sentence of dividing the child would have thought it cruelty if he had gon away without seeing or after knowing the end and effect much more may we mistake the Allwise God if we look on his providence by piece-meals and wait not till we see the issue For thô there be sin in all and that be the only meritorious cause of death yet that is original sin that is alike in all from Adam all being equally related to him so that thence coms no distinction of this or that kind of death but as most conceive from actual transgressions Which being not discernd in infants who yet die in great variety both in regard of diseases and violent murders their death is generally laid on their parents as the widow of Sarepia cried to Elijah art thou come unto me to call my sins to remembrance and to slay my son I Kings 17. For the Jews knew well that God visits the iniquities of the fathers on the children by many Scriptures threatning it and examples of it's being executed and appears particularly in that fearfull imprecation that Christ's blood might be on them and on their children the fulfilling whereof the whole nation lie under to their confusion and the confirmation of Christianity to this day But we must take heed of applying this alike to all for where no extraordinary sins God may and somtimes doth in soveraignty take away children elder or younger as Job's for tryal and other ends more than in justice lest we judge and speake amis of God's dealings with men as Job's friends and many others are accustomed to doe For when men see any misery befall any one out of the common road of providence having natural conceptions that sin and punishment are related they presently conclude that some extraordinary sins either of them or their parents are the procuring cause on their parts and punitive justice answering to it on God's part whereof we have many narratives in Scripture to which I confine my self of Barbarians Jews and Christians but I will only mention that in John 9. at present which hath occasioned most of the thoughts I have imparted concerning these impulsive causes considering that there is the same general nature in all evils of punishment as consisting in the privation of their opposit good The disciples rightly supposed that the blindnes of the man so born was from God justly that he punishes children for their parents sins but mistook in taking it for granted that either his parents or he in his soul before his body was formed had been more than ordinary sinners or in som kind at least which was the cause of his blindnes and asked Christ whether it was who answered neither hath this man sinned nor his parents that is as they meant and their question implyed not greaters sinners than others or in relation to this as the cause to the effect But that the works of God should be made manifest in him which intimates a quite different reason from what they imagined not God's punitive justice for either of their sins but his love to Christ and his doctrine in the manifesting his power in a miraculous cure and mercy to the blind man's soul to be the chief causes Where we may observe how Christ diverts them as every where else from curious enquiries resolving this affliction as an insaelicitas or misery into Gods soveraignty that denies or gives his blessings in kind or degree to whom when and in what manner he pleases it being lawful for him to do what he will with his own and denying it to be poena from justice for any greater or particular sins as they judged thô otherwise both were sinners and so a sufficient ground in point of justice to deprive either of sight or any other blessings in life or all in death yet this difference proceeded not there-from and then directs them by the final cause to judge of the impulsive or reason of this providence and to regard the ends and consequences thereof as that which concernd them which in this case were extraordinary in respect of the miracle and ordinary in regard of the spiritual good this affliction occasiond and wrought both for himself and others Les us therfore accordingly now apply our selves to the final cause or the reasons taken from the end not in reference to the dead which in ordinary cases is a secret to us as I have shewn but the living Which we must understand not of the finis operantis or what God designs in particular thereby which is different in all and no further known to us than as manifested by the effects or in general only as tending to his glory which if we speak properly is only his end and all things whatsoever without himself but means joyntly considered tending thereto and which he uses for the same Rom. 11 36 But the sinis operis in reference to us as these providences are means fitted by him for such ends as tend to the common good of the living which is allways superior to particular sufferings And thô sad experience shews us that for the most part providences have not the effects upon us answerable to their ends yet that 's through our default as we see allso in the ordinances and if so be these moral means obtain not their primary end as medicinal to better us yet their secondary serving at least to justify God and render those that make small or no use of them or contrary than they ought wholy inexcusable and more especially those who have the word to direct them and interpret to them their end and use For the end God's word declares allways implies the use we should make of every thing both in the general and particularly according to their kind and degree But I shall pass by the general ends of afflictions and death and only speak of those more peculiar to this kind of death I am upon nor yet of many that might be drawn from the ends thereof in reference to God his son and our Savior his word ordinances and graces of his spirit the good and evil things of this life our sins and those concernd nearly and remotely but of a few that are most comprehensive suggesting the suitable use of them the end implies that my future discourse may be more practical reserving those that are more particular for the Application I Then God thus suddenly and unexspectedly takes away som that the supremacy of his providence may be more apparent and himself thereby better known and acknowledged in the world That this is the general end of God's unexspected dealings with men in mercies and judgements extraordinary and all other cases above their-thoughts and contrivances appears by hundred places of Scripture relating both to his people and heathens exprest in those phrases that ye or they may know that I am the Lord and implied in the effect which is the end accomplisht for finis in actu positus dicitur effectus and
Ezeh 16.50 so when som are extraordinarily delivered that is allso ascribed to his soveraignty and befalls the wicked as wel as the righteous as scripture shews us I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and ye were as a firebrand pluckt out of the burning yet have ye not returnd unto me saith the Lord. Amos. 4.11 So that the experience of all ages verisies Salomon's words which ate interpretative not exclusive of providence and shews how things goe ordinarily under its conduct when he saith all things come alike to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wickâ—d Eccles 9.2 The same manner of afflictions and death materially befalling the one as the other By which unseeming providence God secures his people from the rage and malice of Sathan and wicked men in this world which would not be habitable for saints if they were certainly known and keeps off the scandal of Religion none knowing who are sincere or only hypocritical and mens coming to him for base ends whereby we should have more professors but worse Christians It being sufficient for his people's security that he knows them perfectly and makes a difference between them and the wicked of the world in the same providence where we can make none in his fatherly affection to them therein in his intention direction and ordering thereof for their good and in his issuing all in their eternal salvation 2 As we must not judge amis of God's proceedings so neither must we rashly judg of those so taken away Either of the cause like the Barbarians that judged the Aposte Paul a murderer from the viper fastning on his hand thinking he would fall down dead suddenly of which I have spoken in the reasons or of their eternal state and condition For if the life be good no manner of death is bad and if the life be bad the death is seldom good no evil of punishment but only of sin abates God's fatherly affection to his children but rather increases it or any way lessens their interest in his favor witnes Abel and all the Prophets to Zacharias slain between the Temple and altar Stephen and all the Apostles and Martyrs and best of men in all ages I know but one place of scripture that looks like judging mens eternal state by temporal judgments and that is of Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them suffering the vengeance of eternal fire Jude 7. Which yet is not meant of the next world in hell thô being the worst we read of and not ten righteous amongst them are damned most of them as Christ that knew intimates when he saith Math. 11. it shall be more tolerable for them than Corazin at the day of judgment the degree implying the kind but only the duration of the judgment in this world and as an emblem of the day of judgment when God shal bring a diluviam ignis as Irenaus calls it or rain hell out of heaven upon the world that now is and of the punishment of the wicked as the Psalmist alluding therto tells us this shall be the portion of their cup Ps 11.6 Learne we then to goe no further than scripture that speaks sparingly of mens eternal state and never that I know of concludes damnation from God's punishments here but allways from mens sins unrepented of and let us make no conclusions upon such false grounds nor presume to ascend Christs tribunal in condemning any to eternal punishments Pererius and others are too bold in asserting all the old world that were drowned except infants were damned For not to mention their number that world in all probability being as populous as the present and granting the generality were even of the sons of God that had corrupted their ways yet scripture speaking only indefinitly it is not for us to make it universal that all had or that nome repented upon the flood 's approaching allbeit God only establisht covenant with Noah and his family as afterwards with Abraham and his as the best in their generations Nor lastly must we censure the Relations of any suddenly taken away as if it were for som extraordinary sins that God so deals with them Which was the fault of Job's three friends For the devil whom God ordinarily restrains of his will more than wicked men in regard of his great malice and power and his being in termino or condemnd thô not fully executed whereas men are here only in via or probationers in reference to their future judgment having accused Job falsly and being by God extraordinarily permitted his pleasure on all he hath for the tryal and exercise of this noble champion begins with his estate knowing Job would have valewed that less if he had before lost his children then destroys them allso suddenly sparing the wife that was in his power who it should seem was none of the best for his second in this combat And his friends knowing these things and seeing his bodily sufferings allso to be very great allthô the loss of his children seems his greatest outward affliction his personal being greater in his inward troubles of spirit than bodily for thô he was greivously sore and pained yet not heart-sick or in dainger of death they in stead of comforting him add affliction to the afflicted censure him as unrighteous and think to prove him so by this argument That he that is sorely afflicted of God is either an open sinner or secret hypocrite this Job denies and disputes it with them and Elihu moderates determining God's favor and afflictions to be consistent which God confirms and shews his displeasure against the others Let this example of these good men's censoriousnes keep us from playing the Criticks in such cases and to judge nothing before the time either of God or men rashly lest he deal with us after our folly but stay till this dust that blinds us be blown out of our eyes and then shall we see clearly the reason of all at the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God Rom. 2.5 5 For Application to those especially concernd in the loss of their deare Relations that they bear it Christianly I need say the less of this because many have said so much tho the practise of most is not answerable and especially those that are surprized For the suddennes thereof discomposes our minds makes us inconsiderate and laying aside the rule both of scripture and reason comply with present sense quarelling with God as Jonah for the loss of his guord or any thing next us as the cause thereof as Job's wife with her husbands religion and the good widow with Elijah for the sudden death of her son 1 Kings 17. Briefly therfore 1 Eye God as the author and orderer of all that befalls us His soverainty power goodnes justice wisdom c. in the kind manner measure time and issue of afflictions David was dumb in silence opened not his mouth in murmuring
ventilated they were not judged necessary at the interment there being neither precept nor precedent in Scripture for more than decent buriall with lamentations nor any reason why they should not be made for the godly poore of exemplary lives and deaths as well as the rich whose purses generally procure them Yet upon occasions it was judged very necessary on the Lord's day or in weekly lectures to admonish the living of their mortality direct the sorrowfull Relations in their duty and stir up all to immitate laudable examples and prepare for following those departed in the faith Seing then it is not material whether we have the corps in a coffin before our eyes according to the custome in England or it be coverd with earth as here so that we have but the Deceased's life and death in our minds and memories for our betterment I shall proceed to shew you the agreablenes of this portion of Scripture to the present occasion Vers. 16. Shews where Jacob and his family were viz. but a litle way from Eprath whither they were going How exactly doth God in his providence set the bounds of journeys as wel as habitations the places and times of our lives and deaths And what befel them there Rachel travailed and had hard labor The best of women may have the bitterest pains in child-birth and the saddest remembrance of God's sentence In sorrow thou shalt bring forth child'ren Gen. 3 16. Vers 17. The midwife incourages her in her pains and fears with having another son i. e. besides Joseph she had allready But all in vaine she regards it not as in the like case Phineas wife 1 Sam. 4 20. Earthly comforts signify litle to dieing persons Vers. 18. Rachel who was not satisfied with Joseph alone but desired another son Gen. 30 24. now when she haith him calls him Ben-oni the son of my sorrow It is dangerous not to rest contented with our present injoyments When we desire creature comforts immoderatly God may grant them so that they not only proove comfortles but bitternes to us Numb 11 4 33. and Ps 78 29 30 31. The time when she thus named him was as her soule was in departing whereby her death as all others is set forth to us which the following words for she died declare Souls die not with our bodies They goe to God that gave them to be judged by him Eccles. 12 7. The union of our souls and bodies being life and their parting againe death 1 Kings 17 21 22. therfore dieing Stephen prays Lord Jesus receive my spirit Act. 7 59. But Jacob lost that name should be a continual renovation of his sorrow calls him Benjamin the son of the right hand denoting his affection to him Ps 80 17. It is wisdom to suit names to occasional providences Vers 19. In the Text we have I. Rachel's death II. Burial III. Place of both I. Rachel died Beutiful Rachel Jacob's dearly beloved Rachel dies whilst blear-eyed Leah lives The more we love any creature person or thing the more danger we are in to lose it God often times crossing our inordinate affections for our good in taking away our beloved comforts and sparing those that are despised Rachel that so passionately desired children that she said unto Jacob give me children or else I die Gen. 30 1. now dies by having them Our immoderate desires many times cost us very deare II. And was buried The most beloved alive when they are dead we desire to have buried out of our sight as Abraham said of Sarah Gen. 23 4. A decent burial of the dead is the living Relations duty Yea somtimes memorials of the deceased may be expedient when free from ostentation and superstition as we see in the following verse Jacob sets a pillar upon her grave as a standing monument of his affection and her desert III. In the way to Ephrath which is Beth-lehem Renowned for our Savior's birth called Beth-lehem Ephratah Micah 5 2. and of Judea Math. 2 1 5 6. to distinguish it from that in Galilee and the city of David Luke 2 4 John 7 42. for his birth and education as Zion was for his building and habitation 2 Sam. 5 7 9. c. which is by interpretation a house of bread and so most fitting for Christ's birth who was the Son of David according to the flesh and the true bread of life as he inculcates at least 7 times on one occasion Iohn 6 About a mile as some say that have seen the place short of this Beth-lehem Rachel dies in the way distant from her own and husbands friends in an unsetled condition without habitation We all may know where we were born but none knows where or in what condition they shall die And is there buried If we live the life and die the death of the righteous it matters not much where we are buried nor at what distance from the rest of our friends How delicate soever the body may be the carcas is not curious in what bed of dust it sleeps and the souls of Gods people find as neare a way to heaven from any one place upon earth as other Many superstitious people now adays would think themselves happy to die so neare Beth-lehem that they might be buried there But Jacob well knew that burial places are not of religious consideration but any fit place pointed out by providence might serve well enough for the best of his family Thô he and his son Joseph likewise that died in Egypt would have their body and bones buried in Canaan yet that was to testify their dieing in the faith of God's promis of that land â—o their posterity and to assure them of their return thither and therfore is otherwise of no consideration to us It is but of later times that any were buried in Churches or cities but allways abroad as all scripture and other Histories and laws allso witnes When the opinion of Purgatory and holines of places prevailed at first men would be buried nigh the Churches that they might be remembred in the prayers and oblations of those that met there and afterwards in them because they thought them more sacred which tho opposed by * V. Durantus de ritib. Ecclesiae l. 1. c. 23. Gerhardus de morte §. 78-88 many laws civil and Ecclesiastical and writers ancient and modern by some as an innovation others as superstitious and many as dangerous to the health of the living especially in times and places of infection yet all in vaine the tyrant custom hath so prevailed that it s grown too strong for all contradiction But I have deteyned you too long from that I chiefly designe which is not so much to speake of death and mortality as such a surprising death as this Scripture speaks of clearly to the occasion and to vindicate God's providence therein and shew what improvement we should make thereof D. God takes from us our dearest Relations and creature comforts sometimes suddenly when we least exspect
not judge by Sence but by the light of God's Word weighing them in the ballance of the Sanctuary for Sence is altogether for present enjoyments and suggests nothing but bitterness and sorrow in their loss crying out continually can there be Mercy in such an Affliction as this can I gather grapes off these thorns or figs off these thistles These are like Samson's riddles to Sence unanswerable but by Scripture rectified Reason and Experience are unfolded so that the Wise that will observe shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. Ps 107.43 According as the deceased were or in moral probability might have been if publick Persons Blessings or Judgements to the Church or State or if private helps or hindrances or comforts or crosses in regard of Heavenly or Earthly things more or less to us so we should account their Death at present and afterwards according to the Spiritual benefits we reap or might have reaped thereby As good Magistrates and Ministers that were and might have been more useful Instruments of publick good being cut off suddenly as Josia and Stephen were greatly lamented and Absolom and the Prophets of Baal that were quite contrary their being slain was accounted accordingly And not judge by our affection to them which is many times inordinate or theirs to us which we often prise and rely on too much for though the cross thereby becomes the heavier to us yet more necessary for us so that the Wise and Holy God designing our good bleeds us in the right vein to cure us and bring us nearer to himself As he did Jacob here in Rachel and afterwards in Joseph and David even after he had pronounced by Nathan his Sin Pardoned Punishing him for the same not only for his Spiritual but Temporal benefit also by taking away his Child by Bathsheba which would have been a perpetual reproach both to him and Religion and his beloved Absolom whom he so laments therby restoring him to his Kingdom and that to him and both to Peace But it is high time that we draw down these considerations to our present purpose And first in the Death of Infants there 's the manifestation of the truth of God's Threatnings and his Justice in executing his Sentence against Mankind for their first Trangression but whether it 's more in Mercy or Judgement to them we know not and therefore not the reason why these more than others die so soon and oftentimes suddenly but must acquiess in the Pleasure of the All-wise God If they be such as belong ro the Kingdom of Heaven it 's many ways Mercy in freeing them from the Sins and Miseries of this Life and making them sooner Happy with Himself If not there 's yet some Mercy mixt with Justice their Punishment being less in the other World And we have less reason to doubt of Mercy for Infants who die before they have done any good or evil Personally than for those that have done much evil seeing God promised Christ to mankind before he past the Sentence of Mortality but especially for those born of Believers that are within the Covenant and stiled Holy in Scripture For they are not only capable of Happyness as well as Aged Persons their Souls being alike and no such incapacity as here will be in their Bodies hereafter but also of Adoption and Justification through Christ and conformity to Him which are the absolutely requisite means thereof thô not of actual Believing I think notwithstanding the Lutheran and some others assert it unnecessarily in my Opinion because it 's only of absolute necessity to those of years that are partakers of the outward dispensation of the Covenant but not in it self in regard that Believing and the Gospel believed and outward Ordinances are not substantial parts of our Righteousness but only accidental means thereof according to the capacity of the Subject Besides this we may observe God useth not to send any extraordinary Judgements only for Origiral Sin and confutes Jonah with this Argument of his Clemency towards Nineveh that there were more than sixscore thousand Persons therein that could not discern between their right hand and their left the Parents for whose Punishment the Children are often taken away and in general Judgements with them having now Repented Though we have examples of their slaughter not only for their Fathers Sin but for peculiar reasons and ends As the Egyptians drowning the Isralites male Children God therein letting forth their Wrath to Praise him and try his People whom he had promis'd to multiply making this there last and greatest Tryal as is usual before Deliverance and an occasion of manifesting his Justice and Power in Punishing the Offenders in the same kind both in destroying their first Born whereby also he fulfilled his threatning and forced them to let Israel his first Born goc laden with their spoyls through hopes they would return and also by drowning Pharaoh and his host thereby also fulfilling his Promise to his People Like as afterwards the Babylonians who in many things resembled the Egyptians in their carriage towards the Church had their cruelty justly retalliated on their own little ones Ps 137.8 9. But however Infants be cut off whether by the hand of violence as the Bethlemitish by Herod Math. 2. prefigured as the Prophet Jeremiah declar'd or by Natural Death it 's a Punishment to their Parents and Relations the manner only augmenting it And not only a Punishment but the greatest for kind of all Temporals that befal the living Children being their greatest earthly Blessings and greater or less in degree according to circumstances as the mourning for an only Son and bitterness for the first born justly exceeds that where other Sons and that for other Chrildren by which the sorrow for Sin is set forth Zach. 12.10 But thô this proceeds from Justice for Sins past yet more from love when Sanctified to the Parents both for their greater future good which in part they shall know hereafter and happily for the preventing greater evils then they can ever know Because they neither know how their Children might prove or how their own hearts might be tempted or perplext by them For thô we always hope the best yet frequently we find the contrary and no bitterer crosses then from those we exspected greatêst comfort Children when young treading on our skirts but often when elder piering our Hearts This Punishment is generally inflicted on Mankind both Children and Parents besides their Original Sin common to all for the breach of the second Commandement in their open or heart Idolatry as is there denounced to deter Men that are so much concern'd for their Children as their desert de jure thô God reserves always liberty to himself de facto to dispence his Punishments or favours as he pleases Secondly in the sudden Death of those of riper years where God doth declare in his Word the causes thereof or manifest them by the particular ends and effects especially joyn'd
with clear circumstances there we may judge of the chief reason or cause though there be several others concurring that we may make better use of examples as Scripture teaches us 1 Cor 10 5-10 Otherwise we must take heed of rushing into God's Secrets which belong not to us and only eye the general ends to make use of his Providences accordingly As where great and crying Sins goe before and the end is demonstration of Justice there we may see that 's the chief cause especially in extraordinary Punishments whereof we have many examples in Scripture And where also such Sinners are threatned there also truth appears in their being Punished as the Egyptians first born Ahaziah Joram Ahab Jezebel c. So when the Sin is clearly visible in the Death a Haman's Agag's and innumerable others that shed Man's Blood and accordingly have their own unexspectedly shed Or when destruction follows at the heels of great Sins as the three thousand Israelites slayn for the molten calf Exod. 32. and while the flesh was between their teeth the wrath of the Lord was kindled against them Numb 11. and Herod immediatly simitten and eaten of worms Acts. 12. And yet when the vindication of Gods laws and ordinances is manifested to be the end its hard to say whether his love to the truth and ordinances of his institution be not the chief reason thô justice be more discernable for we must not judge all those that are simitten and destroyed even by God's immediate hand to perish eternally And therfore it is observable that as God never appeard so terribly as at the giving the law from mount Sinai so his wrath was never so hot nor such severity used as against the first trangsgressors to assert the honor of his laws and make them more regarded afterwards As in the first idolatry after their promulgation Exod. 32 10. At the first burnt-offerings when Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire that is common and not from the altar there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them the punishment suting to their sin Levit. 10. As afterwards Numb 16. when Corah and others descended from Levi endeavoured to make the priesthood common to all the Levites v. 10. and Dathan and Abiram Reubenites and others the politick power of Moses and the seventy elders newly establisht by God Ch. xi common with the rest the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up v. 32. and fire from the Lord consumed the two hundred and fifty that offered inconse v 35. whose censers God commanded to be used for a sign and memorial thereof v. 38. and 40. and for the peoples murmuring at this dispensation fourteen thousand and seven hundred of them dyed of the plague v. 49. So when God appoynted the punishment for presumtuoussins the first offender the man that punishment sticks on the sabbath day is by God's appoyntment stoned to death Numb 15. Thus God vindicated the honour of his ark with smiting the Philistines and after it's returne above fifty thousand of the men of Beth-shemesh shewing thereby that the ark was the same thô it had been among the uncircumcised and the effects of feare were answerable 1 Sam. c. 5. and c. 6. and after that Vzzah for his rash taking hold of it thô as seems to us for a good end for the oxen shook it so that David was affraid and we may suppose the people much more 2 Sam. 6. And thus allso God vindicated the honor of Christianity at the first planting of the Gospel in smiting Ananias and Sapphira so that great feare came upon all the Church and upon as many as heard these things Acts. 5. But where no notorious crimes preceed and other particular ends than justice appear there sudden death is the Occasion and God's love to his truth and messingers that declare it or servants that profess or suffer for it the chief cause and reason thereof As the widow of Sarepia's son raised to life by Elijah by which he is acknowledged a man of God and the word of the Lord in his mouth truth 1 Kings 17. the Shunammite's son by Elisha whose miracles resembled his master Elijah's 2 Kings 4. So Lazarus's as Christ declares to the messinger his sisters sent to him This sicknes is not unto death thô in its nature and next end it was yet not irrevocably as they feared but for the glory of God that the son of God might be glorified thereby intimating that this of Lazarus should be used as a means of glorifying God and his son in miraculous raising him again to life and therby confirming his office of Messiah and Doctrine of the Gospel as we read it did most eminently Jâ—hn 11. And the noble army of Martyrs whom God brings forth as his Champions for the truth shewing the power of his grace and their sincerity that they doe not serve God for wordly things as the devil slanderd Job but love him their Savior and his truth above their own lives and making their death which their enimies count ignominious honourable to him religion and themselves and using it to quite contrary ends than their persecutors design namely the increase and confirmation of his Church and people I have been the longer upon these extraordinary examples both to cleare the truth in the general and the several kinds of sudden death and allso in the ordinary cases that now follow to be more particularly spoken of For by a parity of reason it will follow that as God makes different use of like providences suting them to different ends and making them occasions and means of different effects in wonderful variety according to his infinite wisdom and power so he hath accordingly particular reasons that are just and weighty for his dispensations thô unknown to us except he discovers them as his justice in extraordinary punishments for enormous offences or his goodnes mercy and other causes when it is otherwise So that where no sins or ends and effects more than common there we are not able nor ought we to judge of God's reason why these rather than others are suddenly taken away either by diseases as apoplexies convulsions and the like or by pains as women in travel or by wars fire water and other accidents these things falling alike to all for if the kinds of death or any temporal punishments were infallible signs of God's hatred and temporal blessings of his love we could never reconcile God's word we are bound to believe with the works of providence which are but the fulfilling of it and the execution of his purposes In such cases therefore when God exercises us as Job who is set forth to us as a pattern of patience in dark providences prayed shew me why thou contendest with me c. 10. and waited for the end of the Lord so should we God many times dealing with us as Christ said to Peter what I do thou knowest not now but thou shalt know hereafter As any one hearing Solomon's
shall not be to me why should I think to be spared when others are taken away whose sins mine have exceeded the time by-past is too much to have wrought the will of the flesh I am resolved now to make better use of the present and future so long as God shall spare me to prepare for death and for eternity And as these providences are thus merciful means to bring about a blessed change in us so allso to cary it on still further and further How livelily doth sudden death set-forth to us the necessity of repentance in all the kinds of it As the vanity of the creature and the necessity of making God our portion the shortnes of our own righteousnes seeing we must appear before a just and holy God and the necessity of Christ and his righteousnes the evil of sin whereof we have nothing to exspect but shame and sorrow and the necessity of holines all its paths ending in peace and without which we shall never see God in happines And how much the same contributes to promote these gradually allso in us the constant experience of all Gods people abundantly witnes 5 That all may learn experimentally many particular and necessary lessons they formerly disregarded The light of nature shews us sundry of them and the light of scripture more clearly all of them but unbelief doubts of them sensuality constantly opposes them and as men asleep we generally neglect them God is therfore pleased to use unexspected providences which draw the curtain and let in the light so convincingly and sensibly upon us that without wilful shutting our eys we cannot withstand it that so his truth being taught and backt by our own experience may be more readily embraced and obeyed For experience is a more sensible argument than notions to convince us of the truth and less liable to ignorance and mistake for confirming us in it and more particular and prevalent with us to practise it Let me therfore name som of those excellent lessons which still hang on this one bough suddenly broken off from us As 1 the vanity and frailty of life Such a death cryes to us with the word all flesh is grass and all the goodlines thereof is as the flower of the field the wind passeth but over it and it is gone and the place thereof shall know it no more Is. 40.6 Ps 103.16 2 The nearnes of death and judgment If thou willst put these far from thee this summons will convince thee of thy folly that this night thy soul may be required of thee Luke 12.19 20. 3 The necessity of being prepared for thy dissolution For the night of death cometh whether thou thinks of it or no when no man can work there being no knowledg nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest no casting up thy accounts in the dark nor perfecting them with God in the grave Joh. 9.4 Eccles. 9.10 4 The danger of deferring thy preparation For in an hour thou thinks not of may Christ call thee to give an account of thy stewardship for thou shalt be no longer steward Math. 24. Luke 16. v. 2. 5 The pretiousnes of time to prepare for eternity For time is short and were it longer litle enough for so great a work and allso uncertain as thou seest and therfore not to be lavisht out upon thy lusts seeing thine eternal welfare depends upon it 1 Cor. 7.29 6 The vain hopes of living many years Since thou knowest not what a day may bring forth no more than what a woman with child whether male or female living or dead as t is this day Prov. 27.1 7 The groundles presumtion of a lingring death when thou seest some in a moment go down to the grave and many die in their full strength Job 21. 13 23. 8 How quickly the greatest hopes are dasht and expectations disappointed Here 's a child com to the birth and no streugth to bring forth but mother and child die together there 's a strong man saith with Agag surely the bitternes of death is past and the next hour it returns and carries him away 1 Sam. 15. 9 Moderation towards the things of this life For the Lord is at hand ready to call thee quickly from thy good things who makes them thy portion and then whose shall they be and where wilt thou be and to take thee who makes him thy happines from the evils of this life that they no more shall torment thee Philip 4.5 10 The different nature of earthly enjoyments and heavenly Earthly promise much and in the tryal faile our exspectations But heavenly we find best upon tryal and such as will never fail us nor forsake us Heb. 13.5 And lastly the vast difference between our present and future state Here we meet and part presently there we meet and never part here 's nothing but changes there 's none but a stable eternity 1 Thes 4.17 These Reasons I hope may suffice for the several sorts of sudden death mentioned on this occasion to justify God's proceedings therein and to shew us the gracious design of these kind of providences that seem of all others most dismal to us none so much as these conducing to the general good of mankind as tending to awaken us out of our security cure us of our spiritual distempers and point out to us and quicken us to our duty Let us see to it that we make use of them accordingly and what further improvement may be made of the present providence we shall now speake to by way of inference and application Vse 1. Hence learn the uncertain tenure or manner of holding our nearest Relations and dearest friends and acquaintance That seeing them liable continually to be lost we may be more sensible our enjoying them is but of meer curtesy and that we are but tenants at will for them and all our other earthly comforts to God the great Lord of all having by our sinful apostacy lost our right and title to the enjoyment of them which he gave us at first by the covenant of works in our creation For had we continued in our original state of integrity there would have been none of this sorrowful parting of friends but we should either have continued happy together on earth or without suffering death have been as S. Anstin and others think after some certain time translated into heaven and whether all together at last or successively at such a term of years it would have been matter of triumphant rejoycing to all But now having by sin forfeited and lost all our mercies God hath been graciously pleased in the covenant of grace to alter his dispensation not to trust us bank-rupts with a new stock in our own hands but to commit all to Christ in whom he hath treasurd up spiritual life for his people so that that is now in safe keeping being hid with Christ in God Colos 3.3 And this he hath assured us of by promise upon our fulfilling the condition
whither they shall goe at their death is lamentable to consider Get thy self allso as much as possible actually prepared by keeping up thy assurance evenning thy accounts daily with God walking with him as Enoch having thy conversation in heaven whilst on earth and thy fellowship with the Father and his son Jesus Christ so shall death never surprize thee or affright thee much less hurt thee changing only thy place not thy company opening the door for thy entrance into life and being ever with the Lord which then thou wilt find bejond all thy present faith and hopes infinitly better than being in this world Lastly prepare allso for thy Relations leaving thee Our seldom thinking of this before hand makes it difficult for us to beare Be sensible of and thankful for God's giving and continuing them to thee seeing he denies them som and takes them from others use them as his left hand blessings but enjoy them not as thy portion depend on him for comfort from them resigne them to him from whom thou receivedst them doe thy duty towards them whilst thou hast them so shalt thou have comfort when thou losest them 4 Let this caution us from rash censuring and judging of these kind of providences seeing in the text God's taking away unexpectedly a good Rachel from Jacob one of his best servants 1 Not the just and holy God for them In denying him and his providence with the Atheists Who seeing often the vilest of men spared as Diagoras did a perjur'd person and better taken away as Cotta his friend Drusus and Ovid his Tibullus open their mouths against heaven in denying a God and his providence in the world Or 2 in judging him unjust and cruel For he delights not in death as it is the destruction of his creature but as it is the exercising of judgment and righteousnes in the earth Jer. 9.24 His works are wondrous that though a wise man as Solomon think to know them yet shall he not be able Eccles 8.17 The most inquisitive run but into a labarynth wherein they lose themseves at last For how can we possibly be able to judg of his proceedings who are wholy ignorant of the grounds of them It is God only that knows mens intentions and his own designs that he hath to accomplish and all the links in the chaine of providence so that where he manifests not these we are in the dark and incompetent judges Our profoundly learned Contry-man Bradwardine * De Causa Dei L. 1.0.31 hath a remarhable story to this purpose of a devout man tempted to blaspheme providence to whom God sent an angel in humane shape that commanded him to follow him And leads him to the house of a good man who entertaind them very kindly that night from whom he secretly took a cup he valewed highly and going thence to a wicked mans house the second night who treated them not so well gives him the cup at their departure Having been the third night most curteously entertaind in the morning he threw the mans servant off a bridge and drowns him and coming the fourth night to an honest man that made them heartily welcom slew his litle son that cryed and sufferd them not to sleep Then he acquaints his follower why he did these so strange things saying he was sent of God to satisfy him I took the cup saith he from the first a good man for his good because he lov'd it too much and gave it the second a bad man that he might receive his reward at present I drowned the servant of the third because he had resolved the next day to slay his master whom I preserved from death and his servant from committing murder that he might be less punisht in hell The fourth before he had a son and heir was very charitable and after grew penurious therfore I took away the cause of his covetousnes and conveyd his sons soul to paradise So true is that of the Psalmist Thy righteousnes is like the great mountains thy judgments are a great deep Thy foot steps are not known and therfore cannot be traced by us poor ignorant mortals Ps 36.6 and 77.19 Nor 3 must we judge when we see the righteous and wicked taken alike away that God's Providence goes blindfold to work as the Heathen think the fates doe and sweeps away one and another hand over head for so we shall neither eye God in nor make a right use of his dealings with us We cannot indeed make or discern the difference as to us sicknes and sword devours one as well as another but this is fallacia sensus both scripture and reason teaches us that there is a very particular direction in all that befalls us from the hand of God Every disease that happens every bullet that flies every wave of the sea and every casualty have their commission from God before they can touch or destroy any If a sparrow falls not on the ground without him much less a mans life and if the very hairs of our head are all numbred much more our days are so determined Math. 10.29 30. Job 7.1 and 14.5 14. Prov. 16.33 Nor lastly must we imagin that righteousnes will exempt us from sudden destruction in common calamities with the wicked As Abraham seems to judge in his pleading for Sodom Gen. 18.23 24 25. For thô God will rather spare the wicked for the righteous sake as he there declares and in extraordinary cases where he hath past his particular promise doth so as God gave Paul all that sailed with him Acts. 27. and makes a distinction as Ezek 9.4 5 6. Mal. 3.17 18 yet in ordinary it is not so but the green and dry tree denoting as it follows the righteous and the wicked perish together Ezek 20.47 and 21.3 And no wonder for usally the good are infected with or one way or other guilty of the sins of the times and places where they live and if they partake in sins its reasonable they allso partake in plagues Rev. 18.4 Or if not yet being mixt with the wicked in an ordinary way it cannot be otherwise as experience shews us in wars famin pestilence inundations shipwracks and the like Especially earth quakes wherein many cities have been wholy swallowed up and many with the inhabitants in a great patt destroyed the histories whereof would fill a volum Passing those of old 12 cities of Asia say Pliny and Tacitus 13 saith Ensebius in our Saviors daies in one night Coloss Laodicea Hierapolis in the year 63.3 in Cyprus in 77.4 in Asia and 2. in Greece in 105.3 in Galatia in 109. Antioch Nicomedia and Nice several times Nicopolis and Caesarea in 128. Smyrna allso and Corinth afterwards and 10 in Crete in one year so 20 in Germany in later times besides many others these being sufficent for my purpose in most of which multitudes of Christians as well as others perisht And as God takes them away as he sees good