for though 't is sweet yet 't is of an earthlie breed It ha's a glorie too but the best glorie of a flower must be preserv'd by a shower and when all 's done it withers and is lost at last Secondly Deaths certaintie it will not faile you 't will find you wherever you goe therefore when thy bones are full of marrow and riches comes in as a floud Argue thus yet I must die Christexpecting Christians can tell you that a wife a child a friend nor any of them can be injoyed for ever That their estates comforts and lives are going declining will desert them and therefore doe long for and desire a change after which they can change no more 'T is further cleare thus First from Gods decree It is appointed Heb. 9. 27. for all men once to die Secondly from the constitution of our natures Mans nature is a composition 2 Cor. 5. 1. of wasting ingredients he 's made up of dying materialls The Apostle calls the bodie a house of earth and know you not that earth may be and is corrupted do's breed that which will infect and infest it with a noisome stench Besides a house of earth is weake and what is there which hath not power on that which is weaknesse it selfe Adde to this that a Tabernacle is not made to last long 't is made on purpose for a short time of exigence and distresse Thirdly the defilements of our nature they put us to the sword murther us in our comforts have given being to this last change as well as others Trees and plants breed the wormes which at last make them lifelesse and so doe we serve our selves and soules If Adam give Rom. 3. 12. leave to sinne sinne will give way to death There 's no man living who shall not have his fit of dying though the death of Saints bee precious in the sight of the Lord yet die they must for his onely begotten sonne did not escape it What then though a man strive repine order his diet intreat and shun occasions yet as the Psalmist speakes none shall deliver his soule from the hand of the grave Live hee as long as Methuselah yet must hee die at last Gray-headed sinners what meane you to stand it out with God so long to breake with God for a trifle what 's your life that should bee spent laid out for him and that he requires from you 'T is not worth the honour to be accounted of force to draw your soules from God Oh then make no more waste of time redeeme it for if Christ ha's redeem'd you you cannot squander away the whole thereof and give him none Remember 't is a difficult thing to die well Thirdly mans necessitie and that first in respect of the bodie A corruptible bodie cannot enter into the incorruptible Heavens it must die and be chang'd It must leave its filth in the grave before it can be meet to dwell in the heavenlie places above The bodie is now the substance and matter of all diseases putrifactions infirmities and deformities although you take in the comeliest Creature your eyes have seen within the bounds of this observation For is' t not conceived in the likenesse of flesh heat of lust and staine of sinne the sensible Prophet sincerely confessed it Besides who knowes Psa 51. 5. not that knowes Christ that 't is the livelie instrument of sinne The verie excrements of whose nostrills ear 's pores and other passages duelie and trulie considered will seeme more loathsome then the uncleanest sinke or vault Oh! what vile bodies have wee and how great need have wee that they should be chang'd buried in the dust and refined Trees and plants bring forth leaves flowers fruits and pleasant smells But mans bodie brings forth naturallie nothing but vermine wormes rottennesse and a filthie stench Lord what is man that thou art mindfull of him and what ha's hee to bee proud of who 's made of such materialls First in respect of the soule that she may be freed from that discord which is in the bodie untill the change comes for whilest the bodie lives a naturall life there 's no businesse can bee dispatched which concernes the soules welfare without a mutinie in the heart the flesh is a home-bred enemie a bosome Rebell that 's daily against the Spirit because they are contraries The flesh alas forestalls all Divine motions actions and indeavours of the soule and Spirit and it begets and breeds an indisposednesse towards them all though all the wayes of God be pleasantnesse and all his paths peace yet this bodie of flesh will make them seeme irkesome burthensome and full of trouble Is' t not high time then that the bodie should be changed made a better servant to the soule Besides it 's sinne-sick distempers are infanable whilest it is here for ha's it not brought on man a certaine necessitie of sinning so that we cannot but displease the highest Lord. Doe you doubt of this why the Scriptures tell you that those who are in the flesh cannot please God that wretched Law of the Rom. 8. 8. members wars against the Law of the mind and Spirit of life which brings the whole man into an insupportable bondage This is mans miserie in his uprisings and downe-lyings a depraved nature Rom. 7. 23. is his associate and as David speakes innumerable evills doe encompasse him about and have taken hold of him that he 's not able to looke up to Heaven This bring 's Psal 40. 12. to mind a worthie saying of like concernment O flesh flesh I can neither live with thee nor without thee Now at the rebreathing in or the re-uniting of the soule to its owne proper person the bodie shall be found incorruptible and that even that will be found the last and best Resurrection Secondly rejoyce in and at the Vse 2 thoughts of such a change consider first 't will rid you of all uncleane societie with sin and sinfull flesh whilest we are here we converse and commerce with greatest sinners and with innumerable sinnes we alas walke among the Tombes with men that lie under the powers and pledges of the everlasting death persons who die living and will at last live dying and yet ne'r bee dead In this life Gracious Christians you heare the greatest Majesties name prophaned his wayes blasphem'd truths defam'd and doe see his friends are foil'd and spo'ld But after death you shall never heare such evill tidings any more Who then that 's wise will love and long to live with the dead more then the living or in the societie of condemned persons in a noysome goale rather than to have fellowship with the glorious Princes of God in the Heaven of matchlesse and endlesse glorie In this Babylon faithfull Jewes are forc'd to hang their Harpes upon the willowes are much disabled from singing sweetlie to the Lambe their Hebrew songs certainly then all whose mansions are with God are or should be
chiefest good 'T is not to have the least influence of heat and life from the least Ray of that Sun-like resplendent bodie of Christ not to have one glance of its glorie not to have one taste of those overflowing rivers of pleasures not to have one glimpse of that inaccessable light and Jehovah's glorie What shall I say the losse is And how shall I esteem it Surely none but one who ha's been in Heaven heard and seen what 's there can tell you what it is to bee shut out thence Paul could and did doe something this way having had in a rapture a little glimpse of that infinite glory And having drunke a small drop of those ever springing fountaines of matchlesse Joy and Peace Hence was he brought to call the most excellent things of this life and the knowledge of them but drosse and dung yea even dogs meat in comparison of those things above Oh how sweet how comfortable how refreshing are the surpassing rarities of Heaven Honest soules doe not your hearts burn within you when you thinke on them discourse on them and read of them even burne with love to them Sure I am whate're you thinke of these things and whatsoever the worke is that they make upon your spirits that the losse of them will be bitter And I seriously acknowledge through Gods goodnesse I count nothing gaine in respect of them when I am my selfe and compare the best of other things with them Oh paine of losse thou peircest the verie heart soule and inward parts dost wound deeply The paine of sence is but as a scar in the flesh to this for this cuts the verie heart in peeces breakes it to shivers Doe you not see this confirm'd by common experience oh how do's it fret vex and disquiet men to loose good bargaines on earth when a man do's but let slip an opportunitie of taking a good peniworth of commodities when it ha's been offer'd How do's hee upbraid himselfe with his negligence failing and folly There are some cannot get such a fault out of their minds along time especially if the gaine that would have come that way was such as that it would have made them rich men as long as they liv'd after Aye but what 's that bargain purchase or prize to this that may be lost in a moment at the best it lasts not long for life it selfe is but short with all the accommodations of it but I must needs tell all intelligent hearts ther 's enough in God to make you rich for ever and if he makes a bargain with you gives himself for your selves he 'l warrant his commoditie to last for ever and to serve for everie turne Heaven is meat drinke and cloathing health libertie and harbouring unto all that are seated there You see then by this what it is that imbitters death and the change to some this last ha's most gall and wormewood in 't namely the pain of losse which Christs sensible servants ne're sustaine Finally unto you who are the redeemed of the Lords Christ be these things spoken Feare not but desire to see this day your last and best even the last and best of all your changes Consider First the day of your change is the Lords pay-day everie labourer in the Lords vineyard shall then receive his peny everie prayer shall then have its answer Everie hungring and thirsting soule shall then bee filled shall ne'r hunger nor thirst more Everie sigh groane and the teares that have fallen from the eyes of Saints in secret or else where shall have their fruit even the quiet fruits of righteousnesse which were sowne in peace many yeares before And then all teares shall be wiped off from all faces of Saints yea even everie grace shall then be glorious Moses did and suffer'd much when he did but eye the reward what then shall wee be suffer and doe when wee receive it Then 't will goe well with the righteous no mans latter end will be like theirs First the soule will bee in its prime then for whilest it is in a corruptible bodie it is so ruled by senses and is so fiercely carried on by sensuall appetites that it 's compelled to give way to the bodie and cannot follow the light either of nature or Reason Hence the truth is withheld in unrighteousnesse and the soule cannot act like her selfe like a Spirit whose nature is to sore aloft towards the place whence she came Now till then the soul is made a servant and cannot looke out at the eyes but 't will bee infected nor heare by the eares but 't will bee distracted nor smell at the nostrills and not be tainted taste by the tongue and not be allured or touch by the hand and not bee defiled And everie sense on everie occasion temptation is ready to betray the soule untill the bodie is changed and made glorious Who then that 's wise will not long for his approaching decease that he may enter the Celestiall Paradise to exchange his brasse for gold his vanitie for felicitie vilenesse for honour bondage for freedome a lease of life temporall for an inheritance of life immortall Sith that to live here is to die for how much wee live so much wee die everie step of life is a step towards death and he that ha's liv'd the halfe of his dayes is dead the halfe of himselfe Death gets first our Infancie then our youth and so forward and certainly as long as we have lived so long we have died But 't is very grievous and irkesome Objection to mee to thinke of the taking asunder of soule and bodie Might they goe together as Enoch's did the change would bee more comfortable They are put asunder but for a time after which the 'l bee united Answer for ever Besides the union of the soule with Christ remaines in full force still as the Hypostaticall did when his bodie lay in the grave The Lords presence is with the bodie in the dust as much as the soule is in Heaven with God and in his presence God told Jacob hee would goe downe with him into Egipt and on 46. 4. also surely bring him up againe But Jacob was dead ere hee was brought up againe Therefore he carried up his carcase out of Egypt not his soule and so fulfilled his blessed Promise Saints why care you so much for the carcase why feare you to let it lie in the dust and to bee turned into its owne materialls ther 's not a bone nerve or sinew of the whole shall be lost he keeps all the bones of the Righteous saith the Psalm 34. 20. Prophet And ha's not Christ told you that the haires of your heads are numbred He has told them one by one and certainely in the Resurrection though you may have more in order to perfection yet you shall not have lesse Is not this comfortable Do's it not warme you at the heart and refresh you to see how you are car'd for
wearie of this world wean'd from this scituation peinched with the coldnesse of this climate for this world alas is a great cooler to the heat of a gracious heart And were they as subject to it as its children are were they as much intangled with it Though now they may have a little heat yet then they would have none at all Secondly 't will free and remove you from all carnall objects then there shall bee no more Gold nor greatnesse to allure you from God no sinne nor sinnes pleasure to intice and bewitch you lie prostrate before you no selfe nor Satan to tempt and intrap you Good Lord what a good case will thine then bee in who or what can expresse those joyous rarities and transcendent verities of such glorious beings Oh! how unsearchable are the riches of such grace and favour Narrow hearts open your selves and the gates of your soules and let the King of glorie come in why should he be unto you as a wayfaring man that staies but for a night and is gone Thirdly 't will alter the nature of all your spirituall distresses there shall bee then no more doubts unresolved no more sins the ' I le be destroi'd no more graces unrevived no more feares of finall falling no more queries about the truth of your high calling no more want of God Christ and the good desired no more dislike of and from unknowne Christians no strangenesse of carriage among knowne members of Christ's bodie mysticall In a word there shall after this change never bee any more hearts hardnesse minds blindnesse wills perversenesse loves coldnesse zeales rashnesse listlesse desires heartlesse prayers tiresome spirit or rebellious flesh But holy hearts you shall be God-like Christ-like in all things 3. Suffer God to dispose you for it sith 't will come and you must be changed Men square wood before they build discipline their Troopes e're they joyne in battell rigg trimme and furnish their ships ere they launch put forth to Sea so God is fitting some every day of life for the day of death Would you know the way by which the Lord effects this blessed fitnesse for so glorious a change so great a worke as is the worke of dying observe then rightly these serious things in the sequell God fits his children for such a decease thus First by making the bodie of sinne irkesome to them There are some who with David have their sinnes ever before them cannot forget them are greevously Psal 51. 3. burden'd with them and their crie is such as this Oh! who shall deliver me from the bodie of this death This even this ha's made some wearie of the world yea and wearie of themselues too all the while longing to be there where they might never see or seele it more Such had rather die a thousand deaths then live dishonouring him in whose favour stands their life and whose loving-kindnesse is better than life as David speakes Hence also everie sanctified sorrow and suffering of this earthlie life puts him upon minding his last and long'd for home every decay of strength dimnes of sight dulnes of hearing and disabilitie of being and doing with all sicknes weaknes aches and pains these I say doe forewarne him of his approaching decease And thus with Job he waites all the dayes of his life untill his appointed change comes Holy hearts you 're well acquainted with the state of this distresse and therefore you must signe and seale to the truth of this experiment yet let not your hearts be troubled for sinnes burthen shall bee remov'd and you your selues certainely secur'd and sav'd Secondly by making death to them desirable this is a deathsweetning way and he acts in the businesse after this manner First suggesting into their thoughts that when death surprizeth them it shall be stinglesse and what 's the sting of death why the Scriptures tell you 't is sinne sinne is deaths Arrow which when 't is shot into the bowells of the soule at the appointed time of change oh how do's it wound with horrour cut with amazement and pierce with dread of a great just and glorious Majestie And then how do's the poore soule fester with despaire whil'st she cannot beleeve or hope to bee well and doe well after death who ha's been and done so ill in time of life And certainely if in life there 's no discharge from sinne in death the soule will greatlie feare if not throughly feel its discharge from Christ But to you that are in Jesus Christ be this word spoken The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made you free from the law of sinne and death The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law viz. sinnes Law Rom. 8. 1.2 1 Cor. 1. 15. for this place seemes to explaine the other Thus you are freed from both the power of sinne and death also I may adde and the victorie of the grave which cannot imprison or infringe your bodies long so long as to retaine you for ever Give thankes then unto God who ha's given you the victorie through your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and sing with Paul ô death where is thy sting ô grave where is thy victorie For when a poore soule considers within her selfe thus well I am now neere my time of change I must leave the world But Christ ha's promis'd that he 'l bee with me to the end of my course and ha's also assur'd me that my sinnes are forgiven and forgotten I have a discharge from them through the mercie of God Is she not then readie to crie out Come Lord Jesus come quicklie Death doe thy dutie freely and thus the poore drooping doubting Christian lives dying yet ne'r tastes of the second death God acquits the soule in Justification from sinnes guilt and cleanseth the soule through Sanctification from sinnes filth hee that 's washed from his old polutions hath the heavenly ornaments of Christ's Spirit He 's fit to solemnize a marriage with the Lambe God also perswades the soule that he ha's found a righteousnesse as well as a ransome for her Now beleevers may conclude then as the Scripture speakes that Righteousnesse delivers from death And that the righteous hath hope in his end He fits his to be changed by mortification also for when God by his Spirit has crucified sinne that would have slaine the soule Death cannot hurt much in smiring the carcase Hence is that of Christ Feare not them who kill the body but are not able to kill the soule Secondly the Lord makes the change desirable to some by inlightning Heb. 7. 25. their eyes and strengthning their hearts unto a fight and sense of all the al-sufficiencies of Christ to sustaine the soule under the straights of such a death what though sinne upbraids thee Satan affrights thee and thine owne heart trembles within thee that thou art at a stand knowest not what to doe nor how to die Yet beleeve for
Christ will carrie thee through Christ did not give himself for thee in vain that he should give thee up in thy last greatest triall give thee into the hands of Satan Why then leane on him who 's a stay of strength and you 'l not miscarrie He that hath and is had of a good Christ shall bee sure of a good death with strength and peace Thirdly by giving his a through taste of that heavenly joy heartie holinesse and reall happinesse that themselves shall possesse in the fruition of Christ when once they are changed This the Scripture calls first fruits of the Spirit and of glory And is' t not this that makes the Saints themselves groane within themselves waiting for the Redemption of their bodies Rom. 8. 23. The Lord ha's said it Oh how do's the taste of Heavens joy and of the powers of the world to come strengthen a renewed Christian leaning on Christ to lie under the stroake of death yea even to long that so great a worke were over and thus God sweetens death to the good gives it a good savour when they come to taste it it being the same cup which Christ himselfe did first drinke of Now you have heard how it fares with the good at their last change and how good such a change is to them But alas for the bad the Christ-lesse man 't is bitter unto him These things imbitter death to the gracelesse 1. The biting and tumifying sting of death that indisposeth to dying well 'T is biting oh how will the wofull thoughts of a mispent life of by past sinnes of slighting Jesus and his holy waies like fiery darts and scorching Scorpions peirce through the soule and Spirit Then uncleane sinners as James speakes of James 5. 3. the rust of ill gotten and ill kept gold the guilt of your sins shall eat your flesh as it were fire Then even then all scruing deceivers shall be forced to say of their own unlawfully acquir'd goods as Israel of Idolls get you hence But alas these are thy workes and they will follow thee flow faster into thy mind then thou canst get them out and make thy soule wearie even to the death Secondly Death's sting tumifies also Judas sinn'd betraid his Master improved the reward But what was his end hee fell head-long burst asunder in the midst and all his bowells gushed out Death had stung him and the sting made him swell so that his tumour being great the world could not hold him and for hast that hee might the sooner bee at his owne place he betrayed himselfe into the hands of Satan was his owne executioner There 's a time when stoutest sinners shall burst asunder under the hand of austeerest Justice If the Lord's love makes not breaches on mans Spirit drawes him not up towards Heaven his wrath will breake it beat it even to powder and cast it downe into the lowest Hell O sinners Learne then while a Saviour teaches what an evill sinne is Secondly the sudainnesse of an Heb. 4. 27. approaching Judgement After death comes Judgement and what 's the Judgement Christ-lesse man or woman I have sad newes for thee thou thy selfe and all thou art must bee presented before a Holy most Just and mighty God And with thee shalt thou bring all thy vaine thoughts will thou nill thou idle words uncleane and sinfull workes mispent time and Talents In a word all the secrets of thy heart shall then bee torne in pieces reveal'd and unfolded yea those secrets which no eye hath seen but his which is ten thousand times brighter then the Sunne yea even those secret sinnes which have been cover'd here by restraint from God or men shall be uncover'd there so that thou wilt bee fill'd with astonishment to see that which thine eies never did nor ever would behold There the hearts closest corners darkest depths shall then bee laid open made visible before the face of God Christ Angels and men A meere discourse of Righteousnesse and Judgement to come God being in it and Foelix hearning of it what effects did it worke in him thinke you why the Text tells you it made him to tremble and to bid Paul be gone hee could not endure to heare on 't So Belshazzar Dan. 5. 5 6. saw but the writing of Judgement upon the wall which did but import a temporall scourge And his countenance was changed his thoughts troubl'd him so that the joynts of his Ioines were loosed and his knees smote one against another And what 's any carnall man more then sensuall Belshazzar or carnall Foelix that he should thinke himselfe secure from Judgement You then that put this evill day farre from you beare in mind this thing A sonne of Love could not indure that hee prayed Enter not into Judgement with thy servant ô Lord How then can a child of wrath abide it who is by nature nothing else It 's called in Scripture the day of the Lord his great day his terrible day 'T is the day of Christs's comming Ioel. 2. 11. saith the Prophet Malachie And who shall stand when Mal. 3. 2. he appeareth for he is like a Refiners fire and fullers sope Thus you have seen things that imbitter the change to some even all that know not Christ and obey not his Gospel Thirdly the certaine standing before an impartiall Judge of quick and dead who cannot will not connive at sinne and sinners When all flesh shall appeare before the Judgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things 2 Cor. 5. 10 11. done in his bodie according to that he hath done whether it bee good or evill knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord We perswade men saith the Apostle Oh! how terribly intollerable are the thoughts of this surely words cannot utter it then he who said Lord depart from me I le have none of thy wayes shall find that God ha's said Amen to his prayers Adde to this that though he stand to be judged yet hee shall fall in the Judgement For the ungodly shall not stand in the Judgement as the Psal 1. 5. Psalmist notes You then whose destruction is of your selves if your precious soules miscarrie Consider sensibly in whom your helpe lies make out towards a Jesus betime for there 's no mercie shewed on the other side the grave one drop of water which is but a verie small thing if mis'd and desir'd cannot be obtain'd Then if ever you 'le owne free grace and fellowship with Christ Doe it now even while 't is called Heb. 4. 11. to day heare his voice and harden not your hearts for this day let slip you may ne'r have another Resisting sinners I wish you well my bowells are troubled for you oh pitie your selves and let not sinlive to kill your soules as it hath serv'd others who are gone to their owne place Remember and forget not Jerusalems fall and follie least sweet Christ hide the day of
a world of love ha's been and is stor'd up in his blessed brest for them they shall see the perfection of all his mercies and compassions towards them and in the Sonne you shall see the Father and how little cause you have had in this world to say will God be mercifull no more ha's he forgotten to be gracious ha's he shut up his loving kindnesse in displeasure how little reason can bee render'd for such despaire there 's nothing in God and Christ that 's communicable to the creature which shall bee hid from thee thou precious child of a precious Father thou shalt know as thou art knowne this is to see Christ cleerely this is a glorious vision but 't is not had till you have entered the heavenly Canaan Secondly Christ lookes on a poore Soule that he may fall in love with it Christians how doe you serve Christ doe you set your eyes hearts and hands on Jesus Christ that you may shew your love to him lay fast hold on him and with Jacob not let him stirre from you till hee ha's blessed you with right-hand favours How stands your hearts towards Christ Are you well affected towards him do's looking breed liking and liking longing in your brests and spirits after much of him Let me tell you if your sight be right which you have of him 't will serve you so the more you see him the better you like and long for his societie And now distressed soules whom sinne and the Serpent ha's stung behold a Jesus looke up to the author of grace and healing what will you die in your sinnes and be damned for ever rather then that the Lord Christ should worke his will upon you pluck your sins from you which are as your right hands and eyes unto you are you good at burning have mercie on your selves and precious soules and mind these things i For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First all heires of everlasting life longed to see Christ before their deaths and had their desires What made old Simeon desire to depart this world in peace but this He had seen Christ as well by faith as sense What put Paul into his two great straights a loathnesse to die and a loathnesse to live a desire to die and a desire not to die but this Hee had seen much of Christ Me thinkes I should heare you say of Christ as Jacob of his Joseph 't is enough my sonne 's yet alive Gon. 45. ult I 'le goe and see him before I die Seekers of Christ what thoughts have you what words fall from you concerning this thing your Saviour's alive will live for ever and doe not you long to see him before you die If not your graves will be Sepulchres both to you and your comforts and you 'l lie downe in sorrow And prophane soules Let me tell you from the Lord 't is a miserable thing to see death before you have seen Jesus Christ To die Christlesse is to die a Godlesse gracelesse and heaven lesse wretch to make a worse end than bruits Unsanctified soules where is the sounding of your owne bowells for your owne welfare do's not thy heart quake and all thy parts shake to thinke of the slighting of a Jesus and of trampling under foot his most precious bloud It had been better for thee thou hadst ne'r had being then not to have a well being in the Lord Christ Will you heare the language of a Christlesse man at the Judgement-day 't is this Mountaines and rocks fall upon me and hide me from the face of him that sits upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. All such mens Joyes have a mar-mirth with them when such an one dies all dies with him his sinne being excepted which shall ever live in the memorie of the Lord of Hosts and give life to the parties owne miserie Secondly your necessitie call's for it k Ingens telum nâ—cessitas Liv. O quantum cogit egestas you must mind him for you want him necessitie is made a cause of minding somethings Christ tells of some that would not sup with him would not come at him and what thinke yee was the cause one had purchased ground and he must see to it Another had bought cattell and hee Lu. 14 18 20. must prove them A third had married a wife and hee could not come would be excused for necessitie made them all doe it Alas poore soules is it a fault to own a Christ accept of a Jesus a Saviour Is it an offence in your esteeme so to doe that ye would be excused for it Or is it a burthen that you beg to bee excused from it the Lord lay no other burthen on my owne soule then Jesus Christ his yoake and fellowship with my spirit But who can read without remorse of heart and moistned eyes the returne that Christ made to those unworthie persons and their unworthie sayings Not one of them Ver. 24. shall taste of my Supper Tender hearts do'st not trouble you to see faithlesse men so much their owne foes as not to taste of Christ's Supper And incorrigible sinners Doe you know and feele the weight of this censure sentence 't is not to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God 't is not to have the least mouthfull of hidden Manna not to have any thing to doe with the bread of God and food of soules 't is to have all wants and no supplies to be wretched poore blind and naked and yet not in the way to receive one mercie See you not what 't is then to supply the wants of an outward man by increasing the wants of an inward Does necessitie cause an abounding man to have a worldly mind ô what necessities like those of the soule what wants are more piercing distressing and vexing then inward wants I tell thee no mortall wants ought so much as immortallitie you have need of him for Wisdome righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption that in all your services hee may pray in you pray and plead for you to your heavenly Father worke in you and worke for you his owne blessed will and worke and to present you and what 's yours blamelesse before his Fathers presence in life death and at the Judgement day Consider Doe not stormes drive men into a harbour and doe not Warres constraine men into strong Castles and holds oh then Let wants drive thee unto a Christ and let him drowne thy selfe in himselfe who 's the ocean of supplies Thirdly a right sight of Christ gives a right sight of selfe and selfes estate men ne'r see themselves so well as when they most see Jesus Christ Christians You may see in Christ what you have been are and shall be What you have been First what excellent creatures yee were when yee stood in your first Parents how exquisite that righteousnesse and holinesse was in which you were first made after the Lords owne
have in each other so the good things of Christ and glory being conjoyn'd with us doe make them our owne O glory glory thou art sought of many after a sort but enjoy'd only of a few that seek thee rightly Augustine reckons up no lesse then 288. opinions of severall learned Philosophers about happiness some placing it in one thing some in another thing being every one different in their conceits opposing what each other held And yet they did but beate the aire and were in a Labrinth not being able to get out Surely if naturall parts and helpes of nature could fathom the depths of such a glory such great witts might have accomplished it But 't is only the gracious that can tell what 't is to be glorious Now let all who expect to be and doe so well as they should in life and death and after the Judgement premize these things of weight and worth and consider their Pondus sincerely Oh! who minding these things can have the heart to harme themselves with making Idolls of inferiour things and placing soules happinesse in outward enjoyments and ne're advance further or rise higher I Remember a saying of a Philosopher who seing great possessions which hee had lost spake thus Had not these things perisht I could not have been safe So great an obstruction is the cleaving to these outward Non essem ego salvus nisi istae perjissent Anaxagoras things unto the wellfare of the inner man Good Lord what fooles are men that seeke so much for a portion in the Creatures and so little for an Interest in thee If thy love bee beter then life then thy dislike is more bitter then death What then 's thy fury These things marre the taste of worldly treasure First that both in the getting and also in the keeping of such things a man 's always prone to offend his God And who would live to injure his God vexe his spirit staine his nature and procure his displeasure yet all this moves not ungodly men to seek for a Jesus Secondly a man 's still subject to be displeas'd by the Lord. Men are usually cross'd every moment and every day hath it's evill both of sinne and punishment sometimes wee are Matth. 6. ult cross'd in things wee most like A man sets not his love largely on a Wife Childe Friend or pleasant and pleasing thing but ordinarily 't is taken from him or else hee'◠tooke from them At other times a man desires things not attaineable which is a very great but a secret vexation And is not all time laid out in bewailing what 's past a loathing what wee have tasted and a longing for what we have not tasted which were it had would no more fil us then this we have already We alas are like men sea-sicke who shift from roome to roome to finde ease but whilst the winds arise and the waters swell humours are but stirr'd not taken away And oft times wee waite for better dayes but they are hid from our eyes Thus we are catch'd like birds in a snare yet skip up and down as if nothing ail'd us And which is worse the joyes of Gods presence are for the greatest part kept from us here which made Monica the Mother of Austin crie out Quid hic faciemus cur non ocyus migtamus Cur non hinc avolamus heartily What doe wee here why depart we not swifter why slye wee not hence Thirdly outward things are not as they seeme and are esteem'd they have indeed a glorious shewes and are admired but inspice ea view their insides and you will finde that they fill the head with cares and the heart with vexation 'T was a good speech of an Emperour whatsoever hee himselfe was you said hee gaze on my purple Robe and Golden Crown but did you know what cares are under it you would not take it up from the ground to have it Fourthly Heavenly or earthly advancement is not in them To Heaven they helpe not for riches availe not in the day of wrath Advance on Earth they shall not for 't is the Lords prerogative onely to doe that for men Promotion commeth neither Psalm 75. 6 7 from the East nor from the West nor from the South but God's the Judge he pulleth downe one and setteth up another as the Prophet speaks Fifthly they are unsuitable to the nature of a soule and her sublimitie And can you thinke that the Lord brought us into the World only to accommodate the Carkasse with things suitable thereunto The soule must have a bonum congruum ere shee can bee glorious or begin to bee so But these things accord not with her For is not the soul of an immortal nature then how can dying things nourish refresh a living soul shee cannot get or make a living out of all seen things i' th world nor can shee live to her liking on sweetest huskes that be here Shee 's but hospes corporis and that may please the Host which cannot please or pleasure the Guest and that may fat the carkasse which starves the soule A man may have the desires of his heart in these things and still retaine leanenesse in his soul Wofull experience proves it to be true in some Besides good things of this life are but particular can only supply particular wants but the desires of the soule are universall after good and all good God is all good to the renewed soule Oh then let 's not pursue the creature Tanquam haec sit nostri medicina doloris so as though that would cure our maladies heal our miseries and bring us to glory And now wretched sinners be perswaded lay not out strength time on that which is not bread and on that which satisfieth not neither kill your selves and souls carelesly but walke in the wayes of the Lord for he meeteth every one that worketh righteousnesse and remembreth him in his ways Be no longer your owne foes to enjoy the pleasures of sinne for a season with the losse of the Pleasures and Treasures of Heaven for ever and let God become your friend who can stand you in stead in the evill day Consider hee 's such a friend as is both wealthy and helpfull If a poor man hath a rich friend and one that 's helpfull too then his heart is eas'd A Courtier in the Court of King Cyrus being upbraided with the meanenesse of his estate replyed thus What need I care 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyrus is my frend When a man is sanctified and in Gods favour ha's not hee much more cause to say so of God When hee wants let him say God 's my friend when Satan sin and the world play the part of enemies say wel but God is mine and all Saints in all places may crye out Emanuel oh how great a consolation is this Besides hee 's alwayes one and the same to a return'd backslider he 's a friend in adversity such an one is worth the prizing he 'l be in trouble with his as well as in peace and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he said where God is ther 's heaven If a man goes to prison and God goes thither with him and stayes there by him hee then enjoyes a Heaven Oh then prize him prize him for every one prizeth something and some things that are worth nothing Let Christians then much more prize him who 's more then all things worth more then all things for no man was ever curs'd that had him nor was ever any blessed without him Soli Sapienti Deo Gloria FINIS