hereof Vse 2 that God hath a speciall hand in all our sufferings and still ordereth and disposeth of the same Ro. 8.28 that they shall work for the best to them that love and fear him what a ground of patience may this be unto us under the crosse whensoever the Lord shall be pleased to humble us by any affliction whatsoever that with patience and meeknesse we submit thereunto I was dumb Ps 39.9 and opened not my mouth because it was thy doing saith David And Eli 1 Sam. 3.18 â— Sam. 15.26 It is the Lord let him do what seemeth good to him And Here I am let him do to me as seemeth good to him And this may serve for the just reproofe of those Vse 3 who in times of misery and distresse never look to the hand of God they look upon secondary causes and instruments but over-look God Such do seldome seek to God for delivery Job was of another mind he looks not so much upon the Caldeans and Sabeans that plundered him of his goods and cattle but he looks up unto God and acknowledgeth his hand in all So David when Shimei cursed him It may be the Lord bad him to curse me Vse 4 And last of all this lets us see that when the Lord hath been pleased to come in with any Nationall or personall deliverance where to returne thanks even to him that first smoâ—e us and who it is that hath healed us Thus the Church in all ages when the Lord was pleased to come in with any singular deliverance Exod. 15. 2 Chron. 20. Jud. 5. kept their solemn daies of praise and thanksgiving unto God Thou turnest man to destruction THat is at thy pleasure are our lives and being here we live at thy allowance and appointment when thou wilt thou turnest them to breaking and crushing even to dust Hence observe Doct. 2 That our life and being here is uncertain Our lives are in Gods hand it is in Gods hand and power we live at his appointment at his pleasure he can and doth turn man to destruction to breaking and crushing Thou hast bruised my bones Esay 38. saith Hezechiah Thou hast set me as a mark to shoot at saith Job Thy arrowes stick fast in me saith David If the Lord do but say Return ye sons of Adam we shall return again to the dust and away we must The voice of the Lord is a powerfull voice he did create all things by his voice and by his word and at the same voice and word of his he can turn all things to powder No man though never so great or mighty wise or politique can resist or withstand the commanding and powerfull voice of God but when death is sent and God gives his call they must return again to dust Death knocks with authority at the dore of the rich man and Palace of Princes as at the poor and all must obey and return to the dust from whence they came Moses this Man of God that was a man so familiar with his Maker a man so holy so meek so mercifull who was indeed a compound of vertues who had fed many thousands when they were ready to die with hunger who had refreshed many thousands when they were ready to perish with thirst yet must himselfe at last yeeld to the stroke of death and say to corruption thou art my Father and to the worm thou art my Mother Psal 89.48 What man is there living that shall not see death and shall deliver his soul from the pit One dyeth in his full strength saith Job whose breasts are full of milk Iob 21.23 and bones are full of marrow Another dyeth in the bitternesse of his soul they shall lie down alike in the dust and the wormes shall cover them We stand not at a stay but in the midst of life we are in death the very meat we put into our bellies and the cloaths we put upon our backs all declare unto us that dye we must and return again to the dust And the Reasons are First Reas 1 if we do but consider the matter whereof these bodies of ours are composed which is of the dust of the earth this shewes a necessity of their returning again to dust they are made of a frail brittle and corruptible matter and long they cannot stand Dust thou art Gen. 3.19 and into dust shalt thou return again And as the Prophet saith All flesh is grasse and the glory of man as the flower of grasse As the point of the Marriners needle doth never stand till it attain the North Pole Such an instinct there is in these bodies of ours they still bend themselves downward towards the earth from whence they came And as the nearer the Center the swifter the motion so is man towards his end every day winds off something of the threed of our life and return we must There is a necessity of our returning again to dust Reas 2 if we do but consider the nature of sin the wages whereof is death and indeed there can be no divorce sued out betwixt sin and death Gen. 20. As the Lord said to Abimelech Thou art but a dead man because of his sin And this was Gods own decree at first Gen. 2.17 The day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death Now Alam eating of the forbidden fruit brought in death to all his posterity for so saith the Apostle By one man sin entred into the world Ro. 5.12 and death by sin And inasmuch as all have sinned all must die the death Besides Reas 3 there is a necessity that all should die because by death we must enter into life death is the gate of life ordinarily none entred into life but by death death is a guide to bring us into Heaven though a churlish guide yet a sure guide to bring us into blisse Seeing the Lord at his pleasure turns man to destruction Use 1 to breaking and crushing sends long and tedious sicknesse and griefe of body whereby men are much deformed and weakned in their bodies and turned to dust This should teach us patience in times of misery and distresse when the Lord shall seem thus to crush us and break us to powder we should with patience bear his correcting hand be it never so sharp and grievous even to crush us to pieces and to grinde us to powder in regard it is the Lord that doth it Thus David I was dumb and opened not my lips Ps 39.5 because it was thy doing There is no sicknesse or disease lamenesse or blindnesse or any other affliction whereby we come to have our bones crushed and we brought to destruction but all is of the Lord He turneth man to breakings and destruction and it is the want of the knowledge of this that is the cause that men do sometimes murmur against Gods dealings and are not humbled for their sins as they ought to be we consider
not that it is he that turneth man to destruction Secondly Vse 2 seeing these breakings and crushings yea death it selfe when we are brought to the dust are all from God and come from him Thou turnest man to destruction this may serve to abate the pride of many in these daies who spend their time pretious time as if this destruction would never come in eating and drinking ranting and roaring as if they were immortall or should never die or be called to an account of their waies think their bodies are not made of the same common mould with other men Whereas the consideration of mans mortality would much abate the pride of many had they this thought in their minds that they must shortly die and go hence and be no more Note when they shall come to see that which they never saw which they shall ever see and hear that which they never heard which they shall for ever hear and feel that which they never felt which they shall for ever feel whilst God himselfe liveth O how would the thoughts of these things humble them It was a witty answer of that Cynick Diogenes that when Alexander mockt him for being so often amongst the Tombes and Sepulchers of the dead answered O Sir I am looking for the bones of thy Father Philip but see no difference between them and other mens Why then should men be so proud and exalt themselves when they know not how soon they may be laid full low The ignorance hereof makes many to carry their heads aloft outface heaven and swell with pride and disdain of others whereas the due consideration of their own end would make them walk more humbly towards God and more meekly towards their Brethren And lastly Vse 3 since the Lord at his pleasure thus turns man to destruction to breakings and crushings yea to death it selfe it shall be our wisdome to prepare for such a change that we be not taken unprepared What man will have his evidence to seek when his cause comes to be tryed What man will go to sow when others go to reap Our life should be a continuall meditation of death and preparation for death since our weal or wo for ever depends upon it In the matters of the world men are wise they must say they provide for a rainy day in Summer for Winter and whilst they are young to keep them when they are old O where are our hearts Christians that we provide no better for death before it come And howsoever all men know that one day die they must and that repâ—ntance and other graces are to be had to make them truly happy yet here is the misery that men defer this great work to the last when many times it proves too late Now to that end I may awaken you that hear me this day Conlide rations to prepare for death in this weighty duty I beseech you take these few considerations to heart First that you would seriously consider with your selves the uncertainty of your lives thou that makest so small account of death consider with thy selfe what thy life is a puffe of breath in thy nostrills suddenly stopt and thou art gone Go to now saith Saint James you that say to day and to morrow Iam. 4.13 14. we will go into such a City and continue there a yeer and buy and sell and get gain and yet ye cannot tell what shall be to morrow for what is your life is it not a vapour c. What man when he goes to bed can assure himselfe that he shall rise again in the morning Who knoweth saith Solomon what the day travelleth withall and may bring forth ere night Eccles 9.12 Man doth not know his time and as fishes are taken in an evill net and birds in a snare so are the children of men Secondly consider the danger of deferring of repentance and this preparation for death to the last hower when all the infirmities of our nature will then seize upon us when extremity pain griefe anguish will so perplexeus that the best counsell will have little tast and the best prayers little sweetnesse in them this will prove a time of spending and not a time of storing What wise man then will deferre all this time Consider how often these purposes of repentance and turning to God at last have miscarried many thousands that are now in hell without hope of mercy that in their life time purposed at last to repent and to return to God whereas such as have often abused grace and mercy offered unto them the Lord doth often at last give such up to the hardnesse of their hearts that when they would they cannot repent and those melting qualmes which sometimes now thou meetest withall under the Ministry of the Word though thou wouldest give a world thou canst not meet with them again O the sad spectacles that we that are Ministers of the Word doe oftentimes meet withall Some in Spyras case who being exhorted to say the Lords Prayer answered O I cannot call God Father And some again like Nabal whose heart dyed like a stone within him And last of all do but consider with your selves that albeit thou maist enjoy thy memory to the last and maist have with thee some godly Ministers to instruct thee and to pray for thee yet how knowest thou whether his prayers for thee or thy own prayers for thy selfe shall then be heard and accepted Doth not Christ say that many at last shall seek to enter but shall not be able Did not those foolish Virgins cry Lord Lord open unto us yet were for ever shut out of the Marriage Chamber And doth not the Lord threaten that though Noah Daniel and Samuel should pray for this people yet I will not hear them Nay thy case may be such that though all the Angells in heaven and Saints on earth should intreat for thee yet God will not be intreated This is clear Because I have called Prov. 1.24 25.26 and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and ye have not regarded But ye have set at naught my counsell c. I will also laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear commeth O the misery of a poor soul when God shall shut out his prayers and shall be so far from pittying him in this time of distresse as that he shall laugh at his destruction And sayest Text. Return ye sons of men ALbeit as we have heard there is an inevitable necessity laid upon all Adams posterity by reason of sin that they must once die Thou turnest man to destruction So sure and certain it is that all men shall one day rise again Thou sayest Return ye sons of men q. d. At thy will and at thy word they shall at last return from dust and corruption again Though the bodies of men by reason of sin Doct. 3 All men at last shall rise again do tast of death and turn to dust yet by a
suddenly have been brought to ruine and tumbled down How merry were the Sons and Daughters of Job Iob 1.18 feasting together in their elder Brothers house which in a moment were slain and not one escaped It is wonderfull to think how exceedingly men cark and care for the world and seek to joyne house to house and land to land and never think they have enough O did these men but consider that mans life is short that we have but our being here as a Guest in his Inn for a night and in the morning must away again then would we not have our hearts so taken up for this short frail and brittle life and be so carelesse for Eternity As lastly since our life is so short Use 2 but for a day as yesterday that is past this should perswade us to a constant preparation for death for men shall hardly die well that be not prepared for death before death come It was the great commendation of Joseph of Arimathea Joh. 19.42 that was so mindfull of his end that he had his Tomb ready in his Garden And why in his Garden but that in the midst of all his pleasure and delight he might be put in mind of his end And the people when they ate the Passeover Exod. 12.11 they must have their loyns girt their shooes on their feet c. and why so but that they should be in a continuall readinesse when God should call them to passe out of Aegypt to go into the land of Canaan And this spirituall use ought every man to make thereof alwaies to be in a readinesse for our passage into our Celestiall Canaan Ver. 5 6. Thou carriest them away as with a flood they are as sleep in the morning they are as grasse which groweth up in the evening it is cut down and withereth IN this Verse likewise Moses proceeds to set out before our eyes the frailty of mans life And this he doth by sundry borrowed speeches and similitudes 1. He saith the Lord comes by death as it were by a mighty Flood that sweeps away all before it 2. As a Dream that is quickly gone and forgotten 3. He compares mans life to the Grasse and shewes that as the Grasse hath a time of growing so hath it a time of withering So man when he is young and lusty it is the best time of grouth yet it must have a time of withering when age comes and God cuts them down by the sith of death Thou carriest them away as with a flood Text. HEre Moses first of all sheweth that the Lord comes many times by death as a Flood or as the Sea when it breaks through the banks And herein will teach us two things 1. That death is inevitable there is no resisting of it no more then a man can stop the course of the Sea 2. That death many times comes suddainly as the breakings in of the Sea when men are not ware or think least of it Thou carriest them away as with a flood NO we hence That death Doct. 1 is 〈…〉 Death is 〈◊〉 the Sea there is no withstanding of it or stopping the course of it so there is no weapon can defend a man from the stroak of death And this Flood sooner or latter overflowes all men without exception as Noah's flood overflowed the whole earth It is appointed for all men once to die Heb. 9.27 daily experience makes it clear the mighty Captains and noble Warriours yea those famous Kings and greatest Monarchs that have been in the world even those that lived longest as Methuselah that lived nine hundred sixty nine yeeres Gen. 5.27 yet at last were overflowed with this Flood of death This is the way of all flesh all the sons of Adam must tack about and winde and come into this Haven the Port of death Let men use all the skill they can take the best Physick they can get use the sparest dyet and surest waies and means of preserving health and lengthning out their life and daies Death at last overflowes them all How violently doth Death as a Flood break in upon us sometimes by violent Fevers which many times cause distractions and frenzies sometimes by the Stranguary sometimes by one violent disease and sometimes by another that like a violent Flood breaks in upon us that overflowes Nature and sweeps us away As it is with the fruits of the earth so it is with men some of a harder kinde will tarry till winter Others fall sooner some stay till the frost of olde age nip them David and Ichosophat died full of daies And some againe Death nips them as it were in the blossome as Davids Child borne of her that was the wife of Vriah yet at last Death sweeps all away And the Reason seemes to be laid downe in that confession of the lamenting Church Reas Lam. 3.43 44. we have sinned and thou hast not spared thou hast Covered us with thy wrath thou hast slaine and not spared The Church acknowledgeth there that it was by reason of their sins that Gods hand was thus upon them And Death the Apostle makes the wages and stipend of sin Ro. 6.23 The wages of sin is Death And the Appostle reproving the Corinthians for divers abuses crept in about the Sacrament 1 Cor. 11.30 Ps 38.3 saith for this cause some are sick and some ar◠weake amongst you and some are taken away by Death Seeing Death comes many times thus like a violent flood Use 1 and breaks in up on men and women somtimes by one violent disease and somtimes by another we are taught hence to take heed how we censure any when the hand of God lies upon them in this kinde It is a dangerous thing to judge of men by the effects of some violent disease there are many diseases that cause distraction as some Fevers convulsions c. bereaves men for a time of the use of reason and put them into strange behaviour which may be the condition of the best and as Solomon saith All thinges happen alike to all Eccles 9.1 2. And No man knoweth love or hatred of all that is before them There is no judging then of mens estate by these things Death comes many times violently and sweeps us away as with a Flood Seeing that Death many times like a violent Flood breakes in upon us Use 2 violently unresistably what cause then have any to be proud of any outward excellency of body or mind that is subiect dayly to such a change as Riches Beautie Strength honour Authority c. Especially if we doe but consider that the foundation of that Excellency is but dust a fraile body subiect dayly to mutabilitie change that we have no assurance to jnioy no not an howers space How suddainly may this Flood break in upon us and what becoms of them then Doth not Experience teach us how few there are that passe through this pilgrimage of theirs but
hundred thousand besides Children they dyed all in the Wildernesse all save Joshuah and Caleb above the age of twenty years some by the Pestilence some by sudden and fearfull fire from Heaven some swallowed up of the earth as Corah Dathan some killed by fiery Serpents and Scorpions and the greatest part by the Plague and Pestilence so that in the space of forty years they were almost all of them consumed This example of it selfe were sufficient to clear this truth that whereas the life of man is short of it selfe yet our sins many times makes it shorter as we may see in the old World drowned in the Flood Corah Dathan and Abiram smallowed up of the earth Herod eaten up of wormes Saul Judas the Children that mocked the Prophet Besides the experience we have in our daies of Drunkards Whormasters Theeves and Traitors who by their sins draw down Gods judgments upon their heads and shorten their daies As we see the Grasse though it be left to grow yet in time will wither of it selfe but if suddainly cut down with a Sith it sooner decayes A Leafe though it hang long on the Tree yet in the end it will fall of it selfe but by a storm is suddenly shaken down Thus it is with men 'T is true the sinner in committing of sin doth neither see nor perceive this being blinder then Balaam that saw not the sword drawn before him But Sathan that malitious enemy of mans Soul like deceitfull Laban that gave Jacob Leab instead of Rachel So doth Sathan deal with the sinner instead of profit and pleasure payes the sinner at last with some shamefull death the just wages and stipend of sin Because Reas 1 that all our sufferings are for the most part the fruit and stipend of sin Lam. 3.39 Man suffereth for his sin As the Lord said to Abimelech Thou art but a dead man because of this sin Gen. 20.3 the taking of Abraham's wife The wages of sin is death both Temporall and Eternall God hath joyned them both together The soul that sinneth shall die the death Ro. 6.23 Secondly long life is promised as the wages of obedience If ye be willing and obedient Es 1.19 ye shall eat the good things of the Land And on the contrary God often cuts off the wicked for their disobedience As a wise Parent will not correct his child where there is no fault so will he not spare when he is provoked Loathsome sicknesses foul diseases and sudden death are often Gods revengfull rods upon vile and wretched sinners Seeing the life of man Use 1 that is so short of it selfe yet is made far shorter by reason of sin this serves to justifie the Lords hand and righteous judgment upon the Land this day in his generall visitation by this unwonted sicknesse and suddain death of so many amongst us Is not England become the sinke of all those Sects and Heresies that ever crept into the Church And as if these were not enough to pull down Gods wrath the Land is guilty of Blood of Swearing of Lying of Whoring Sabbath-breaking contempt of the Word and Ordinances of Christ with these and the like abominations the Land is defiled and the Land shall mourn Hos 4.3 What hope have we to avoide our present judgments this day and yet live in those sins that cause them And how can we think to escape any Plague so long as we are guilty of the Plague of sin Secondly Use 2 since by our sins our daies are often shortned and cut off it shall then be our wisdome to discern betwixt the pleasures of sin and the miseries that accompany the sinner Sathan promised our first Parents that they should be like unto God but it was to make them miserable as himselfe How many a wretched man by his Drunkennesse Uncleannesse and other distempers shortens his own daies as the Prophet saith The wicked shall not live out halfe his daies which otherwise in the course of Nature they might attain unto But all those miseries whereunto we are subject by reason of sin in this life are no way to be compared to those fearfull punishments whereunto the wicked are reserved after this life for it is sin that shall shut them for ever out of heaven Rev. 22.15 Without shall be Dogs c. And They that commit such things shall never inherit the Kingdome of Heaven 1 Pet. 2.12 Which made the Apostle so earnestly exhort us I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which sight against the soul But we are consumed in thy anger IN these words Moses sets down the cause why they were thus hastily wasted and consumed in the Wildernesse which he confesseth here to be double 1. The more remote and improper cause and that was Gods anger in this verse 2. The neerer and more proper cause and that was their sins verse 8. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee c. First cause was Gods Anger Cause Gods anger which is described by the degrees of it 1. Anger 2. Hot anger 3. Sore displeasure But how do Moses and the people gather that God was so exceedingly angry with them But by that manner of death that they were so suddenly wasted and consumed with the Pestilence Hence we may observe Doct. 3 That great and extraordinary judgments and calamities Extraordinary judgments are arguments of Gods anger do argue the greatnesse of Gods Anger For Moses here inferrs and concludes the greatnesse of Gods anger and displeasure by the greatnesse of their punishment that seeing they were so miserably consumed and so fearfully plagued it must needs shew the Lord exceedingly provoked by their sins And this is that very use the Apostle makes of this their sudden destruction that came upon this people an argument to prove that God was displeased with them 1 Cor. 10.5 With many of them God was not well pleased In all extraordinary and strange judgments which the Lord brings upon us it is safe to say to our hearts as the people of God said Deut. 31.47 Are not all these troubles come upon us because God is not with us Ruth 1.13 This use could Naomi make of the death of her two Sons That the hand of God was gone out against her And this the very Barbarians could conclude of Paul Act. 28.4 when the Viper hung on his hand No doubt this man is a murtherer They conclude that it must needs be some great sin that Paul was guilty of that did cause that so sore a judgment It was a strange hand of God upon old Eli 1 Sam. 4.18 that he should fall and break his neck And no doubt his indulgency towards his children in their prophanenesse was the cause of it It was no ordinary death that of the young Prophet 1 Reg. 13.24 certainly his sin was the cause of it That Moses himselfe must not come into the Land of Canaan
thoughts throughly imprinted in our hearts they would dam all our pleasures and cause us to thinke more of Death then we doe Could we reckon our days upon our fingers ends as we can other things and withall the great work that God hath sent us into this world to doe and how prodigally we have mispent our time how little we have done and how much is yet to doe when we are ready to drop into our graves could we I say thus number our life and dayes we would never live as we doe so carefull for this life and so carelesse for Heaven We see that those that shoot at Buts they pricke their arrowes sometimes here and sometimes there round about the marke at last they hit the white thus doth Death cast his Darts sometimes a friend is taken away sometimes a kinsman sometimes he comes nearer and takes a Husband wife child at last we our selves are struck with death and away we must Though we see this daily before our eyes and see coarses daily carried upon mens shoulders to the grave◠yet who layes it to heart and considers that the feete of these that carried them may carry us to our long home ere long we passe not away one minute of our life but we have taken one slep more towards the grave to day wee heare that A. B. is dead to morrow we may heare that C. D. is dead shortly you shall here that S S. is dead It is noted for the great commendations of Joseph of Arimathea Jo. 19. who whilst he was in health made his tombe in his garden and why in his garden No doubt to put him in mind continually of his Death and that in the midst of all his delights and pleasures he might think on his latter end Thus it is said of that godly Father St. Jerom that he thought with himselfe that whether he did eat or drink or whatsoever he did he thought he heard that voice Arise yee dead and come vnto Judgement Now that we ought thus to make accompt of every day as our last day let this reason perswade Because of that inevitable necessitie that lies upon all Adams posterity that dye we must Reas 1 as the woman of Tekoah said to David that mourned so excessively for the death of Absalom We must all dye And as the Psalmist hath it Ps 89.48 Ps 49.19 Heb. 9.27 What man liveth and shall not see death and shall hee deliver his Soule from the hand of the grave Againe Man shall enter into the generation of their Fathers and shall not live for ever And It is appointed for all men once to dye The consideration where of may put us in mind of our duty to be in a continuall readinesse for death We ought to make accompt of every day as our last day Reas 2 because we cannot sever our life and death but such as our life hath beene such will our death be for albeit that all must dye and sleep in the dust yet there is a great difference betwixt the godly and the wicked in death They that dye in the Lord are blessed Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord and these at last shall rise againe to life and glory but as for the wicked it is not so with them for they enter by death into everlasting paine where the worme dyeth not and the fire shall never be quenched so that our weale or woe for ever doth depend vpon that short inch of time that is allotted unto us here which also should put us upon this duty to be in a continuall readiness when death comes This serves to instruct us in the necessity of learning this lesson well Vse 1 of the measuring out the length of our time and the numbring of our dayes aright There is a great deale of art and skill to doe this This is the best Arithmetick whē we know how to number our dayes aright the numbring of our acres of land the numbring of our sheep and cattel is nothing to the numbring of our dayes Quest But what is it to number our dayes Answ It consist principally in these things First in Accompting every day as our last day and so to live as if every day we were to dye now what would we do if we were sure to dye ere night if you were sure that this were your last sabbath this were your last Sermon that ever you should heare you would not need to be warned of sleeping you would not willingly have death to take you tardy we would that rather death should take us upon our knees then upon our Ale-bench To number our dayes aright is to dye daily 1 Cor. 15. this was the care of the blessed Apostle I protest by our reioycing which I haue in Christ Iesus our 〈◊〉 I 〈◊〉 dye dayly that is by the continuall thoughts and meditation of death inure our selves by litle and litle whilest we are here of the art of dying well before we come to dye indeed Paul dyed daily because he knew not the day and time when God would call him away by death the more we fit and prepare our selves for death the lesse terrible will death this King of feare be unto us when it cometh Thirdly to number our dayes aright and to be prepared for death is to pluck out the sting of death now the sting of death is sin 1 Cor. 15 56. the sting being taken out death cannot hurt The Philistimes were so wise as to discover wherein the strength of Sampson lay Iud. 16.5 And therein they prevailed it shall be our wisdom to repent us of our sins for therein lyes the strength of death And last of all if we desire to live for ever in the kingdom of glory that we begin it here that we lay a good foundation for the time to come Those virgins that still expected the coming of the Bridgroome and had their lamps stored with oyle hereby merited the name of wise Virgins and entred into the marriage chamber whilst those foolish Virgins that were carelesse of the bridgrooms coming and rested themselves with the bare name of Virgins and with the bearing the Lamps of an outward profession without the oyle of grace in their hearts were for ever shut out This serveth to discover unto us the reason why sin doth so abound Use 2 drunkenesse swearing uncleannesse prophanesse and all other abominations in the lives of men It is because men have not learned this heavenly Arithmetick to number their dayes and to esteeme of every day as their last day This was the reason of that damnable securitie in that rich man Luk. 12.37 That bad his soule to take her fill of all pleasures and delights little thinking that that night his soul should be haled from him And this is the reason why men powre out their hearts to all manner of sins abominations they never consider the shortness uncertaintie of their
MOSES HIS PRAYER OR An Exposition of the Nintieth PSALME In which is set forth the Frailty and Misery of Mankind most needfull for these Times Wherein 1. The Sum and Scope 2. The Doctrines 3. The Reasons 4. The uses of most Texts are observed By Samuel Smith Minister of the Gospel Author of Davids Repentance and the Great-Assize and yet Living Esay 40 6. The voice said cry And he said what shall I cry All flesh is grasse c. London Printed by W. Wilson and are to be sold at his House in Well yard neare West-Smithfield 1656. TO THE TRVLY RELIGIOUS And his much honored Friend Mr SAMUEL FREBORNE and his Religious Consort in Prittlewell in Essex The Author wisheth the increase of all Happinesse Temporall and Eternall SIR THE very Heathen could say That Ingratitude was plagued of their gods How unbeseeming it is then for a Christian that hath tasted of so much kindnesse and Christian respect as I have done from you unlesse I should prove ingratefull in the time of Jacobs troubles when it was not my case alone but the condition of many hundreds of the Ministry in this Nation to fly to London as that City of Resuge to the which they fled when it was not safe for them to live at their Pastorall Charges Whose bounty and kindnesse towards them at that time as I can speake by experience was such as doth assure me that God hath yet mercy in store for that Citty Was not your bowels likewise inlarged to me somtimes your unworthy Pastor Did not you when you heard of my condition in London send up to have me and my aged Wise come downe to you Did you not most chearefully supply our wants and were as Ebed Melech to Jeremy And as Onesiphorus to Paul 2 Tim. 1.16 to supply our wants with Foode and Rayment and Money at our departure I cannot forget the goodnesse of your nature but acknowledge especially the power of Gods grace in you and tell the world of it whether you will or no Though I know you looke not after the praise of men And now since providence hath since these times of more happy peace Separated us so far asunder let this Fruit of my Ministry in my old age bee the messenger of my unfained Thankfulnesse unto you with the rest of my Antient and Christian Friends with you for their undeserved kindnesse towards us And if this small peece may but add to the increase of your knowledge the growth of your Faith the fitting of your accompt at last And prove profitable to the Church I have my desire And shall remaine Your Remembrancer to the throne of grace SAMUEL SMITH To the Christian Reader Reader THe kind acceptation of those first fruits of my Ministry many yeares since published viz. Davids Repentance The Great Assize with some others which were the fruits of the Spring time of my Ministry Hath been no small encouragement unto me to present thee with some fruits of the Autumne of my dayes which should be more ripe The Lord having lengthened out my pilgrimage that I have passed the first age of man which Moses saith according to the ordinary course of nature is Threescore yeares and ten And have now for some yeares entred upon that other age wherein I find that true by experience of Moses in this Psalme that that part of mans life is but labour and sorrow Besides old age is enough to render my life a burthen unto me the manifold infirmities creeping daily upon me and which seeke to make a breach for Death to enter in at with those spectacles of mortality we have daily before our eyes put me at first upon the Exposition of this Psalme in my owne Cure Not knowing but that God might afford me that honour to preach my owne Funerall Sermon I am sure whilst I handled it it proved so to others that heard it Now what subject could be more necessary for such times of common mottality then this It was the wisdome and care of Joseph of Arimathea Joh. 19.41 To have his Tomb in a Readinesse in his Garden And why in his Garden But that in the midst of all his delights and pleasures he might be put in mind of his Death and might prepare for it And indeed That man may truly be said to live that is alwaies prepared to dye It was Gods Ordinance at the Institution of the Passover Ex. 12.11 That it should be eaten thus VVith their Ioynes girded their Shoes on their feet with their staffe in their hands and to eate it in hast No doubt the reason of all this was That they might be in a continuall readinesse when God should call them to passe out of Egypt into Canaan The spiritual use still remaines That we should alwaies be prepared for our passage out of the Egypt of this world into the Celestiall Canaan And herein could my pen have aswered my Meditations of this subject or those enlargements of the Spirit that many times we meet withall in our publike Ministry which none can expect It had not appeared so livelesse as here it doth And howsoever I may seeme to light a candle to the Sun in these times wherein so many exquisite pens have been set on worke as no age since the Reformation of Religion could paralell Amongst whom I cannot forget the fruitfull labours of my Learned Friend Mr. Richard Baxter those Practicall and Soule-searching peeces of his already published Especially his Saints Everlasting Rest which I could wish that every Family in England where any one can reade were not without Yet if in the Exposition of this Psalme I can but add one cubit to thy Stature and helpe thee forward through the wildernesse of this world towards thy Celestiall Canaan I have my desire In which journey I wish thee good speede chearefulness in thy way and constancy in thy course And in the end that happy rest of Gods Redeemed ones purchased by the blood of the Lambe And rest Thine in the common Saviour SAMUEL SMITH The XC Psalme A Prayer of Moses the man of God v. 1. Lord thou hast been our Dwelling place in all generations 2. Before the Mountaines were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the VVorld even from everlasting to ever lasting thou art God 3 Thou turnest man to destruction and sayst Returne yee children of men 4 For a thousand yeares in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past as a watch in the night 5 Thou Carriest them away as with a flood they are as a sleepe in the morning they are as grasse which groweth up 6 In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up In the Evening it is cut downe and withereth 7 But we are consumed in thy anger and by thy wrath are we troubled 8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee our secret sinnes in the light of thy countenance 9 For all our dayes are passed away in thy wrath we spend our yeares as
This was that comfort that Christ gave to his Disciples Mat. 20.19 when he spake of his owne death The Son of man shall be delivered to the chiefe Priests and Scribes and they shall condemne him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles to be Crucified but the third day he shall rise againe Now that which was Christs comfort may be ours also Thirdly there is comfort in it in regard of our friends that die in the Lord that though death may separate us asunder for a time yet we shall meet again If a man take a long journey his wife friends do not weep lament as if they should never see him again So a man that dies in Christ though he take a long journey yet we should not mourn as those which have no hope we shall meet again And lastly this may also comfort us in regard of the present infirmities of our bodies blindnesse lamenesse crookednesse and other deformities that we are subject unto here In the Resurrection we shall leave all these behinde us in the grave and our bodies shall rise again glorious bodies and incorruptible bodies As those two godly Martyrs going to the stake the one blinde the other lame comforted each other Be of good cheer Brother my Lord of London will this day cure thee of blindnesse and me of my lamenesse Thus will death do and in the Resurrection these imperfections shall be done away So that the comforts are great which flow from this Doctrine of the Resurrection But as this Doctrine serves for matter of comfort and consolation to the godly Use 3 so it serves for matter of terrour fear and astonishment unto all wicked and unregenerate men that are out of Christ that as they live so die in a naturall estate 'T is true these also shall partake of this Resurrection and shall rise again at last but in a sarre different manner from the godly The bodies of believers shall arise by vertue of that union they have with Jesus Christ as members of that mysticall body of his whereof Christ is the head so shall he at last draw his members to himselfe But now all wicked and ungodly men they shall arise by the power of Christ at the voice of the Arch-Angel at the sound of the Trump for as the Apostle saith the Trump shall sound 1 Cor. 15 And these shall arise out of their graves as out of a Prison and that to go to the place of execution These shall no sooner put their heads out of their graves and behold the Lord Jesus comming in his glory That Christ whom they have crucified by their sins that Christ whom they have persecuted in his members that Christ whose blood they have trampled under their feet but they could wish that they had never seen his face O thinks a wicked man that I were in my grave again O that this filthy and polluted carcase of mine had never been made alive again but as it tasted of corruption it might for ever have perished there And it is not impossible but they that at the last shall cry to the mountains to fall upon them Rev. 6. and the hills to cover them but they may seek to hide themselves in their graves from the presence of Christ As the bodies of believers shall arise glorified bodies the bodies of the wicked shall arise most black ugly and deformed bodies black faces gastly countenances more like Devills than Men and Women ugly as Toads hatefull to themselves and others Thus shall they arise at last they shall arise out of their graves quaking and trembling wishing that they had never been born or born Toads or Serpents rather than Men and Women O the horrour and terrour that shall seize upon the wicked at that day no heart is able to conceive or tongue able to expresse When the Lord delivered the Law to the people upon Mount Sinai when the Trumpet sounded how did the people quake and tremble Exod. 19 How terrible then will his appearance be at the last day when he shall come to exact vengeance upon the transgressors of this Law O consider this ye that now forget God you that will not now be wrought upon by the sound of the Word to be raised from the death of sin to the life of righteousnesse How will you endure at this day the voice of the Arch-Angell and the sound of this Trumpet Arise ye dead and come unto judgment And last of all Use 4 seeing these bodies of ours that now go to their graves shall return again and rise again how carefull should we be to keep our bodies clean and pure and undefiled and every member of the same The Apostle Saint Paul exhorts us unto this 2 Thess 4.4 To possesse our Vessells in holinesse and honour If death leave thee a drunkard an unclean person a swearer a worldling a vile and prophane wretch in a naturall condition in the same condition shalt thou be haled to judgment when that wretched body and that wofull soul of thine that have been a Simeon and Levi brethren together in sin shall now for ever share alike in punishment and torment When a man hath done some foul and shamefull fact we use to say of such a man he will never be able to shew his face again How then will many a vile and desperate sinner shew his face before God at that day How carefull then ought we to be to keep our Vessells in holinesse and honour This is that very Use the Apostle Peter makes of this Doctrine of our Resurrection Seeing all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be Paul professing the hope of the Resurrection I exercise my selfe saith he to have a clear conscience before God and all men Acts 24. voide of offence And of Jerome it is said that whatsoever he did he thought he heard this voice Arise ye dead and come to judgment Return again ye sons of Adam Text. MOSES as he hath shewed be fore that our lives are in Gods hand and at his disposing and that at his will and pleasure he can turn man to destruction to dust and rottennesse He adds also another cause of mans frailty and mortality and that is the nature composition and frame of mans body which is of it selfe very frail and brittle subject to mortality For the first word Man thou turnest Man to destruction signifies a man full of misery full of sicknesses and infirmities a miserable man Enosh And the other word here used in the end of the verse signifies a man made of Clay or of the very slime of the earth From hence we learn what is the nature of all men Doct. 4 Man a piece of living clay of all the sons of Adam viz. A piece of living Clay a little piece of red Earth And besides that man is subject to breaking and crushing every way a miserable man so is he of a brittle
Doctrine of the Resurrection by comparing death to a Flood whereby men are over-whelmed in the Grave In these words he mitigates that speech in comparing Death to a Sleep that even as a man lying down to sleep though he seemes to be dead for the present yet ere it be long awakes again Even so though death seems as a Flood to over-whelm us and drown us in the Grave yet ere it be long at the day of Judgment we shall awake and rise again From this allusion the point observable is That death is a sleep Doct. 3 or to die is but to sleep Death is a sleep Es 57.2 And thus the Scriptures resemble the Grave to a Bed and Death to a Sleep He shall enter into peace and they shall rest in their beds every one that walketh before the Lord in righteousnesse And this thing holy Job speaks of himselfe Job 7.21 Now I shall sleep in the dust and thou shalt seek me in the morning and I shal not be And this is said of David 1 Reg. 2.10 that he slept with his Fathers And thus Daniel speaking of the last judgment Dan. 12.2 Many that sleep in the dust shall awake to life eternall And this Christ saith of Lazarus Ioh. 11. Mat. 9.24 Lazarus is not dead but sleepeth And Paul comforting the Thessalonians for their dead saith 1 Thes 4.13 Brethren I would not have you ignorant concerning those that sleep in the Lord. So that you see the phrase is very usuall in the Scripture to compare death to a sleep And the Reasons of this resemblance may be these The first may be taken from the nature of sleep Reas 1 which is indeed a binding up of the senses for a time till sleep again be dissolved at which time the senses have again their naturall power restored to return into the members of the body whereby they act afresh Thus is it with the sleep of death hereby the bodies and minds of men are set free from cares fears distempers and molestations for such rest from their labours Both the souls and bodies of the Saints by death are set free from them all Rev. 14.13 Secondly Reas 2 as sleep doth give much refreshment to the bodies and mindes of men being wearied with labour and pains in the day time O how sweet is sleep to a labouring man and how comfortable is rest to a weary traveller No lesse sweet and comfortable is the grave to the bodies of the Saints these rest in peace as on a bed of down such sleep sweetly and safely untill the morning of the Resurrection when they shall arise again Psal 17.15 When I awake up saith David I shall be refreshed with thy Image Thirdly Reas 3 as those that are asleep may easily be awaked and raised up again by some sound in their ears or stirring of their bodies or the like So easie will it be with the Lord at the last day when he comes to judgment by the voice of the Arch-Angell and sound of the Trumpet when this voice shall be heard of all Arise ye dead and come unto judgment to raise up the dead that are asleep in their graves This may serve for matter of singular comfort and consolation unto the godly all believers Use 1 that Job calls the King of fear and the Grave which is the chamber and house of death dreadfull in their own nature should thus have their nature altered and changed that they should become so comfortable and beneficiall unto them to become a place of sweet repose and rest That soul that hath made its peace with God may with much comfort look death in the face and say with Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Such blessed souls rest with God and die in peace and may commend their souls to God as to a faithfull Creator See the boldnesse and confidence of the blessed Apostle 1 Tim. 4.7 8. I have fought the good fight I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousnesse But whence have the godly this boldnesse and confidence in death Quest was not death threatned as a curse and inflicted as a curse how came the nature of death thus to be altered and changed This thing so comes to passe through the death of Christ Ans 1 who was himselfe in the state of the dead and was himselfe in the grave and hath triumphed over death and hell and the grave and hath removed the curse and plucked out the sting of them 1 Cor. 15.54 Heb. 2.14 15. Death is swallowed up of victory And that by death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devill and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage So that death as a curse was laid upon Christ that our death might be blessed unto us So that it is by Christ and his death that the sting of death is plucked out and that our Graves become a bed of rest unto us Secondly every true believer is a member of Christs body and hence it comes to passe Ro. 14.8 That whether we live or die we are the Lords Secondly this lets us see the misery of all wicked and ungodly men Use 2 from whom the curse of Death and of the Grave is not removed As in Death their bodies return to the Grave so their souls go immediately to Hell their bedies go to their Graves as to a stinking and loathsome Prison a Dungeon of darknesse from whence they shall arise in the morning of the Resurrection to be joyned again to their souls that both together may be sent into utter darknesse The godly and wicked in death may well be resembled to Pharaoh's Butler and Baker Both go to Prison one is restored to serve his Master the other reserved for execution Is death a sleep Use 3 and do the bodies of the Saints rest in their Graves as in a Bed and their Spirits return to God that gave them How fond and vain then is the conceit of those that say that dead bodies walk after their death the ground I suppose of this superstitious speech so frequent with many God rest his soul and Gods peace be with him c. a grosse absurditie and howsoever a common conceit in time of Popery and times of ignorance yet in the times of the Cospell utterly to be abandoned And last of all Use 4 since death is a sleep This should teach us not to mourn as those that have no hope for the departure of our Friends Husbands Wives Iohn 11. Parents Children c. Thy Brother saith Christ to Mary shall rise again So shall they What though they tast of corruption they shall not perish in corruption They go to their graves but as to a bed there to rest for a time till the morning of the Resurrection come Now who would not be glad of rest after
for eternitie O then would we be loath to be accompted fooles in death as Nabal was who when he came to dye the text sayth His heart dyed like a stone within him let us take out this lesson whilst we are alive to number our dayes aright and to provide for death continually Secondly Use 2 seeing true wisdom is that when men are wise for their souls This may serve for exhortation that as we desire to approve our selves to be the sons of wisdom to make this our principal care to make sure for eternitie This is that one thing that is so necessary that if we misse of that we are undone for ever But how may we come by this wisdō Quest Saint Iames tels us Answ If any man lack wisdom let him aske it of God Jam. 1.5 And Moses his practice here may also informe us Lord teach us to number our dayes It is God that must be our Schoolmaster to teach us this wisdom And the humble he will teach in his way The humble and most self denying christian is ever the most wise christian whereas God rejecteth the proud sendeth the rich empty away Seldom doth any grace either grow or prosper in a proud man or in a proud heart The humble christian tastes of the kernell and sweetness of religions when the prond man hath only the shell Now in seeking this wisdom these Rules must be observed Come in a self-deniall of thy selfe and of thy owne wisdom 1 Cor. 3.18 let him that would be wise became a foole that he may be wise Seek it at Gods hand dy humble and hearty prayers earnestly nor coldly and uegligently Pr. 2.1 Search for wisdom as for treasure Saith Solomon the kingdom of God suffereth violence and violent take it by force Meditate much and oft of the doctrin now taught viz Of the frailty of mans life and our uncertaine being here that this grace must be had to make us happie That we may apply our hearts to wisdome A Gaine the words may be taken in this sence that is as we have heretofore lived in sin now we may live to God to repent and amend our lives and to walke more humbly and more holily with God And thus Moses seemes to expound the words This is your wisdome Deut. 4.6 and your understanding in the sight of the nations which shall heare all these statutes and say surely this nation is a wise and understanding people viz by keeping of the Commandements and doing them In this sence the thing that Moses prayes for is for wisdom and care to keepe the Commandements of God that for the time to come they might walk in his feare as obedient children before him and then the doctrine is That Heavenly wisdom doth consist principally in keeping the Commandements of God to live in faith Doct. 4 True wisdome consists in true obedience Repentance and true obedience to God This is true wisdom by the testimony of Moses himselfe Or thus true wisdom doth consist in true obedience to the will of God True wisdom and the knowledg of God is the candle of the soul to light it and to shine unto it in the wayes of God Thy word saith David is a Lanthorne unto my feete and a light unto my paths When we carry an awfull and reverent awe and dread of the maiestie of God and feare to sin against him this is true wisdom The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledg Pro. 1.7 but fooles despise wisdom And thus have the Saints and servants of God approved themselves to God in walking in the Commandements of God thus Enoch is said to walke with God Gen. 5.21 Lu. 1.6 And Zachary and Elizabeth walked in all the Commandements of God When we are holy as he is holy 1 Pet. 1. perfect as our Heavenly father is perfect when our desire is to walke in an universall obedience to all Gods Commandements with David Psal 119 O that my wayes were so direct that I might keep thy statutes so shall I not be confounded whilest I have respect to all thy Commandements These are truly wise and truly blessed Ps 119.1 Blessed are they that are undefiled and walke in the law of the Lord. And in this did Iob comfort himselfe and approved the uprightnesse of his heart to God Iob 23.10 He knoweth my way and trieth me and I shall come forth as gold But whence hath Iob this confidence verse 11. this he shewes My foot hath followed his steps his way have I kept A contrary example whereof we have in Iehu 2 Reg. 10.31 that howsoever he did many things that God had commanded him in the matter of Ahab yet this is left for a blot upon his name that shall never be wiped out Hos 1.4 Iehu tooke not heed to walk in the Commandoments of God with all his heart And hence it is that the Lord threatned to charge upon Iehu all the blood of the house of Iesreel And this is it the Lord requireth of his people A Son Honoreth his father and a servant his master If I be a father where is my honour c. So that the poynt is cleare that heavenly wisdom consists principally in this in walking humbly and holily before God and in keeping his commandements By this we are known to be Gods Reas 1 as a servant by his livery is knowne to belong to such a Master hereby we know And by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples c. Secondly we owe unto God our lives our liberties Reas 2 and all that we have and therefore when he commands he commands but his owne 1 Cor. 6.19 20. Ye are not your own but ye are bought with a price therfore glorifie God in your bodies and spirits for they are Gods we cannot serve a better master neither can we expect a surer reward We shal all be iudged at last Reas 3 according to things we have done in our bodies whether they be good or evill 2 Cor. 5.10 Rom. 8.14 Then such as have lived after the flesh shall dye And such as have lived after the spirit shall live Then we shall see the Difference betwixt him that served God Mal. and him that served him not Then those wise virgins that with the Iamps of an outward profession had the oyle of grace in their hearts shall be knowne from the foolish that wanted grace Vse 1 This lets us see how far the greatest part of the world are from this wisdom who want this feare of God before their eyes that live in all manner of iniquitie and prophannesse these reiect the word of the Lord. They cast away all care of keeping Gods Commandements And what wisdom is in them Ier. 8.9 Secondly noe less folly appeares in those that are so wise for the world such fooles for their souls Vse 2 wise for the earth but fooles for Heaven
spell for God teacheth us two waies 1. By his Philosophy Lecture in the creature Rom. 1.20 The invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen 2. By his Divinity Lecture in the Word Ps 19.1 Now if the knowledge we have of God in the creature shall leave men without excuse how much more inexcusable are those that have the Word to instruct them Seeing this is so Use 2 that the Mountains Earth and World sometimes were not and that they were created by God so certainly they shall have an ending time they shall not last to eternity but the heavens and the earth shall at last vanish like a scroule and as the Apostle shewes shall perish by fire 2 Pet. 3.10 The day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night in the which the Heavens shall passe away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up All our goodly houses and stately buildings the whole Earth and all the Creatures therein shall at last become but fewel to the fire And therefore why should we set our hearts upon the Creature seeing hee that made all can destroy all and bring the wealthiest of us all to nothing at his pleasure And this also meets with a vaine conceipt Use 3 that is this day in the world in the hearts of many that when they hear and are taught the wofull and miserable estate wherein they are by nature and are threatned with Eternall death Hell and Damnation if they die in such an estate presently say they hope not so for hee that made them will save them and not suffer them to perish They are his Creatures and the workmanship of his hands c. So art thou no nearer Heaven then thy Oxe or thy beast thou ridest upon for are not they the Creatures of God as well as thou If thou be not in Christ and so a new Creature thou art in a worse estate then they for when they die they vanish away and come to nothing But thou hast in thee an immortal soul that shall live to all eternity even whilst God himself liveth Creation is but a Common benefit extended to brute beasts as well as to man they have God to betheir Creator is wel as we we are never then to rest til we have Christ to be our Redeemer and the Holy Ghost to bee our sanctifier to partake of a new Creation or Regeneration As Christ saith to Nicodemus Ioh. 3. Except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Herein lies the happinesse of man above other Creatures in our title to Christ as our Redeemer otherwise of all creatures man is most miserable Hitherto of the first that God is the Creator of all things Secondly Doct. 4 that this God was from all Eternity long before God was from all eternity Before the Mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the Earth or the World even from Everlasting to everlasting thou art God Herein Moses proceeds to a farther proof of the Godhead and that is taken from his Antiquity and Eternity Before the Earth or the World waâ— made thou art God From whence we learn that in respect of time God was before all time even from Eternity and so is eternall Some things there are that have a beginning in time and have their periods and ending in time as brute beasts c. Some things have a beginning in time but have no time to end in as Angels and men Onely there is God that neither had a beginning in time nor shall end in time but is eternal Now that God is Eternal is cleare in this from ever lasting to everlasting thou art God Pro. 8.23 I was set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the Earth was It is spoken of God and of Christ Mich. 5.2 But thou Bethlem Ephrata though thou art little among the thousands of Judah yet out of thee shall come forth unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been of old from everlasting As God had no being in time but is without the measure of time so Eternity is his essentiall property which shewes that God cannot end in time but as he was from Eternity so shall be ever one and the same God without shadow of change Ps 102.25.26 27. Of old thou hast laid the soundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the works of thy hands They shall all perish but thou shalt endure they shall all wax old as doth a garment and as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy years shall not fail The Consideration of this Eternity of God should serve to humble us in our own eyes Use 1 and cause us to think meanly of our selves when wee come before him that is of this eternall being This made Abraham when he was to come unto God to confesse that he was but dust and ashes when he was to deal with him And the Saints of God have ever laid themselves low before him when they have come into his presence Secondly Use 2 the consideration of this eternity of God should help to wean us from the world and take off our hearts from these earthly things that are here below that as they had their being and beginning in time so in time shall have their period and ending They shall all perish Ps 102.27 and wax-old like a garment and they are reserved to the fire of the day of judgment 1 Pet. 3.10 when the earth and the works thereof shall be burnt up Thirdly seeing God is eternall Vse 3 the consideration hereof should minde us more of this eternity that we think more of eternity and provide more for eternity There is an eternity behinde us and that is our eternall Election For such he knew before Eph. 1.4 And there is an eternity before us and that is our eternall Glorification Now betwixt these two Eternities there is a short interjected time cast in which is our short life and being here in this world and our weal or woe for ever doth depend upon this short inch of time alotted unto us here Some are so spiritually wise to improve this time to make their Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 and to work out their salvation with fear and trembling These passe from Eternity past their eternall Election to Eternity to come their eternall Glorification Othersome there are and that the greatest part of the world that spend their time in eating and drinking Note in chambering and wantonnesse that as they came into the world in a state of nature so they live and so they die And these passe from Eternity past which is Reprobation to Eternity to come and that is eternall Condemnation So that our happinesse for ever doth
word speaking of God they shall at last rise again Thou sayest Return again ye sons of men This is a fundamentall truth and a principall article of our faith wherein we professe to believe the Resurrection of the dead Besides the Scriptures are most plentifull in this I am sure saith Job that my Redeemer liveth Iob 19.23 and that I shall rise out of the earth at the last day The dead shall arise Esay 26.19 even with my body shall they arise Awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust This is acknowledged by Hannah in her song The Lord killeth 1 Sam. 2.6 and maketh alive bringeth down to the grave and raiseth up The Apostle Saint Paul proves the Resurrection by divers unanswerable arguments as If there be no Resurrection of the dead then is Christ not risen 1 Cor. 15. verse 13. and then is the faith of a Christian vain his hope vain and the preaching of the Gospell vain and the godly departed this life perished all which were foul and grosse absurdities once to think or imagine Besides these there might be added divers other places of Scripture to confirm this Doctrine of the Resurrection as that of Paul If we believe that Jesus dyed and rose again 1 Thess 4.14 even so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him Rom. 14.8 And again Whether we live or dye we are the Lords But I will not insist upon so clear a truth Take the Reasons and Arguments which serve for the farther illustration of the point The first may be taken from that everlasting Covenant of grace that God hath made with his children Reas 1 to be their God for ever by an everlasting Covenant now this Covenant is not made only in regard of their souls but of their bodies also even to the whole man When God said I am the God of Abraham the meaning is not that he is the God of Abraham's soul only but also of his body And hence it is that the bodies of Believers although they are dead and rotten in their graves yet still are within the Covenant But is it not said Object that God is not the God of the dead but of the living In the sence of the Pharisees that denied the Resurrection of the dead Answ God is not the God of the dead But he is the God of Abraham being dead in body to be raised up to life again And so was he the God of the living and this is the meaning of Christ on that place Because all true beleevers being members of Christ have part in the Resurrection of Christ Reas 2 whom Paul calls the first fruits of them that sleepe 1 Cor. 15.20 25. Now Christ did not rise from the dead as a private person as Lazarus or as his widdowes Son but as the head of the Church and therefore said Ioh. 11. when I am lifted up I draw all men unto me Againe Reas 3 there could be no perfect happiness to the godly if these bodies of ours should not riseagain at last for the Soule cannot be perfect without the body the glorification of the body makes for the perfection of the Soule The Souls vnder the Altar cry Rev. 6.11 How long Lord which art holy and true c. They long for this Resurrection If the bodies of the Saints should not at last rise again Reas 4 they were of all men most miserable 1 Cor. 1â— for who are more hated scorned derided and persecuted then they what folly then was it in Paul to indure so many watchings perils and so much hardship as he went under but that he had hope in this Resurrection Reas 5 But especially Gods truth and promise lyes at the stake who is yea and Amen in all his promises and cannot faile Now he hath said When thou makest a feast Luke 14. call the blind and the lame And he gives the Reason for God shall reward thee in the resurrection of the just I confesse there is nothing that crosseth carnall and naturall reason more then this that these bodies of ours should moulder to dust and rottennesse cast into the Sea devoured of fishes burnt to ashes and scattered upon the earth that these bodies thus wasted and consumed should at last bee raised up againe To beleeve this our faith must bee taken up with the admiration of the mighty power of God and we must say with Iob I know thou canst doe every thing and that no thought is hid from thee till we looke upon this Almighty power of his and captivat our reason thereto we shall still stagger in our beleefe of this Article of our Resurrection Now let us apply this Seeing these bodies of ours by reason of sin doe tast of death Use 1 yet by a word speaking God at last shall raise them up againe Thou turnest man c. This may serve to strengthen our faith in this great Article of our beliefe the Resurrection of our bodies That these bodies of ours shall at last rise againe 't is a point that carnal reason is hardly brought to beleeve But why should we scruple or dispute that which God hath so plainly affirmed and the Scrptures so fully prove faith lookes unto Gods Almighty power as Abraham in the promise of Isaac he judged him faithfull and that God was able to do it Secondly Use 2 this Doctrine of our Resurrection that God at last will raise up these bodies of ours out of the dust and rottennesse and though they cast off Corruption they shall not perish in Corruption Saint Paul would have us to comfort our selves in these things 1 Thess â—â— ult wherefore comfort you 〈…〉 these words that is in the Doctrine of the Resurrection Quest But what ground of comfort can there arise to a Believer by the knowledge of it Ans Many and great are the comforts and consolations Comforts from the Doctrine of the Resurrection that a true believer may receive from the knowledge of it First of all this will arme us against the feare of Death T is true there is something in death that breeds feare and horror and dread that makes flesh and blood to shrink and to tremble To lie in the grave and there to bee eaten up of wormes and to bee made subject to corruption c. yet this may be our comfort that ere long we shall be raised out of this condition to a blessed and glorious estate It is but the putting off our cloathes at night we shall put them on againe in the morning Shall we bee like unto little children that cry when they put off their cloathes Secondly this may comfort us against all our troubles and sufferings that we meete withall in the world The worst that Tyrants can doe is but to kill the body yet when they have done that and put them to the greatest cruelty and torture that they can devise they shall be restored to us againe
meet with unexpected accidents in their way our life being like a lighted candle which wasts with the winde and is often blowen out before it be burned How many griefs and how many cares and feares are we daily pestered withall that help to waste the spirits of mer we are like unto him that stept upon the stage and presently went downe againe as if he came thither of purpose to shew himselfe and no more so many steps upon the stage of this worlde and act litle but downe againe And though men should be so happie as to be freed from outward Miseries which fewe are Yet we continually carry death in our Bosoms for look how many infirmities this frail Natures of ours are subiect unto so many secret Enemies we harbour within us to provide for Death yea every crum of bread that goes awrie is ready to make a breach for Death to enter in at In a word be we at sea or on land be we in Citty or Country at home or abroad waking or sleeping we are still in danger that Death like a violent Flood may break in upon us we are here never at one stay but in the midst of life we be in Death So oft then as this Corrupt nature of ours shall stir us up to pride because of Beauty Riches strength c. O let these thoughts humble us these flowers every day wither apace The root is dead already The body is dead because of Sin There is a worme at the roote as there was at the roote of Jonahs Gourd all our earthly felicities are feeding a pace we know not how soone Death like a violent Flood will breake in upon us and put an end to them all Thus for the first that Death is inevitable there is no resisting of it it breakes in upon us as a violent Flood Thou Carriest them away as with a Flood MOses in these wordes will likewise intimate unto us that as Death comes violently and unresistably as a Flood Doct. 2 So Death comes Suddainly unexpectedly as a Flood Death comes suddenly Many times when men are not aware nor thinke not of it then Death coms and takes them tardy And no doubt this was Christs intent and meaning when he saith Mat. 25.6 At midnight there was a cry made to shew unto the world that his coming by Death and judgment will be in an Houre when men will not think of it that so we might expect him every day and every hour You know not the day nor the hour Maâ— 24.42 when the Son of man cometh It is sufficient for us to know that come he will and that his coming shall be at such a time when men least of all expect it Mat. 24.26 and as he saith In the houre that ye think not will the Son of man come And upon this very ground the uncertaintie of the time when Christ shall call us is that watch-word given what J say unto you I say unto al watch Mat. 13. And Behold I come as a theefe in the Night Rev. 16.15 Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments I confesse these places of Scripture are principally meant of Christs second comming to judgment yet are they true also in this sence of his comming by death When a Thiefe hath a purpose to do mischiefe he makes choice of the night when men are asleep and so comes unawares when men are not prepared for resistance Such will the time of Death and the last judgment be And upon this ground Christ grounds that exhortation of his to have our loynes girded and our light burning that we may be alwaies ready And certainly when men are most secure then is death nearest at hand as it was with that rich man that promised to himselfe many years Luke 12. had that night his soul taken from him And when men shall say peace peace then shall suddain destruction shall come upon them And besides these clear examples and testimonies in the Word that shew the comming of death to be suddain and unexpected our own experience and observation daily before our eyes doth declare this truth How many have gone well to bed at night that have been dead ere the morning some at bed and some at board some at home and some abroad death hath met them and suddainly surprised them and when he comes he will have no nay The point then is clear and plain that as death comes as a Flood and there is no resistance so as a Flood death comes suddainly when men think least of it But why will the Lord have the time of death thus uncertain to us Quest Many may be the Reasons wherefore God will not have this day and time known unto us Ans That not knowing the set day and houre Reas 1 we might be prepared for every day and every houre Watch saith Christ for you know not what houre the Master of the house commeth whether at midnight c. Secondly Reas 2 that herein and hereby the Lord might exercise the faith patience hope and other graces in the hearts of his servants all which are now exercised and set on work whilst we know not the time when the Lord will call us hence And this serves for the just reproofe of the great security Use 1 wherein so many are so fast asleep that notwithstanding they hear clearly from the Word and see daily by experience before their eyes the sudden comming of death as a flood rushing in upon them yet put the thoughts of death far from them O the security and dead heartednesse that is in many that having so many caveats watchwords and warnings from God besides their own daily experience yet never minde their own latter end nor deaths sudden comming This was the sin of the old world in the daies of Noah that were so drowned in their own pleasures that they would not believe a drowning by a flood till the flood came and swept them clean away And this is the great sin of this world and times wherein we live upon whom the ends of the world are come The deadnesse of heart and carnall security the little laying of Gods judgments to heart the overflowings of sin in all sorts and conditions of men are certain precursors and forerunners that the Lord is at hand either with some sorer vengeance to awake us or by putting a speedy end to all things But the main use that we are to make of this Point Use 2 that death comes many times so suddainly rushing in upon us as a violent Flood It should teach us this wisdome at all times to be in a readinesse and prepared when death comes Upon this ground Christ admonisheth his Disciples and us all to watchfulnesse because the day and hour knoweth no man But I hope I shall have time to prepare for death Object 1 I am yet young and strong c. Herein men blesse themselves and flatter themselves that howsoever they
have here no grace in perfection Reas 2 in regard this world is not the place of our perfect happinesse God hath appoynted Heaven for our home where all tears shall be wiped away from our eyes and sin from our soule here wee sigh desiring to be cloathed upon 2 Cor. 5.2 Rom. 8.24 we are saved now by hope our happinesse is not in present possession but in reversion This serves both discover unto us the misery of such Vse 1 and how far they are from the work of grace in their souls that are so far from discovering any such wants and imperfections in themselves and in their graces as that pharisaically they brag and boast of their strong faith and that they should be sorry to live to doubt of their Salvation when they heare of the moanes and complaints of the Godly complayning of their want of faith the hardnesse of their hearts and their backwardness indisposition to any good Duty c. they wonder at them they would not be in their case for all the world they never felt such doubts and feares in themselves Surely these are the most miserable men in the world they shew that the strong man hath taken possession of their souls that thus holds them in this damnable Security there is but a step betwixt such a one and hell thy case is fearefull it is a signe that thou ar thardned in thy sin and art far from the worke of grace in thy soule Mat. 5. wo unto such as now laugh for they shall wayle and weepe and Blessed are they that mourne for they shall be comforted Such as have had the greatest measure of Grace have found many wants and imperfections in their graces as Moses here and not to be sensible of our wants and imperfections is an argument of the want of the truth of grace in such asoule Secondly Vse 2 this may serve for matter of comfort and consolation unto such as do unfaynedly love and feare God and are troubled much with doubtings and feares and discover more more in themselves their wants and imperfections in all their graces and in all their duties know O know that thy case is not singular neither art thou alone in these complaints many of Gods deare children are full of them My faith is weake my hope feeble my love is cold and I find so much backwardnesse and coldnesse in duties O what shall I doe I feare my estate is not good I confesse here is just cause of trouble and complaint in the Godly when they find this to be their case that grace is no more vigorous and active in them and when they want the Sensible assurance of Gods favour and love But such must stay themselves upon this that a man may be in the state of grace and yet want the assurance of it in himselfe A man may have faith in him and yet conclude against it What a case was David in when he complayneth thus Psal 13.1 2. How long-wilt thou forget me O Lord how long wilt thou hide thy face from me How long shall I take counsell in my soule and have sorrow in my heart His heart must needs be ful of sorrow when God hides his face from him But yet God turned againe and spake peace to his servant and fild him at last with the joy of his salvation and thus will the mourning and sadnesse of Gods Children bring a joyfull harvest at last when these doubts and feares shall vanish away their hearts shall be filled with comfort Vers 12. Teach us O Lord to Number our dayes that mee may apply our herts to wisdome Hitherto we have spoken of the two first generall parts of this psalme viz. The complaint of Moses and the people that they put up unto God now in the wildernesse in great affliction and distresse vers 1 2. Secondly the Narration of the frailty and misery of man from the third verse to the 11. Now in the 12. ver and so to the end of this Psalme He comes to the third and last generall of this Psalme and that is the prayer of Moses and the rest of the people of God put up to God for grace and mercy And this prayer of theirs hath in it two parts 1. They beg for reconciliation againe with God ver 13. Return O Lord how long c. 2. They pray for the happy fruits and effects of Gods favour and reconciliation from verse 17. to the end of the Psalme Teach us O Lord to number our daies c. In this v. we have their first petition wherein Moses this man of God prayeth that the Lord would make them to consider of the shortnesse and uncertainty of their time that so they might be wise to provide for their latter end God seeing our life is so short so fraile and so momentary But as yesterday that is past as a watch in the night And that death comes as a flood unresistable and suddainly that our life is but as grasse and all our excellencies but as the flower of the field and our dayes but as a tale that is told And that we are so suddainly cut downe and we flye away that we may throughly consider of this brevitie shortnesse of our life and being here to the end that laying aside the excessive cares for the things of this life we may apply your hearts to wisedome that is to repent of our sins past to cast up our accounts and to provide for a better life where we have 1. the petition it self which Moses made for himselfe and in the behalfe of the people teach us O Lord to number our dayes 2 the end of this petition on the use of this request viz that we may apply our hearts to wisdome Note we first of all How Moses prayeth to God to teach him and the rest of the people of God to Number their dayes that is to be perswaded of the shortnesse of their time in this world and what shall become of their soule in Death hence we learne that Though God in his word hath plentifully taught us and experience daly before our eyes Doct. 1 We can not number our dayes unlesse God teach us doth confirme the same that our life is short fraile and momentary yet unlesse God become our Schoolemaster we shall herdly take out this lesson our foolish hearts are so ignorant of this knowledge as Christ said to Peter when he had made that confession of Christ Mat. 16.17 flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee but my father which is in heaven So no man by nature can attaine this knowledge to judge aright of the frailty and shorinesse of his life but must have God to be his teacher from whom every good gift Iam. 1.17 and perfect gift proceedeth How earnest is David with God to teach him this lesson Lord make me know my end and the measure of my dayes what it is Psa 39.4 that
I may know how fraile I am And indeed we have manifold examples in the word that let us see that naturally we do the cleane contrary viz. forget our latter end and put the thoughts of death far from us and what shall become of our soules at last that Rich man that was so wise for the world yet was a starke foole in this knowledge he could number his Riches his Gold and his silver His Sheepe and his herds of cattle but had no Skill at all to Number his dayes But reckoned them up by the grosse summ even many yeares to come And yet alas poore man he lived not one day But even that night had his soule taken from him and was sent to hell So that ungratious servant Luk. 12 that thought his Master would not come yet but fell to eating drinking and beating his fellowes was suddainly taken tardy Mat. 24.49 50. and what shall I say of those foolish virgins who never thought of providing of oyle but slumbred and slept and at midnight the Bridegrome came and then it was too late to cry and call Lord Lord Mat. 25. open unto us so that you see that naturally we are ready to forget the Numbring of our dayes and are not easily brought to consider the shortnesse and uncertainty of our life Besides experience makes this cleare for what man is there amongst us though he have lived threescore or fourescore years which doth not flatter himselfe to thinke that hee may rub out yet another yeare and so another to that so that you see it is naturally given to us to be ignorant of this knowledge that Moses prayes for unlesse we are taught of God neither nature learning nor dayly experience can teach us this lesson that our life is short It is God onely that must teach us this wisedome Reas 1 in regard it is not the pregnancy of naturall wit not the ripenesse of years neither is it common to gray haires to be perswaded of the shortnesse of life and to prepare for Death Iob. 32. But as Job sayth It is the inspiration of the Almighty that giveth understanding till we come to be weaned from the world and have our eyes set upon more glorious things thou are here below our hearts will bâ— bound up from this wisedome Because none can teach the heart Reas 2 but he that made the heart A man may search the register and know his age and by Arithmetique number his dayes and howers that he hath lived and yet be ignorant of this wisedome to esteeme of every day as his last day and so to live as if every day were his dying day God alone must teach this wisedom well then seeing Moses and the people of of God acknowledge their ignorance and forgetfulnesse in this poynt and withall pray to God that he would give them wisedome to number their dayes then let us lay this Doctrine to heart let us try and examin our selves whether we be not as forgetful of this poynt do promise long life to our selves If this be our case let us likewise intreate the Lord to give us this wisedome and to teach us and perswade us of the exceeding shortnesse of our life that we might apply our hearts to this wisedome of learning to dye for till the Lord od open our eyes become our Schoole-master we shall never come truely to know it nor to make that right use of it as we ought to doe Secondly Use 2 this shewes the extreame folly of the greatest part of the world who think it so easie a matter to number their dayes Moses was a wise man yet as not sufficiently instructed in this poynt he humbly intreats the Lord to teach him this knowledge that he might number his dayes aright this is that David doth so earnestly beg for at Gods hand Psal 39.4 Lord make me to know my end and the measure of my dayes that I may know how fraile I am And therefore seeing it is so hard a lesson to be learned and of so great use being attayned let us intreat the Lord to teach it us To number our dayes But may not this seeme strange that Moses should so beg for this Quest Did not Moses know how to number his dayes He could number Adams dayes and set downe how long he lived Hee could number Enoch his dayes and set downe how long he lived Methusala Abraham Izack Jaacob and all the. patriarks dayes and how long they lived and could not Moses number his own dayes this may seeme strnage we see a child of ten or twelve years old can by arithmetike quickly tell you how many days he hath lived yea how many howres and minuts I answer that neither Moses Ans nor the wisest man living though he may be never so expert in all kind of Arithmeticke and humane learning so as he knowes the nature of the Stars their distances motions longitudes latitudes altitudes c. can skill of this numbring unlesse the spirit of God be his Schoole-master unlesse God give him wisedome and grace from above to perswade us of the shortnesse of our time and of the suddain and speedy coming of Death can truly learne this lesson to number his dayes aright but it must be the Lord that must teach it us Hence we learne Doct. 2 that it should be our chiefest care and study Wee ought to esteem of every day as our last day Deut. 32.29 to practise that which they so earnestly prayed for viz that upon the same grounds that they were moved withall that we learne to number our dayes aright and make account of every day as our last day O that men were wise sayth Moses that they would consider their latter end True wisedome consists in this in the continuall meditation of the shortnesse of our life when we arise in the morning to thinke that we may be dead ere night and every night to thinke this may be my last Many men thinke to what end is this who knoweth not that our life is short uncertaine who knoweth not this But it is not for naught that the spirit of God in the scripture beats so much upon this poynt and puts us so often in remembrance of it would men be so carefull for the world and so carelesse for heaven and eternitie did we truly know and were perswaded of the frailty and uncertainty of our being here Surely if we could but reckon our life and dayes as Moses doth all along in this Psalme that it is but as vesterday nay not so long but rather as a watch in the night the space of three howers that death comes as a flood that our life is but as a sleepe or a Dream suddainly vanishing away that it is but as grasse And all the excellencies of man as Beauty Honour riches strength pleasures c. but as the flower of grasse and that our dayes are but as a taâ—e that is told were these
lives Is there any so vile or so wretched that if they were perswaded that they should dye this night before to morrow would they deck and trim paint and pounce and pamper those bodyes of theirs that so suddenly must feed the worms no no if men made this accompt of their life as at an howers warning they would provide better for that life that shall last for ever This was the reason why that evill servant fell to eating and drinking and beating his fellow servant Mat. 24.48 he thought his master would be long a coming A contrary example we have in Moses this man of God that albeit he might have inioyed the pleasures of Pharaohs Court with honour wealth and what not yet refused them all upon this accompt that they were but for a season All the pleasures comforts contentments and outward felicities that the world can afford us are but for a season short and momentany and must have an end And the end of a wicked mans pleasures ends in paine Son remember that thou in thy lif time Luk. 16. c. when one howers torment in hell will make the wicked forget all their pleasures on earth And therefore this should serve in the last place for Exhortation That we alwayes have death before our eyes and to think upon it to accompt of the present time and day as our last and so to live as if every day we should dye that we may be in a continuall readinesse for our dissolution and change when we shall goe hence and be no more There can be no worse deceipt then when a man deceives himselfe in this reckoning Vse 2 Luk. 12.37 He was worthily called a foole that said Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years eat drink and be merry And since it is the Lord that must teach us this wisdome we must pray unto him to teach us this lesson to number our dayes aright for till God teach us this wisdom we shall never repent forsake the world and seek for a better life And therfore I earnestly commend this duty to you and it is my desire to presse it upon my self that we all reckon this with our selves as though this day should be our last day and this nigh our last night that when the Lord shal call us hence he might find us so doing hitherto of the petition Lord teach us to c. That we may apply our hearts to wisdom HEre we have the second part at first propounded Part. 2 And that is the end of this petition or the use of this request viz. that we may apply our hearts c. These words may be taken in a double sence That we may apply our hearts to wisdom That is that seeing our life is so short here and so uncertaine we may no longer live in sin as we have done but may truly repent Doct. 3 live more wisely and circumspectly feare thy anger Men are never truly wise till they accompt of every day as their last day and be afraid to provoke thee by our sins as we have done this Moses accompts true wisdom And the words being taken in this sence the doctrine is That men are never truly wise till they accompt of every day as their last day Herein lyes true wisdom O that men were wise Deut. 32 29. then would they remember their latter end As if men were never truly wise till then There is nothing more naturall unto us then to perswade our selves of long life And that we shall still continue in a happie and flourishing estate It was Davids case to be thus lifted up in times of prosperitie I said saith he I shall neve be removed Psal 30.6 thou Lord of thy goodnesse hast made my hill so strong When God had setled David in his Kingdom had made him to prosper and given him the upper hand of his enemies He was ready to fall asleep and to make his reckoning that he should ever continue thus happie That his good dayes should last for ever and his prosperitie should never faile And this was the case of Iob that holy man In the time of his prosperitie he had such thoughts as these I said I shall dye in my nest Iob 19.18 and I shall multiply my dayes as the sand And againe my glory shal be renewed ver 28 and my bowe shall be strengthned in my hand What is this but to reckon without our host when we shall thus flatter our selves that we shall continue in our state whereas our very lives and being here with whatsoever we have and enjoy is only at his pleasure we have nothing soe intayl'd upon us here that we injoy in life and death but the Lord when it pleaseth him can either take us from it or it from us It is wisdom then to provide for our change before the evill day come upon us this is Solomons advice Eccle. 12.1 Remember thy creator in the dayes of thy youth while the evill dayes come not nor the yeares of affliction wherein thou shalt say I have noe pleasure in them q. d. certainly the time of sicknes and death will come when all these earthly comforts will fly away A man never comes to be truly wise till he thus comes to esteeme of his life and to provide for his change And indeed what man will have his evidence then to seek when his cause comes to be tryed In the matters of this world men are so wise in summer to provide for winter in health to provide forsickness We will count but such a one a foole that will then goe to sowe when other men goe to reape O where are our hearts that we are noe more spiritually wise for our souls Pro. 10.14 Wise men sayth Solomon lay up knowledg before hand And such prove themselves fooles at last With those foolish virgins that have not the oyle of grace in readiness when death comes Seeing that herein lyes true wisdom Vse 1 to be in a continuall readiness for our change this shewes that the wisdom of the world is but foolishness to God 1 Cor. 1. for whom doe men commonly judge to be wise men but such as have reaching heades to buy and to sell that can tell how to purchase lands and livings and grow rich in the world and grow great and mighty here All this wisdom comes from nature and may have nothing in it but nature If this be not guided by the word you shall see what reckoning and accompt the Lord makes of it When he saith they have rejected the word of the Lord Ier. 8.9 and what wisdom is in them what greater folly can there be in the world then for these vaine and foolish trifles the pleasures of sin that are but for a season to lose for ever a mans most pretions soul to passe away for earthly things with Esau the birth-right of our inheritance which such do that are not wise
no desire of mercy and these the Lord sends away emptie O fill us with thy mercy THey crave not here a small pittance or a light tast of Gods mercy but even to have their hungry souls filled and satisfied with mercy Hence we see Doct. 3 We should labour for a plentiful sense of Gods mercy that it is not enough for us to have some light tast of Gods mercy in Christ for the pardon of our sins but we must labour to have it in a plentifull measure To be filled with the fulnesse of God and the feeling of his love The Lord is a bottomlesse Sea of mercy able to fill every soule that comes unto him but we are like a vessell that hath a narrow neck which if it be cast into the Sea yet is not quickly filled but by degrees Even so the mercy of God is as the bottomlesse Sea able to fill every soul that hungers and thirsts after mercy Whence then is the cause that we are not filled with mercy Surely in our selves our Faith which is the mouth of the soul is so narrow that though the Lord be able and willing to powre his graces and mercies into our souls yet we cannot receive but drop after drop one drop after another And hence it is that in a long time we receive but a small measure of grace and mercy because the Lord must distill it into our hearts as we are capable to receive it now a little and then a little Es 28.9 10. precept upon precept and line upon line here a little and there a little It was only true of Christ Ps 45.7 that he received not the spirit by measure He was annoynted with the oyle of gladnesse above his fellowes But as for us we receive grace by measure Whilst we are here We know but in part 1 Cor. 13.9 And according to our knowledge so are our other graces proportionable Gods children in this life have not fulnesse or perfection of any grace but only so much as the Lord in his wisdome sees meet for them and we are still to be adding grace to grace Grow in grace saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 2. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby And the Apostle exhorts us to joyne to our vertue faith and to faith knowledge c. So that it is not enough for us to have some light tast of Gods love or of the graces of his Spirit but we must labour to have them in a plentifull measure to be filled therewith The best of Gods Saints in this life Reas 1 have no grace in perfection we are not capable of fulnesse of grace in this life but must pray still Lord increase our faith and with the Church here Lord fill us with thy mercy And Christ teacheth us daily to pray Thy Kingdome come The Lord is pleased thus to exercise his people with many wants and imperfections in his graces given them here Reas 2 to humble them and to keepe down the pride that so naturally is ready to rise in our hearts especially in spirituall gifts Paul lest he should be lifted up with the abundance of Revelations had that prick in the flesh that he should not be exalted above measure 2 Cor. 12.8 Thus many times are the godly kept low in their own eyes that they might walk the more humbly with God Seeing then Use 1 that it is not enough for us to have some light tast of Gods love in Christ for the pardon of sin but we must labour to be filled with the feeling of his love This serves to condemn the greatest part of the world even Professors themselves that when they have got a little tast and feeling of Gods love and of the work of grace in theirsouls have a little measure of knowledge of faith and other graces content themselves and think they have enough But this ought not to be If ever thou hadst any true tast of Gods mercy in Christ it will make thee hunger and thirst after more and therefore the Apostle Exhorts 2 Pet. 1.2 that As new born babes we should desire the sincere milk of the Word that we might grow thereby He adds If you have tasted how sweet the Lord is intimating thus much that untill such time as we truly tast how sweet the Lord is we shall never truly desire the sincere milk of the Word Seeing the cause why we are not filled with the mercy of God Use 2 even at our first conversion is not in God but in our selves even in the want of Faith which is the inlet of all grace into the soul It is our duty to encrease in Faith in knowledge repentance and obedience for as these graces grow and encrease in us so will the feeling of Gods mercy and love towards us in Christ encrease in us Such as have a great measure of Faith there will be a great measure of the feeling of Gods love Fill their Sacks saith Joseph Scanty sacks could not carry away any plentifull store of provision where Faith is weak the neck of the soul narrow and streight there will be but a little measure of the feeling of Gods mercy which should stir us up to grow in Faith because as our Faith grows so our feeling of Gods mercy grows Satisfie us early or in the Morning THat is with speed they that lust for a thing cannot indure to be delaied It is death to a thirsty man to belongwithout drink So they that have their Soules scorched with the sense of Gods anger O it is mercy they long for And such a Soul thinks every hour ten and every day a year till they be refreshed with Gods mercy All delaies to such distressed soules is death it self Hear me speedily O Lord saith David My Spirit faileth hide not thy face from me lest I be like unto them that go down into the â—it Satisfie us early or in the Morning q. d. Lord let us not lye any longer soaking in extream miseries lest we be even swallowed up in desperation but make speed to take pitty upon us The like we have by that of David Ps 5.3 Hear my prayer in the Morning where David intreats the Lord not to defer his mercy but to to make speed to his help So Moses here intreats the Lord to hear them in the Morning That is with speed that hee would not deferre to hear them but with speed to take pitty on their miseries and troubles Now when Moses and the people of God pray thus that God would not defer to help them they do not this with impatient minds but partly in regard of their own frailty lest if the Lord should suffer them to lie longer in misery their faith should fail them in their expectation of Deliverance Doct. 4 And partly to shew their hearty Only Gods favour refresheth a distressed Soul and longing desire and comfort and feeling of