comfortably say Surely the bitterness of death is past while others say of Death and the Grave as Jacob said of Luz at first How terrible is this place He may say of them This is none other than the House of God Thirdly 3. Cons Consider the wicked ungodly and unprepared Sinner can have no hopes in his death Isa 57.2 There is no peace saith my God to the Wicked every pain and sickness that befals him is like the ratling of the wheels of the fiery Chariots and the prancing of the horses of the terrible ones that come to fetch away his soul and now he hath no hope nor life left in him Job 8.13 The Hypocrites hope shall perish he can expect no other but that his soul and body must shortly be pluck'd asunder never to meet together but in Hell That we be habitually prepar'd 2. Direct First Let us get an interest in Christ without him there is no peace with God and without peace with God there can be no peace in the latter end Job 22.21 Acquaint now thy self with God and be at peace Whence once we have got an interest in Christ we may die in peace As Simeon when he had got Christ in his arms could say Now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace O be perswaded to receive and embrace Christ to believe in him and resign up your selves to him as you desire to die in peace and to be happy for ever If you were now upon your Death-beds and your Physician should turn Preacher and your Doctor become a Divine and tell you your Sickness is incurable there is no more hopes of your life you are not like to be men of this world you must prepare for another world you had best make your peace with God and get an interest in Christ I can do no more for you and so the Lord have mercy upon your souls Oh! what would the Blood of Christ be worth in such a day how welcome would he be in such an hour Secondly Be sure that ye be in a Regenerate and Converted state Except a man be born again he shall never see the Kingdom of Heaven And lastly Repent of all your sins Sin like Jonahs Gourd will eat up the comforts of life and devour your peace in death therefore said the Heathen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A good and holy life prepares for an happy death Deal with sin as the Lords of the Philistines advis'd concerning David 1 Sam. 29.4 Who though he had liv'd peaceably amongst them yet when they went down to fight against Israel would not suffer him to go down to the battel along with them lest he should turn his hand against them So though sin hath been a pleasant Companion with us all our life yet when we go down to encounter death we must take heed that sin don't go along with us for it will certainly turn its hand against us and put a sting into Death and deadly teeth into that Lion Secondly That you may be actually prepar'd First 1 Direct Let every day be well fill'd Days well fill'd with the works of Righteousness will make souls well fill'd with the fruits of Righteousness which are Peace and Joy Let every days work be well done examine your selves every night whether your work be done and what is done amiss and ask your souls every night upon doing this whether it can willingly pass from this day into Eternity Job 5.26 it is said concerning that upright man Thou shalt come to thy Grave in thy full Age Diu vixit qui bene vixit like as a Shock of Corn cometh in his season which implies two things First That he shall come willingly to his grave as a man that hath done his work goes willingly to his rest so is he a Volunteer to Death that his soul need not be forc'd out of his body as Lot was out of Sodom nor need he be drag'd out of the World as the rich Fool in the Gospel Secondly That when the Upright man dies he goes as one ready and prepar'd as a Shock of Wheat in its season this Saint goes like the Ox in the Emblem that that stands betwixt the Altar and the Plough with this Motto Ad utrumque paratus as ready for the Sacrifice as for the Yoke and thus Paul saith of himself Phil. 1.23 I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better betwixt two i. e. betwixt Life and Death In a Strait that is as a City that is Besieged and straiten'd or as Iron between two Loadstones loth to leave the Philippians and loth to stay any longer from Christ and therefore after he had stood a while in Aequilibrio at last he inclines rather to be with Christ who is altogether desirable 1. His Common Presence is the preservation of the World 2. His Spiritual Presence is the very joy and life of Saints 3. His Glorious Presence the Eternal happiness of Believers and Oh! how did the heart of our deceased Friend breath after this highest of enjoyments Secondly 2 Direct Let your accounts be always ready The careless Steward can't bear the news of his Lords coming before his Accounts be ready and adjusted There is a secret fearfulness in all persons negligent of their Accounts to hear of Christs coming Every one of us must give account of himself to God and the sleepy soul fears to hear this Voice Give an account of thy Stewardship for thou maist be no longer Steward and having so many Debts and Talents to account for he knows not how to set upon that work yet he that will be always ready must keep his accounts even and must often ask how the case stands between God and his soul and he need not be afraid though he hath never so many Talents Debts and Arrears to account for beyond his ability having the Blood and Righteousness of Jesus Christ to ballance the account Thirdly 3 Direct take your solemn leave every day of all the World that if God should call you the World may not be found hanging on your hearts to make you unwilling to go at his call Every night say to your Friends and to your Estates farewell as being willing to leave them This is to die daily and by this means you will die comfortably and willingly Fourthly Let your Graces be all in a readiness active vigorous and abounding that when Christ comes these Graces being in you 2 Pet. 1.11 An entrance may be abundantly ministred unto you into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Faith Hope and Love must stand always expecting the Lords coming and be renewing Acquaintance with God and making a fresh application of the Blood of Christ that the soul may have a clear sight of his interest in the Righteousness of Christ and his right to Divine favour Lastly 5 Direct Familiarize Death to your souls we are afraid of Death and remain unprepar'd for Death because we and Death are strangers When you lie down let Death lie down with you when you awake let Death talk with you when you walk let Death be your Companion Make a more serious improvement of your spectacles of Mortality Funeral occasions than you are wont to do that if God bid you die as Num. 27.12 He bad Moses go up to Mount Abarim and die there You may be as ready to go and die as to go to your Beds Only let Faith give you always the fair Prospect of Christ of Heaven and Glory that your hearts may be possest with this assurance 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens FINIS
A FUNERAL SERNOM DELIVERED Upon the SAD OCCASION OF THE Much Lamented Death OF JOHN GOULD Late of CLAPHAM Esq Who put on Immortality Aug. 22. 1679. By P. Lamb Minister of the Gospel Be ye Followers of them who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises Heb. vi 12. LONDON Printed by M. C. for John Smith at the Sign of the Hand and Bible on London-Bridge 16â—9 TO The truly Pious and Religious GENTLEVVOMAN Mrs. JVDETH GOVLD Late Wife of JOHN GOULD Esq AND To all the rest of the Inhabitants of CLAPHAM Grace Mercy Peace c. I Did not know how to pay may Respects to the Memory of so Eminent a Saint and Worthy a Person as our late too early Deceased Friend nor how to give so lively a Testimony of my entire affectionate love to your Souls nor make my serious Sentiments and Sympathy which I bear with you in this our common loss manifest to the Worlc nor answer the Call of so Stupendious awakening a Providence if I had not according to my little skill broken the bonds of Modesty and rear'd this Pillar In perpetuam hujus Rei Memoriam inscrib'd with that golden Sentence from Heaven Mark the Perfect man and behold the Upright for the end of that Man is Peace You have here presented to you that from the Press which once you heard from the Pulpit wherein I follow the counsel and conduct of wiser heads than my own The Lord hath lately alarm'd us with much Sickness and many Deaths Death and Judgment Heaven and Hell are no little things yet I am afraid we are no more affected with them than the People of Israel were with Amasa's Death 2 Sam. xx 12. While he lay dead in their sight they all stood still but when he was removed and a Cloth laid over him they all went on in pursuit of Sheba the Son of Bichri So while we see our Friends dead or dying we are a little serious but when they are laid in their Graves we follow this World and are apt to forget Death and Judgment to come Though we know it is not the Riches of this World but the Righteousness of Christ not greatness but goodness that will stand us in stead when we die May this little Book lie before you to mind you of these things it will serve as King Philips Boy who saluted him every Morning with a Memento Philippe quod sis mortalis It contains nothing but seasonable plain truths concerning a Plain and Vpright man from one that had rather speak five words in plainness to Edification than ten thousand in a forc'd style or vain affectaion That which I greatly desire at this time is Elisha's wish to Elijah 2 King 2.9 that now you have sustained a very great loss in the departure of so useful a Friend A double portion of his spirit may be upon you I shall now leave you to read and transcribe in your hearts and copy out in your lives these few Characters and Rules of a Perfect and Vpright man that you may have Peace at the last which the God of peace grant both to you and to him Who is Your most entirely Affectionate Friend and Faithful Servant P. L. A FUNERAL SERMON ON PSALM xxxvii 37. Mark the Perfect man and behold the Upright for the end of that man is Peace A Little before Israel after their long Wilderness-Pilgrimage were to pass over Jordan Moses that eminent Servant of the Lord to whom he had committed the conduct of his People died in the last Chapter of Deuteronomy and at the 8th ver the Children of Israel wept and mourned for him 30. days and rather than he should want a Funeral Sermon the Great God with reverence be it spoken became the Preacher himself Joshua 1.2 saying Moses my Servant is dead This day you all know there is a Great Man fallen among us and what Terrible waters of Jordan we must pass through who can tell He is taken away in the fullness of his strength and in the day of his usefulness and activity your bitter mourning sad countenances and weeping eyes proclaim your sad and serious Resentment and whiles we are grieving here upon Earth that we have lost the Company of so Excellent a Person and so Dear a Friend we may take an easie prospect and see how the Glorious Angels and Glorified Spirits rejoyce and sing together in Heaven at the approach of his refined Spirit to be of their Society Out of that respect and honour that I bear to his Name and Memory and from that Reverence and Holy awe that is due to such a sad and signal Providence of the Almighty that neither He nor It may be slighted or too soon forgotten I have erected this Monument with this Inscription Mark the Perfect Man behold the Upright for the end of that man is Peace As men are wont to preserve the Memory of their dear Deceased Friends and Relations by drawing their Pictures as much to the life as they can that so they may have some shadows by them of their unexpressible worth So I would present you with this Character of our departed Friend wherein if my Pencil fail the Spirit of God hath done it to the life in this Text which is both a lively description of this deceased Saint and a full breast of living Counsels and Comforts for us his surviving Friends viz. Mark the Perfect man and behold the Upright for the end of that man is Peace This whole Psalm is the Golden Key of David that opens the Cabinet of the hidden mysteries of Providence There are mysteries in the Works as well as in the Word of God The Psalmist undertakes a Vindication of those unintelligible and astonishing Dispensations of Providence when the Supream Lord and Governour of the World shall send Prosperity into the Houses of the Wicked and cause the Sun-shine of outward Mercies to rest upon their Tabernacles and crown their Families with an affluence of all temporal Comforts When his dearest Saints sit solitary their Habitations full of darkness their Nights wearisome nights their Days days of trouble and nothing but sufferings sickness and sorrows attend them to their Grave He imparts to us this Heavenly art or skill how to discern and understand aright these various workings and dealings of God and that he doth these two ways First by shewing us the use of that Spiritual Telescope Faith by which we may perceive and give a right judgment of these things and behold the purpose of God through his Providence and be able to reconcile Providences and Promises when they seem most contrary and in the Saints most cloudy and darkest day of trouble see the bright side of the Cloud and apprehend the Sun-shine of Divine favour upon their Spirits and that when he gives the Wicked their hearts desire at the same time he sends leanness into their souls Secondly By directing us to judge of men not so much by what they have of
world Joh. 16.33 These things I have spoken unto you that in me ye might have Peace In the World ye shall have Tribulation but be of good chear I have overcome the World Thirdly It is a peace that springs up from Purity and Sanctification the heart being purged the Conscience refined the Soul is full of peace within by the help of the testimony of a good Conscience goeth triumphant into his Eternal rest Thirdly Reason Reasons I shall give you some grounds or Reasons why they that are Perfect and Upright in their life shall certainly have peace in their death Reason 1 Reas 1. Because the God of peace hath an infinite intimate and everlasting love for his upright ones he loves them and they love him above all the world Cant. i. 4. We will be glad and rejoice in thee we will remember thy love more than wine the upright love thee And he loves them as in Psal xi 7. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness his countenance doth behold the upright He bids us behold the upright yea he beholds them with delight himself And in Psalm iv 3. He hath set apart him that is godly for himself he hath made a Covenant with them a Covenant of Peace and because he loves them he will lodge them in his Bosom Though Death can break the Knot of all human love and friendship yet it can never loosen the Bond of Divine Love as the Apostle says in Rom. viii 37 38. Nay in all these things we are more than Conquerors through him that loved us For I am persuaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come Nor heigth nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Secondly Reason 2 Reas 2. Because he hath proclaimed and promised Peace Rest and Glory to such Isa lvii 2. He shall enter into peace they shall rest in their beds each one walking in his uprightness And Rev. xiv 13. And I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them And Psalm lxxxiv 11. The Lord God is a Sun and Shield the Lord will give Grace and Glory no good thing will be withhold from them that walk uprightly His time of Life is his time of War at the instant of Death the Warfare is ended and everlasting peace proclaimed his life is his Seed-time his end is the beginning of Harvest a full Harvest of peace and joy Psalm xcvii 11. Light is sown for the Righteous and gladness for the Upright in heart When the body and soul of the Upright do part asunder the body betakes it self to rest in the Grave the soul flies into the regions of peace in the Divine Presence Thirdly Reason 3 Reas 3. Because God is righteous and he will recompence his Saints 2 Thess i. 6 7. It is a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you And to you that are troubled rest with us And thus you shall see Christ leading them into a land of peace Rev. vii 14 15 16 17. These are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the bloud of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them They shall hunger no more neither thirst any more neither shall the Sun light on them nor any heat For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes It is great trouble that Saints undergo and a hard matter for a man to maintain his integrity amidst so many snares frowns and flatteries of the world This is their great comfort and encouragement and shall be their reward to inherit peace at the last As Lamech said Gen. v. 29. When the Lord gave him his Son Noah whose name signifies Rest and whose person was a type of Christ This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed Which the Apostle also intimates 1 Cor. xv 19. If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable Implying 1. That Saints are not altogether hopeless in this life 2. That all their hope is not here Fourthly Reason 4 Reas 4. Because when a Perfect and Upright man dieth he is gone out of the reach of all those things that might annoy his peace where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary be at rest Job iii 17. and are wafted over into Emmanuel's Land where they have all those glorious enjoyments in which they shall eternally acquiesce 1. He is totally freed from all evil sin cannot be there Rev. 21.27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth Here he is full of complaints Rom. 7.24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death But when he dies he sings this Epinikion I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 2. When the Perfect and Upright man dies he and his Portion and Inheritance are brought together the Heir is restless in his expectations till he comes to the Inheritance but here the Portion is God himself which the Saint hath many times with much pleasure survey'd and hath had thereof many a delightful prospect of Faith rejoycing in it as sweet and full and satisfying and now doth possess that Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved for him in Heaven 1 Pet. 2.4 and shall ever be with the Lord 1 Thes 3.17 3. He comes to enjoy his Beloved in Glory of whom he said when he saw him by Faith Cant. 5.10 My Beloved is white and ruddy the chiefest among ten thousands and in the 16. verse Yea he is altogether lovely What will he say when he shall see him and be with him in his highest Exaltations in Glory 4. All his Graces shall be then compleated and there shall be no more place for desire for he shall sit down at that Fountain-head where is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore Verse 1 Vse Informs that if the Perfect and Upright mans end be Peace then his life is full of trouble he hath trouble within and trouble without as the Apostle says of himself 2 Cor. 7.5 That he had no rest in the flesh but was troubled on every side without were fightings within were fears Saints in this life sail as it were upon a Sea of glass mingled with fire the Persecutions of men the Buffetings of Satan the Law in their Members make their present state unquiet How
did he deal with that holy and upright Man Job read the History of his Patience and you shall see If the Devil be at any time silent the World will make an out-cry If the World with-hold its rage for a little space the Devil will invade their spirits It is said of him that when he accosted the Lord Jesus Christ himself and had spent all his Arrows against him Luk. 4.13 When the Devil had ended all the temptation he departed from him for a season If he left him but for a little while in whom he could find nothing to fasten one temptation upon as Christ says in John 14.30 The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me Will he ever leave his Saints who have too much matter in them for his temptations to work upon He will not suffer them to be a moment quiet 1. He is continually striving against the very Being of Grace this Abaddon would utterly destroy it and maintains a War against it the Flesh lusting against the Spirit but that greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world 2. He is disturbing the exercise of Grace his posture you shall see in Zach. 3.1 And he shewed me Joshua the High Priest standing before the Angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him I have often thought in my solemn retirements of Anselms Bird fastned to a stone by a thread often striving to flie up but the weight of the stone as often pull'd him down again A true Emblem of a gratious Soul who many times endeavours to get up into the Divine Presence but as oft as he attempts it the Devil is at hand to hinder and pluck him down again Verse 2 Vse 2. If the Perfect and Upright mans end shall be Peace then the days of the Upright man shall have an end the Psalmist says Psal 39.5 6. Verily every man at his best state is altogether Vanity Surely every man walketh in a vain shew There is an Emphasis in every word Man is Vanity every man is Vanity every man at his best state is Vanity he is altogether Vanity verily it is a certain truth surely every man walks in a vain shew his life is but the shew or shadow of a life That Sentence is unto all Dust thou art and unto Dust shalt thou return and there is no exemption from that general Statute-law Heb. 9.27 It is appointed to all men once to die and after death the judgment Heretofore to the Fathers of old their Lives were like a long Summers day but as sin at first brought in death so as sin multiplied it shortned mens days and now our Lives are like a Winters day in all respects cold cloudy dark and short 't is no sooner Morning but the Night approacheth Jer. 6.4 I may allude to that place The day goeth away the shadows of the Evening are stretched out Two things may be deduced from hence First Here is comfort for the Perfect and Upright man though his life be trouble yet his end will come and bring him peace the great Devourer the Grave that swallows up others shall give him meat and the strong Lion Death that feeds on others shall yield him sweetness When Abraham had fought hard till the going down of the Sun and rescued Lot that was taken Captive Melchizedeck met him with Bread and Wine for his refreshment who was King of the City of Peace So when the upright Saint hath been in his hot disputes to deliver his soul from his Spiritual Enemies our Melchizedeck the Lord Jesus Christ will refresh him with Bread and Wine for his Flesh is Meat indeed and his Blood is Drink indeed and will lead him into the City of Salem a Land of Peace as the Apostle 2 Tim. 4.7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finish'd my course I have kept the Faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day and after many a terrible shock and dangerous storm the perfect and upright Saint through the wise conduct of his Pilot shall arrive safely at his desired Port of peace For there remaineth a rest to the People of God Heb. 4.9 Secondly If the Perfect and Upright man doth die then here is matter of serious consideration and lamentation for the living the life of Saints is to be desired and their death to be lamented unless we will incur that censure Isa 57.1 The Righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart and merciful men are taken away none considering that the Righteous is taken away from the evil to come 1. Consider what resentment the people of God had of old of the death of the Saints how they mourned and wept for them when they left their Society Jacob died and Israel wept Moses died and all the People mourned for him thirty days and when Stephen died Act. 8.2 Devout men carried him to his Burial and made great lamentation over him 2. Consider the great usefulness of living Saints especially in these three respects First As they are Supports Props and Pillars for so they are called Psal 75.3 The Earth and all the Inhabitants thereof are dissolved I bear up the Pillars of it They that take this to be the Psalm of Asaph do understand these words to be the words of God that he preserves and upholds his Saints which are the Pillars of the Earth They that take the Psalm to be a Psalm of David for Asaph do understand them as the words of David that he would countenance and encourage the people of God who were the Pillars to uphold a shaking Kingdom If a Moses be removed out of the gap what should hinder why the Judgment should not break in upon the people Isa 1.9 The Prophet tells us that the people acknowledge Except the Lord of Hosts had left unto us a very small Remnant we should have been as Sodom and we should have been like unto Gomorrah If God gather up his Jewels and takes them away he seems to be removing Himself that is a great truth Isa 57.1 Merciful men are taken away from the evil to come and an old saying many times true That they are taken away that evil may come Thus the Lord is said in Psal 78.50 He made a way to his anger When he had secured Lot he let down the fire upon Sodom and when he had Hous'd Noah in the Ark what could the wicked World expect but an over-whelming Deluge Thus they observed of old that the death of eminent Saints was the forerunner of some great Calamity as that long-liv'd Methuselah whose name doth signifie a Messenger of death died the year before the Flood came upon the whole World Augustine the year before Hippo was Sack'd Pareus a little before Heidleberg was taken Luther a little time before the Wars in Germany Ambrose a little before the Ruin of Italy What
the taking away of so many Worthies of the Lord eminent Lights in the Church and excellent Instruments both here and elsewhere may portend I cannot tell Secondly Consider their usefulness in being examples of Holiness in the places where God hath set them the examples of Saints are of great use in their generation Justin Martyr was Converted by reading the Lives of dead Saints The examples of Men whether good or bad have a mighty influence upon the minds and manners of others Theodosius owning Religion made all his Courtiers to become Religious Thirdly The Lives of Perfect and Upright men are greatly useful and desirable for their Counsels and Instructions to propagate and promote Religion Prov. 10.21 The Lips of the Righteous feed many A few words the Woman of Samaria spake to the people brought many to seek after Christ John 4.29 How useful this our Deceased worthy Friend in all these respects was you all know as a Prop and Pillar to the Family to the place where he lived and by his Example and Counsels that scarce any that conversed with him but was the better for him let us then lament and cry out with David Help Lord for the Godly man ceaseth for the Faithful fail from among the Children of men Psal 12.1 I need not tell you of his eminency in Religion his Love to Christ his Zeal for the Gospel and for the House of God his free and generous mind to the faithful Ministers and Members of Jesus Christ which you know better than I I shall say only this of him He liv'd a pious life he died full of gracious breathings after God and is entered into his glorious never-ending enjoyments only my heart moves me to send up this affectionate expression after him which was Davids for his Beloved Jonathan 2 Sam. 1.26 I am distressed for thee my Brother Jonathan very pleasant hast thou been unto me There be two Uses of Exhortation First To live the life of the Perfect and Upright man Secondly So to prepare for the Perfect and Upright mans end that we may have peace First 1. Vse of Exhort Imitate the Perfect and Upright man or rather take your measure from Heaven let this be your Ambition to strive who may write most exactly after this Copy or the Original Matth. 5.48 Be you perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect sincere and upright compleat in all parts of piety Be you like him though you cannot be equal to him 1 Cons The Wisdom of man is to approve himself to God who judges of men according to the integrity of the heart Though David had great failings and foul miscarryings yet he hath this remark put on him that he was a man after Gods own heart and he is a man after the heart of God whose heart comports with the heart of God and in whose heart God is who dwells with the Upright in their hearts as on his little Throne or lower Heaven He that is every where per modum vestigii is with the Upright per modum imaginis they bear his Image it is no matter if men commend us who are very free and prodigal of their praises or what we think of our selves but as the Apostle says in 2 Cor. 10.18 Not he that commendeth himself is approved but whom the Lord commendeth 2. Cons It 's our work to keep our hearts upright and it is Gods promise to give us peace He that will have the Beatifical Vision must be pure in heart Matth. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God and he that will ascend to the spirits of just men made perfect in Heaven must be perfect and upright and of a refined spirit on Earth Heb. 12.23 There is no comfort like this in a dying hour to be able to say as Hezekiah Isa 38.3 Remember O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight which made Paul make it the business of his life Act. 24.16 Herein do I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of offence toward God and toward men having a true and firm hope of the Resurrection as in v. 15. and that he might have peace at the last It is a remarkable story I have sometimes read of an ancient Servant when Age and Infirmity had thrown him upon his Death-bed in a kind of soliloquy thus he discourseth I am now a dying man and am going to the Judge of all the World What Friend have I to stand by me in this day His Riches Gold and Silver Houses Lands tell him they will bear the expence of his Sickness buy his Coffin and Winding-sheet c. His Acquaintants and Relations tell him they could Weep and Pray for him and attend him to the Grave But his good Conscience says He would go through Death and to the Judg with him O says he This is a Friend indeed farewell Estate farewell Relations I and my good Conscience will go together 3. Cons Without a perfect and upright heart all your Profession is but one continued act of provocation your duties like the Beauty-spots as they call them upon their painted faces they account them their Beauty but they are their Deformity and such are all Religious duties without a perfect heart This Integrity and Uprightness is the Golden thread that must run through all the actions of our life An Hypocrit may do as much or more than others but a perfect man though he may not do so much yet he does better than others The Devil may put on Samuels Mantle but that cannot change his nature he is the Devil still The Apostle tells us That out of the dregs of time both the Gloworm-Formalist and such like Vermin should arise 2 Tim. 3.1 to the 10. v. 4. Cons Mark and consider the end of the Partial Formal and Hypocritical Professors like Comets that blaze for a time yet go off with an ill savour so the hope of the Hypocrit fails or as the New Moon that shines briskly and clearly at first until it come to the Wane and then leaves the World under an universal darkness They are hated of God and Man of God because they be not as they seem to be of Men because they seem to be what they are not and at last Isa 33.14 The Sinners in Zion are afraid fearfulness hath suprized the Hypocrite who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings Direct 1. If you would be Perfect and Upright in your lives First Look to your heart at all times which is the seat of affections the fountain of actions 1. And especially In your Spiritual duties observe how the Upright man carries it with God let your heart and God be together in all your duties If your heart be perfect in duty there will be peace in the duty but the prayers of the Wicked are abomination and
in Psal 66.18 If I regard Iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me 2. In your civil commerce take heed to your spirit that you may be Perfect Just and Righteous in all your dealings shall Religion suffer among them that seem to love and own it Shall Piety be accounted a piece of Pageantry and Profession be esteemed no better than a Religious Cheat by the world through your unjust practices and so Religion have cause to say under all her Reproaches These be the wounds that I have received in the House of my Friends To Lie Dissemble violate Faith to break Promise and to break in Trade with design to defraud others and raise their own Families shut up Shops to shut out Creditors from their just dues is become a most prodigious practice a common and Epidemical sin both in City and Country the more is the pity if any such be concern'd that should have a better regard to the honour of Religion He that will be a compleat Christian must observe Second-table-duties as well as First-table-duties lest the World say of us that we are like Gods in our Meetings and Devils in the Market Saints at Church and Cheats in the Shop and on the Exchange These loose and unjust dealings of Professors are the things that hurry the World into Atheism this is one of those great Evils of our times that makes God angry and Men Atheists 2. Direct Principle your hearts with a true love to and fear of God 1. A true love to God and then you will serve God for God not as poor Tenants serve their Rich Landlords out of force or servile fear or as Lactantius said of the Graecians That they did worship their Gods alios ne noceant alios ut prosint their black Devils or mischievous Gods that they might not hurt them as well as their white Devils or more favourable gods that they might receive good from them 2. With a true fear of God without which we can never be true to God or Man As Constantius once tried his Courtiers when he publickly declared that those of them that would not forsake Christianity and the Worship of the true God and turn to the Idol-worship should be Banish'd his Court and when he found that many for Court-honours forsook their Religion he discarded them and entertain'd those only that did adhere to the true God saying They that will not be true to God will never be true to Man 3. Let Love and Fear go together Love will make us serve God willingly and true Fear will make us perform our duty to God and Man faithfully Let these two be as Aaron and Hur that held up Moses hands steddy to keep our hearts stedfast and upright with God Thirdly Direct Remember the Eye of the Lord is upon all your ways a Deus videt Angeli testantur God beholds and his Angels bear witness is enough to make any man cautelous and upright in his walking He sees us whose Eys are ten-thousand times brighter than the Sun in Heb. 4.13 Neither is there any Creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do Psal 11.4 The Lord is in his holy Temple i◠Lords Throne is in Heaven his eyes behold his eye-lids try the Children of men as a Judge who tries the cause and matter by the ear and observes by his eye the Malefactors countenance I have often told you and now tell you again Man may deceive Men but he cannot deceive God 1 King 22.34 Though Ahab disguis'd himself and girt on his Harness never so close yet could he not keep off the fatal 〈◊〉 So though the Hypocrite disguise himself he cannot hide from the eyes of God nor escape his Righteous hand Lastly Mind seriously Death 4 Direct and Judgment to come Jeroms Sive edo c. Semper vox illa terribilis sonat in auribus meis Surgite mortui venite ad judicium Rise ye Dead and come to Judgment would be a dreadful and awaking peal in the Ears of all sleepy and careless Sinners 2 Cor. 5.10 For we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad and in Eccles 12.14 For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil When Death comes it draws aside the Curtain then all your false and vain pretences will be exposed to publick view Death plucks off the Sinners Vizor and unmasks the Hypocrit and then though he lived in honour and esteem in the world comes off the Stage like a Fool and dies with shame The second Use of Exhortation is to prepare for the Perfect and Upright mans end 2 Vse of Exhort there must be an habitual and actual preparation First consider 1 Consid no man knows how soon he may die Death is a slie and impartial Messenger who is deaf to all intreaties and arguments and cannot be bribed 't is not greatness nor goodness nor youth nor age nor riches nor interest can supersede it wherefore as Christ saith Luk. 12.35 36. Let your loins be girded about you and your lights burning and ye your selves like unto men that wait for their Lord. If Death delay its coming it is the Bridegrooms favour that the Bride may make her self ready But when God cuts down the sound and fruitful Trees that are all spine 't is a wonder he spares the rotten unsound and barren Trees that cumber the ground There be three things one of which we shall never escape First There be sudden unseen Occurrences or Providences of God by which men are taken off and of these they say Casus nunciat mortem latentem these accidental strokes of providence do shew us that death lies in ambush Some men die at Land sometimes at Sea sometimes they go forth well in the Morning and in a moment are dead Secondly There be Sicknesses and Diseases of which they say Morbus nunciat mortem appropinquantem every pain and distemper in the body is a real warning of deaths approach if we should escape both these there is Thirdly That which will certainly take men off Old age of which 't is said Senectus nuncia◠mortem praesentem Decrepit infirm Old age is Death begun in the body so that Nil habet quod speret senectus Old age can hope for nothing but Death Secondly Consider 2 Cons He that is prepared for Death before it comes shall not be afraid of the King of Terrors when he comes Though Death be in it self terrible yet I may allude to that in Isa 11.8 The prepared Saint shall play on the hole of this Asp and put his hand on the Cockatrice-den and not be afraid What Agag proudly and presumptuously said he may truly and