abundantly in the work of the Lord so God prospered and blessed his labours abundantly He did not run in vain pray in vain preach in vain God made him a blessed Instrument of good of Eternal good to many Souls And he did as little mind the praise and glory of this World as he did the profits and gain of it He sought his honour in God only and was carry'd forth with pure aims and respects to his glory I have sometimes heard him profess that he scarcely knew what it was to lie under the temptation of desiring the praise and commendations of men in what he did He saw such an emptiness in all humane applause and had his eye so fixt upon his Masters glory that it put out all vain humane glory in his estimation I have often admir'd him for the good things of the Spirit of God that I saw in him for that spirit of Faith that dwelt in him he liv'd in as firm and lively belief of the Eternal and invisible things of the other World as any man that ever I knew For that Spirit of Adoption that rested upon him for he was as much above the spirit of Fear and Bondage as any man that ever I knew For that Spirit of Heavenly-mindedness that he liv'd in continually He had his heart and conversation in Heaven as much as any man that ever I knew For that Spirit of holy Courage he was fill'd withal for he was one that would stand for God in the worst of times and when he judg'd that the Cause and Truth of God required it he would not be daunted and driven from his Duty by the fear of men But above all his glory and Excellency lay in this the uprightness and integrity of his spirit that he serv'd his Lord and Master with such a single eye and such a single heart I have sometimes seen him rejoyce in spirit and speaking of the great comfort that he found in his Soul upon this account that his Conscience did bear him witness that he sought the glory of God in what he did above all the world and expected his reward from God only I have often thought that if ever I saw an Israelite indeed in whom was no guile he was one And as he was thus perfect and upright in his life so his end was peace and blessedness I saw him only the Evening before he died and asked him how he did He answered me That he had been under a very sharp rod But it was that which my heavenly Father said he hath laid upon me for as many as I love I rebuke and chasten that is a Paradox said he to the world but everlasting Arms are underneath me and I bless God he hath taken all the terror of Death quite away from me And when another asked him If he had not the restimony and witness of a good Conscience he would say Truly I have served God in sincerity and can truly 〈◊〉 I have believed and therefore have I spoken then those that were about him pitied him because of his great pains and Agonies You know not said he what my pains are and you know not what my Consolations are Oh how sweet will my glory and triumph be after these sharp pains And when his Relations wept about him he would be displeased with them saying What are you troubl'd that God is calling home his Children If you think I am afraid of Death you are mistaken for I have no fear of death upon me He had not the least Cloud upon his spirit in all his sickness that could be perceived by those about him And in the midst of the sharpest pains which could not but be very sharp by a large stone in his bladder and kidneys one of them being wasted and the other extreamly swoln under all his pains no other language came from him but Father pity thy Child But I see I must break off for the clouds return again after the rain the waters are ready to overflow the banks and I would not have you drown'd in tears What shall I say my Brethren precious in the sight of God is both the life and death of his Saints the memory of the righteous shall be blessed the name of holy men it is as a precious Ointment poured forth and so is the name of this holy man We need not bring any Spices to embalm him we need not raise him up any Tomb or Monument he hath a better Monument erected in the hearts of Gods people and of God himself than any we are able to erect unto him This I must say and this is all that I will say I verily believe there are few men that have been more belov'd whilest they lived or more bewail'd when they died Though the day of his Funeral was a clear Sunshine day without any Clouds yet I am sure there were many showrs of Tears that fell by the way as he was passing to his grave I should have spoken something to those that are left behind 1. To his Relations a word to them Do not you mourn as those that are without hope why should your eyes be pouring out tears for him when all tears are wip'd from his eyes he is with God and Christ and the innumerable company of Angels and Spirits of just men made perfect he is before the Throne triumphing and if you could hear him he would say to you Weep not for me shed not one tear for me but weep for your selves You have not one doubt not one fear concerning his everlasting happiness and Oh what a quieting consideration should that be to you 2. To you that were his Church and People I should have spoken a few words to you 1. Be you sensible of your loss lay to heart the breach that God hath made amongst you and such breaches as this should not be look'd upon with unbroken hearts You know how they lamented Samuel when he died and how they lamented Aaron and Stephen when they died and you have great cause of lamentation You will say We have wept again and again I but weep not only for your loss but for your sins we can many times pour out floods of tears upon our losses when we can look upon Sin that was the true cause of all with dry eyes all the while I tell you if your heads were Fountains of waters and your eyes Rivers of tears you could never enough bewail those sins by which you have sinned so many godly Ministers into their graves of late for when faithful and pious Ministers are going off so fast from us 't is a sad sign of some severe judgment that is coming on apace therefore lay this loss to heart To lose such a painful pious faithful Labourer as he was it is no little loss He had a large heart as the sand upon the Sea-shore for the doing of good he was one that did bestir himself to do good and did much work in a little time
Sincerity I will add but one thing more and so I shall have done with this first part of the Text it is to mind you of that Scripture you have in Ecclesiastes 7.29 God made man upright at first but he sought out many inventions This Uprightness my Brethren was a part of that perfection wherewith Man was endow'd in his Primitive state but man had no sooner fallen but presently he discovered the doubling of his Spirit with God and seeks for hidings and coverings to himself Since the fall our hearts are as full of this deceit this falshood as ever they can hold the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked above all that we are able to know we have the poison of the Serpent in us and are become full of turnings and windings you may see it in your little Children one of the first things they learn is to lye and to equivocate and to excuse and to hide things and to play the Hypocrites I say we have it all in us by Nature By Nature we do seek our selves and aim at our selves in all we do and not God Do not think that the Pharisees only were prone to this Hypocrisie to draw nigh to God with their lips and to have their hearts far from him or to do Duties to be seen of men I tell you we have every one a Pharisee in our bellies therefore we have need to beg of God that he would make us upright again and to pray as David did Lord create in me a new heart and renew a right spirit within me I come now to speak of his death and I see I must be shortest there where I thought to have been longest having been longest already where I intended to be shortest well the end of this man is peace His end is peace in a twofold opposition First To a wicked man though his life may be pleasant and his way smooth and strew'd with Roses yet his end is bitterness his Death-bed stuft with Thorns as the Cloud which had a bright side toward the Israelites had a dark side to the Egyptians so Death that hath a bright side to a godly man it hath a dark and blackside towards a wicked man as they say in Logick the conclusion always follows the worser part So it is with the wicked his conclusion follows the worser part of his premises Secondly His end is peace in opposition to his own life Perhaps a godly mans life may be full of trouble he may meet with many Temptations with great Trials but his end is peace he shall be brought to a quiet Port and land on a shore of Rest But how is a godly mans end peace and why is it peace Let me speak a little of these two How is his end peace His end is peace these five ways First If you take Peace for Peace with men so his end is Peace he doth endeavour as much as in him lies to live peaceably with all men and he desires to die in peace with all men As he did not live in Quarrels so he doth not die in Quarrels he doth not suffer the Sun of his Life to go down upon his Wrath. Possibly men are at War with him malign him persecute him even unto death as they did Stephen yet he is at amity with them and prays Lord lay not this sin to their charge And with Christ Father forgive them for they know not what they do He hath learnt that Lesson which Nature will never teach a man Matth. 5 To love his Enemies to bless them that curse him to pray for them which despightfully use him Secondly They have peace with Angels for when they die these blessed Spirits do conduct and accompany their departing Souls unto Abrahams bosom Luke 16.22 and at the Resurrection will gather together the bodies of the Elect from all corners of the Earth where their dust hath been scattered Heb. 1.17 We read how Angels who are Executioners of Gods Judgments upon the wicked do stand ready to avenge the quarrel of God upon his Enemies as Joab the Captain of David's Host was ready to have taken off Shimei's head when he cursed the King if he had but said the word These Angels which are the Hosts of God are sent forth as ministring Spirits as friends to the Saints Thirdly His end is peace with God God is reconcil'd to him and he is reconcil'd to God and to all his ways being justified by faith we have peace with God no more anger in his Bosom no more frowns in his Face towards him but all his anger is turned into Love Oh that peace of God which passeth all understanding that fills his heart and mind What a sweet thing is it my Brethren to be at peace with that God whom we have so offended by our Sins to have his Face smiling upon us and his Arms embracing us Who knows the sweetness of such smiles but those that have felt his frowns therefore Christ calls them his Friends for a man when he lies sick to have the bosom of a reconciled God and Father to be his pillow and when he dies to die in the Arms of Christ this must make it sweet dying indeed Fourthly He hath peace in his own Conscience peace in his own Bosom This is our rejoycing the testimony of a good conscience and that bird in the bosom does oftentimes sing most sweetly when the man draws nearest to his death Great peace have they that love thy law says the Psalmist and nothing shall offend them thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee This follows upon our reconciliation with God peace of Conscience that is more worth than a Thousand worlds and to have Conscience to be our enemy continually accusing and upbraiding of us striking us with fear to have the worm gnawing in the Soul before the worms are feeding on the flesh This is a continual dropping this is an Hell upon earth As a good Conscience is a Heaven begun so an evil guilty Conscience is a Hell begun That is a fourth thing they have peace of Conscience as the sting of death is taken away so the sting of Conscience is taken away likewise Fifthly and lastly His end is peace for he enters into peace into full and perfect peace so in Isaiah 57.1 2 Where the Prophet is bemoaning the righteous mans death that no man lays it to heart he shews that they need not lay his death to heart in reference to him for he enters into peace And so Simeon Luk. 2.29 30 Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation and blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord for they rest from their labours In the Third Region the upper Region of the Air they say there are no Clouds nor Storms no Thunder nor Lightning In the Third Heavens in those coelestial Mansions I am sure there are no troubles no
great King yet he was but a contemptible piece in the Prophets eye because not a godly Man We are apt to gaze upon the great ones of the World to look at them because of their Greatness and Riches and Honours but the truth is only the godly man is worth looking at this is the Man that God looks at To this man will I look saith God as if he were taken with the sight I might shew you too to what end we should mark the godly Man Not as Daniel's enemies markt him to see if they could find him tripping and not as many that mark David to encourage themselves to sin But we are to mark him as the Apostle directs us Phil. 3.17 Mark such that you may follow their example And then how far we are to follow the example of the godly Be followers of me saith the Apostle as I am of Christ. But I cannot stand upon these things Vse First This might shew us the happiness of the godly Man we use to say That is well that ends well then sure it will be well with the godly Man for he ends well his end is peace he enters into peace and what a comfortable thing it is to stand by the Bed-side of a godly Man to hear how comfortably he talks of going to God I know says he whom I have believed and how familiarly he can speak of Death Oh Death where is thy sting And with what desires and longings he waits for his great change I shall but change my place I shall not change my company And with what quietness he can lye down in the Grave with as much quietness as he can put off his Clothes to lye down in his Bed For indeed the Grave is but the Bed of a godly Man where he lies down to sleep he is glad that the time of his departure is so nigh and can say Come ye Angels and do your office Secondly This would inform us of the misery of wicked and ungodly men it is the perfect the upright Man whose end is peace What then is like to be the end of the ungodly What peace as he said so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel remain So what peace can there be to thee sinner whiles thou art going on in ways of wickedness whiles thou art a lover of thy pleasures a lover of thy lust a lover of these more than a lover of God You know that speech of the Prophet Isaiah There is no peace saith my God to the wicked It is not I but God that says it says the Prophet false Prophets may cry peace peace to you saying you may repent at last and do well enough and your own hearts may cry peace peace to you God is merciful and all are sinners as well as we I but there is no peace to the wicked says my God God hath said it That men going on in ways of wickedness there is no peace to them but it will be bitterness in the latter end Such a one will say oh what will become of me what shall I do which way soever thou lookest thou canst see nothing but that which may disquiet thy poor Soul If thou lookest above thee there is the wrath of an Almighty Insinite God hanging over thy head if thou look'st within thee there is a guilty Conscience accusing thee if thou look'st beneath thee there is the bottomless pit gaping on thee ready to devour thee so that which way soever thou look'st above thee beneath thee within thee without thee thou canst see nothing but blackness and darkness There are other Uses might be made of it but I must pass them by that I might speak a little to the occasion of this Discourse MY Brethren the Text that we have now open'd to you I may truly say hath been fulfil'd before your eyes in the Life and Death of this precious Saint and Servant of God that is taken from you I might go over the Text again and shew you how he was this perfect Man whether you look upon him as a Man or as a Christian or as a Minister he had those perfections in him that did render him belov'd and honour'd by all that knew him and if there be any that had not a respect and value for him it was because they did not know him He was no empty-Cask but a Vessel filled with choice and precious Liquor as appeared by those gracious and savoury Discourses which did so often come from him As to the Gifts and Graces of Gods Spirit he had them both in a very high degree of perfection he was both able to teach and apt to teach which is but a rare conjunction for many that are most able to teach are not always most apt and ready to teach and some that are most apt and forward to Teach they are not always most able to Teach he had a spring of living waters within him In his Prayers and Preaching he need not Pump for they did flow from him as waters out of a full Fountain out of the abundance of his heart we may truly say he did both Preach and Pray God had given him the Tongue of the Learned whereby he was able to speak a word in season upon all occasions The Word of God did dwell so richly in him that he needed not any long time in preparation but could speak to any Subject both pertinently and profitably upon very short warning He was one fitted not only to declare the Truth but to defend the Truth witness that book of his concerning the Immortality of the Soul He was mighty in Prayer and powerful in Preaching I have often thought he had a more than ordinary presence of God in all that he did But secondly He was this upright man and indeed his great perfection lay in that uprightness and integrity of Spirit that appear'd in him In all that he did he did not seek himself or serve himself of the Gospel he had his eye to his Masters glory and not to his own gain or glory though he had the oversight of two Congregations yet he did not take the oversight of them for filthy lucres sake I suppose many here can bear him witness that he made not one penny of profit in the Year but rather spent many pounds upon their service God had blest him with an Estate of his own and he rejoyc'd to preach the Gospel freely though he had a double Care and a double Charge upon him yet he had not a double Benefit he could truly say as Paul Act. 20.33 I have coveted no mans silver or gold no it was the holy lucre of gaining of Souls to Christ that his heart did most covet and therein God gave him the desire of his heart His Ministry was not blasted with dry breasts and a miscarrying womb but as he travelled with the salvation of Sinners so he saw the fruit of the travel of his Soul and was satisfied as he laboured