no more you shall hear him pray no more preach no more and is not this a ground of lamentation 9. Saints and Ministers of the Gospel are the interest of the Nation City or Place where they live Was not Lot the interest of Sodom I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither Gen. 19. 22. Till Lot was gone fire and brimstone could not come upon that miserable City Oh what love hath God to the poor Preachers of righteousness But again Was not Jacob the interest of Labans family How did God bless him for Jacobs sake The like might be minded of Joseph to the Egyptians Ye saith our blessed Saviour are the light of the world and the salt of the earth To whom did he speak but to his Disciples his holy Apostles that he sent forth to preach glad tydings of great joy unto the Nations I might shew you wherein they are the interest of the place where they are but I must hasten Take onely two or three brief hints 1. They stand in the gap or in the breach Ours is a great one the Lord look upon us They plead with God When Moses hands are up Israel prevails and when he lets down his hands Amalek Prevails Exod. 17. 11. Oh how doth he cry out for a provoking generation When Jehovah cries Let me alone that I may destroy them Exod. 32. 10. Oh saith Joshua what wilt thou do for thy great name If thou wilt not forgive their sin saith Moses blot me out of thy Book Nay though God promised to make of him a great Nation yet he still lifts up a cry for them Exod 32. 10 11 32. 2. They are the interest of the Nation where they are by counselling warning and admonishing 3. By their holy and exemplary conversations Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant we should have been as Sodom and should have been like unto Gomorrah Isa 1. 9. 10. Ground of Lamentation is because sin usually is the cause why God removes his faithful Embassadors He sends to treat with sinners about the concerns of their souls I wish this stroke be not in judgement to some of your souls The Message they bring is often slighted and thereby sinners slight and reject the King himself They cry and lift up their voice like a trumpet fore-warning of danger but none lays it to heart They spend their strenght and weaken their bodies for the good of sinners souls but sinners slight it Nay if they should sweat drops of blood it would not do it would not work in them remorse of Conscience and repentance unto life Well saith God now I 'll wait upon thee no more him that you despised and contemned or neglected to hear or whose counsel you did not regard you shall hear no more The taking 〈◊〉 of faithful Preachers is one of the greatest judgement that can come upon sinners But alas it may not onlâ— be for the sins of the ungodly world â—â—on unconverted sinners but a punishment upon Professors and Church Members for their inquiry they may not prize the mercy nor walk worthy of the blessing They may not carry it as they ought to do to the Labourer that is amongst them They may grieve and wound his heart by their disorderly walking and God may from hence be provoked to take him a way Nay they may on the other hand overvalue him they may idolize their Teachers and look upon them above what is meet though sinful yet 't is possible to eye man more than God by man God may remove them Upon this account the Apostle speaks of some that had mens persons in admiration I am satisfied there is too great extreams in the world We should have a care we do not receive the Truth for the sake of a man or to please men because such and such says it but out of Love to Jesus Christ and because God hath commanded it Beloved it may not be amiss to lay these things to heart 't is good to hear the Rod and to know who it is and for what it is appointed I do not charge any in particular 11. And lastly Here is cause of lamentation because evil and dark dayes many times follows the removal of Gods Worthies When God take away so many faithful ones what may we expect to look for I might give divers instances of the sad effects or what hath followed the taking godly persons sincere Labourers away But I am afraid I have been too tedious already remember what the Prophet saith The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart Merciful men are taken away and none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come Isa 57. 1. Thus much by way of Lamentation and Consolation I have onely one Use more which shall be in the fourth place by way of Comfort and Consolation 1. Must all dye the godly as well as the wicked Is the Grave the place prepared for all Living Must Fathers Husbands Wives Children Ministres and the dearest Friends we have dye How shall we then comfort our selves against death If thou art a Beleiver I I have a word of comfort for thee there is none I am sure for Christless Souls 2. Consider death cannot hurt thee it cannot hurt those that are Believers because it hath lost his sting Death may hiss but cannot hurt Nothing makes death terrible to an ungodly man but it's Sting The sting of death is sin but this is taken away from Believers by Jesus Christ Oh death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory 1. Cor. 15. 55 56. 2. Death cannot hurt a Believer because it cannot bring an annihilation of the body though it bring an alteration upon the stare and condition of the body yea and though the body be dissolved to dust yet it shall not be lost it shall rise to life again 3. Death cannot dissolve or break that blessed union there is between Jesus Christ and believers Though it may separate soul and body yet it cannot separate either from Jesus Christ and the soul immediately will be in a more glorious enjoyment of Christ and though the body for a while must lie in the grave yet that dust is precious dust in Christs sight 4. Consider Death cannot keep the body long under its power nor keep soul and body apart 't is but a little while and they will meet again Death and the Grave are conquered enemies Saints by faith can now through Jesus Christ triumph over them and shall have a compleat a full Conquest over a short space 5. Death has not power to cast into hell if Conscience condemns thee not if the Word convicts thee not if God passeth not the Sentence upon thee Death has no power to do it Death can but bring to the grave 't is sin that casteth the soul into hell 6. Consider Death is thine that is 't will be for thy profit and advantage every way Remember
souls of the house of Jacob which came into Egypt were threescore and ten souls the like you have in Acts 7. 14. And Joseph called his father Jacob to him and all his kindred threescore and fifteen souls that is so many persons in Acts 27. 37. all that were with Paul in the ship are said to be two hundred and threescore and sixteen souls 2. It is taken for the life of the body Psal 7. 5. Let the wicked persecute my soul and take it yea let him tread down my life upon the earth 3. It is taken for the affections desire or heart of the Creature 1 Sam. 1. 15. And Hannah answered and said no my Lord I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink but have poured out my soul before the Lord. And in chap. 18. it is said the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David that is his affections were set and fastened upon him In many other places by soul we find some one or more faculty of the soul is intended 4. It is taken for the stomach Prov. 27. 7. The full soul loatheth an honey-comb but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet 5. By it is meant oftentimes the noble and superiour part of man distinct from the body for this see Psal 19. 7. The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul Mat. 10. 28. Fear not them which can kill the body but are not able to kill the soul But probably some may say if the word soul hath so many various acceptations how may we know when the spirit or principal part is in Scripture meant hereby Answ I shall briefly lay down three or four Rules whereby you may know 1. When you read of soul as that wherein couversion is wrought it can intend nothing else save the noble or immortal part for Conversion is a change onely of the evil qualities of man's better or superior part Psal 19. 7. The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul Conversion to God changes not the defects and qualities of the outward man If a man be attended with such and such a disease or distemper before Conversion he may be truly converted and yet retain the same diseases the same lameness blindness deafness crookedness or what ever other blemish he may have of the like nature 2. When you read of soul as that which rejoyceth in God delights in God longs and thirsts after God lives and feeds upon God and Christ and united to and hath communion with God cloathed and adorned with the holy Spirit it alwayes holds forth the glorious spirit or soul of man let me onely direct you to one or two Scriptures upon this account Luke 1. 46. My soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour Psal 94. 19. In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul Psal 42. 1 2. As the hart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God my soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before him Psal 73. 26. My heart and my flesh faileth me but God is the strength of my soul and my portion for ever 3. When you read of soul as that which men cannot kill or destroy is alwayes intended this excellent part see Matth. 10. 28. Fear not them that kill the body but cannot kill the soul 4. Lastly When you read of soul as that which lives when the body dies or is commended into the hands of God at death you must alwayes take it in those Scriptures for the same 6. By soul sometimes is meant only the body distinct from the spirit or immortal part see Josh 10. 28 37. And the king thereof he utterly destroyed and all the souls that were therein and they smote the king thereof and all the souls that were therein and in this sense soul is to be taken in this place But that I may proceed a word to explain the other term to wit the hand of the grave By hand beloved often in Scripture is meant power Isa 50. 2. Is my hand shortned that it cannot redeem that is Have I lost my power to redeem so Acts 4. 3. My Text thus briefly opened I shall proceed as most suiting with our present occasion to take notice of one Doctrinal Truth from the words which take as followeth Doct. That all men must die Or thus That no man whatsoever can escape the power of the grave I shall God assisting endeavor to demonstrate and confirm the truth of this Proposition The holy Spirit doth not slightly pass it by but puts a Remora to it viz. that Emphatical signal word Selah which shews us that this word calls for meditation and our diligent attention it doth lay a kind of an arrest upon our spirits not passing from it till we have seriously weighed the matter What man is he that liveth and shall not see death Death will be too hard for him and too powerful to resist there is no withstanding the strength of this King he will bring all into subjection he is said in Rom. 5. 12 14. to reign over all and so he is called the terror of Kings as well as King of terrors he is so to the wicked and what King hath as many subjects as Death hath And that I may demonstrate it consider Age cannot rescue any man from the hand of Death the oldest man must die All those that lived before the Flood are dead Methuselah lived nine hundred sixty nine years Gen. 5. 27. but alass at last the words tell you and he died he lived near a thousand years but at last was forced to subject to the grave 2. As the oldest man must die so must the strongest Sampson was a mighty man yet Sampson must die Death will make the stoutest hearts to faint and the strongest legs to tremble One dieth in his full strength being wholly at ease and quiet his breasts are full of milk and his bones are moistned with marrow Job 21. 23 24. If any were likely to encounter or grapple with Death we may suppose that this is the man he who is in his perfect strength free from distempers signified by that word wholly at ease and quiet yet alass all will not do this man was forced to yield he is made Deaths Captive 3. The wisdom and policy of man cannot deliver from the power of the grave The wisest prince that ever late upon a Throne was forced to stoop to the sovereign hand of Death Wise men die faith the Psalmist likewise the fool Psal 49. 10. In death there is no remembrance of the wise more than the fool Eccl. 2. 16. The most grave and politick in all ages of the world after all their famous and deep contrivances have been overcome by death 4. Riches cannot deliver from Death if it could we should have few rich men die doubtless they would give their
his chief or better part be that day with him in Paradice Lord Jesus saith Stephen receive my spirit O what a blessed thing it is to die in Christ O what a happy estate is our friend in the gain is exceeding great Some may say what doth a godly man gain by death I answer First They gain a glorious place heaven the glorious Paradice of God the Mansions of glory that are in our Fathers House Who is able to conceive what a glorious place heaven is But then Secondly They shall enjoy glorious company too They shall be with Jesus Christ have his company in whose presence there is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there be pleasures for evermore be with Christ holy Angels and glorious spirits of just men made perfect O what a blessed state and condition of soul have they gained that are gone thither Thirdly we shall gain sweet peace 'T is not onely peace in Christ that Gods people have as their portion here but it shall be peace with Christ A Woman that has a dear Husband who is gone to Sea he is it may be in another Countrey yet she hears from him receives tokens of love she has much satisfaction of the stedfasteness of his love cordialness of his affection in this she has peace and comfort but alas what is this peace to that when he comes home when she has him enjoys his company O we shall see Christ enjoy him yea lie in his arms to all eternity Enter thou saith Christ into the joy of thy Lord. That joy is too much to enter into us therefore we must enter into that Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace He has peace In death peace beyond death yea and peace to all etrernity And now one word more particularly to you that have lost your Pastor Your loss I must confess is great though he hath gained hereby and it may be some of you are crying out What shall we do Beloved you must labour for a quiet frame strive for contentedness of heart 't is the Lords hand upon you 't is what he has done remember David I was dumb I opened not my mouth because thou didst it Psal 39. 9. 2. Consider also your loss is not so great but God is able to repair it and make it up to you though you may not see which way it can be done let it be your care to wait upon God cry to him look up to the Lord of the Harvest and patiently wait to see what he will do for you 3. To support you under this sore affliction Consider the great Shepherd of the Sheep never dyes he lives for ever and sure he that dyed for the Sheep whose own Sheep they are will take care of them he will feed them and preserve them from danger Isa 23. 1 2 3. The Lord is my Shepherd saith David I shall not want He maketh me to lie down in green Pastures he leadeth me besides the still waters he restoreth my Soul he leadeth me in the paths of Righteousness for his Names sake And from hence he takes courage Yea though I walk thorow the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil Oh what a blessed thing it is to have confidence in God and to have such a Shepherd the keeper of Israel never slumbers nor sleepeth And now to conclude one word to dear Relations and to comfort us all under the present dispensation 1. Consider death shall not seperate us long we shall see one another again over a short time he is gone but a little before let us think upon that glorious Meeting we shall have ere long in the Air read 1 Thes 4. 13 c. I would not have you to be ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleep that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him for this we say unto you by the word of the Lord that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Arch-angel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord wherefore comfort one another with these words What can I speak that may be more seasonable for comfort then that which the holy Spirit hath left upon record upon that very account it will be but a little while and we shall see him again we shall have a joyful meeting and never part more O therefore be quieted consider what you have heard what death is to a Believer Shall not our Friend go to rest Alas he hath laboured hard and O how sweet is this rest to him When a man hath worked hard all day and wearied himself how willing is he to go to bed at night Alas he is but gone to sleep to take sweet and quiet rest until the Morning 2. Shall not we be willing he should have inlargement to be freed out of Prison Alas our Souls are as it were but in Prison whilst we dwell here below in these Houses of Clay Death as a Porter opens a door into that Glorious Palace above He is but gone home to his Fathers House and how earnest was he to depart that he might be present with the Lord. 3. Shall not he eat the fruit of his labour he that soweth in tears shall reap in joy those that go forth weeping bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again rejoycing and bring their Sheaves with them 4. He having overcome shall not he receive the Crown Paul having fought the good fight of faith knew there was laid up for him a Crown of Righteousness To him that overcometh saith our Saviour will I grant to sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father an his throne Rev. 3. 21. 5. And now in the last place and to shut up all consider uncertain is thy life and mind you know not but that in a very few dayes you may go after it will not be long be sure and thither we all must go For What man is he that liveth and shall not see death Shall be deliver his Soul from the hand of the grave Selah FINIS ERATA PAg. 4. l. 9. blot forth cut p. 4. l 10. also blot forth out p 9. l. 25 for is read it p. 11. l. 14. blot out word p. 15. for Augustus Caesar r. Julius Caesar p 17. l. 2. for if r. of p. 18. for question r. query p. 32. l. 8. blot out And p. 32. l. 9. for And r. For p. 58. l. 8. blot out and Consolation which escaped in sâ—me Copies * Mr. Clark gives us several instances how the death of the righteous hath been the Fore-runner of sad and lamentable Judgements Begins with Methuselah before the Flood whose very name was very significant upon this account Also I lately met with a Sermon of a godly Minister in New England that was preached sometimes before their late calamities and miseries broke forth there and amongst their other signs of approaching judgement that he seemed to be very apprehensive of he minds that of the dropping away of many holy and godly persons Oh how many able and godly preachers and others have we lost in a short space We may look upon it as one sad sign or symptome of approaching evil * Some probably may object the dead are not sensible of time 't is but as a sleep to them they die and their resurrection to them immediately follows no distance of time between Death and Judgement the dead and so Paul's gain he speaks of 〈◊〉 might not be till the resurrection Aasw Though it be granted death to the body is but as a sleep yet 't is not so to the soul But that this is not the intent or meaning of the Apostle is plain which I make out thus Paul Plainly shews that if he did presently depart or die it would be gain to him now if that which you say were true he would have lost by death 't is easie to see how Suppose he might live twenty or thirty years longer on earth would not thirty years sweet enjoyment of Jesus Christ be worth nothing Is not one day with God beholding his lovely face better than a thousand All know that if he died presently he should never the sooner obtain the resurrection of this body than if he had lived a hundred years longer this being well weighed to die presently would have been his great loss were not the soul in a present enjoyment of Christ at death
that sweet word of Paul to the Corinthians 1. Cor. 3. 22. Whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or life or death or things present or things to come all are yours it will be every way for thy good Consider what freedom thou wilt gain thereby 1. It will free thee from a body of sin and death that often makes thee go with a sorrowful heart Oh! hath it not oft made thee to cry out with St. Paul Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death Oh what is a greater trouble to a Child of God than indwelling sin He cannot do the things he would do But now comes death and frees thee of all these soul perplexities and disquietments Sin makes a Saint to groan being burthened but now thou shalt grieve Christ and his spirit nor thy own soul no more Is not this that a poor Saint longs for 2. 'T will free thee from a poor crazy diseased or distempered Body There will then be no crying out of back or bone nor head not heart any more 't will be with thee as with the Church in the glorious day to come Rev. 21. 4. There shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away 3. It will free thee from an evil and wicked world Oh what a defiling ensnaring and bewitching world is this What hinders us of our joy and peace in Christ more than it What greater vexation to us Oh how many precious Saints are clogged and imprisoned by the cares of the world which many times is ready to choak the seed of holy desires after Christ But by Death thou shalt be delivered 4. It will free thee out of the hands of presecutors Thou wilt with our dear Brother be out of their reach then they shall not disquiet thee imprison thee nor torment thee any more There saith Job speaking of the grave the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest there the prisoners rest together they hear not the voice of the oppressor Job 3. 17 18. 5. Death will free thee from an envious raging and tempting Devil He will have not more power to disturb thee accuse thee nor by his cursed suggestions to vex and perplex thy soul no nor any other ways to hurt or annoy thee O will not this be to thy great advantage Who would be unwilling to die that hath an interest in Jesus Christ 6. Thou wilt hereby also be freed from all the discords and troubles that rise amongst Brethren The unworthy and disorderly lives of Professors shall sadden thy heart then no more This was that which worried and grieved the blessed Apostle Phil. 3. 18. Our dear Brother is set at liberty from all these things disorders in the Church no loose walking of Members thereof will burden nor trouble him again 7. Nay and Death will free thee of all that trouble that riseth from those inward becloudings and hideings of God's face It will never be night with the soul any more thou wilt then be with Christ and behold his face with joy for ever 8. And lastly Thou wilt also be freed of all thy toilsome pains and labour of what nature soever it be O how good is rest to a weary soul Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them Rev. 14. 13. But then once again Consider what a blessed state thy soul will be in at death If thou art a true Beliver thou shalt not onely have hereby a negative good it will not simply a freedom from all those sorrows and troubles thou hast heard but thy soul shall immediately receive transcendent joy with Jesus Christ For me to live saith Paul is Christ and to die is gain The advantage the soul receives upon this account made Paul so much desire to depart and be with Christ which he says is far better Phil. 1. 21. Pray observe his words he doth not say it will be gain to him when he rises again no but to die is gain I shall receive more joy more consolation more of the fulness of God and Christ as if he should say when I die then I can whilest I am in this body Mind that passage in 2 Cor. 5. 1. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens Compare this with ver 6. Therefore we are always confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. The Apostle doth not say we know when this earthly house is broken down and raised up again we have a building with God eternal in the heavens Pray consider it but plainly when it is dissolved when it is turned to its dusty crums We have that is our souls he can intend nothing else By we he means their better part which he compares to an inhabiter and the body to the house or tabernacle in which it dwels Oh what an excellent thing is the soul of man over the body And now beloved That the soul or better part is capable of being separated from the body and in its seperate state from the body capable of glorious enjoyments of God and high raptures of joy with Jesus Christ doth appear most evident from that passsage of the Apostle in 2 Cor. 12. 1 2 3. It is not expendient for me doubtless to glory I will come to vissions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago whether in the body I cannot tell God knoweth such a one caught up to the third heaven ver 4. says he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words which is not lawful for a man to utter The soul or spirit then it appears may be seperate from the body I from this place thus argue 1. If the soul or spirit of man be not capable of being seperated from the house of clay or earthly tabernacle then Paul might have boldly and safely have said the whole man was taken up a soul and body together and not one without the other because it is impossible to seperate them but since Paul says he knows not whether in the body or out of the body he plainly shews what opinion he was of And then secondly I may from what he says reason after this manner viz. If the soul in its seperated state from the body be not able or capable to enjoy or take in heavenly comforts or consolations of Jesus Christ Paul might boldly and Positively have said he was taken up in the body because however he was caught up whether within or without the body he heard and saw unexpressible things he had high and soul-filling raptures of joy The Lord Jesus promised the penitent Thief that he should that is