risen with a burning heat but it withereth the grass and the flower thereof falleth and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways Oh tell thy friends lands silver and gold that thou art going into Eternity and art presently to stand before the Judge of Quick and Dead and see what help they can afford thee Thou wilt certainly finde Solomons words true Prov. 11.4 Riches profit not in the day of wrath Beloved If we would know whether a man be happy or miserable we must not look upon him as he appears in his honours and riches c. but follow him to his death and the day of judgment see how he speeds there and how he comes off then for then the man comes to his proof and we shall see that all the riches of the world yield no profit in those great daies but then the highest carnal Monarch shall be no more respected by the Judge of all the world then the ugliest Devil of Hell when a poor godly servant or day-labourer shall be crowned with incorruptible glory before his face Oh therefore you rich men look among all your jewels and treasures whether you have a God and Christ and grace for your poor souls these only are the provision which will maintain you against the terrors of death and the dread of judgment 6. Exhortation to poor men to prepare for sickness and death We think them poor who have nothing to live on in this world but they are poor who have nothing to live on in the other world Poor people you cannot come at the silver and gold and riches of this world when you will but you have as much freedom to the riches of the other world as the mightiest Prince upon earth Thou mayst call God Father and ask what thou wilt and live upon the everlasting Kingdom of heaven as thy own and therefore you that are poor and godly let your riches of the other world comfort you against the poverty of this Look on thy cold Cottage and then look on thy house not made wiâ—h hands Look on thy poor leathern cloaths and then look how thou shalt be cloaâ—hed when thou appearest with Christ in glory Look on thy brown bread and course fare and then remember the entertainment which Angels and Saints have in heaven Oh poor people though you know not how to be maintained whilst you live yet get saving grace and you will be rich enough to go to heaven when you die The last Exhortation shall be to such who in some respects seem nearer death then other persons I shall instance only in three sorts of people to whom I shall direct this Exhortation to prepare for sickness and death First Such whose callings and imployments do expose their lives to daily and great dangers as Water-men Colliers Carpenters Masons c. These men by a leak in a Boat or Ship a fall of a little earth a slip of a foot may be turned to heaven or hell every day Yet we often see that many who live in the greatest dangers live in the greatest sins My earnest advice to you is to prepare for death that though you stand in dangerous places yet you may stand upon sure ground for the salvation of your souls Sirs for ought I know you may get heaven with less danger then you get your livings Remember what precious souls you have and that every time you venture your lives you venture your souls too Labour by sound repentance to forsake your sins and to turn to God Do not swear and lye and be drunk and deceive others Do not prophane the Lords daies if you expect that God should preserve you on working daies labour by a sound faith to rest on Christ to save your guilty souls see your nearness unto Eternity be often looking from the places where you are into heaven and hell and see what a little there is betwixt you and them and seriously consider if now you should fall into Eternity in which of those two places would be your portion Get such a saving knowledge of God that you may comfortably commit the keeping of your lives unto him and solemnly worship God in your Closets and Families and live in the fear of God and in peace with him and use your callings to his glory that he may preserve you in your ways or however that if you do die in your callings you may not die in your sins Secondly Such who though they have ordinarily present case and health yet they are subject to dangerous and sudden pains and fearful distempers as Convulsions Falling-Sickness Stone c. you have need in regard of these to be always prepared for sickness and death you would not be without what remedies you can get when your distempers come Oh do not be without God and Christ and Grace if death should come in them Whatever you are doing consider Now my distempers may surprize me therefore if they take you in bed at meat at work let them not take you in your sins in all likelihood these fits will shorten your daies therefore let them hasten your repentance these distempers will fill you with torturing pains or for present deprive you of your reason parts senses c. so that then will be a very unfit time to prepare for death therefore improve your times of health and ease as merciful opportunities that when your diseases or death finde you they may not finde you unprovided Sirs always remember that you carry death in your bodies therefore be sure to carry grace in your souls Lastly Women that are with childe have special reason to be prepared for sickness and death God hath inseparably fixt this punishment upon this Sex that in sorrow they shall bring forth children Gen. 3.16 And our Saviour tells us Joh. 16.21 A woman when she is in travel hath sorrow And experience witnesseth the grievous pangs and pains of all and the sad deaths of very many in this condition so that thou must certainly within a few weeks be grievously diseased and thou mayst probably dye do not then venture into such dangers in a Christless state Poor woman perhaps thou hast bred that life which will be thy own death therefore labour to finde that Christ is as sure formed in thy heart as the babe is formed in thy womb and before that sad and dangerous hour of the birth of thy childe come examine throughly whether the new birth be past in thy soul I would not have thee oppress thy heart with the dismal fore-thoughts and distracting fears of that time for to be sure sufficient to that day will be the evil thereof but I would have thee so prepared that the short pangs of childe-bearing may not end in the everlasting pangs and torments of hell and that thou mayst be a new creature and found in the righteousness of Jesus Christ that if thou shouldst no longer live with thy
and hell afraid of them but a sickness and death comes and they are driven away in their wickedness Prov. 14.32 whose end Job describes cap. 24.29 Drought and heat consume the snow-waters so doth the grave those that have sinned So also we see godly people who are the blessing of their Age of whom the world is not worthy Hebr. 11.38 the world deserves not the prayers and counsels and examples of such men yet these perish though few lay it to heart Isa 57.1 for in this case there is one event to all Eccles 9.2 for as they lie at the graves mouth we cannot see the difference betwixt a skull that sleeps in Jesus and a skull that is condemned to hell and therefore it 's true of these gracious ones as was said of the good Patriarch Gen. 47.29 Israel must die or as we read of David Acts 13.36 After he had served his own generation by the will of God he fell asleep All these things are from Jesus Christ who sends sicknesses and death at his pleasure and many such things are with him Lastly It informs us of the great mercy of God that we enjoy our health and lives so long when he hath so many diseases in his hands to deprive us of both Hence he is called the Preserver of men Job 7.20 It is the Lord who is our life and the length of our daies who preserves us and keeps us alive Consider the many deaths and dangers we are preserved from that thereby we may see and acknowledge the greatness of this mercy Our Bodies and Souls were no sooner united in the Womb but thousands of deaths were ready to part us again we were liable to all the dangers that our Mothers were in in whose lives our lives were bound up besides multitudes of evils might have kill'd us there and a miscarrying Womb might have loosed us into Eternity And if we look through the whole course of our Age what year or week or day can we name wherein some have not died Oh infinite mercy that keeps us alive in a world of devouring devils and bloody men what multitudes of diseases might have bred in our own bodies what sudden deaths by Falls Fire Water Thunderbolts c. There is never a beam in our houses or beast in our fields or bit of meat on our tables or stones in the streets but methinks it 's like a Pistol charg'd and cockt if God say the word to strike us dead in the place where ever we sit ride walk lie down there is from thence a fall into Eternity We may well wonder when we read of the three Childrens preservation in the Fiery Furnace Dan. 3. and of Daniels safety in the Lyons Den Dan. 6. and yet I tell you our daily and hourly deliverances are as great only they are not so rare for to name no more Devils can as easily kill us as the Fire or Lyons could them and we have no more power to resist or escape these Murderers then they had the merciless Flames or greedy Lyons but as God miraculously preserved them so doth he wonderfully preserve us even in a croud of deaths and dangers Vse 2. Of Reprehension Secondly This Doctrine reproves those who in time of sickness do either for themselves or friends seek to Witches or Wizards for cure Christ makes them sick and they will go to the Devil to make them well but if Christ command all diseases to go and come at his will it must needs be a damnable sin to forsake Christ and the Ordinances appointed by him for our health and to seek help from the Devil This was King Sauls sin though in another case who consulted the Witch of Endor when he was invaded by the Philistins 1 Sam. 28.7 Then did Ahaziah in his sickness send to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron 2 Kings 1.2 And this is the horrid wickedness of many ignorant Atheistical wretches who when they have lost their goods or are visited with sickness seek to Conjurers and Wizards such as they call wise men or wise women to help and relieve them This sin is often condemned in Scripture Lev. 19.31 Regard not them that have familiar spirits Observe do not regard them but look upon them as the basest people in the Country neither seek after Wizards See Isa 8.19 Lev. 26.6 Observe the evil and danger of this sin in these four particulars First This is a sin which brings a man under the heavy wrath and curse of God Lev. 20.6 The soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits and after wizards to go a whoring after them I will even set my face against that soul and will cut him off from among his people Observe for this sin God will set his face against thee all his power and wrath is set and bent against thee O how canst thou hold up thy face when the face of God is set against thee and whereas thou thinkest thou art planted in thy Country and planted in the Church of God and planted in thy Family God will cut thee off from among thy people Thus poor wretch thy disease is perhaps abated and thou rejoycest in thy ease and health but remember thou hast got the Devils blessing and Gods curse Secondly This is that filthy sin of whoredom See again Lev. 20.6 The soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits to go a whoring after them Do not you account this a beastly sin for people to go up and down a whoring Well though thou thinkest thou keepest thy self honest and wilt say I thank God no body can touch me in my honesty yet although all thy Neighbours judge thee to be honest the Lord judgeth thee to be a filthy Whore and Whoremonger for though perhaps thou hast not defiled thy body with a Whore yet thou hast defiled thy soul with the Devil Lev. 19.31 Regard not them that have familiar spirits to be defiled by them and thou mayst be assured that the Devil will not heal thy body except it be to kill thy soul and thou dost hereby joyn that person to the Devil which should be united to Christ thou dost yield thy self to the power and will of the Devil Hence those are the most ignorant sottish prophane or covetous people that seek to Witches Beloved we should do nothing but what we may comfortably go from the doing of it into the presence of God in any duty or to enjoy his presence into Eternity Now as a wife can have no delight to go from a whoremonger into the presence or society of her husband so how canst thou comfortably go from a Wizard to Prayer to a Sacrament or to a Sermon or from a Wizard into Eternity Thirdly This sin is the most abominable sin of Idolatry Lev. 11.31 Regard not â—hem that have familiar spirits I am the Lord your God Implying that they that seek to such do deny God to be the Lord and do disown him from
man into eternity and sinks him into hell when he comes there drunkenness is a sin which of its own nature breeds Dropsies Consumptions and other diseases as we read Hos 4.7 The Princes makes themselves sick with bottles of wine and daily examples witness the sudden and untimely death of many drunkards It is reported of one that when he was drunk as he was getting up on his Mare he said in a drunken frolick that his Mare would carry him to the Devil and his Mare threw him down and broke his neck Sirs do not venture to be drunk lest you fall into hell before you be sober The last sin which I shall here reprove is the beastly sin of whoredom This is a sin against a mans own body 2 Cor. 6.18 hence we read Prov. 6.26 The Adulteress will hunt for the precious life See further Prov. 7.22 26.27 He goeth after her as an ox goeth to the slaughter For she hath cast down many wounded yea many strong men have been slain by her Her house is the way to hell going down to the chambers of death And thus you see that by this filthy sin men and women sacrifice their health estates names bodies and souls to their stinking lusts carrying a filthy and guilty soul in a rotten body whilst they live and shutting themselves out of heaven into hell when they dye Now that this use of reproof may leave some deep convection in your consciences consider what thy health and life is givâ—n thee for viz. that thou mayst have opportunity of serving and honouring the great God and of providing for eternity Now therefore what a bloudy wretch art thou to thy self that thou shouldest by thy own sins shorten thy space of repentance and put a sad period to all thy blessed oppâ—rtunities and days of Salvation and dispatch thy self beyond all ordinances and means and hopâ—s and possibilities oâ— Salvation and so make thy self unable to live before thou art ready to dye Vse 3. Of Consolation to the truely godly This Doctrine is a great ground of comfort to all the children of God whereby they may see that all sicknesses dangers and deaths come through the hands of their own father for it is a most certain way of comfort to the godly in any sickness to bring their hearts to the first Cause and Author of their Visitation for if they are at peace with him they will be sure to finde peace and comfort in their affliction Hence the Apostle teacheth us Phil. 4.6 7. Be careful for nothing that is do not torture and distract and break your hearts with sinful cares and fears but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God bring your hearts and desires unto him And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and mindes through Christ Jesus Perhaps thou hast nothing to keep thy estate from loss nor thy body from aches and pains nor thy name from reproach nor thy life from death But however thou shalt have the peace of God to keep thy heart full of grace and comfort through Christ Jesus and if the heart be thus kept the blessing and comfort of all is kept in it for in this case thou mayst lose friends out of thy company riches out of thy estate health and ease out of thy body and yet thou mayst keep the peace and comfort of all in thy heart Now that your hearts may be refreshed with this Doctrine I shall shew herein these five grounds of comfort 1. In respect of the season of the visitation 2. Of the end 3. In respect of the godly themselves who are visited 4. In respect of death Lastly in respect of the day of judgement 1. In respect of the season of our Visitation we may be assured that Jesus Christ will chuse the best and fittest season to visit us in See 1 Pet. 1.6 Wherein ye greatly rejoyce though now for a season if need be ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations This is an argument of comfort that our afflictions come in a season when we have most need of them Husbandmen know that there is a season when the ground hath need of frost and snow and parents know that there is a season when their children have need of the rod And so there are seasons wherein we that are Gods husbandry and Gods children have need of his fatherly chastisements and in these times he chuseth to visit us I shall contract all that I will say of this in the application of a general truth to this particular case viz. that the time and season of Gods remarkable Providence is called the fulness of time in Scripture So we read Gal. 4.4 When the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son so that place seems something pertinent to our purpose Eph. 4.10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in heaven and which are on earth even in him Where note that this is the great and mysterious work of God to gather together in one full body all his Elect that those which are already in heaven with those who are to be gathered out of the world may all meet in Christ their Head and so be the fulness of him that fills all in all Now this work is said to be done in the fulness of time So that this is the glorious work which God is carrying on by ordinances mercies afflictions diseases death he is gathering all his people together bringing them into a body unto their head and I say this is all done in the fulness of time Now there are two things which make a fulness of time 1. When it 's a time set and appointed by God for such a dispensation a time full of the Decree and Counsel of God and wherein his Decrees are fulfill'd So the coming of Christ was in the fulness of time viz. in the time set by God 2. When time is fitted and prepared for such a work in which respect also Christ came in the fulness of time time had been travelling as it were for this many ages Prophesies and promises and the faith and expectation of Believers were full of Jesus Christ and so the time being fitted for his coming he comes in the fulness of time Now to apply this to the case in hand whenever sickness or death comes it is in the fulness of time 1. In that time which is set by the wisdom and counsel of our Father for the good of his children he set the time of thy birth and of thy new birth so he hath appointed the time of thy visitation and of thy death which are all times appointed to demonstrate and glorifie his infinite power and love towards thee 2. They come in a time most fit for such a work Sin grows to such an head that it's time for sickness or some
thy self as it were in the grave and see thy ghastly skull lying in the dust among the worms of the earth and then look on thy glorious Head in Heaven and so comfort thy self with this that as vile and loathsome a spectacle as thy diseased body is now and thy dead body will be shortly yet it is a precious member of Jesus Christ who will by his infinite power change and fashion this contemptible dust into the likeness of his glorious body in heaven 4. Comfort in respect of death it comes to the godly without a sting In this we are taught to triumph 1 Cor. 15.55 56. O death where is thy sting Now to clear up your comfort in this consider that sickness and death are said to sting when God as a revenging Judge sends them to execute the curse of the law for sin so that death is compared to a fearful Serpent which kills and devours all the men and women in the world And saith the Apostle the sting of this Serpent Death is sin it 's sin that makes the sting and then he adds the strength of sin is the law The strength that sin hath to sting is from the curse of the Law and the Law hath its strength and power from the wrath of God for the law worketh wrath Rom. 4.15 So that by all you see that by the sting of death is meant the dreadful torments of hell which at death come from the wrath of God through the curse of the Law for sin O poor Christless sinner what a miserable case art thou in Look well as thou fittest in thy seat and thou mayst see this stinging Serpent Death lye under thy feet when thou liest down this Serpent lies under thy bed when thou art at meat this Serpent lies under thy table when thou goest out of thy house thou mayst see this Serpent at the door ready to sting thee to heâ— But now here comes in the unspeakaâ— comfort of believers for though death hâ— power to kill them yet it hath no poâ—er to sting them because all the cauâ— of Deaths sting are taken away by Jesâ— Christ 1. Sin is gone for this lamb of Gâ— hath taken away the sins of the world Joâ— 1.29 Observe they are taken away â— if they had never been Hence 1 Pet. â— 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his owâ— body on the tree So that by the righteouâ—ness of Christ given to us by God and received of us by Faith and thereby maâ— our own we are fully cleared and absoâ—ved from sin and God will never impuâ— it to us 2. It follows that the curse of the Law is gone for Christ hath delivered us froâ— the curse of the law being made a curâ— for us So that the law hath no strength tâ— binde us to punishment there being neither sin to binde us for nor punishment tâ— binde us unto 3. The wrath of God which makes thâ— punishment is also taken away for it iâ— God that justifieth Rom. 8.33 and we havâ— thereby peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 5.1 So that God is ours and for us to love bless and save and glorifie us and therefore every believer may with comfort hold up the Blood of Christ in the very face of the King of Terrors and say Here is my Christ my righteousness but O death where is thy sting Nay further Death is now changed from coming to execute the curses of the Law for it comes to fulfil the blessings of the Gospel for death to a believer is a work of a reconciled Father whereby he looseth his childe out of earth into heaven so that we may see death so full of the love and goodness of God that it should even indear it to us and make it lovely and precious to our souls That is a most comfortable promise Joh. 8.51 Verily verily I say unto you If a man keep my saying he shall never see death It is not meant he shall never die as the Jews understood it ver 52. And I conceive it is not only intended he shall never die the second death but the meaning also seems to be this that a Childe of God shall see so much of God and Christ and Heaven that he may even overlook the fears of death which are swallowed up by God and Christ and Life Lastly Comfort in respect of our glorious victory over all diseases and death at the day of Judgment This victory consists in two things 1. In putting a final period to all diseases and death Sickness shall never trouble us more and death shall never kill us more I warrant thee Christian thy head will never ake in heaven and for certain there will be no Funerals in that Country but corruptible must put on incorruption and mortal shall put on immortality 2. In that the bodies of believers shall then be never the worse for the diseases and death which they have suffered but the bodies which were sown in dishonour shall be raised in glory Beloved a Saint may live comfortably in any condition by living in the joyful knowledge of the day of judgment Hence when the Apostle had propounded this as an argument of comfort that yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry He adds this Now the just shall live by faith meaning they shall live a life of holiness and comfort in believing the day of judgment And Saint Paul having made a glorious description of that great day 1 Thes 4.15 16 17. makes this use of it vers 18. Wherefore comfort one another with these words And in this the godly did comfort themselves Rom. 8.23 And not only they but our selves also which have the first-fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our bodies This is a most comfortable life to live as those that are always groaning and waiting for the day of judgment A believer may apply this to his comfort against any particular trouble Art thou disgraced and reproached in thy name summon as it were all thy accusers to the day of judgment and believe what a name thou shalt have then and that thou shalt be sure to come off with credit at that day when the glorious Judge of quick and dead shall confess thee before his Father and Angels and Men and as mean and obscure as thou seemest now the world will have other thoughts of thee when they see thee appear with Christ in glory Col. 3.4 And therefore we learn that one great work of that day will be to make a clear and open manifestation of the sons of God Rom. 8.19 Art thou troubled with unreasonable and wicked men so that thou mayst say with David My soul is among Lyons and I lye even among them that are set on fire Psal 57.4 Consider what Christ will do to them at the day of judgment and what
of Christ is as truely thine by faith as it is Pauls or ever a Saints in heaven Rom. 3.22 The righteousness of God is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference So that I say thou mayst stand in this righteousness and put all the enemies of thy salvation to the trial and ask Who can lay any thing to thy charge or condemn thee And thou mayst in effect hear from all the like answer which was made by other things in Job in another case Sin saith It is not in me and Satan saith It is not in me and the Law saith It is not in me and Death saith It is not in me we have nothing to charge upon a justified person and therefore be always taking new and fresh hold in this righteousness for it is observable that God doth not onely in a set and solemn way as in Sacraments and Sermons c. offer and give Jesus Christ but also he is constantly offering him in the Gospel and declaring it to be his will that we should take him and thou shouldst not onely in the duties of Gods worship but also upon all opportunities in secret and at other times be applying to thy self and owning and glorying in this righteousness of Jesus Christ believe that God is always smelling a sweet savour in this righteousness as offered for thee and that Christ is by his continual intercession presenting it to his Father for thee and it 's always offered in the Gospel to thee do thou therefore always take it for thy righteousness to justifie thee that when sickness and death come thou mayst be found so doing Direct 2. Learn to dye daily for it is a certain truth that he that will live when he dies must die whilst he lives and therefore Paul affirms it to be his practice 1 Cor. 15.31 I protest by your rejoycing that I have in Christ Jesus our Lord I dye daily But how can a man dye daily Answ Three ways 1. By a daily separating and loosing his heart from all things which death can loose him and separate him from I mean so as not to account his life and happiness to consist in them death you know is a separation from that which is our life Now we have a kinde of life in husbands wives children estates c. and when death comes it separates us from these therefore I say we dye daily by a daily loosening and parting the heart from them this duty is clearly taught by the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.29 30 31. where the Apostle exhorts that because our time to enjoy relations pleasures and estates is but short and we are presently to spend an eternity without them therefore let them that have wives be as though they had none and they that rejoyce be as though they rejoyced not and they that buy be as though they possessed not that is they must live with their hearts loosed and parted from these things for as a traveller useth the necessary accommodations of his Inne soberly seasonably and cheerfully whilst he stays yet so as to forward and not to hinder his journey home So a Christian must use the comforts of this life holily cheerfully and thankfully yet so as not to stop him in his way to heaven Our sweetest enjoyments must neither make the thoughts of eternity less sweet nor our passage into eternity more hard Now hereby a man is very much prepared for sickness and death for one thing which makes these so grievous is because the heart hath taken such hold of the creature that it exceedingly torments him to be broken from it so that it is often a greater trouble to loose his soul from the world then to loose it from the body but when by grace the heart is already loosed from the world a great part of deaths work is done already because death findes him dead to the world when it comes to take him out of the world 2. A man dyes daily by a daily living on those things which he must live upon after death We are commanded this duty Col. 3.1 2. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God Set your affections on things above and not on things on the earth As the heart must be parted from the things on earth so it must be set and fixt and fastned on the things in heaven and this is the property of grace to make the heart dead to the world by turning it to a life in God and Christ and heaven Now this also is a dying daily for death to a childe of God is a removing him from a life on earth to a life in heaven and hereby he doth as it were go beyond death and hath his life and joy and comfort in the other world He walks by faith in the streets of the City that hath foundations and rests and refresheth his soul in his house not made with hands he secretly departs from the company and comforts of this life and gets his heart among Angels and Saints in heaven beholding and praising and rejoycing in the face of God and Jesus Christ Now such a man must needs be fit to dye because his heart is set on every thing that death brings him unto Like Paul who having his heart fixt on Christ in heaven cries out Phil. 1.23 I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Lastly a man dyes daily by daily looking upon himself as a dying or dead man he lays death to his heart Eccles 7.2 his heart is full of the serious thoughts of death Job 17.13 14. If I wait the grave is my house I have made my bed in the darkness I have said to corruption Thou art my father to the worm Thou art my mother and my sister Ah sirs to one that knows he shall dye and sleep in Jesus death and the worms are as sweet as his dearest relations And thus a man prepares for death when he doth as it were accustom himself to dye and makes death familiar to him Christians look upon your selves as always at the very point of death when you are putting your flowers in your bosoms remember you are as it were dressing a Corpse for the grave when you are washing and kembing your heads and faces and looking on them in the glass remember what ghastly skulls they will be shortly yet let thy thoughts be often among the graves think here lyes my Grand-father and Grand-mother there lyes my Father and Mother yonder lyes my Brother and Sister and I my self am just going to lye down amongst them Thus learn to dye daily Direct 3. Labour by an eye of faith to discern between things that differ Beloved faith hath a very deep and piercing insight into things it judgeth of things by Scripture it believes what God in his Word speaks of them and so a believers carriage towards every thing is
which are mentioned in the Text viz. his commanding diseases to go and come and do this By sicknesses I mean all those evils which are sent by Christ to disease the bodies of living men and women The author of diseases is Jesus Christ the formal nature of them is their diseasing the bodies of men depriving them of health strength ease c. and afflicting them with pain and grief c. the subjects of these sicknesses are the bodies of living men and women hereby they are distinguished from the wounds and troubles of the soul so far as they are onely spiritual but those bodily diseases which are the effects of the wounds and wastings of the soul are also comprehended herein they are hereby distinguished also from that corruption which corrupts the body after death and herein are implyed all manner of bodily diseases as wounds hurts sores breaking of bones c. I shall speak of these under this formal consideration as Jesus Christ is the cause and ruler and healer of them and so they come within the subject of Divinity and not of Medicine or Chyrurgery I now come to explain the exercise of Christs government of diseases in those three particulars mentioned in the Text. 1. Christ bids diseases go and they go Take the meaning of this 1. In general 2. In some particulars First in general these words Go and they go are words whereby God works what he speaks he immediately creates what he commands like those words at the creation Let there be light and there was light thus he spake and it was done Psal 33.9 and so the meaning is that it is the will and power of God which causeth all diseases to come upon us Hence David calls the peoples falling into the Pestilence a falling into the hand of God 2 Sam. 24.14 Let us fall into the hand of the Lord and in his own visitation he cryes out Psal 38.2 Thy hand presseth me sore And Psal 39.10 I am consumed by the blow of thy hand Beloved God hath a heavy hand he gives a great blow what is the greatest man in the world when God can strike him to hell at a blow So sicknesses are called Gods arrows Job 6.4 The arrows of the Almighty are within me Psal 38.2 Thy arrows stick fast in me God hath his Quiver full of these Arrows full of the Pestilence of Fevers and Dropsies and Consumptions and all manner of Diseases and he shoots these Arrows into our Families Friends and Children and none but himself can pull them out as the Keeper shoots his barbed Arrow into the Deer and he runs and leaps and lyes down but the Arrow sticks still so God shoots suppose a Consumption into the lungs of a man or the Gout into the limbs of a man and the poor man walks and eats and sleeps but the Arrow sticks still Friends pull and Physicians pull but he may say with David Thy arrows stick fast in me Thus beloved all diseases are subject to the will of God so as to go upon any man at his appointment Sinner if thou wilt not do the Will of God thy self God hath the Stone Gout Strangury and millions of Diseases more to do his will upon thee for as it 's observable that there is a passive obediential power in every creature to yeild to the will and power of God to be what he will as a stone to be turned into a childe of Abraham So there is an active obediential power in every creature whereby it is ready to be an instrument of Gods power to do what he will if he say to the earth Open thy mouth and swallow up such a company it presently opens and becomes a great grave to bury them all alive as in that dreadful judgement mentioned Numb 16. So if God say to the thunderbolt Smite such a person he is presently shattered in pieces and in the same cases the heavens seas winds fire and all creatures obey him so that if God set on a flie a spider an hair of the head against a man all the care and power in the world cannot save him So my Brethren if God command the Pestilence Fever small-Pox to go into such a City or such a Family or upon such a person they presently fasten upon them though all the world be against it More particularly in Gods bidding diseases go and they go there is implyed these five things First He commands whatsoever diseases he will to go and they go the Centurion hath his hundred of Souldiers and he sends whom he will and he goes so our Lord of hosts hath as many sicknesses as he himself will make at his command and whichsoever he appoints to go it presently goes Beloved many cry out of their diseases as the Church of her sorrows Lam. 1.12 Is there any sorrow like my sorrow is there any sickness like my sickness we are too apt to complain with the Israelites that the way of the Lord is not equal Ezek. 18.25 We are forward to judge the best of our selves and the worst of our afflictions but we must know that God doth in great justice and wisdom choose and single out what diseases he will visit us with he corrects with judgement Jer. 10.24 and therefore God checks the impatience of Job thus Job 40.8 Will thou disanul my judgement wilt thou make nothing of my judgement which in wisdom and counsel I exercise in all my visitations So that whatever disease comes upon us our hearts and wills should agree with the Will of God therein for the difference betwixt thy affliction and others is made by the Wisdom and Will of Christ he hath chosen and appointed this as the fittest disease for thee and it is a signe thou wilt be discontent with another affliction if thou quarrel with this therefore labour to be so filled with the Will of Christ in thy visitation as to conclude that this is the best sickness for thee and the fittest disease for thee and this is the good servant which Christ in wisdom hath sent to do him service upon thee and to bring him glory from thee 2. To whomsoever Christ bids diseases go they go as when the Centurion commands his servant to go it is implied that he appoints him whither to go So my Brethren as God doth pick and choose which arrows he will shoot so he doth not like the man in the Syrian Camp 1 Kings 22.34 draw his bow at a venture but in great wisdom marks and singles out the persons in whom he will strike these arrows See Psal 91.7 A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousands at thy right hand but it shall not come nigh unto thee whereby it appears that God directs and determines the Pestilence to whom it shall go and the same power he hath over all other diseases which are the instruments of his power to do his Will and this is clear for every instrument is over-ruled and limited by the
will and power of him who works with it so that although there be an equal aptness in the instrument to do one thing as well as another yet it is determined in its work according to the pleasure of him that guides it as if a man go with an ax into the wood to fell his trees there is an equal aptness in the ax to cut down one tree as well as another but it is at the pleasure and in the power of him that works with it to determine which tree shall stand and which shall fall So my Brethren sicknesses are the instruments of Gods power to do his will and are equally apt to disease one as well as another but they being all in his hands and over-ruled and guided by him they onely go and afflict those to whom he sends and appoints them God sends the Pestilence into a City now the hand of God carries it into what street or family or person he will It is observable that God makes great use of diseases to do his Will and to serve his designe in the ruine of his enemies and salvation of his people and therefore they must needs be ordered by God where they may work most for his glory as for example God sees how men of the earth as great worldlings are called Psal 10. ult fill a Nation or Country either with Errour and Heresie or with Atheism and Prophaness and these men lift up the horn on high Psal 75.5 crying Who is lord over us Psal 12.4 as if neither God nor man durst speak to them now it 's for Gods honour to shew himself above such and therefore he baffles Job with this argument That he can look on every one that is proud and abase him and that he can tread down the wicked in his place Oh you proud Nimords you mighty Hunters you are out of your place you must come lower God will have you under his feet shortly and will tread you down in your place See Job 40.11 12. Now as a proof of this power and glory of God he often sends a Fever or a Consumption or some other disease and then down falls the great Gallant groaning under the power and torture of his sickness and then look what a sight is here here are magnificent Buildings pleasant Gardens pamper'd Horses c. but the great Master lyes languishing in the midst of all and now the great talk of this mighty man is come to this Lo this is the man that made not God his strength but trusted in the abundance of his riches and strengthened himself in his wickedness Again sometimes God looks upon a beautiful person and sees him as it were turning his own Phansie into a Looking-glass wherein he is always looking and admiring and pleasing himself with his beauty Well saith God to a Consumption Go and wither yonder pretty flower and it goes and presently his beauty consumes away like a moth Or else saith God to the small-Pocks or some other disease Go and it goes and scorns and shames his beauty and now the wounds stink and are corrupt and the body is filled with a loathsome disease Psal 38.5 7. and there is burning instead of beauty as it is said in another case Isa 3.24 So sometimes a Minister hath but one or two malicious enemies in a Parish and God commands a disease to fetch away them and what welcome such have in eternity they are like to know best that have a minde to try it Sometimes a Minister hath a gracious man or woman in a Parish which are to him as that gracious couple Aquila and Priscilla were to Paul his helpers in the Lord Rom. 16.3 and when many a malitious Atheist lives it is the good will of God that they dye Sometimes parents have but one childe and God denies to lend them that Sometimes there is but one Life in a Living and a disease comes by the appointment of Christ and spares all the rest of the Family and takes away that but one good Abijah in a house and God calls away him Thus all diseases go to whomsoever they are sent and appointed by Jesus Christ Thirdly Whensoever Christ commands a disease to go it goes This is also plainly implied in the Centurions speech for if he have authority to bid his souldiers go it must be at his own pleasure when he will bid them go now it is clear that Jesus Christ hath this authority over all diseases both because he is a free agent and therefore works when he will upon his creatures and because every thing whose acting depends on the power and pleasure of another works onely then when it is his pleasure to work with it as an arrow onely flies then when the archer will shoot it so diseases which as you have heard are Gods arrows can onely hit us and hurt us when it is Gods will to shoot them into our bodies Beloved God is the Lord of our times the belief of which comforted David when his enemies were conspiring his death Psal 31.13 14 15. I trusted in the Lord I said Thou art my God my times are in thy hands not in my enemies hands It is sweet satisfaction to see clearly our times of life and peace and health and sickness in Gods hands we shall never be sick till our Father be willing to make us sick he fills our times with what changes he will It is observable that in Gods working towards Nations or Families or Persons he haâ—h in his determinate counsel appointed an unchangeable method of providence and in infinite wisdom hath set a sit nick of time for every dispensation so that the glory and beauty of the Providence is much seen in the season of it So in this case God hath set the times for the several changes in the life of man Job 7.1 Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth and in all diseases his wisdom and power and justice and mercy is glorified in the season of the Visitation Sometimes God smites a childe in the womb and the poor mother carries a dead corpse instead of a living childe And thus the body and soul are no sooner united but presently parted again and so multitudes flie from the womb into heaven and hell Some die in their full strength Job 21.23 We see many when they were most like to live they presently dye and like the strings of an instrument break when they are best in tune Sometimes when men stand upon the foot of pride Psal 36.11 they are suddenly taken in their pride Psal 59.11 and so fall suddenly from the top of pride to the bottom of hell See a fit instance of this Acts 12.21 22 23. Herod makes a popular Oration and the flattering multitude shout and cry It is the voice of God and not of man and the Lord suddenly smites him with a strange disease and there lyes the Royal Orator as it were in the same breath deified by men
find this to be the effect of Davids sickness Psal 38.3 4. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thy anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin For mine iniquities are gone over my head as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me Beloved people would not be so fond of their sins if they saw the diseases and dangers which they bring upon them as a man would not be greedy of the daintiest meat if he knew it were mixt with Rats-bane nor be proud of the finest cloaths if he knew they were infected with the Pestilence So if people saw the Plague Pocks Dropsie Fever and the Consumption in their pride and oaths and lyes and drunkenness and covetousness it would make them afraid of sin as well as of sickness and therefore look not upon sin as it appears in your honours profits and pleasures as it appears at an Ale-house May-pole or Maurice-dance or Cock-pit or Bear-bait or Stage-play for there thou canst not see sin for its pleasures but look upon thy self on a bed of languishing and there see thy sins standing in order before thee and then tell me what fruit thou hast in these things Look upon thy self as hanging over the lake of brimstone and then call thy drunken Companions about thee and bid them pour out their flagons and quaff off their cups and see whether all these can make thee merry when the flames of hell begin to catch and kindle in thy guilty soul call in thy lyes and injustice to bring thee thy treasures of wickedness and lay them under thy pillow and see whether they can bring thee ease when Death and Hell and the day of Judgment stand present before thee And my Brethren it is observeable that when we sin in our sickness we should see far more evil in it then as it is the meritorious cause of that disease as we should look further into a sickness then as it causeth present aches and pains in the body we should see that Death and Eternity which comes after so we should see more evil and danger in sin then as it brings such a disease for the evil of it is not spent in that therefore we should look upon it as provoking God to punish us with diseases and with death and hell which diseases are loosing us into The second End to convince us of the vanity of the creature now we are truly convinced of the vanity of the creature when we judge it to be empty of that good which must free a sinful man from misery and fill him with true happiness It must needs be a vanity when a man may be miserable with it and happy without it Now Christ appoints diseases as means to convince us of this vanity of the creature for as one saith wittily the world is the Devils Chess-board wherein a man can neither move forward nor backward but the Devil attaches him with some creature or other and indeed we are so full of the spirit of the world as it 's called 1 Cor. 2.12 which doth so fill our hearts with the world that God and Christ and Heaven and Salvation are nothing to us and therefore this sin is called a denying God that is above Job 31.24 25 28. and Agur tells us that when a man is full of the world he is apt to deny God and to say Who is the Lord Prov. 30.9 Oh what poor scornful thoughts a covetous proud secure worldling hath of God and Christ and Saints and Ordinances and Salvation Now this is one great use of sicknesses to convince a man of the vanity of the world and this is a most convincing argument for I dare challenge all the worldlings which the world it self can own to name me that earthly creature and tell me what I shall call it which can heal the wounds of a guilty conscience or can take out the sting of death or of which a man can truly say Here is a treasure which a lump of phlegm cannot take from me If thou canst not say this of the creature I grant thou mayst use it for thy good but be ruled by a friend never choose it for thy portion But more particularly we may hereby be convinced of the vanity of these five things First Of the vanity of our selves Sickness moved David to beg wisdom of God to know how frail he was Psal 39.4 and this made Job compare himself to a leaf and to the dry stubble and to a flower and shadow Job 13.25 and Cap. 14.2 and we read that this is the use of sickness to hide pride from man Job 33.17 that is to take it quite away to be seen no more and if we did look on every thing which we are usually proud of as it will prove on a sick bed or death-bed it would be an effectual means to abase us and to hide pride from us Beloved it is a most precious thing for a man to be fill'd with the knowledge and sense of his own emptiness and vanity The Kingdom of heaven is unchangeably entail'd upon all such Mat. 5.3 Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven Hereby a man is sweetly qualified for every duty Faith never acts with more integrity and strength then when it acts from the belief of a mans own emptiness for when self is most denied Christ is most acknowledged and believed then doth a man most heartily and strongly receive and rest upon Christ to justifie and to save him when he sees what a guilty condemned lost wretch he is in himself and when he sees what a weak helpless creature he is then doth he most trust to the infinite power of Jesus Christ and this also doth exceedingly endear his heart in love to God when he sees that God is so good and so full of grace and love and mercy as to chuse and call and pardon and save such a vile and loathsome creature as he then repentance is most inward and spiritual when a man with Job abhors himself and repents in dust and ashes Job 42.6 and this fills the heart with prayer for prayer begs of God what a man wants in himself therefore when a man sees himself poor and empty of all good and knows that he cannot be supplied from himself then doth he pray to be fill'd with the fulness of God Now I say sickness is a special means to convince a man of his emptiness and vanity for hereby a man is left bare and empty of all those creature-comforts which seemed to fill him before and now he sees that nothing will fill him but grace and glory and that there is nothing in him to make up this fulness Secondly To convince us of the vanity of great men Oh what is a Prince or a Noble-man or Gentleman when the Pox or the Fever or the Consumption will insult over him and scorn him and make nothing of him and there is nothing in him
Hence we finde that the godly in Scripture were full of the thoughts of death in the time of their sickness David prays on his sick bed that his visitation may be sanctified to this purpose Psal 39.4 Lord make me to know my end and this improvement made Heman of his sickness when the wounds of his soul caused wastings and diseases in his body Psal 88.3 4 5. For my soul is full of troubles and my life draws nigh unto the grave and this was good Hezekiah his frame in his sickness Isa 38.10 11 12. I said in the cutting off my days I shall go to the gates of the grave I am deprived of the residue of my years I said I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the earth Mine age is departed and is removed from me as a shepherds tent I have cut off like a weaver my life He will cut me off with pining sickness from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me So when Job was almost throtled with a disease for saith he Job 30.8 It bindeth me about as the collar of my coat He makes this gracious use of his Visitation vers 23. I know that thou wilt bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living So that by all we see that sickness is a special means to fill our hearts with the thoughts of death End 4. To fill the heart with the knowledge and sense of God Beloved our hearts are apt to be senseless of God as he appears in the ordinary course of his Providence and mercy therefore God often manifests himself in the crosses and changes of our life which makes us more apt to inquire into the cause of such alterations as when corn grows in its ordinary course first the blade then the ear then the full corn in the ear few observe the good Providence of God herein but when God by frost hail or blasting destroys the fruits of the field so that it neither yeilds bread to the eater nor seed to the sower hereby his hand is more remarkably seen and observed so whilst God continues men in health and ease and strength few are sensible of his goodness herein but when he fills their bodies with aches pains and diseases then his power and providence is more observed in such visitations Hence saith Job cap. 10.17 Thou renewest thy witnesses against me as Gods mercies are called his witnesses his doing good and giving rain and fruitful seasons Act. 14.17 so sicknesses and other judgements are fitly called Gods witnesses the use of which is to declare and testifie of God to us Oh saith the Pestilence He is a terrible God that sent me and saith the Fever He is a mighty God that sent me and saith the Consumption He is a just God that sent me If you will not receive the testimony of Gods Ministers and of his Mercies will you receive the testimony of your afflictions certainly every sickness if the conscience be awakened will testifie the same things of God and Christ which Ministers preach to you Consider further I pray you that there is a more special aptness in diseases to convince the heart of man then in divers other things which yet will leave us inexcusable as it is the use of outward mercies to commend the power and wisdom and care and goodness of God to ours heart and a man may improve every mercy so as out of it to fill his heart with God but there are snares and temptations in these to steal the heart from God and therefore men are apt to lose God and to forget him when they are most full of these mercies So in injuries form men we should see the hand of God From men which are thy hand O Lord saith David Psal 17.14 but we are usually so fill'd with anger and revenge towards men that we forget the hand of God But now in a sickness the name of God and the hand of God is more clearly known and seen so that there is no such provision for lust in a sickness as in the mercies here is no profit nor credit nor pleasure for lust to feed upon and here is no instrument to quarrel with will a man be angry with a Fever or be revenged on a Consumption No we must own the Power and Will of God who is the cause of the visitation End 5. Christ sends diseases to turn men from sin and the world unto himself Hence God complains of the want of this as a great disappointment Amos 4.10 I have sent among you the Pestilence to cause you turn to me yet have ye not returned unto to me saith the Lord and therefore it 's observable that in a sickness God doth blast that which makes the snare to hold our hearts from God as we know much of the life and strength of pride and covetousness and other lusts is in the profits and pleasures and preferments of the world now what are all these to a sick man his sickness doth as it were block up all provision from the flesh and now he may see that none but God and Jesus Christ can answer the necessity of his soul and therefore let me ask you What is the best thing which you would propound to a friend on a sick bed who is just upon his flight into eternity will you provide him a sumptuous feast or a rich suit of cloaths or offer him some place of preferment No no shew him a God and Christ to save his poor soul shew him a happiness which will make him blessed when he is turned out of all which sickness and death can take from him Moreover it appears that sickness is appointed by God as a means for our conversion because this and every affliction calls us to do that which the word calls us unto Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest him out of thy law This makes a man a blessed man when in his chastenings he is full of the teaching of the Law Hence we are commanded to hear the rod and who hath appointed it Micah 6.9 Beloved the rod speaks as well as strikes and we should hear the rod as well as feel the rod now what doth the rod speak I answer The rod speaks the minde and will of God who smites with it the rod and the word speak the same language therefore we should see our sickness full of Scripture Oh saith the Dropsie Turn to the God that sent me and saith the Ague Make your peace with God that sent me And this is the voice of every disease which comes upon us And therefore consider that God doth often so bless and sanctifie a sickness to us that it is a means to turn the heart to God and causeth us to bring forth the fruit of many other dispensations as for example God sends to allure us by his mercies Hos
for his friends which proved such miserable Comforters to him Job 16.4 5. If your souls were in my souls stead I would strengthen you with my mouth and the movings of my lips should asswage your grief Oh Sirs how sweet and savoury is it to a sick Christian to receive spiritual Cordials from the wholesome tongue of a cordial friend Now this will be a reason and ground of our sympathy if we look on Believers in their sickness in their union and relation to Jesus Christ for saith Christ Mat. 25.36 I was sick viz. in my sick members and ye visited me Consider this diseased Christian is a member of that Body whose Head sits at the right hand of the Majesty of the most High And as poor as this sicK Saint lies here yet he is virtually raised up with Christ and sits together with him in heavenly places As miserable as he appears now yet the next time we see him we shall see him appearing with Christ in glory Come with these considerations when you visit one another and you will account it a mercy and great priviledge if you or any thing of yours be so blest as to be the instrument of ease or health or comfort to such a precious one and you will finde all well improved when Christ shall say unto you Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you for I was sick and ye visited me End 14. Christ visits his people with sickness to glorifie his power and mercy in strengthening and comforting them in their sickness That of the Apostle is true of bodily as well as of spiritual weakness 2 Cor. 12.9 My strength is made perfect in weakness Now is a time for God to shew his strength in the weakness of his people Psal 41.3 The Lord will strengthen him on a bed of languishing thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness Methinks that man should lie easily who hath the God that made all the world to make all his bed in his sickness The meaning is God will be the cause of rest and ease and peace to him in this condition Hence Myconius in a fit of sickness writes to Luther Se non lethaliter sed vitaliter aegrotare that he is not sick unto death but sick unto life having so much spiritual life and comfort in his sickness And one of Mr. Dods Converts told him in her sickness That she was full of comfort and could as hardly forbear singing now as she could crying when she was in Child-bearing That of the Psalmist agrees to this Psalm 73.26 My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever It 's observable that God hath this title in Scripture The God of all comfort 2 Cor. 1.3 because whatever comfort we have from any creature it comes from God through the creature it 's the goodness of God in the creature which makes it a comfort it 's the goodness of God which makes a Wife a comfort a Childe a comfort c. And then he is the God of all comfort because he comforts us against all troubles there is comfort from God through the creatures but this is but some comfort Money comforts a man against his debts and meat comforts him against his hunger but there are other cases as of sickness and spiritual wounds and temptations c wherein these yield no comfort But whatever the trouble be to a Believer there is comfort in God against it we have often God the Holy Ghost called in Scripture The Comforter now it 's a special skill to observe which way God in a most especial manner glorifies his several Titles This Title The Comforter is glorified by Gods exercising his infinite power to comfort the hearts of his distressed people Now sickness is an affliction wherein a man can have nothing to comfort him but God and Jesus Christ this is clear for true comfort is the strengthening of the heart against the present trouble now that which comforts us must be as truly ours as the trouble is ours we must say Our God and our joy as well as Our sickness or else we cannot have comfort And again it must be as near as our trouble for it 's no comfort to an hungry man to know he hath meat if he cannot come at it Now faith sees God and Christ as near to the soul to comfort it as sickness is to the body to trouble it And then lastly that which comforts us must be good enough to take away the evil that troubles us now a mans great trouble on his sick-bed is for fear of losing his poor soul and in this case to shew him riches and honours and pleasures will not comfort him for they can do nothing in the removing his trouble but if God say I am thy salvation now the man is comforted and sings at the very door of death Solomon tells us Prov. 14.32 The righteous hath hope in his death Now his hope is not for some place of preferment or some rich purchase or the like for death brings no such things but he hopes for preferment in the great City that hath foundations Heb. 11.10 where he is for ever to dwell in his house not made with hands 2 Cor. 5.1 and these sickness and death bring him into That Scripture is sweet Heb. 6.19 20. Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and stedfast and which entreth into that within the vail whither our forerunner is for us entred even Jesus The place within the vail is heaven where the anchor of hope enters and sticks So that though a poor believer lie gasping and groaning on his sick bed or in other afflictions yet this is his comfort he is still anchor'd and fastned to heaven End 15. Christ visits his people with sickness to fit them for greater sufferings As the Martyr Bilney put his finger in the fire to fit him to burn in the flames Christ by sickness makes a man fit to die and then he is fit for any sufferings for he that can obediently sacrifice his life to God can for the same reason offer up his health liberty and estate to God and this made Paul ready to suffer all persecutions because he was ready to die Acts 20.22 23 24. He knew that every where bonds and afflictions did way-lie him but saith he v. 24. None of these things move me I will not stir a step out of my way of obedience for all the bonds and afflictions that the hands of devils and men can make What is his reason because I count not my life dear unto my self so that I may finish my course with joy and the Ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testifie the Gospel of the grace of God Precious Paul so that he could die in joy and die in duty he did not think his life too dear or too good to be spent for Jesus
knowing that this fruit will abound to his account when Christ and he come to reckon and that this is laid up in store as a good foundation against the time to come 1 Tim. 6.19 As a man that intends to transplant himself beyond the Seas turns his stock here into such things which will make his life comfortable when he comes there So a Saint knowing that he is upon a journey beyond this world turns his stock and estate to Gods glory here believing that it will be returned to him a thousand fold in the glory and joys of heaven when he comes there End 17. Which is the last that I shall mention is to gain to himself praise and glory in recovering his people from their sickness Hence we read Job 11.3 4. when it was told Christ that Lazarus whom he loved is sick Christ answers This sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified thereby Beloved recovery from sickness is a great mercy both to a mans self and others as St. Paul acknowledgeth of Epaphroditus Phil. 2.27 He was sick nigh unto death but God had mercy on him and not on him onely but on me also lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow And therefore upon this reason the hearts of Gods people have been filled with the praises of God Psal 103.1 2 3. Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me praise his holy name And this is one ground of this Who healeth all thy diseases This was Hezekiah his practice in this case Isa 38.19 The living the living they shall praise thee as I do this day See also 2 Cor. 1.9 10 11. We had the sentence of death in our selves that is our danger was so great whether by sickness or persecution or rather both I shall not inquire that we looked on our selves as sentenced to dye and this sentence was in us and did fill us but saith he God who raiseth the dead delivered us from so great a death for this end that thanks may be given by many on our behalf Beloved sometimes our sicknesses are very grievous and dangerous as Job cries out cap. 23.2 My stroke is heavier then my groaning and saith Job 10.16 Thou shewest thy self marvellous upon me that is thou exercisest thy marvellous power and greatness in afflicting me Now this should cause us to make the praises of God more glorious for our recovery and therefore in such cases the godly have acknowledged this mercy to be a kinde of resurrection from the dead as Psal 30.3 O Lord thou hast brought up my soul from the grave 1 Sam. 2.6 Who bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up Job 33.28 29 30. He will deliver his soul from going down into the pit and his life shall see the light And this is the Providence that all are to observe and acknowledge Loe all these things worketh God oftentimes with man to bring back his soul from the pit to be inlightened with the light of the living Vses First Vse of Information to inform us of five things First Information is that Jesus Christ is a terrible God this appears in that he hath all diseases at command to bid them go and come and do what he will The Scripture makes known God to be a terrible God Deut. 7.21 He is a mighty God and terrible Nehem. 9.32 The great the mighty and terrible God Job 37.22 With God is terrible Majesty Psal 47.2 For the Lord most high is terrible And we finde this inference made from Gods visiting men with sickness Deut. 28.58 That thou mayst fear this glorious and fearful Name The Lord thy God Beloved it is one of the most devouring delusions of the Devil to perswade men that God is so merciful that he will never question them for their sins Hence we read that the wicked man who contemns God and his judgements saith in his heart God will not require it Psal 10.13 They think in their hearts and conscience that God will never trouble them for their sins this secure temper of the ungodly is seen by that of the prophet Ezek. 7.7 The morning is come upon thee the time is come the day of trouble is near and not the sounding again of the mountains or as Junius and Termellius read it not the Eccho of the mountains implying that they feared no more the threatnings of the Prophets then a vain airy noise or Eccho in the mountains this makes secure sinners to bear no fear of God Psal 36.1 The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart that there is no fear of God before his eyes Their sins are so notorious and visible that they declare in the very hearts and consciences of the godly that there is no fear of God before their eyes Now to awaken you out of this damnable security I shall propound four Considerations to convince you that God is a very terrible God 1. Consider that when the terrors of all bodily evils are past yet then God falls upon men with everlasting terrors we usually account great men very terrible but God tells the wicked Isa 47.3 I will take vengeance and I will not meet thee as a man thou hast been afraid oftentimes of meeting with thy Creditor or of meeting with the Magistrate c. but consider when thou comest to meet God in his taking vengeance for sin he will not meet thee as a man as a hard Creditor or as a harsh Landlord or a furious Souldier or a severe Magistrate but he will meet thee as a God of wrath and vengeance Upon this ground our Saviour presents God terrible Luk. 12.4 5. And I say unto you My friends be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do But I will forewarn you whom you should fear fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear him Observe that what our Saviour saith of men is true of all bodily evils when they have killed the body they have no more that they can do then the fear of them is past there is no fear of Pestilence or Fever or Consumptions in eternity but now a wicked man can never say the worst is past because he can never be past hell for God after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell so that when you think it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a merciless Usurer or a cruel Landlord or a bloudy man or to fall into the fire or water or to fall into the Pestilence Fever Dropsie c. then consider that It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Secondly consider God is not onely a God of mercy but also a God of judgment the Devil devours most men by perswading them either that God hath no wrath which makes them presumptuous or that he hath no mercy which makes
them desperate Now to arm you against the former temptation which concerns the business in hand fill your hearts with the belief of God as he is a God of judgement for the Lord is known by the judgement which he executeth Psal 9.16 therefore he tells us I kill and I make alive Deut. 32.39 So saith he Isa 45.7 I form the light and create darkness I make peace and create evil I the Lord do all these things All the evil of punishment which comes into the world comes from God all the hurt that is done by fire water wind thunder earthquakes God doth it all the hurt that comes by famine pestilence sword blasting mildew God doth it all that dye God kills them all that go to hell God damns them and is not this a terrible God Thirdly look not on God as men judge of him when they are secure and God is patient but as he appears when men awake with guilt and God awakes in wrath Beloved if every Sin should presently bring a Judgement if every Oath should kill a Cow and every Lye break a Bone and every act of Drunkenness turn a man into a Dropsie then sin would be accounted more dangerous and God more terrible But as we read Psal 55.19 Because they have no changes therefore they fear not God When men can swear lye be drunk scoff at godliness prophane Sabbaths and yet eat drink sleep work and play all alike this makes them confident that God is not so angry with them as a company of precise Puritans would have them believe We read of this Atheistical temper Psal 50.21 22. These things hast thou done meaning the crying sins fore-mentioned and I kept silence saith God I did not disturb thee nor hinder thee and thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self that I liked sin as well as thou didst but thou wilt be of another minde when I come to reprove thee and to set thy sins in order before thee and to tear thee in pieces when there shall be none to deliver thee We read Psal 40.11 Evil shall hunt the violent man to destroy him and it is said Numb 32.23 Your sin shall finde you out Sinners lye close and hide themselves in their sins as if judgement could never finde them Oh but consider sicknesses and death and hell are looking for thee they are hunting after thee Heark methinks I hear the cry of the hunters and the sound of the feet of death pursuing thy soul I may say unto thee as she said to Sampson The Philistines are upon thee Sampson Sickness is upon thee sinner death and judgement is coming upon thee the wrath of the eternal God is roaring against thee these things should make thee cry out with David Psal 119.20 My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy judgements Lastly Consider God as a God of all sicknesses and diseases to convince thee that he is a terrible God these with other judgements are called the terrors of God Job 6.4 The terrors of God do set themselves in aray against me and it 's clear that God for this reason is terrible for that is terrible which is destructive to the health and life and being of man this makes fire water wind thunder men and devils terrible and this makes Sickness the Pestilence Fever the Pocks the Stone the Consumption and Death and Judgement terrible Now therefore what a terrible Majestie is God who makes all these so terrible for as there is no fear of an Ox-goad or of the Jaw-bone of an Ass but the one in the hand of a mighty Shamgar was a terrible instrument of death to six hundred men Judges 3.31 and the other in the hand of a strong Sampson killed heaps upon heaps heaps upon heaps a thousand men Judges 15.16 So this makes all diseases and all instruments of death terrible because they are in the hand of a mighty God who for this reason is to be acknowledged and feared as a very terrible God Secondly informs us of the infinite patience of God towards ungodly men which appears in that God hath all diseases and death at command to avenge himself upon them and yet that he is pleased so long to forbear The Scripture makes known the glory of God to us by this Attribute Exod. 34.6 The Lord merciful and gracious long-suffering So Psal 86.14 Rom. 2.4 This patience of God is his infinite goodness whereby he doth moderate and with hold his wrath from falling upon sinners Pardoning grace takes a way the wrath of God and looseth the believer from being bound to suffer it But here the sinner lyes condemned and stands bound over by the Law to suffer Gods wrath but God by his infinite patience forbears to inflict it Now I shall briefly propound these three Considerations to convince us of the patience of God 1. Consider the greatness of that wrath which God withholds from falling on you viz. all the punishments which are threatned in the curses of Gods Law God doth not only keep off millions of diseases but also mountains of torments from coming upon thee every day the great difference which is betwixt thee and a damned soul in hell is made by the patience of God Oh poor Christless sinner when I stand seriously looking on thee eating and drinking and laughing and sporting in thy sins as if thou thoughtest thy self as safe as ever an Angel of heaven and then believe what the Scripture speaks against thee and see what is in God against thee I cannot but tremble to look thee in the face to see whither thou art so merrily going and what an alteration sickness and death is shortly like to make with thee but for present God in infinite patience withholds all the wrath that thou deservest 2. Consider the great provocations that God doth bear Sin is said to provoke or call forth the wrath of God and notwithstanding such horrid sins call and cry for his wrath yet in the infinite power of his patience he forbears The Scripture ascribes a Voice to three things which cry aloud for Gods wrath 1. Sin cryes Gen. 18.20 21. The cry of Sodom and Gomorrha is great Swearing cryes Pour out thy wrath on the Blasphemer that belcheth out me Drunkenness cryes Oh thou consuming fire devour this Beast that commits me So there is a cry against a Nation and against a City or Family Oh Profaneness cryes Come away Pestilence come away Famine and devour England that is so filled with me but yet God in infinite patience withholds his Judgments 2. The Estates of men which are gained by sin and wickedness cry for vengeance James 5.4 Hab. 2.11 The stone shall cry out of the wall and the beam out of the timber shall answer it The Prophet speaks as if all the parts of a house built by fraud and blood did consent to cry one after another for vengeance against the founders of it the Stone cryes Lord revenge
the cruelty and injustice that laid me and the Timber answers and cryes Make inquisition for the blood that laid me Oh you that eat the bread of deceit and live upon lyes and injustice were your consciences awakened you might hear the very bread on your tables and the money in your purses and the stones and timber of your houses cry for the vengeance of God against you and yet this infinitely patient God bears with you Lastly the sighs and groans of Gods people cry aloud for vengeance against their Persecutors and Oppressors Exod. 3.7 I have seen the affliction of my people which are in Aegypt and have heard their cry Psal 12.4 For the oppression of the poor and the sighing of the needy will I arise Beloved the godly are hated for their likeness to God this makes the difference betwixt them and the wicked for herein they differ from the world and a man must either make God his enemy and the Devil his father and be content to damn his own soul or else the world and he will never be friends but he that is born after the flesh will persecute him that is born after the spirit Now herein is glorified the patience of God when they that wrong his people rake in the apple of his eye and yet this tender Father stands by and sees his children scorned and loathed and murdered for choosing and honouring and fearing and pleasing him and for a long time bears all Lastly the infinite patience of God appears in that he can always ease himself of his enemies and yet he forbears God complains that the sins of men are a trouble to him Isa 1.14 and that they weary him Isa 43.24 and saith he Amos 2.13 Behold I am pressed under you as a Cart is pressed that is full of sheaves Now the Scripture speaks as if God did ease and comfort himself in the destruction of his enemies Isa 1.24 Ah I will ease me of my adversaries Ezek. 5.13 I will cause my fury to rest upon them and I will be comforted Now God can suddenly thus ease and comfort himself let him but command the Pestilence the Fever the Pocks c. they will quickly fetch them to hell never to trouble him more but in his infinite patience and long-suffering he spares them and bears with them Thirdly Informs us of the reason why godly Ministers are so serious in shewing men their danger and pressing them to repentance because they see Almighty God armed with such a multitude of diseases and judgments and deaths against men when a Minister is filled with love to and longing for the salvation of his people and sees the diseases and other judgments which lye at the door of every sinner and knows that the want of his care and faithfulness may be the damnation of a soul or more before another opportunity this must needs make Ministers labour earnestly for the salvation of their people and therefore it is an excellent thing for a Minister to preach and pray and administer Sacraments and live as if he saw God and Christ and Angels and Devils and Death and Judgment looking him in the face to preach as if he were to die preaching and people were to die under his Sermons Hence saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.10 We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ whence he infers vers 11. Knowing therefore the terrors of the Lord we perswade men Beloved we know what Christ will do to us if we preach the word deceitfully and damn the souls whom we are sent to save We know the doom of those who know not God and obey not the Gospel 2 Thes 1.8 9. We know whither drunkards and whoremongers and blasphemers and worldlings and all unregenerate persons are going and therefore knowing the terrors of the Lord we perswade men we are sent in the stead of Christ to perswade you to heaven and therefore dare not stand in the stead of Devils to flatter you into hell Sirs it is not many weeks since I was even past preaching and I know that death and I must shortly meet again and I know ere long you will be past hearing and therefore I would preach and live so that when sickness and death return I may be found labouring to save my self and them that hear me In the mean time when I look upon God and see millions of deaths in his hands and every death hell following it I dare not but warn you to flee from the wrath to come Mat. 3.7 Beloved a faithful Minister would never tell you of your sins but to cause you to forsake them and the word Hell should not be so often in his Pulpit but that he is afraid lest his people should come there he hath no secret grudge against you neither desires the woful day God knows Jer. 17.16 but he dares not deceive you he dares not be damned for you in preaching you and himself into hell The fourth informs us whence it is that we hear so much of the unexpected deaths of men why here is the cause God commands a disease or some other messenger of death to go and to fetch them away and they are gone if any die God tells all the world who kills them I kill saith he Deut. 32.39 Hence we see great men for a while fill a Country and a frown of their faces and a stamp of their foot makes all to quake about them but they prove like Pharaoh of whom we read Jer. 46.17 Pharaoh King of Egypt is but a noise So they make a great noise in the Country a while and then like a sound in the Air pass away Methinks a great man is like a great winde it blows violently and rageth a while as if it would throw down all afore it but it proves but a wind which is soon spent and laid So a furious wicked man he blusters and ruffles a while as if he would blow down God and man but a disease and death comes and he gives up the ghost and where is he David made this observation Psal 37.35 36. I have seen the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a green Bay-tree Observe he spreads himself he enlargeth his power and riches and greatness But see what follows Yet he passed away and lo he was not yea I sought him but he could not be found for a sickness comes and like a tempest takes him away in a night Job 27.20 and so by the blast of God they perish Job 4.9 So we see others which would be as great sinners but that they are not so great men for instrumenta explicandae nequitiae desunt as Seneca speaks they want instruments to do mischief these curst Kine have short horns and so cannot do so much hurt these men are full of lyes oaths drunkenness and are set on fire against God and godliness sinning with that impudence as if they would out-face and brow-beat God and man and make death
sinner with sickness or other afflictions if he scorn his Rod it must needs be an unspeakable provocation for as it savours much of the spirit and grace of a Childe of God to be suitably affected to the various manifestations of God so that it is his most inward pleasure to have God pleased this puts gladness into his heart Psal 4.6 7. and if God in displeasure hide his face he is troubled Psal 30.7 so on the contrary it is a sign of a base spirit when as it is said of Miriams disease God spits in his face then to be so shameless and impudent as if he could out-face the frowns of his Majesty Secondly This speaks a mans condition to be incurable Isa 1.5 Why should ye be stricken any more ye will revolt more and more as if they were grown so desperate that corrections made them worse Beloved this stupidity doth frustrate the end and use of Gods Visitation for they cannot hear the rod if they do not feel the rod because the rod speaks by its strokes therefore they lose its teachings when they do not feel it smart the condition then of such wretches must needs be hopeless when they make Gods last remedy useless as when a man is sick first you seek to restore him by keeping him warm and by wholesome diet if this fail you send to the Physitian but if the Physick do not stir the body if he will not vomit nor purge nor bleed then you look for nothing but death So when mercies will not melt nor Sermons change a sinner and after all God sends sickness or other judgments and yet these do not work what remains but a fearful looking for of eternal judgment And now to conclude this we may see the dreadful condition of senseless and secure sinners on their death-beds they say they have made their peace with God when it is but a peace with sin and an agreement with hell and that they hope for salvation when perhaps the Pulse hath not many strokes to beat before they are sure of damnation yet they will go confidently with the foolish Virgins as it were to the door of heaven till Christ tell them there to their faces he knows them not and thus they die being wholly at ease and quiet and carnal friends think they have made a comfortable end when for my part I do not doubt to say it is as comfortable to see men die drunk as die secure Fourthly This doctrine reproves those who in their diseases trust to Physitians for health Diseases you see are not at the command of Physitians but of Christ This was Asa his sin 2 Chron. 16.12 in his disease he sought not to the Lord but to the Physitians His sin was not in seeking to the Physitians but in not seeking to the Lord. I know it is a great sin upon pretence of Gods power to be disobedient to his will in despising Physick which God hath ordained to be his means to restore us to health this sin is a tempting God wherein we will try what God can do and yet neglect what he commands but we must use the Physitian yet so as to live by faith and not by Physick and therefore the rule is to honour and use them as Gods Instruments but not to put them in Gods place Fifthly It reproves those who usurp Authority and use their own power to hurt or disease the bodies of men I mean not those who have authority from God and man to execute bodily punishments as Magistrates Parents Masters c. nor would I abrogate the Law of self-preservation in the case of a violent and unavoidable assault but my aim is to convince those of their sin who delight in quarrelling and fighting who are said to enter into contention Prov. 18.6 who neglect their callings to go to Cock-pits Bear-baits c. on purpose to quarrel and fight and such who upon every little provocation will be at daggers drawing no more with them but a word and a blow a lye and a stab and such mankeen beasts who delight to feed on the wounds and blood of men accounting it a piece of gallantry and bravery to beat hurt wound and maim others Now if all diseases are at the command of Christ so that he bids them go c. then thou shouldst not usurp Christs Authority to hurt or disease others Now that you may for ever abhor and be afraid of this sin lay to heart these five Considerations First This is a damnable sin without speedy repentance it will bring thee to hell I say unto thee as Paul said to Ananias Acts 23.3 God shall smite thee thou whited wall for smiting thy brother Oh look upon those strong arms and limbs burning with thy body and soul in hell Oh consider what a poor credit it is to go valiantly to hell for this will be thy case for if he that gives his brother but a foul word be in danger of hell-fire Mat. 5.22 how much greater danger art thou in who woundest and hurtest that body which God hath bound thee upon pain of damnation in the sixth Commandment to preserve Secondly Consider what spirit worketh in thee when thou art fighting and quarrelling with others I say to thee as Job in another case to his friend Job 26.4 Whose spirit came from thee Is this the holy loving humble patient meek and peaceable spirit which is so precious and savoury to God and men Is this the way to please and honour the God of thy life and limbs and strength who stands by and looks thee in the face and sees thee like a fool in thy rage The Apostle clearly determines that these fightings are fruits of your lusts James 4.1 And is this thy valour and gallantry to fight so stoutly to fulfil a base lust Thirdly Consider how thou dost hereby abuse thy own body Is thy body a member of Christ and thy hands and arms parts of Jesus Christ and wilt thou make a member of Christ a murderer Fourthly Consider the person whom thou smitest Is he not one towards whom thou shouldst put on bowels of compassion and whose salvation thou art bound to seek and dost thou think to bring him to heaven by Club-law Is he not fearfully and wonderfully made by God in whose book all his members are written and wilt thou by thy inhumane and merciless blows mar such a choice piece of Gods workmanship Is not or may not his body be the Temple of the Holy Ghost and an instrument to serve God and his generation and wilt thou by maiming and wounding him make him less serviceable Nay further he is made after the Image of the Invisible God and I tell thee in striking him thou dost as it were strike God in the face Lastly Consider the many sad and fearful consequences of this sin it breeds malice and revenge and causeth further quarrels and contentions among persons and families it begets many chargeable suits at Law
their curses to pass We read of a Mother that in a passion cursed her Son thus Get thee gone I would thou mightest never come again alive and the same day her Son went into the water and was drowned Another woman said in her anger to her Childe The Devil take thee and presently the poor childe was possessed with the Devil These and many more such dreadful examples should make all afraid of such or any other words of cursing Consider once more that every man should have his heart filled with love unto and earnest desires of the good of all men and should be always in a frame to offer up these desires in prayer to God Now how contrary to this is that devillish spirit which inclines thee to hate and to curse others The Apostle James sets out the great hypocrisie and wickedness of a man who with the same tongue will bless God and curse men James 3.9 10. Therewith bless we God even the Father and therewith curse we men which are made after the similitude of God Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing My brethren these things ought not so to be Lastly This Doctrine reproves those who hasten diseases and death to themselves by their own sins I may reason with such sinners in Solomons words Eccles 7.17 Be not over-much wicked neither be thou foolish why shouldst thou die before thy time It is not meant the time absolutely appointed by God for that cannot be prevented but it 's meant that time which in the course of nature they might have probably lived unto as a Lamp will burn till the Oyl be spent but it may be quencht or blown out sooner So in the course of nature many a man might have probably lived many a year but oftentimes either by a sudden blast of God or by some diseases which are bred by his own sins the lamp of his life is quickly blown out and some of such sins I shall here particularly reprove I might instance in that horrible sin of self-murder which ordinarily proceeds from pride unbelief revenge covetousness discontent or despair when men cannot despite God and man enough by their lives they will attempt to do it by their deaths and will venture with their own hands to cut the thred of their own lives and to loose themselves out of the troubles of earth into the torments of hell I might also mention the horrid sins of Treason Murder Witchcraft Theft c. which sins binde their bodies to the wrath and justice of men and their souls and bodies to the wrath and vengeance of God These sins bring men to be hanged like dogs because they could not be contented to live like men I shall instance in these five sins which do provoke God to visit men with diseases some of which do of their own nature bring men to untimely sickness and death 1. Persecution of Gods people This is a sin which doth not only bring everlasting damnation hereafter but usually it also brings some fearful judgments on the bodies and families of Persecutors here Hence we read Psalm 55.23 Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their daies It would take up far more room then I can here spare to instance in the fearful examples of Gods vengeance upon the very bodies of the cruel enemies of Gods Church and people whereby we might see that all the cruelty which the most barbarous persecutors have invented to torment the Christians with hath not been comparable to those torments wherewith God hath tortured their Enemies with fearful and strange diseases We read of that bloody Herod who murdered the Infants Matth. 2.16 that he was smitten by the hand of God with a most shameful and painful disease so that his body boiled and burnt with heat and his bowels were gnawn he was tormented with a ravenous and insatiable appetite after meat his privy parts were rotten and full of filthy vermine and after he had endured a while the horririble pangs of a lingring death he died in desperate madness and misery See Eusebius Ecclesiastic Histor Lib. 1. Cap. 8. Tertullian amongst other examples of the like kinde reports that one Claudius Herminianus in Cappadocia being enraged that his Wife was turned Christian to revenge himself did exercise much cruelty upon the precious Christians for which God did smite him with a fearful plague wherewith after a while he was tormented he dyed ad Scapulam cap. 3. Steven Gardiner a bloudy butcher in Queen Maries days hearing that Bishop Ridley and Master Latimer were burned at Oxford rejoyced greatly and being at dinner ate his meat merrily but whilst the meat was in his mouth the wrath of God came upon him so that he was taken from his board to bed where continuing fifteen days in intolerable anguish by reason he could not expel his urine his body being miserably inflamed within he was brought to a wretched end with his tongue all black and swoln hanging out of his blasphemous mouth I shall conclude this by warning all that either love their souls lives or posterity or country to take heed of wronging the precious people of God the truth is the Nation which persecutors are a curse unto and the souls of persecutors themselves are dearer to godly Christians then all their own private interest which persecution can take from them and therefore I say to all malicious enemies as Tertullian said to Scapula a Ruler in Carthage and a cruel enemy to Christians Parce tibi si non nobis parce Carthagini si non tibi Spare thy self if thou wilt not spare us spare Carthage if thou wilt not spare thy self So I say if ye will not spare the holy people of God spare your selves if ye will not spare your selves spare your families spare your poor children if you will not spare your families spare the precious nation spare London spare England for you swallow up all by swallowing up Gods people The second sin which I shall here reprove is unworthy receiving the Lords Supper God often punisheth this sin with bodily diseases Hence we read 1 Cor. 11.30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep Now that you may know the evil and danger of this sin I shall shew you what it is to eat and drink the Lords Supper unworthily A man eats and drinks the Lords Supper unworthily when he is without the gracious qualifications which make the heart fit and meet and agreeable to this blessed Ordinance The best way to understand this is to consider what is in the Ordinance and what is in the heart and then by comparing them together to see whether they do meet and agree as for example in the Lords Supper Jesus Christ crucified with all the blessings of the Gospel are shewed forth 1 Cor. 11.26 well and there is a Believer who by faith sees and discerns the Lords Body as it is set forth therein now such a heart and the
ordinance do meet the heart agrees and is suitable to the ordinance and so is fit and worthy to receive it but on the other hand here is a dead unbelieving sinner that hath no principle or faculty to discern Jesus Christ or to receive him as hereby offered therefore he comes unworthily he is not fit for his heart and the ordinance do not agree but he is like a blinde man before the most glorious shew Again here is spiritual food meat indeed and drink indeed to feed and satisfie a soul with grace and pardon and salvation Well and here is a poor soul hungring and thirsting after this very food Now such a man is fit and comes like a hungry man to a good and wholesome feast but here is another dead sinner that sees and feels his want of nothing and so is no more fit and meet for such an ordinance then a man that lyes dead in a Coffin is to eat the bread and wine which is dealt at his funeral nay further you may see the unworthiness of a wicked man in that his heart is against the Lords Supper as a man is very unfit for a feast when he loaths and his stomack doth rise against every dish on the table and against all the company So my Brethren a man is very unfit for the Lords Supper when his heart hates and riseth against Christ and against holiness against all godly Christians Sirs here is set before us that which condemns all sins and which requires the greatest strictness and holiness so that to be sure the man that hates Christ in a Minister or in a Christian cannot but hate him in the Lords Supper Well you see who are unworthy and who by this sin bring diseases and other judgements of God upon themselves in this life and also damnation on their bodies and souls in the life to come I might here also tell you that the godly themselves for want of the present exercise of grace suitable to this Ordinance may bring diseases and death upon themselves for as Christ with all his benefits is herein actually set forth so grace should actually come forth to meet him to take receive and enjoy him as when a feast is ready drest and disht up those that are fit guests must not onely have life and stomachs c. but they must also actually eat and drink The application is easie I shall therefore conclude this reproof in seriously warning all to take heed of unworthy receiving the Lords Supper would any man eat that which he knows would breed the Pestilence or the Fever or the Dropsie Why Christ tells you if you come unworthily you eat and drink judgement to your selves And certainly though the food be precious and wholesome and it is your duty to receive it worthily yet by unworthy receiving you do that which may bring the Plague Pox Fever c. upon you and without sound repentance will bring damnation upon your bodies and souls for ever The third sin to be here reproved is niggardliness this is a sin whereby men restrain from themselves the lawful use of the creature they have not hearts to take and use the creatures to those ends which God hath made them good for but basely defraud their own backs and bellies by grudging themselves the meat drink clothes recreations physick which nature requires and God allows The word speaks expresly against this sin Eccles 6.12 such men play the thieves in robbing God of the honour and themselves of the use of these mercies and they love their â— states better then themselves and by prâ—serving their riches they disease and destroâ— their own bodies 4. Drunkenness to which may be addâ— the sin of gluttony The former bring themselves to untimely sicknesses anâ— death by taking too little of Gods creâ—tures and these by taking too much consider the evil and danger of thiâ— sin of drunkenness in these five particulars 1. Drunkenness doth unman the drunkard and turns him into a very beast Hencâ— saith the Prophet Hos 4.11 Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart This is given as one reason of the peoples wickedness mentioned in this Chapter because they were so besotted with drunkenness and whoredom which sins took away all knowledge and wisdom from them Augustine saith Ebrietas est blandus daemon quam qui habet seipsum non habet Drunkenness is a flattering Devil which he that hath hath not himself Drunkenness is voluntaria insania wilful madness as Seneca speaks A Drunkard though at other times he may be learned yet now he can neither understand discourse see go ride nor do any business as becomes a reasonable man look on a drunkard and consider yonder goes one with the immortal soul and precious body of a man yonder staring eyes stammering tongue staggering limbs would if they were filled with the Spirit be precious instruments to honour God and become blessings to man but what a beastly creature is he made by this filthy sin 2. A drunkard is unfit for any employment he is good for nothing Who will venture his business with a drunken Servant or his life with a drunken Physician or his soul with a drunken Minister how many thousand of mens lives have been lost by drunken souldiers Whatever a mans estate be he may be cheated of all when he is drunk 3. A drunkard is unfit for all societies and that for divers reasons I shall mention but this one viz. a man cannot commit a secret to a drunkard who will chuse such a friend to whom a man can speak nothing but what he will have proclaimed in every Alehouse or Tavern in the Country Now what ever a man says to a drunkard no body knows but that the next time he is drunk he will tell all 4. Drunkenness betrays a man to all sin for a man at the best is full of the principles of Sin Now drunkenness is apt to set all a work and leaves a man incapable of many restraints which might be used to a sober person who knows what a man full of sin may do in his drunken mood when he hath neither grace nor reason nor counsel of others nor fear nor shame to restrain him and therefore what horrid sins are committed in drunkenness swearing cursing whoring fighting yea and murdering also Clitus was a dear and faithful friend to Alexander yet Alexander murders him when he was drunk though he was ready to kill himself for it when he was sober Augustine reports that a son of one in Hippo who was too much cockered by his Father came home drunk in which sin he would have ravished one of his Sisters slew his Father and wounded to death two of his other Sisters Lastly drunkenness shuts a man out of heaven and by untimely sicknesses and death hastens him to hell The Apostle assures us 1 Cor. 6.10 that no drunkards shall inherit the kingdom of God Oh what a fearful sin is this it hurries a
work the great shout will then make among the prophane Swaggerers and Ranters oâ— the world So when thou art troubled with diseases and the fearful thoughts of death consider thy glorious victory over them at thâ— day of judgment 1 Cor. 15.54 When thiâ— corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed uâ— in victory Look on this corruptible anâ— mortal body which is now sometimes sâ— loathsome with diseases that a man caâ— scarce endure to carry it about him or to lie with it and will shortly be so contemptible that the worms of the earth wilâ— crawl and feed all over it and these verâ— arms and thighs and legs may be throwâ— up and lie like the bones of horses anâ— sheep at the graves mouth yet the day iâ— coming when this corruptible and mortal body shall put on immortality and glory and saith the Apostle Then at that day shall come to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory Beloved here diseases conquer the strongest bodies and death overcomes the lives of the best and greatest men and the grave devours and eats up our flesh but then we shall obtain a glorious victory over all when in despite of them the bodies of Believers shall be raised incorruptible and immortal and diseases death and the grave which have prevailed for so many thousand years to swallow up so many millions of men and women shall themselves be swallowed up of life and swallowed up in victory Last Vse is of Exhortation I shall conclude this discourse with a Use of Exhortation which I shall first direct to all in general and then more particularly 1. To such who are in health 2. To such who have been sick but are recovered 3. I shall direct to some duties to be practised in time of sickness I begin with the first wherein I shalâ— exhort all to these six duties grounded oâ— this Doctrine 1. Live in the knowledge and sense oâ— this truth that the health and lives of alâ— men are at the will and command of Jesus Christ 1. See your own health and lives at thâ— command of Christ acknowledge with David Psal 31.15 My times are in thy hands Consider that of the Apostle Jam 4.13 14. Go to now ye that say To day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow For what is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and presently vanisheth away Observe Go to ye that say To day or to morrow Why a day is but a little while and it is but a short time till to morrow Well but time hath a teeming womb and you know not what a day may bring forth We often see one day working strange changes and alterations with men a day may bring you into eternity and put an eternal period to all your designes and it is most certain that you know not what shall be on the morrow thou mayest be sick or dead to morrow thou mayest be in heaven or hell to morrow oh but sure there is no such danger yes that there is and therefore it is added What is your life It is even a vapour that appeareth a little while and presently vanisheth away As a vapour fills the air and makes a shew a little while and then presently vanisheth away So man appears a little while in his family in the Field Market or Congregation but presently vanisheth out of sight How would the serious thoughts of this make men hasten to repent if they did know that there is very great danger that unbelief and impenitency may bring them to hell before to morrow If so surely they would not venture one hour out of Jesus Christ for as many mountains of gold as there are sands upon the Sea-shore yet for want of this poor souls are still deferring their repentance till to morrow until at last death seiseth upon them and leaves them never a morrow to repent in So how vain would the world appear to them if they did consider that they could not say they should enjoy their riches and pleasures and preferments till to morrow Consider thus with thy self I have provided meat but I may be in Eternity before I eat it I have bought me good cloaths but I may be put in a winding-sheet before I wear them I have sowed great fields but I may be in hell before I reap them Look on all the world about thee and tell thy soul This is but a poor portion when thou mayst loose all in a breath 2. See thy Friends and Relations in the hands of Jesus Christ Beloved herein appears the great difference betwixt our worldly and heavenly enjoyments As foâ— our heavenly enjoyments we are best wheâ— we are most fit to enjoy them but as foâ— our worldly comforts we are best when wâ— are most fit to loose them as thus it is ouâ— holiness and happiness to be fit to abide for ever with God and Christ in heaven but we are most holy and spiritual when we are in a readiness to part with Husbands Wives Parents Children c. Now what poor comforts are these when a man is in the best frame when he can be content to be without them 3. See the great ones of the world in the hands of Jesus Christ Oh what a sight is this to look upon all the Kings and Nobles and Gallants of the world in their very faâ— into Eternity Sirs as you see them catching at the Crowns and Honours and Estates of the world so see diseases and death catching at them We have this passage Psal 49.12 20. Man being in honour abideth not he is like the beasts that perish that is say some like beasts that die of the Murrain which are thrown away for stinking Carrion which is good for nothing Did we consider this we should not make men our trust and confidence See Jer. 17.5 What a cursed sin is this for a man that hath the Immortal God to be his trust to rest on a lump of flesh that cannot so much as keep himself from being sick or dead or damned for one day Psal 146.3 4. Put not your trust in Princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help His breath goeth forth he returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish Observe the Psalmist pleads against putting our trust in the Princes and great ones oâ— the world because they are dying men and in the day of death their thoughts perish Many great men have great thoughts of honours and preferments and perhaps thoughts of doing much mischief to Gods Church and people but death comes and in that very day their thoughts perish In Esth 6. we read that Hamans thoughts were full of this
you were born children of the Devil and you must be born again if ever you will be the children of God Good children know and love the God that made you and Jesus Christ who died for you to redeem and save you You can be afraid of the Rod and a Bugbear be afraid of sin and hell Perhaps you have godly parents who instruct and catechize you in the knowledge of God Why good children hear the instruction of your fathers and forsake not the law of your mothers God doth not love you as his children because you are pretty or witty children or because you are the children of rich parents but if you will love and fear the Lord then you shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation Good children look on the graves in the Church-yards and you shall see many who were no elder nor taller then you dead and buried before you as young as you are sick and as young as you are dead and as young as you are in heaven and hell therefore be Gods children whilst you are young lest you be sick and dead and damned before you be old 2. Exhort parents to do their duty in endeavouring to prepare their children for sickness and death Ephes 6.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 feed or nourish your children in the fear of the Lord. Beasts can take care to save their young ones lives but men and women and Christians should be careful to save their childrens souls when thy children dye if thou hast neglected their salvation it must if thy conscience be ever awakened cause stinging reflections in thy soul There is a story of a father who consented that his daughter should commit whoredom which she did and soon after dyed whereupon the poor guilty father cryes out I have damned my daughters soul I have damned my daughters soul Sirs do not teach your children to to lye swear to be drunk or covetous to scoff at Gods children or holiness lest one day you have cause to cry out when it is too late We have damned our childrens souls When your hearts are affected to see your children about you then see diseases and death at your doors ready to make your children orphans or you childless and consider withal how sad it is that such pretty sweet children should be for ever burned in hell Beloved I would not have you worse then Infidels in not providing for your childrens bodies and yet I would have you better then Devils in providing for their poor souls It is a pleasant sight to see parents live as if they were going with all their children to heaven It is comely to see parents sitting in their house and their children about them or to see them sitting in a Congregation and their children about them but how much more glorious will it be to see them sitting in heaven and their children about them though the relation will end yet the comfort of being a means to bring them thither will abide for ever Parents if you cannot make your children heirs of houses and lands labour to make them heirs of heaven do not onely teach your children how to live but also teach them how to dye thou art troubled sometimes to think Alas how will my poor children live I tell thee thou hast more need to think How will my poor children dye for there are few so poor but they can make some shift to live but there are millions so miserable that they know not how to dye 3. Exhortation to young men Vnto you O men I call and my voice is unto the sons of men Prov. 8.4 make it your care to prepare for sickness and death Solomon having taught that childhood and youth is vanity Eccles 11.10 he infers this Exhortation to young men Eccles 12.1 Remember now thy Creator in the daies of thy youth It is necessary for all young people to live as those that know that God will bring them to judgment Eccles 11.9 Consider you are never prepared for sickness and death till you are prepared for judgement Oh young men and women look upon your selves as going to judgment Heark do not you hear the great shout that calls you all to make your appearance before the judgment-seat of Christ Sirs be nothing now but what you would appear to be at that great day Wouldst thou be judged as a Drunkard or Swearer or Whoremonger or Worldling or as an enemy to godly Ministers and Christians at the day of judgment If not then be not such a one now do not think your selves too young to enter into a serious way of godliness For what if sickness and death will not stay till you are old Thou art not too young to be sick or to die Do not then think that thou art too young to go to heaven lest God think thee old enough to go to hell 4. Exhortation to old men to prepare for sickness and death The daies which Solomon calls evil daies are already come upon you Methinks I may allude to that of our Saviour Joh. 4.35 Look on the fields for they are white already unto Harvest When I look on old people I see a white crop of gray hairs which speaks them to be ripe for the sickle of death Sirs diseases and death have done a great deal of their work upon you already they have worn away your colour beauty and strength yet how sad is it to see an old man more unfit to die then a very childe that begins to live He is old and ignorant old and covetous old and malicious old and cruel old and yet a drunkard Oh poor man what hast thou been doing all thy daies Hast thou had fifty threescore almost fourscore years to prepare for sickness and death and to lay up treasures in heaven and hast thou done nothing else but been heaping up wrath in hell Heark old Father for I must needs honour thy hoary head the sick-bed death the grave call for thee Oh then repent and believe presently let not the Devil who long ago perswaded thee thou wast too young now perswade thee thou art too old for as old as thou art yet it is better for thee to go to heaven a young Babe of Christ then to go to hell an old slave of the Devil 5. Exhortation to rich and great men of the world to prepare for sickness and death Sirs there are messengers at your doors to fetch you where mountains of gold are worth nothing your riches cannot guard you against sickness and death God can as easily turn a Bed of Down into a Bed of Languishing as a Bed of Straw and a disease cares no more for the richest Velvet then the poorest Sheep skin and a sickness can as easily catch thee in a Coach as in a Cart and death enters into the stateliest Castle assoon as the poorest cottage Read your case Jam. 1.10 11. As the flower of the grass he shall pass away For the Sun is no sooner
Husband nor enjoy the fruit of thy womb upon earth thou mayst live with Christ and enjoy the fruit of his righteousness in heaven for ever I shall conclude this with that suitable Scripture 1 Tim. 2.5 Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childe-bearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety lest poor women should be swallowed up with the sad thoughts of the sin mentioned in the former verse where it 's said that Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the gransgression for which sin disgrace and punishment is fixt to the Sex these words are added for their comfort to shew that notwithstanding that sin and the punishment thereof yet they shall be saved in childe-bearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety Poor woman methinks I see thee walking with two souls over eternity and both full of sin Oh therefore hasten to make thy peace with that God whose power alone must take the childe out of the mothers bowels that so thou mayst comfortably depend and call upon him to save both your lives but however to save your poor souls I come now to urge this duty with these seven Motives Mot. 1. It is the will of God that you should be prepared for sickness and death in so doing you do the will of God he commands you to wait and watch and prepare for the day of judgement Matth. 24.42 Mar. 13.33 35. Now it 's a certain rule that all those Scriptures which command us to prepare for the day of judgement do imply our duty to be prepared for sickness and death which are the forerunners of that day and the same preparation which is made for the one will serve for the other Now my Brethren this is a sufficient reason to move you to this duty for it 's the will of God which makes it our duty and binds us to it and must be the reason to us why we do it or we can never be prepared aright Beloved God would have us to be saved 1 Tim. 2.4 to reign with him in heaven and therefore to be always ready against the time that he sends for us thither Mot. 2. It 's a signe of a very wise man to be prepared for sickness and death Prov. 22.3 A prudent man fore-seeth the evil and hideth himself A wise godly man sees sickness and death and the day of judgement before him he knows he must go through all these and therefore he takes care to provide so as to be safe and happy in those great dangers Beloved it 's the greatest wisdom in the world to be wise to salvation It 's better miscarry in a thousand businesses then in the business of Salvation Now he that is wise to salvation prepares against all the dangers that he must be saved from and the greatest danger is at death when a man must go through that door where so many millions fall into hell what a wise man then is he who is prepared so as that door to him is the door of heaven Many that get estates and preferments in the world are much admired for their wisdom and yet when death comes they must be damned for their folly Remember the Parable of the ten Virgins five whereof were wise and five were foolish Now why were those five called wise the reason was because when that great cry was made at midnight Behold the Bridegroom cometh they were prepared and why were the other five foolish because they were unprepared for that great time Beloved when the great God our Saviour shall come out of heaven with his mighty Angels and his glorious Saints and shall shew his blessed face in the clouds and sound a trumpet that will call all the quick and dead before him in the twinkling of an eye certainly they will prove the wisest persons that are so prepared as to stand and triumph and lift up their heads with joy in that great appearance Ah Sirs when Come ye blessed and Go ye cursed hath distinguished and parted the world it will then be known who are wise men and who are fools Mot. 3. Because it 's altogether uncertain when sickness and death will come the Scripture useth this argument Mar. 13.33 Watch and pray for ye know not when your time is Solomon elegantly sets forth the uncertainty of our time Eccles 9.12 For man also knoweth not his time as the fishes that are taken in an evil net and as the birds that are caught in the snare so are the sons of men snared in an evil time when it falleth suddenly upon them As the fishes are sporting in the water and are presently masht in the net and as the birds are hopping in the chaff and are presently caught in the snare so poor man is suddenly and unexpectedly surprised in the snares of death Sometimes a man is fast asleep and sickness awakens him sometimes he is feeding at the table and death comes between the cup and the lip sometimes he is riding a journey and death throws him into eternity and sometimes he is making a purchase and death comes and breaks the bargain sometimes he is marrying a wife and death comes and mars the match Sirs sickness and death are under no rules of civility they care not for disturbing the weightiest business in the world if therefore we cannot say of any thing I will do this or I will have that before I am sick or dead certainly our very next work should be to prepare for sickness and death Mot. 4. Because thou knowest not what kinde of sickness or death may come upon thee We read of a great death 2 Cor. 1.10 Sometimes death comes with great pains and great terrors and great temptations which make it a great death so that the provision of a whole age of grace will not without the mighty support of Gods Spirit keep thee holy and cheerful at such a time It is said Job 18.13 The first-born of death shall devour his strength The first-born is the chiefest and mightiest in it's kinde and therefore the meaning is that death shall come in the most cruel and terrible manner to devour a man Now set before thee those that have dyed in the most fearful pains of body and have been assaulted with the most horrid temptations and consider this may be thy case however prepare against the worst that Sin and Death and Devils and men can do against thee Mot. 5. By thy being prepared for sickness and death thou art also prepared for health and life for there is none so fit to live as he who is fit to dye the same graces which will make thee holy and patient and joyful in sickness will make thee so in health for the same faith love humility meekness and patience which qualifie the soul for passive obedience do also fit the soul for active obedience as the same provision of victuals or money which is made against
a siege or famine will be useful and profitable if such times do not happen so that you can neither be well nor sick nor live nor dye without this work of preparation Mot. 6. That man is in a most blessed condition who is prepared for sickness and death for every thing which makes him prepared makes him blessed I shall onely instance in two things 1. All the happiness of the other world is his own 1 Cor. 3.22 Things to come are yours Christians your sins snares and troubles are almost past but they will be all over shortly but your joy glory and happiness are to come The happiness of heaven is to come and the glory of the day of judgement is to come Now all these joys that are to come are yours for they are setled upon you in the Covenant of Grace 1 Tim. 4.8 Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come Now that man is fit to dye and is in a most blessed condition who when sickness and death comes hath a right to go to heaven Poor childe of God! the best of thy hopes and comforts and happiness lies beyond death and thou canst not come at them for this life but sickness and death will put thee into possession of all and thou art like to see a strange sight so soon as death hath loosed thee out of this life 2. He is by the graces of Gods Spirit fitted for heaven he is made meet to be partaker of the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1.12 Beloved grace makes a man fit to receive glory the joys of heaven are brought and received into the soul by grace if thou wilt be prepared for death live now as thou hopest to live for ever in heaven do nothing but what thou wouldst do going to heaven Besides by grace the heart of a Believer fastens on heaven he lays hold on eternal life he prayes hears and receives Sacraments with his heart having fast hold on heaven How fit therefore is such a man to have sickness and death come to let him into heaven Last Motive If you are not prepared for sickness and death you will be prepared for hell Sirs if a godly man doth good and a sinner doth evil both go into eternity the one to be a treasure in heaven the other to be a treasure in hell Now what a fearful condition is this for a man to be always laying up provision against himself in hell We read Rom. 9.22 of vessels of wrath fitted or made up for destruction if you will not be made up for heaven you must be made up for hell Oh believe what a fearful condition this is to be always ready to be turned into hell thou dost not think of this whilst the pleasures of sin and the patience of God last But what a case wilt thou be in when there will be nothing in thee but torments and nothing in God towards thee but wrath Beloved be convinced of the certainty of hell thou mayst as certainly see hell by the light of Scripture as thou mayst see men and beasts and earth and trees by the light of the Sun hell is as certain as sin and sinners there is wrath in God as sure as there is sin in man God's justice is as sure as his mercie and he hath bound himself to condemn unbelievers as well as to save believers See Joh. 3. ult Mark 16.16 See your nearness to hell whilst you are unprepared for sickness and death methinks I see that every step thou goest thou art ready to tread in the flames Poor soul thou hangest over the lake of brimstone by the twin'd thred of life when that breaks thou art drowned and damned for ever there is nothing appears between thee and hell but the hand-breadth of time Oh what a sight is this to see a company of secure sinners drinking and swearing and swaggering and ranting and roaring within an hand-breadth of everlasting burnings Again consider the greatness of hell-torments here is a depth that thou canst not fathom who can speak of the greatness of hell-torments when it 's our duty to believe they are unspeakable Canst thou tell how many years eternity lasts or how much punishment sin deserves Dost thou know how much wrath Omnipotencie can inflict or how much torment a vessel of wrath can hold then mayst thou measure the torments of hell and fathom the lake of fire and brimstone Consider but this one thing viz. the greatness of God who inflicts the torments he is a God to whom vengeance belongs and he were no God if he could not do that which belongs to him consider God is great in every thing that he is to whom he is a father a portion a husband he is a great father a great portion a great husband to whom he is an enemy he is a great enemy Oh how great must their misery be who must for ever feel the weight of that hand which made heaven and earth Beloved if but the ach of a tooth be so grievous that it takes away the taste of a whole monarchy of the world while it lasts how inconceiveably great must their torments be who have the power that made all the world set awork to torment their bodies and souls through all eternity Nay consider further God will raise up his glory out of his enemies misery those are always great works which God makes to please himself and to demonstrate his glory when he would glorifie his power and goodness and wisdom he makes a world when he would glorifie his grace and love and mercie he gives a Christ and when he would glorifie his justice and holiness he damns a sinner O wo wo wo be those poor souls out of whose torments God will raise up to himself an everlasting revenue of unspeakable glory Oh then what a miserable cheated soul art thou who wilt venture to be one hour unprepared for sickness and death when for ought thou knowest thou mayst be in the bottom of hell before the clock strike next I shall now in the last place conclude this Use by giving you ten Directions to direct you how to prepare for sickness and death Direct 1. Labour by a strong and lively faith to be always receiving and resting upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ Beloved the greatest danger you are to provide against is that sickness and death do not bring you to hell Now being found in Christs righteousness you shall have thereby a safe and comfortable way and passage through these into heaven for by reason of this you may stand on the very gates of death and triumph with the Apostle Rom. 8.33 34. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth It is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us Now this righteousness
then that time must needs be precious which gives thee an opportunity to gain these The Apostle determines this 2 Cor. 6.2 Now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation Now God is offering Christ for thy Salvation now the Spirit is striving for thy Salvation now Ministers are praying preaching and travelling for thy Salvation Thus God fills thy time with salvation-work Oh then what a mercy it is to be restored to such precious opportunities when perhaps if thou hadst dyed in thy last sickness thou wast in great danger to be damned and now thou hast time to labour to be saved The second Duty to be performed by those who are restored to health is this Keep up a frequent remembrance of thy visitation and of the Lords dealing with thee therein It seems by the contents of it that David penned Psalm 38. in a time of great sickness and it 's very observable that he gives that Psalm this title A psalm of David to bring to remembrance Implying that one special use of this Psalm was to bring his sickness to remembrance Whence we may learn that it is our duty in our health to be often remembring the hand of God in our sickness when thou art full of mirth and findest thy heart apt to be loose from God in thy recreations then remember the pains of sickness and this will cause a spirit of moderation and sobriety to rule thy heart when thou art going to worship God it may much quicken thee with a new and fresh spirit to consider how near thou wast to eternity in such a sickness and to go to duty as one that is newly risen out of a sick-bed and that thou art still praying hearing receiving Sacraments as it were in the very gates of death So when thou art tempted to any sin remember thy sickness consider Wilt thou bring again upon thy self an Ague Fever Dropsie Consumption c Beloved in abundance of cases it will do your souls much good to be often remembring your visitation Thirdly examine what good thou hast got by thy visitation Beloved many come out of a sickness like Rogues out of a gaol Rogues they went in and worse Rogues they come out So they were Drunkards Whoremongers Persecutors of Gods people when they went into sickness and are far worse and more hardned in their sins when they come out of sickness Let us therefore all examine what good we have got by our sickness as you know after a man hath been in a course of Physick he observes whether he coughs less or burns less c. and whether his stomack be better and strength better and sleep better so if thou hast been in a course of sickness observe whether thy corruptions abate and whether thy heart be better since thy visitation is pride less and peevishness less and covetousness less and canst thou pray better and sanctifie Sabbaths better and hear Sermons better and is thy discourse better and thy life better David upon search found sweet experience of the blessed effect of his affliction Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy statutes So canst thou say Before I was sick I could not endure to be provoked I was very light and loose in company I was very apt to be proud and self-conceited but now I bless God I am more patient and more serious and more humble Fourthly take special care to avoid sin after thy recovery I say to thee as Christ said to another upon the same occasion Joh. 5.14 Thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee Thou thoughtest thy disease was very bad and grievous but consider there are worse things then thy sickness was worse pains and worse miseries Oh then sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee I shall press this duty in these four Particulars First watch especially against those sins which thou wast most inclined unto before thy sickness Some conceive that the impotent man before-mentioned was visited especially for some particular sin which our Saviour did particularly aim at in bidding him sin no more The Apostle tells us of some 2 Pet. 2.22 that return with the dog to his own vomit where he compares those that seemed to loath sin and after return to the same sin to a sick dog which when he hath eased himself by vomiting up that which made him sick goes and licks up again his own loathsome vomit and so we see very many who lick up in time of health those very sins which they seemed to loath and vomit up in time of sickness Beloved sin appears in its actings most strong when the instruments are most strong therewith a man commits it and the weakness of the instruments causeth a weakness in the actings of sin and therefore when the body is weak all those sins which are fulfilled by the body seem weak too but now when the body gathers strength as a man hath strength to eat and strength to work and strength to walk so without the mighty power of the Spirit strength will also return into sin Therefore I say Watch and pray and fight against those sins which thou wast most apt to commit before thy sickness Secondly take heed of surfetting with the profits and pleasures and preferments of the world for as a man after long fasting is apt to surfeit when he returns to his meat so when a man by sickness hath been long with-held from the creature there appears such a fresh kinde of pleasure and delight in the world and the heart is so eager in the desires of it that there is great danger of being glutted with it We should therefore receive all the blessings of the creature as the Israelites did eat the Pass-over Exod. 12.11 where we finde that they were to eat the Pass-over as those that were ready to go out of Egypt towards Canaan with their loyns girt their shoes on their feet their staves in their hands and they were to eat it in haste So my Brethren we should eat drink buy fell work take our recreations as those that are hasting away into eternity and as if we were ready drest to go to heaven Thirdly Beware of security for we are apt herein to be like Pharaoh who when one plague was past thought himself safe enough from that or any other So when one fit of sickness is past we look for no more but dream of a long time of ease and peace and health before us but we should be rather like one that is sick of an Ague who when the fit is over eats drinks and is merry but yet he looks for another fit So Sirs is a sickness over and past why I do not deny but that God who hath given thee a stomach and provided food would have thee to eat and drink and he that hath created matter for thy delight and made thee a risible creature doth allow thee to be merry and
and gallants of the proud presumptuous scornful unbelieving envious sâ—cure covetous world are now flaming in and consider that thou deservest to lye in the midst of them and therefore now the greatest care of thy soul should be how to be saved from those unquenchable flames Then look into heaven into thy Fathers house and behold there the high and lofty one dwelling in that high and holy place and the Lord Jesus sitting at his right hand in glory and an innumerable company of Angels looking him in the face and there see a great multitude of blessed and glorified Saints Illic Apostolorum gloriosus chorus illic Prophetarum exultantium numerus illic Martyrum innumerabilis populus There is the glorious quire of Apostles there is a company of triumphant Prophets and there is an innumerable multitude of blessed Martyrs saith Cyprian There thou mayst see those who were upon earth the poor reviled despised afflicted persecuted imprisoned banisht hang'd burnt Children of the most high God whom the world could not bear but are now happily possest of their everlasting Kingdom where they are filled and satisfied with the likeness and presence of God and are singing and rejoycing with unspeakable joy to behold his glory And then consider Yonder is the place wherein I am now to seek to enter And thus let thy sickness fill thee with the deep and serious thoughts of death judgement and the world to come Duty 3. Be sure of a well-grounded Scripture-peace setled betwixt God and thy soul It 's a good saying That the day of death is a day of truth See therefore that thou hast a peace which will prove true and sound when it comes to the great tryal of death and judgement The unbeliever is not then to be tryed at the bar of his own secure and seared conscience nor by a Jury of carnal atheistical neighbours The Believer hath then a present appeal from the â—ash and false judgement of his enemies and also from the dismal sentences of his own doubting heart and the Cause of both is presently to go to a hearing before the judgement-seat of Christ Now see that thy peace be setled on such a sure foundation that thou mayst be found in safety and glory when thou art called to appear before the Judge of quick and dead There are two main things which may assure thy heart of peace and reconciliation with God 1. If Christs righteousness be thy own so that as sure as thou art a sinner in thy self thou art righteous in and by the righteousness and obedience of Jesus Christ See therefore that all causes agree to make this righteousness thy own 1. Set the Lord before thy eyes and be able to say I know and am surely convinced that God is a good God a living kinde and merciful God and that he is good to poor sinners by the salvation of whom he hath chosen to make his goodness glorious to all eternity I know that there are forgivenesses with him that he hath a heart to pardon iniquity transgression and sin that he is inclin'd and ready to pardon according to his infinite goodness and loving kindness and this goodness is the cause of all that great Salvation revealed in the Gospel and I come to him and my soul doth cleave to him and love him and all my expectation is from him as he is a God of such infinite and incomprehensible goodness 2. I know that out of this infinite goodness he hath sent Jesus Christ to me that to me a childe is born and to me a son is given Isai 9.6 I know surely that he came out from the Father and I do believe that he hath sent him John 17.8 I know that the Son of God is come and hath given me an understanding that I might know him that is true and I am in him that is true This is the true God and eternal life 3. God hath herein commended his love to my soul in that Christ dyed for me and I know this true God the Lord Jesus Christ did in his infinite love to me as my Surety dye for me and thereby satisfied Gods justice for my sins which he bore in his body upon the tree 1 Pet. 4.24 And that he loved me and gave himself for me an offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet smelling savour 4. I know that it is the will of God concerning me that I should take this righteousness of Jesus Christ to be mine for he hath commanded me to take his â—ody as broken for me and his Bloud â—s shed for the remission of my sins And this is his commandment that I â—ould believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ 5. I know that God by his Spirit hath convinced me that I am lost without Christ and that he hath made me to see his righteousness so precious and meritorious and necessary for my Salvation that I do by the power of his Spirit willingly obediently lovingly and joyfully receive and take this righteousness of Christ for my own and rest onely upon it for the pardon of my sins and for my Salvation as it is freely offered and given by God to me in the Gospel Lastly I know that God hereupon imputes this righteousness to me and accounts it my righteousness and that I am bound to account it my own so as to own it live upon it and to glory in it and by this righteousness God justfies me being he is just and the justifier of them that believe in Jesus Rom. 3.26 And thus being justified by faith in Christs righteousness I have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 5.1 And hereby I have a right through the free grace of God to go from my sick-bed into the everlasting Kingdom of peace And when I am called to the Judgement-seat of Christ being found in his righteousness I shall be found of him in peace without spot and blameless 2. That thou mayst be assured of a Scripture-peace and reconciliation with God labour to finde thy self truely joyned and united to Jesus Christ thy whole body and soul joyned to all of Christ so as with him to make one self one mystical Christ that thou mayst be able to say As poor and weak as I lye here groaning on this bed of languishing yet this aking head pale face weak hands feeble limbs withered body is all a member of Christs body of his flesh and of his bones Eph. 5.30 For by the grace of God I can say that whereas I am in my self a dead plant and as separated from Christ can doing nothing yet by faith my heart is truely rooted in Christ and I do receive him to rule me as my Lord according to his will and to teach and every way to save me and my minde is set upon him and my heart and affections do cleave and are fastned to him and there comes true spirit and life from him which spreads and works in
steps through faith and patience and you shall with them inherit the promises Heb. 10.36 Ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye might receive the promise So much for the Motives Now that you may practice this Duty observe these fâ—ve following Directions 1. Labour by patience to 〈…〉 under the Rule and 〈…〉 graces Luk. 2â— â— 9 〈…〉 ye your â—orts 〈…〉 â—â—e sweet possesâ—ion and 〈…〉 by this graâ—◠〈…〉 â—is spirit Prov. 15.32 Beloved when the body is troubled it 's an hard thing to rule the soul to keep the affections passions thoughts words looks actions in their place much covetousness pride unbelief anger and discontent are apt to work and disturb and displace the soul at such a time Now a patient man bears off his troubles by the strength of his graces and the strength of all graces work in patience he believes patiently hopes patiently and lyes patiently under the will of God loving and rejoycing in him so that patience keeps the soul from sinking and it keeps corruption from rising and keeps all graces working so that the heart is full of duty when it is full of patience and hereby the heart is established and setled in a holy even cheerful and obedient frame under the will of God 2. Be patient in obedience to the will of God for it cannot be true patience except thou bear thy affliction patiently for this reason because it comes from the will of God I know a sickness is not a thing it self which a natural will should chuse but when God signifies that it 's his will that thou shouldst be visited then here comes in the work of patience to deny thy own will whereby thou wast willing to have ease and health and life and to say I am willing to go into a sick-bed or death-bed to fulfil the Will of God We have our Saviours example for this he was innocently willing to avoid the sufferings by his created Humane Will but looking upon them as coming from the Will of his Father he submits his will to his Fathers saying Mat. 26.39 Not as I will but as thou wilt So a childe of God may say I am willing to have my health and life to live in the world with my Friends and Relations and to be a blessing to the Church of God but if it be Gods Will that I shall be sick and dead let me die to fulfil the Will of God rather then live to fulfil my own will 3. Humble and abase your selves under the Hand of God in your Visitation 1 Pet. 5.6 Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God See what a mighty Hand of God is upon thee and humble thy self under it the humblest Christians are always the patientest Christians It 's observeable that the reason of Jobs impatience was his too high thoughts of himself and his too low thoughts of God and therefore observe how God pleads with him Job 38.2 3. Who is this that darkens counsel by â—ords without knowledge What prating â—ellow is this that by his ignorant talk â—â—rkens my Wisdom and Justice and Proâ—â—dence Because thou didst challenge me 〈◊〉 dispute with thee and didst promise to â—nswer me Job 13.22 Gird up now thy â—â—yns like a man for I will demand of thee â—nd answer thou me Now when God had 〈◊〉 the following words demonstrated his â—â—finite power and wisdom in the works â—f Creation and Providence Job is thereâ—pon so deeply convinced of the Majesty â—f God and of the vanity of himself that â—e resolves for ever after to be humble paâ—ient and silent Job 40.4 5. Behold I am â—ile what shall I answer thee I will lay â—y hand upon my mouth Once have I spoken like a fool as I was but I will not answer yea twice but I will proceed no further 4. Consider the desert of thy sins it will make thee bear patiently what thou sufferest to consider what thou deservest It was a savoury saying of a good man being then tortured with the pain of sickness Oh saith he this is not Hell He that believes what Hell is and knows that he deserves to be there will see great reason to lye patiently under the greatest pains of the most tormenting sickness and to resolve with the Prophet Micah 7.9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him Lastly Wait by patience for a comfortable issue out of thy sickness James 1.4 Let patience have her perfect work Some are patient a while and after fly into passion and discontent but as long as there is any work for patience let her have her perfect work James 5.7 Be patient brethren unto the coming of the Lord. Sirs the Lord is coming and he will put an end to sickness and death when he comes Consider what the Lord will do to thy body and soul at his coming and be patient till his coming for when thou meetest him thou wilt see he did not stay too long It 's observeable that God and his people have both the same end Thy great end is the glory of God and the salvation of thy self and of all Gods Church and this now is Gods end But God hath set thee thy way to this end and he hath set and appointed to himself his own way Now Gods way is not as thy way Thou thinkest such and such a way were best to make God glorious and his Church happy but God he hath a way above â—nd contrary to thy way and so as to this â—ase thou mayst think it is the best way for Gods glory and for thy family and for â—hy self for thee to enjoy thy health and â—ife c. but Gods way is to bring thee â—o sickness and death Well what must be done in this case Answ Still keep thy heart fixt upon thy glorious end and do thou follow thy way of duty and patiently wait upon and submit unto God in his way of providence and thou shalt finde that at the last Gods working in his way of providence and thy keeping to thy way of duty will meet in the same end viz. Gods glory and thy everlasting salvation Duty 8. In sickness give good counsel to thy Friends about thee See how Moses stands over Eternity and preacheth to the Israelites Deut. 32. See also the language of a dying King to his Successor 1 Chron. 28.9 Thou Solomon my son know thou the God of thy Father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind See again the solemn charge of the dying Apostle to Timothy 2 Tim. 4.1 2. I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and thâ— dead at his appearing and his Kingdom Preach the word be instant in season out oâ— season reprove rebuke exhort with all patience and long suffering And you know the farewel-Sermon of our dying Lord Joh. 14.15 16. It was a sweet and savoury saying of Hyperius to