good man in a consumptive condition to consume waste and destroy that body of death that he carries about him Bodily weakness and sickness sanctified is purgative that as the body wasts and consumes so sin wasts and consumes for God will not suffer sin to outlive a Saint sin shall not enter into heaven with a Saint for that would marr his joy there as well as here And therefore God first purges that out before the soul can enter in corruption cannot inherit incorruption though God doth crown the grace of a Saint with glory yet he will not crown the sin and corruption of a Saint with glory Heaven is an holy and glorious place and will not hold any but holy and pure ones 't is the pure in heart that shall see God Heaven is a place for none but triumphants for such as have fought the good fight of faith and won the field and conquered Sin Satan and the World and put them to flight I but here a Christian is militant and must encounter these three potent Adversaries let him but worst these and then he will not fear Death though it be the King of terrors and rereserved for the last In this now the power of grace is clearly seen for that directs the Arrow that Death shoots at the outward man that it shall strike through the very heart of Sin Satan and the World that these shall be dead to him as well as he dead to them No sooner doth a good man feel a wound in his body but if sanctified if grace flows in sin is wounded also that lies a bleeding in him This is that which makes the children of God to rejoice in bodily weakness and insirmities because when sanctified through grace it is a means to weaken the power of sin in them For a true Christian bears an unfeigned and implacable hatred against Sin and therefore like to Sampson can be content that the house may be plucked upon his own head that his enemy Sin may die with him It is with the body spiritual as in the body natural there are some Diseases that must be starved out so long as the body is pampered the disease is nourished it must be brought very low or there will be no cure 'T is so with the body spiritual there are some sins in good men that must be starv'd out So long as there is strength in the outward man they will be stirring and active God therefore is pleased to bring the Body low that the Soul may get mastery and power over them Or like to some Rebels in a Castle that will never yield as long as any Provision is left 'T is so with Sin it will not yield as long as corrupted Nature yields any Provision to it And hence it is that sickly and weakly Christians are the most mortified Christians 4. When a good man is in a consumptive condition and begins to put one foot in the grave it pleaseth God to give in such clear evidence of his love to him and so full an assurance of his interest in eternal life that he even longs for a dissolution He was a child of Grace and an Heir before but now God makes him an Heir apparent Now so clear a light shines into his Soul as doth manifest his adoption and Sonship so that he can cry Abba Father which he could not do before I deny not but a true child of God may die in a cloud and not fee the light of life untill it comes in Heaven I but it is not alwaies thus but sometimes God is pleased to reveal his well pleased face to the Soul at the last and not before that she can say He is come he is come Some Christians are like to Swans that never sing but a little before their death their comforts and joyes come in at the last The Holy Ghost is the Guardian of a Christians comforts and sometimes he deals with them as a Guardian doth with an Heir who is committed to his trust When the Heir is come to age and is to enter upon his Estate then the Guardian gives him in his Evidences to preserve and keep himself Even so sometimes when a Christian is to enter upon the Inheritance of Eternal Life the Holy Ghost throws him in Evidences for it that he may carry them along with him thither 'T is true 't is the duty of all Christians to give all diligence to make their Calling and Election sure but some are fain to wait a long time before they can attain to this comfort and then when they are leaving Earth they have a glimpse of Heaven When their earthly house of this tabernacle is crumbling down upon their heads then God shews them his Building An House not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens and this is a gratious relief to a dying Christian for it is a beginning of Heaven to have a sight of Heaven it is comfort enough to have an assurance and evidence of these unspeakable joyes into which the Soul e're long shall enter The Soul may then say as he said when he lay upon his death-bed putting his hand to his heart Hic sat lucis Here is light enough This is that which makes sicknes and weakness so sweet to a Christian For though the Rod smarts yet he tastes Honey at the end of it that opens his eyes as it did the eyes of Jonathan to see the salvation of God It is a most soveraign antidote against the sting of death that it can't kill or destroy the Soul although it doth the Body No messenger is more welcome than this that comes to call him home 5. In all the weakness and consumptive condition of a good man God doth act the part of a tender-hearted Nurse to him and doth tend him even as a Nurse doth a bed-rid person who is committed to her care and is not this much Surely he shall be admirably well lookt to whom God tends Now that God doth thus is clear Ps 41.3 The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness The Hebrew signifies to turn and so Arias Montanus renders it As Bed-makers use to turn and toss the Bed to and fro that it it may be easie and soft to lie upon so doth God deal with a good man when he layes him upon the bed of languishing he mitigates and moderates the affliction that it may not be so painful and terrible to him as else it would be No Nurse can do that for a sick and weak person that God can and doth for a good man When a Nurse hath turn'd the Bed and made it as soft as she can that the sick man finds a little ease and refreshment yet the Bed will quickly grow hard again and the man as weary of it as before But when God comes to make the Bed in our sickness he moderates the pain and gives rest to the bones Many a time when those that
act as to relieve himself by an indirect course for he would not take the name of God upon him in vain he had rather die then do it Now when God hath thus drawn out the desires of the soul after grace then he gives in such a measure as shall preserve it and keep it from yielding to the temptation and Beloved it is a gratious relief to be kept in an holy and gratious frame of heart under a strong and powerful temptation 't is worthy of a Christians taking notice thereof So doth the Prophet this poor man cried and the Lord heard him Psal 34.6 Beloved if you be never so poor yet if God draws out your hearts after him in prayer you shall be kept that you shall not take any indirect course to help your selves but be able to say as David of himself this poor man cried and the Lord heard him As prayer is the desire of the soul formed into requests and petitions so crying is the importunity of the soul in prayer Petitions and requests presented to God with an humble and reverential boldness it is a wrestling with God for a blessing a perseverance in prayer with an holy resolution not to be put off Now 't is the poor that thus crys sense of want that pinches the soul joyned with some hopes of obtaining makes the soul to cry and he that crys shall be heard Divine relief shall come in to help it in this time of need Thus you see how relief comes in to a good man in the want of all outward comforts Secondly When the strength of the outward man fails And this is properly the failing of the flesh when a man is in a consumptive condition God smites the body and then the flesh wasts the beauty thereof fades and the senses grow dull and heavy The Prophet David had great experience hereof and therefore often mentions it in his Psalms Psal 38.10 my strength faileth and Psal 109.24 my flesh faileth of fatness and Psal 69.3 mine eyes fail He was brought low even to the mouth of the grave but Divine relief came in As you may see Psal 116.6 I was brought low and he helped me God sometimes raises a man from the very gates of death and gives him a new life restores him to his former health and strength But if God doth not thus by a gratious man yet he shall have cause to say the Lord is the strength of my heart in this weak and low estate and condition Divine relief shall be given to him 1. To support and strengthen him to bear his affliction with patience the power and grace of God is wonderfully seen in bearing up the spirits when the body sinks and in giving grace to exercise patience under the pains and sorrows of death you have heard saith Saint James of the patience of Job Jam. 5.11 As you heard of his corporal affliction how soarly he was handled so you have heard of his patience how gratiously he was he was supported that he could bear his affliction without murmuring or repining 't is true it made him groan I but the stroke was heavier then his groaning As he saith Job 23.2 Even to day is my complaint bitter my stroke is heavier then my groaning The spirit of a man will sustain corporal infirmities when God sustains the spirit Now patience under afflictions is equivalent to a deliverance from them to be able to bear an affliction is as great a mercy as to be freed from it if God rebukes the feavour of impatiency and thereby cures that it is as much as to rebuke a bodily distemper and thereby to cure it So you may see 1 Cor. 10.13 There hath no temptation taken you but that which is common to man but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation also make a way to â—scape that ye may be able to bear it i. e. I can assure you that thus far you shall be set free from your temptations afflictions that you shal be able to bear them This is a gratious relief for there is no affliction but impatiency makes a greater affliction many afflict themselves when God doth not and many afflict themselves more then God doth their impatiency first makes their groaning heavier then their stroke and then their stroke heavier then it is in it self 2. Divine relief and strength comes into the heart of a good man in this consumptive condition to renew the inward man as the outward man decays So saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 4.16 Though our outward man perish yet our inward man is renewed day by day As God pulls down the old house the house of clay he frames and erects a new building that shall abide for ever So that a Christian may say as Peter Martyr said when he was dying My body is weak my mind is well well for the present and it will be better for the future The flesh and spirit of a good man are like two buckets when the flesh goeth down the spirit gets up he is ever best within when he is worst without when the body is going down to the earth from whence it came the soul is ascending to heaven from whence it came And you have a gratious promise for it Psal 92.13 14. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God They shall still bring forth fruit in their old age they shall be fat and flourishing Old age shall have green fruit upon it When â—he flesh proves the most barren the spirit is most fruitful a true Christian never flourisheth so much as when old age hath nipt the flesh and it is a lovely sight to see gray hairs a consumptive body and a withered face fat and flourishing in Holiness and Righteousness to see Summer-fruit upon an old tree in Winter-time and yet thus it is with good Christians their Winter of old age is their most flourishing time When nature is most spent grace comes to its greatest strength and perfection Faith strongest love to God and Christ most enflamed hope most lively and holiness most beautiful and sparkling the greatest beauty in the soul when the body is turning to rottenness and putrifaction When the natural breath smells of the earth the spiritual breath savours most of heaven the eye of the soul most clear in discerning spiritual and heavenly things when the eye of the body grows dim and dark the hand of faith most steady to take hold on Divine promises when the corporal hand shakes with the palsie and the feet of the soul run fastest towards the mark for the price of the high calling in Christ when the bodily feet cannot move So true it is that a Christian may say as S. Paul said When I am weak then am I strong weak in my outward man but strong in the inward 3. Divine relief comes in to the heart of a
be able to withstand a temptation then he saw the uncleanness of his heart and therefore cried to God to wash him and cleanse him and it is as if he had said Lord I see now what a filthy and unclean Spirit dwelleth in me Lord do thou purge it out and cleanse me from it If any one had gone to David and told him that at such a time he should be overcome by such a temptation and commit two great sins he would hardly have believed that his heart had been so bad But after wards his expeperience taught him 2. Hereby God teacheth the Soul where its strength lieth and on whom its grace depends The decay of grace shews that the strength thereof is not in man nor in grace it self but like the Vine it must have a supporter Grace can't live nor thrive without constant influences I but good men are too apt to depend upon their grace and not to go to him for strength in whom it lies Now when a Christian feels the decay of his grace and his own insufficiency to relieve and strengthen it this drives him out of himself to Christ This is one main difference between the total want of grace and a sense of decay in grace The total want of grace drives men from Christ but a sense of the decay of grace drives men to Christ So it did David his weakness brought him upon his knees 3. The falls of Christians through the weakness of grace and the power of sin are made notable antidotes and preservatives against final Apostasie For as there is nothing that estrangeth the heart from God as spiritual pride and self-confidence so nothing keeps the heart so close to God as a filial fear of offending God So you may see Jer. 32.40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me This is that which hemms in the Soul that it cannot go astray Now the falls of Christians provoke and draw forth this filial fear into act The burnt child dreads the fire and he that hath been stung with a Serpent will shun his hole so it is here None so fearful of falling into sin as they that have fallen None so wary and watchful none so resolute and stout against temptations and occasions of sin as those who have been at a time overcome 4. These falls and decayes are like mighty winds to the Oak that settles him faster and make him root deeper in Christ As the more the Oak is shaken if it falls not the faster and deeper it is rooted in the earth So when a Christian hath been shaken with the winds of temptations and corruptions the faster hold he layeth upon Christ and the deeper he is rooted in him For 1. His experience of Christ's faithfulness in keeping him from falling finally and totally strengthens his faith in Christ 2. His experience of Christ's pardoning love knits and unites his heart close to Christ First His experience of Christ's faithfulness in keeping him from falling totally and finally strengthens his faith in Christ As 't is a notable trial of Christ's faithfulness to keep Saints from falling away finally when they fall souly so experience of Christ's faithfulness is a notable strengthener of a Christians faith in Christ They that know thy name will put their trust in thee saith David Psal 9.10 A friend that keeps close to a man in time of need may well be trusted Even so 't is here Christ keeps close to a Christian even at that time when he deserves to be cast off and is both a shame and a grief to Christ Surely the experience hereof must needs be a great incouragement to a Christian to trust him for ever He seeth that Christs strength never fails although his own strength fail He seeth that there is grace enough in Christ to support him in the weakest condition and to raise him up when he is at the lowest Nay further he finds this strength put forth upon him according to the word of promise and though he is unbelieving yet Christ abides faithful to him And therefore he cannot but conclude from hence that Christ will be his strength for ever and will never fail him Secondly A Christians experience of the fulness and continuance of Christs pardoning love knits and unites his soul faster to Christ then ever this doth endear Christ to the soul exceedingly tryed love is an endearing love and if any thing will draw out the souls affections unto Christ and confirm them against all future assaults it is the renewing of pardons upon the renewal of offences When the soul shall hear Christ say as he doth Esay 43.24 25. Thou hast brought me no sweet cane with money neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities I am he that blotteth out thy transgression for mine own sake and will remember thy sins no more I say when the soul shall hear this it must needs be deeply affected herewith What! Will the Lord be gratious to such a vile wretch as I am Will he pardon a backslider Will he forgive the sin of one that hath made him to serve with his sin and wearied him with iniquities O here is wonderful love this is transcendent love and shall not I love him that hath loved me thus Yet Lord thou knowest that I love thee 't is true I have backslidden and grievously offended but I will do so no more Thus God sometimes doth the soul much good by that which in it self doth him the greatest hurt as pain easeth a Christian death revives him dissolution unites him so corruption clarifies him and this is a most gratious relief But before I leave this particular I must enter four cautions 1. That no man take up the better opinion of sin hereby for as darkness is nevertheless an evil though God bring light out of darkness so sin is nevertheless an evil though God is pleased to bring good out of it Poison is destructive although a Physician can so correct it as to make it medicinal and so is sin and the better opinion thou hast of sin the more evil and mortal it will be to thee 2. Take heed of lying in sin with hopes of a relief from God watch against it pray against it that thou mayest not be overcome of it but however if thou art overcome by a temptation if Satan hath tript up thy heels get upon thy feet again assoon as possibly thou canst if thou fallest with Peter weep with Peter and labour to find as much bitterness in sin as thou hast found of a seeming pleasure in it Remember this that more have fallen into sin with hopes of rising again then have risen after they have fallen Many sin with Peter but few repent with him
admiration of Angels the joy and delight of the eternal God he taketh pleasure in his Saints and therefore must needs be a taking object 't is very true 't is a great Paradox and Riddle to the men of the world For it is simplicity without foolery 't is gravity without moroseness 't is humility without will-worship 't is singularity without affectation 't is reservedness without narrowness and streightness of spirit 't is an holy freedom and liberty without licenciousness meekness without cowardize stoutness and valour of Spirit without pride and cruelty patient for God but impatient against sin a sufferer in its own cause but a warriour in Christs a death unto sin and the world but a new life unto righteousness and unto God The man dies to all things here below that are sinful vain and transitory and lives unto things above Nay which is the most to be admired in him is this that a Saints life is not only cross and contrary to the life and conversation of wicked and ungodly men but ever when others are worst then he labours to be best Thee have I seen righteous saith God to Noah I the worse they grow the better he labours to be like the glow-worm that shines brightest in a dark night Then Daniel opened his window when Prayer to the true God was decried and by the most restrained Then did Elijah plead for God when almost the whole Nation were for Baal and Baals Prophets were 450 here was great odds between them and yet the Prophets holy zeal carried him through his undertaking until he saw a good success thereof Holiness of heart and life hath ever carried away the Bell and Crown at last And therefore well might the Psalmist say in our Text Marke the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace The end of his actings and the end of his life is peace And that leads me to a 5. Demonstration of the excellency and admirableness of a godly man and is the second part of the Text viz. The motive or argument wherewith the Psalmist presseth and urgeth his exhortation and holy injunction Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace The finis cui the end for which he is set is for Peace And the finis cujus his end and winding up is Peace Arias Montanus renders it The last to the man is peace 'T is true he meets with many a brush by the way in the world Saints shall have trouble on every side none meets with so many all winds blow cross to him at one time or another Sin Satan and the World he is their But and Mark at which they level all their poisonous and deadly Arrows If an Heathen could say Nos fuimus Troes agitamur ventis What may not a Saint say in this respect Surely as the Prophet Esay 54.12 I am afflicted tossed with a tempest and not comforted Or as the Apostle St. Paul Without were fightings within were fears Or as the Church Psal 128.3 The plowers plowed upon my back they made long their furrows I but still mark and behold him in all this look not only to his setting out but to his Journeys end for though he sails through rough and rugged waves and is oft in danger of splitting upon Soul-ruining Rocks or sticking in the Sands yet at last he arrives at the Haven of Rest The end of that man is peace And it must needs be so for as Christ hath forewarn'd him of the one so he hath assured him of the other John 16.33 In the world you shall have trouble but in me ye shall have peace If they han't it in this life yet they shall not miss of it in the life to come The end of those men is peace The best Wine is reserved for the last and the Crown for the Conquest 'T is very true that Grace is given to men here in this life or else 't is never given I but 't is as true that if Peace be denied to a gracious Soul in this life yet it shall not be denied to her in the life to come Esay 32.17 Though the Soul sows in tears all the time of her abode in the body yet she shall reap in joy when she hath got her freedom from that prison Below she may haply spend her daies in mourning but above she shall spend an eternity in singing and rejoycing Here she mourns and sighs and cries because she is no better but there she shall rejoyce and sing because she is so well And indeed the word Peace is of large extent it comprehends all the desires of the Soul of man even felicity and happiness to the utmost And therefore the ancient Salutation of the Jews was Peace for that is the most desirable thing Heaven would be no Heaven if there were no Peace enjoyable there And Hell would be no Hell if Peace were enjoyable there Give a man true and solid Peace and you give him Heaven take Peace from him and he is in Hell Holiness and Wickedness divides the World and Peace and Trouble divides the states of men in the world To the wicked God saith There is no Peace to the godly he saith The end is Peace For 1. Then he is above all danger above the power of Sin the malice of Men and the rage of Hell He hath nothing to trouble or disquiet him no temptations from without nor from within he is now sinless and therefore sorrowless A godly man goes free into Heaven and there enjoyes the utmost freedom 2. Then he is at his Center and there enjoyes Rest and therefore Peace God is the proper Center of the Soul And therefore as the ancient Father hath it we are not at rest until we come to God I but when we come to God then we are at rest for then we are in our proper Sphear In thy presence is fulness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore I joy without sorrow and pleasure without pain I and such a fulness as puts an end to all anxious and painful desires for in God the Soul enjoyes full and perfect satisfaction without any glut When I awake saith the Psalmist I shall be satisfied with thy likeness And when the Appetite is satisfied and the Belly filled we say the Bones are at rest Sure I am when the Soul is full she is at rest here she is in motion travelling from Duty to Duty and from Ordinance to Ordinance and from Scripture to Scripture and all to get something of God whom she loves and after whom she breaths but in Heaven she is at rest for there she is filled with all the fulness of God God is the All of a gracious Soul here and there he will be all in all to her and all in her The lines of his glory will be compleatly drawn upon her then and she swallowed up in divine embraces without the least