ransom him from the grave and therefore why should men put this day so far from them But Secondly As there is nothing more certain then death so there is nothing more sudden then death When the old world when Sodom when Pharaoh when Hagar when Amalek when Haman when Nebuchadnezzar when Belshazzar when Dives when the Rich fool and when Herod were all in their prime and pride when they were in their most flourishing estate when they were at the very top of their glory Ah how suddenly how sadly how strangely how unexpectedly and how wonderfully were they brought down to the Grave yea to Helâ— O! the thousand thousands of crosses losses diseases sicknesses calamities dangers and deaths which attends the life of man and by the least of which he may be suddenly surprized and carried into another world and therefore why should man cry out cras cras to morrow to morrow when he does not know whether he shall have a to morrow when he does not know but that he may dye before he had begun to live Waldus a rich Merchant of Lyons in France seeing one suddenly drop down dead in the streets went home repented changed his life studied the Scriptures and became a worthy Teacher Father and Founder of the Christians called the Waldenses or poor men of Lyons And O! that the serious thoughts of the suddenness of death might have that happy effect upon your souls as to work you to break your league with sin and to fright you as it were into a love of holiness and into a life of holiness O! swearer what doest thou know but that death may seize on thee whilst the oath is in thy mouth And what doest thou know O drunkard but that death may step in between the cup and the lip as it did to Belshazzar And what dost thou know O adulterer but that a poisoned dart may strike thorough thy liver whilst thou art in the very flagrancy of thy lust as it did thoâ—ough Zimries and Cozbies And what dost thou know O proud Haman but that thou who art thus noblely feasted one day mayest be a feast for the Crows the next day And what dost thou know who art so crafty O Ahitophel but that if thy subtile counsel be rejected one hour thou mayest hang thy self the next hour And what doest thou know O thou opposing and murmuring Corah but that the earth may suddenly open and swallow thee up and therefore why should you put that day so far from you that may so suddenly overtake you Berline in Germany charged Saint Paul with a lye in the Pulpit Scultet Annal. and was suddenly smitten with an Apoplexy and fell down dead in the place And what doest thou know who art so apt to charge the people of God with lying but that God may strike thee both dumb and dead whilst the lye is in thy mouth Bibulus a Roman General riding in Triumph in all his glory a Tyle fell off from a house in the street and knockt out his brains And what doest thou know O vain glorious man but that whilst thou art triumphing in thy world glory by some unexpected blow thou mayest be sent into another world Lepidus and Avsidius stumbled at the very threshold of the Senate and died the blow came in a cloud from heaven God by an invisible blow may send thee out of this visible world Sophocles died suddenly by excessive joy and Homer by immoderate grief excessive joy or excessive grief may suddenly bring thee to thy long home Theater of Gods judgements lib. 1. cap. 9. p. 64. Olympus the Arrian Heretick speaking against the Holy Trinity as he was a Bathing himself was struck dead by a threefold Thunderbolt We may run and read some mens sins in the very face of their punishments Mr. Perkins speaks of One who when it thundered scoffingly said It was nothing but Tom Tumbrel a hooping his Tubs c. and presently he was struck dead with a thunder-bolt from heaven There would be no end of recounting the several judgements that have suddenly surprized all sorts of sinners let these few instances suffice to stir up every unholy heart to take heed of putting far off the day of death But Thirdly As there is nothing more sudden then death so there is nothing more short then life Job 8.9 Psal 102.11 Psal 73.20 90.5 Job 20.8 ch 7.7 and why then should you put the day of your death so far from you If you consider the life of man absolutely 't is but short 't is but as a span a shadow a dream a bubble a blast a puff of wind a pile of dust a fading leaf or a tale that is told c. The life of man is as a dream that vanisheth when one awaketh 't is a wind that goeth away and cometh not again 't is as a cloud that is soon dispersed with the wind 't is as a vapor that appeareth for a time and then vanisheth away 't is as the grass that soon withereth 't is as the flower that soon fadeth 't is as the candle that every light puffe of wind bloweth out The life of man is rather made up of days then years Psal 90.12 So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom Moses does not say Lord teach us to number our years but Lord teach us to number our dayes fallen man is apt to misreckon and to compute days for years and therefore this holy Prophet desires that God would teach them this Divine Arithmetick of numbering their days it being a lesson that none but a God can teach So Job 14.1 2. Man that is born of a woman is of few days or short of dayes and full of trouble He cometh forth like a flower and is out down he floeth also as a shadow and continueth not He speaks not of an Age nor of years nor of many dayes but of a few days mans days are short in themselves and shorter in respect of the troubles that attends this present life Mans life is so short Aug. l. 1. Confess Austin doubteth whether to call it a dying life or a living death Now these few days of mans life are upon the wing hastning and flying from us as the Eagle hastneth to his prey and therefore man had need set a greater price upon every moment and minute of time then he does upon all the world and accordingly improve it Secondly If you consider the life of man comparatively 't is but short and that will appear briefly thus First If you compare the life of man to what man might have reach't to had he continued in his primitive glory had man stood fast in innocency he had never known what death and misery had mean't death is a fall that came in by a fall had man kept sin out of the world he had kept death out of the world had man kept fast his holiness and purity he had remained a piece of
to say with those in Ezekiel Behold they of the house of Israel say the vision that he seeth is for many days to come Amos 6.3 Ezek. 12.27 Luk. 12. and he prophesieth of the times that are afar off So the rich man in the Gospel reckoned upon many years when he had not many monthes no not many weeks no not many days no not many hours to live in this world Unholy persons are very apt to say to death as Pharaoh said to Moses Get thee from me Exod. 10.28 and let me see thy face no more When death knocks at the poor mans door he sends it to the rich mans gate and the rich man translates it to the Schollar and the Scholar posts it away to the Citizen and the Citizen to the Courtier and the Courtier to his Lady and his Lady to her Maid so death is posted away as it were from one to another every one crying out to death O let me not see thy face O let me not see thy face 'T was even a death to Queen Elizabeth Sigismund the Emperor Lewes the 11 of France Cardinal Beauford and others to think of death or to hear of death and therefore they strictly charged all their servants about them that when they saw them sick they should never dare to name that bitter word Death in their ears And Pashur can't cast his eye upon death but he is presently a Magor Missabib a terror to himself Jer. 20.3 And Saul though he was a valiant King yet at the news of death he falls on his face 1 Sam. 28.20 And so Belshazzar though he was a mighty Emperor Dan. 5.1 7. yet a letter to him from him whom Bildad calleth the King of terrors Job 18.14 Ah how does it amaze astonish affright and terrifie him and how many are there who with Mecaenas in Seneca had rather live in many diseases then die and with the most famous Heathens prefer the meanest life on earth above all the hopes they have of another world like Achilles who had rather be a servant to a poor country Clown here then to be a King to all the souls departed or like Withipoll a rich and wretched man who when he was in danger of death earnestly desired that he might live five hundred years Vitellius looking for the messenger of death made himself drunk to drown the the thoughts of it though it were but in the shape of a Toad Near Lewes in Sussex a woman being ill one of her neighbors coming to visit her told her that if she died she should go to heaven and be with God and Jesus Christ and with Angels and Saints the sick woman answered that she had no acquaintance there she knew no body there and therefore she had rather live with her and her other neighbors here then to go thither to live amongst strangers And thus you see how apt persons are to shrug at death which is a common lot and to say to it as Ephraim did to his Idols Get you hence what have we more to do with you but this is and must be for a lamentation that men put off the thoughts of their latter end to the latter end of their thoughts Man naturally is a great life-lover and therefore he will bleed sweat vomit purge part with an estate yea with a limb I limbs to preserve his life like him that cryed out O give me any deformity any torment any misery so you spare my life And upon this account 't is that he desires that such a guest as death may not knock at his door but Ah that all such vain men would consider that by putting the day of their death far from them they do but gratifie Satan strengthen their sins provoke the Lord and make the work of faith and holiness more hard and difficult and so lay a deep foundation for their own eternal destruction Well sirs remember this the serious thoughts and meditations of death if any thing will work you to break off your sins to mend your lives and to look to the salvation of your souls there is nothing that will sooner work a man to a holy fear of offending God in any thing and to a holy care of pleasing God in every thing then the serious meditation of death Though that text Remember thy latter end and thou shalt never do amiss be Apocryphal yet the truth asserted is Canonical I have read a story of one that gave a young prodigal a Ring with a Deaths-head on this condition that he should one hour in a day for seven days together think and meditate upon Death which accordingly he did and it bred a great change and alteration in his life and conversation O! man thou doest not know but that the serious thoughts of death may work that desireable thing in thee viz. holiness which yet has not been wrought in thee by all the holy counsels the gracious examples the fervent prayers the sorrowful tears of thy dearest friends thou doest not know but that the serious meditation of Death may do thee more good then all the Sermons that ever thou hast heard or then all the books that ever thou hast read or then all the prayers that ever thou hast made or then all the sighs or groans that ever thou hast poured out and why then shouldest thou put the thoughts of death far from thee Certainly as he is a sinner in grain that dares look death in the face and yet sin that dares cut a purse when the Judge looks on so he is a monster rather then a man that dares look death in the face and yet satisfie himself to live without holiness that dares look death in the face and yet say I 'll drink and be drunk I 'll sware and swagger I 'll roar and whore I 'll cheat and cozen I 'll hate and oppose I 'll quarrel and kill and my hands shall be as bloody as my heart and let death do her worst if such a person be not in the ready way of being miserable for ever I know nothing Well sirs remember these three things First That there is nothing more certain then death That Statute Law of heaven Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return Gen. 3.19 will take hold of all the sons of men There is no man that lives and shall not see death Psal 89.48 Gen. 32. Though Jacob wrestled with an Angel and prevailed yet death was too hard for him though Hazael was as light of foot as a wild Roe yet he could not out-run death 2 Sam. 2.18 and Absalom could not out-ride it nor Pharoah out-drive it though Saul and Jonathan were as swift as Eagles and as strong as Lyons yet were they slain among the mighty 'T was not Solomons wisdom that could deliver him nor Sampsons strength that could rescue him nor Hamans honor that could secure him nor Goliahs sword that could defend him nor Dives riches that could
immortality to this day death could never have carried man out of the world had not man first let sin into the world Rom. 5.12 ult Secondly If you compare the life of man to the long lives of the Patriarchs before the stood then the life of man is but short threescore years and ten is mans age Psal 90.10 And where one man lives to this age how many thousands die before they come to it But what is this age to the age that men lived to in former times Enoch lived as many yeers as there be days in the year and Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years and Methuselah lived nine hundred sixty and nine years Gen. 5. Now what were Platoes eighty years or Thomas Pars 160. years or Johannes de Temporibus John of the times three hundred threescore and one years to the long lives of the Patriarchs and though in Davids time old age and seventy often shook hands yet 't is otherwise in our times for as mens wickedness do more and more increase so their days do more and more decrease the more wicked any generation is the shorter liv'd that generation shall be God will quickly dispatch them out of the world who make quick dispatches in ways of wickedness Thirdly The life of man is but short if you compare it to what it shall be after the morning of the Resurrection O then mans day shall reach to eternity eternity is that unum perpetuum hodie one perpetual day that shall never have end when men after the resurrection begin to live they shall never dye after that day every man shall live in everlasting bliss or in everlasting wo when the last Trumpet has sounded man shall live for ever and ever Fourthly The life of man is but short if you compare it with the days of God Psal 39.5 Mine age is nothing before him all time is nothing to eternity mans life is but a minute 't is but a point of time to the days of eternity what head what heart can conceive or reckon up the duration of God who ever was who still is and who ever will be every child and every fool can tell you their age but what man on earth or what Angel in heaven can tell you the years of the Most High surely none Fifthly and lastly the life of man is but short if you compare it with the lives of other creatures some say that 't is neither age nor sickness that killeth the Eagle she casteth her feathers yearly and so gets new whereby her youth strength is renewed Pliny August Calvin Psal 103.5 by which means she will live till she be an hundred years old she dies not till her upper Bill be so grown over her under that she cannot take in her meat and so at last she is staryed And some Elephants live three hundred years witness Aelian Solinus and Strabo c. by all which you see the brevity of mans life And why then should man be so weak so vain as to put the day of his death so far from him I have read of the Birds of Norway that they flye faster then the fowls of any other Country they knowing by an instinct that God has put into them that the days in that Climate are very short not above three hours long say some do therefore make the more haste to their nests And O! that all that hear me this day would learn by these birds of Norway to make haste to believe and to make haste to repent and to make haste to love God and to make haste to be holy c. seeing their day of life is so short and their night of death is posting towards them And as the life of man is very short so 't is very considerable that a very small matter a very little thing may quickly put an end to mans life When the Emperor threatned the Philosopher with death he replyed Conrad Ves perg Nancler Jo. Boel in Adrian Paulus Jovius Elog. lib. 2. what is that more then a Spanish flie may do An ordinary flye flying casually into the mouth of the proud Pope Adrian stifled him that made the highest state then in the Christian world stoop even to the holding of his stirrop Tamberlain a Scythian Captain the terror of his time died with three fits of an Ague Anacreon the Poet was choaked with the kernel of a Grape Aeschylus was killed by the shell of a Tortoise which fell from an Eagles Talons who as some conceive took his bald head for a white rock The Lord Mountaigne tells us of a Duke of Britany that was stifled to death in such a throng of people as is in some great congregations on the Lords day An Emperor died by the scratch of a Comb and one of the Kings of France died by the chock of an Hogg and one that was brother to a great Lord playing at Tennis received a blow with a ball a little above the right ear which struck him into his grave There is nothing so small but may be a mans bane The paring of a Toe the cutting off a corn the scratch of a nail the prick of a pin a fish-bone a hair a drop of water a crum of bread a bad air or an evil smell may bring a man to his long home yea a little smoak may soon stifle him or his own spittle let down unwarily may suddenly choak him And O! that all that I have spoken upon this account might be so blest as to work you to take heed of putting the day of your death so far from you The evil servant when he thought his Master was gone afar off Luke 12.45 then he layes about him distempers himself Prov. 7.19 20. and beats his fellow-servants And so the leud woman in the Proverbs when the good man was gone a long journey when he was far from home then she grew wanton vain and secure so when men put afar off the day of their death then they grow more loose prophane and unholy whereas a serious and frequent eying and minding of death as at hand as at a mans elbow would alarm a man to break off his sins by repentance and to labor for holiness as a man would labor for life it self I have read of the women in the Isle of Man that the first Web they make is their winding sheet wherwith they usually gird themselves when they go abroad to shew that they are still mindful of their mortality Ah friends a constant minding of your mortality would contribute very much towards the making of you holy He that daily looks upon death will be daily a looking after holiness the oftener any man looks into the grave the oftener that man will be looking up to heaven and a begging that God would make him holy even as he is holy But Sixthly and lastly Take heed of settling your selves under a leud and scandalous Ministry or of having any inwardness with
man was never truly holy who endeavours not to get up to the highest pitches of holiness True holiness knows no restrictions Ille non est bonus qui non vult esse melior nor limitation But now counterfeit holiness is either like Hezekiahs Sun which went backward Or like Joshuahs Sun which stood still or like Ephraims morning cloud which soon passed away No round but the highest round in Jacobs Ladder will satisfie a holy soul True holiness make a man divinely covetous Look as the victorious man can never make conquests enough nor the Ambitious man can never have honour enough nor the voluptuous man pleasure enough nor the worldling Mammon enough nor the wanton vain embraces enough no more can a man of holiness have ever holiness enough in this world As the grave the barren womb are never satisfied Pro. 30.15 16. they never say it is enough So a holyman whilest he is a this side eternity he is never satisfied he can never say that he hath holiness enough Fifthly Where there is real holinesse there is a holy hatred True hatred is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against the whole kind detestation and indignation against all ungodlinesse and wickednesse and that upon holy accounts Psa 119.101 I have refrained my feet from every evil way but why that I may keep thy word ver 104. Through thy precepts I get understanding therefore I hate every false way The good that he got by divine precepts stirred up his hatred against every false way ver 128. Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right and I hate every false way His high esteem of every precept raised up in him a holy indignation against every evil way A holy man knows that all sin strikes at the holinesse of God the glory of God the nature of God the being of God and the Law of God and therefore his heart rises against all he looks upon every sin as the Scribes and Pharisees that accused Christ and as that Judas that betrayed Christ and that Pilate that condemned Christ and those Souldiers that scourged Christ and as those spears that pierced Christ and therefore his heart cries out for Justice upon all He looks upon every sin as having a hand in the death of his Saviour and therefore he cries out Crucifie them all crucifie them all he looks upon every sin as a grieving of the spirit as a vexing of the Spirit Ephes 4.30 Isa 63.10 1 Thes 5.19 and as a quenching of the spirit and so nothing will satisfie him but the ruine of them all He looks upon every sin as a dishonour to God as an enemy to Christ as a wound to the Spirit as a reproach to the Gospel and as a moth to his holinesse and therefore his heart and his hand is against every sin but now if you will but look into the Scriptures you shall find that all those that have been but pretenders to holinesse Isa 58.1.9 Zach. 7.4 5 6 7. their hearts have been alwayes engaged to some one way of wickednesse or another Jehu was very zealous against Idolaters but yet his heart was engaged to his golden calves Mark 6. John 12.6 Herod hears John Baptist gladly and reforms many things c. but yet his Herodias must still lye in his bosome Judas was as forward in religious Services as any others but yet money did bear the masterie with him The Pharisees made long prayers Matth. 23.19 Chap. 16.23 that they might the better make a prey upon widows house The young man offered fair for heaven but yet his possessions had so possest and lockt up his heart that Christ could get no enterance Acts 8.13 17 18 19 20 21 22 23. Though Simon Magus believed and was baptized and wondred at the miracles and signs which were done by Philip yet for all these shews of godlinesse he was a prisoner to his lusts his condition was dangerous poysonous and odious he was in the gall of bitternesse and bond of iniquity So those in Mat. 7.21 22 23. though they complemented with Christ saying Lord Lord though they prophecied in Christs name and cast out devils in Christs name yea though they did not a few Qui habet unium vitium habet omnia He that hath any one vice hath all other with it saith Seneca truly but many wonderfull works in Christs name yet all this while they were workers of inity they were Artists in sin they were so addicted to sin that they made a trade of sin Look as every Lyon hath his den every Dog his kennel every Sow her stie and ever Crow her nest so every unholy person hath one sin or another to which his heart is engaged and married and that sin will undo him for ever As Lysimachus lost his earthly kingdom by drinking one draught of water So many lose a heavenly kingdom by indulging some one sin or other One flaw spoils the Diamond one Treason makes a Traytor one turn brings a man quite out of the way one Leak sinks the Ship one wound strikes Goliah dead one Dalilah betrayes Sampson one broken wheel spoils the whole Clock Judges 8. and one fly spoils the whole box of oyntment And as one Bastard destroyed Gideons seventy sons so one predominant sin is enough to destroy the soul for ever As by taking one nap Sampson lost his strength and by eating one Apple Adam lost Paradise so many men by favouring one sin lose God heaven and their souls for ever He that favours any sin though he frowns upon many doth but as Benhadab recover of one disease and die of another Yea he takes pains to go to hell sin favoured ever ends tragically And as no unholy heart rises against all sin so no unholy heart disdains sin or rises against sin upon noble accounts upon holy and heavenly accounts Sometimes you shall have an unholy person angry with sin and falling out with sin because in hath crackt his credit or clouded his honour or hindered his profit or imbittered his pleasure or enraged his conscience or exposed him to shame here and hell hereafter But never because a righteous Law is transgressed a holy God is dishonoured a loving Saviour is afresh crucified or the blessed Spirit grieved It is between a holy and an unholy soul as it is between two children one will not touch the coal because it will smut him and the other will not touch it because it will burn him A holy heart rises against sin because of its defiling nature but an unholy heart rises against sin because of its burning and damning nature A holy man is most affected and afflicted with the evil that is in sin but an unholy heart is most affected and afflicted with the punishment that is due to sin A holy person hates sin because it pollutes his soul but an unholy person hates it because it destroyes his soul A holy person loaths sin
vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my mouth Once have I spoken but I will not answer yea twice but I will proceed no further So holy Agur Prov. 30.2 3. Surely I am more brutish then any man and have not * Binath Adam the understanding of Adam the understanding of a man I neither learned wisdom nor have the knowledge of the holy Though all men are brutish yet holy men are most sensible of their brutishness and most affected and afflicted with it wicked men are more brutish then the beasts Isa 1.3 4. yet they see it not they bewail it not but holy Agur both sees his brutishness and bewails it Holy Agur looking upon that rare knowledge that depth of wisdom and those admirable excellencies that Adam was endued with in his integrity and innocency confesses himself to be but brutish to be as much below what Adam once was as a bruit is below a man Psalm 51. So holy David cries not Perii I am undone I shall perish but peccavi I have sinned I have done foolishly And so for his being envious at the prosperity of the foolish Psalm 73.2 3. how doth he befool and be-beast himself Psalm 73.22 So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast before thee The Hebrew word Behemoth Therefore the Elephant is called Behemoth in Job 40.15 that is here rendred beast generally comprehends all beasts of the greater sort As an aggravation of his folly he confesseth that he was as a beast as a great beast yea as an Epiâ—ome of all great beasts So the holy Prophet Isaiah complains that he was undone Isa 6.5 that he was cut off not upon any worldly account but because he was a man of unclean lips and dwelt in the midst of a people of unclean lips Dan. 9. So holy Daniel complained not that they were reproached and oppressed but that they had rebelled So Peter Luke 5.8 Depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord Or as the Greek hath it I am a man a sinner O Lord depart from me for I am a mixture and compound of all vileness and sinfulness Rom. 7.23 24. So holy Paul cries not out of his opposers or persecutors but of the Law in his members rebelling against the Law of his mind Pauls body of death within him put him to more grief and sorrow then all the troubles and trialls that ever befell him An holy heart laments over those sins that he cannot conquer a holy person labours to wash out all the stains and spots that be in his soul in the streams of godly sorrow that his sins may never drown his soul Zach. 2.10 Isa 59.1 2. he will do what he can to drown his sins in penitential tears A holy person looks upon his sins as the crucifiers of his Saviour and so they affect him he looks upon his sins as the great incendaries make-bates and separatist between God and his soul and so they afflict him he looks upon his fins as so many reproaches to his God blemishes to his profession and wounds to his credit and conscience and so they grieve and trouble him he looks upon his sins as those that make many a righteous soul besides his own sad whom God would not have sadded and that opens many a sinful mouth that God would have stopped Ezek. 13.22 and that strengthens many a wicked heart that God would not have strengthened and so they fetch many a sigh from his heart and many a tear from his eyes When a holy man sins he looks upwards and there he sees God frowning he looks downwards and there he sees Satan insulting he looks within himself and there he finds his conscience either a bleeding raging or accusing he looks without himself and there he finds gracious men lamenting and mourning and graceless men deriding and mocking the sense of which doth sorely and sadly afflict a gracious soul Some say that Saint Peters eyes after his great falls were alwayes full of tears insomuch that his face was furrowed with continual weeping for his horrid thoughts his desperate words his shameful shifts and his damnable deeds which made him look more like a child of hell then like a Saint whose name was written in heaven Some say of Adam that when he turned his face towards the Garden of Eden he sadly lamented his great fall Some say of Mary Magdalen that she spent thirty years in Galba in weeping for her sins Davids sins were ever before him and therefore no wonder if Tears instead of Gemms were so constantly the ornaments of his bed Wicked Pharaoh cryes out Psal 115.3 Oh take away these filthy frogs take away these dreadful judgments but holy David cryes out O Lord take away the iniquity of thy servant Pharaoh cryes out because of his punishments but David cryes out because of his sin Anselm saith that with grief he considered the whole course of his life I found saith he the infancy of sin in the sins of my infancy the youth and growth of sin in the sins of my youth and growth and the ripeness of all sin in the sins of my ripe and perfect age and then he breaks forth into this patheticall expression What remaineth for thee wretched man but that thou spend thy whole life in bewailing thy whole life By all which it is most evident that holy hearts are very much affected and afflicted with their own unholiness and vileness Now certainly those persons are as far off from real holiness as hell is from heaven who take pleasure in unrighteousness who make a scoff and mock of sin who commit wickedness with greediness who talk wickedly who live wantonly who trade deceitfully who swear horribly who drink stifly who lye hideously and who die impenitently But Seventhly Real holiness naturalizes holy duties to the soul it makes religious services to be easie and pleasant to the soul 1 Pet. 1 2. Jam. 5.15 Hence prayer is called the prayer of faith because holy faith naturalizeth a mans heart to prayer it is as natural for a holy man to pray as it is for him to breath or as it is for a bird to fly or fire to ascend or a stone to descend Rom. 16.26 Psalm 119.166 And hence it is that obedience is called the obedience of faith because holy faith naturalizes a mans heart to obedience As soon as ever this plant of renown was set in the heart of Paul he cryes out Lord what wilt thou have me to do Acts 9.6 Gal. 3.2 And hence it is that hearing is called the hearing of faith because this holy principle naturalizes a mans heart to hearing Psalm 122.1 2. I was glad when they said unto me Let us go into the house of the Lord. And so in Isa 2.3 And many people shall go and say Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of
much affected and afflicted with seeing and hearing of the wickednesse of those among whom he lived 2 Peter 2.7 8. The Greek word for vexed in verse 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to be oppressed under the wanton and wicked conversation of the ungodly Sodomites as a man that is oppressed under a heavy burden which he labours under and would fain be delivered from Or to be oppressed as the Israelites were under their cruel Aegyptian Taskmasters Ah the sins the wickednesse of others sets hard upon the hearts of the Saints The Israelites did not more labour and sigh and groan under all their loads and oppressions then many holy hearts do labour and sigh and groan under the load of wicked mens sins And the Greek word for vexed in ver 8. It is a Metaphor taken from Engines that they did torment people withall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to be tortured tormented and wracked Oh their wickednesse did torment and wrack his righteous soul he could not see nor hear of their wickednesse but his soul was as upon a wrack Pambus in Ecclesiastical History wept when he saw an Harlot take so much pains to deck and dresse her self in curious and costly apparrel and all to entertain a wanton lover and so to make work for hell Oh it cannot but grieve a gracious soul to see what pains poor sinners take to go to hell A holy heart looks upon other mens sins as great dishonours done to his Father his King And therefore he cannot but cry out with Croesus his Son who though he was born dumb yet seeing some going about to kill his Father his tongue-strings unloosed and he cried out O kill not King Croesus kill not my Father Oh kill not my God and my King Oh kill not Oh dishonour not my dear Father and Saviour saith a holy heart Such is the love and high respects that holy hearts bear to their heavenly Father that they cannot but grieve and mourn and cry out when they see others to act Treason against the Crown and dignity of heaven Elijah had rather dye then to see Ahab and Jezebel to cast contempt and dishonour upon his God 1. A holy heart mourns for sin as sin he weeps over the very nature of sin he grieves for sin as it is the breach of a holy Law He that hates a Thief as a Thief will hate a Thief in another mans house as well as in his own and as it is a dishonour to a holy God c. and therefore he cannot but mourn for other mens sins as well as his own He that hates a Toad as a Toad will hate a Toad in other mens bosoms as well as his own He that hates poison as poison will hate poison in another mans hand as well as his own So he that hates sin as sin will hate it where-ever he sees it And he that mourns over sin as sin cannot but mourn over sin where-ever he observes it 2. By other mens sins a holy man is put in mind of the badnesse of his own heart Bernard makes mention in one of his Homilies of an old man who when he saw any man sin wept and lamented for him and being asked why he grieved so for other mens sins answered Ille hodie ego cras he fell to day and I may fall to morrow the falls of others puts a holy man in mind of the roots of bitternesse that be in himself other mens actual sins are as so many glasses through which a holy man comes to see the manifold seeds of sin that be in his own nature and such a sight as this cannot but melt him and break him 3. A holy heart knows that the best way to keep himself pure from other mens sins is to mourn for other mens sins 1 Tim. 5.22 1 Cor. 5.1 2 3. Ephes 5.11 He that makes conscience of weeping over other mens sins will rarely be defiled with other mens sins he that mourns not over other mens sins is accessary to other mens sins and first or last may find them charged upon his account He that mourns not for other mens sins is in danger of being insnared by other mens sins And how then can a holy man look upon other mens sins with dry eyes 4. A holy man looks upon other mens sins as the crucifiers of his Saviour He looks upon the proud mans pride as that which set a crown of thorns upon the sacred head of Christ and this makes him figh he looks upon the swearers oaths as the nails that nailed his blessed hands and feet to the crosse and this makes him grieve He looks upon scorners as spitting upon Christ and worldlings as preferring Barabbas before Christ and this makes him groan He looks upon hypocrites as kissing and betraying of Christ and he looks upon drunkards and wantons as giving gall and vinegar to Christ and this makes him mourn He looks upon other mens sins as having a hand in all Christs torments and this puts him upon the wrack and makes his very soul heavy even to the death 5. A holy heart knows that by mourning for other mens sins he may be instrumental to keep off wrath Psalm 106. Ezek. 9.4.6 How oft did holy Moses by his tears quench the wrath of an angry God However if wrath should break forth upon a Nation Isa 26.20 yet they that mourn for the abominations of the times they shall be hid in the day of Gods publick visitation When the house is on fire the Father hath a special care to provide for the safety and security of his children when the lumber is on fire a man will be sure first to secure his box of Jewels In times of common calamity God will be sure to look after his Jewels his mourning ones Isa 43.2 3. Dan. 3.17 18 19 26 27 28. though the lumber the wicked be burnt up on every hand in the day of Gods wrath yet he will be sure to preserve his jewels in the midst of the flames Augustin coming to visit a sick man found the room full of mourners he found â—he wife sobbing the children sighing and the kindred lamenting whereupon he suddenly breathed forth this short but sweet ejaculatory prayer Lord saith he what prayers dost thou hear if not these So in times of common calamity holy hearts may look up and say Ah Lord whose sighs whose groans whose tears wilt thou hear if not ours Who are mourners in Sion and who wilt thou save and secure in this day of thy fierce indignation if not we who have laboured to drown both our own and other mens sins in penitential tears 6. A holy heart looks upon sinners sins to contribute very much towards the bringing in of sore and sad changes upon a Land and Nation Psal 107.33 34. he knows that sinners sins may turn Rivers into a wildernesse and water-springs into dry ground and a fruitfull land into a barren wildernesse
the way of righteousnesse is chaiim lives so the Hebrew hath it in the way of righteousnesse there are many lives in that way there is spiritual life and eternal life and natural life and all the comforts and sweets and blessings and happinesse of that life without which mans life would be but a lingering a languishing death yea a hell rather then a heaven unto him And in the path thereof there is no death There is no spiritual death there is no eternal death yea there is no corporal no temporal death to hurt or harm the them Death is not mors hominis but mors peccati not the death of the man but the death of his sin Phil. 1.23 2 Cor. 5.12.4.7 8. Death is a Christians Quietus est it is his discharge from all trouble and misery to sting or terrifie them to dammage or disadvantage them for death is an out-let and an in-let to a holy man it is an out-let to sin to sorrow to shame to suffering to afflictions to temptations to desertions to oppressions to confusions and to vexations and it is an in-let to a more clear full and constant fruition of God and Christ and an in-let to the sweetest pleasures the purest joys the highest delights the strongest comforts and the most satisfying contentments Death is the funeral of all a holy mans sins and miseries and it is the resurrection of all his joyes and the perfection of all his graces and spirituall excellencies Death to a holy man is nothing but the changing of his grace into glory his faith into vision his hope into fruition and his love into perfect comprehension The Persians had a certain day in the year in which they used to kill all Serpents and venemous creatures such a day as that will the day of death be to a holy man Peccatum erat obstetrix mortis mors sepulchrum peccati Sin was the Midwife that brought death into the world and death shall be the bearers that shall carry sin out of the world When Sampson died the Philistines died together with him so when a holy man dies his sins die with him Death came in by sin and sin goeth out by death As the worm kills the worm that bred it so death kills sin that bred it Vltimus morborum medicus mors Acts Mon. fol. 1733. Death cures all diseases the aking head and the unbelieving heart the diseased body and the defiled soul At Stratford Bow were burned in Queen Maries dayes a lame man and a blind man after the lame man was chained casting away his crutch he bade the blind man be of good comfort for saith he Death will cure us both it will cure thee of thy blindnesse and me of my lamenesse Death will cure the holy man of all natural and spiritual distempers Death is the holy mans Jubilee it is his greatest advantage it puts him into a better estate then ever he had before It is Gods Gentleman Usher to conduct us to heaven it will blow the bud of grace into the flower of glory O! Death is but an entrance into life Miseri infideles mortem appellant fideles vero quid nÃsi pascham Bernard Miserable â—nbelievers call it death but to faithfull believers what is it but a Passeover but a Jubilee who would not go through hell to heaven who would not go through a temporary death to an eternal life who would not willingly march through mortality to immortality and glory O Sirs holinesse will make you look upon death as a welcome guest a happy friend a joyfull messenger it will make you kisse it and embrace it as Favinus the Italian Martyr kissed and embraced his executioner it will make you desire it long after it with tears as holy Bradford did By all this you see that holiness will deliver you from death in death and therefore I shall close up this head as that wise witty man Sr. Francis Bakon closed up a paper of verses What then remains but that we still should cry Not to be born or being born to die Fifthly and lastly by holinesse you shall gain the greatest boldnesse in the day of judgement Job 19.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies boldness of face a lifting up of the face countenance in the sight or face of many beholders It signifies a freedom and liberty of speech nothing will imbolden a man in that great day like holinesse holinesse will then make the face to shine indeed 1 John 4.17 Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldnesse in the day of judgement because as he is so are we in this world That which will make Christs last appearance delightfull to Christians will be their likenesse to Christ in holinesse in nature and grace likenesse begets the greatest boldnesse As there is no child so bold with the Father as he that is most like the Father so there is no Christian so bold with Christ as he that is most like to Christ A holy Christ is most famiiar with a holy Christian and a holy Christian is most bold with a holy Christ The more a Christian is like to Christ in holinesse of heart and life in holinesse of affecti-and conversation the more divinely bold and familiar will that man be with Christ both in this world and in the great day of account when he that was a brat of Satans is made a Saint when he that was like hell is made like heaven when he that was most ugly and uncomely is made like him that is the holy of holies this is that which gives boldnesse both here and hereafter O Sirs it is not wit nor wealth but holinesse it is not race nor place but holinesse it is not power nor policy but holinesse it is not honour nor riches but holinesse it is not natural excellencies nor acquired abilities but holinesse that will give boldnesse in the day of Christs appearing 1 Pet. 1.5 6 7. A well-tried faith which is but a branch of holinesse shall be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ At the coming of Christ holiness shall be a mans praise and honour Rev. 6.15 16 17. and glory In that great day when shame and everlasting contempt shall be poured forth upon the great Monarchs of the world who have made the earth to tremble when the Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief Captains and the mighty men c. shall cry out to the mountains and rocks to fall upon them and to hide them from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb then I say then shall the righteous shine as the Sun in the firmament Dan. 12.1 2 3. Prov. 28.1 In life and death and in the day of account a righteous man will be as bold as a Lion Real holinesse will make a man death proof and hell proof and
be repented of it is a repentance from sin as well as a repentance for sin Sin hath cast the soul at such a distance from God that though the soul be every day a turning nearer and nearer to God yet it can never in this life get so near him as once it was and as in heaven it shall be And now tell me O soul is this such an easie thing to be every day a turning thy back upon sin and a turning thy face nearer and nearer to God surely no True repentance lies in a daily dying to sin and in a daily living to him who lives for ever The very life of repentance is the repentance of the life and is this easie But Thirdly True repentance is a turning not from some sin but from every sin Ezek. 18.30 Repent and turn your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not he your ruine Ezek. 18.21.31 and chap. 20.43 He that had the spot of Leprosie in any one part of his body was accounted a Leper although all the rest of his body were sound and whole Levit. 13. So he that hath but one spot one sin which he doth not endeavour to wash out in the blood of Christ and in the tears of true repentance he is a Leper in the account of God It was an excellent saying of Luther Optima aptissima poenitentia est nova vita Every sin strikes at the Law of God the honour of God the being of God and the glory of God and therefore the penitent must strike at all Every sin fetcheth blood from the heart of Christ and every sin is a grief and vexation to the Spirit of Christ and therefore the penitent must set upon crucifying of all Every sin is an enemy to a mans peace and to a mans comfort and to a mans confidence and to a mans assurance and to a mans communion with God and therefore he must set upon forsaking of all If ever thou art saved O man thou must repent as well of thy Achans as thy Absaloms of thy Rimmons as of thy Mammons of thy Davids as of thy Goliahs of thy secret as well as thy open sins of thy loved as well as of thy loathed lusts of thy babe-transgressions as well as of thy Giant-like provocations If thy repentance be not universal it will never be effectual If a ship spring three leaks and only two be stopt the third will certainly sink the ship or if a man hath two dangerous wounds in his body and takes only order for the cure of one the other will undoubtedly kill him or if a man hath two grievous diseases upon him and will only deal with the Physitian for remedies against the one he will without all peradventure perish by the prevalency of the other Herod turned from many sins but not from his Dalilah his Herodias which was his ruine Judas you know was a Devil in an Angels habit he seemed to be turned from every sin but he was not he was a secret thief he loved the bag and that golden Devil Covetousness choaked him and hanged him at last Saul for a time turned from several evils but his sparing one Agag cost him his soul and his Kingdom at a clap I have read a story of a devout man who amongst other gifts had the gift of healing and many persons resorted to him for cure Among the rest one Chromatius who being sick sent for him and told him of his sickness and desired that he might have the benefit of cure as others had before him The devout man replyed I cannot do it till thou hast beaten all the Images in thy house to pieces O that shall be done said Chromatius Here take my keyes and where you find any images break them in pieces which accordingly was done upon this the devout man went to prayer but no cure was wrought whereupon the sick man cryed out O I am as sick as ever O I am very weak and sick still It cannot be otherwise replyed the devout person neither can I help it for there is doubtless one Idol yet in your house undiscovered and that must be defaced too True saith Chromatius it is so indeed it is all of beaten gold it cost 200. l. I would fain have saved it but here take my keyes again you shall find it fast lock't up in my chest break it also in pieces which being done the devout man prayed and Chromatius was healed The moral of it is good the sin-sick soul must break not some but all its Idols in pieces before a cure will follow It must deface its golden Idols its most costly Idols its most darling Idols the returning sinner must make head against all his sins and trample upon all his lusts or else he will die and be undone for ever and though this be as difficult as it is noble yet it is no more then what God hath engaged to do and to see done as you may see by comparing Ezek. 36.25 26 27. with Isa 30.21 22. Now is this an easie thing to turn from every sin to loath every sin and to abandon every sin with a Get you hence for what have I more to do with you Hos 14.8 Surely no. As Nehemiah cast out Tobiah and all his houshold-stuff in Nehem. 13.6 7 8. so true repentance it casts out Satan and all his retinue As Moses would not leave so much as a hoof behind him Exod. 10.26 So true repentance will not leave so much as a lust behind a dispensatory conscience is alwayes an evil conscience he that can dispense with one sin will when opportunity presents commit any sin And as the flood made clean work it swept away all Noahs friends and drowned all his servants so the flood of penitent tears makes clean work it sweeps away every lust it drowns every corruption in respect of love and dominion And as some Conquerours would not give so much as one of their enemies Quarter so true repentance will not give one lust quarter it falls heavily upon the bones of every sin and nothing but the blood and death of sin will satisfie the penitent soul the true penitent is for the mortifying of every lust that hath had a hand in crucifying of his dearest Saviour It was worthily and wittily said by one that true repentance strips us stark naked of all the garments of the old Adam and leaves not so much as the shirt behind Well Sirs remember this to repent of sin and yet to live in sin is a contradiction And if thou repentest with a contradiction saith Tertullian God will pardon thee with a contradiction thou repentest and yet continuest in thy sin God will pardon thee and yet send thee to hell there 's a pardon with a contradiction Again fourthly if repentance be such an easie work as you suppose I beseech you tell me why do many men lie under such horrours and terrours of conscience as they do for not repenting when
are none that will be so tender of your salvation as these nor none that will labour so much for your conversion as these nor none that will so spend themselves to prevent your damnation as these 2 Cor. 12.15 Oh Sirs upon tryall you will finde that there are none so able to counsel you nor none so faithfull to reprove you nor none so ready to help you nor none so compassionate to simpathize with you nor none so strong to support you nor none so advantaged to convert you as those that are holy and why then will you not labour to be one of this society Oh Sirs of all fellowships the fellowship of Saints is the most noble the most honorable the most pleasant the most amiable the most desireable the most profitable and the most commendable fellowship and why then will you still live strangers yea enemies to this fellowâ—hip Ah Sirs holy men will still be awakening and alarming of your drowsie spirits they will be still a knocking at the doore of your hearts and asking of you whether it be good going to hell they will still be enquiring of you what provision you have made for another world and how all things stands within they will still be jogging at your elbowes that you may not dye in your sins they will still be whispering in your eare that your souls may live for ever The Jewes have a Proverb That two dry sticks put to a greene one will kindle it Oh there is nothing in all the world that contributes so much to the kindling to the firing and to the inflaming of mens hearts after holiness as the society of those that are holy Algerius an Italian Martyr had rather be in prison with Cato then to live with Caesar in the Senate-house Oh it is ten thousand times better to live with those that are holy though in a dark prison then to live amongst those that are unholy though in a Royal Palace Vrbanus Regius Adam in vita Regii p. 78. having one dayes converse with Luther tells us that it was one of the sweetest dayes that ever he had in all his life Oh sinners did you but experience for one day the sweete and happinesse of the communion of Saints you would then cry out Oh there is no society to the society of Gods holy ones And therefore as ever you would be holy let holy men have more heart-roome and house-roome with you But Fifthly If ever you would be holy then dwell much upon those solemn Vowes and Covenants that you have formerly made in the dayes of your distress Ah how often have you in the dayes of your calamity and misery and in the dayes when sicknesses and weaknesses did hang upon you and when the terrours of death were upon you how frequently in those dayes did you solemnly vow and promise that by the strength and assistance of the Lord you would break off your sins by repentance and that you would make it your greatest care and your greatest business and worke in this world to minde holiness and to press after holiness and to give your souls no rest till you had experienced the power excellency and sweetness of holiness As David by an oath bound himselfe to keep Gods righteous judgements Psal 119.106 I have sworne and I will performe it that I will keep thy righteous Judgments a religious vow is nothing else but a solemn promise or oath whereby a man engages himselfe to the great God that he will decline such wayes means and methods as lead to wickedness and that he will set in good earnest upon the practice of all the wayes and means of holiness by the strength and assistance of divine grace so you have by many vowes and promises engaged your selves to cast off the workes of darkness Rom. 13.12 and to put on the Armour of light sutable to the Apostles exhortation And as the people in Nehemiah's time did enter into a curse and an oath to walk in Gods Law and to observe and doe all his Commandements Neh. 10.29 So you have in the times of your outward and inward distresses vowed to the Lord that you would observe all his Statutes and walke in all his holy wayes and doe all his righteous Commandements Job 31.1 2. Job once made a covenant with his eyes that he would not lustfully look upon a maid but how often have you made a covenant with your thoughts that you would not thinke of vanity and with your eyes that you would not behold vanity and with your eares that you would not heare vanity and with your tongues that you would not speak vanity and with your hearts that you would not contrive vanity and with your hands that you would not act vanity now your vowes and your covenants are upon you Prov. 2.17 oh that you would not with the strange woman in the Proverbs forget the covenant of your God oh 't is better ten thousand times not to vow Eccl. 5.5 then to vow and not to pay God can take no pleasure in such as are off and on with him nor in such who are forward to vow but make no conscience to pay their vowes these are fools in folio and therefore God cannot but detest them and turne his back upon them If good Jacob who is called the father of vowes was so backward to pay his vowes that God was forced not only to round him in the eare againe and againe with a goe up to Bethel and there build me a Chappel but also severcly to punish his delayes both in the rape of his daughter and in the cruelty of his sons c. Gen. 35. Ah how severely then may God deale with such who doe not only delay the paying of their vowes but who live also in the daily breach of their vowes Most men have need of that counsell which the Bishop of Colen gave Sigismund the Emperour that ask't him what he should doe to be happy Live said he as you promised and vowed to doe when you were last sick of the Stone and Gout Ah that all men would make more conscience of living out and of living up to the covenants vowes and promises that they have made to God in the dayes when the hand of the Lord has gone out many wayes against them and when terrours of conscience have been strong upon them O what repentance O what reformation O what amendment have they promised in those dayes and yet no sooner have these outward and inward stormes been over but they have been as vaine and loose and base as ever In the time of the great Sweat in King Edwards dayes as long as the heate of the plague lasted O how did every one cry out peccavi peccavi I have sinned I have sinned mercy Lord O mercy mercy good Lord. Then Lords and Ladies and people of all sorts cryed out to the Ministers for the Lords sake Sirs tell us what shall we doe to avoyd
sake the least dram of which being more worth then a thousand thousand of those things for which they have suffered such exquisite paines and torments Ah what great things what hard things doe many men daily suffer to gratifie their own lusts and to satisfie the lusts of others Ah how frequently doe many venture their lives their estates their names their consciences yea their very souls to court a Dalilah Oh the hell of horrors and terrors which are worse then a thousand deaths that many a sinner daily wades thorough to enjoy his sin and why then shouldst thou be startled in thy pursuit after holiness because of afflictions and persecutions that may attend thee when they are nothing to what many suffer from within and without to enjoy that which will undoe them to all eternity c. But Eleventhly I answer Though persecutions may attend the pursuit of holiness yet God has a thousand thousand wayes to preserve his people from being ruined and destroyed by perseting hands 2 Tim. 3.11 Compared with that 13 and 14. of the Acts. Severall afflictions and persecutions befell Paul at Antioch at Iconium at Lystra but out of them all the Lord delivered him As a righteous cause led him into sufferings so a righteous God led him out of sufferings both Jews and Gentiles Barbarians and Grecians Princes and people were as madly set upon persecuting of him as he was once madly set upon persecuting of the Saints but God delivered him from every hand of violence divine power and wisdom wrought gloriously for him both in six troubles and in seven it brought him clearly off and bravely out not of some but out of all his dangers and distresses afflictions and persecutions c. First Now God sometimes preserves his people from being ruined and destroyed Gen. 41.32 Chap. 11.33 Chap. 4. ch 31.29 compared by laying a law of restraint upon the spirits of their persecutors as he did upon Labans and Esaus that they could not hurt him yea in stead of kicking and killing behold kissing and embracing God tyed up those curst Doggs and laid such a restraint upon their wrath rage and malice that they could not so much as touch a hair of Jacobs head God stop't their mouthes and bound their hands that they were not able to act any thing to the prejudice of Jacob. That God that laid a restraint upon the fierce wild creatures in Noahs Ark that they might not prey upon the tamer and that chain'd up the Lyons from preying upon Daniel that God chained up these two Lyons that they could not make a prey of innocent Jacob. But Secondly God does this sometimes by setting persecutors one against another When the Moabites were confederated with the Ammonites and those of Mount-Seir against Judah 2 Chron. 20.22,23,24 Judg. 1.22 Chap. 9.55 56 57. compared God made them turn their swords into one anothers bowels and so they mutually became their own executioners and by this means poor Judah escaped God sometimes saves his Lambs by setting the Wolf and the Dogg together by the ears When that Wolf Saul was even ready to devour David the Lamb God le ts loose those Doggs the Philistines upon Saul 1 Sam. 23.27 and so by this means David was pâ—eserved and secured Acts 23.6 7 8. And so Paul by setting the persecuting Pharisees against the persecuting Scribes he escaped persecution And so the Lord by stiring up the Persians against the Babylonians he brought about the deliverance of the Jews out of their captivity and afterwards by stirring up the Grecians against the Persians and the Romans against the Grecians and the Gothes and Vandals and other barbarous Nations against the Romans he brought about the deliverance of his people In all Ages God by engaging one furious Lyon against another has preserved his sheep in quiet When the Emperor of Germany threatned utter ruine to all the Protestants within his Empire God let loose the Turk to fall with great fury upon his Empire and by that means diverted the Emperors rage and preserved his poor people which were as sheep appointed to the slaughter Ah England England if God had not set thine enemies together by the ears year after year how had they combined and conspired together to have swallowed thee up long before this day But Thirdly God does sometimes save his people from persecutions by passing a sentence of death upon their persecutors And thus by his sudden and fearful judgement upon Herod he gave rest liberty and quiet to his people Acts 12.23 24. And so by his vengeance on persecuting Emperors he gave rest to his people When Julian the Apostate had vowed to to make an oblation of all the lives of the surviving Christians as Gregory Nazianzen reports God struck him with an Arrow from heaven Orat. 4. in Iul. so that he died reviling of Christ and casting up his blood to heaven as if he would have cast it into the very face of Christ And when Eugenius the Tyrant endeavored to destroy the Armies of the Christians under the Emperor Theodosius God gave the very winds a command to wrest the weapons out of their enemies hands and so preserved his people And in 88. how did God make the very winds to fight for his people and so saved them from that bloody invasion by causing his winds to blow and their enemies to sink as Lead in the mighty waters And by giving Achitophel Rope enough he preserved David from perishing But Fourthly God does this sometimes by altering and changing the very hearts and natures of their persecutors And thus by changing Pauls nature Acts 9.31 by turning that Wolf into a Lamb that devil into a Saint he gave the Churches rest throughout all Judea Galilee and Samaria and this is one of the most desirable things in the world that God would save his people from outward ruine by ruining their persecutors sins and by changing their hearts and saving their souls This way God has taken and this way God may take being a free Agent to work when and where and how and on whom he pleases but I can't turn to a promise wherein he has engaged himself to make converts of persecutors his common way of dealing with such is to give them up to blindness of mind and hardness of heart and searedness of conscience and perversness of spirit that so their hell may be the hotter at last But Fifthly God does this sometimes by taking persecutors feet in the same snares that they have laid for others Psal 9.16 Psal 57.6 The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands Higgaion Selah Higgaion Selah signifies matter of great admiration and of deep meditation that the wicked should be snared in the work of his own hands is matter of perpetual admiration and of most serious meditation Who won't admire that Goliah should be slain with his own sword and that proud Haman should hold Mordecaies stirrup and
and who are much in the Publick trade of Christianity viz. hearing the word conferences family duties c. but very rarely shall you finde them in their closets as ever you would bee eminent and excellent in holiness keep up your private trade with God maintain your closet communion with the holy one of Israel But Seventhly If ever you would attain to higher degrees of holiness then fall with all your might upon subduing and crucifying your most raging corruptions and your most darling-lusts O do not defer O do not delay the work of spiritual mortification O do not think that you can both fight and overcome fight and triumph in one day O do not think that your golden and your silver Idols will lay down their Arms Isa 2.20 and yeeld the field and lye at your feet and let you trample them to death without striking a blow O remember that bosome-bosome-sins will do all they can to keep their ground and therefore you must arise with all your strength against them and bray them in a morter and stamp them to powder and burn them to ashes O deal with them as they dealt with the Leviets Concubine force them to death and cut them to peeces Judg. 19. 2 King 9. O leave not the Palm the skull of this cursed Jezabel undevoured undestroyed O deal by your most inraged lusts as the Philistims did deal by Sampson pluck out their eyes and make them to grinde in the Mill of Mortification till their strength be utterly consumed and wasted Whilst Saul lived and kept the Throne and was in his strength little David was kept exceeding weak and low but when Saul was dethroned and slain little David quickly grew stronger and stronger 2 Sam. 3.1 so all the while a darling sin lives and keeps the Throne in the hearâ—â— grace and holiness will be kept exceeding weak and low but when your darling Rom. 8.10 13. sin is dethroned and slain by the power and the sword of the Spirit grace and holiness will quickly grow stronger and stronger and rise higher and higher When men would have a rough field fitted for the plow and fitted to bring forth fruit will they not first fall with all their strength and with all their might upon grubbing up by the roots the strongest Trees and the sturdiest Oaks knowing that when these are grubbed up weaker trees will easily fall So as ever you would have your hearts and lives full of the fruits of righteousness and holiness fall with all your strength and with all your might upon grubbing up by the very roots your beloved sins your strongest lusts and then the rest of your corruptions will easily fall When Galiah was slain the Philistims fled and were easily brought under when a General in an Army is cut off the common souldiers are quickly routed down but with your darling-sins and then the conquest of other sins will be easie When a man hath eat poison nothing will make him thrive till hee hath vomited up the poison that hee hath eaten 't is not the most wholsome food the choicest dainties nor the richest cordials under Heaven that will increase blood and spirits and strength in such a person hee will throw up all and nothing will stay with him to do him good till his poison be cast up and cast out Beloved-sins they are the poison of the soul and till these are vomited up and cast out by sound repentance and the exercise of Faith in the Blood of Christ the soul will never thrive in grace and holiness all the wholesome food of the Gospel and all the dainties and cordials of Heaven will never beger good blood nor noble spirits nor divine strength in their souls that upon no terms will part with their darling sins and therefore as ever you would be strong in the grace of the Lord draw up all the strength that ever you are able to make and fall on with the greatest courage upon your bosome-sins and never cease till in the strength of Christ you have got a compleat victory and conquest over them In the Law 't was the blood of the Sacrifice and the Oil that cleansed the Leper and that by them was meant the blood of Christ and the Spirit of Grace is agreed by all Ah friends as ever you would be cleansed from your darling-sins which do so exceedingly hinder the increase of holiness be often in looking upon a crucified Christ and in the application of his blood to your own souls I have read of five men that being asked what was the best means to mortifie sin gave these Answers saith the first The best means to mortifie sin is to meditate of death Saith the second The best means is to meditate of the judgement-day Saith the third The best means is to meditate on the Joyes of Heaven Saith the fourth The best means is to meditate on the torments of Hell But saith the fifth The best means is to meditate on the blood and sufferings of Christâ— and doubtless the last hit it to a hair If any thing under Heaven will subdue and bring under darling-sins it will be the daily sight of a bleeding groaning dying Saviour Phylosophy saith Lactantius may cover vices but it never cuts off vices it may hide a lust but it can never quench a lust As black-patches instead of plaisters may cover some deformities in nature but they can never cure them Ah Sirs if you do not kill your darling-sins they will kill your precious souls Isa 37. When Senacheribs Army was destroyed by an Angel and hee returned home with a hook in his nose and a bridle in his lips hee enquired of one about him what hee thought the reason might be why God so favoured the Jews to which hee replied That there was one Abraham their Father that was willing to sacrifice his beloved Son to death at the command of God and that ever since that time God favoured that people well said Senacherib if that be it I have two beloved Sons and I will sacrifize them both to death if that will procure their God to favour mee which when his two Sons heard they as the story goes slew their Father being more willing to kill Isa 37.38 than be killed Oh friends you must kill or be killed if you are not the death of your beloved sins your beloved sins will prove the death and ruine of your immortal souls and therefore never leave looking up to a crucified Christ till vertue flow from him to the crucifying of those special sins that do most obstruct and hinder the growth and increase of holiness But Eighthly and lastly If ever you would attain to higher degrees of holiness then dwell much upon the holiness of God O be still a musing be still a pondering upon the holiness of God Certainly if there be any means under Heaven to raise you up to higher degrees of holiness 't is this and therefore keep alwaies