hast set up And therefore our Blessed Lord redoubles the injunction of our fear toward him that can destroy both body and soul in hell but forbids any fear of such persecutors who can only destroy the body and then can do no more And certainly that man that hath full assurance of favour and esteem with the great God of heaven and earth of an incorruptible weight and crown of glory the next moment after death must needs have a low esteem of the reproaches and scorns and persecutions of men for righteoufness sake and so much the rather because that very favour with God and that very crown of happiness that he expects is enhanced by those very scorns and those very afflictions For Our light afflictions which are here for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 3. Concerning the third kind of world namely the Providential world consisting in external dispensations of adversity or prosperity And first concerning the dark part of this world namely Adversity as casualties losses of wealth or friends sicknesses the common effects whereof are impatience distrust murmuring and unquietness Faith conquers this part of the world and prevents those evil consequences which either temptations from without or corruptions from within are apt to raise 1. Faith presents the soul with this assurance that all external occurrences come from the wise dispensation or permission of the most glorious God they come not by chance 2. That the glorious God may even upon the account of his own Sovereignty and pro imperio inflict what he pleaseth upon any of his creatures in this life 3. That yet whatsoever he doth in this kind is not only an effect of his power and sovereignty but of his wisdom yea and of his goodness and bounty No affliction can befall any man but it may be useful for his instruction or prevention 4. That the best of men deserve far worse at the hands of God than the worst afflictions that ever did or ever can befall any man in this life 5. That there have been examples of greater affliction that have befallen better men in this life witness Job and that excellent pattern of all patience and goodness even as a man our Lord Christ Jesus 6. That these afflictions are sent for the good even of good men and it is their fault and weakness if they have not that effect 7. That in the midst of the severest afflictions the favour of God to the soul discovering it self like the Sun shining through a cloud gives light and comfort to the Soul 8. That Almighty God is ready to support them that believe in him and to bear them up under all their afflictions that they shall not sink under them 9. That whatsoever or how great soever the afflictions of this life are if the name be blasted with reproaches the estate wasted and consumed by fire from heaven if friends are lost if hopes and expectations disappointed if the body be macerated with pains and diseases yet Faith presents to the believer something that can bear up the Soul under these and many more pressures namely that after a few years or days are spent an eternal state of unchangeable and perfect happiness shall succed that death the worst of temporal evils will cure all those maladies and deliver up the soul into a state of endless comfort and blessedness and therefore he bears all this with patience and quietness and contentedness and cheerfulness and disappoints the world in that expectation wherein its strength in relation to this condition lyes namely it conquers all impatience murmuring unquietness of mind 2. As to the second part of this Providential world namely Prosperity which in truth is the more dangerous condition of the two without the intervention of the divine grace the foils that the world puts upon men by this condition are commonly pride insolence carnal security contempt or neglect of duty and religion luxury and the like The method whereby Faith overcometh this part of the world and those evil consequences that arise upon it are these 1. Faith gives a man a true and equal estimate of this condition and keeps a man from overvaluing it or himself for it lets him know it is very uncertain very casual very dangerous and cannot out-last this life death will come and sweep down all these cobwebs 2. Faith assures him that Almighty God observes his whole deportment in it that he hath given him a law of humility sobriety temperance fidelity and a caution not to trust in uncertain riches that he must give an account of his stewardship also to the great Master of the Family of Heaven and Earth that he will duly examine all his Items whether done according to his Lord's commission and command and it lets him know that the more he hath the greater ought his care to be because his account will be the greater 3. Faith lets him know that the abundance of wealth honour power friends applause successes as they last no longer than this short transitory life and therefore cannot make up his happiness no nor give a man an ease or rescue from a fit of the Stone or Colick so there is an everlasting state of happiness or misery that must attend every man after death And on the one hand all the glory and splendor and happiness that this inferior world can afford is nothing in comparison of that glory that shall be revealed to and enjoyed by them that believe and obey 1. Nothing in respect of its duration if a man should live a thousand years yet that must have an end and the very pre-apprehension of an end is enough to dash and blast and wither any happiness even while it is enjoyed but that happiness that succeeds after death is an everlasting happiness 2. Nothing in respect of its degree there is no sincere complete perfect happiness in this world it is mingled with evils with fears with vicissitudes of sorrow and trouble but the happiness of the next life is perfect sincere and unmixed with any thing that may allay it And upon these accounts faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen and therefore by a kind of anticipation gives a presence to the Soul of those future joys renders the best happiness this world below can yield but languid and poor like the light of a Candle in the presence of the Sun On the other side the misery that after death attends the mispent present life over-ballanceth all the good that this life can yield both in its degree and duration and therefore with the pre-apprehension of it it sowres and allays all the good that is in the greatest happiness of this life 4. Faith doth assute every believing Soul that as sure as he now liveth and enjoyeth that worldly felicity it hath so surely if he in belief and obedience to the will of God revealed in and through Christ
necessary with ease and quietness yea and without any neglect of what is necessary to be done in order to the common necessities of our Lives and Callings it is not these that disable us and rob us of our time But the Thieves that rob us of our time and our one thing necessary are negligence excess of pleasures immoderate and excessive cares and solicitousness for Wealth and Honour and Grandeur excessive eating and drinking curiosity idleness these are the great consumptives that do not only exhaust that time that would be with infinite advantage spent in our attainment and perfecting and finishing the great work and business of our lives and then when Sickness come and Death come and God Almighty calls upon us to give up the Account of our Stewardship we are all in confusion our business is not half done it may be not begun and yet our Lamp is out our day is spent night hath overtaken us and what we do is with much trouble perplexity and vexation and possibly our Soul takes its flight before we can finish it and all this would have been prevented and remedied by a due consideration of our latter End and that would have put us upon making use of the present time and present opportunity to do our great work while it is called to day because the night cometh when no man can work 3. Most certainly the wise consideration of our latter End and the employing of our selves upon that Account upon that One thing necessary renders the life the most contenting and comfortable life in the World For as a man that is a man afore-hand in the World hath a much more quiet life in order to externals than he that is behind-hand so such a man that takes his opportunity to gain a stock of grace and favour with God that hath made his peace with his Maker through Christ Jesus hath done a great part of the chief business of his Life and is ready upon all occasions for all conditions whereunto the Divine Providence shall assign him whether of life or death or health or sickness or poverty or riches he is as it were aforehand in the business and concern of his everlasting and of his present state also If God lend him longer life in this World he carries on his great business to greater degrees of perfection with ease and without difficulty trouble or perturbation But if Almighty God cut him shorter and calls him to give an account of his Stewardship he is ready and his accounts are fair and his business is not now to be gone about Blessed is that Servant whom his Master when he comes shall find so doing 2. As thus this Consideration makes the Life better so it makes Death easie 1. By frequent consideration of death and dissolution he is taught not to fear it he is as it were acquainted with it aforehand by often preparation for it Thâ— fear of death is more terrible than death iâ— self and by frequent consideration thereof a man hath learned not to fear it Everâ—â—â— Children by being accustomed to what was at first terrible to them learn not to fear 2. By frequent consideration of our latter End death becomes to be no surprize unto us The great terror of death is when it surpriseth a man unawares but anticipation and preparation for it takes away any possibility of surprize upon him that is prepared to receive it Bilney the Martyr was used before his Martyrdom to put his Finger in the Candle that so the flames might be no novelty unto him not surprize him by reason of unacquaintedness with it and he that often considers his latter end seems to experiment death afore it comes whereby he is neither surprised nor affrighted with it when it comes 3. The greatest sting and terror of death are the past and unrepented Sins of the past life the reflection upon these is that which is the strength the elixir the venom of death it self He therefore that wisely considers his latter end takes care to make his peace with God in his life time and They true Faith and Repentance to get his Pardon sealed to enter into Covenant with his God and to keep it to husband his time in the fear of God to observe His Will and keep His Laws to have his Conscience clean and clear And being thus prepared the malignity of death is cured and the bitterness of it healed and the fear of it removed and when a man can entertain it with such an Appeal to Almighty God as once the good King Hezekiah made in that sickness which was of it self mortal Isa 38. 3. Remember now I beseech thee O Lord how I have walked before thee with a perfect heart c. it makes as well the thought as the approach of death no terrible business 4. But that which above all makes death easie to such a considering man is this That by the help of this Consideration and the due improvement of it as is before shewn death to such a man becomes nothing else but a Gate unto a better life not so much a dissolution of his present life as a change of it for a far more glorious happy and immortal life So that though the Body dyes the Man dyes not for the Soul which is indeed the Man makes but a transition from her life in the Body to a life in Heaven no moment intervenes between the putting off the one to the putting on the other And this is the great Priviledge that the Son of God hath given us that by His death hath sanctified it unto us and by His life hath conquered it not only in Himself but for us 1 Cor. 15.57 Thanks be unto God who hath given us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord and our Victory that is thus given us is this 1. That the sting of death is taken away and 2. That this very death it self is rendred to us a Gate and passage to life eternal and upon this account it can neither hurt nor may justly affright us It is reported of the Adder that when she is old she glides through some strait passage and leaves her old skin in the passage and thereby renews her vigour and her life It is true this passage through death is somewhat strait and uneasie to the Body which like the decayed skin of the Adder is left by the way and not without some pain and difficulty to it but the Soul passeth through without any harm and without any expence of time and in the next moment acquires her estate of Immortality and Happiness And this is the Victory over Death that all those have that by true Repentance and Faith are partakers of Christ and the benefits of His Death and Resurrection who hath brought Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel And now having gone through the benefits of this wise consideration of our latter ends I shall now add some Cautions that are necessary to be
thee it is thy Son that Son in whom thou didst proclaim thy self well pleased that Son whom thou hearest always it is he that begs of thee and begs of thee a dispensation from that which he most declines because he most loves thee the terrible unsupportable hiding thy face from me And this was not one single request but thrice repeated reiterated and that with more earnestness Mark 14.39 And again he went away and prayed and spake the same words Luke 22.44 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly Certainly that impression upon his soul that caused him to deprecate that for which he was born to deprecate it so often so earnestly must needs be a sorrow and apprehension of a very terrible and exceeding extremity 4. Such was the weight of his sotrow and confusion of soul that it even exceeding the strength of his humane nature to bear it it was ready to dissolve the Union between his Body and Soul insomuch that to add farther strength unto him and capacity to undergo the measure of it an Angel from Heaven is sent not meerly to comfort but to strengthen him to add a farther degree of strength to his humane nature to bear the weight of that wrath which had in good earnest made his Soul sorrowful unto death had it not been strengthned by the ministration of an Angel Luk. 22.43 and this assistance of the Angel as it did not allay the sorrow of his Soul so neither did it intermit his importunity to be delivered from the thing he felt and feared but did only support and strengthen him to bear a greater burden of it And as the measure of his strength was increased so was the burden which he must undergo increased for aster this he prayed again more earnestly the third time Luk. 22.43 the supply of his strength was succeeded with an addition of sorrow and the increase of his sorrow was followed with the greater importunity He prayed more carnestly Heb. 5.7 With strong crying and tears Luk. 22. 44. And being in an agony be prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground This was his third address to his Father Matth. 26.44 and here was the highest pitch of our Saviour's passion in the Garden His Soul was in an agony in the greatest concussion consusion and extremity of sorrow fear anguish and astonishment that was possible to be inslicted by the mighty hand of God on the soul of Christ that could be consistent with the purity of the nature of our Saviour and the inseparable union that it had with the Divine nature Insomuch that the confusion and distraction of his soul under it and the strugling and grapling of his soul with it did make such an impression upon his body that the like was never before or since The season of the year was cold for so it appears Joh. 18.18 the Servants and Officers had made a fire of coals for it was cold and the season of the time was cold it was as near as we may guess about midnight when the Sun was at his greatest distance and obstructed in his influence by the interposition of the Earth for it appears they came with Lanthorns and Torches when they apprehended him Joh. 18.3 and he was brought to the high Priest's Hall a little before Cock-crowing after some time had been spent in his Examination Math. 26.69 And yet for all this such is the agony and perturbation of our Saviour's soul that in this cold season it puts his body in a sweat a sweat of blood great drops of blood drops of blood falling down to the ground and certainly it was no light conflict within that caused such a strange and un-heard of symptom without Certainly the storm in the soul of Christ must needs be very terrible that his blood the seat of his vital spirits could no longer abide the sense of it but started out in a sweat of blood and such a sweat that was more than consistent with the ordinary constitution of humane nature And during this time even from the eating of the Passover until this third address to his Father was over the suffering of our Saviour lay principally if not only in his soul Almighty God was wounding of his spirit and making his soul an offering for sin And though the distinct and clear manner of this bruising of our Saviour's soul cannot be apprehended by us yet surely thus much we may conclude concerning it 1. He was made sin for us that knew no sin 2 Cor. 5.21 he stood under the imputation of all our sins and though he were personally innocent yet judicially and by way of interpretation he was the greatest offender that ever was for the Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all Isa 53.6.2 And consequently he was under the imputation of all the guilt of all those sins and stands in relation unto God the righteous Judge under the very same obligation to whatsoever punishment the very persons of the offenders were unto the uttermost of that consistency that it had with the unseparable union unto the Father and this obligation unto the punishment could not choose but work the same effects in our Saviour as it must do in the sinner desperation and sin excepted to wit a sad apprehension of the wrath of God against him The purity and justice of God which hath nothing that it hates but sin must pursue sin wherever it find it and as when it finds sin personally in a man the wrath of God will abide there so long as sin abides there so when it finds the same sin assumed by our Lord and bound as it were to him as the wood was to Isaac when he was laid upon the Altar the wrath of God could not chuse but be apprehended as incumbent upon him till that sin that by imputation lay upon him were discharged For as our Lord was pleased to be our Representative in bearing our sins and to stand in our stead so all these affections and motions of his soul did bear the same conformity as if acted by us As he put on the person of the sinner so he puts on the same sorrow the same shame the same fear the same trembling under the apprehension of the wrath of his Father that we must have done And so as an imputed sin drew with it the obligation unto punishment so it did by necessary consequence raise all those confusions and storms in the soul of Christ as it would have done in the person of the sinner sin only excepted 3. In this Garden as he stands under the sin and guilt of our nature so he stands under the curse of our nature to wit a necessity of death and of undergoing the wrath of God for that sin whose punishment he hath undertaken for us the former the dissolution of his body and soul by a most accursed death and the latter the suffering of his soul and
Immortality which was wrapt up in the mysteries of the Old covenant and yet those mysteries vailed and inclosed up within the vail is now brought to light through the Gospel 2 Tim. 1.10 and the vail rent in twain that as well the meaning of those mysteries and types under the Law is discovered 4. That now the use of the Ceremonial Law is at an end the greatest and most sacred mystery of the Tabernacle and indeed of the whole ceremonial Law was this that was within the vail the most holy place wherein were the most holy and revered mysteries the Ark and the Mercy-Seat But now the vail is rent the use abolished the covenant of the people is given the Body of Christ typified by the Temple separated and so the use of the other Temple Tabernacle and the holy Places Vessels Instruments thereof ceased 5. That now the Kingdom of Heaven the most Holy Place is open unto all believers Christ our High Priest is entred in with his own blood and hath not closed the vail after him but rent it in sunder and made and left a passage for all believers to follow him with our prayers and access to the glorious God and hereafter in our persons Heb. 10.19 20. Having therefore bloldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he bath consecrated for us through the vail that is to say his flesh let us draw near with a true heart And now we have gone thus far with our Lord unto his death we shall follow him to his Grave Joseph of Arimathea having an honorable mention by all four Evangelists Matth. 27.57 a rich man and Jesus disciple Mar. 15.43 an honorable Counsellor who waited for the Kingdom of God Luk. 23.50 a Counsellor a good man and a just who had not consented to the counsel or deed of the Jews and waited for the Kingdom of God Joh. 19.38 a disciple of Christ but secretly for fear of the Jews this man manifested his faith and love to his Master when he was in his lowest condition goes to Pilate boldly and begs his Saviour's body he wraps it in a clean linnen cloth laid it in a Tomb provided for himself and hewed out of the rock and rolled a great stone upon the door of the Sepulchre And as by his death with the malefactors so by his burial in this rich man's Sepulchre he fulfilled both parts of the Prophecy Isa 53.9 He made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death The high Priests continued their malice and their jealousie even against the dead body of our Saviour and to secure themselves against the suspition of his Resurrection the third day take order for making the Sepulchre sure till the third day was past Matth. 27.60 they seal the stone and set a watch And it is very Observable how the almighty Counsel of God made use of the very malice and jealousie of these people for the confirming of his own truth Christ's Resurrection and our Faith Their malicious and curious industry to prevent the possibility of a fictitious Resurrection abundantly and uncontrollably convincing the reality of our Saviour's death and true Resurrection He is laid in the grave the evening of the day wherein he suffered a Stone rolled upon the mouth of the grave such as required a considerable strength to remove it insomuch that the women that came the first day of the week to embalm the body were in a great difficulty how it should be removed Mar. 16.3 for it was a Great stone Matth. 27.60 and this stone Sealed and as if all this were too little and the bonds of death and the grave were too weak they add a Watch of Souldiers to secure the body Matth 27.66 And here we leave for a while our Saviour's body interred with Spices Joh. 19.39 in a new Sepulchre wherein never before any lay Joh. 19.41 hewen out of a rock in the garden Joh. 19.42 that as in the garden death at first laid hold of the first Adam so in the garden the second Adam undergoes the state of death and gains the victory over the grave his agony in a garden and his interrment in a garden his body rests in the grave and his soul translated into Paradise for so he witnessed of himself This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise Luk. 23. 43. For at the instant of his dissolution our Satisfaction was made and the work of our Redemption so far as it depended upon his suffering finished So that had it not been for a witness of the reality and truth of his death and of the power and reality of his Resurrection and the fulfilling of the decree of God manifested in the Scriptures he might have reassumed life in the next instant after his death For the debt to the Justice of God was fully satisfied and his continuance in the grave until the third day was not by the power of death which he vanquished in the instant of his dissolution but a voluntary subjecting of himself unto that state for the strengthening of our faith and the fulfilling of the Scriptures And now we come to the Consideration of the Resurrection of our Lord by which he was declared to be the Son of God with power and by which the fulness and compleatness of our Redemption by him is abundantly manifested He chose that Time to dye when the Passover was slain that time wherein Adam was created the sixth day of the week at even He chose that time for his body to rest in the grave and for his soul to rest in Paradise wherein his Father rested from all the great work of the Creation the seventh day of the week and he chose that day to rise again which his Father chose to begin the Creation the first day of the week that the same day might bear the inscription of the Creation and of the Resurrection of the World and that as in that day the Lord God brought light out of darkness so this light the light that enlightneth every man that comes into the world should arise from the land of darkness the grave This is the day that the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce therein The Time of the Day wherein our Lord arose was very early in the morning of the first day of the week as it began to dawn Matth 21.1 while it was yet dark or scarcely full light Joh 17.1 And the Manner of it was full of wonder and astonishment An Angel from heaven comes down to draw the curtain of our Saviour's grave and with an Earthquake rolls away the stone that covered it the Keepers who had watchfully observed the command of their Commanders were stricken with astonishment and became as dead Matth. 28.2 3 4. Our Lord who had power to lay down his life and power to take it up again Joh. 10.17 reassumes his body which though it had tasted death yet had not seen
consideratioâ— would have made them wise and prudentâ— avoid those great Apostasies which shouâ— occasion so terrible a desertion and rejectiâ—â— by God But certainly the words contain an evâ—dent truth with relation to every particulâ— person and to that latter end that is coâ—mon to all man-kind namely their latâ—end by death and separation of the Soul aâ—â— Body the due consideration whereof is great part of Wisdom and a great meaâ— to attain and improve it and very maâ— of the sins and follies of man-kind as thâ— do in a great measure proceed from tâ—â— want of an attentive and serious consiâ—â—ration of it so would be in a great measâ—cured by it It is the most certain known experienâ— truth in the World that all men must dâ—â— that the time of that death is uncertaiâ— that yet most certainly it will comâ—â— and that within the compass of no loâ— time Though the time of our Life migâ—â— be protracted to its longest period yetâ— is ten thousand to one that it will not exceâ— fourscore years where one man attaiâ— to that age ten thousand dit before it aâ—â— this Lecture is read unto us by the many casualties and diseases that put a period to the Lives of many in our own experience and observation by the many warnings and monitions of Mortality that every man finds in himself either by the occurrences of diseases and weaknesses and especially by the declinations that are apparent in us if we attain to any considerable age and the weekly Bills of Mortality in the great City where weekly there are taken away ordinarily three hundred persons The Monuments and Graves in every Church and Church-yard do not only evince the truth of it whereof no man of understanding doubts but do uncessantly inculcate the remembrance of it And yet it is strange to see that this great truth whereof in the theory no mans doubts is little considered or thought upon by the most of man-kind But notwithstanding all these monitions and remembrances of Mortality the living lay 〈◊〉 not to heart and look upon it as a buâ—â—ness that little concerns them as if they were not concerned in this common condition of man-kind and as if the condition of Mortality only concerned them that actually die or are under the immediate Harbingers of it some desperate or acute diseases but concerned not them that are at present in health or not under the stroke of a mortal sickness The Reasons of this Inconsiderateness seem principally these 1. That men are not willing to entertain this unwelcom thought of their own latter End the thought whereof is so unwelcom and troublesom a Guest that it seems to blast and disparage all those present enjoyments of Sense that this Life affords Whereby it comes to pass that as Death it self is unwelcom when it draws near so the thoughts and apprehensions of it becomes as unwelcom as the thing it self 2. A vain foolish conceit that the consideration of the latter End is a kind of presage and invitation of it and upon this account I have known many superstitiously and foolishly to forbear the making of their Wills because it seemed to them ominous and a presage of Death whereas this consideration though it fits and prepares man for Death it doth no way hasten or presage it 3. A great difficulty that ordinarily attends our humane condition to think otherwise concerning our condition than what at present we feel and find We are now in health and we can hardly bring our selves to think that a time must and will come wherein we shall be sick We are now in life and therefore we can hardly cast our thoughts into such a mould to think we shall die and hence it is true as the common Proverb is That there is no man so old but he thinks he shall live a year longer It is true this is the way of man-kind to put far from us the evil day and the thought of it but this our way is our folly and one of the greatest occasions of those other follies that commonly attend our lives and therefore the great means to care this folly and to make us wise is wisely to consider our latter end This Wisdom appears in those excellent effects it produceth which are generally these two 1. It teacheth us to live well 2. It teacheth us to die easily For the former of these the consideration of our latter end doth in no sort make our lives the shorter but it is a great means to make our lives the better 1. It is a great monition and warning of us to avoid Sin and a great means to prevent it When I shall consider that certainly I must die and I know not how soon why should I commit those things that if they hasten not my latter end yet they will make it more uneasie and troublesom by the reflection upon what I have done amiss I may die to morrow why should I commit that evil that will then be gall and bitterness unto me would I do it if I were to die to morrow why should I then do it to day perchance it may be the last act of my Life and however let me not conclude so ill for for ought I know it may be my concluding Act in this Scene of my Life 2. It is a great motive and means to put us upon the best and most profitable improvement of our time There be certain Civil and Natural actions of our lives that God Almighty hath indulged and allowed to us and indeed commanded us with moderation to use As the competent supplies of our own Natures with moderation and sobriety the provision for our Families Relations and Dependances without covetousness or anxiety the diligent and faithful walking in our Callings and discharge thereof But there are also other businesses of greater importance which yet are attainable without injuring our selves in those common concerns of our Lives namely our knowledge of God and of His Will of the doctrine of our Redemption by Christ our Repentance of Sins past making and keeping our Peace with God acquainting our selves with Him living to His Glory walking as in His Presence Praying to Him learning to Depend upon Him Rejoycing in Him walking Thankful unto Him These and such like as these are the great Business and End of our Lives for which we enjoy them in this World and these fit and prepare us for that which is to come And the consideration that our Lives are short and uncertain and that Death will sooner or later come puts us upon this resolution and practice to do this our great work while it is called to day that we loiter not away our day and neglect our task and work while we have time and opportunity lest the night overtake us when we cannot work to gain Oyl in our Lamps before the door be shut And if men would wisely consider their latter Ends they might do this great business this one thing
annexed to this Consideration We are to know that although Death be thus subdued and rendred rather a benefit than a terrour to good men yet 1. Death is not to be wished or desired though it be an object not to be feared it is a thing not to be coveted for certainly life is the greatest temporal blessing in the World It was the passion not the virtue of that excellent Prophet Elijah that desired to dye because he thought himself only left of the true worshippers of God 1 Kings 19.4 We are all placed in this World by Almighty God and a talent of life is delivered to us and we are commanded to improve it a task is set every one of us in this life by the great Master of the Family of Heaven and Earth and we are required with patience and obedience and faithfulness to perform our task and not to be weary of our work nor wish our day at an end before its time When our Lord calls us it is our duty with courage and chearfulness to obey His call but until He calls it is our duty with patience and contentedness to perform our task to be doing of our work And indeed in this life our Lord hath delivered us several tasks of great importance to do as namely 1. To improve our graces and virtues our Knowledge and Faith and those works of piety and goodness that he requires the better and closer we follow that business here the greater will be our reward and improvement of glory hereafter And therefore as we must with all readiness give over our work when our Master calls us so we must with all diligence and perseverance continue our employment out till he calls us and with all thankfulness unto God entertain and rejoyce in that portion of life he lends us because we have thereby an opportunity of doing our Master the more service and of improving the degrees of our own glory and happiness 2. And besides the former he hath also set us another task namely to serve our Generation to give an example of virtue and goodness to encourage others in the ways of virtue and goodness to provide for our Families and Relations to do all good offices of Justice Righteousness Liberality Charity to others cheerfully and industriously to follow our Callings and Employments and infinite more as well Natural Civil Moral employments which though of a lower importance in respect of our selves yet are of greater use and moment in respect of others and are as well as the former required of us and part of the task that our great Lord requires of us and for the sake of which he also bestows many Talents upon us to be thus improved in this life and for which we must also at the end of our day give our Lord an account and therefore for the sake of this also we are to be thankful for our life and not be desirous to leave our post our station our business our life till our Lord call us to Himself in the ordinary way of His Providence for He is the only Lord of our lives and we are not the Lords of our own lives 2. A second Caution is this That as the business and employments and concerns of our life must not estrange us from the thoughts of death so again we must be careful that the overmuch thought of death do not so much possess our thoughts as to make us forget the concerns of our life nor neglect the businesses which that portion of time is allowed us for As the business of fitting our Souls for Heaven the businesses of our callings relations places stations Nay the comfortable thankful sober enjoyments of those honest lawful comforts of our life that God lends us so as it be done with great sobriety moderation as in the presence of God and with much thankfulness to Him for this is part of that very duty we owe to God for those very external comforts and blessings we enjoy Deut. 28.47 A wise and due consideration of our latter ends is neither to render us a sad melancholy disconsolate people nor to render us unfit for the businesses and offices of our life but to render us more watchful vigilant industrious soberly cheerful and thankful to that God that hath been pleased thus to make our lives serviceable to Him comfortable to us profitable to others and after all this to take away the bitterness and sting of death through Jesus Christ our Lord. OF VVISDOM AND The Fear of GOD That that is True WISDOM JOB XXVIII 28. And to man he said Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding THe great preheminence that Man hath over Beasts is his Reason and the great preheminence that one man hath over another is Wisdom though all men have ordinarily the priviledge of Reason yet all men have not the habit of Wisdom The greatest commendation that we can ordinarily give a man is that he is a wise man and the greatest reproach that can be to a man and that which is worst resented is to be called or esteemed a fool and yet as much as the reputation of wisdom is valued and the reputation of folly is resented the generality of mankind are in truth very fools and make it the great part of their business to be so and many that pretend to see◠after wisdom do either mistake the thing or mistake the way to attain commonl◠those that are the greatest pretenders 〈◊〉 wisdom and the search after it place it i◠some little narrow concern but place i◠not in its true latitude commensurate to th◠nature of mankind And hence it is tha◠one esteems it the only wisdom to be 〈◊〉 wise Politician or Statesman another t◠be a wise and knowing Naturalist anothe◠to be a wise acquirer of Wealth and th◠like and all these are wisdoms in their kind and the World perchance would be much better than it is if these kind of wisdom were more in fashion than they are bu◠yet these are but partial wisdoms the wisdom that is most worth the seeking and finding is that which renders a man a Wise Man This excellent man Job after a diligen◠search in the speech of this Chapter after Wisdom what it is where to be found doth at length make these two Conclusions viz. 1. That the true root of wisdom and that therefore best knew where it was to be found and how to be attained is certainly none other but A mighty God vers 23. God understandeth the way thereof and knoweth the place thereof and 2. As he alone best knew it so he best knew how to prescribe unto mankind the means and method to attain it To man he said to fear God that is wisdom that is it is the proper and adequate wisdom sutable to humane nature and to the condition of mankind and we need not doubt but it is so because he that best knew what was
that feareth God discovereth it â—elf in this that it provides and lays up a good and safe store for the future and that â—n respect of these three kinds of futurities 〈◊〉 For the future part of his life 2. For the future evil days 3. For the future life that is to take place after this present short uncertain and transitory life 1. In respect of the future time of his life It is true our lives in this world are but short at best and together with that shortness they are very uncertain But yet the man fearing God makes a due and safe provision for that future portion of his life how short or how long soever it be I. By a constant walking in the fear of God he transmits unto the future part of his life a quiet serene and fair Conscience and avoids those evil fruits and consequences which a sinful life produceth even in the after time of a man's life The bruises and hurts we receive in youth are many times more painful in age than when we first received them Our lives are like the Husbandman's seed-time if we sow evil seeds in the time of our yourh it may be they may lye five ten or more years before they come up to a full crop and possibly then we taste the fruit of these evil ways in an unquiet mind or conscience or some other sowre effects of that evil seed All this inconvenience a man fearing God prevents and instead thereof reaps a pleasing and comfortable fruit of his walk in the fear of God namely a quiet Conscience and an even setled peaceable Soul 2. But besides this by this means he keeps his Interest in and Peace with Almighty God and makes sure of the best Friend in the world for the after time of his life to whom he is sure to have access at all times and upon all occasions with comfort and acceptance for it is an infallible truth That God Almighty never forsakes any that forsake not him first The Second futurity is the future Evil day which will most certainly overtake every man either the day of feeble and decrepit age or the day of sickness or the day of death and against all those the true fear of God makes a safe and excellent provision so that although he may not avoid them he may have a comfortable passage through them and in the midst of all these black clouds the witness of a good conscience fearing God and the evidence of the divine favour will shine into the Soul like a bright Sun with comfort when a man shall be able with Hezekiah Isa 38.3 to appeal to Almighty God Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and in uprightness of heart and â—ave done that which was good in thy sight this will be a cordial under the faintness of old age a relief under the pains of sickness and cure of the fear of death it self which to such a Soul will be only a gate and passage to a life that will be free from all pains and infirmities a life of glory and immortality 3. The third futurity is the Life and State after Death Most certain it is that such a state there will be and that it is but of two kinds a state of everlasting happiness or a state of everlasting miâ—â—ry and that all men in the World do most certainly belong to one of these two states or conditions and as it is most just and equal so it is most true that they that truly fear God and obey him through Jesus Christ shall be partakers of that everlasting state of blessedness and immortal happiness And on the other side they that reject the the fear of God contemn and disobey his will shall without true repentance be subject to a state of everlasting misery Now herein the truest and the greatest â—isdom of a man appears that he duly provides against the latter and to obtain the former all other wisdom of men either to get humane Learning Wealth Honour Power all wisdom of Statesmen and Politicians in comparison of this wisdom is but vain and trivial And this is the wisdom that the fear of God teacheth and bringeth with it into the Soul 1. It provides against the greatest of evils the everlasting state of misery and infelicity and eternal death 2. It provides for and attains an everlasting estate of blessedness and happiness of rest and peace of glory and immortality and eternal life a state of that happiness and glory that exceeds expression and apprehension for Eye hath not seen nor car heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man the things that God hath laid up for them that love him 1 Cor. 2. and they only truly love God that truly fear him Mal. 3.13 And they namely that fear God shall be mine saith the Lord in that day when I make up my jewels And now for the Conclusion of this whole matter let us now make a short Comparison between the persons that fear not God and those that truly fear him and then let any man judge who is the fool and who is the wise man A man hath but a very short uncertain time in this life which in comparison of eternity is less than a moment The great God of Heaven in his Word assures us that there is an estate of Immortality after this life and that that immortal estate is but of two kinds an estate of never-dying misery or an estate of endless glory and tells them If you fear me and obey those easie Commands that are contained in the Book of the Holy Scriptures which I have given you you shall infallibly attain everlasting life and happiness and even in this present life shall have the influence and presence of my favour to support to direct and bless you On the other side if ye refuse my fear and reject my commands and prefer the unlawful and vain delusions of this present life before the obedience of my will and persist impenitently in it your portion shall be everlasting misery And now everlasting life and everlasting death being set before the children of men there are a sort of men that rather choose to disobey the command of God reject his fear and all this that they may enjoy the pleasures of Sin for a season those pleasures that are fading and dying that leave behind them a sting that renders their very enjoyment bitter and that make even that very little life they enjoy but a life of discomfort and unhappiness in spight of all their pleasures or be they as sincere as their own hearts can promise them yet they are but for a season a season that in its longest period is but short but is uncertain also a little inconsiderable accident the breath of a vain ... an ill air a little ill digested portion of that excess wherein they delight may put a period to all those pleasures and to that life in a
Priests and Scribes the then external visible Church the Husbandmen of the Vineyard Matth. 21.33 But this is not all as the visible Church of the Jews is the Conclave where this Council is formed so Judas a member of the visible Church of Christ one of the Twelve is the Instrument to effect it Matth. 26.14 he contracts with them for Thirty pieces of Silver to betray his Master unto them And surely this could not choose but be a great grief to our Saviour that one of his select Apostles should turn Apostate and thereby brought a blemish upon the rest Upon the day of Eating of the Passover called the first day of the Feast of unleavened bread our Saviour and his Disciples keep the Passover together in Jerusalem and there the two memorials of our Saviour's Passion meet that of the Passover instituted by God and the Israelites going out of Egypt and the Bread and Wine after Supper instituted by our Saviour to succeed in the place of the former and each did questionless make a deep impression upon our Saviour in which he anticipated his Passion and lively represented to him that breaking and pouring out of his Blood and Soul which he was suddenly to suffer And doubtless here began a great measure of our Saviour's Passion in the apprehension which he had of that imminent Storm that he must speedily undergo From the Supper they go together to the Mount of Olives and there he acquaints his Disciples of a speedy and sorrowful parting they must have the Shepherd is to be smitten that night and the Sheep to be scattered and as he foresaw Judas treachery so he foresees Peter's infirmity the storm should be so violent that Peter himself the resolutest Apostle shall deny his Master that night and deny him thrice And surely the foresight of the distraction that should befall his poor Disciples could not choose but add much to their tender Master's affliction Matth. 26.31 All ye shall be offended because of me this night And now let us follow our Blessed Lord from the Mount of Olives into the Garden called by the Apostles Gethsemane with the affections of love and wonder in some measure becoming such an entertainment of our thoughts The Time that he chose for this retirement was the dead time of the night a season that might the more contribute to the strength of that sadness which the pre-apprehension of his imminent Passion must needs occasion The Place that he chose a solitary retired Garden where nothing might nor could interrupt or divert the intensiveness of his sorrow and fear And to make both the time and place the more opportune for his Agony he leaves the rest of his Disciples and takes with him only Peter and the two Sons of Zebedee Matth. 26.37 and to these he imparts the beginning of his sorrow that they might be witnesses of it Matth. 26. 37 38. My sould is exceeding sorrowful even unto death but yet commands their distance vers 38. Tarry ye here and watch with me and he went a little further Watch with me The confusion of his Soul was so great that the only Son of God distrusts his own humane ability to bear it and yet his submission to this terrible conflict was so willing that he leaves them that he had appointed to watch with him He went a little farther The three Disciples had doubtless a sympathy with their Master's sorrow and yet the will of God so orders it that their excess of love and grief must not keep their Eyes waking notwithstanding it was the last request of their sorrowful Master The disciples slept Matth. 26. 40. And thus every circumstance of Time Place and Persons contribute to a sad and solitary opportunity for this most terrible and black conflict And now in this Garden the mighty God puts his Son to grief lades him with our sorrows Isa 53.4 withdraws and hides from him the light of his favour and countenance interposeth a thick and black cloud between the Divinity and the humane nature darts into his Soul the sad and sharp manifestations of his wrath overwhelms his Soul with one wave after another sends into him the most exquisite pre-apprehensions of those sad and severe sufferings he was the next day to undergo begins to make his Soul and Offering for Sin and heightens his sorrow confusion and astonishment unto the uttermost In sum the mighty God the God of the spirits of all flesh who knows the way into the Soul and how to fill it with the most sad and black astonishment and sorrow was pleased at this time to estrange and eclipse the manifestation of his light and love to his only Son as far as was possibly consistent with his secret and eternal love unto him to throw into him as sad and amazing apprehensions of his wrath as was possible to be consistent with the humane nature to bear to fortifie and strengthen his sense of it and sorrow for and under it unto the uttermost that so his grief and sorrow and confusion of soul might be brim-full and as much as the exactest constitution of a humane nature could possibly bear And thus now at this time the Arm of the mighty God was bruising the Soul of his only Son Isa 53.16 And certainly the extremity of this agony within must needs be very great if we consider the strange effects it had without 1. That pathetical description thereof that our Saviour himself makes of it My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death Matth. 26.37 so sorrowful exceeding sorrowful sorrowful unto death and the expressions of the Evangelists Matth. 26.37 He began to be sorrowful and very heavy Mark 14.33 He began to be sore amazed and to be very heavy It was such a sorrow as brought with it an amazement an astonishment 2. Again that strange request to his three Disciples Tarry ye and watch with me as if he feared the sorrow would overwhelm him 3. Again his Prayer and the manner of it evidence a most wonderful perturbation within Matth. 26.39 He fell on his face and prayed and what was the thing he prayed Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me Or as Mark 14.36 Abba Father all things are possible unto thee take away this cup from me c. although that this was the very end for which he came into the World the Cup which in former times he reached after and was straitned till it were fulfilled yet such a representation there is thereof to his Soul that though in the will of his obedience he submits Not my will but thine be done Yet his nature shrinks and starts at it and he engageth Almighty God as much as upon as great arguments as was possible to decline the severity of that wrath which he was now to grapple with 1. Upon the account of his Omnipotency All things are possible to thee 2. Upon the account of his Relation Abba Father It is not a stranger that importunes
this latter he is now under God is pleased to inflict upon him all the manifestations of his wrath and to fling into his soul the sharpest and severest representations of his displeasure that might possibly befall him under that bare imputed guilt considering the dignity of his Person And surely this was more terrible to our Saviour than all his corporal sufferings were under all those not one word no perturbation at all but as a Sheep before his shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth but the sense of the displeasure of his Father and the impressions that he makes upon his soul those he cannot bear without sorrow even unto death without most importunate addresses to be delivered from them and a most strange concussion and agony upon his soul and body under the sense of them And the actual manifestation of the wrath of God upon his Son consisted in these two things principally 1. Filling his soul with strange and violent fears and terrors insomuch that he was in an amazement and consternation of spirit the Passion-Psalm renders it Psal 22.14 My heart is like wax it is melted in the midst of my bowels the God of the spirits of all flesh that knows how to grind and bruise the spirit did bruise and melt his soul within him with terrors fears and sad pre-apprehensions of worse to follow 2. A sensible withdrawing by hasty and swift degrees the light of the presence and favour of God He is sorrowful and troubled and he goes to his Father to desire it may pass from him but no answer he goes again but yet no answer and yet under the pressure and extremity he goes again the third time with more earnestness agony a sweat of blood yet no it cannot be and this was a terrible condition that the light of the countenance of the Father is removed from his Son his only Son in whom he was well pleased his Son whom he heard always And when he comes to the Father under the greatest obligation that can be with the greatest reverence with the greatest importunity once and again and a third time and that filled within with fears and covered without with blood and yet no answer but all light and access and favour intercepted with nothing but blackness and silence Certainly this was a terrible Cup yet thus it was with our Saviour Christ The light of the favour of God like the Sun in an Eclipse from the very institution of the Sacrament began to be covered one degree after another and in the third address to the Father in the Garden it was even quite gone But at that great hour when our Saviour cryed My God my God why hast thou forsaken me then both lights that greater light of the favour of God to his only Son together with the light of the Sun seemed to be under a total recess or Eclipse and this was that which bruised the soul of our Saviour and made it an Offering for Sin and this was that which wrung drops of blood from our Saviour's body before the Thorns or the Whips or the Nails or the Spear had torn his veins And now after this third application for a deliverance from this terrible Cup of the wrath of God and yet no dispensation obtained he returns to his miserable comforters the three Disciples and he finds them the third time asleep These very three Disciples were once the witnesses of a glorious Transfiguration of our Saviour in the Mount and in an extasie of joy and fear they fell on their faces Matth. 17.6 and now they are to be witnesses of a sad Transfiguration of their Lord under an agony and sweat of blood and now under an extasie of sorrow they are not able to watch with their Lord one hour Our Saviour calls them but whiles they were scarce awakened they are rouzed by a louder alarm Matth. 26.47 whiles he yet spake Judas one of the twelve came and with him a great multitude with swords and staves from the high Priests Joh. 18.3 with lanthorns and torches And though this was little in comparison of the storm that was in our Saviour's soul yet such an appearance at such a time of the night and to a person under such a sad condition could not but be terrible to flesh and blood especially if we consider the circumstances that attended it 1. An Apostle one of the twelve he it is that conducts this black Guard Matth. 25.47 Whomsoever I shall kiss that same is he hold him fast one that had been witness of all his Miracles heard all his divine Sermons acquainted with all his retirements he whose feet his Master with love tenderness had washed who within a few hours before had supped with him at that Supper of of solemnity and love the Passover this is he that is in the head of this crew certainly this had in it an aggravation of sorrow to our Blessed Saviour to be betrayed by a Disciple 2. The manner of it he betrays him by a kiss an emblem of homage and love is made use of to be the signal of scorn and contempt as well as treachery and villany 3. Again the carriage of his Disciples full of rashness and yet of cowardize they strike a Servant of the high Priest and cut off his Ear Matth. 26.57 which had not the meekness and mercy of our Saviour prevented by a miraculous cure might have added a blemish to the sweetness and innocence of his suffering He rebukes the Rashness of his Disciple and cures the wound of his Enemy again of Cowardize Matth. 26.56 Then all the disciples forsook him and sled and Peter himself that but now had professed the resolution of his love to his Master follows but a far off Matth. 26.58 in the posture and profession of a stranger and a spectator So soon was the love and honour of a Master deserved by so much love and purity and miracles lost in the Souls of the very Disciples After this he is brought to the high Priests the solemn assembly of the then visible Church of the Jews in the persons of the greatest reverence and esteem among them the high Priests Scribes and Elders and before them accused and convicted of those crimes that might render him odious to the Jews Romans and all good men Blasphemy and by them pronounced worthy of death Matth. 26.66 and after this exposed to the basest usage of the basest of their retinue the Servants spit on him buffet him expose him to scorn saying Prophesie unto us thou Christ who is he that smote thee Matth. 26.67 injuries less tollerable than death to an ingenuous nature and to add to all the rest Peter instead of reproving the insolence of the abjects and bearing a part with his Master in his injuries thrice denying his Master and that with an oath and cursing So far was he from owning his Master in his adversity that he denied he knew him and this in the very presence of
of his death might have a farther accession of scorn and reproach he is placed between two Thieves that were crucified with him with an Inscription of derision upon his Cross in all the most universal Languages of the World Hebrew Greek and Latin and the people and Priests standing by with gestures and words of derision Matth. 27.39 43. and even to a letter assuming those very gestures and words which were so many hundreds of years predicted in the Passion-Psalm 22.78 He trusted in God let him deliver him if he will have him and one of those very Thieves that was even dying as a malefactor yet was filled with such a devilish spirit that he upbraids and derides him And now our Saviour is under the torments and shame of this cursed execution but though these his sufferings of his body and outward man were very grievous in so much that it could not but extremely afflict him yet it is strange to see how little he was transported under them in all his contumelies reproaches and accusations scarce a word answered He answered them nothing in all his abusings strokes ridiculous garments crown of thorns tearing of his body with scourging yet not a word but As a sheep before the shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth Isa 53.7 in all his rackings upon the Cross and nailing of his limbs to it and all the anguish that for the space of six hours from the third hour wherein he was crucified Mar. 15.25 until the ninth hour wherein he gave up the ghost Matth. 27.46 not a word of complaint but he refused those very supplies which were usually given to suppress the violence of the pain vinegar and gall Matth. 27.34 But when we come to the Afflictions of his Soul they were of a higher dimension in the Garden when no other storm was upon him but what was within him He falls down upon his face and prayes and again and a third time and is amazed and sorrowful to death and sweats drops of blood and doubtless whiles he was under the reproaches and buffetings and whippings and thorns he was not without a terrible and confused sadness and heaviness within which though they did not mitigate the torments of his body yet they did infinitely exceed them The spirit and the soul is most exquisitely sensible and it is that which feels the pains inflicted upon the body Certainly therefore the wound of the spirit it self the fountain of sense must needs be exceedingly grievous And hence it was that though all the injuries and torments of our Saviour could scarce wring a complaint from him yet the weight of that wrath that lay upon his soul now made an offering for sin did wring from him those bitter and terrible cryes that one would wonder should proceed from him that was One with the Father Matth. 27.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken me From the sixth hour to the ninth darkness was over all the land Matth. 27.45 such a darkness as bred an astonishment even in strangers and other Counties The darkness of the World though a suitable dress for such a time wherein the Son of God must dye and the Sun of Righteousness be eclipsed yet it was nothing in comparison of that dismal shadow that covered our Saviour's soul all this time About the ninth hour our Saviour cryed that bitter cry My God my God why hast thou forsaken me manifesting the depth of his sorrow and the perfect sense he had of it why hast thou forsaken me more could not have been suffered or been said every word carries in it an accent of horror Thou that art the great God from whom and in whom every thing hath its being and comfort surely if in thy presence is fulness of joy in thy withdrawings must be fulness of horror and confusion and yet it is thou that hast forsaken me Forsaken Hadst thou never been with me as I had not known the blessedness of thy fruition so I could not have measured the extremity of my loss the excess of the happiness that I had in thy presence adds to the excess of my misery in the suffering of thy absence Forsaken me not withdrawn thy self to a distance but forsaken me and forsaken me at such a time as this when I stand more in need of thy presence than ever when I am forsaken of my countrey-men of my kindred of my Disciples then to be forsaken of thee when I am under the shame and pains of a cruel and a cursed death under the scorns and derisions of those that hate me under the weight and pressure of all the sins of the world under the struglings with terrors in my soul sent from thy mighty hand under the visible approach of death the king of terrors under a vail of darkness without and the seeming triumph of the power of darkness within then to be forsaken and forsaken of thee whom I had only left to be my support Forsaken Me It is not a stranger that thou forsakest it is thy Son thy only Son in whom thou didst heretofore proclaim thy self well pleased that Son whom though thou now forsakest yet forgets not his duty unto thee nor dependance upon thee but still layes hold on thee and though thou shakest me off yet I must still call upon thee with the humble confidence of My God My God still why hast thou forsaken me To be forsaken and to be forsaken of God of my God of him that is not only my God but my Father and that at such a time and yet not to know why Oh blessed Saviour the Prophets that spake by thy own Spirit did tell thee why and that very Psalm out of which thou takest this bitter cry doth tell thee why and thou thy self within some few days or hours before didst tell us why and dost thou now ask why Didst thou not choose even that which thou now groanest under and wert willing to put thy soul in our souls stead and bear the sin of those which are now thy burden Certainly we may with all humility and reverence conceive that at the time of this bitter cry our Saviour's soul was for the present over-shadowed with so much astonishment and sorrow that it did for the present over-power and cover the actual and distinct sense of the reason of it at least in that measure and degree in which he suffered This cry of our Saviour was about the ninth hour a little before his death and having fulfilled one Prophecy in this terrible cry contained in the very words of Psal 22. he fulfills another he saith I thirst Joh. 19.28 and presently they give him vinegar to drink And between this and his death there intervene these passages 1. His proclaiming to the world that the work of our Redemption was finished Joh. 19.30 When he received the vinegar he said It is finished 2. A second cry with a loud voice Matth. 27.50 the words are not expressed of his second cry
only both Evangelists Matthew and Luke testifie it was a cry with a loud voice to evidence to the world that in the very article of his giving up of the ghost the strength of nature was not wholly spent for he cryed with a loud voice 3. The comfortable resignation of his soul unto the hands of his Father Luk. 23. 46. Father into thy hands I commend my spirit And although but even now the black storm was upon his soul that made him cry out with that loud and bitter cry yet the cloud is over and with comfort he delivers up his soul into the hands of that God whom he thought but even now had forsaken him It is more than probable that that bitter cry was uttered at the very Zenith of all his pains and when he had taken the vinegar and proclaimed that it is finished though they were all wrapt up in a very small time about the end of the ninth hour yet now there remained no more but for him to give up his spirit which he instantly thereupon did Joh. 19.30 He said It is finished he bowed the head and gave up the ghost Now the things wonderfully observable in the death of our Saviour are many 1. That it was a voluntary delivering up of his spirit this is that which he said Matth. 10.18 No man taketh it from me but I lay it down I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again this commandment have I received of my Father And truly this voluntary delivering up of his soul was well near as great an evidence of his Divinity as his resuming it again so that this very delivering up of his soul converted the Centurion Mar. 15.39 When he saw that he so cryed and gave up the ghost he said Truly this man was the Son of God Now that he thus voluntarily gave up his spirit is evident 1. By the strength of nature that was yet upon him in the very article of his death he cryed with a loud voice 2. That the Thieves who were crucified at the same time dyed not till there was a farther violence used by breaking their legs Joh. 19.32 but he expired to prevent the violence of the Souldiers and to fulfill the type and prophecy Not a bone of him shall be broken Joh. 19.36.3 That the suddenness of his death caused admiration in those that well knew the lingring course of such a death in the Centurion Mar. 15.39 in Pilate Mar. 15.44 which might probably be the cause that the insolent Souldier to secure the assurance of his death pierced his side with a spear Job 19.34 and thereby fulfilled that other Scripture which he never thought of Job 15.37 Now the wonderful occurrences that accompanied our Saviour's death were very many and considerable 1. A strange and particular Fulfilling of the Prophecies and Types that were concerning our Saviour's death and the very individual circumstances that attended it and all to consirm our Faith that this was indeed the Messias and that he was thus delivered over to death by the most certain and pre-determinate Counsel of God The Time of his Death so exactly predicted by Daniel ch 9.v.25 26. the parallel circumstances with the Paschal Lamb in the nature of him a Lamb without spot Exod. 12.5 in the time of his delivery over to death at the Feast of the Passover and the very evening wherein the Passover was to be eaten In the Manner of his Oblation not a bone to be broken Exod. 12.46 again the Manner of his Death by piercing his hands and his feet Psal 22.16 the very Words used by him Psal 22.1 Matth. 27. 46. the Words used of him Psal 22.8 Matth. 27.43 the crucifying of him between Malefactors Isa 53.12 the Whippings Isa 53.5 the Dividing of his Garments and casting Lotts upon his Vesture Psa 22.18 the Thirst of our Saviour upon the Cross and the giving him Vinegar and Gall Psal 69.21 2. A strange and miraculous Concussion of nature giving testimony to the wonderful and unheard of dissolution of our Saviour's body and soul Darkness from the sixth hour until the ninth hour And it is observable in the night wherein he was born by a miraculous light the night became as day Luk. 2.9 but at his death a miraculous darkness turned the day into night for three hours Matth. 27.45 at his birth a new Star was created to be the lamp and guide unto the place of his birth Matth. 2.9 but at his death the Sun in the firmament was masked with darkness and yielded not his light while the Lord of life was passing into the vail of death Again another prodigy that accompanied the death of Christ was an Earthquake that rent the rocks and opened the graves and strake amazement and conviction into the Centurion that was watching him Math. 27.52 53 54. When our Saviour was entring into the earth by death the earth trembled and so it did when he was coming out of it by his Resurrection Matth. 28.2 3. Again the Graves were opened and the dead bodies of the Saints arose As the touch of the bones of Elisha caused a kind of resurrection 2 Kings 13.21 so our Saviour's body new saln to the earth did give a kind of particular resurrection to the Saints bodies to testifie that by his death he had healed the deadliness of the Grave and that the satisfaction for Sin was accomplished when Death the wages of Sin was thus Conquered 4. Again the Vail of the Temple was Rent in twain from the top to the bottom Matth. 27.57 the Vail was that which divided the most holy place from the rest of the Tabernacle Exod. 26.33 and in that most Holy place were contained the mysterious Types the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy-Seat and within this Vail only the high Priest entred once a year when he made an atonement for the People and for the Tabernacle Levit. 16.33 Heb. 9.7 and now at our Saviour's death this vail was rent from the top to the bottom and it imported divers very great Mysteries 1. That now our great High Priest was entring into the most holy with his own blood having thereby made the atonement for us Heb. 9.12 By his own blood he entred once into the most holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us 2. That the Means whereby he entred into the most holy place was by the Rending of his Humanity his soul from his body typified by the rending of that vail and therefore his flesh that is his whole humane nature was the vail Heb. 10.20 Consecrated through the vail that is his flesh 3. That now by the death of Christ all those dark Mysteries vailed up formerly in the most holy the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy-Seat are now rendred open and their Mysteries unfolded Christ the Mediator of the Covenant and the Seat of Mercy and Acceptation unto all believers founded and seated upon him and thereby that Life and
corruption and ariseth and thereby proclaimed the completing of our Redemption and therefore not possible he should be longer holden of it Acts 2.24 his victory over death and the grave for us 1 Cor. 15. When our Lord raised up Lazarus he came forth of the grave bound hand and foot with grave-cloaths Joh. 11.44 though he was for the present rescued from death by the power of Christ yet he must still be a subject to it he is revived but yet riseth with the bonds of death about him he must dye again But when our Lord riseth he shakes off his grave-cloaths the linnen that wrapped his body in one place and the linnen that bound his head in another Joh. 20.6 7. Our Lord being risen dieth no more death hath no more power over him Rom. 6.9 And thus we have considered the History of Christ's Passion and Resurrection the first and second general Consideration Who it was that suffered and What it was he suffered The Third Consideration follows 3. From whom he suffered all these things the consideration of which doth highly advance the Sufferings of Christ 1. He suffered this from the hands of his Own Father it was he that bruised him put him to grief made his soul an Offering for Sin Isa 53.10 it was he that reached him out this bitter cup to drink Joh. 18.11 The cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it was he that bound that burden so close upon him that made him sweat great drops of blood in the garden and though thrice importuned for a dispensation from it yet would not grant it it was he that when the greatest extremity of pain and sorrow lay upon him to add thereunto withdrew the sense of his presence from him which wrung from him that bitter cry My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The injuries of an Enemy are easily born but the forsakings of a Father are intollerable 2. The immediate Instruments and Contrivers of his suffrerings were such as had a nearness of relation to him people of the same Nation and his kinsmen according to the flesh the seed to Abraham people of his own Religion that worshipped the same God acknowledged the same Seripture the visible Church of God and chief representatives of that Church most eminent in place reputation and pretence of holiness the chief Priests and Elders and Scribes people that he had never injured in his life but obliged them with his many miraculous cures his precious and heavenly instructions his tenderest and dearest love and compassion That very Jerusalem which he wept over and would have gathered as a hen gathereth her Chicken under her wings is now that brood that seeks the destruction of him that came to save them and in that vile competition offered to them between their Redeemer and a murderer chose rather to save a malefactor and to deliver their innocent and merciful Saviour And these were they that beyond the examples even of common humanity pursued their Kinsman their Benefactor their Redeemer with such exact bitterness and malice and scorn and cruelty that as it seemed barbarous to the heathen Judge so it hath out-gone the practice of the heathenish Tyrants Psal 55.12 It was not an enemy that reproached me then could I have born it but it was thou mine acquaintance 4. Let us consider How he suffered all these things and this doth infinitely advance the Excellence and Value of his Suffering 3. He Suffered Innocently Isa 53.9 he had done no violence neither was any deceit in his mouth yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him 2 Cor. 5.21 he made him to be sin for us who knew no sin the companions of his suffering justifie him Luk. 23.41 We indeed justly but this man hath done nothing amiss his Persecutors justifie him and yet their malice rested not but sought out false witness against him Math. 26.60 and when they themselves were convinced of their own injustice in prosecution of an innocent yet what they could not avouch upon the account of justice they do upon the point of expedience Joh. 18.14 Caiaphas gives them counsel that it was expedient that one should dye for the people Judas that betrayed him justified him Matth. 24.4 I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood his Judge acquits him and in a signal testimony of his judgment Matth. 27.24 He took water and washed his hands before the multitude saving I am innocent of the blood of this just person and yet though in testimony of the satisfaction of his judgment he washeth his hands in water before them yet he condemns the person that he acquits and stains those hands in the blood of our Lord whom yet he pronounceth innocent And this Innocence of our Saviour was not only a Negative Innocence an absence of guilt but a Positive Innocence he suffered that had not only done no ill but that had done nothing but good he healed their sick cured their lame their blind their deaf their lepers cast out their devils and which was more than all this shewed them the way to Eternal Life to the saving of the Souls of many and the convincing of the Consciences of all that heard him Joh. 7.46 Never man spake like this man And well might he ask as once he did upon another occasion For which of all my good works do ye stone me do ye crucifie me Blessed Lord they crucifie thee for all thy good works if thou hadst been guilty possibly thou mightest have been spared in the stead of Barabbas nay if thou hadst been only innocent it is possible thy persecutors might not have been altogether so violent against thee but thou sufferedst for the very good thou diddest it was not only an act of injustice that spared not thy innocence but an improvement of envy that did malign thy very goodness Math. 27.18 For he knew that for envy they had delivered him 2. He suffered all Patiently Isa 53.7 He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearer is dumb so he openeth not his mouth Betrayed by his Disciples hurried away by the black guard that apprehended him reproached and vilified by the high Priests and Elders forsaken and denied by his followers stricken spit upon and basely injured by the abjects in the high Priests Hall derided by Herod insulted upon by Pilate Knowest thou not that I have power to condemn thee whipt cloathed in scorn with purple and crowned with a crown of thorns and in that disguise saluted in scorn with Hail King of the Jews forced to bear his burdensom Cross which must afterwards bear him and then as one of the basest of men and vilest of malefactors nailed to the Cross with most exquisite torment and then by one of his companions in death by the general rabble that were about him by the superstitious Scribes and Elders reproached
for this could neither consist with the purity of his Nature nor innocence nor dignity of his Person nor the hypostatical union of both Natures in him But he suffered as much as was consistent with these considerations and as considering the dignity of his person was equivalent to the sin and demerits of all Mankind 2. That his righteousness imputed to us doth not exempt us from acquiring a righteousness inherent in us this were to disappoint the end of his suffering which was to redeem us from our vain conversation and make us a peculiar people zealous of good works 3. That this purchase of Salvation by Christ for Believers is not to render them idle or secure or presumptuous where there is such a disposition of Soul it is an evident Indication that it is not yet truly united unto Christ by true Faith and Love his Grace is sufficient to preserve us and alwayes ready to do it if we do not wilfully neglect or reject it THE VICTORY OF FAITH Over the WORLD I. JOH V. 4 For whosoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even your faith THese things are herein considerable 1. The Act which is here declared Victory or Overcoming 2. The Person that exerciseth this act or concerning whom this act is affirmed described by this description a person that is born of God 3. The Thing upon which this act of victory is exercised viz. the world 4. The Instrument or Means by which this act is exercised viz. Faith 5. The Method or Order or Formal Reason whereby faith overcometh this world Some few Observations I shall deliver touching all these in the order proposed I. Victory or Overcoming is a subjugation or bringing under an opposing party to the power and will of another and this victory is of two kinds complete and perfect or incomplete and imperfect 1. The notion of a complete victory is when either the opposing party is totally destroyed or at least when despoiled of any possibility of future resistance Thus the Son of God the Captain of our Salvation overcame the World Joh. 16.33 Be of good cheer I have overcome the world and thus when we are delivered from this body of death we shall overcome the world this complete victory will be the portion of the Church and Christian triumphant Again 2. There is a victory but incomplete such as the victory of the children of Israel was over the Canaanites which though they were subdued as to any possibility of a total reacquiring of a superiority or equality of power yet they were not subdued from a possibility of annoying disquieting and rebelling they remained still thorns to vex and disturb though not to subdue their conquerors there was still an over-ballance of power in the victors though not wholly to extirpate them And this is the condition of the Christian militant in this world he keeps the world in subjection and every day gets ground upon it but he cannot expect to obtain a perfect complete and universal conquest of it till he can truly say with our Blessed Lord Joh. 14.30 The prince of this world hath nothing in me Which cannot be till our change comes for till then we carry about with us lusts and passions and corruptions which though with all vigilancy and severity kept under and daily impaired in their power and malignity will hold a correspondence with the world and the prince thereof and be ready to deceive and betray us though never to regain their empire and sovereignty and the reason is significantly given by the same Apostle 1 Joh. 3.9 For his feed abideth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God Indeed he may and shall have sin as long as he hath flesh about him 1 Joh. 1.8 If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us But although we have sin still abiding in us and like the the byass in a Bowl warping us to the world yet that vital seminal principle of the grace of God in Christ always keeps its ground its life and tendency toward heaven and wears out wasts and gradually subdues the contrary tendency of sin and corruption II. The Person exercising this act of victory and conquest he that is Born of God All men by nature may be said in some sense to be born of God the Apostle tells the Athenians Act. 17.28 We are all his off-spring But in this place this heavenly birth is a second a supervenient birth from God and hence it is called Regeneration the New birth birth of the water and the Spirit birth of the Spirit the formation of Christ in the soul and the creature so new born stiled the New creature the New man a partaker of the divine nature born not of the will of man nor of the will of the flesh but born of the will of God And all these and the like expressions are figurative and seem to carry in them a double analogy first to the first creation of mankind and secondly to the ordinary generation of mankind since their first creation 1. As to the former analogy we know by the Holy Word that the first man was the root of all mankind stamped with the signature of the image of Almighty God principally consisting in Knowledge Righteousness and Holiness and stood or fell as the common representative of all mankind This image of God was in a great measure lost and defaced by the fall of man and more every day spoiled by the actual sins and acquired corruptions of his descendants Christ the second Adam had instamped upon him a new inscription of the glorious God came to be a common head root and parent of as many as are united unto him by faith love and imitation and to instamp anew upon them that lost and decayed image of God who thereby put on the New man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Ephes 4.24 and so becoming a New creature 2 Cor. 5.17 Galat. 5.6 renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him Coloss 1.10 they receive a new stamp and impression from this great exemplar Christ Jesus the true image of the invisible God 2. The second analogy is to the ordinary generation of mankind wherein as a little but powerful vital principle which we call the Soul forms and moulds the foetus according to the specifical nature of man in all his lineaments and proportions and never gives over its operation till it hath completed that bodily mass into its full complement of parts and afterwards gradually augments and perfects it in his organs and faculties So by a vital principle derived from God through Christ into the soul the same is moulded fashioned formed increased and perfected according to this new principle of life which is usually called Grace Whereby it comes to pass that as the soul is the vital and conforming principle of the body so
motions and tendencies of our Sensual Appetite This sensual appetite is in it self good placed in us by the God of Nature for excellent ends viz. for the preservation of the individual nature as eating and drinking and those invitations of sense subservient thereunto or for the preservation of the species as the desires of sexes But they then become a sinful part of this inferior world 1. when they become inordinate 2. or excessive 3. or unseasonable or generally 4. when they are not subordinate in their actings to the government of reason enlightened by moral or religious light A Christian hath no such enemies without him as unruly and undisciplined lusts and passions within him and it is a vain thing to think of overcoming the world without us until this world within us be brought into subjection for without the corruptions and lusts within the world and the evil men of the world and the evil one of the world could not hurt us Non vulnus adactis Debetur gladiis percussum est pectore ferrum The wedge of gold was an innocent thing but Achan's covetous heart within gave it strength to do harm We come into the world as into a great shop full of all variety of wares accommodate to our senses lusts and affections and were it not for these those wares would lye long enough upon the hands of the prince of this world before they could get within us or corrupt us 2. The world without us is of three kinds 1. The Natural world which is the work of Almighty God most certainly in it self good and is not evil but accidentally by man's abuse of himself or it It doth contain a general supply of objects answerable to the desires of our vegetable and sensible nature and the exigences and conveniences of it is a great shop full of all sorts of wares answerable .... there is wealth and places and delights for the senses and it becomes an enemy to us by reason only of the disorder and irregularity of those lusts and passions that are within us and by reason of the over-value that we are apt to put upon them they are indeed temptations but they are only passive as the wedge of gold did passively tempt Achan but it was his own lust and covetousness that did him the harm the rock doth not strike the ship but the ship strikes the rock and breaks it self This world as it is not evil in it self so most certainly it is full of goodness and benevolence to us it supplies our wants is accommodate to the exigences and conveniences of our nature furnisheth us with various objects and instances of the divine goodness liberality bounty of his power and majesty and glory of his wisdom providence and government which are so many instructions to teach us to know and admire and magnifie him to walk thankfully dutifully and obediently unto him to teach us resignation contentedness submission and dependence upon him A good heart will be made better by it and if there be evil in it it is such as our own corrupt natures occasions or brings upon it or upon our selves by it and it is a great part of our Christian warfare and discipline to teach us to use it as it ought to be used and to subdue those lusts and corruptions that abuse it and our selves by it Again secondly there is another world without us the malignant and evil world the world of evil Angels and of evil Men Mundus in maligno positus and the great mischiefs of this world are of two kinds viz. 1. Incentives and temptations from it that are apt to bring the rest of mankind into the evil of sin and offence againft God such as are evil examples evil commands evil counsels evil perswasions and sollicitations 2. The troubles and injuries and vexations and persecutions and oppressions and calumnies and reproaches and disgraces that are inflicted by them And the evil that ariseth from these are of two kinds viz. such as they immediately cause which is great uneasiness and griefs and sorrow and again such as consequentially arise from these namely the evil of sin as impatience discontent unquietness of mind murmurings against the Divine Providence doubtings of letting go our confidence in God disturst unbelief and putting forth our hands to iniquity to deliver our selves from these inconveniences either by unlawful or forbidden means by sinful compliances with the sinful world by falling in with them to deliver our selves from their oppressions persecutions or wrongs by raising commotions engaging in parties and infinite more unhappy consequences And thirdly there is a third kind of world which is in a great measure without us namely the accidental or more truly the providential world in relation to man and his condition in this world and is commonly of two kinds viz. prosperous or adverse External or worldly Prosperity consists in an accommodate condition of man in this world as health of body comfort of friends and relations affluence or at least competency of wealth power honour applause good report and the like The dangers that steal upon mankind in this condition are pride haughtiness of mind arrogance vain-glory insolence oppression security contempt of others love of the world fear of death and desires of diversion from the thoughts of it luxury intemperance ambition covetousness neglect and forgetfulness and a low esteem of God the life to come and our duty 2. Adversity as sicknesses and diseases poverty loss of friends and estate publick or private disturbances or calamities and the like And though oftentimes these are occasioned by the evil or malignant world yet many times they seem to come accidentally and are apt to breed impatience discontent unquietness of mind distrust of Providence murmuring envy at the external felicity of others and that common discomposure which we ordinarily find in our selves and others upon like occasions IV. The fourth considerable is what is this Faith which thus overcometh the world which is nothing else but a deep real full sound perswasion of and assent unto those great truths revealed in the Scriptures of God upon the account that they are truly the word and will of the Eternal God who is truth it self and can neither deceive nor be deceived and herein these two matters are considerable 1. What are those divine truths which being really and soundly believed doth enable the victory over the world or the special objects of that victorious faith 2. What is that act of faith or belief of these excellent objects which thus overcometh the world 1. For the former of these although the whole body of divine truths is the adequate object of faith yet there seem to be certain special heads or parts of divine truths that have the greatest influence into this victory over the world I shall mention some of them namely 1. That there is one most Powerfyl Wise Gracious Bountiful Just and All-seeing God the Author of all being that is present in
to the consideration of the world without us as that which possibly is here principally intended and the victory of the Christian by his faith over it and first in relation to the Natural World This world as hath been observed is in it self very good and the evil that ariseth from it is only occasional Which is thus it is a goodly Palace fitted with all grateful objects to our senses full of variety and pleasantness and the soul fastening upon them is ready with Peter in the Mount to conclude that it is good to be here and therefore grows careless of the thoughts of another state after death or to think of the passage to it or making provision for it but to set up its hopes and happiness and rest in it and in these delights and accommodations that it yields our senses Faith overcometh this part of the world by assuring the soul that this lower world is only the place of our probation not of of our happiness our Inn not our home It presents to the mind a state of happiness to be attained after death infinitely surpassing all the contents and conveniences that this world can yield and that one great means to attain it is by setting our hearts upon it and not upon the world but using this present world not as the end of our hopes but as our passage to it and to carry a watchful hand over our desires and delights towards it or in it that it steal not away our heart from out everlasting treasure to carry a sober and temperate mind towards it and use of it as in the sight of that God that lends it us to excite our thankfulness and try our obedience not to rob him of the love and service and duty we owe unto him In short the methods whereby faith overcometh this part of the world are these 1. By giving us a true estimate of it to prevent us from overvaluing it 2. By frequent re-minding of us that it is only fitted to the meridian of this life which is short and transitory and passeth away 3. By presenting unto us a state of future happiness that infinitely surpasseth it 4. By discovering our duty in our walk through it namely of great moderation and vigilancy 5. By presenting unto us the example of the Captain of our Salvation his deportment in it and towards it 6. By assuring us that we are but Stewards unto the great Lord of the Family of Heaven and Earth for so much as we have of it and that to him we must give an account of our stewardship 7. By assuring us that our great Lord and Master is a constant observer of all our deportment in it 8. And that he will most certainly give a reward proportionable to the management of our trust and stewardship viz. if done sincerely faithfully and obediently to our great Lord and Master a reward of everlasting happiness and glory but if done falsly sinfully and disobediently then a reward of everlasting loss and misery 2. As to the second kind of world the Malignant World of evil men and evil Angels and therein first in relation to the evil Counsels and evil Examples that sollicit or tempt us to breach of our duty to God the methods whereby faith overcometh this part of the malignant world are these 1. It presents unto us our duty that we owe to God and which we are bound indispensibly to observe under the great penalty of loss of our happiness 2. It presents us with the great advantage that we have in obeying God above whatsoever advantage we can have in obeying or following the sinful examples counsels or commands of this world and the great excess of our disadvantage in obeying or following the evil examples or counsels of the world and this makes him at a point with these follicitations peremptory to conclude it is better to obey God than man and with Joseph How can I commit this great wickedness and sin against God 3. It presents Almighty God strictly observing our carriage in relation to these temptations 4. It presents us with the displeasure and indignation of the same God in case we desert him and sollow the sinful examples or counsels of men and with the great favour love approbation and reward of Almighty God if we keep our fidelity and duty to him 5. It presents us with the noble example of our Blessed Saviour 6. It presents us with the transcendent love of God in Christ Jesus who to redeem and rescue us from the misery of our natural condition and from the dominion of sin and to make us a peculiar people zealous of good works chose to become a curse and dye for us the greatest obligation of love and gratitude and duty imaginable And then it leaves the Soul impartially to judge which is the better of the two and whether this malignant World can propound any thing that can be an equivalent motive to follow their commands or examples or that can equal the love of our Saviour the reward of eternal life and the favour of the ever-glorious God and which must be denied and lost by a sinful compliance with evil counsels commands or examples of an evil world It is true the world can perchance reward my compliance herein with honour and applause and favour and riches or they can punish my neglects with reproach and scorn and loss and poverty and it may be with death but what proportion do these bear to the favour and love of God and an eternal recompence of glory and endless happiness The terms therefore of my obedience to the loving and gracious God to whom I owe my utmost duty and obedience though there were no reward attending it do infinitely out-bid and out-weight whatsoever a sinful world can either give or inflict And secondly as to the other part or Scene of this malignant world Persecutions Reproaches Scorns yea Death it self Faith presents the soul not only with the foregoing considerations and that glorious promise Be faithful unto the death and I will give thee a crown of life but some other considerations that are peculiarly proper to this condition viz. 1. That it is that state that our blessed Saviour hath not only foretold but hath annexed a special promise of blessedness unto Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven 2. That there have gone before us a noble Cloud of Examples in all Ages yea the Captain of our Salvation was thus made perfect by suffering 3. That though it is troublesom it is but short and ends with death which will be the passage into a state of incorruptible happiness And this was that which made the Three Children at a point with the greatest Monarch in the world ready to inflict the severest death upon them Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us c. but if not know O king that we will not worship thy graven image which thou
hast is not inherent in thy self one of the meanest of those whom it may be thou oppressest is inherently as powerful as thee and could it may be over-match thee in Strength Wit or Policy but the Power thou hast is next under the dispensation of the Divine Providence from those men that either by their Promises Faith or Voluntary Assistance have invested thee with this Power This power is nothing inherent in thee but it depends upon the Fidelity or Assistance of others which if they either by Perfidiousness to thee or Resistance against thee or withdrawing their Assistance to thee shall call again home to themselves thou art like Samson having lost his locks Judg. 16. 17. thy strength will go from thee and thou wilt become weak and be like another man And how have the Histories of all Ages and our own experience shewn us by very frequent examples men unexpectedly and upon many moments and occurrencies seemingly most small and inconsiderable been tumbled in a moment from the most eminent and high degree of Power into a most despised and despicable condition Power hath very oftentimes like Jonas his Gourd been externally fair and flourishing when at the same time there lyes a Worm at the root of it unseen but in a moment gnaws asunder the roots and heart of it and it withers and for the most part the more extensive and immensive Humane Power grows the sooner it falls to pieces not only by the Divine Providence checking and rejecting but by a kind of natural result from its own exorbitance and excess for the greater it is the more difficult it is to manage it grows top-heavy and the Basis grows too narrow and weak for its own burden Besides it is the common mark of Envy and Discontent which watcheth sedulously all occasions to unhorse it and oftentimes prevails When power proves too grievous and over burdensom it loseth the end for which it was conferred and makes people desperate and impatient Entia nolunt malè gubernari If it be managed with Prudence and Moderation it is the greatest Benefit to Humane society But it is the burden of him that hath it if it be managed tyrannically and exorbitantly if fills the Master full of fears the People full of rage and seldom proves long-lived And what reason hast thou to be proud of what is most certainly thy burden or thy damage or both Again thou hast Strength or Beauty or Agility of Body Indeed this thou hast more reason to call thy own than any of the former but yet thou hast no cause to pride thy self in it thou canst not hold it long at best for age will decay that Strength and wither that Beauty and death will certainly put a period to it but yet probably this Strength or Beauty is not so long-lived as thy self no nor as thy youth a disease it may be is this very moment growing upon thee that will suddenly pull down thy Strength and rase this Beauty and turn them both into rottenness and loathsomness Nay let any observe it that will that strength and beauty that raiseth pride in the heart is of all other shortest-lived even upon the very account of that very pride For the oftentation and vain-glory of Strength puts it forth into desperate and dangerous undertakings to the ruine of the owner and pride of Beauty renders the owner thereof fond of the praise of it and so expose it to the view of others whereby it becomes a temptation to lust and intemperance both to the owner of it and others and in a little while becomes at once its own ruine and shame But it may be thou hast Wit and Judgment a quick and ready Understanding and hast improved them by great Study and Observation in great and profound Learning This I confess is much more thy own than any of the former Endowments but most certainly if thou art proud of any of these thou art not yet arrived to the highest improvement of Understanding namely Wisdom Folly and Madness may be consistent with a witty nay a learned man but not with a truly Wise man and this thy pride of these endowments or acquests still pronounceth and proclaimeth thee a fool for all thy wit and all thy learning For consider with thy self thy Wit and Learning are but pitiful narrow things in respect of the amplitude of the things that are to be known Maxima pars corum qua scimus est minima pars corum qua nescimus Take the most Learned Observant Philosopher that ever was in the world he never yet was fully acquainted with the nature of those things that are obvious to ordinary observation and near to him never was the person yet in the world that could give an accurate account of the nature of a Fly or a Worm in its full comprehension no nor of a spire of grass much less of himself and of his nobler Faculties much less yet of those glorious bodies that every day and night object themselves to our view What a deal of Uncertainty in Evidence and Contradiction do we find in the determination of the choicest wits and men of greatest learning even in things that are obvious and objected in their own sight to all their senses So that the greatest Knowledge that men attain to in the things of Nature is little else but a specious piece of Ignorance dressed up with fine words formal methods precarious suppositions and competent confidence 2. Consider how brittle and unstable thing thy Wit thy Parts thy Learning is Though Old Age may retain some broken monuments of thy wit and learning thou once hadst yet the floridness and vigour of it must then decay and gradually wither till very Old Age make thee a Child again if thou live to it But besides that a Feaver or a Palsie or an Apoplexy may greatly impair if not wholly deface and obliterate thy Learning deprive thee of thy Memory of thy Wit and Understanding Never be proud of such a priviledge or endowment which is under the mercy of a disease nay of a distemper in thy blood an adust humor a Hypocondriacal vapour a casual fume of a Mineral or a fall whether thou shalt hold it or lose it 3. But yet farther mark it while thou wilt and thou wilt then sooner perceive it in another than in thy self Wit and Learning in any man never in any case receives more foils more disadvantage more blemish more impair more than by Pride He that is proud of his own knowledge is commonly at his non ultra and rarely acquires more scorns instruction and stops the farther advance of his faculties knowledge or learning and undervalues and therefore neglects what he might learn from others Again Pride casts an Unseemliness Undecency and many times even a Ridiculousness upon the greatest Parts and Learning it is like the dead Fly in the Apothecary's Confection that makes the whole unsavoury How common and rife is this unhappy censure that
might receive it with as much readiness willingness and chearfulness as a faithful and diligent Servant would receive this command from his Master You must take such a Journey for me to morrow These and such like businesses as these besides the constant tenor of a just virtuous and piou◠life are the most important businesses of 〈◊〉 Christian First such as are of absolute necessity to him he may not he cannot be without them Secondly such as cannot be done else-where than in this life this world is the great Elaboratory for perfecting of souls for the next if they are not done here they cease to be done for ever death shuts the door and everlastingly seals us up in that state it finds us Thirdly And every season of this life is not at least so suitable for it sickness and pain and wearisome and froward old Age have business enough of themselves to entertain us and any man that hath had experience of either will find he hath enough to do to bear them or to struggle with them And fourthly We know not whether the grace and opportunities that God hath lent us and we have neglected in our lives shall ever be afforded again to us in the times of our Sicknesses or upon our Death-beds but a little portion of time in our lives and healths are furnished with thousands of invitations and golden opportunities for these great works Let us therefore redeem those portions of time that our life and health lends us for this great and one thing necessary And now if a man shall take a survey of the common course even of the Christian world we shall find the generality of Man-kind the veriest Children Fools and Mad-men that ever Nature yielded The very folly of Children in spending their time in Rattles and Hobby-horses is more excusable than theirs whose reason and experience should better instruct them There is not any man so senseless but he knows he must die and he knows not how soon he shall hear of that sad Summons and if he were so brutish as not to think of it or believe it yet the weekly Bills of Mortality gives him daily instances of it and yet if we do but observe the world of men they do for the most part wholly trifle away their time in doing that which is evil or in doing nothing or in doing nothing to any purpose or becoming a reasonable Nature One man trifles away his time in Feasting and Jollity another in Gaming or vain and unnecessary Recreations in Hunting Hawking Bowling and other wastful expences of time another in fine Cloaths Powderings and Painting and Dressing another in hunting after Honours and Preferments or heaping up of Wealth and Riches and lading himself with thick clay another in trivial speculations possibly touching some criticisme or Grammatical nicety and all these men wonderfully pride themselves as the only wise men look big and goodly and when they come to die all these prove either vexations and tortures of a mis-spent time or at least by the very appearance of sickness and death are rendred poor empty insipid and insignificant things and then the Minister is sent for and Sacraments and nothing but penitence and complaints of the vanity of the world the unhappy expences of time and all the Wealth and Honour would be presently Sacrificed for the Redemption of those mis-spent hours and days and years that cannot be recalled nor redeemed by the price of a world But the great misery of man-kind is this they cannot or will not in the times of health anticipate the consideration of death and judgment to come nor put on any apprehensions or thoughts that the time will come when things will be otherwise with them than now is or that they will be driven into another kind of estimate of things than now they have and this their way is their Folly Man being in Honour in Health in Life understandeth not but becomes like the Beasts that perish 4. I come to the Reasons why we ought thus to Redeem our Time which may be these 1. Our time is a Talent put into our hands by the great Lord of the whole Family of Heaven and Earth and such whereof we are to give an account when our Master calls and it will be a lamentable Account when it shall consist only of such Items as these Item So much of it spent in Plays and Taverns and Gaming Item So much of it spent in Sleeping Eating Drinking Item So much spent in Recreations and Pastimes Item So much spent in getting Wealth and Honour c. and there remains so much which was spent in doing nothing 2. Our time is a Universal Talent that every man that lives to discretion hath Every man hath not a Talent of Learning or of Wealth or Honour or Subtilty of Wit to account for but every man that lives to the Age of Discretion hath time to account for 3. Every man hath not only a Talent of Time but every man hath a Talent of Opportunity to improve this Talent in some measure put into his hand The very works and light of Nature the very principles of natural Religion are lodged in the hearts of all men which by the help of his natural reason he might exercise to some acts of Service Duty and Religion towards God But the Christian hath much more 4. The Redemption and Improvement of our Time is the next and immediate End why it is given or lent us and why we are placed in this life and the wasting of our time is a disappointment of this very end of our being for thereby we consequently disappoint God of his Glory and our selves of our happiness 5. Upon the management and disposal of our time depends the everlasting concernment of our Souls Ex hoc momento depende◠〈◊〉 If it be redeemed improved imploved as it ought to be we shall in the next moment after death enter into an immutable eternal and perfect state of glory 〈◊〉 be either sinfully or idly spent we fall into an everlasting irrecoverable and unchangeable state of misery 6. The business we have to do in this life in order to the cleansing of our souls and fitting them for glory is a great and important business and the time we have to live hath two most dangerous qualities in reference to that business 1. It is short our longest period is not above 80. years and few there be that arrive to that Age. 2. It is very casual and incertain there be infinite accidents diseases and distempers that cut us off suddenly as acute diseases such as scarce give us any warning and considering how many strings as it were thereare to hold us up and how small and inconsiderable they are and how easily broken and the breach or disorder of any of the least of them may be an in-let to death it is a kind of Miracle that we live a month Again there be many diseases that render us in a manner dead while we live as Apoplexies Palsies Frenzies Stone Gout which render our time either grievous or very unuseful to us 7. Time once lost is lost for ever It is never to be recovered all the Wealth of both the Indies will not redeem nor recall the last hour I spent it ceaseth for ever 8. As our time is short so there be many things that corrode and wast that short time so that there remains but little that is serviceaable to our best imployment Let us take but out of our longest lives the weakness and folly of Childhood and Youth the impotency and morosity of our old Age the times for eating drinking sleeping though with moderation the times of sickness and indisposedness of health the times of Cares Journeys and Travel the times for necessary Recreations interview of Friends and Relations and a thousand such expences of time the residue will be but a small pittance for our business of greatest moment the business I mean of fitting our souls for glory and if that be mis-spent or idely spent we have lost our treasure and the very flower and jewel of our time 9. Let us but remember that when we shall come to Die and our Souls sit as it were hovering upon our lips ready to take their flight at how great a rate we would then be willing to purchase some of these hours we once trifled away but we cannot 10. Remember that this is the very Elixir the very Hell of Hell to the damned Spirits that they had once a time wherein they might upon easie terms have procured everlasting rest and Glory but they foolishly and vainly mispent that time and season which is now not to be recovered FINIS THE Great Audit WITH THE ACCOUNT OF THE Good Steward Rom. 8.28 2 Cor. 4.17 Rom. 8.18 Lu. 13.1 2 v. Jos 9.2 3. 〈◊〉 Act. 28.4 Isa 51.20 Lam. 3.39 Rom. 8.28 Heb. 12.28 Psal 119.75 1 Cor. 10.13 2 Cor. 4.17 2 Kings 6.17 Heb. 5.9 Isa 53.7 Heb 12.24 v. Rom. 8.32 * By Adoption and participation of the Divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 v. Antonin 1.8 se 45. Hand minw vis Intellectrix ubique circumfusa est omni qui trahere potest se ingerit quam communis hic aer omni spirare volenii Effles 10.4 v. Prov. 25.15 A sofi tongue breaketh the bone
our Saviour Luk. 22.61 and the Lord turned and looked upon Peter certainly that look of our Saviour as it carried a secret message of a gentle reprehension so also of much sorrow and grief in our Lord as if he should have said Ah Peter canst thou see thy Saviour thus used and wilt thou not own me Or if thou wilt not yet must thou needs deny me deny me thrice deny me with oathes and with execrations The unkindness of a Disciple and such a Disciple that hast been privy to my Glory in my Transfiguration and to my Agony in the Garden cuts me deeper than the scorns and derision of these abjects But that 's not all this apostacy of thine these denials these oathes these execrations will lye heavy upon me anon and add to that unsupportable burden that I am under the Thorns and the Whips and the Nails that I must anon suffer will be the more envenomed by these Sins of thine and thou castest more gall into that bitter Cup that I am drinking than all the malice of mine enemies could do In sum though thou goest out and weepest bitterly yet these Sins of thine would stick unto thy Soul unto eternity if I should not bear them for thee they cost thee some tears but they must cost me my blood The next morning the high Priests and Elders hold a second consultation as soon as it was day Luk. 22.66 their malice was so sollicitous that they prevent the morning Sun and after they had again examined him and in that Council charged him with Blasphemy the Council and the whole multitude lead him bound to Pilate and there they accuse him and to make their accusation the more gracious charge him with Sedition against the Romans and though he had no other advocate but silence and innocence for he answered them nothing yet the Judge acquits him Luk. 23.23 I find no fault in him and yet to shift his hands of the employment and to gratifie an adversary he sends him to Herod and his accusers follow him thither also Luk. 23.10 the chief Priests and Scribes vehemently accuse him Herod when he had satisfied his curiosity in the sight of Jesus to add to the scorn of our Saviour exposeth him to the derision of his rude Souldiers and cloathes him in a gorgeous Robe and remands him to Pilate Thus in triumph and scorn he is sent from place to place first to Annas then to Caiphas then convented before the Council of the Priests then sent into the high Priest's Hall then re-convened before the Council then sent bound to Pilate and from thence to Herod and from him back again to Pilate and in all those translations from place to place exposed unto and entertained with new scorns and derisions and contempts At his return to Pilate he again the second time declares his Innocence that neither he nor Herod found any thing worthy of death Luk. 23.15 and yet to gratifie the Jews he offers to have him scourged whom he pronounceth innocent yet to avoid the gross injustice of a sentence of death offers to release him to observe their custom but this could not not satisfie To preserve their custom and yet to fulfil their malice they choose the reprieve of Barabbas a murderer and importune the crucifying of the innocent Jesus and now the third time Pilate pronounceth him innocent Luk. 23.22 and yet delivers him over to be crucified The Executioners did it to the uttermost and and to add pain and scorn to his scourging put upon him a Crown of thorns and in this disguise of blood and contempt he brings him forth shews him to his prosecutors Joh. 19.5 Behold the man as if he should have said You Jews that that have accused this man must know I find no fault in him yet to satisfie your importunity I have delivered him over to the severest and vilest punishment next unto death Scourging and Scorn here he is see what a spectacle it is let this satisfie your Envy But all this will not serve there is nothing below the vilest of deaths can satisfie all cry out Crucifie him and when yet the Judge professeth he finds nothing worthy of death they impose a Law of their own We have a law and by our law he ought to dye because he made himself the Son of God But when this rather made the Judge the more cautious they engage him upon his fidelity to Casar his Master He that maketh himself a King speaketh against Casar But all this was not enough but at length the importunity of the Priests and people prevailed and Pilate who had been before warned by the monition of his Wife and had these several times pronounced him innocent yet against the conviction of his own Conscience to satisfie and content the Jews adds this farther cruelty and unjustice to what he had before done gave sentence that it should be as they required Luk. 23.24 delivered him over to that cursed and servile death of Crucifixion and yet his persecutors malice and envy not satisfied but after his judgment pursue the execution of it with as great malice scorn and cruelty as they had before used in obtaining it His Crown of thorns upon his head a purple Robe upon his body the Blood of his scourging and thorns all covering his visage a Reed in his right hand and the base and insolent multitude with spittings and strokes and reproaches abusing him till his Cross be ready and then the purple Robe is taken off and he conducted to the place of his Execution and to add torment to his shame our Blessed Lord wearied with an agony and long watching the night before and from the time of his apprehending hurried from place to place and his blood and spirits spent with the scourging and thorns and blows and which is more than all this a soul within laden with a weight of sorrow and the burden of the wrath of God which did drink up and consume his spirits yet in this condition he is fain to bear his burdensom Cross towards the place of his Execution Joh. 19.17 till he was able to carry it no longer but even fainted under it and then Simon of Cyrene is compelled to bear it to the place When he comes to the place of Execution he is stript stark naked and his clothes afterwards divided by lot among the Souldiers Matth. 27.35 and his naked body stretched upon the Cross to the uttermost extension of it Psal 22.17 I may tell all my bones they look and stare upon me and at the uttermost extension which the cruel Executioners could make of our Saviour's body his hands and his feet nailed to that Cross with great Nails through those tender parts full of nerves and arteries and most exquisitely sensible of pain And in this condition the Cross with our Saviour's body is raised up in the view of all and that even in this his execution that the shame and ignominy of the manner