again the first Visit they make is to their old Good-fellows as they call them and they are welcomed into the jolly Company with full Bowls and with loud Huzzaes but let us go to such as will entertain us with Praises to God for our deliverance and not drink our healths but seriously pray for them Eightly When God has brought us from the Grave let us by all means see that so sore an Affliction and so great a Deliverance may be sanctified to us And we may know that they are so when they produce these following effects First When they take off our hearts from the World and the Creatures and drive us more to God Secondly When they make us more frequent and fervent in our Prayers Thirdly When they produce those holy ends for which they were sent upon us Fourthly When they make us to acknowledge God and to see his disposal and his hand in all that is come upon us Ruth 1. 20. The Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me Ver. 21. The Lord hath testified against me and the Allmighty hath afflicted me Fifthly When they make us to humble our selves and to lay our Mouths in the dust knowing that tho our troubles were very severe yet they were very just Ezek. 16. 63. That thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord God And Job 42. 5. When they fill our Hearts with Admiration and our Mouths with his Praise Seventhly When the Mercies we receive carry our Affections with more flame towards the Benefactor from whence they came As the warmth of the shining Sun causes a new fragancy and a sweeter smell among all the Flowers of the Garden Eighthly When they bring us to more knowledge of God and to more true calmness and joy in him These are glorious Effects of a sanctified affliction and of a sanctified escape from it and a sign that they came not by a common but by a special Providence and by a right of the Covenant of Grace by which all things are ours I might add in the ninth place when we taste his Fatherly Goodness and Love in all that we enjoy if we find these things within us 't is a sign we have both heard the Rod and him that did appoint it Mich. 6. 9. Oh how happy are we if God by taking away our health has given us himself and if by sending sharp sickness and pain upon us he has prepared us for a sweeter relish of his Love Happy are we if our Temporary Sickness tend to an Eternal Health and our short Sorrows to an Everlasting Joy Happy yet again are we if he have not only Commanded us to take up our beds and walk but also said unto us that our Sins are forgiven if we can say with Hezekiah Isa. 38. 17. Behold for Peace I had great Bitterness but thou hast in Love to my Soul delivered it from the Pit of Corruption for thou hast cast all my Sins behind thy Back It must be our great endeavour that after we have been tryed we may come forth like Gold and that we do not as the three Children in another case come out with our old Garments and with the same Sins upon us Let us earnestly beg of God that we may have a compleat Salvation and a total Recovery That as our Bodies are supplied with new strength so our Souls may prosper also For to be diseased in our Souls whilst our Bodies thrive is as if the House in which one lives were very well repaired and adorned to all advantage and the Man that dwells in so fair an Habitation were forced to go in raggs so fine a dwelling and so ordinary an Inhabitant would not agree well together Oh let us take care that whilst God has healed our Diseases we be not inwardly distempered with the Plague of our own Hearts That Man is not to be called healthful that let him look never so well has a Disease in his Vitals that by slow Degrees preys upon his Life Neither can that Man be truly said to be recovered whose Soul is either void of Grace or that having had it in some measure languishes and decays He is composed of Contradictions of Life and Death at the same time he is alive and well as to his Body but his Soul is dead in Trepasses and Sins The most excellent and valuable part of himself does remain under the power of Death and whilst it is so is an Object more unpleasing to God than a dissolving Carcass in the Grave would be to us The Welfare and Recovery of our Souls is what we ought more to seek than the Welfare of our Bodies Both indeed are Mercies but the former is much the greater of the two What is Purple and fine Linnen and soft Raiment that sets off a Man to the Eyes of others to that Faith and Love and Patience and Hope and those other Graces of the Spirit that beautifie the Soul and render it amiable in the Eye of God What is all the Meat and Drink that refresh our Bodies to that Heavenly Manna that Celestial Nourishment that an healthful holy Soul feeds upon The prosperity of our Bodies their ease and capacity of performing their several Actions is one of the greatest Ternporal Mercies but alas this will signifie nothing at all if we do not prosper in our Souls There is a way indeed whereby we may gather Grapes of Thorns and Figs of Thistles i. e. Refreshment and Comfort from those Afflictions that peirct us to the quick and that Sorrow which was at first unwelcom to us may prove an Angel of Light and strike off our Chains if we can say with David It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy Statutes Psal. 119. 71. Ver. 67. Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy Word His was a very blessed Cross that flourisht into such fruit as this I think I should not say amiss should I say that God has as it were brought every person here from the Grave and saved him from going down into the Pit from a Grave and a Pit which has been often digged for us by the Plots and Designs of our Enemies and into which we had long ago fallen had not God mercifully saved and helped us God has very lately done great things for our Brethren in Ireland whereof I do believe your Hearts are glad for as you mourn'd with them in their Sorrows so t is fit you participate with them in the Joys that they now have by the quick advances of their increasing Deliverance and from the dangers that so nearly threatned them And God has not after the mighty wonders of his Providence left us here in England when destruction has been coming towards us with hasty paces when it has from the proud Fleet of our Enemies threatned
as not to leave us the use or enjoyment of some good or at least of our selves Death extinguisheth our Life and by this means overthrowing the very Foundations of our Enjoyments doth at the same time despoil as of all other good things altogether Daille sur Coloss. 2. 13. Life is the most excellent Gift of God but Death is an Enemy to Nature and cannot be lov'd for it self 't is the fruit of Sin Rom. 5. 12. 'T is the wages thereof Rom. 6. 23. For if Adam had persever'd in his Innocent Condition he had enjoyed a Glorious Immortality without those pains and that Death which is now our Lot The Philosophers indeed thought that death was natural to Man and all the discourses they grounded upon this false principle are so vain and empty that they onely serve to shew in the General how weak Man is seeing the greatest productions of the wisest Men are so mean and Childish Pascal pensees S. 30. Death is the matter of the Threat and therefore a punishment though Believers whose Faith is in exercise may quietly submit to it as a passage to Eternal Glory We give it indeed many soft names and seem to make nothing of it in our ordinary discourse we speak of nothing with more unconcernedness and with less Fear but it ceases not to be an Enemy though we give it never so many fair Characters Men at a distance from it can make a sleight matter of it but its nearer approaches if attended with the due sense of Futurity will make the boldest and the stoutest Man to tremble it will strike a damp into his Spirits mingle Gall and Wormwood with his Wine and Bitterness with his sweetest Joys Death is not the less formidable for being unavoidable but rather more so as a certain Evil is more an Evil than that which is only probable and which may never happen but do we consider what it is for the Union that is between the body and the Soul to be dissolv'd what it is to see Corruption what it is to have this Body turn'd into a Carkass without Life and Motion what it is to have this Body which we have tended with so long a Care which we have maintain'd at so vast a Charge of Meat and Drink and Time to have this Body in which we have slept and liv'd at Ease laid into the cold Grave and there in a loathsome manner to putrifie and consume away it cannot but occasion very great Commotions when the day is come that the two Friends who have been so long acquainted and so dear to one another must part Death is an evil to be prayed against for as such it cannot be the Object of desire And the old saying of Augustin is not unworthy of our Observation That if there were no bitterness in Death the Constancy of Martyrs would not be so remarkable Therefore says the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 4. We would not be uncloathed but clothed upon It is promised as a favour to Ebedmelech that though he sustained many other losses yet he should have his life for a prey Jer. 39. 18. and Paul then whom none had a greater desire and esteem of Glory yet reckons it a Blessing for a good Man to be kept alive For he sayes of Epaphroditus Phil. 2. 27. He was sick nigh unto death but God had mercy on him And we find the Holy Men of Old very earnest for their Lives Return O Lord deliver my soul O save me for thy mercies sake For in death there is no remembrance of thee in the Grave who shall give thee thanks Psal. 6. 4. 5. Psal. 39. 13. Oh spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more Psal. 102. 24. I said O my God take me not away in the midst of my dayes And what doleful Expressions did Hezekiah use upon the news of his approaching death Isa. 38. 10. I said in the cutting off of my dayes I shall go to the gates of the Grave I am deprived of the residue of my years I said I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the Earth Reason 2. When a Man dyes 't is to him as an end of all the World He is no more considered as a Member of that Community to which he did once belong When his Eyes are once clos'd by Death he is no more to behold the Sun Moon and Stars which he now sees nor his Fields and Gardens his Shops and Houses his Estate and Lands As the waters fail from the Sea and the flood decayeth and drieth up So man lieth down and riseth not till the heavens be no more Job 14. 11 12. He quits for ever all those Earthly things on which he once set his Heart and when he is asleep in his Bed of dust he will not awake to pursue secular Affairs and Business which took up so much of his time and labour He must no more frequent his Exchange not read Books nor discourse with his Relations and Friends as he us'd to do among the Living here The first sound that he will he will hear will be the Voice of the Last Trumpet Arise ye dead and come to judgment The first sight that he will see will be the Mighty Judge in the Clouds and the Heavens and the Earth all in one flame All that little share of the World which he called his own will be undiscern'd and buryed in the vast ruins and desolations of the Great Day When a Man dyes 't is with him as an End of the World all the Affairs of Peace and War of Trade and Commerce and Gain and Riches all his projects and designs his large reaches his forecast his â—â—â—ughtfulness about News or about providing for his own Name or for posterity all these things are at an end with him for ever It would put a mighty Change upon the Face of things and the Circumstances of particular persons if they knew certainly the World would be at an end in four or five years or in so many Moneths and no man knows but it may be so as to him because before or at that time Death may cut him off and then he has no more to do with this Earth or with the Sons of Men. As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more He shall return no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more Job 7. 9 10. Reason 3. Because when we dye our Everlasting state is to be determin'd l After Death the Judgment The moment of our departure hence will pass us over to the Righteous Tribunal of God It will make us either to shine with the Angels above or to set with the Devils It will either fix us in a joyful Paradise or in an intolerable state of Wo. So that we may say with Nieremberg how
live an Example of dying well which is the most difficult thing in the World What a mercy is it when a man after many long and weary steps on Earth is going stored with Experiences and a well-grown Faith to his Journeys end When a man arrives at Heaven like a vessel well fraighted and richly Laden that after a long and dangerous Voyage is coming home To shine all his Life with the beauties of Holiness and when he dies to set like the Sun in beams to rise again Oh what a pleasant thing is it to a Believer to have the sweet foretastes of heaven here and hereafter to enter into the joy of his Lord To be blown along with a full gale of assured and undaunted Hope To be able to say I know whom I have believed I have fought the good fight of faith I am going to that God whose I am and whom I serve to that God who has loved me and whom I have loved who will be my own God for ever and ever What a glorious thing is it when a Christian by the assistance of the blessed Spirit has mortified all inordinate desires after any thing in this life when he can say Let me arise and go hence to a better place when the Affections and all the powers of the Soul are on the wing to meet its Saviour on the way when it is in an actual readiness and as soon as ever it hears the voice saying Come up hither will freely go and with such holy haste as if it would prevent Christ in his coming to fetch it It is a thing greatly to be desired and prayed for that when our last hour comes we may not onely in the General be prepared to dye but that we may be in a dying Frame and a man is so when he is very submissive to God and his blessed Will when he is pleas'd with that order of his Providence that calls him hence When by Faith he is intirely loosen'd from the World and Worldly things and in assurance of Salvation can yield up his Life with this Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Inf. 1. If being brought from the Grave be so great a mercy and for which we ought to be thankful then what cause have those to be thankful who are delivered so as never to be in danger of dying any more Happy are they who are deliver'd so as ever to be deliver'd never to feel the same bitterness which they once felt nor to groan under the same Miseries and Calamities We praise God here on Earth but alass how low and how weak are our Praises to what he deserves for his own Excellencies and for his Mercy to us How cold are our warmest praises to theirs above who are all in admiration Extasie and Love And well may they praise him in the most elevated manner that certainly know that all their diseases are heal'd and their Iniquities forgiven That by their nearness to God see his Face and how well-pleas'd he is with all they do they praise the riches of his Grace in pardoning so many sins and so great they praise his power and his Wisdom that guided their poor trembling Souls to his own Glory their hearts are full of Love and 't is that which produces Praise and Joy Oh what a chearful Society is above in Heaven where so many Milions of Angels and so many Saints joyn together in the same blessed work and all their several Anthems meet in one loud and pleasant Hallelujah how vastly different is their Assembly from such an one as this Here we are with our unbelief with our fears with our strong Corruptions and with our many sins whereas they are all perfect and compleat in Holiness Here are we liable to manifold Calamities the very thoughts of which may be justly afflicting to us but in their World they have no change nor variation They have one continued and unalterable Felicity after a long and doleful sickness it is a pleasant thing to behold this World again it looks as a new World to me who have dwelt for so many Months on the very borders of the Grave But alass what is this World that at the best is a Region and a state of death to that above which is a Region and a state of pure and undisturbed Life The deliverance which God has been pleased to give to Me is in many respects as a Resurrection but it is such an one as that of Lazarus after which I must be sick again and dye for Recovery is but a delay of certain death And indeed our praises for our escape from death are very much damp'd and allayed by this thought that we must for all the deliverances we have at present yet in a little while go into the Grave The remembrance of those fore and dreadful Calamities that surrounded me and this Consideration that I am whilest in this body obnoxious to many thousand more distresses makes me to rejoyce with trembling It is a very sad Consideration when a man looks upon such a number of people as is here this Evening to think how many several sorts of miseries may be our Lot before we dye All of us are born to trouble as the sparks fly upward We can no more avoid affliction then we can run away from our selves What vexations may you Parents meet withal in disobedient Children that may send you mourning to the dust What Curses may come to you who have careless Parents that suffer you to wander in the way of death What disappointments and losses and decayes may you that are Tradesmen meet withal or if you avoid all these yet that which is worse may come upon you I mean sharp and violent diseases and these I call worse because a man will better bear any inconvenience without him then that which fills his body with uneasieness and pain and his Soul by its sympathy with its dear Companion with Anguish and Vexation In how little a while will all who are now alive be dead In how little a time may the most strong and healthful person here be taken off by sickness from all Employment and business How does it trouble us many times to see the Tears and Sorrows of our nearest Friends and we cannot mitigate them with what earnest looks do they move our pity when they are in great pain but we cannot help them their shrill Cryes and their doleful groans may pierce our hearts but we know not how to remove them We stand by their Bed-sides and see their Agonies but by being sorrowful we do but for the most part add new grief to theirs We see their Countenances change and how at length they pass away and that shortly in such a case shall we our selves be But oh what a welcom and glorious day will that be when we shall see those very friends alive again whom we once saw in the most dreadful Agonies of death When though we parted with Tears yet we shall
separation of the Body and the Soul which yet is painful and sad enough They that are under the Power of this Spiritual Death taste not the Goodness of God they hear not his loudest Calls they tremble not at his most dreadful Threats they are not drawn with his Love nor start at his approaching Wrath. They are very sick indeed but they feel not their Sickness their Ignorance has deprived their Souls of all knowledg of their own Miseries they are in a state of Death and Insensibility and their Case is the more sad because they are like to fall under the Power of eternal Death and tho their temporal Life is prolonged for a Season yet we may say of them as of Malefactors under the Sentence of the Law for their Crimes they are dead Men though there be a Reprieve or a delay of Execution for a little space And if any of you as I hope there are many here are delivered from a state so dangerous and so miserable what Thanks and Praise should you give to God who hath quickned you when you were dead in Trespasses and Sins Eph. 2. 1. especially considering that you had no Inclinations no foregoing Dispositions to this spiritua Life You contributed nothing to your own Regeneration no more than a Carcass in the Grave can raise it self and live again no more than dry Bones can move of their own accord or clothe themselves with Skin and Flesh. When he passed by and saw you in your Blood Ezek. 16. 6. then he said vnto you Live The Hour is come in which they that are in the Grave shall hear the Voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Joh. 5. 25. How many of your Friends your Neighbours and your Fellow-Citizens are there in whom there are no Signs of Life at all that notwithstanding all their Civility and fair Carriage their Attendance upon the Word and the performance of several outward Duties have only a likeness to the Living but no real Life And why should God be so good to you and not to the rest of Men You were once the Children of Wrath and Enemies as well as they Were there any peculiar Excellencies in you more than in others to recommend you to his Favour No he has been merciful to you because he will be merciful and you may say as 't is in Eph. 2. 4 5. God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in Sins hath quickned us together with Christ. 'T is a very great Mercy for those that have been sick to be restored to Health but you are delivered from a worse Death and have obtained a better Resurrection in as much as the second Death to which they were obnoxious is infinitely more painful and dreadful than the first What a Mercy do you enjoy to be brought from a state of Wrath and Condemnation into a state of Peace and Favour from the Guilt of your Sins which made you dead in Law you are freed in your Justification and from the Power of Sin which would have kept you in continual Slavery you are delivered by the sanctifying Influences and Operations of the blessed Spirit you have cause to be thankful for your selves and for your Relations too if God has given the same Mercies unto them you may invite your Neighbours and your Friends to a Participation of your Comforts and say as the Father of the Prodigal Come and rejoice with me for this my Son was lost and is now found was dead and is now alive To raise your Thankfulness consider what a condition you would have been in had not God blessed you with a part in the first Resurrection You whose Eyes are now fix'd on Heaven and Glory had been still slumbering as unconverted Sinners are on the very brink of Hell you had then been without all relish of that word which first produced and which does every day maintain your Life and which is sweeter to you than Honey or the Honey-Comb Psal. 19. 10. You had now been without all Esteem and Value of that dearest Redeemer who purchased for you this Happiness at a very dear price and that you might live was himself content to die you had then been without that reviving hope of seeing him for ever that smooths your way and guides your Steps and upholds your Spirits thô you meet with many a sharp and bitter Cross. You would now perhaps have been prophaning his Sabbaths vilifying his Ordinances tearing his Name to pieces with execrable Oaths you might not have known what is the Sweetness of a sincere and hearty Prayer what is the Blessedness of a Soul whose Sins are pardoned and how honourable is the Priviledg of having the great God for a Father and Christ for a Mediator You are delivered from spiritual Diseases which are worse than all bodily Distempers for Pride and Envy Impatience and Discontent and Ambition and Revenge are worse than even the worst of Pains than the Stone the Cholick the Strangury or the like These cause a momentany Trouble but the evil Habits the corrupt Inclinations and the disorderly Motions that bear sway in that poor Soul that is dead in Sin tend to an everlasting Misery Continually adore and magnify the Power of your Saviour that made your Hearts at length to yield to his own terms though they gave him a very great Opposition Bless the Skill and Wisdom of your gracious Physician that cures all the Diseases of your old Nature that is not in any part of it sound and healthful It is easy to kill and ruin and destroy that we can all do too well but who can recover and save but he alone And if he was to be admired when on Earth He heal'd the Sick and made the Blind to see the Lame to walk and the Dead to live He is much more now to be adored and his Power is not less miraculous when it displays its vertue in Regeneration and when he makes all the boisterous unruly passions of Nature to be still and quiet than in commanding the Seas and the Winds These things should be the matter of your Praise and Wonder as they will be the cause of Praise and Wonder to his Saints for ever and if David is thankful here when he says O Lord thou hast brought my Soul from the Grave what matter of greater Thankfulness is it when a Christian can say O Lord thou hast brought up my Soul from Hell from the Power of Satan from the House of Bondage and from the Neighbourhood of the second Death Long Life is in it self a Blessing and for which we may very lawfully pray I say 't is in it self a Blessing for it may be clog'd with those Miseries that may make it to be as a Curse As if a Man were to live long only to row in Galleys or to dig in Mines or to pine in a Dungeon or to live in Pain and Torment or
the Gift that he has given us for there is none more excellent among all natural things than the Gift of Life and whilst we hug and embrace this dear Enjoyment let us not forget the Donor of it Let us remember God who is the Fountain of our Life and lets us also remember that gracious Mediator by whose Death this and all other Mercies were purchased for us and by whose effectual Intercession they are bestowed and made our own Could they that were cured of Fevers Palsies Blindness Lameness and other Distempers by Christ here on Earth ever forget so skilful and so tender a Phisician doubtless where-ever they came they spake of him where-ever they met him they gave him Thanks and we should be no less thankful than they seeing his Goodness his Power and his Compassion has been the same to us that it was to them for as one says he shews his Power in the Greatness his Wisdom in the Seasonableness his Truth in the Constancy his Grace in the Freeness the Riches of his Mercy in the Fullness of his Blessings and Deliverances How great is the sum of all his Thoughts and his Benefits to us they are altogether innumerable and too many for us to remember but however we ought to suffer nothing to make us forget such as are greater and more eminent There are two great Changes that we ought always to remember when we are changed from a Death of Sin to a Life of Grace and when we are brought from the Grave to the Health and comfortable Enjoyment of this natural Life for in the Beginning and in the Consummation of our Deliverances there is nothing on which we should with more delight fix our Thoughts than on the Goodness and the Power of God who alone is able to save us from our Distresses and who is most willing to do so when we call upon him The End of the Third Sermon The Fourth SERMON PSAL. 30. ver 3 4. O Lord thou hast brought up my Soul from the Grave thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the Pit Sing unto the Lord O ye Saints of his and give Thanks at the remembrance of his Holiness I Now proceed to enquire after what manner we must remember our Deliverance from Sickness and Death And this we may do three ways 1. Remember them with an Admiration of God that he should be so good to you Admiration is the first of all the Passions next to Pleasure and Pain When an Object is perceiv'd that hath nothing new in it we consider it indifferently and without any commotion of the Soul but the Mercies that we have from above are new to us every Morning and to be admired for their being so Lam. 3. 23. When we are intent upon the Creature we may be guilty of an excess of Admiration which by immoderate fixing of the animal Spirits in the Brain may hinder their usual Influx into other parts of the Body and be very hurtful to the Health Natural History of the Passions p. 90. But when God is our Object and Things Divine raise this Motion in our Souls there is no danger of Excess There are two things that may cause us to admire the Goodness of God that he will bestow any of his Mercies upon us 1. The vast and immense Distance that is between him and us his unspeakably glorious Majesty and Greatness and our own poor mean being that is in it self very low and does appear much more so when compared with him When we consider the large extent of his Dominions the splendor of his Court the numerousness of his Attendants the glory of his Heaven the brightness of his Sun the beauty of his Earth and the largeness of the whole Creation and then from the sight of these behold our little selves have we not cause to say Lord what is Man that thou art mindful of him or the Son of Man that thou visitest him Psal. 8. 4. Is it not a wonderful thing that so great a God will take care of us when he needs not our Services nor all the Duties we are able to perform If we were to set in Darkness for ever he would shine with a Light as bright and clear as he he now does It is a mighty Condescension in him to pity our Distress to help our Weakness to cure our Wounds to solace our Hearts to pacify our Souls and refresh our Bodies and when we are dying to revive us and to bring us from the Grave So that we may say with David 2 Sam. 7. 18. Who am I O Lord God and what is my House that thou hast brought me hitherto Ver. 19. Is this the manner of Man O Lord God How freely dos he do us good when we could lay no Obligation at all upon him 2. Another thing that causes us to admire him for the Mercies that he bestows upon us is Not only that we are inconsiderable Creatures but guilty too and have deserved the contrary at his Hands We are not only as Jacob says less than the least of all his Mercies but we are worthy of his greatest and most severe Punishments We not only deserve to be plagued all the day long and to be chastned every morning Psal. 73. 14. but we deserve to be the Objects of his Fury for evermore We murmur and think it hard to be laid upon a Sick-bed but alas we have all deserved to be laid on a Bed of Flames We groan and with impatient Complaints express our Sorrows when he for holy and gracious Ends casts us into a fiery Furnace Whereas were not the Lord infinitely merciful to us our milder Sufferings might have been our Hell Every medicinal and gentle Stroak of our Heavenly Father might have been the Lash of Devils that would have shewed us no Mercy Alas where had you and I been long ago had God dealt with us according to our Sins I should not have been speaking to you nor you hearing me in this Place with hope We should have been all silent in the Grave or all in Torments in a worse Place 'T is our Self-love and our heinous Pride that makes us to be so impatient in our Sickness and so unthankful when we are recovered We think we are injured when we are afflicted and that we have but what we merit when we are delivered But what Miseries and Desolations have our Sins deserved our Original Corruption and all that impure Offspring that has descended from it How many thousand times do we sin every day How much Evil do we commit that we ought to forbear and how much Good that we ought to perform do we let alone Who is there among us that hath those serious and abiding and lively Thoughts of God that he ought to have Who is there that in his Trade and worldly Business maintains his Commerce with Heaven and with spiritual and pious Ejaculations Who is it that by constant Exercises of Religion makes
some remaining indispositions I had not so long delayed to appear in this place I have thought indeed sometimes that I would with Sampson arise and do as I did at other times but that tedious and uncommon pain that afflicted me and the Consciousness that I have of mine inability to manage so Honourable and so difficult a work as this has long kept me back Moreover I thought there was no need of my weaker Light nor of my meaner Capacity whilest in my absence you had others whose understandings being better furnished could communicate to you in larger measures from their more abounding store But the deliverance which God by his own Power and Goodness has already given me is so wonderful so unexpected and especially so undeserved that I cannot but thrust my Sickle into the Harvest though it be with a very trembling hand And I promise my self that you will joyn your prayers with mine that it may be for the good of some Soul or other nay if God so please that it may be for the good of many Souls that I come here this Evening that it may be for the preservation of others from so thick a darkness and so woful a Condition as that wherein I have been I come to you as one from the dead to say no more and though if you hear not Moses and the Prophets and the well attested Revelations and Discoveries which God has made by them neither will any other methods be successful to your good yet one would think that the Words of one that has dwelt so long as in the very Grave and in the nearest Confines of Eternity ought to carry more than ordinary weight with them A peculiar attention is usually afforded to dying Persons and I think the same should not be denyed to such as in the Judgment of others and in their own opinion have been no longer for this World as I was for above a year and upon that account have Cause to say as in the Text. O Lord thou hast brought up my Soul from the Grave c. From the Words we may raise these two Observations First That God alone is the Soveraign disposer of Life and Death Secondly To be brought up from the Grave is a Mercy greatly to be acknowledged and for which all such as are recovered ought to be very thankful First God alone is the Soveraign disposer of Life and Death This great God concerns himself not only with the Nobler parts of his Dominions but with such as are more inconsiderable He not only preserves the vaster and the purer Orbes above but also this little drossy Globe His Care extends its self not only to the Highest Angel but to the least and the meanest Man And though Men are among us distinguisht by several Excellencies and Titles of Honour yet before him all flesh is as grass He gives a Being to the meanest Pile in its ordinary Garb as well as fine Apparel to the beautiful Lillies of the Field 'T is in him that we all live and move and have our being and if his Concourse be removed all our operations will immediately cease We cannot act without him for then we should be self-sufficient and Independant on him He is the Author and the Preserver of our Nature He first tyed our Bodies and our Souls together and 't is his care that maintains this Incomprehensible Union that is between parts in themselves so vastly different and when he pleases to suspend his Influence 't is dissolved and broken asunder He is the strength of our Life Psal. 27. 1. From him we have all our Healthfulness and Vigor He is the Great Agent the principal Efficient Cause of All that Exists and all second Causes in their several Actions depend upon him Though the manner of his Influx is very Mysterious and it becomes not the weakness of our Minds daringly to determine which way it is we that are extremely in the dark about many of the motions of our own Faculties ought not any way to Limit Him whose Wayes are Unsearchable and who is so far above us But this we most certainly know that our whole being and the continuance of it depends on him alone 'T is his Sun that does refresh our Spirits with his Temperate and Comfortable beams and that by his Amiable shine renders this World a place of delight For were it always covered with darkness it would be a place very undesirable and full of horror They are his Vapours that are drawn up to fill the bottles of Heaven and 't is his hand that opens them again and makes the Clouds dissolve to give being to Grass and Corn to feed the Beasts for us and to be the staff of our Life 'T is his Day in which we work and his Night in which we sleep 't is his Earth that bears us his Air in which we breathe and they are his Winds that purisie and fan that Air to make it healthful and serviceable to us It was this great and Gracious God that first breathed into us the breath of Life he formed our several parts with curious and inimitable Art and his own skilful hand brought us from the darkness in which we were inclos'd safely to the Light of Day 'T was by his Goodness alone that we were not strangled in our Birth or smother'd in the Cradle and that we did not there by the Carelessness of our Keepers and by the many distempers that attend our Early Age find a Grave His Goodness sav'd us from the dangers which we our selves were unable to apprehend and which without his extraordinary Favour would have clos'd our eyes as soon as we saw the Light and have sent us into the other World when we were but newly entred into this His Mercy deliver'd us from the unknown dangers of our heedless Infancy and from the unfear'd evils of our daring Youth 'T is God alone that holds ouâ— souls in life and suffers not our feet to b moved Psal. 66. 9. 'T is he that furnishes us out of his Stores wherewith to repair the daily decayes of Nature He gives us the things that are absolutely necessary to maintain our Life and those also that are necessary for refreshment and delight His corn his wine and his oil Hos. 2. 8. He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle and herb for the service of man that hâ— may bring forth food out of the earth and wine that maketh glad the heart of man and oyl to make his face to shine and bread which strengtheneth mans heart Psal. 104. 14 15. 'T is he that spreads our Table and who fills our Cup and makes the things which we take for the support of Life to give us strength for we live not by bread alone Mat. 4. 4. 'T is he that gave and that maintains that heat in our Stomaches and those Acid juyces there that alter and attenuate and distribute the several parts of our Meat 'T is he that gave
with the first by calling for the Elders by confessing their Sins by promising Repentance and by Prayers for good things requisite as well for the body as for the Soul Discourse of Extream Unction pag. 48. It is also the duty of those that are acquainted with the sick instead of vain and frivolous discourses of Common Affairs which have no relish with those that are in great pain to Minister as far as they are able to their Spiritual Wants to direct instruct and any other way to help them to set their Souls in order and to trim their Lamp See what Care the Holy Prophet used to his Enemies Psal. 35. 13 14. When they were sick my clothing was sackcloth I humbled my soul with fasting and my prayer returned into my own bosom I behaved my self as though he had been my friend or brother I bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his Mother Those means which he used for their Recovery were an argument of the sincerity of his own Religion as well as of his most affectionate Sympathy and tenderness to them When you visit the sick you see in them the prospect of your own Mortal Estate You see how soon their Complexion their Temper their Sociableness and all that agreeableness of Humour which was pleasing to you is gone and changed In their broken feeble expressions in their wan and pale looks and in their fallen Countenances you behold that man in his best Estate is altogether vanity Psal. 39. 5. and how when God with rebukes does correct man for Iniquity he makes his beauty to consume away like a moth ver II. then you see that all flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field Isa. 40. 6. How many times do you see those whom you love strugling with pains strong and bitter even as death it self and you cannot though you never so earnestly desire it afford to them the least Relief not a moments ease nor the smallest interval of rest but when your hearts have sunk within you with the doleful and unintermitted accents of their Groans and Sighs how often have you prayed to God and he has appear'd to your help and theirs There may be many Cases wherein much speaking may do your afflicted Friends no good at all but there is no Case wherein your prayers may not be of great advantage either to preserve them with you or to obtain for them some Gracious discoveries of the Love of God or a more easie passage both which are very great Mercies What wonders have been wrought in all Ages by the power of the United Intercession of Believers when they have carried their sick to Christ. What numbers are there of perfect Souls in Heaven that can Witness to the Truth of this and how many deliver'd Captives are on Earth that can now with joy set their Seal to it and say with Transport truly God is a God hearing prayers The continued prayers of the Church for Peter did procure his Enlargement and an Angel was dispatcht to break his Chains and to send him to carry the welcom news to the then praying Church that their prayers were heard and he was deliver'd Many there are now alive that owe their Lives to this whereof I am one The Mercy of God which alone could help me and that was implored and sought by your prayers has brought me from the very Grave In all future occasions try this method for you know it is available and successful Is any afflicted let him pray himself is any so overwhelm'd that he cannot well perform it Let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him and the prayer of Faith shall save the sick Jam. 5. 14 15. He is to use this course as a means for the recovery of his Health for though we cannot with any Modesty pretend to the prayer of Faith here mentioned that is of a certain perswasion that the person for whom we pray shall be raised up yet we ought to pray in this Faith that it is pleasing to God when we express our dependance upon him by asking those things which we need that every good thing comes from him and therefore health and deliverance from death that though he does not alwayes give that particular thing which we ask yet 't is sometimes denied because we do not ask and that as he never gives the greatest Blessings of all which are those of a good mind but in answer to prayers So sometimes he does not send bodily good things because he is not prayed to for them And there is no less Reason for Prayer when God raiseth up the sick by Blessing ordinary means than when it was done by a supernatural Gift Discourse of Extream Unction pag 46. Inf. 2. There is great Reason to Fear and Reverence God For as he presides over all the Revolutions of Empires and Nations their Original their Growth their Prosperities and Decayes so he does likewise over particular persons in their Life and Death His knowledge and his Government reaches to all things for their Existence depends upon his Will It is in his power to destroy or to save He is the God in whose hand our Life is We lye at his Mercy and according as he Wills we must either be Healthful or Sick Live or Dye His are our times on his pleasure our present happiness and our future welfare depends He sits upon the flouds and orders with a steady and uniform design All that appears most uncertain and changeable to us He can either make the Waters of Affliction to drown us or say unto them as unto the waves of the Sea hitherto shall you go and no further even then when their swelling Pride threatens us with total desolation He has appointed his Sun to measure out our time and knows when shall be the last concluding day When those that are now living shall dye and by what sort of death and where after that they shall be placed whether in Happiness or Wo. He knows when the last Trumpet shall sound and when the dead shall be rais'd Of him therefore should we stand in Awe as having that voice continually in our ears Deut. 32. 39 40. See now that I even I am he and there is no God with me I kill and I make alive I wound and I heal neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand for I lift up my hand to heaven and say I live for ever What an abundance of diseases are at his beck what abundance of Arrows are in his Quiver what abundance of sins do we commit which cause him to bend his bow and provoke him to set us up as marks of his displeasure He can strike the most consident and secure sinners dead in a moment or with long abiding pains fill them with so great anguish and vexation that they shall chuse strangling and death rather than Life Alass what are we to this Great
God but as Chaffe before the Wind but as Thorns and Briars before a Consuming Fire but by a reverential awe of him we may lay hold of his Strength and be at Peace Look up to his Heavens and that vastly extended Firmament that is above and then reflect and think how great is he that made all this Creation with a Word Look to his Law and consider how holy he is in his Precepts and Threatnings and then look to your selves and consider how Sinful and how Vile you are Look upon the strange punishments and miseries under which many of your Fellow-creatures groan and be not high-minded but fear because the God that afflicts them may perhaps very shortly do the same to you and let it fill you with the most awful thoughts when you consider how great is his power how severe his Justice and how unspotted is his Holiness How easie is it for him to bring you to the Grave if he do but withdraw sleep from your eyes so that you have no rest for three or four nights or for one Week Then there is a stop put to all your present projects and then all the Comfort of the World is gone For all Affairs depend upon Activity and Vigour and this will cease when sleep does no longer refresh your Spirits as it us'd to do All your apprehensions will change when you have lost this support of weak nature this onely prop of Comfortable Life God can make the strongest and most healthful persons quickly to feel Sickness and Diseases He can quickly turn a pleasant fruitful Land into barrenness and the most beautiful Habitations into Dust and Ashes We should greatly beware of provoking him of whose Mercy we stand in need and whose Wrath we cannot bear He can quickly change all our Joy into Mourning and our Day into Night and our Light into the shadow of Death When he frowns all the stateliness of Buildings all the Glory of Nations all the Pomp and Splendour of the World is gone How soon can he lay waste a flourishing Countrey with War or Plague or Famine he can quickly turn the house of Joy into an house of Mourning and deprive us of what is most pleasant in our Eyes and blast all our hopes You have seen that by letting loose an unruly Element of Fire he turn'd this City in two or three dayes into an heap of Ruins and by filling the Air with contagious Vapors sent many thousands in a very little time into the Grave and he can by letting loose any one Humour in your bodies make you a burden to your selves and to be weary of a World in which you can no longer live as you us'd to do Inf. 3. There is great Reason that under any Sickness or Distress that befalls us we should submit our selves to this God that brings even to death and back again If you be plagued all the day long and chasten'd every morning Psal. 73. 14. whilest others are in no trouble and if you feel your strength decay whilest theirs is firm let no murmuring thoughts fill your Minds because you are the Creatures of God and he may do with you what he will Keep a remembrance of his absolute Soveraignty alwayes imprinted on your Hearts Job 33. 12 13. God is greater than man why dost thou strive against him for he giveth not account of any of his matters Whatever he doth is therefore good and holy because he does it And when he chastens us very sore we should lay our Mouthes in the dust and bear with Patience his Indignation because we have sinned against him We must not yield our selves to our Miseries but to him that sends them and that you may submit in Great and Heavy Trials you must have recourse to the Promises of the Gospel the Mercy of God and the Righteousness of Christ the Merit of his Sufferings and the Efficacy of his Intercession and if you believe you will be established for without Faith in Christ there is no Hope and without Hope no Submission How can this be done if a man have no prospect of advantage by it either in this or the next World for no man can possibly submit to be for ever Miserable It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord Lam. 3. 26. Inveigh not therefore against the Rod though it smart very much but look to the hand in which it is to that Wisdom that has the disposal of it and to those sins that have deserv'd it Look not upon your Evils as the product of Chance or Fortune but as the effect of an Holy Providence which though it is many times very severe yet is alwayes very just Adore this Providence with an humble Silence and Veneration You do not know which is better for you Health or Sickness Affliction or Deliverance he onely knows that knows all things and it will be very grateful to him if you give a chearful entertainment to his Order and Decree If he please who is your Gratious Creator and your Father he can therefore afflict you that he himself may be your Cordial and revive your fainting spirits from the very Grave but if not your Religion should teach you to approve of all the messages he sends you and by a quiet Resignation to put your Souls into his hands when he signifies by the Progress and Increase of your Distemper that your Race is finisht and that it is now your time to die And in order to this you must lay up a good store against that Evil day For you may be warned from the World with long Chronical Diseases that by their Acuteness and Violence may be as so many several Deaths complicated together And then when you have no hope of bodily ease any more then will be the great Tryal of your Faith Several Men will with great hardiness and resolution bear very great pains so long as there is the least hope of Life but to be patient and submissive in the deepest Sorrows and in the view of certain death this is what none can rightly attain to but those that Believe and not all those neither but such whose Faith is deeply rooted has for a long time flourisht and Conquer'd overwhelming doubts and so is of more than an ordinary growth This is that which rendred the Patience of our Blessed Redeemer so very remarkable that when he was lead to the slaughter where he knew he was to suffer violent and great pain from barbarous and cruel men yet even then he opened not his mouth and when he knew there was unspeakable bitterness in that Cup which he was going to drink yet notwithstanding all the Wormwood and the Gall that was in it and though his Innocent Nature did recoil a little yet he drank it off saying with an entire freedom of Choice and a full Acquiescence Father not my Will but thine be done And this was the fruit of a mighty trust
betray you to death or to long pain Seek chiefly to the Soveraign disposer of all things who can either cure you without means or make those that you try to be available knowing that without him not all the Cordials in the World can for one moment stay the departing Life Of which many Physitians are so sensible that they frequently tell you that by the blessing of God they hope to do you good Indeed they had need be men of Prayer that by their means Religio Medici might be as famous in reallity as it has been in scorn And though I pretend to no great skill in these affairs yet I have some Experience as to what I say I have often found the Insufficiency of all things that have been prescrib'd and that they have not given me the least Ease in my violent and sharp pain and how what I have taken with a design to help me has increased my Disease and made it more painful Therefore having severely smarted my self for my folly in expecting too much from humane help I may be allowed to warn others that they may not fall into the same snare and to desire them to trust more in God and less in Men. We may be as guilty of Idolatry in giving Men too much of our Trust as if we bowed before a Graven Image and it is an evil to which Men are as prone as to any other sin An Instance whereof is that which Suidas saith that the Book which Solomon wrote of Physick was affixed upon the Gate into the Entry of the Temple and because the People boasted too much in it neglecting the Lord Hezekiah caused them to pull away this Book and bury it and the Talmud saith that Hezekiah did two memorable things first he hid the Book of Physick which Solomon had written and secondly he brake the brasen Serpent which Moses made Weemes Exerc. div pag. 120. Indeed men do as that King said unto Hazael 2 King 8. 8. Take a present in thine hand and go meet the man of God and enquire of the Lord by him saying shall I recover of this disease They seek for Recovery first of all as that which would bring them the most acceptable News which made the Prophet use such Ambiguity in his Speech Verse 10. For 't is likely that 't was no dissimulation because his Sickness was not in it self Mortal yet he should surely dye that is by the Treachery of Hazael The hope of Recovery is so grateful to the Patient that Physitians are not a little tempted to conceal the danger when it is visible to all but to the Sick Man and of how ill Consequence is this I cannot better express it than in the Words of an Honourable person for whom men of all the Learned professions have a just value For my part sayes he who take the prognosticks of Phytians to be but Guesses not Prophesies and know how backward they are to bid us Fear till our condition leave them little hopes of us I cannot but think that Patient very ill advis'd who thinks it not time to entertain thoughts of death as long as his Doctor allows him any hopes of Life for in case they should both be deceiv'd 't would be much easier for the mistaken Physitian to save his Credit than for the unprepared Sinner to save his Soul Boyle Occasional Reflections Sect. 2. pag. 222. Our safest Course in all our Troubles and Sicknesses is to Go to Jesus Christ who has an Omnipotent Vertue and Ability to help as when he was on Earth he healed all manner of Diseases and among the rest a person that had suffered many things of many Physitians and was nothing bettered but rather grew worse Mark 5. 26. So he has still the same power and Compassion and though Thousands have shared in the Gracious effects of his Bevenolence yet he has still the same Charity and the same All-sufficient Fulness from whence to relieve us as the Sun after it has by its Light and Quickning influences given Being and Refreshment to so many several Creatures in the World suffers no diminution of its own Light and Heat and is no less Communicative and Beneficial to this very day then it was many hundred years ago The whole of what I have spoken upon this Head is onely to keep our spirits from placing an undue reliance on the Creatures when our Trust is chiefly to be fix'd on our Glorious and powerful Creator One would think it strange and yet so it is that when God has by some sharp and severe stroak beaten off our hold from those props whereon we us'd to lean in the time of our Careless Health when he has confin'd us to a solitary state and we can no longer have our Antient Friendships nor our former hope yet even in distress it self so great is our adherence to Creatures we substitute to Our selves new Reeds whereon to lay some strength and our vain trust does not expire but with our latest breath I would not have any part of what I have said to reflect in the least upon those worthy Physitians who in the time of my woful Calamity gave me their Charitable Visits though God was not pleas'd to succeed the Endeavours they used yet I hope and pray that he may reward them for their labour and their diligence As also Those that gave me their kind help when I was not able to help my self I owe to them all great Respect and Thanks and none can take it ill if I say what to his Glory I ought to say that God onely was my Physitian and my Deliverer and to him is all the praise due He hath torn and he hath healed he hath smitten and he hath bound me up he hath revived me and I live in his sight Hos. 6. 1. So that I may say with David Psal. 103. 1 2 3 4. Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits Who forgiveth all thine Iniquities and healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy Life from destruction who crowneth thee with Loving-kindness and tender mercies Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things so that thy Youth is renewed like the Eagles Observ. 2. To be brought up from the Grave and to be kept alive from going down to the Pit is a Mercy greatly to be acknowledged and for which we ought to be very thankful And thaâ— upon these following Accounts Reason 1. Because Life is the dearest of all our present Blessings All Happiness is usually represented by the name of Life and all Misery by the name of Death Other Evils take from us each of them some part of our Comforts Death bereaves us of them all Bondage deprives us of Liberty Banishment of our Countrey Sickness afflicts our Bodies shame or Infamy our Souls pain troubleth our Senses poverty incommodateth our Life but there is no Calamity so great
to languish on a sick Bed for many Years together without help or ease As we do not say a Ship that has been in a Storm for many days has failed long but the Ship has been long tost So life attended with innumerable Vexations and heavy Crosses were not so truely to be called Life as one continued Act of Dying To live to see nothing but Desolations to hear nothing but ill Tidings and to feel nothing but Pain these and many other things would make a long Life to be an Affliction and such as these made Jeremy to say Why died I not from the Womb To have Life and to have no Comfort with it to have such Diseases it may be as will not allow us to take any Delight in what we eat and drink in the Society of our Friends and good People or good Books when we have no other Language but Complaints no other work but to sigh and to groan and it may be Pains which we cannot bear Life with these Companions looks but as a poor and sorry thing but Life as it includes a Recovery from Sickness a Recovery from Distempers that hindred us either from the doing or the receiving good so indeed it is a Blessing and may be prayed for thô when we do so we must request it 1 st With great Submission to the soveraign Disposer of Life and Death to do with us so as may serve most his Interest and Kingdom in the World 2 dly We must in the desires of long Life propose to our selves great and honourable ends Some desire to live long that they may with more Freedom indulge and gratify their Appetites Some that they may get great Estates make some stately Buildings and Houses that they design to call by their own Names and hoping thereby to perpetuate their Memory These are the Desires of Men in whose Hearts the World bears too great a Sway and who are little acquainted with the Nature of Religion for this will teach us to make the Glory of God the Edification and Profit of our Neighbour and the Welfare of our own Souls the only end in our Desires of long Life and then we must inform our selves in the right Notion of long Life We commonly think that 70 or 80 is the duration of a long Life but it is not to be measured by the number of Years so much as by our Proficiency in Heavenly Wisdom He has lived long and well too that has attain'd to the end of Living that has got that Knowledg and those Graces which enable him to live to the Glory of God here and to enjoy him for ever and a Sinner that is an hundred Years old will be accurst Isai. 65. 20. if he arrive not to this he has been indeed a great while but has not truly lived at all And though the best are but Loiterers and have not that esteem of time which its real Preciousness does require at their Hands Yet he that hath an hundred Years time and loseth it all lives not so long as he that hath but twenty and bestows it well It is too soon to go to Hell at an hundred Years old and not too soon to go to Heaven at twenty Baxter's Saints Rest p. 613. Barely to live is a thing no way considerable for Birds and Flies and Gnats and other Animals live as well as we nay and many of them have a more delicate Pleasure in Life as wanting the Bitterness of our Griefs and the Fears of a sad Futurity but we then desire long Life aright when we beg it for this reason that we may live to God 't is what is very desirable in this respect though we ought not to promise it to our selves for we must always work with Zeal and Fervor as not knowing but we may have only a little time wherein to work I believe there is scarcely one among us all but hopes to live long and to attain to the Years of some of our old Progenitors and does not question but he shall do so When we see very aged People even in our dangerous Youth we hope that we shall live till our greener Heads be cover'd with the Winter and the Snow of Age. 'T is indeed a thing greatly to be desired where one is planted in the Vineyard of God not to be removed thence till the time of Harvest and not to have our Fruit blasted with rude and unseasonable Weather but that we may come to the Grave in a full Age Like as a Shock of Corn cometh in his season Job 5. 26. It was indeed a Blessing more insisted on and more largely promised in the Old Testament than 't is in the New for that Oeconomy was chiefly managed with respect to temporal Advantages and Prosperity They had in many Promises the Discovery of another happy Life though not so clear and distinct as that which the Gospel gives to us yet they had the Belief of it and their Belief was without doubt confirmed by the Translation of Enoch and the Rapture of Elias for they might easily think that God would not remove two Men so very good and so very useful unless it were to place them in a better State than that was which they had on Earth Long Life is a great Blessing but not such an one as God is always pleased to give to the best of Men Good Josiah the Glory of all the Kings in those Days did not live so long as many other worse than he All Israel was forced to lament his early Death whom to have seen alive would have been their greatest Joy Our good King Edward the 6 th that was in his tenderest Youth so great a Scholar so good a Christian and so excellent a King so hearty an Enemy to the Pope and so sincere and true Friend to the Reformation and so great a Promoter of it he died alas very young The Divine Providence is mysterious in its Conduct and far above our Thoughts For what Good might two such great and holy Men have done the one in Israel and the other in England They did much Good in the few years while they lived and might have done abundance more had they lived very long these excellent Kings were soon taken away whilst many Tyrants have waxed grey amidst the Hatred and the Curses of the People When we think of two such excellent Men as Mr. Joseph Allein and Mr. John Janeway and how soon they died that were less in Degree but as great in Grace as the former two we must needs be silent and adore the Providence that we do not understand we must needs conclude that there is something much better to be enjoyed in the next World than long Life in this otherwise such holy Men so full of Self-denial so very laborious for the Glory of God and the Good of Souls should have lived very long They were taken away by Sickness from that Work in which their Souls delighted and which in
their Hands thrived very much The Tears and Prayers of their Hearers and their Friends that would have had them to flourish with perpetual Youth and that were very sorrowful to see Men that filled them with such great hopes taken away could not stay them here any longer nor would God have them to stay longer from their happiness It is indeed a Mercy to those that are good fit for Heaven to have an early Deliverance from such an evil World as this where there is so much Sorrow and Disorder and Temptations and Sins to be taken away from the Evil to come and from many sad Objects that such as live longer may be troubled to see to be fully assured that God is their God and Heaven their Home Jesus Christ did leave the World as one says and ascend to Glory about the 33 d or 34 th year of his Age to teach us in the prime of our Years to despise this World when we are best able to enjoy it and to reserve our full Vigour for Heaven and for his Love Yet though this be a way to promote a Man's own Happiness yet it must be received as a Mercy from God when any one lives not only to promote his own Salvation but the Good of others also Some will say What need we to pray for long Life what need we sollicite God to no purpose or tire him with our Prayers for we shall not live a day beyond our time nor die a moment sooner Do you not think your selves concern'd to eat and to drink and to procure to your selves other Gratifications of Life notwithstanding this And why should you not think your selves under an equal Obligation to use those other Means that are necessary to preserve Life as Prayer to God for his Blessing seeing Man lives not by Bread alone Mat. 4. 4. You find that Hezekiah by his Prayers to God obtained fifteen years more after he had received the first Summons of Death And Paul by the Prayer of the Corinthians was delivered after he had received the Sentence of Death 2 Cor. 1. 9 10 11. And whatsoever may be in the Decrees of God yet I am sure he may justly deny us what we will not take the pains to beg tho the longest Life that we can hope to live will be some hundreds of years shorter than the Lives of Men before the Flood for their long Lives are rather to be ascribed to some extraordinary Priviledg than to the ordinary Course of Nature The World was then to be replenished with Inhabitants which could not be so speedily done but by an extraordinary multiplication of Mankind neither could that be done but by the long Lives of Men. Again Arts and Sciences were then to be planted for the better effecting whereof it was requisite that the same Men should have the Experience and Observation of many Ages As also the Food wherewith they were nourished before the Flood may well be thought to be more medicinal and haply the Influence of the Heavens was at that time in that Climate where the Patriarchs lived more favourable and gracious Hakewell Apol. p. 38. If Deliverance from the Grave be a great Mercy and greatly to be acknowledged then it is a very evil thing in haste and passion to wish for Death There are several People when any thing falls out that crosses their Inclinations or Designs will presently say I wish I were dead I wish I were in the Grave and out of such a troublesom World as this But do you know what it is to die it is to appear before the eternal God and to render an Account of all that you have thought or spoke or done it is to be judg'd to Heaven or Hell and that for ever I cannot forget here that sad Story that is mentioned by Bellarmine and quoted from him He speaks of a Man notoriously worldly-minded whom he went to visit on his Death-bed and when he did him duly to provide for another World answer'd him Sir I have much desired to speak with you but it is not for my self but in behalf of my Wife and Children for my self I am going to Hell neither is there any thing that I would desire in my own behalf And this he spake saith he with such Composedness as if he had been but going to the next Town or Village The Ignorance of this miserable Person suffer'd him to be in no Commotion nor Horror at all but what a doleful Change did he feel in his Thoughts and Apprehensions when he came to that real Hell and to those Flames of which he spake in so cold a manner People make very little of dying and those that are poor usually die with the least concern for they imagine that having suffer'd so many Miseries in this World they shall be very happy in the next Life is a very dear Enjoyment and it is a wonder any should desire in haste to be deprived of it but it is usually then when they are in very great and almost insupportable Pain or under the fear of Evils that seem to be greater than what they are able to bear Thus the Children of Israel being in great straits wish'd they had died in Egypt Exod. 16. 3. Thus the meekest of all other Men press'd by the Calamities that he had in view says Numb 11. 14 15. I am not able to bear all this People alone because it is too heavy for me and if thou deal thus with me kill me I pray thee out of hand if I have found favour in thy sight and let me not see my Wretchedness Thus Elijah 1 King 19. 4. and Job chap. 6. 8 9. and Jonah the Sun beat upon his Head and he fainted and he wished in himself to die and said It is better for me to die than to live chap. 4. 8. but by a Mercy of God not inferiour to his former Deliverance he was reserv'd to another Repentance and to more peaceable Days Thus even good Men have sinned through the pressure of some very great Affliction and Calamity In this they followed the Motions of their sensitive Nature and not those of Grace the tediousness of their Trouble and the weight of the Cross that they groaned under made them with too much eagerness and haste to pray for Death which is always reckoned to be the last Refuge of the Miserable But God is not used to grant these fretful and passionate Desires he will make them to know their own Folly and the Justice of his Soveraign Authority he will have them not only to serve him but to wait till he dismiss them from their Service and all their Haste shall not make their Sun decline till he see it is their time to die And it is indeed a piece of Arrogance unsuitable to the Condition of a Creature to desire it just at such a particular Season as if we knew the most convenient time to depart and were not in this as
cause to upbraid us as he did his Disciples Why are ye afraid O ye of little Faith But this will be most inexcusable in us whom God hath brought to the very grave and back again The remembrance and experience of so great a Mercy should for ever preserve us from the least distrust of our Benefactor Psal. 56. 13. Thou hast delivered my Soul from Death wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling that I may walk before thee in the Land of the Living Psal. 23. 6. Surely Goodness and Mercy shall follow me all the days of my Life Psal. 63. 7. Because thou hast been my help therefore in the shadow of thy Wings will I rejoice Psal. 71. 20. Fifthly Preserve those serious Thoughts now which you then had when you were near unto the Grave What a cold damp did the sight of death bring upon all our former joys What a low and contemptible thing did this so much adored World seem to be when we were just about to leave it How little charming then were all its gayest Smiles and how little terrible all its frowning Threats There did not appear then to be any thing that was enticing in a great Name and Reputation in pompous Honours or in vast Treasures We saw then that all our fellow Creatures and all that we our selves are apt to doat upon was very vanity All the Contentments and Satisfactions of our Appetites and all the Pleasures that we had ever taken in eating or drinking in our Travels or in our Recreations did all pass away like a Vision in the night Then we saw indeed the great worth of Faith and Patience and Self-denial and a Conquest of this World Then we could heartily wish that instead of all the vain Books we read we had more delighted in the Book of God That instead of all our unprofitable knowledge we had known Christ and him crucified That instead of all our Contrivances for this Body and the present state we had spent all our strength and our whole vigor to get Heaven and Eternal Life Then we were apt to say Oh that we had heard his Word with more attention whilst we had our day and whilst the joyful voice was sounding in our ears Oh that we had prayed in our Closets with more fervour whilst God called us to seek his Face Oh that we had bewailed our Sins with a more sincere and hearty Sorrow when we were called to the Duties of Repentance and Humiliation Let us do all those things now which we then wisht we had done Let it for ever dash all our confident and foolish Projects for this World remembring how by a sudden stroak all our Purposes were broke asunder Let us not trust too much in mortal Men for we can remember the time when as to us all the help of Man was vain Let us now prize all those divine Truths embrace those Promises and fear those threats which we then saw to be very true What did we then think of time when our glass was even running out and our day covered with the shadows of the night There was nothing in all the World that did appear to be of so great a value let us now prize it at the rate we then did What Company was it which we then most admired Whom did we esteem the most excellent and happy People Were they those that trample on the Laws of God that prophane his Sabbaoths that scorn his Word that defie his Threats and dare venture to go to an Eternal Hell or those that are afraid to sin that season their Entertainments with Spiritual Discourse that are sober in their Lives fervent in their Prayers conscientious in all their Dealings and that are going to Sion with their faces thither Surely these were the Men that we call'd Blessed and these are the Persons to whom we should now joyn our selves and have the most delightful Conversation and the greatest Familiarity Sixthly Perform all those things now which in your Distress you you resolved to do if God would but bring you from the Grave Psal. 116 13 14. I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people When a Man seems to be just entring into Eternity then 't is a common thing to say If God would but give me another Trial if he will but save my Life and give me another year and another day of Grace I will amend my ways and serve him more and be better than ever I was When we have not enjoyed those opportunities that we now do have we not said within our selves If God will trust us again with his Gospel and the priviledges of his open Sanctuary we will acknowledge his Goodness and be more fruitful It concerns us to see that the Resolutions that were form'd in our Hearts in the day of our distress do not expire with our departing Trouble In Sickness and the Neighbourhood of Death Sin does appear to be quite another thing than we took it to be in the time of our careless Health its Aspect then is very formidable and its Wounds very deep In whatsoever disguise it may come to us hereafter let us in the fear of God and by his Grace couragiously resist it for it is the worst of Enemies and when it wraps it self in false and alluring colours let us remember what an hideous and frightful Look it had when Sickness took the mask away Let it still appear as an odious and abominable thing to us When we were near to Death what Seriousness what Zeal what Holiness did we then vow to God Was not this our Language If I may have but a few more Talents bestowed upon me I will emprove them better than I did before I will hear his Word with more Reverence and read it with more Care I will with more frequency and impartiality it search and try my own Soul Now the time is come that you wish'd for Let it appear that your serious resolutions were not the fruits of Fear but of Love Let not our sense of God and of Eternity decline as our Troubles wear away God will not be mockt He will observe and punish our hypocritical Intentions if all that we promise him in our Distresses prove but as Chaff before the Wind and as the Dew of Morning which is exhaled and scattered with the Rising Sun God has losed our Bonds but it is that we may be tied faster to himself Let us shine with as great a brightness as we hoped to do and said we would if God would but recruit our dying Lamp and pour in fresh Oyl again Oh let us now improve our Time as we then intended to improve it and let us among our other expences remember that we are then most prodigal when we waste this Treasure and that we give our Friends and Companions too much when we give them a great deal
of our Time which they are not able to return us back again Let us neither suffer it to lie upon our hands as an useless Commodity nor put it off to every coming Chapman to every Friend or Diversion who can give us nothing for it that is equally valuable Let us work hard for we have known such a night wherein we were not able to work and such an one may come the second time Can we so soon forget what Thoughts and Apprehensions we then had Can we so soon forget those dismal Hours when our Hearts beat with Fear and we thought every Minute would be the last What shall we do for that God who is the God of our Lives who has taught us what we are to do by a very sharp and terrible Visitation Let us have a warm sense of his Love preserved upon our Heart and an high esteem of that Saviour by the purchase of whose Blood we have obtained our Recovery from Death and all our other Mercies Tho we are by the Providence of God placed at a further distance from the Grave yet we ought to retain the same serious Thoughts that we then had for we have still the same Wants and Necessities to be supplied that Religion which was then our Object is still as excellent and amiable our Constitutions are still frail and perishable Why do we not then stir up and excite our selves to put in Execution what we then resolved to do In our Sickness we think that if we were delivered we would be more than ordinary Persons But I know not how it is that the various Objects and Business the Diversions and Conversations of this World hinder us that we have not the same Thoughts when we dwell in it as we usually have when we are about to leave it But it ought not to be so Seventhly After you are brought up from the Grave let the new Life which God has given you shine with all those good things of which your former Life was destitute We that have recovered from Sickness that was almost unto death have received two Lives from God two states of Tryal We first received our Lives at the hand of God as others do when they enter into this World we have now received them a second time when they were even gone from us God has saved them from destruction and restored them as so many new Talents to us After we have been long near to the Grave the World looks as a new World to us all things in it seem to have a new appearance Let us among so many new things which the Providence of God bestows upon us quit our old Sins those Sins into which we most frequently fell before our Sickness came and those more indiscernable ones which our Consciences presented to our view in the time of our Distress and Tribulation and indeed our own doleful Experience one would think might powerfully perswade us to have no more to do with those guests which after we had entertained them left us nothing but Miseries and Vexation they are such sort of Companions as we may very well spare they have now sure lost all that amiableness which our Ignorance and Folly made us believe they once had they have cheated us with vain Promises Let us be no more cheated and imposed upon let us not embrace the Vipers that have stung us nor run into the fires that have scorch'd us nor drink that Poyson again which a little while ago had like to have cost us our Lives We did then live many days and years in ease but how few of all those did we really spend for the Glory of God and our own Salvation Let us not do so for the time to come let us live to nobler and higher purposes than we did before Where we did but creep before let us now run with all our force and speed where we did but wish before let us now strive and wrastle Let us not be guilty of a cold Prayer or a misimproved Sabbaoth any more nor make by a sinful silence and omission the sins of others to become our own sins but labour to obtain that Wisdom Prudence and Courage whereby we may boldly reprove Sin wheresoever we see it whether it be in those that are high or low Let our Conversations be as an Ointment which cannot be hid but spreads it pleasant scent round about Let our Actions preach Righteousness that the Seriousness that is so eminent in us may cause others to be serious by the sight of our good Example that there may be abundance who may have reason to bless God for us Let our Closets no more be Witnesses against us for the shortness and haste and luke-warmness of our Prayers to God Let not these publick Places of our Worship be Witnesses that we have been here careless and irreverent and vain and have gone away from them no better than when we came hither Let all the Company we are in be no more a Witness against us that we have there forgot our Creator and whilst we have been unmindful of him have discoursed with too much eagerness and delight of trivial and unnecessary things Let our Tables no more be Witnesses against us for our Intemperance and Gluttony nor our Bibles have reason to complain that they have been slighted whilst we have with delight read other vain and unprofitable Books Let us beware of abusing our Liberty in lawful things and of running too near the borders of a Precipice Let us beware of that Company and those occasions that once tempted us to sin Let us remember where we fell and walk with a more even step and a more watchful Eye Let all People that knew us before see that our Sickness and Affliction has been a Mercy and Advantage to us to teach us those things which we could not learn by more gentle and easie Methods Let the great troubles we have met withal be a warning to us that we run not again into any of those Sins for which we have paid so very dear Our Deliverance is indeed a Resurrection to us Let it be so like the Last that we may rise from our Graves pure and free from all that Ordure Filth and Pollution that was upon us As it is a life from the dead let us not have our Consciences any more fill'd with dead Works Let us be in some measure like the Angels of God as we shall be in the great and final Resurrection and tho our eating and drinking and the many petty cares which we are to take for our Food and Raiment and many other things that concern our present poor Life hinder us from being very like them yet nevertheless this should not discourage us from endeavouring to be as conformable to them as we can even now and then to long for that day when we shall have a more exact similitude Some indeed when they recover fall to all their old Intemperance and Excesses
consider how they give you notice of the haste of Time and to this purpose your Clocks may be of excellent use if as one says you design them not only as Civil Servants but as Militant Sentinels to advertise you every hour that your Enemy is advanced a step nearer to you for as every toling Bell may be said to be the Clock of Death so every Clock may not unfitly be called the Passing Bell of Time Thirdly Our Sickness should also teach us to be moderate in all those Pleasures that relate only to the Body Such we may use indeed as are necessary to divert our Minds when we are wearied with Study or the Duties of our Calling Such as are â—east expensive and take up the least me such as are no way scandalous and such as are both lawful and â—onvenient but we must especialâ—y avoid all those things that minister to Temptation to Sensuality to Covetousness to rash Anger 's and whatsoever else it is that indisposes us for Prayer for Self-Examination and all the other serious Acts of Religion for which we must be in a constant readiness We must enrich our Souls with nobler and higher Joys in communion with God in meditating on his Works and Attributes the Wonders of his Grace in Christ the mighty Preparations that he has made for our Happyness and Glory and these will be a good improvement of our Sickness and Recovery Nor will they be followed with such gloomy sorrows that eclipse all that which the World calls a brisk and a merry Life After this manner should our Sickness teach us to regard our Bodies not to be over-fond of them not to glory in our Strength in our Health in our Riches or any thing that is but of a short Continuance For wherein are all these things or wherein is Man himself whose Breath is in his Nostrils to be accounted of Jer. 9. 23 24. Secondly Do not provoke God to cut off your Life Your Life is an excellent Gift which those of us that have recovered have but newly received let us not by any means abuse it lest it be taken from us again which God will do if we make no suitable returns to the Kindness of him our Benefactor Eccl. 7. 17. Be not over-much wicked neither be thou foolish why shouldst thou dy before the time i. e. If we continue in a course of sin the Divine Vengeance will overtake us and make us to feel the sharp Effects of his just Severity and of our own Transgression To this end we must First Beware of all gluttonous Excesses in what we eat and drink For though by going beyond the bounds of what is lawful we discern no great hurt for the present yet we shall lay the foundation of manyfold Diseases which may break out afterwards and vitiate our Blood and waste our Spirits and when the pleasure of our Appetites is past we shall have a remaining Bitterness and Wounds and Sorrow Many wise and observing Men believe that of those that outlive their Childhood there is scarce one of twenty yea or of an hundred that dyeth but Gluttony is the principal Cause tho not the most immediate There is nothing that makes a Disease more insupportable than the thought of having brought it upon our selves by our own Carelesness and Security How many by this Method are withered in the Flower of their Age when they thought their Evening and Decay at a mighty distance What Havock and Murder and Desolation is made in the World by the force of the Sword and the violence of unjust Wars and yet more perish by their own Intemperance and all Diseases even those that are Epidemical Natural or Casual are by this and other Vices that attend it rendred far more sharp lasting malignant and incurable by that stock of corrupted Matter that they lodge in the Body to feed those Diseases and that Impotency that these Vices bring upon Nature to resist them Hale's Letter to his Son p. 17. Tho it be very true That let a Man be never so Religious he must both be sick and dye yet the prevailing sense of a Deity will sweeten these Evils when they come and also keep them longer off As t is said of Wisdom Length of Days are in her right Hand Prov. 3. 16. And 't is said by the Fear of the Lord Prov. 3. 11. By me thy days shall be multipled and the years of thy Life shall be increased And Chap. 10. 27. The Fear of the Lord prolongeth days but the years of the wicked shall be shortned But if our Belly be our God our end will be destruction even in this World Phil. 3. 19. When Men are gratifying their Appetites in all that they desire they are undermining their own Prosperity and giving fire to that Train which will certainly blow them up and at the rate they live they may well say Come let us eat and drink for to morrow we dye For indeed their Excess to day may cause their Death to morrow How many are now in their Graves over whom it may be truly writ This Man killed himself with drinking And how odious must the Memory of such an one be that so made himself away But let us remember Life is so great a Blessing that it is not for the sake of a few merry Companions or to gratify their humor to be parted with There are a sort of People that through the Power of their Ignorance are very apt to quarrel with the Providence of God for making their Lives so short and yet they will make them shorter than otherwise they might be and truly such sort of men have the least reason because their chief happiness lies in this World and not in that which is to come and their action is as foolish as if one would make haste to pull down the House he lives in and yet when he has done it knows not where to get another Secondly We must avoid all anxious Fears all inward fretting and discontent all foolish Anger Envy and the like passions for these are great enemies to Life As also all uncommunicated sadness and lasting griefs for any of those troublesome Accidents will unavoidably molest our present state And no less prejudicial are all uncertain hopes all immoderate cares and over-eager Studies for the mind by too vehement an intention will communicate its trouble to the Body and this will pine and languish by its sympathy and nearness to that and the Body cannot conceal the displeasure that arises to it from the more inward and spiritual troubles of the Soul There will be a Cloud of Sorrow in the Forehead when there is an abiding sadness in the heart whereas the Right Government of our Affections will spread a chearfulness both over the Body and the Mind 'T is said of Moses Deut. 34. 7. That he was an hundred and twenty years old when he dyed his Eyes were not dim nor his natural Force abated and to this
the constant meekness and quietness of his Spirit contributed very much It was Mr. Burroughs his Opinion that Mr. Dod was the meekest Man upon the Earth in his time and speaking of him as then alive he says He is about fourscore and ten years old and lately preached twice every Lords-day and the constant health of his Body was such that he was able to continue heavenly discourse till midnight from day to day and to Preach all the day long his Spirit not failing at all And thus by keeping the constant frame of his Spirit he was hardly known to be in any Distemper of Spirit See Burroughs Serm. on Matth. xi l. 2. p. 358. Thirdly That we may not provoke God to cut us off our Lives must be laid out for his Glory If we live to our selves he may well throw us aside as a broken Vessel wherein he has no pleasure Which of us would suffer a barren and unfruitful Tree to Cumber the Ground for many years And do we think that his Patience will always let us alone and not after it has been the witness of our Idleness turn to Fury and cut us down If we do nothing for him and his Glory how can we expect that his Creatures should give us nourishment and strength that his Earth should bear us and his Sun shine upon us How can we ask our daily Bread from our most gracious Master if we lay not out the refreshment we receive from it in his own Service Which of you would keep a Servant in your Family and give him all necessary Accommodations and yet be content to see none of your Work done Would you not with Anger turn him off And do we deserve better usage at the hands of God Would we have him to spread our Table and to fill our Cup that we may sin against him What Prince is there that would give money from his Treasures to carry on a War against his own Crown or to support a Rebel If we oppose our Creator or forget him 't is no wonder if he throw us out of the câ—re of his Providence 't is no wonder if his Justice deprive us of a Life which we so vainly spend And indeed when we consider how little we do for that God who has done so much for us every one of us may lay his hand upon his breast and say Lord be merciful to me a sinner for I deserve to dye Whatever care and temperance we use in our Dyet our Exercises or our Recreations yet if we be unprofitable Servants he may be provoked to give us our last Summons and say Give an account of thy Stewardship for thou shalt be no longer Steward With what face can we pray to God to keep us from sudden Death and to prolong our Lives when the Language of our former Actions will declare this to be the sense of our prayers Lord give me a longer Life and I will sin against thee more And is that a frame that becomes a Creature and a Sinner to his great Creator and final Judge It may cause God to say It repent's me that I have made such a man whole and that I have brought him from the Grave Thirdly Live much in a little time 'T is no great matter if we arrive safe to Heaven tho we do not live so many years in the Body as others may attain to tho we lose the sight of the Sun Moon and Stars yet the first sight of the Face of God will make amends for that and all our other losses Let us therefore rouze up our selves let us cast off all our former sloath let us contend and strive with all our force with all the powers of our Souls that we may enter in at the strait gate and lay hold on Eternal Lise It is for Heaven and Salvation and methinks the very name of such a place and state should set our Souls on fire it should enflame our desires and quicken our diligence and raise our hopes Let us run with as hasty a pace as ever we can let us not stay to listen to the charms or pleasures of the World Let no Frowns discourage us no Difficulties startle us no Dangers keep us back 't is for a Crown of Glory Let us keep that in our Eye and let us consider who are the Spectators of our Race God looks on to help us here and to reward us at the last Angels applaud us the Saints on Earth pray for us and the World will admire us though our Diligence will condemn their Sloth How busie and how unwearied is the Devil for our Ruin and shall we shrink at any Labor when we have the advantage of that evil Spirit What he does is with Envy against us and with rage against God But we have hope and tho we toil to the very Evening and Conclusion of our Day we have a Master that will reward us very well How solicitous and how careful are Men for the Affairs of this present Life and shall not we be as much solicitous for those of the Life to come How will they rise early and sit up late for a good Bargain or a little Profit and shall not we do as much to save our Souls for ever Oh let us suffer no day to go over our Heads wherein we are not more watchful and circumspect in our Actions more fervent in our Prayers more concern'd for the Welfare of our Neighbour and our own than we were the day before Let us now do as much in a Week as we did before in a Month and as much in a Day as we have done in a Week before Let us indeavour to have more Light in our Understandings more Love in our Wills and a greater and more universal Warmth in our Affections Let us that have been sick consider what an interruption that Sickness has made in our Life When our sorrowful Months were upon the account of those Sorrows to us Months of Vanity wherein we were not able to pursue the true ends and business of Life Let us fill up the vacant space with an after Diligence And seeing our great Work in the World has had so long a stand Let us now fall upon it with a fresh Vigor and we may by running faster and by the Grace of God overtake some of our Fellow Christians that are at present a great way before us and who are many Paces before us on the way to Glory We have it may be formerly done some small service for Christ but now we must do more than we ever did When we have obtained so many Blessings at his Hands it would be inexcusable if we had not a Mouth to acknowledge his Goodness and an Heart to love him a Mouth to speak for him and for his Glory upon all occasions and an Heart to admire and depend upon his Promise We have done too little for him that has done so much for us Let the consideration of this