greater cause to weep and howl even in the fulness of their sufficiency than they have to rejoyce and be glad It 's said of Jehoshaphat that he had Silver and Gold in abundance Riches and Honour in abundance 2 Chron. 17. 5 6. but his heart was lift up to God in the ways of God He valued not himself by his Riches and Honour but by his relation to God and interest in him without whom all other things had been but low-priz'd Commodities and of very little account with him The wicked man's Riches Honours and good things are his All for what hath he more God pays them their Portion in the World's Coin and in a little while will say unto them You have received your Consolation And then they will wish that they had begg'd their Bread with Lazarus on Earth rather than their Water with Dives in Hell. Oh! pity these miserable Souls they have nothing within them or without them that can do them any good They have nothing but Sin within them and that will damn them they have nothing but the World without them and that cannot save them no it will prove a heavy Mill-stone about their necks which will sink them down deeper into the Gulf of Eternal Woe and Misery I now pass on to the next which is the 26th verse My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Where you have the Psalmists Complaint And secondly the Psalmists Comfort In the former part of the verse you find him going forth weeping My flesh and my heart faileth but because he had within him precious seed For light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart This seed is already sown in their Hearts and Souls Therefore in the latter part of the verse we find him returning again rejoycing with his Sheaves in his bosom But God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever We will first consider his Complaint My flesh and my heart faileth 〈◊〉 will fail my flesh will fail my heart will fail in a little time He speaks in the present tense to notifie the certainty of the failure Such forms of speech are frequently used in Scripture Babylon is fallen is fallen i. e. Babylon shallas surely fall as if it were fallen already The Scripture speaks often of things that will be done as if they were at present done Rom. 8. Whom he justified them he glorified that is they shall as certainly be glorified as if they were already in the Kingdom of Glory Thus here My flesh and my heart faileth that is it 's sure and certain that it will be so My flesh my heart we are not to understand it exclusivè as if it were only appropriate to himself and were not the case of others as weâ—l as his no but you are to understand it inclusivè as meant of all that dwell in these fleshly Tabernacles and Houses of Clay This is a common case there is no exemption from this general Calamity and Affliction The Doctrine from hence which I shall but briefly insist on is this Doct. That the flesh and the heart of every man will certainly fail Though at present this flesh of ours may flourish as the Grass and may be in its beauty as the Flower in the field yet as the Grass soon withereth and the Flower soon fadeth so will it be with our flesh Though at present these hearts of ours may be sound and strong though they are every moment moving and beating in our bosoms always opening or shutting Still busie either in a way of contraction or dilatation but e're long all this work will fail this motion will cease the heart will faint and succumb and the strings of it will be broken in pieces Mans slesh and heart will surely fail I shall in a few words animadvert 1. Vpon the failing of mans Flesh 2. On the failing of mans Heart And then 3. Shew whence this failing proceeds and doth arise And 4. Make some brief Application 1. Mans Flesh that will fail Flesh sometimes is taken in Scripture Sensu morali or rather immorali corrupto in a moral or immoral and corrupt sense for the depraved Nature for the unregenerate Part in man As in Gal. 5. 17. The flesh lusteth against the spirit Rom. 7. 18. In my flesh there dwelleth no good thing So in Gal. 5. 19. The works of the flesh are manifest c. But this is not the meaning of it here Though this flesh shall fail and doth fail for in every regenerate Soul it is dying daily Sin in the Godly hath lost its Sword. So that it can't kill it hath lost its Scepter so that it can't rule and in a few days it shall lose its Being its Habitation and Residence The death of the Body shall be the destruction of the body of death Now sin is dying in them it hath received a deadly wound but then it shall breathe out its last and live no longer to be a Thorn in their Eyes or a Goad in their Sides to vex and disquiet their righteous Souls as now it doth from day to day Then this cursed Inmate shall be turned out of doors and Grace shall dwell alone in the Soul for ever This body of death is now under a Curse and then the Curse of the barren Fig-tree shall fall upon it and no fruit shall ever grow on it more But secondly Flesh is taken and to be understood sensu naturali physico in a natural and physical sense and thus we are to take it here For the fleshly part of man that fleshly substance that our bones are covered withal that fleshly Tabernacle in which the Soul of man doth dwell This flesh will fail Isa 40. 6 7. All flesh is grass and the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field the grass withereth and the flower fadeth so will the flesh All the goodliness of it its comeliness strength and beauty all will fail A blast will come upon all which will cause it to wither and decay which will turn it into rottenness and make it become like a Moth-eaten garment Job 13. 28. How beautiful soever you may now be in a few days your beauty shall be turned into deformity And how strong soever you at present be it will not be long but this flesh of yours will become so weak that it will not be able any longer to hold the spirit The Lord hath determined a Consumption to come upon all flesh Isa 28. 22. and he hath many ways and methods to bring it about As in Deut. 28. 21 22. Either by the pestilence or a fever or an inflammation or an extream burning or the sword c. How many hundred diseases and distempers are there up and down in the world effecting this determined consumption If God give any one of them a Commission to come to us and to effect the same as surely at one time or
time in a visible way and they will be brought into desolation even in a moment VSE I. Examine your selves whether God be your All Can you say Whom have we in Heaven but thee and that there is nothing on Earth that we desire besides him Prove your own selves by this Touchstone try your selves by this Weight and Ballance of the Sanctuary If you do not attain to this you are reprobate Silver and the Lord will reject you We have reason to examine our selves about this matter 1. Because there are but few that make God their All Many give him glorious Titles and challenge an interest in him they call him their Lord their God and their King yet in their serious and practical thoughts have higher estimations of lying vanities than of God blessed for ever Many there are that hear the Word of the Lord they come before him as his people use to do and sit before him as his people use to sit but amongst these how few are to be found that make him their All that look for no happiness no comfort no good but in the enjoyment of him 2. We have reason to examine because of the necessity of it it must be done Woe unto us if it be not done we are no Christians without it we are not in the state of Grace if this be not We are no more Saints whatever our Profession may be than the picture or carkass of a man is a man. Oh! if we do not make God our All though we may seem to be something and may deceive our selves and others yet in God's account we are nothing and God will make nothing of us i. e. will have no regard of us or respect unto us another day To help us now a little in our enquiry about this matter I shall give you a few Characteristical Marks of such a Soul as makes God his All. 1. This Soul will love to draw near to God To draw near to him by Faith by Prayer and in all the Duties and Ordinances of his Worship you read in the last verse of this 73 Psalm It is good for me to draw near to God So saith every one that makes God his All Oh I love to draw near to God One day in the Courts of the Lord is better to me than a thousand elsewhere I was glad when they said unto me Come let us go into the house of the Lord Whilst others say unto God Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways Job 21. 14. And again chap. 22. 17. They said unto God Depart from us and what can the Almighty do for us We shall get no good by Gods drawing near to us nor by our drawing near to him and in the 15th verse of the 21 chap. of Job What is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit should we have if we pray unto him This is the language of the men of the world their words are indeed stout against the Lord but saith the Soul that makes God his All it 's good for me whatsoever the sentiments and apprehensions of carnal ones are this I am sure of it 's good for me I believe it to be good and I have found it to be good all the people of God say it's good for them and I will say it's good for me to draw near to God Lord saith Peter Whither should I go but unto thee Thou hast the words of eternal life Lord saith this Soul Whither should I go but unto thee I love I love to come to thee for thou art my All and all my Springs are in thee and slow from thee 2. He is one that fears to sin against God He fears indeed nothing more his Motto is Nil nisi peccatum timeo There is nothing in all the world that I fear more than sin because this is the only thing that can separate between him and his God and that can make a partition wall between him and his great All. He fears sin more than suffering and will chuse it rather than iniquity because suffering doth not separate between the Soul and God. He fears sin more than poverty than sickness than death it self for none of these can separate between the Soul and God. He knows what is exprest Rom. 8. ver 35 c. That tribulation distress persecution famine nakedness peril or sword neither height nor depth death or life i. e. The pains of death or the afflictions and sorrows of life can separate from the love of God in Christ Jesus therefore he fears sin more than all Sin is against God suffering is only afflictive to the Creature It 's sin only that causes God to hide his Face from us and to set his Face against us 3. When other things come into Competition with God this Soul that accounts God his All will leave them and cleave to God. If he can't injoy Father and Mother Brethren and Sisters Houses and Lands with God he will leave them all because they are not his All and will cleave to God. As Rath left her Kindred and her Fathers house and joyned her self to Naomi And as it 's said a man shall leave his Father and Mother and shall cleave to his Wife in like manner will that Soul do whose All the Lord is As Mephibosheth said Let Ziba take all since the King is returned in peace 2 Sam. 19. 29 So saith he Let all go I am willing to forgo them all if God will return to me in peace and abide with me I shall say My lines are fallen in a fruitful place and truly I have a goodly heritage Sometimes we may see a Servant following two Gentlemen but unto which of these the Servant belongs we can't tell until they part asunder and then the Servant will go with the one and leave the other While we can have God and the world both it 's hard to say which is our All and which is our Master that we desire to serve but when they come to part asunder and we can no longer injoy God and the world together that Soul whose All the Lord is will resolve with Joshua that he will serve the Lord and as the Needle in the Compass leaves all the other points and stands to the North so will he leave all his other injoyments and joyn himself to the Lord in an everlasting Covenant to love the name of the Lord to fear him and serve him for ever 4. Such as these will not be envious at the foolish when they see the prosperity of the wicked I mean this temptation will not abide in and upon them they will not remain under the power of it though they may be surprized with it but they will soon get out of it He that makes God his All cannot but see that tho' they seem to possess all things yet indeed they have nothing that they are more to be pitied than to be envyed and that they have
other he will then will our Beauty consume away as a moth and this blow of his hand will make our flesh to fail 2. Mans heart will fail This heart of man which is that part that is primum vivens and ultimum moriens in him which is first alive and dies last this heart will fail grow cold and die away It dies last but die it must This strong hold in man will be assaulted and forced nolens volens whether it will or no to surrender to the power of sickness and death Sickness will come and closely besiege it one Disease and Distemper or another will give it a Summons then Death will come that Mighty Conqueror and break the very strings of it and so quite subdue it Thus as you read Eccles 12. ver 6. This golden bowl will be broken and the pitcher will be broken at the fountain and the wheel will he broken at the cistern that is the heart of man with all the instrumental and subservient parts whereby supplies of Blood and Spirits are conveighed from it into the several parts of the Body will break and fail and the Offices of these parts will cease and be performed no more 3. We are to shew from whence this failing doth proceed The answer to this Question hath occasioned many serious thoughts amongst the Wise men of this world I mean amongst many Sage Heathens and Profound Philosophers these evils and miseries they were sensible of and complained of them but the rise and original of them they could not come to the knowledge and understanding of This wisdom and understanding was too deep for them to sound with their line of reason and too difficult for them to attain unto Therefore they looked upon death and all the failings and tendences thereunto to be a common Tribute laid upon every Creature to pay to be an Universal Law that all Mankind must obey and submit to And to have the same reason that other mutations and changes have which they did see in the course of nature every day And they could render no other reason but the same which they gave when they saw other things dissolved into their Elements This is a common fate Sic fata volunt It 's so appointed by the Higher Powers but the reason of the appointment they could not find out And because they did apprehend no farther it 's no great wonder why they did fear death and dissolution no more than they did but rather expected or desired it as a rest from their labours and an end of all their sorrows and miseries But God hath shewn in his Word unto us the true cause of all our woe and the original of our failing and dying that all proceeds from mans sin Hinc illae lachrymae from this cursed root of bitterness doth spring and arise all our Worm-wood and Gall. Rom. 5. 12. By one mans disobedience sin entred into the world and death by sin Death with all its appurtenances with all that leadeth to it and all the miseries that follow after it all are the issues and products of sin There had been no sickness no death no failing of heart or flesh had there been no sin Man hath sown unto the flesh and therefore of the flesh must reap corruption Gal. 6. 8. Sin as naturally produceth these evils as every Seed doth produce and send forth its own Herb It 's this that hath opened the Sluce and let in that Inundation of miseries that we poor Creatures are assaulted and over-whelmed withal It 's storied Of a Person travelling in Germany and beholding the ruins and desolations which the Wars had made there that he said Haec sunt peccata Germanorum that is these ruins and desolations are the Germans sins meaning that their sins and provocations were the procuring causes of all their mischiefs and miseries James 4. ver 1. The Apostle proposes a question and gives the resolution of it From whence saith he come wars and fightings with all their mischievous and destructive attendances He tells us they come from the lusts of men that war in their members against the Lord and against their own peace comfort and tranquillity There had been nothing but good Seed in the whole Creation which would have brought forth good fruit had not man by his sin sowed tares There had been no pricking bryar nor grieving thorn there had been nothing to hurt or destroy in the whole Universe had it not been for mans sin Man hath sowed the wind and reaps the whirl-wind We will now make some brief Application and so dispatch this point VSE I. Let 's all look to this that all be well within with our Souls and Spirits because these failings and failures will certainly come upon our slesh and our hearts Oh look to your Souls and ask them often how they do And whither they are not in danger of failing too I mean of being lost and undone for ever Oh it 's sad to have a failing Body and a perishing Soul to have a pained and languishing Body and to have a pained and dying Soul troubles without and terrors within this must needs be doleful and dismal The spirit of a man will bear the infirmities and failings of the Body if that be but sound and in a good condition but if that be wounded and galled with the guilt of sin and apprehensions of wrath what is there then to help us to bear VSE II. Let 's think seriously of this failing Make me to know how frail I am Psalm 39. 4. Help me to apâ—rehend and consider what a poor failing Creature I am saith David those of you that have Bones full of Marrow and Breasts of Milk that are in your Health and Strength and seem to slourish like the green Bay-tree Oh consider this and lay it to heart that your Flesh and your Hearts must fail before it be long The Lord help us so to consider it that we may apply our hearts to Wisdom Oh that there were such an Heart within us Eccles 11. 8. If a man live many years and rejoice in them all yet let him remember the days of darkness for they will be many Oh don't let us forget the days of darkness let us not put away from us the evil days of failing of trouble and affliction because they will assuredly come upon us Some Heathens accounted it true Wisdom and sound Philosophy to meditate often of Death To be sure this would be of excellent use and would much conduce to the promotion of Piety and true Religion if we would be much in meditation on this Subject Let it be much in your thoughts in your lying down and in your rising up in your going out and in your coming in at home and abroad Oh consider that your Flesh and your Heart must fail in a little time This frequently considered on and often revolved in our minds would by the assistance and operation of the Spirit of grace doubtless better us to