Will the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more Is his mercy cleane gone for ever and doth his promise faile for evermore hath God forgotten to be gracious hath hee in anger shut up his tender mercies vers 7 8 9. Of latter times there are divers instances of very religious Christians among whom have been some worthy Divines who for a time have had their Faith so fearfully shaken as if it were ready to be pluckt up by the rootes as Luther that invincible Antagonist against the great Antichrist who after his conversion lay three dayes in desperation as M. * M. Perkins of spirituall desertion vol. 1. pag. 417. Perkins remembreth in his Booke of Spirituall Desertion Where also he makes mention of one M. Chambers who died in despaire saying he was damned Yet saith that judicious Divine it is not for any to note him with the black marke of a Reprobate for one thing saith he hee spake in extremity which must move all men to conceive well of him which was O that I had but one drop of Faith for by this it seemes be had a heart to repent and believe and therefore a penitent and believing heart indeed so far he and which may be an instance of much more moment to fence our hearts against finall despaire and to suspend our censures of others salvation when they seem as lost and forsaken by their heavenly Father We have it upon Evangelicall record that our Saviour on the Crosse cryed O God my God why hast thou forsaken me Mat. 27.46 Such words he uttered as man when as God as agood * Habes in conquerente reliclum se esse quia homo est habes eundem profitentem Latroni in Paradiso regnaturum quia Deus est Hilar. Can. 33. in Math. Father observeth hee promised Paradise to the converted Thiefe Luk. 23.43 Thirdly Had this young Gentleman died before he had been delivered from his fearfull distrust I should have imputed those passionate words which he uttered not to the disposition of his heart but to the distemper of his head And in his head rather to the lightnesse of his fancy which is most easily both moved and misled and which with memory and common sense is familiar and common to mankind with the beasts of the field then to his understanding wherein man partaketh with the excellency of the Angells and should have made my conjecture of his death by the antecedents of his life in the state of health which were such as if he had taken S. Paul's practice for his patterne which was so to exercise himselfe as to have alwayes a conscience void of offence towards God and man Act. 24.16 And such a life as †Non potest male mori quibene vixerit audeo dicere non potest malè mori qui bone vixerit Aug. inoperib Tom. 9. de disciplin cap. 2. Augustine or some other antient Writer under his Name sheweth can never end in a wretched death He that lived well cannot dye ill I dare say saith he againe he that hath lived well cannot dye ill Fourthly But that we should make no more doubt of his happy death then of his holy life God gave him a glorious victory over his violent enemy as to ¶ Luther in the place forementioned M. Iohn Glover Act. and Monum vol 3. pag. 423. col 2. Mistris Kath Bretergh See the Book of her life and death pag. 12 13 c. printed 1617. M Peacock Fellow of Brazen-nose Colledge Oxford pag. 25 c. Printed 1641. divers others of his deare children for he gave him not only a just apprehension of those wild words which recalled to his remembrance when his passion was becalmed had escaped his lipps but withall such a detestation of them as to account them a rebellion against the promised mercies of Christ and such a resolution against them that in most emphaticall manner he professed I will never rebell against thee my God any more Never Never Never and being conscious to himself that this retractation of his was cordially sincere he said of it with like affectionate expressions Was there ever such contrition and so having recovered his comfort and resolved for death with assured hope of everlasting life within a little while after he gave up the ghost What now remaineth but that his soule received by God his heavenly Father his body be committed to his earthly Mother and the example of his life laid up as a Legacy for those that survive him especially for young Gentlemen and great Heyres as he was that whether they live to possesse the Inheritance of their Fathers below or not they may when they dye inherit the Kingdome prepared from the foundation of the world for which Kingdome good Lord we pray thee daily to prepare us and in thy good time bring us unto it for thy deare Sonne Jesus Christ his sake Amen FINIS
out of credit too so as if it were some base and beggerly rudiment and could not without indignity to the discipline of the Gospell be continued The cause of this dislike and disdaine besides the inconsideration and negligence of many hath beene an over-high estimation of it in some who have set it up above the preaching of the Word and that so farre as for it to put downe the afternoones Sermon and some to cry quittance with such contempt would excummunicate Catechising out of the Church and yet both pretend the edification or building up of the people in Religion strange builders they be doubtlesse who either refuse the foundation of Catechisticall grounds or admitting of the ground-worke permit not the super-structure of preaching to be placed upon it but since authority hath restored the Sabbath to its right of a double service from the Pulpit so that the sacred seeds-men are allowed according to Solomons counsell In the morning to sow their seed and in the evening not to let their hand rest because they know not whether shall prosper this or that or whether they both shall be alike good Eccles 11.6 It were to be wished that the other service were resumed to ordinary practise and if any have so far Idolized it as in a blinde zeale unto it to blaspheme preaching * Mr. Prin in the Epist Dedicat before his first part of the Antipath of the Prelacy Ep. pag. 13. saying that expounding of the Catechisme is as bad as preaching we must not for all that revenge the wrong done to it upon that exercise which is of so good use to edification as hath been shewed but as we keep up the reputation both of prayer and preaching though some have cried up the one to put downe the other so should we uphold the practice of preaching and catechising as usefull assistants the one to the other both being ordered so as in pious discretion they ought to be so as may most promote the glory of God and the salvation of souls and with this we may well conclude the forme of this Question and so proceed to a consideration of the matter of it and of that first in Generall then in Particular The latter will fitly fall into the handling of the answer to which I will reserve it and for the Former it may minister unto us an Observation for the moving of grave and serious questions such were those of our Saviour before cited out of his Sermon in the Mount to which we will adde another of his of a matter of more weight and moment then the whole world It is that in the 16th of Mat. 26. What is a man profited if he shall gaine the whole world and loose his owne soule or what shall a man give in exchange for his soule which importeth that if there could be such a bargaine made that a man might have the whole world for the sale of his soule he should for all that be a looser by it for he might notwithstanding bee a bankrupt a beggar begging in vaine though but for a drop of cold water to coole his tongue Luk. 16.24 for prevention of which losse and distresse the Apostle multiplies many materiall questions in Emphaticall manner concerning the meanes viz. an utter estrangement from communion with the wicked which he presseth in this sort What fellowship hath righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse what communion hath light with darknesse what concord hath Christ with Belial what part hath he that beleeveth with the Infidell 2 Cor. 6.14 15. In such Questions as these is alwayes somewhat presupposed expressed or prepared whereby the hearer may be bettered since they are good to the use of edifying Ephes 4.29 and that they may be so to us we will now make some application of them and therein we shall first addresse a direction and admonition for materiall and profitable inquiries and then a reproofe to vaine curious and wicked Questions For the first it will be matter of great advantage Vse 2. for a prosperous passage to our Land of Promise to have in readinesse a catalogue of such Questions as may most conduce to quicken our consideration and care both of our present and future state and by them every day to catechise our selves in some such manner as this What is my Constitution whence mine Originall whither by dissolution shall I be drawne or driven am I not composed of a mortall body and of an immortall soule was not that at the first from the dust and shall it not at last be resolved into dust againe and my soule immediately derived from God infused by creation and created by infusion into my body and of much more value not only then it but then the whole world besides what is it that uniteth them together is it not the breath of life and what is that either breath or life is it any better then a quick vanishing vapour at least vanishable every moment And when it is vanished and my soule seperated from my body whither goeth it what becometh of it is it not put into a state whether of woe or welfare immutable and the lot of an happy or unhappy change answerable to the choice of an holy or unholy course And though by death my body be not only vile and lothsome both to sight and sent but farre asunder from my soule whether it be in Heaven or Hell for though Hell and the grave have both one * Sheoâ— Name the regions of darknesse and of the first and second death are at a very great distance will it not become by concomitance perpetuall partaker of the same condition with my soule whether it be carried by the Angells into Abrahams bosome or hurried by the Devils into the infernall pit Thence will fitly follow the question of the converted Keeper of the Prison I say keeper of the prison rather then of the prisoners for they were miraculously enlarged their bands loosed the doores opened by God for their deliverance Act. 16.33 What must I doe to be saved and must I not as he was presently taught be saved by my Faith by Faith in the pretious blood of the Sonne of God And doth not that Faith engage me to love him above all either things or persons and that love oblige me to keepe his Commandements even to the deniall of my desires and delights were they as deare unto me as my right eye or right hand to the laying downe of my life for him as he did for me and the renouncing of my nearest friends * Licet parvulus ex collo pendeat nepos licet sparso crine scissis vestibus ube a quibus te nutrierat mater ostendat licet Pater in limine jaceat percalcatum perge Patrem siccis oculis ad vexillum crucis evola Hieron ad Heliodoâ—uÌ„ Tom. 1 p. 2. when they shew themselves to me most affectionately friendly to take up his Crosse though I should be sure to sinke under
lives ‖ Arist Hist Animalium 11.6 cap. 22. being 30. yeares and what effects this affection worketh in the flesh when it is too fleshly Solomon partly sheweth Prov. 5.11 where he forewarneth the wanton of the consumption of the flesh by that meanes whereby though death approach with a slow pace yet it breeds a disease more painefull then death more shamefull then hanging and sometimes killeth as sodainely as the sharpest Sword when it is thrust to the heart whereof the †Plin. Hist cat lib. 7. cap. 53. Naturall Historian giveth for instance the example of Cornelius Gallus who had beene Lord Pretor and of T. Aetherius a Romane Knight both dying in the very act of unchastity Contrary to Love are Envie and Wrath yet as if they were reconciled for mans ruine they both concurte with it to impaire his health and to hasten his death Envie is a disease in the inward parts fretting asunder the heart-strings and eating into the very bones Prov. 14.30 which how unjustly soever set against anothers good for the dislike of that whether it be in deed or in appearance sets it on worke hath in this respect some affinity with justice since it joyneth the * Carpitque carpitur una suppliciumque suumest Ov Met punishment and sinne together for while an envious man repines at others he pines away himselfe and so is Eliphas his saying made good upon him to his hurt Envy slayeth the Ideot Job 5.2 Of Anger he giveth the same deadly sentence in the same place which is sometimes executed on the sodaine not only by a transient violence upon another but by an immanent vehemence upon the person of the Angry as a * Magirus against Galen Phi. 1.6 c. 16. late learned Philosopher sheweth confuting the opinion of an antient and famous Physitian and wondring that he holdeth otherwise and the reason he giveth of this deadlinesse of Wrath is because saith he it forceth the vitall spirits out of the heart without which a man cannot live Hope is another passion under which man is many times passive for hope deferred maketh the heart sick saith Solomon Prov. 13.12 and if utterly disappointed it turneth that sicknesse to death for as the Proverbe hath it but for hope the heart would breake so the hope being quite lost the heart is not likely long to hold out especially if the object of hope were a matter of moment Feare hath likewise a deadly force upon feeble spirits for ″ Causa multis moriendi suit morbum suum nosse Senec de brevit vitae ca. 18. pa 180. some have dyed for feare they should dye as a Gentleman at the siedge of S. Paul in France ″ Bishop Hall of Chistian moderation li 1. Sect 14. p. 158. fell downe starke dead in the breach without any stroake or touch save what his heart gave him by a fearfull apprehension of danger neere hand For sorrow how killing a passion that is we may learne by the plea of Judah with Joseph for the reducing of his Brother Benjamin back to Jacob It shall come to passe saith he when hee seeth that the Lad is not with us that hee will dye and thy servants shall bring the gray haires of thy servant our Father with sorrow to the grave Gen. 44.31 which though it usually kill by degrees inward griefe wearing the heart as teares doe the cheekes without yet sometimes it is such as slayeth outright upon the sodaine as * Charron of wisdome lib. 1 cap. 31. pag. 103. 1 Sam 4.18 some have observed and this appeareth by the holy story for that was it which smote old Eli to the heart before he fell downe and brake his neck for when a Messenger from the Warres brought sad tydings of the victory of the Philistimes against the Israelites hee fell backward and broke his neck upon the mention of the taking of the Arke which is particularly noted in the Text 1 Sam. 4.18 as the worst part of that ill newes and which set such a sad weight of sorrow upon his heart as bore him downe to the ground from whence he was never able to rise againe If any passion or affection be a friend to nature it is Joy yet that may prodigally dissipate the vitall spirits as the story of the Queene of Sheba sheweth 1 King 10.5 and what enemy more deadly then that when as * Plin. Nat. Hist l. 7. c. 53. Pliny noteth a Woman that thought her Son dead at the Battle of Canna dyed with an excesse of Joy at the sight of him could she have sped worse in the middest of the Battle ″ Ibid. so did Sophocles and Denis of Cicely being overjoy'd upon tidings brought unto them that they had won the best prize among the Tragicall Poets Besides the diseases of the body and passions of the mind within a man which in their excesse doe violently chase and force the soule out of its rightfull possession there come upon him many killing mishaps from without for very small matters may be of great moment to hasten the dispatch of death There is an ¶ In Nubia quae est Ethiopia sub Egypto venenum est cujâ—â— grani unius decima pars hominem vel unuÌ„ granum decem homines c. Dan. Senect Hypomnem Phys Hypom 2. cap. 2 pag 47. Ethiopian poison whereof one graine will kill a man in a moment and being devided into ten parts will kill ten men in a quarter of an houre and as mans life is a vapour so he whose breath if he would have formed it into a doome of condemnation might have been deadly to many had his breath stopped his life taken from him by the vapour or sent of a new white-limed Chamber It was * Hier. Epist Tom. 1. pag. 40. Jovianus the Emperour and the ‖ Bucholz Ind. Chronol Iud. Chronol ad An. 1574. p. 638. Cardinall of Loraine was lighted to his lodging and to his long-home both at once by a poisoned Torch and a lesse thing then a Torch a Candle lesse then a Candle the sent of the Snuffe of it may put a Woman into †Plin. nat hist lib 7. cap. 7. an untimely travaile and put her to pangs of Child-birth and of death both together The second generall cause of mans short and uncertaine life is bloody hostility for there are many men of blood and Belial and some are so mad upon desperate adventures that as the Wise man saith they lay waite for their owne blood they lurke privily for their owne lives Prov. 1.18 but more for the blood and lives of others who say unto their associates Come with us let us lay waite for blood let us lurke privily for the innocent without cause ver 11. We shall finde all pretious substance wee shall fill our houses with spoile v. 12. who out of greedinesse of gaine take the life of the owners thereof v. 19. and as out of greedinesse of gaine
otherwise of him then as a man of an empty skull or ill-tempered braines and unfit to have an estate committed to his trust though but for himself much more unfit that others should be put to depend upon his care or fore-cast Doubtlesse beloved it is much more foolish to mis-spend as most do the greatest part of this short and uncertain scantling of time then so to mis-imploy either lands or goods and yet their folly is more faulty then these examples doe imply for the fourth part of the ground is a permanent thing and the fourth part of the estate may be put into a sure hand and so be better imployed by others then by the owner it would be but he that hath wilfully and wickedly wasted three fingers of his hand-breadth of time as we have noted the measure of it out of the Psalmist cannot be sure that either himselfe or any one for him shall be trusted with the fourth for better use Of such foolish men as these there are so many that if the outside on their backs were suted to the lyning of their heads they would make as great a shew in publike Assemblies as yellow weeds doe in Corne-fields but they goe in habits like other men and some of them so farre beguile the world and themselves both as to be thought much wiser then they that bestow the most of their waking houres to better purpose Thus I have bestowed the Rod according to the sentence of the Wise-man upon the backe of fooles Prov. 26.3 and Chap. 19.29 3. The third Use of this short uncertainty of our State of mortality is to give a checke to the vaine confidence of many men who as if they were sure of time enough to pursue their pleasures and purposes with as full scope and compasse as they desire project many things which they mind to doe and promise and sometimes threaten what they will do when they know not whether their measure of time will reach home to such resolutions It is too great boldnesse to presume upon one day for as Salomon saith A man knowes not what a day may bring forth Prov. 27.1 The drunkard takes upon him when he invites his vicious associats to excesse to promise at their next meeting their cheere will mend upon them and they shall have more store of that they most desire Come saith he I will fetch wine and we will fill our selves with strong drinke and to morrow shall be as to day and much more abundant Esa 56. ult What er'e be to morrow it may be to morrow thou shalt not be or not as to day not powring in superfluous draughts but vainely begging perhaps for necessory dropps with the rich-man in flames Luk. 16.24 for of all lives none more uncertaine then a drunkards since he stores up a stocke of corrupt humours which are matter and mother and nurse to many deadly diseases within and from without he meets many times with an untimely death either by his own or anothers wrath for strong drink is raging as wee observed before out of the Proverbs of Salomon and that rage may be bloody to him haply from that hand which led him to excesse as many examples shew or by the unsteadinesse of head on horse-backe or staggering of his feet on ground he may be dashed upon some deadly danger and who hath not heard of many who have some of these wayes unexpectly perished and come to a fearefull end before they thought they had proceeded to the mid-way of their walke But there is a confidence so much more vaine then this though this I confesse be more vile then it as it reacheth further in extent as of those whom S. Iames noteth in the next words before my Text reproving them saying To day and to morrow we will goe to such a City and will tarry there a yeare and buy and sell and get gaine whereas you know not saith he what shall be to morrow Jam. 4.13 14. To day or to morrow say they we will goe if God say no neither to day nor to morrow shall they be able to make good their word for so short a time a darke night of death may if God will put an end to their dayes before Noone or the next night their soules may be taken from them as was said to the foole in the Gospell who flattered himselfe with the hope of enjoyment of much goods laid up for many yeares Luk. 12.19 And when they project a journey if they dye not so soone they may be disabled for travaile and either by sicknesse or lamenesse be under so imperious and peremptory arrest that they may not be able to move either a foote or finger towards it they say they will continue there a yeare But The farther they reach out their resolution of themselves without reckoning with God the worse and it may be in a moment they may be removed they know not yet whether to Heaven or Hell they will buy and sell the while say they but say God give them leave to live it may be he will not enable them to traffique they may be cast into such condition as they may have either no minde or no meanes to exercise commerce but they promise that and more too they will not only buy and sell but they will get gaine how know they that they may buy and sell and as the Proverbe hath it may live by the losse finding nothing but damage where they looked for advantage and it may be a damage unvaluable unrecoverable the losse of their soules and of Heaven which the gaine of a million of such worlds as this cannot countervaile nor once lost can ever recover Beyond both these vaine and vile boastings for the time to come was that bold and bloody speech of Esau wherein threatning his brother Jacob he promised himselfe a pleasing revenge The dayes of mourning for my Father are at hand then I will slay my brother Jacob Gen. 27.41 an insolent as well as a violent resolution for Isaacks and Iacobs life and his owne likewise were all at Gods disposall as a vapour to vanish or hold out as long as he pleased and it was at his choice which should dye first and though he were so hard-hearted as to purpose his brother should waite upon his Fathers funerall in blood which he would not follow with a teare it was in Gods power to keepe his hands from being as blood-guilty as his heart and to cut him short of his hand-breadth and to lengthen their measure as long as he listed There is a Proverbe which oftentimes proves a truth That threatned men live long for even Isaack who dyed soonest lived about 50. yeares beyond this and it is as true without a Proverbe that threatning men may dye soone that others may live not onely the more safely without hurt but the more securely without feare of such the Prophet David hath fore-faid that they shall not live out halfe their dayes Psalm
with such vehemency of affection as to take it for a penance to them to bestow one day in sad and sober consideration of the weightiest matters that concerne their eternall welfare how could they let loose the reynes of their lusts and drive them on in the furious pace of Jehu and powre them out as they doe upon all objects of sensuall satisfaction if they did think that they were as uncertaine as their lives and their lives but like the vapour which from the pipe they puffe out of their mouthes and noses Alas how little roome and spare time is here for so many meetings for feasting for drinking dauncing for gaming and other prodigall expences of pretious time which if they knew what it were worth they would rather rob their eyes of sleepe that they might watch and pray in the night then ryot and revell out their dayes and sometimes their nights too in sensuall pastimes wherein their life may vanish like a vapour and they taken away in the very act of some sensualty * Aâ— Gallâ—s and Aeâ—berius forementioned may passe from transient pleasure to permanent paine which will be so much more grievous to them as they have beene more addicted to carnall delights shewing themselves lovers of pleasures more then of God 2 Tim. 3.4 wheras if they had loved God more then their pleasures they might have enjoyed God and pleasures too not while a vapour appeareth which will quickly vanish away but for ever for in his presence is the fulnesse of joy and at his right hand are pleasures for evermore Psal 16. v. 12. The fifth Use of this vaine and vapour-like life of ours is to be a prop to our patience and so a cure of those unpleasing passions of Anger Envy and sorrow which as I have shewed before doe by their excesses much shorten mans life To the two first we may apply that of David Fret not thy selfe because of evill doers nor be thou envious against the workers of iniquity and the reason is because their time is but short they shall be soone out downe like grasse and wither like the greene herbe Psal 37. v. 72. And that though it be greene to day may be dried up to morrow as our Saviour Christ maketh the comparison Luk. 12.38 and if their prosperity last somewhat longer as some vapours vanish not so soone as others what cause to be angry or envious for that when they cannot have assurance to hold out untill the next houre If they thinke of the brevity and uncertainty of their time they will not be overjoyed in their owne estate if it were much better and longer then it is since their holding on from day to day is but a daily reprieve from that which every day may come upon them And if they thinke their death farre off it will make neverthelesse hast but much the worse speed for none dieth more unhappily then he that thinkes himselfe happy while he is here and thinks not how soon by death he may be snatcht away hence And for the third it may much conduce to compose us to patience against excessive sorrow under our crosses whether they be such as affect us with pain of sense or of losse For the former sort when they are sharpe we may the better beare them upon this consideration that what is usually violent is seldome permanent and that while life it selfe is so short as a vanishing vapour aggrievances cannot be long for death is an end of them as well as of us of us as well as of our deceased friends the losse of whom though the greatest temporall losse that can be for a true friend is as ones own soul Deut. 3.6 and a mans soule is more worth then a whole world Mar. 8.36 may the better be born upon the consideration of our uncertain and vanishing condition It may make much for the moderation of our griefe to thinke how little distance there may be betweene our friends funerall and our owne if God have taken them away it may be we have lost but a little of our enjoyment of their good company for if they be dead to day we may follow them and over-take them to morrow and our vapour of life cannot sooner vanish away then our soules may finish their voyage to the habitation of everlasting happinesse though as some make the measure the distance from earth to the heaven be 500. yeares journy were it to be measured after the manner of ordinary travile which is a great way on this side the rest of the righteous We should not then thinke the losse so great as if we had a long lease of our owne lives after theirs are expired and a certaine one too as it was to Hezekiah for 15. yeares reprieve from death after the sentence of death had passed upon him and if we take off the conceipt of our owne continuance whereof the greatest part is haply passed already we shall be disposed to more patience at parting with those who are most deare unto us who when they are dead can receive no good by our sorrowfull excesses for as humane Moralists can tell us it is pitty by the way that Christians should need to learne moderation of Heathens * Parcamus lathrymis nihil proficientibus faciliùs enim illinos dolor iste adjiciet quam illum nobis reducet Sen. consolat ad Polyb c. 23. p. 18. Immoderate griefe will send the living to the dead and not restore the dead to the living Now to draw to a Conclusion of that which will conclude us all in a narrow roome and it may doe it in a very short time if our life as S. James saith and we have shewed at large be but as a Vapour which may evaporate and vanish in a moment let us have the meditation of death so much in our minds that we may in our serious thoughts anticipate the pace of it though it be speedy and be prepared to meet with it at every step whether within doores or without in all we doe whether we eat or drinke or worke or rest let us still make account we are upon our last minute our lives being as uncertaine as a candle carried in the wind without a lanterne which may be put out with every blast This consideration with the love of God and feare of hell will keepe us upright in our walke towards heaven whither I would now by prayer commend you and dismisse you but that I suppose you expect some Comment upon that darke and dumbe Text before you and if custome did not call for it as a matter of conveniency conscience and friendship would claime it as a part of duty from me towards this worthy Gentleman deceased I yoke them both together Conscience and Friendship for friendship shall not engage me if I know it to goe one step beyond the limits to which conscience doth confine me though my words were of so much weight with all that heare me as