the life of a Christian what singular thing were there in a Christian above any man in the world Every man in the World doth outward actions if there were not such a change as from death to life there were no difference at all where were the difficulty The Scripture saith The way is narrow and strait that leads to life and few there be that find it what narrowness or straitness were there in the way to life if there were no more but thus that a man might settle upon some actions of Religion and so be effectually changed If this were all what great matter were there in Religion what need Agrippa stand out in the mid-way what need he be but half perswaded to be a Christian he might easily be perswaded to be a Christian if he might hold his Heathenisme and be a christian too What need Foelex tremble to hear Paul dispute of righteousness and judgment to come if he might be unrighteous and a Christian too What need the young man be sorry when Christ bad him sell all and follow him if he might hold all he had and be worldly affected and be a Christian too what need any of the labours of a Christian to what use were a
clay and then to sum up a large Bill of the particular goods he intends to Religion for Churches and for Hospitals and the poor with other such like benevolences makes but a simple satisfaction for thy unjust courses in procuring such wealth to the prejudice and detriment of others this is nothing to thy advantage all this while thou art a thief and givest stoln goods Nay thou maist further assure thy self that Hell shall be the greatest recompence of thy charity because thou bestowest that which is not thine Thou oughtest first to have made thy estate clear and have restored the things that belonged unto others and reserved thine own by it self and then to give free scope to thy charity to the doing of any good action which time and occasion could propound This is the first duty of any man that will do good in giving he must give justly Secondly he must give wisely too it is made the marke of a man fearing God He considers wisely of the poor and he orders his affairs with judgment What is that Judgment hath a twofold respect it hath respect to the quantity of a mans gift and to the quality of the person to whom he gives There must be a judgment a wise ordering of things in respect of the quantity which a man bestowes according to that expression of the holy Ghost in Acts 11.29 They gave according to their abilities they kept within the limits of their estates and exceeded not So must thou or else another man may perchance lose by thy liberality Again there must be respect had to the quality of the person to whom he gives My goodness extends to the Saints that are on earth to the faithful ones as the Text faith here to the houshold of faith It is not necessary to give to every one that comes next to hand There be some persons I told you before that are not to be releeved except in case of extream necessity We must extend our Benevolence to those of the houshold of Faith Give unto Christ and to the naked and hungry members that belong unto him and thou shalt not want a sweet and comfortable return of thy charity Again as it must be done justly and wisely so if we desire to do good in releeving we must do it simply In the simplicity and plainness of our hearts Let him that distributes do it in simplicity faith the Apostle What is that simplicity when a man looks up to God with a single eye as the eye may be said to be single when it viewes but one object at once so the heart is small when it respects God onely in this action of charity and makes no other reckoning of any outward object A double-minded man he looks up to God and yet carries some respect to the outward honour which he expects of the World and more often times to the World then to God at least he joynes them together But if a man be desirous to bestow his benevolence with a purpose to receive recompence from above let him do it for his sake that commands it and reflect upon God in all things This is the testimony of our Conscience faith the Apostle that in simplicity and sincerity we have had our conversation among you not affecting the praise of men but aiming to approve our selves to God in that we do This is that which Christ advised the Pharisees that they should not admit their right hand to know what their left hand did Lastly as it must be simple so it must be chearful God loves a chearful giver And this is a perfect sign of chearfulness when a man doth not only give without grudging upon all opportunities but when he will be careful to prevent them in his willingness to seek them as I said before So much for the second point the duty it self Now I proceed to the last thing that is the description of the persons to whom this must be done First generally All and then particularly The houshold of faith First generally Do good to all It is as I have told you to all that endure such wants and necessities as that it may be a work of mercy and no transgression of the rule to releeve them for those that live unprofitably and become burthens to the Common-wealth except in case of extream necessity it loses the name of mercy to relieve them and deserves neither reward nor commendations Yet if they live in extream necessity then take the Rule of the Apostle Do good to all even to them also We have the Parable of our Saviour to direct us in this path where the good Samaritan lends his assistance to the Jew that fell among theeves We cannot but know of the opposition and enmity between the Samaritans and the Jewes yet we see that in case of extremity the Samaritan helps the Jew Therein our Saviour teacheth us that every man in this case is a mans neighbour and therefore the same law that commands to love thy neighbour as thy self intends we should do good to all if necessity require The Reason is in regard there is the same maker of one as of another We have all one Father saith the Prophet and hath not one God created us Then by Creation we are all alike Children though not by Adoption and especial Grace and as they are the Creatures of God and bear the Image of their Maker there ought to be some consideration extended toward them in case of extream necessity Again there dwels a part of Gods Image in all man-kind and that resemblance makes us alied to each other by the bonds of Nature then if we love not our brother whom we see daily how shall we love him whom we never saw faith the Apostle To make some use briefly of this Is it so that doing of good is to be extended to all when necessity requires it Then let it teach us without all evasion and protraction of those duties commanded to embrace every object and occasion that may invite us to do good and to be merciful But some man may reply in this fashion my intent is very plyable that away of goodness I could willingly extend it toward such a man but he is a stranger unto me and one with whom I was never acquainted What is this but the churlish reply of Nabal to the servants of David there are divers men abroad whom I know not there are some servants that are run from their masters shall I give my bread and that I have provided for my shearers unto them Nabal was his name and folly was with him Abigai did truly interpret his nature to be answerable to his name which signified a man of folly for if his conditions had been otherwise he would not have sent them empty to their Master knowing their absolute necessity in which case a stranger ought to be relieved and we cannot thrust
Apostle Rom. 8.15 a man is then said to wait for death when he is looking for it at every turn as a Steward waits for his Master when he continually expects his return when upon every voyce he hears or upon every knock at the door he saith oh my Master is come this is he that knocks So a man is said to wait for death when in every action of his life in every motion of his estate in every passage of his courses saith well I must die when though his bones are full of marrow yet I must die when though riches come in like a flood yet I must die when changes appear upon himself or others yet I must die I have no abiding here I am but a sojourner and a stranger as all my fathers were I must not enjoy my Wife for ever Children for ever Friends for ever Lands for ever these comforts for ever my life for ever it is but a lease which may soon expire I am but a steward and I must be called to an account such a one is gone before and I must follow after the writ of Habeas Corpus hath seized on him and for ought I know the next may be for me so when death comes I am ready to answer it as Abraham did his Son Isaac here I am it comes not upon me as a thief in the night when I am asleep and think not of him but as Jonathans arrow to David who stayed in the field and expected when it should be shot and then he rose up and embraced him Yee brethren faith Paul in 1 Thes 5.4 are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a theif ye are all the children of the light therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober This is the first thing that waiting imports Another thing it imports is a serious preparation for the day of our change for it is not a naked expectation of a change arising from the certainty of death but it is also a religious preparation improving the intrim of time for the best advantage for a mans soul before the day of change doth come which is here implyed in waiting Solomon calls it a remembring Eccles 12.1 Remember thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth whiles the evil dayes come not and the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them what is this remembring of the Creator but a care to know him a fear to offend him a study to obey him and when is that to be done Now now remember there must be a present acting of this Moses calls it a numbring of our dayes Psal 90.12 and more then that such a numbring as is joyned with an applying of our hearts to wisedome and the reason is because wisedome it directs to the choyce of such particular actions and works as tend to happiness so should a man after his serious consideration of death apply himself to such wayes and such actions by which he may comfortably close up his life with death it is a great point of wisdome to sute actions with their ends to sit and square the wood before we build the house to learn and discipline a troop before they go to battel to rig and trim and furnish the ship before we launch to sea this is preparation indeed Now this preparation for death consists in two things First in an undoing of that which unsits us to die Brethren he who is not fit to live he is not yet fit to die and that which ever masters the life will be of greatest force in death The Father spake it boldly on good grounds I am not ashamed to live nor afraid to die now that which unfits a man to die is sin it makes him find a bitter enemy of death Oh when this Kng of terrours shall present himself by thy bed side with his arrows in his hands I mean thy sins he will wound thee with infinite amazement and horrour the sting of death is sin faith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. Thou dost not prepare thy self for death if thou dost not undo thy sins which thou hast done in thy life the which consists First in a narrow search of thy sinfulness both of nature and practice Secondly in a secret humbling of thy soul for them Thirdly in an unfeigned repentance and forsaking of them Fourthly in a constant imploring and obtaining of mercy for them in the blood of Christ If thy soul doth give sin its discharge now death shall give thy soul a discharge hereafter Secondly in the qualifying our persons for the conquest of death there are three things by which we shall be able chearfully to meet and assuredly to conquer death First by having interest in the Lord Jesus the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God who hath given us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ If thou hast gotten Christ into thy arms by faith thou carriest thy peace strength and advantage both through life and death For we are â—…ove then conquerors through him that loved us saith the Apostle Rom. 8.37 And to me to live is Christ and to die is gain faith the same Apostle Phil. 11 21. If thou hast a good Christ thou maist be consident of a good death Secondly renewedness of our nature What Saint John spake of he Martyes as some conjecture Blessed and happy is he that hath part in the first 〈◊〉 on such the second death hath no power that say I of a person renewed by the sanctifying quality of Gods Spirit I happy is he he shall have power even over the first death The Spirit and the Bride saith come if a man hath gotten the heavenly Spirit which beautifies the soul with the ornaments of Grace as the Bride is with her ornaments he is a fitted person he may well say to Death come and to Christ come Lord Jesus come quickly Thirdly uprightness of conversation Righteousness delivers form death saith Solomon and the righteous hath hope in his death if a mans work be Christs service if he have a heart enclined to keep a good conscience in all things to keep himself exact to the rule and to walk with God Blessed is that servant which his Master when be cometh shall find so doing that man that hath looked to Gods Word to guide his life may confidently look up to Gods mercy to comfort him in death Remember O Lord saith Hezekiah Isa 39. how I have walked before thee intruâ—…h and with a perfect bea rt Now all this doth the waiting for our change import in the Text to wit a serious expectation of it first by undoing those sins of ours which else for eyer will undo us and by interesting our persons into Christ from whom we must likewise receive the Spirit to change our hearts and uprightness to form a new our conversation But then you will say
the Haven of death The Draw-net of the Gospel catcheth sweet and stinking fish in Gods field Tares grow with Wheat in his floar there is much Chaff with good grain But after death God taketh his Fan in his hand and purgeth his Floar After we depart hence God placeth and sorteth his Children by themselves and the Children of the World and the wicked are by themselves and so every man is exactly gathered to his own people every star is set in his own constellation every grain is put in his own heap every person and family is joyned to his own tribe we all pass by the same gate of death but presently after we are out of it some take the right hand and are ranked with sheep others the left hand and are ranked among his goats We are all like Plate worn out of fashion and we must all be altred and therefore of necessity must be melted that is dissolved by death but after we have run in the fire of the judgment of God of that which was pure mettal God will make Vessels of honour but of the drossy and alcumy stuff that is the prophane or impure person or hypocrite vessels of dishonour and these shall shine like the sun in the Firmament those shall glo like coals in the fire of hell for evermore By this it should seem may some object that the righteous have no prerogative in death above the wicked but only after death and consequently that God promised Abraham no blessing in these words thou shalt go to the fathers it had been rather a singular favour to have kept him out of the common track with Enoch and have translated him that he might not see death this objection is answered in the next words In peace it is no special blessing or favour to bring us to our fathers by death for statutum est omnibus haminibus semel mori the Statute provideth sufficiently to send us to the place where we were born but to send us thither in peace is a singular favor which God vouchsafeth his dear Children especially in such a peace as Abraham went in wherein a three-fold peace concurred 1 Peace of estate 2 Peace of body 3 Peace of conscience First thou shall go to thy fathers in peace that is in a peaceable time or the dayes of peace the storms I foreshewed the hanging over thy Posterity shall not fall in thy time but thou shalt die in a blessed calm thy house being set in order and thy friends about thee thy children shall close thine eyes and they whom thou broughtest into the World shall carry thee with honour out of the World Secondly thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace that is thou shalt have an easie and a quiet pass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there shall be no great strugling at thy departure but a kind parting of soul and body thy soul shall earnestly desire to return to the Father of spirits and though thy body shall contend in courtesie to stay it a while yet it shall without much adoe yeeld thou shalt like a ripe Apple fall from the Tree without plucking or a violent blast of Wind thou shalt go out of thy self as a golden Taper when the waxe is spent and thou shalt leave a sweet smell a good name like a precious perfume after thee Thirdly thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace that is in peace of conscience and peace with God which passeth all understanding thou shalt have no trouble in thy mind at the hour of death no terrours of conscience no fearful conflict with despare no dangerous assault of Sathan or flashes of hell fire all thy sins shall be blown away like a cloud and the beams of Gods countenance shall shine brightly upon thee and dry up all thy tears non sic impij non sic it shall not be so with the wicked it shall not be so with them for there is no peace to the wicked faith my God neither in life nor death but as a ruff sea is ruffest of all and most foaming and raging of all at the shore so the life of a wicked man is alwayes unquiet but most troublesome at all near the end If he die not in some garboil as Sylla or in the act of uncleanness with John the Twelf or voyding his entrals with Arrius or rending his bowels with Julian or falling upon his own sword with Nero or rayling and raging with Latomus if he be not punished in body with some violent fit of sickness or unsufferable pang of torment yet he goeth not to his fathers in peace for there is sent a hue and cry after him to apprehend him and lay him in chains of darkness till the general Assises at the dreadful day of Doom when he shal not be found of God in peace but in wrath and reading in the look of the Judge of quick and dead his dreadful sentence he shall cry to the hils to fall apon him and to the mountains to cover him from the presence of God and wrath of the Lamb. And thou shalt be buried in a good old age Although the heathen Philosophers made little account of Burial as appeared by that speech of Theodorus to the Tyrant who threatned to hang him I little pass by it whether my carkass putrifie above the earth or on it and the Poet seems to be of his mind whose strong line it was Caelo tegitur qui non habet urnam which was Pompeys case and had like to have been Alexanders and William the Conquerours Yet all Christians who conceive more divinely on the soul deal moreh umanly with the body which they acknowledg to be membrum Christi and Templum Dei a member of Christ and Temple of God If charity commands thee to cover the naked saith Saint Ambrose how much more to bury the dead when a friend is taking a long journey it is civility for his friends to bring him on part of the way when our friends are departed and now going to their grave they are taking their last journey from which they shall never return till time shall be no more and can we do less then by accompaning the Corps to the grave bring them as it were part on their way and shed some few tears for them whom we shall see no more with mortal eyes The Prophet calleth the grave Miscabin a sleeping chamber or resting place and when we read Scriptures to them that are departing and give them godly instructions to die we light them as it were to their bed and when we send a deserved testimony after them we persume the room Indeed if our bodies which like garments we cast off at our death were never to be worn again we need little care where they were thrown or what became of them but seeing they must serve us again their fashion being only altered it is fit we carefully lay them up in deaths Wardrope the grave though a man after he
of the Benediction If Esau lift up his voyce and wept because he was defeated of the blessing while Isaac lived Joseph might well have made a mourning had he been prevented of the Benediction by an unexpected or a distant death But Jacob blessed them and with his blessing gave order for his burial and with that blessing and that order dyed And as his death was no way prejudicial to the spiritual so was it not at all disadvantageous to the temporal condition of his Son He suffered loss of no enjoyments by his Fathers death Jacob had lived long by the favour and the care of Joseph his filial gratitude alone preserv'd his life but no such narrow thoughts abated the freeness of Joseph's forrow And he made a mourning for his Father If none of these considerations which work so powerfully on other persons did move this Mourner to express such sorrow what were the Motives then which caus'd so deep a sense what meditations wrought so powerfully on the heart of Joseph I answer they were but two Mortality and Paternity the one supposed the other expressed in the text Jacob was the Father of Joseph and that Father dead and therefore Joseph mourned for him Mortality is a proper object to invite our pity and privation of life alone sufficient to move compassion in the living Weep for the dead faith the Son of Sirach for he hath lost the light If for no other reason yet because a man is dead and by death deprived of those comforts which those that live enjoy they which survive may providently bewail their future privation in his present loss Thus every Grave-stone bespeaks or expects a tear as if all those eyes which had not yet lost their light were to pay the tribute of their waters to the dead Sea This Fountain Nature never made in vain nor to be alwayes sealed up that heart is rock which suffers it never to break forth and be it so yet if the rod of Moses strike an affliction sent from God shall force it Let us therefore be ready with our sorrowful expressions when we are invited by sad occasions especially when a Father who may command them calls for them as that Wise man did My Son let tears fall down over the dead And if paternal authority demands them at the death of others it is no filial duty which denies them to attend upon a Fathers Funeral Joseph a man of a gracious and a tender heart moved with common objects of compassion had a vulgar forrow arising from the consideration of mortality Joseph a Son full of high affection and of filial duty and respect was touched with a far more lively sense by the accession of paternity And he made a mourning for his Father he made a mourning for his Father which begat him for his Father which loved him for his Father which blessed him for his Father which had mourned for him for his Father which came down to die with him First he made a mourning for his Father who begat him had there been no other but that naked relation it had carryed with it a sufficient obligation There is so great an union between the Parent and the Child that it cannot break without a deep sensation He which hath any grateful apprehension of his own life received cannot chuse but sadly resent the loss of that life which gave it If the fear of the death of Croesus by a natural miracle could unty the tongue of his Son who never spake before that man must be miraculously unnatural the flood-gates of whose eyes are not open'd at his Fathers Funerals though he never wept before The gifts of grace do not obliterate but improve nature and it is a false perswasion of Adoption which teacheth us so far to become the sons of God as to forget that we are the sons of men Joseph a person high in the esteem of Pharaoh higher in the favour of God great in the power of Egypt greater in the power of the Spirit yet he forgets not his filial relation yet he cannot deny his natural obligation but as a pious Son he payes the last tribute of his duty to Jacob And he made a mourning for his Father who begat him Secondly he made a mourning for his Father who loved him Love when in an equal commandeth love and this is so just that fire doth not more naturally create a flame In this the similitude is so great that there is no difference in the nature of the love produced and that which did produce it But when it first beginneth in a superior person the proper effect which it createth in an inferior is not of a single nature but such a love as is mingled with duty and respect The love of God to man challengeth love from us but that of such a nature as cannot be demonstrated but by obedience and that of a Father to his Son is of the same condition though not in the same proportion The Father loveth first with care and tenderness with a proper and a single love the Son returns it with another colour mingled with duty blended with respect Now Jacob had many children and as an eminent example he lov'd them all but among the rest there was one clearer and warmer flame for be loved Joseph more then all his children the off-spring of Rachel the Son of his old age the Heir of his Vertues the Corrector of his Brethren the Beloved of God had a greater share in Jacobs affection then the rest of his issue He did not so much prefer his wives before his hand maids he did not so highly value Rachel before Leah as he did esteem Joseph before the off-spring of them all This was the paternal love of Jacob and this was answered with as high a filial respect in Joseph which after death could not otherwise be expressed then in tears And therefore he made a mourning for his Father who loved him Thirdly he made a mourning for his Father who had blessed him Blessing is the soveraign act of God and the power of benediction like the power of God He delegateth this power unto his Priests who stand between God and Man and bless the Sons of men in the name of God He derives the same upon our natural Parents that children honoring them may expect his blessing upon their desires and prayers And what greater favour could we ask of God then that those persons who have the most natural affection toward us should also have the greatest power to bless us Now when the time drew nigh that Israel must die when his body drew nearer to the Earth and his soul to Heaven when his desires were highest and his words of the greatest efficacy he called unto his Sons and blessed them every one according to his blessing he blessed them But as he loved Joseph more then all his Brethren so he blessed him above them all he made one Tribe of every
Son and two of him his affection shew'd it self Rhetorical in his Benediction saying The blessings of thy Father have prevailed above the blessings of my Progenitors unto the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills they shall be on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his Brethren Giving this Benediction Jacob dies receiving this Blessing Joseph survives who can render no other Retribution after his death but care of his Burial and tears at his Funeral And therefore he made a mourning for his Father who had blessed him Fourthly he made a mourning for his Father who had mourned for him The Parents cares and fears are equal and when any infelicity betides their children their griess are great and all these bear a proportion with their love Now the love of Jacob to Joseph was transcendent and being so it rais'd as high an hatred in the hearts of his Brethren by which he was in their intention and in his Fathers opinion dead And now the Funeral is Joseph's let us see how Jacob does appear He rent his clothes and put sackcloth upon his loins and mourned for his Son many dayes Here is a real demonstration upon a supposed death and a serious mourning at a feigned Funeral Had his dearest Son been dead yet he might well take comfort in his numerous off-spring but he did not for all his Sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him but he refused to be comforted and he said for I will go down into the grave unto my Son mourning thus his Father wept for him Thus it pleaseth God to permit this happy deceit of envious Brethren this pious mistake of an affectionate Father not only for a great example of Paternal love but also to teach all Sons to measure their griefs at their Fathers death by a consideration of those sorrows which their Parents would have expressed had they dyed before them Howsoever Joseph was but just in this he made a mourning for his Father who had mourn'd for him Lastly he made a mourning for his Father who came down to die with him It was the old expression of Parents comfort that at their deaths they might have their children to close their eyes and it hath been equally the desire of children to be made happy by that occasion in shewing the last testimony of their duty at their Parents Death Now Jacob who upon the supposed death of Joseph had said I will go down into the Grave unto my Son upon the certain intelligence of his life and safety resolveth to go down and die with him For when he saw the Waggons which Joseph sent and his spirit revived Israel said it is enough Joseph my Son is yet alive I will go and see him before I die and when Joseph first presented himself unto him in the land of Egypt the first words he spake were these Now let me die since I have seen thy face because thou art yet alive Now he which said at first I will go and see him before I die and when he saw him said Now let me die resolved nothing in that journey but to die with Joseph And he made a mourning for his Father who came down to die with him For all these reasons Joseph mourned for his Father who begat him remembring his natural generation for his Father who loved him not forgetting his singular affection for his Father who had blessed him considering his double Benediction for his Father who had mourned for him meditating a pious retaliation for his Father who came down to die with him embracing the opportunity of a dutiful expression And thus I close up the first general part of the Text or the Solemnization of the Obsequies The Second general Part of the same presents us with the Continuation of the Solemnity Which ministers a double Consideration one as consisting of not many dayes the other as determining how many dayes And he made a mourning for his Father seven dayes Immediately after Jacobs death in Egypt forty dayes were fulfilled for his embalming and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten dayes They which have no hope of a life to come may extend their griefs for the loss of this and equal the dayes of their mourning with the years of the life of man But so tedious a Funeral Solemnity is a tacite profession of Insidelity When Moses went up into the Mountain of Nebo and dyed there the children of Israel wept for him in the plains of Moab thirty dayes The plains of Moab were nearer to the Land of promise then Egypt was and some light of the joyes of the life to come was discovered under the Law and therefore more then half of the Egyptian Solemnity was cut off by the Faith of the Israelites But this Patriarchal Funeral was made in Canaan the Land of promise the Type of Heaven it was appointed by Joseph a blessed Patriarch and a Type of Christ it continued some dayes to declare his natural affection but those not many to express his religious expectation Had it been extended longer it had demonstrated more of duty but less of faith he had shew'd himself more a Son but less a Patriarch But now he is become a great Example in mourning some dayes of filial duty in mourning few dayes of Divinity Which is our first Consideration The Second leads us to the determinate number of the dayes which are expresly Seven And he made a mourning for his Father seven dayes The Jews took special notice of this act of Joseph and in the land of Canaan observed the number of these dayes Seven dayes do men mourn for him that is dead faith the Son of Sirach and though it be not unto us a law yet it is a proper subject of our Observation It was afterward one of the laws of Moses He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven dayes And therefore well did Joseph teach the Israelites to mourn the same number of dayes that with their tears of natural affection they might mingle some thoughts of their natural pollution Again the number of Seven is the number of rest In six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and he rested on the Seventh day from all his works which he had made Now Joseph knew that there remaineth a rest to the people of God he was fully assured that as the dayes of the years of his Fathers pilgrimage were evil so they ended in rest and happiness that as sure as his body was past all weariness and pain so his soul was placed above all possibility of grief or sorrow A Dove brought Noah word into the Ark that waters were on the face of the Earth and he stay'd seven dayes and then the Dove sent forth returned and loe in her mouth was an Olive leaf pluckt off so Noah
knew that the waters were abated from off the earth If we mourn for the death of any person departed and the waters appear upon the face of man yet after the seventh day when the Olive leaf is pluckt when we have considered the peace and rest and joyes of the souls departed in the fear of God 't is time for the waters to abate for mourning to cease Thirdly the number of Seven is the number of holiness as God rested the seventh day so blessed and hallowed it Seven dayes Aaron and his Sons the Priests were consecrated seven dayes an Attonement was made and the Altar was sanctified Seven dayes hath Joseph set apart for his Fathers Funeral to shew that mourning for the dead is something sacred the tenth of the Egyptian mourning an act of Piety a part of Religion The Jews observed that the Circumcision was deserred till the eighth day that a Sabbath might pass upon the child and so sanctifie it before it was circumcised and Joseph appointeth seven dayes for mourning one of which must necessarily be that day which God blessed and sanctified in the beginning to procure a blessing upon that duty and to sanctifie his sorrow Upon which seasonable Consideration I shall take leave to conclude my meditations on the Text and apply my self to the present Solemnity which gave the occasion to consider it that I may make such use of the work of this holy day as may sanctifie the sorrow of it And now most Honorable Sir the Joseph of this time the chief Mourner of this day be pleased to endeavour the Sanctification of your mourning by these reflexive Meditations First learn from hence to meditate upon your own Mortality and be now assured by this neer and home example that your self shall die This may seem but a cold monition but a dull reflection every Grave preacheth that Doctrime and every Skeleton readeth as good a Lecture when we come into the House of God our feet will learn thus much and the ground we tread upon will thus far instruct us 'T is true the examples of our mortality are numerous but they are not equally efficacious the nearer our relations are to those which die the more we are concerned in their death and there is none so neer in his concernment as that of the Father and Son There is a difference between the language of the Scriptures and such a Prophet as Nathan was one tells us that all men are sinners the other says thou art the man So common Funerals tell us all men are mortal but that of a Father speaketh not only plainly but particularly thou art so From his vivacity the Son receiveth life and in his death must read his own departure 'T is possible to imagine an immortal family and then the deaths of others concern'd that not but where the Father 's dead there can be no pretence or thought of immortality Beside there 's something more then propinquity of nature in a Father Religion teacheth us that our dayes are otherwise bound up in our Parents lives Remember the first Commandement with Promise Honorthy Father and thy Mother that thy dayes may be long in the land consider that you have lost in his death all further opportunity of improving the hopes of that promise and that you stand now only as to him upon what comfort you have in your former duty and in your past obedience Thus learn to fix a more immediate and more concerning meditation of your own mortality upon the death of him in whose life yours was involved both by a natural and spiritual dependance Secondly reflect upon that love and entire affection which you have lost and could no otherwise be lost but by losing him in whom it lived Love is of that excellent nature that it is esteemed by the best of men and accepted from the meanest persons what then is the affection of a Father what is the purity of that fire which God and Nature kindles in the brest of man what were the flames which ever burnt upon the Altar of your Fathers heart who never hated any man See but the nature of Paternal love in David who when Absalom his Son but a most rebellious Son openly sought his life and Crown and dyed in that unnatural attempt went up into his chamber and wept and as he went thus he said O my Son Absalom my Son my Son Absalom would God I had dyed for thee O Absalom my Son my Son Measure by this example the affection you have so lately lost who never gave any offence as Absalom did and yet had in your Fathers eye all the reasons of love which Absalom could have Know then you make a mourning as Joseph did for a Father that loved you remember that the love of Jacob was divided between twelve Sons and therefore though it was high it could not be whole and entire to Joseph as for many years your Fathers hath been unto you Thirdly I speak not this out of design to renew or advance your grief to tell you what you have lost alone but I propound this privation that I may contrive it for your imitation endeavouring to stir up the same fire and to kindle the same affection in your self who now are wholly to be considered in the same relation What you were to him others are now to you and what he was to you you are now wholly unto them Before your natural affection was partly taken up with duty respect honour and obedience due to a Father from a Son it is now taken off from those expressions as to him that it may descend the more entire upon those which come from you as you from him Thus far you have been the Joseph of the Text be now the Jacob that those two great names may be concealed not only in the Text but in your breast Thus far you have been the better part of Absalom learn now to be the David that we may truly say that tender affection that Paternal love dyed not with your Father but survives in you to your and his posterity Fourthly I desire you to look not only upon that which you have lost but also upon that which he hath left behind him Vulgar and common persons as they carry nothing out of this world so they leave nothing in it they receive no eminency in their birth they acquire none in their life they have none when they die they leave none aâ—… their death But honorable persons as they die like common men so that only dyeth with them which was common unto all degrees of men their singular respects the priviledges of their greatness their honors survive them and descend unto their Heirs with their Inheritance Give me leave then yet to speak unto you as to the Heir of your Fathers Honors consider what the nature and design of honors are remember they were first graciously conferred as a reward of the vertues of your Ancestors and were
this sum Namely to comfort Timothy about the night approach of Saint Pauls Martyrdeme mentioned ver 6. The arguments of consolation are two each depending on the other The first taken from his Holy course of life constantly continued comfortably finished ver 7.2 The second from the certainty of his Blessed estate assured to him after this Life ver 8. And indeed the Apostle seems to put on him the effection of a dying Father willing to inhibit or at least to moderate the passions which like Ambergreese may do well in a compound of grace of his indeared children encompassing as Jacobs Sons his Death-bed as if he had thus drropt his words upon them What do yethus weeping and breaking my Heart God my own Conscience your selves are witnesses how holily and without crime I have passed the time of my sojourning here God by his grace hath according to his promise preserved me blameless unto the end You know what happy things he hath prepared for them that love him in the Beginnings whereof my Soul shall enter at my Dissolution the fulness and consummation I expect at that great and notable day of the general Resurrection and Retribution Right so the Apostle here to the same effect to comfort Timothy whom having begotten him spiritually through the Gospel to the Faith of Christ he found even as a Natural Son with his Father most affectionately tender obedient and observant unto his very last expiration I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand yet nevertheless be comforted for I have fought a good fight c. and henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness c. This for the Context and scope of this Scripture I have fought a good fight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the expression is borrowed from those who strive for masteryes and after a sharpe incounter or heat of Contention do at last prove Conquerors I have finished my Course 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est Cursum certaminis qualis est eorum qui in stadio currunt as Estius expounds it The speech being taken from such as run in a race who give not out till the prize be obtained see 1 Cor. 6.24 25 26. I have kept the Faith That is That Fidelity or trust and faithfulness which he had constantly made good in the discharge of his Apostleship and Ministery in preaching the Gospel far and neer throughout many Regions from the time of the first Commission of the same unto his Dispensation The Apostle in his own practise accomplishing that which he required in all other the Stewards of like sacred Mysteries 1 Cor. 4.2 for this also he gave God thanks for counting him faithful in putting him into the Ministery committing the glorious Gospel unto his trust 1 Tim. 1.11 12. upon which he was assured of his Euge Bone serve fidelis Well done good and faithful Servant enter into thy Masters joy Ere I come to the more particular elucidation of the parts I may not omit to mention those quaeries and resolutions which some of the antient Fathers have not unprofitably raised given upon these words The first whereof is this Whether Saint Paul did not under this profession boast in a kind of vaunting ostentation Answ To this St. Chrysostome makes answer thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He doth not magnifie himself or boast in any way of vain-glorious Ostentation a sin which else where he extreamly cautions against Phil. 2.3 Gal. 2.16 but they are the words of a Saint uttered in a modest meek and humble protestation whereby he owneth the graces of God within him and gives all the glory in their vigorous exercise to God the Original Fountaine and bestower of them Quaest Whether Saint Paul did well to Commemorate and make mention of his gracious Actions and good Deeds Answ To which Saint Gregory makes answer thus Fas est viris fanctis in morte recordari imo recolere virtutes vitae actae c. It is lawful for Holy men and Saints of God in Death to recollect and to recount the vertuous deeds of their former lives past Not indeed as an occasion of exaltation in themselves for the same But Ut fiduciam prâ—beant desporantem timorem premant for the suppression of fear and Desperation in the last Houre in as much as good works are the fruit of a saving Faith that as Faith justifies the person in a Correlation to Christs merits it as an hand receiving apprehending and applying them as all-sufficient to the soul so good works being the way to eternal life Eph. 2.10 Declaratively and Praesentially justifie the Faith shewing it not to be Counterfeit or dead but Real and living It being the innate property of such a Faith to be vivacious manifesting it self in its godly Operations Hence was the saying of the Schoole Divines that Charitas was forma virtutum Charity which is the sum of the Law confisting in love towards God for his own sake and towards our Neighbour for Gods sake it was the Form of the Theological Vertues Not but that Faith and Hope and other graces of the Spirit have their own several and particular Formes which do specifically form them to their own Identical Natures and diversifie them from others so that Faith is not Hope nor Hope is not Charity but for that love doth as it were form them to acceptability before God to this purpose may be applicable that practise of zealous Nehemiah Chap. 13.14 Remember me O my God saith he concerning this and wipenot out my good Deeds that I have done for the House of my God and for the Offices thereof and the like is that we also read of good King Hezekiah upon a Summons to Death Isa 38.3 And he said Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in Truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight A third Quaerie is Whether Saint Paul spake all this as out of a self-confidence without having an eye to Gods Divine assistance therein Answ To which saith venerable Bede Absit ut tantus Doctor ignoraverit legem Dei Deut. 8.17 God forbid that so great a Doctor should be unacquainted with the word of God which teacheth utterly to declaim all self-power though it were but to become wealthy or potent even in things Temporal yea himself seriously acknowledgeth all spiritual sufficiency to be of God 2 Cor. 3.5 evermore ascribing the total of his supernaturals to the free grace of Christ 1 Cor. 15.10 through whose strength alone it was that he discharged his Trust in the Gospel and went through with all other gracious performances Phil. 4.13 The fourth and last Querie is How Saint Paul came to know so