immortality to this day death could never have carried man out of the world had not man first let sin into the world Rom. 5.12 ult Secondly If you compare the life of man to the long lives of the Patriarchs before the stood then the life of man is but short threescore years and ten is mans age Psal 90.10 And where one man lives to this age how many thousands die before they come to it But what is this age to the age that men lived to in former times Enoch lived as many yeers as there be days in the year and Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years and Methuselah lived nine hundred sixty and nine years Gen. 5. Now what were Platoes eighty years or Thomas Pars 160. years or Johannes de Temporibus John of the times three hundred threescore and one years to the long lives of the Patriarchs and though in Davids time old age and seventy often shook hands yet 't is otherwise in our times for as mens wickedness do more and more increase so their days do more and more decrease the more wicked any generation is the shorter liv'd that generation shall be God will quickly dispatch them out of the world who make quick dispatches in ways of wickedness Thirdly The life of man is but short if you compare it to what it shall be after the morning of the Resurrection O then mans day shall reach to eternity eternity is that unum perpetuum hodie one perpetual day that shall never have end when men after the resurrection begin to live they shall never dye after that day every man shall live in everlasting bliss or in everlasting wo when the last Trumpet has sounded man shall live for ever and ever Fourthly The life of man is but short if you compare it with the days of God Psal 39.5 Mine age is nothing before him all time is nothing to eternity mans life is but a minute 't is but a point of time to the days of eternity what head what heart can conceive or reckon up the duration of God who ever was who still is and who ever will be every child and every fool can tell you their age but what man on earth or what Angel in heaven can tell you the years of the Most High surely none Fifthly and lastly the life of man is but short if you compare it with the lives of other creatures some say that 't is neither age nor sickness that killeth the Eagle she casteth her feathers yearly and so gets new whereby her youth strength is renewed Pliny August Calvin Psal 103.5 by which means she will live till she be an hundred years old she dies not till her upper Bill be so grown over her under that she cannot take in her meat and so at last she is staryed And some Elephants live three hundred years witness Aelian Solinus and Strabo c. by all which you see the brevity of mans life And why then should man be so weak so vain as to put the day of his death so far from him I have read of the Birds of Norway that they flye faster then the fowls of any other Country they knowing by an instinct that God has put into them that the days in that Climate are very short not above three hours long say some do therefore make the more haste to their nests And O! that all that hear me this day would learn by these birds of Norway to make haste to believe and to make haste to repent and to make haste to love God and to make haste to be holy c. seeing their day of life is so short and their night of death is posting towards them And as the life of man is very short so 't is very considerable that a very small matter a very little thing may quickly put an end to mans life When the Emperor threatned the Philosopher with death he replyed Conrad Ves perg Nancler Jo. Boel in Adrian Paulus Jovius Elog. lib. 2. what is that more then a Spanish flie may do An ordinary flye flying casually into the mouth of the proud Pope Adrian stifled him that made the highest state then in the Christian world stoop even to the holding of his stirrop Tamberlain a Scythian Captain the terror of his time died with three fits of an Ague Anacreon the Poet was choaked with the kernel of a Grape Aeschylus was killed by the shell of a Tortoise which fell from an Eagles Talons who as some conceive took his bald head for a white rock The Lord Mountaigne tells us of a Duke of Britany that was stifled to death in such a throng of people as is in some great congregations on the Lords day An Emperor died by the scratch of a Comb and one of the Kings of France died by the chock of an Hogg and one that was brother to a great Lord playing at Tennis received a blow with a ball a little above the right ear which struck him into his grave There is nothing so small but may be a mans bane The paring of a Toe the cutting off a corn the scratch of a nail the prick of a pin a fish-bone a hair a drop of water a crum of bread a bad air or an evil smell may bring a man to his long home yea a little smoak may soon stifle him or his own spittle let down unwarily may suddenly choak him And O! that all that I have spoken upon this account might be so blest as to work you to take heed of putting the day of your death so far from you The evil servant when he thought his Master was gone afar off Luke 12.45 then he layes about him distempers himself Prov. 7.19 20. and beats his fellow-servants And so the leud woman in the Proverbs when the good man was gone a long journey when he was far from home then she grew wanton vain and secure so when men put afar off the day of their death then they grow more loose prophane and unholy whereas a serious and frequent eying and minding of death as at hand as at a mans elbow would alarm a man to break off his sins by repentance and to labor for holiness as a man would labor for life it self I have read of the women in the Isle of Man that the first Web they make is their winding sheet wherwith they usually gird themselves when they go abroad to shew that they are still mindful of their mortality Ah friends a constant minding of your mortality would contribute very much towards the making of you holy He that daily looks upon death will be daily a looking after holiness the oftener any man looks into the grave the oftener that man will be looking up to heaven and a begging that God would make him holy even as he is holy But Sixthly and lastly Take heed of settling your selves under a leud and scandalous Ministry or of having any inwardness with
be the Herald of his honor Psal 7.15 16. He made a pit and digged it Histories would furnish us with many hundred instances of this nature and is fallen into the ditch which he hath made His mischief shall return upon his own head and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate The wicked shall be undone by their own doings all the Arrows that they shoot at the righteous shall fall upon their own pates Maxentius built a false bridge to drown Constantine but was drowned himself Henry the third of France was stabbed in the very same Chambe where he had help't to contrive the cruel Massacre of the French Protestants And his brother Charles the ninth who delighted in the blood of the Saints had blood given him to drink for he was worthy Afterwards he was made Lord Cobham Soon after Thomas Arundel Arch-bishop of Canterbury had condemned Sir John Oldcastle a godly Knight it pleased the Lord to strike the Arch-bishop so in his tongue that he could neither swallow down any food nor speak a word before his death and so he was starved to death The Duke of Somerset in King Edward the sixth's days by consenting to his brothers death made way for his own by the same Ax and hand that beheaded his brother 'T is usuall with God to take persecutors in the snares and pits that they have laid for his people as many thousands in this Nation have experienced and though Rome her confederates are this day a laying of snares and traps and a digging of pits for the righteous who will rather burn then bow to their Baal yet do but wait and weep and weep and wait a little and you shall see that the Lord will take them in the very snares and pits that they have laid and digged for his people But Sixthly and Lastly God sometimes preserves his people from persecuting hands by providing Cities of refuge to shelter them and by providing hiding places to hide them in Mat. 10.23 If they persecute you in one city flye to another God has always found one City of refuge or another to shelter his persecuted people in And so when bloody persecuting Jezebel had cut off many of the Lords Prophets God provided an Obadiah to hide an hundred of them by Fifty in a Cave 1 Kin. 18.4.13 The Learned judge that there were several others in Israel that kept other Prophets of the Lord from Jezabels fury besides those that Obadiah hid Three years before Titus Vespasian besieged Jerusalem there was a voice frequently heard go up to Pella go up to Pella which very many of the Jews did and were saved God never wants a Chamber of presence a chamber of providence a chamber of protection a chamber of salvation to hide his people in Isa 26.20 I have read of one that in the time of the Massacre at Paris crept into a hole to hide himself and as soon as he was in there came a spider and weaved a Web before the hole the next morning the murderers came to search for him search in that hole said one and see if he be not there O no said another he can't be there for there is a Cob-web at the holes mouth upon which they did not suspect his being there by which means he was preserved from the rage and fury of those men of blood Constantius the Emperor promised a reward to those Captains or Souldiers that should bring Atharasius head to him but God hid him in a pit and fed him there a long time by the hand of a friend but being at last discovered by a Maid-servant the very night before his adversaries search't for him the providence of God opened away for his escape and sent him into the West by which means he was preserved from the rage and fury of his adversaries I think no men under heaven have had larger experience of this truth then English men Ah what Cities of refuge what hiding places has God provided for them to hide them from the wrath and rage of their persecutors for many years And thus I have given you a brief account of some of those ways which God takes to deliver his people out of persecuting hands But Quisquis volens detrahit famae meae nolens addit mercidi meae saith Augustin Twelfthly and lastly I answer That all the persecutions that you meet with on earth shall advance your glory in heaven the more Saints are persecuted on earth the greater shall be their reward in heaven as persecutions do increase a Christians grace so they do advance a Christians glory Mat. 5.10 11 12. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you Luk. 6.22 23. Blessed are ye when men shall hate you and when they shall separate you from their company and shall reproach you and * Excommunicate and Anathematize you as notorious shameful and abominable offenders cast out your name as evil for the son of mans sake Rejoyce ye in that day and leap for joy for behold your reward is in heaven for in the like manner did their fathers unto the Prophets They that are now opposed and persecuted by men shall at last be owned and crowned by God yea and the more afflictions and persecutions are multiplyed upon them in this world the greater shall be their recompence in another woâ—ld The Original words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Matthew and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Luke signifies exceeding great joy such as men usually express by skipping and dancing let your hearts leap and let your bodies leap for joy for great is your reward in heaven Look as wanton young cattle in the Spring when every thing is in its prime and pride do use to leap and skip for joy so says Christ do you leap and skip under all the afflictions and persecutions that befalls you for righteousness sake for great is your reward in heaven Bernard speaking of persecutors saith That they are but his Fathers Goldsmiths who are working to add Pearls to the Saints Crowns It is to my loss said Gordius the Martyr if you abate me any thing of my present sufferings sufferings for Christ are the Saints greatest glory they are those things wherein they have divinely glorified Crudelitas vestra gloria nostra your cruelty is our glory say they in Tertullian and the harder we are put to it the greater shall be our reward in heaven Chrysostom hit the nail when he said if one man should suffer all the sorrows of all the Saints in the world yet they are not worth one hours glory in heaven By the consent of the Schoolmen all the Martyrs shall appear
Colonus the Dutch Martyr called to the Judge that had sentenced him to death and desired him to lay his hand upon his heart and then asked him whose heart did most beate his or the Judges here was a man of an heroick spirit indeed Basil was a man of great holiness and a man of a most masculine and couragious spirit when the Emperour sent to him to subscribe to the Aarian heresie to engage him Hist Tripart lib. 7. cap 36. promised him great preferment to which he replyed Alas these speeches are fit to catch little children withall that look after such things but we that are nourished and taught by the holy Scriptures are readier to suffer a thousand deaths then to suffer one syllable or tittle of the Scripture to be altered And when the Emperour threatned him with imprisonment banishment death he answered Let him threaten boyes with such Fraybugs as for my part I am resolved that neither menaces nor flatteries shall silence me or draw me to betray a good Cause or a good Conscience Charles the ninth king of France The History of France in the yeare 1572. who had a deep hand in that barbarous and bloody Massacre of many thousands of the Saints in France soone after that horrid tragical and perfidious slaughter was over he called the Prince of Conde proposed to him these three things Either to go to Mass or to die presently or to suffer perpetual imprisonment To which he returned this noble bold and heroick answer viz. That by Gods help he would never chuse the first and for either of the other two he left to the kings pleasure and Gods providence John Duke of Saxony was eminent in Christianity and he did heroically assert and maintaine the cause of God against all opposition in three Imperial Assemblies And when it was told him that he should lose the favour of the Pope and the Emperour and all the world besides if he stuck so fast to the Lutheran cause to which he gave this noble answer Here are two ways said he I must serve God or the world which of these do you think is the better and so put them off with this pleasant indignation and when the States of the Empire forbid all Lutheran Sermons he presently prepared to be gone and professed boldly that he would not stay there where he might not have liberty to serve God And thus you see by all these famous instances that the more eminent any persons are in holiness the more bold resolute couragious and heroical they will be for God for the things of God and therefore as ever you would be men of high courage and resolution for God labour to be high in holiness Such men who in all Ages have been eminent in holiness have been like Shammah one of Davids Worthies who stood and defended the field when all the rest fled But Twelfthly To provoke you to labour after higher degrees of holiness Consider that the more holiness any man attains to the more serviceable and usefull he will be in his Generation David was a man eminent in holiness and as eminently serviceable in his Generation Acts 13.36 For David after he had served his own Generation by the will of God fell on sleep and was laid unto his fathers and saw corruption Men that have but a little Stock of holiness will be but a little serviceable in their Generation but men that have a great Stock of holiness will be greatly serviceable in their Generation men that have but little Farms little Stocks are but a little serviceable to their Countrey but men that have great Farmes and large Stocks and rich revenues are greatly serviceable to their Countrey What a world of good sometimes do's one Rich man doe in a Towne a City a Countrey So one Saint that is rich in grace and holiness O what a world of good do's he do to all that are round about him Merchants that have great Stocks trade to the East and West Indies and so inrich their Countrey when as those that have but weak estates can only Barter with their neighbours at home and so are instruments but of little publike good A Candle inlightens the Roome but the Sun inlightens the whole world the more holiness any man has the more meete for publike use that man will be As there was none so holy as Christ 2 Tim. 2.21 Acts 10.38 so there was none of so publike a spirit as Christ he went up and downe doing good he laid out himselfe and he laid downe himselfe for publike good he healed others but was hurt himselfe he filled others but was hungry himself A man that is eminent in holiness will be of his minde who was rather willing to beautifie Italy then his own house Num. 14.11 12 13 14 19 20. Moses was a man of great holiness and of famous use in his Generation ah how often did he turne away the fierce anger and indignation of God from sinful Israel Deut. 9.14 Psal 106.23 and O the famous deliverances and glorious salvations that God brought about by his hand Nehemiah Nehe. 5.14 ult was a very holy man and he laid out himselfe and his great estate for publike service Mordecai was a very pious man Esth 4. vide a man famously serviceable in his Generation Esth 10.3 For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus and great among the Jews accepted of the multitude of his brethren seeking the wealth of his people and speaking peace to all his seed King Jehosaphat and Joshuah were men of eminent holiness and of singular use and service in their Generation men that have no holiness others that have but a little holiness will be still a carrying on a private interest of honor or profit or friends or Relations and this we have seen evident amongst us in these latter dayes therefore as ever you would be eminently serviceable in your Generation labor after an eminency in holiness But Thirteenthly To provoke you to labor after higher degrees of holiness consider that the greatest degrees of holiness are usually attended wirh the highest degrees of honor 2 Cor. 3.18 Grace is called glory and the greatest measures of Grace are commonly crowned with the greatest degrees of glory Eph. 5.27 Abraham was a man eminent in Grace and holiness and he was highly in honor among the people Gen. 23.6 Hear us my Lord thou art a mighty Prince amongst us Or as the Hebrew has it thou art a Prince of God amongst us that is thou art a notable Prince thou art an excellent Prince for so the Hebrews speak of all things that are notable and excellent Job Job 1.1 2. was a man that had attained to a very high degree of holiness and he was highly honored among the people Job 29.25 I chose out their way and sat chief and dwelt as a king in the Army in all weighty
to make his prison so strong and thousands to thousands and is not rich towards God This age is full of such golden fools who pamper their bodies but starve their souls who trick and trim up their bodies with Gold Silver and Silks whilst their souls are naked and ragged and destitute of all grace and goodness The Jews have a story of a foolish woman that took two children to nurse the one very mean deformed crooked blind and not likely to live long the other a goodly lively lovely beautifull child and likely to live long now this foolish woman spent all her pains care diligence and attendance upon the worst child never so much as minding or regarding the best child this age is full of such foolish men and women who having two to nurse their bodies and their souls spend their time their care labour and pains in making provision for the flesh in laying up for their bodies and in the mean while never regard their souls never look after their souls though they have the beauty of a Deity upon them and though they are immortal and capable of union and communion with God in grace and of a blessed fruition of God in glory Surely no fools to these fools Seventhly The sharpest and severest course you can take cannot separate between a fool and his folly Notwithstanding all your frowns threats checks knocks c. A fool will not leave his folly nay you shall sooner beat a fool to death then you shall beat him off from his folly Prov. 27.22 Solomon in this place alludeth to one kind of grinding which in old time the people were accustomed to which was to put their parched corn into a morter and to beat it unto powder Though thou shouldst bray a fool in a morter among wheat with a pestell yet will not his foolishness depart from him The husk doth not stick so close to the grain of corn as folly doth to the heart of a fool there is a possibility of severing the husk from the flower by beating but there is no possibility of severing a fool from his folly You see it in Pharaoh who though he was often in Gods morter yet he could not be severed from his folly nay he did chuse rather to be beaten to death and to see his friends relations favourites followers subjects and souldiers with their first born beaten to death before his eyes rather the he would leave his folly And such a fool was King Ahaz who when God had him in the morter and threatned to beat him and his people to death yet then in his distress he sinned more against the Lord 2 Chron. 28.22 and therefore for his obstinacy obdurateness and irreclaimableness he is branded and mark't with a black coal by the Lord to all posterity They were like those Bears in Pliny that could not be stirred with the sharpest prickles This is that King Ahaz And such spiritual fools are all ungodly persons let God frown chide strike reprove correct yet they will not turn from the evil of their doings they will rather be consumed and destroyed then they will be amended or reformed Jer. 5.3 O Lord are not thine eyes upon the truth thou hast stricken them but they have not grieved thou hast consumed them but they have refused to receive correction See Ez. 22.18 Jer. 2.30 31. Ch. 19. ult Amos 4.4.13 Isa 26.10 11. 2 Pet. 2.22 they have made their faces harder then a rock they have refused to return no smart nor grief no calamities nor miseries can turn obstinate fools from their impieties Jer. 6.29 The bellows are burnt the lead is consumed of the fire the Founder melteth in vain or in vain melting melteth he trying tryeth he for the wicked are not plucked away All the cost and charge that God hath been at all the pains and labour that he hath taken to sever these wicked ones from their wickedness was lost they would not be refined nor reformed After Gods greatest severity a spiritual fool will return to his iniquity Prov. 26.11 As a dog returneth to his vomit so a fool returneth to his folly or iterateth his folly It is true the comparison is homely but good enough for those fools to whom it is applyed Spiritual fools sometimes vomit up their sins when they are under terrors of conscience or under the afflicting hand of God or upon a dying bed but still retain a disposition and purpose to return to them again As some say the Serpent vomits up his poyson when he goes to drink and then takes it in again Foolish souls say to their lusts as Abraham to his servants Gen. 22.5 Abide you here and I will go yonder and come again to you Whatever becomes of their souls they are resolved to keep close to their sins Isa 1.5 And as Aesops foolish fishes leaped out of the warm water into the burning fire for ease So these poor fools will rather adventure a burning in hell then they will attempt a turning from their folly Eighthly Natural fools make the simplest and unhappiest exchanges they will exchange a pearl for a Pippin The foolish Indians prefer every toy and trifle above their mines of Gold things of greatest worth and value for a feather a ribbon a toy a trifle a house to live in for a house of clay or a house of Cards and like Glaucus a foolish Captain who changed with Diomedes his Armour of Gold for Dioemedes his armour of brass All unholy persons are spiritual fools they will exchange spirituals for carnals and eternals for temporals they will exchange God Christ the Gospel heaven and their souls for a lust for the world nay for a little of the worlds smiles pleasures or profits Mat. 16.26 and well may he lay claim to a Boat-swains place in Barkleys ship of fools that will exchange his soul and his soul concernments for the toyes and trifles of this world Now do you think that God who hath within himself all the wisdom of Angels of men and universal nature that he who hath all glory all dignity all riches all treasures all pleasures all comforts all delights all joyes all beatitudes in himself That that God who is a super-substantial substance and understanding not to be understood a word never to be spoken Dionys Areop de divin nom cap. 1. that he will have everlasting fellowship and communion with fools that a God whose wisdom is infinite and unsearchable will ever debase himself so as to have his royal Pallace filled with fools as to make those his companions in heaven that he can take no pleasure in on earth Eccles 5.4 he hath no pleasure in fools The wise God would not have his children keep company with fools Prov. 14.7 Go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge and will he keep company with them himself Surely no. God hath given it under his own hand that such
written in a small Ring I have read of godly Mr. Buchanan that was King James his Tutor who lying upon his dying bed desired a Noble man then with him to tell the King that his old Master Buchanan was going to a place where few Kings come Kings are as rare meat in heaven as venison is in poor mens kitchins saith the Dutch Proverb And how few among the wise can you find that are wise for heaven that are wise for their souls that are wise for eternity And how few among the learned can you find that have learned Christ and learned their own hearts and learned to deny themselves and learned to save their own souls and others By all which it is most evident that few are holy and that few shall be happy But Secondly and more particularly Is it so that real holiness is the only way to happiness and that without holiness here no man shall ever come to a blessed vision or fruition of God hereafter Then this may serve to convince several sorts of persons of their wofull and miserable conditions As First All prophane persons who give up themselves to wickedness Job 21.14 2 Pet. 2.20 ult Isa 66.3 Ephes 4.19 Isaiah 5.19 Ierem. 9.5 who wallow in all ungodliness and delight themselves in all manner of filthiness who commit wickedness with greediness who draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart-rope who weary themselves to commit iniquity who are so desperately set upon wickedness that neither the rod of God the lashes and checks of their own consciences nor the flashes of hell upon their souls can reduce them who are resolved that they will gratifie their lusts though they damn their souls and who will live wickedly though they perish eternally Who by custom in sin have destroyed all conscience of sin and contracted such desperate hardness upon their own hearts as neither smiles nor frowns promises nor threatnings life nor death heaven nor hell ministery nor misery miracle nor mercy can possibly mollifie them these are grown from naught to be very naught from very naught to be stark naught these souls are sadly left of God and wofully blinded by Satan and fully ripened for ruine Now if without holiness no man shall see the Lord what will become of all prophane wretches who are so far from being holy that they fall short of common honesty Certainly God will shut the gates of glory upon such workers of iniquity Such prophane Esaus shall never be blest with a sight of God in glory Matth. 7.22 A wicked man is a sin lover he is a sin maker he lives in sin upon choice Psalm 11.5 1 John 3.8 the Hebrew word that is commonly used for a wicked man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies a laborious sinner a practitioner in sin now such as these are God will have nothing to do with Job 8.20 Behold God will not cast away a perfect man neither will he help the evil doers or rather as the Hebrew carries it he will not take the ungodly by the hand that is he will not have any fellowship any society any familiarity with the ungodly the holy God will not so much as take an ununholy soul by the hand he will not in the least countenance him nor respect him he will not welcome him nor entertain him nor shew the least favour to him Now certainly if God will not take the wicked by the hand he will never take them into heaven he will never take them into his bosome God will have no commerce nor communion with those to whom he will not so much as lend a hand God will wash his hands of them for ever to whom he will not give a hand Which made Austin say that he would not be a wicked man one half hour for all the world because he might die in that half hour God will wash his hands of every man that lives and dies a wicked man Mat 25.11.12 The hearts and ways of wicked menare full of hells and therefore to fill heaven with such would be to fill heaven with hells Secondly This truth may serve to convince those that are scoffers and mockers at holiness of their wofull and miserable estate Holiness is so high and so noble a thing 2 Pet. 3.3 Jude 18. that men should rather honour it then deride it reverence it then reproach it they should rather set a crown of glory then a crown of thorns upon the head of it Holiness is the glorious Image of God fairly stampt upon the foul and to deride holiness is to deride God himself God takes all the affronts that are done to his Image as done to himself and this scoffers shall know at last to their eternal wo. As Suetonius reports it was If it was such a hainous crime in Tiberius his dayes to carry the Image of Augustus upon a Ring or Coin into any sordid place Ah how hainous a crime is it then to cast dirt and filth scorn and reproach upun holiness which is the Image of the invisible God! The despite and contempt that is done to the Image or coin of a Prince is done to the Prince himself and accordingly he will revenge it In old Rome there were near as many Statues as there were living people and some were made of Gold some of Silver some of Brass some of Ivory and some of polished Marble And there was an Earl appointed whose office it was continually to walk up and down in the night attended with many souldiers to see that none did wrong the Statues of those that were set up in the City Lipsius de Mag. Rom. Imperii and if any such were found that had done wrong to any of the Statues they were put to death Holiness is the Statue of God and such as shall dare to deface it and wrong it God will destroy Gen. 9 22.25 Ch 21.9.15 The Apostle interprets Ismaels mocking to be persecution Gal. 4 27. 2 Kings 2.23 24. 2 Chr. 30.10 Ch. 36.15.21 2 Kings 19.20 ult The old world scofft and scornd at righteousness and God sweeps them away with a flood C ham mock't and scoff't at Righteous Noah and what did he get by it but a curse Ismael scoff't at holy Isaac and what did he get by his scoffing and mocking but ejection out of Abrahams family And what became of those two and forty young scoffers that scoffed and mocked at holy Elisha were they not cursed in the name of the Lord and torn in pieces by two She bears which were more fierce and cruel then others The Jews were much given up to scoffing and mocking of the messengers of the Lord till there was no remedy till old and young were destroyed by the sword of the Caldees till their Temple and City were fired and sacked and thirty of them sold for a penny c. and those that escaped the sword were captivated and enslaved Senacherib scoffed and
as I live saith the Lord God they shall deliver neither son nor daughter they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness Saints may prevail with God for themselves when they cannot prevail with him for others These three Noah Daniel and Job were very holy men they had great interest in God and were very prevalent with God But the Decree being gone forth they could not prevail with God for others yet their righteousness should be their own preservation safety and security in dayes of calamity and misery So in Isa 33.15 16. He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly he that despiseth the gain of oppressions that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood and shutteth his eyes from seeing of evil He shall dwell on high his place of defence shall be the munition of rocks bread shall be given him his waters shall be sure Let us dive a little into this admirable promise He shall dwell on high but rather as the Hebrew hath it He shall dwell on hights if the holy man were among his enemies he might be in danger but he shall dwell on hights on many hights and many ascents he shall be out of harms way out of Gun-shot he shall be above the reach of danger O! but his enemies may raise up mounts and so get as high as he is Well grant that but yet they shall not hurt him for he is in a place of defence O! but though he be in a place of defence yet his defence is not so strong but it may be broken down and destroyed No not so for his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks many rocks and many munitions of rocks shall be the place of his defence and therefore his defence is impregnable and invincible O! but though his defence be munitions of rocks yet he may be famished he may be starved out for rocks are barren places and there is no plowing and sowing upon rocks No he shall not be starved nor famished out of his strong place of defence for bread shall be given him God will spread a Table for him O! but though he hath bread yet he may perish for want of water for he hath no faith skill nor power to fetch water out of a Rock Moses had not and he hath not and therefore he may be forced to deliver up his place of defence for water to quench his thirst as King Lysimachus and others have done no not so for he shall have water too O but his water may be spent his water will not alwaies last his Well as well as Hagars bottle may be dry his pipes may be cut off or the water that now supplies him may be turned another way No not so for his water shall be sure O! the safety and security of holy men Plutarch in the life of Alexander tells us that when he came to besiege the Sogdians a people who dwelt upon a Rock or such as had the munition of Rocks for their defence they jeered him and asked him whether his souldiers had wings or not for said they except your souldiers can fly in the air we fear you not Such is the safety of Gods holy ones that they need not to fear There are no ladders long enough to scale their place of defence nor no Artillery or Engine strong enough to batter down their munitions of Rocks There is an Apologue how the Dove made moan to her fellow birds of the tyrannie of the Hawk one counsels her to keep below but saith another The Hawk can stoop for his prey another advised her to soar aloft but saith another the Hawk can mount as high as she another wished her to shroud her self in the woods for there she should be secure but saith another alas there is the Hawks Mannour the place where he keeps Court another bids her keep the Town but saith another that is to become a prey to man but at last one bids her rest her self in the holes of the Rock and there she should certainly be safe for violence it self could not surprize her there and there she was safe Dove-like Saints they have their munitions of Rocks to fly to and there they shall be safe O Sirs there is no breast-plate to that of Righteousness there is no Armour of proof no munitions of Rocks to that of holinesse Heylin Cosm lib. 3. Noahs holinesse was an Ark to save him when Nimrods Tower of Babel which was raised five thousand one hundred forty six paces high could not secure him And therefore as you tender your own safety and security in times of trouble and calamity O labour to be holy Fourthly By holinesse you will gain deliverance from death in death Prov. 11.4 Riches profit not in the day of wrath but righteousness delivereth from death and Chap. 10.2 Treasures of wickedness profit nothing but righteousness delivereth from death Nugas the Scythian King despised the rich presents and ornaments that were sent unto him by the Emperour of Constantinople because they could not ward off sorow sickness diseases death Many Treasuries of the most precious Jewels that be in the world cannot ward off a blow a disease a sicknesse in the day of Gods wrath It is not the Crown of gold that can cure the head-ache nor the golden Scepter that can cure the Palsie hand nor the Neck-lase of Pearl that can cure the Aking teeth nor the Honourable Garter that can ease the Gowt nor the Purple Robe that can chase away the burning Feaver nor the Velvet Slipper that can heal the kibe-heel no more can Treasures of gold or silver deliver from wrath or help in a day of death O but Righteousnesse that delivers from death Look what the Sword the Shield the Helmet the Brest-plate the Coat of Mail is to the Souldier in the heat of battell that all that and more then that is righteousnesse to the righteous in the day of death Righteousnesse or holinesse of affection of action of life and conversation delivers from spiritual death and from eternal death yea it delivers from the evil the hurt the horror the terror the dread and the stinge of temporal death Piety delivers not only from the second death but also from all the evils and miseries of the first death too As the righteousnesse of the righteous will be a royal protection to him both against the day of wrath and the wrath of the day So the righteousnesse of the righteous will be a royal protection to him both against death and against all the evils of death Righteousnesse unstings death it takes away the venome the poyson and bitternesse of death It turns that curse into a blessing that punishment into a benefit that night of darknesse into a day of light that wildernesse into a Paradise that hell into a heaven Prov. 12.28 In the way of righteousnesse is life and in the path thereof there is no death In
to say with those in Ezekiel Behold they of the house of Israel say the vision that he seeth is for many days to come Amos 6.3 Ezek. 12.27 Luk. 12. and he prophesieth of the times that are afar off So the rich man in the Gospel reckoned upon many years when he had not many monthes no not many weeks no not many days no not many hours to live in this world Unholy persons are very apt to say to death as Pharaoh said to Moses Get thee from me Exod. 10.28 and let me see thy face no more When death knocks at the poor mans door he sends it to the rich mans gate and the rich man translates it to the Schollar and the Scholar posts it away to the Citizen and the Citizen to the Courtier and the Courtier to his Lady and his Lady to her Maid so death is posted away as it were from one to another every one crying out to death O let me not see thy face O let me not see thy face 'T was even a death to Queen Elizabeth Sigismund the Emperor Lewes the 11 of France Cardinal Beauford and others to think of death or to hear of death and therefore they strictly charged all their servants about them that when they saw them sick they should never dare to name that bitter word Death in their ears And Pashur can't cast his eye upon death but he is presently a Magor Missabib a terror to himself Jer. 20.3 And Saul though he was a valiant King yet at the news of death he falls on his face 1 Sam. 28.20 And so Belshazzar though he was a mighty Emperor Dan. 5.1 7. yet a letter to him from him whom Bildad calleth the King of terrors Job 18.14 Ah how does it amaze astonish affright and terrifie him and how many are there who with Mecaenas in Seneca had rather live in many diseases then die and with the most famous Heathens prefer the meanest life on earth above all the hopes they have of another world like Achilles who had rather be a servant to a poor country Clown here then to be a King to all the souls departed or like Withipoll a rich and wretched man who when he was in danger of death earnestly desired that he might live five hundred years Vitellius looking for the messenger of death made himself drunk to drown the the thoughts of it though it were but in the shape of a Toad Near Lewes in Sussex a woman being ill one of her neighbors coming to visit her told her that if she died she should go to heaven and be with God and Jesus Christ and with Angels and Saints the sick woman answered that she had no acquaintance there she knew no body there and therefore she had rather live with her and her other neighbors here then to go thither to live amongst strangers And thus you see how apt persons are to shrug at death which is a common lot and to say to it as Ephraim did to his Idols Get you hence what have we more to do with you but this is and must be for a lamentation that men put off the thoughts of their latter end to the latter end of their thoughts Man naturally is a great life-lover and therefore he will bleed sweat vomit purge part with an estate yea with a limb I limbs to preserve his life like him that cryed out O give me any deformity any torment any misery so you spare my life And upon this account 't is that he desires that such a guest as death may not knock at his door but Ah that all such vain men would consider that by putting the day of their death far from them they do but gratifie Satan strengthen their sins provoke the Lord and make the work of faith and holiness more hard and difficult and so lay a deep foundation for their own eternal destruction Well sirs remember this the serious thoughts and meditations of death if any thing will work you to break off your sins to mend your lives and to look to the salvation of your souls there is nothing that will sooner work a man to a holy fear of offending God in any thing and to a holy care of pleasing God in every thing then the serious meditation of death Though that text Remember thy latter end and thou shalt never do amiss be Apocryphal yet the truth asserted is Canonical I have read a story of one that gave a young prodigal a Ring with a Deaths-head on this condition that he should one hour in a day for seven days together think and meditate upon Death which accordingly he did and it bred a great change and alteration in his life and conversation O! man thou doest not know but that the serious thoughts of death may work that desireable thing in thee viz. holiness which yet has not been wrought in thee by all the holy counsels the gracious examples the fervent prayers the sorrowful tears of thy dearest friends thou doest not know but that the serious meditation of Death may do thee more good then all the Sermons that ever thou hast heard or then all the books that ever thou hast read or then all the prayers that ever thou hast made or then all the sighs or groans that ever thou hast poured out and why then shouldest thou put the thoughts of death far from thee Certainly as he is a sinner in grain that dares look death in the face and yet sin that dares cut a purse when the Judge looks on so he is a monster rather then a man that dares look death in the face and yet satisfie himself to live without holiness that dares look death in the face and yet say I 'll drink and be drunk I 'll sware and swagger I 'll roar and whore I 'll cheat and cozen I 'll hate and oppose I 'll quarrel and kill and my hands shall be as bloody as my heart and let death do her worst if such a person be not in the ready way of being miserable for ever I know nothing Well sirs remember these three things First That there is nothing more certain then death That Statute Law of heaven Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return Gen. 3.19 will take hold of all the sons of men There is no man that lives and shall not see death Psal 89.48 Gen. 32. Though Jacob wrestled with an Angel and prevailed yet death was too hard for him though Hazael was as light of foot as a wild Roe yet he could not out-run death 2 Sam. 2.18 and Absalom could not out-ride it nor Pharoah out-drive it though Saul and Jonathan were as swift as Eagles and as strong as Lyons yet were they slain among the mighty 'T was not Solomons wisdom that could deliver him nor Sampsons strength that could rescue him nor Hamans honor that could secure him nor Goliahs sword that could defend him nor Dives riches that could
up to holy rules and live out holy principles must prepare for sufferings All the Roses of holiness are surrounded with pricking Briers The History of the ten persecutions and that little book of Martyrs the 11. of the Hebrews and Mr. Fox his Acts and Monuments with many other Treatises that are extant do abundantly evidence that from age to age and from one generation to another they that have been born after the flesh Gal. 4.29 Within the first 300. years after Christ all that made a profession of the Apostles doctrine were cruelly murdered have persecuted them that have been born after the spirit and that the seed of the Serpent have been still a multiplying of troubles upon the seed of the woman Would any man take the Churches picture saith Luther then let him paint a poor silly Maid sitting in a wilderness compassed about with hungry Lyons Wolves Bores and Bears and with all manner of other cruel hurtful Beasts and in the midst of a great many furious men assaulting her every moment and minute for this is her condition in the world As certain as the night follows the day so certain will that black angel persecution follow holiness where-ever it goes In the last of the ten persecutions seventeen thousand holy Martyrs were slain in the space of one moneth And in Queen Maries days or if you will in the Marian dayes not of blessed but of most abhorred memory the Popish Prelates in less then four years sacrificed the lives of eight hundred innocents to their Idols and O that that precious innocent blood did not still cry to Heaven for vengeance against this Nation But Secondly Christ and his Apostles hath long since foretold us that afflictions and persecutions will attend us in this world the Lord hath long since forewarned us that we may be fore-armed and not surprised on a sudden when they come Christ hath shot off many a warning piece in his word and sent many a Harbinger that so we may stand upon our guard and not be surprised nor astonished when afflictions and persecutions overtake us Mat. 10.22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my names sake but he that endureth to the end the same shall be saved Chap. 16.24 Then said Jesus unto his Disciples if any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me Luk. 21.12 But before all these they shall lay their hands on you and persecute you delivering you up to the Synagogues and into prisons being brought before Kings and Rulers for my names sake John 15.20 Remember the word that I said unto you The servant is not greater then the Lord if they have persecuted me Non potest qui pati timet ejus esse qui passus est He that is afraid to suffer cannot be his disciple who suffered so much Tert. they will also persecute you if they have kept my saying they will keep yours also Ah Christians since they have crowned your head with thornes there is no reason why you should expect to be crowned with Rose-buds God-fry of Bullen first King of Jerusalem refused to be crowned with a crown of Gold saying That it became not a Christian there to wear a crown of Gold where Christ for our salvation had sometime worn a crown of thornes Chap. 16. ult These things I have spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace in the world ye shall have tribulation but be of good cheer I have overcome the world Acts 14.21 22. And when they had preached the Gospel to that City and had taught many they returned again to Lystra and to Iconium and Antioch confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God As there was no way to Paradise but by the flaming sword nor no way to Canaan but through a wilderness Loddela Corda computeth fourty four several kinds of torments wherewith the Primitive Christians were tryed Adv. Sacr. cap. 128. so there is no way to heaven but by the Gates of hell there is no way to a glorious exaltation but through a Sea of tribulation They do but dream and deceive their own souls who think to go to heaven upon Beds of Doun or in a soft and delicate way or that think to be attended to glory with mirth and musick or with singing or dancing the way to happiness is not strewed with Roses but full of Thornes and Briers as those of whom this world was not worthy have experienced Ecclesiastical Histories tells us that all the Apostles died violent deaths Peter was crucified with his heels upward Christ was crucified with his head upwards but Peter thought this was to great an honor for him to be crucified as his Lord and therefore he chose to be crucified with his heels upward and Andrew was crucified by Egeus King of Edessa Acts 12.2 James the son of Zebedee was slain by Herod with the sword and Philip was crucified at Hierapolis in Asia and while Bartholomew was preaching the glad-tydings of salvation multitudes fell upon him and beat him down with staves and then crucified him and after all this his skin was fleaed off and he beheaded Thomas was slain with a Dart at Calumina in India and Mathew was slain with a Spear say some others say he was run through with a sword and James the son of Alpheus who was called the Just was thrown down from off a Pinacle of the Temple and yet having some life left in him he was brained with a Fullers club Lebbeus was slain by Agbarus King of Edessa and Paul was beheaded at Rome under Nero and Simon the Canaanite was crucified in Egypt say some others say that he and Jude was slain in a Tumult of the people Matthias was stoned to death Rev. 1.9 and John was banished into Patmos and afterwards as some Histories tells us he was by that cruel Tyrant Domitian cast into a Tun of scalding Lead and yet delivered by a miracle Thus all these precious servants of God except John died violent deaths and so through sufferings entered into glory they found in their own experience the truth of what Christ had foretold concerning their sufferings and persecutions About the year 1626 A book formerly printed and intituled A preparation to the cross of Christ composed by John Frith Martyr was brought in the belly of a Fish to the Market in Cambridge Mr. Jer. Dyke in a Fast Sermon at Westminster and that a little before the Commencement time when there was a confluence of much people from all places of the Land which was construed by them that feared the Lord to be no less then an heavenly warning to all the people of England to prepare for the cross But ah since that year who can recount the heavy crosses that has generally attended the people of this Nation most
to be carried home in the morning his wife began mildly to blame him for his acting against the Minister the day before at which he with fearefull oathes swore that he would soon rid the Towne of that Puritan but behold the hand of God for as this wretched man was about to rise and having put one arme in his Dublet even as the oathes were uttering he was taken speechless yea and sensless and so dyed To conclude the Judgements of God upon the persecutors of the Saints in Bohemia was such that it was used as a Proverb among the adversaries themselves that if any man were weary of his life let him but attempt against the Piccardines for so they called the Saints and he should not live a yeare to an end And thus you see by these instances that most severe Judgements have still followed the persecutors of the people of God Let me close up this argument thus look as in Princes Courts they are judg'd but silly shallow brain'd men that profess open and mortall hatred to the greatest favourites of the King because in so doing they take the right and ready way to ruine themselves and families so they are doubtless the most silly shallow-brain'd men in the world how wise soever they may be in their own eyes or in others eyes who are like unto themselves who persecute the favourites of the King of Kings that being the ready way to their owne ruine and destruction But Fourthly It will appeare that persecutors are in the most sad and deplorable condition if you doe but consider that there is a day a coming wherein God will fully reckon with all persecutors for their persecuting of his Saints Psal 9.12 When he maketh inquisition for blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Damim bloods in the plural it notes the killings and murderings of Gods afflicted ones Gen. 4.10 1 Kings 9.26 2 Chron. 24. Chap. 22. he remembreth them he forgetteth not the cry of the humble There is a time when God will make inquisition for innocent blood the Hebrew word Dorâ—sh from Darash that is here rendred inquisition signifies not barely to seek to search but to seek search and enquire with all diligence and care imaginable O there is a time a coming when the Lord will make a very diligent and carefull search and enquiry after all the innocent blood of his afflicted and persecuted people which persecutors and Tyrants have spilt as water upon the ground and woe to persecutors when God shall make a more strict critical and carefull enquiry after the blood of his people then ever was made in the inquisition of Spaine where all things are carried with the greatest diligence subtilty secrecy and severity O persecutors there is a time a coming when God will make a strict enquiry after the blood of Hooper Bradford Latimer Taylor Ridly c. There is a time a coming wherein God will enquire who silenced and suspended such and such Ministers and who stop't the mouthes of such and such and who imprisoned confined and banished such and such who were once burning and shining lights and who were willing to spend and be spent that sinners might be saved and that Christ might be glorified There is a time when the Lord will make a very narrow enquiry into all the actions and practises of Ecclesiastical Courts High Commissions Committees Assizes Sessions c. and deale with persecutors as they have dealt with his people Psal 12.5 For the oppression of the poore for the sighing of the needy now will I arise saith the Lord I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him When oppressors and persecutors doe snuffe and puffe at the people of God when they defie them and scorne them and thinke that they can with a blast of their breath blow them away then God will arise to judgement as the Chaldee has it at that very nick of time when all seemes to be lost and when the poore oppressed and afflicted people of God can do nothing but sigh and weep and weep and sigh then the Lord will arise and ease them of their oppressions and make their day of extremity a glorious opportunity to work for his own glory and his peoples good Math. 22.6 7. And the remnant took his servants and entreated them spitefully and slew them But when the King heard thereof he was wroth and he sent for his Armies and destroyed those murderers and burnt up their City Christ sent his Apostles and Disciples to invite the Jewes to a marriage feast to a stately feast to a feast made by a King upon the account of his Son of his only Son of his beloved Son of his Son that is King of Kings and Lord of Lords Rev. 1.5 Compare these Scriptures Acts 5.40 ch 7.58 and ch 12.2 and ch 21.32 2 Cor. 11.24 Heb. 11.37 38. but they entreated them spitefully calling them pestilent fellows and movers of sedition and some they imprisoned and scourged and others they put to death as Stephen and James c. and O what spitefulness and ingratitude was this to returne evill for good to requite them with reproaches prisons scourges and death for their endeavouring to save their souls and to make them happy for ever But will this great King put up these injuries indignities and abuses that are done to his servants no he will not for as soon as he heard of it he was wroth and sent forth his Armies to be revenged on them The murderers in the text were the Jewes and the Armies were the Romans now they are called Gods Armies Dan. 9.26 because God imployed them as the executioners of his wrath upon Jerusalem now these Roman Armies did burne up their City Josephus Antiq lib. 20. c. 8. which was once the Paradise of the world and brought to ruine and destruction a 11 millions of men women and children besides multitudes that were sold for slaves and others that were scattered among all nations and thus God took vengeance on these persecutors and turn'd their Temple and City into ashes Plutar Lib. de superstitione Plutarch writing of the quality of Tygres saith That if Drums or Tabours sound about them they will grow mad and rend and tear their own flesh in pieces O there is a day a coming when the last Trumpet shall sound and then all the persecutors of the Saints will grow mad O then they will fret and fume Rev. 6.15 16 17. and tear and torment themselves and wish for the mountaâ—â—s and rocks to fall upon them and to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb who in that day will with a witness avenge all his afflicted and persecuted ones Alas all the sorrows troubles afflictions vexations torments and punishments that befall the persecutors of the Saints in this life they are but quasi tales as it were such they are but the beginnings of sorrows they are but Types and Figures of those easeless endless and
except there be sound repentance on his side and pardoning mercy on Gods Take another instance in that Prov. 23.20 21. The glutton and the drunkard were to be stoned to death Deut. 21.20 21. Basil calls drunkenness a self chosen devil When Aechines commended Philip King of Macedon for a jovial man that would drink freely Demosthenes being by told him that was a good quality in a Spunge but not in a Prince Be not among wine-bibbers amongst riotous eaters of flesh For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty and drowsiness shall cloath a man with raggs Many Dukes Earles Lords and Gentlemen of great estates have â—adly experienced the truth of this Scripture society and luxurious company hath brought many a man to extream poverty The full cup makes an empty purse and the fat dish makes a lean bagg he that fills thee wine with one hand and sets before thee dainty dishes with the other hand will be sure to pick thy pockets with both hands and this Caligula the Roman Emperor found by experience for his gluttony brought him to incredible poverty Diogenes hearing that the house of a certain prodigal was offered to sale said I knew that house was so accustomed to surfeting and drunkenness that ere long it would spue out the Master Excessive drinking is now so great in England that the Germans may fear the loss of their Charter There was a street in Rome called vicussobrius the sober street because there was never an Ale-house in it but this I think is hard to say of any street in London yea of any street in England It is an observation amongst the Marriners that as the Sea grows daily shallower shallower on the shoars of Holland and Zealand so the Channel of late waxeth deeper deeper on the Coasts of Kent and Essex Ah sirs what is more evident then this that as drunkenness ebbs in Holland so it flows in England O what a deal of ground has this sin got within this few months upon English hearts there was a time when drunkards were as rare in England as Wolves but now they are as common as Swine Ah what staggering reeling and shameful spewing is to be found both among the great ones the Priests and people of this Nation The Prophet Hosea Hos 7.5 complained in his time that the Princes upon their Kings day made him sick with bottles of wine This day of their King was either his birth day and so Pagnine rendreth it here Die natalis ejus or his Coronation day and so the Chalde paraphrast carrieth it or the day wherein their King Jeroboam set up his golden Calves at Dan and Bethel as some others conceive Now in this day of their King there was such carnal triumphing and such pampering of the flesh and such roaring carouzing Richard the third drowned his brother in a Butt of Sack and drinking of bottles of wine that the Princes drank themselves sick drowning their bodies and souls in bottles and Butts of wine Memorable is the Kings late Proclamation against all such debauched persons who pretending to drink His Health destroy their own by a shameful abusing of the precious creatures of God But if the Prophet Hosea were now alive in this Nation If one may credit relations many hav drunk themselves dead within this few months Ah what cause would he have to complain that both high and low men and women young and old have given themselves to this beastly sin that unmans a man and that besots the soul and that destroys the body and that proves a Canker-worm to mens estates What are most Ale-houses but hell-houses but the Devils-houses in which the name of God is notoriously blasphemed Religion scorned the Saints derided the Sabbaths prophaned young ones impoysned and old ones hardned and many thousand families impoverished And why then should it be almost as easie a task to conquer the West Indies to overcome the Turke and to bring down the Pope as 't is to bring down such wretched Ale-houses as are the very Nurseries of all sin and the Synagogues of incarnate Devils and the very sinks of all misery poverty and beggary By these instances 't is most clear that 't is not holiness but wickedness that exposes men to the greatest poverty and misery But 1 Kings 17.10 17. Mr. Fox in his Act. and Mon. pag. 1874. edit ult Speaks of a poor woman who being threatned that she should have but a little bread one day and a little water on the next replyed If you take away my meat I hope God will take away my hunger and then 't will be all one as if I had meat Thirdly Consider That God can make a little with holiness go a great way A little with holiness shall serve the turn and then enough is as good as a feast God can make a handful of Meal in the Barrel and a little Oyl in the Cruse hold out a long while So Deut. 8.4 Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee neither did thy foot swell these fourty years Chap. 29.5 And I have led you fourty years in the wilderness your clothes are not waxen old upon you and thy Shâ—o is not waxen old upon thy foot Their raiment in fourty years time was not the worse for wearing their garments were not worn out with wearing in all that time they were not grown old and so unfit to wear O no but they were as fresh and strong and fit for use at the last as they were when they first came into the wilderness and this was by a divine power that preserved them from decay God supplyed all the backs and bellies of the Israelites in such state as if every Israelite had been a Prince When God brings his people into a wilderness condition he will make their mercies last and hold out as long as their wilderness condition continues Some of the learned are of opinion that the garments and Shoos of children and young men grew up with their persons so that as their stature increased so their apparel and Shoos waxed larger and longer But I suppose that 't is not safe for us to imagine or multiply miracles without necessity and clear warrant from Scripture and therefore I shall rather fall in with those worthy men who thus judge viz. That when any began to out-grow their Apparel and Shoos they laid them aside and took others that were fit for their present stature and that those which they laid aside were as sound and fresh and fit for service as when they first began to use them and so those they put off were fit for others to put on that were of a less stature and thus God lengthned out their mercies in their wilderness condition So in that Prov. 15.16 17. Better is a little with the fear of the Lord Sheep can live upon bare Commons where fat Oxen would be quickly starved c. then great treasure and trouble therewith
and who are much in the Publick trade of Christianity viz. hearing the word conferences family duties c. but very rarely shall you finde them in their closets as ever you would bee eminent and excellent in holiness keep up your private trade with God maintain your closet communion with the holy one of Israel But Seventhly If ever you would attain to higher degrees of holiness then fall with all your might upon subduing and crucifying your most raging corruptions and your most darling-lusts O do not defer O do not delay the work of spiritual mortification O do not think that you can both fight and overcome fight and triumph in one day O do not think that your golden and your silver Idols will lay down their Arms Isa 2.20 and yeeld the field and lye at your feet and let you trample them to death without striking a blow O remember that bosome-sins will do all they can to keep their ground and therefore you must arise with all your strength against them and bray them in a morter and stamp them to powder and burn them to ashes O deal with them as they dealt with the Leviets Concubine force them to death and cut them to peeces Judg. 19. 2 King 9. O leave not the Palm the skull of this cursed Jezabel undevoured undestroyed O deal by your most inraged lusts as the Philistims did deal by Sampson pluck out their eyes and make them to grinde in the Mill of Mortification till their strength be utterly consumed and wasted Whilst Saul lived and kept the Throne and was in his strength little David was kept exceeding weak and low but when Saul was dethroned and slain little David quickly grew stronger and stronger 2 Sam. 3.1 so all the while a darling sin lives and keeps the Throne in the hearâ—â— grace and holiness will be kept exceeding weak and low but when your darling Rom. 8.10 13. sin is dethroned and slain by the power and the sword of the Spirit grace and holiness will quickly grow stronger and stronger and rise higher and higher When men would have a rough field fitted for the plow and fitted to bring forth fruit will they not first fall with all their strength and with all their might upon grubbing up by the roots the strongest Trees and the sturdiest Oaks knowing that when these are grubbed up weaker trees will easily fall So as ever you would have your hearts and lives full of the fruits of righteousness and holiness fall with all your strength and with all your might upon grubbing up by the very roots your beloved sins your strongest lusts and then the rest of your corruptions will easily fall When Galiah was slain the Philistims fled and were easily brought under when a General in an Army is cut off the common souldiers are quickly routed down but with your darling-sins and then the conquest of other sins will be easie When a man hath eat poison nothing will make him thrive till hee hath vomited up the poison that hee hath eaten 't is not the most wholsome food the choicest dainties nor the richest cordials under Heaven that will increase blood and spirits and strength in such a person hee will throw up all and nothing will stay with him to do him good till his poison be cast up and cast out Beloved-sins they are the poison of the soul and till these are vomited up and cast out by sound repentance and the exercise of Faith in the Blood of Christ the soul will never thrive in grace and holiness all the wholesome food of the Gospel and all the dainties and cordials of Heaven will never beger good blood nor noble spirits nor divine strength in their souls that upon no terms will part with their darling sins and therefore as ever you would be strong in the grace of the Lord draw up all the strength that ever you are able to make and fall on with the greatest courage upon your bosome-sins and never cease till in the strength of Christ you have got a compleat victory and conquest over them In the Law 't was the blood of the Sacrifice and the Oil that cleansed the Leper and that by them was meant the blood of Christ and the Spirit of Grace is agreed by all Ah friends as ever you would be cleansed from your darling-sins which do so exceedingly hinder the increase of holiness be often in looking upon a crucified Christ and in the application of his blood to your own souls I have read of five men that being asked what was the best means to mortifie sin gave these Answers saith the first The best means to mortifie sin is to meditate of death Saith the second The best means is to meditate of the judgement-day Saith the third The best means is to meditate on the Joyes of Heaven Saith the fourth The best means is to meditate on the torments of Hell But saith the fifth The best means is to meditate on the blood and sufferings of Christâ— and doubtless the last hit it to a hair If any thing under Heaven will subdue and bring under darling-sins it will be the daily sight of a bleeding groaning dying Saviour Phylosophy saith Lactantius may cover vices but it never cuts off vices it may hide a lust but it can never quench a lust As black-patches instead of plaisters may cover some deformities in nature but they can never cure them Ah Sirs if you do not kill your darling-sins they will kill your precious souls Isa 37. When Senacheribs Army was destroyed by an Angel and hee returned home with a hook in his nose and a bridle in his lips hee enquired of one about him what hee thought the reason might be why God so favoured the Jews to which hee replied That there was one Abraham their Father that was willing to sacrifice his beloved Son to death at the command of God and that ever since that time God favoured that people well said Senacherib if that be it I have two beloved Sons and I will sacrifize them both to death if that will procure their God to favour mee which when his two Sons heard they as the story goes slew their Father being more willing to kill Isa 37.38 than be killed Oh friends you must kill or be killed if you are not the death of your beloved sins your beloved sins will prove the death and ruine of your immortal souls and therefore never leave looking up to a crucified Christ till vertue flow from him to the crucifying of those special sins that do most obstruct and hinder the growth and increase of holiness But Eighthly and lastly If ever you would attain to higher degrees of holiness then dwell much upon the holiness of God O be still a musing be still a pondering upon the holiness of God Certainly if there be any means under Heaven to raise you up to higher degrees of holiness 't is this and therefore keep alwaies
you yet let this support you let this rejoyce you that you are high in the favour of God But Tenthly If thou art a holy person if thou art one that hast that real holiness without which there is no happiness then know for thy comfort that all thy duties and services are very pleasing Act. 10.4 Mal. 3.3 2 Tim. 2.21 delightful and acceptable to the Lord and this roundly follows upon the former for when ever a mans person comes to bee accepted of God and to bee high in favour with God then all his services and sacrifices comes to bee acceptable to God Gen. 4.4 And Abel hee also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering God had first a respect to his person in Christ and then to his offering and so his sacrifice was accepted for the man and not the man for the sacrifice Heb. 11.4 By Faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Kain by which hee obtained witness that hee was righteous God testifying of his gifts and by it hee being dead yet speaketh God will alwaies welcome the holy man into his presence and hee shall alwaies have his ear at command God will still bee a warming his heart Isa 45.11 and a cheering up his spirit and a satisfying of his soul in meeting of him in all holy means and in giving gracious answers to all his requests Isa 64.5 Thou meetest him that rejoyceth and worketh righteousness those that remember thee in thy waies Prov. 21.8 The way of man that is of unholy man is froward and strange but as for the pure his work is right When God hath cleansed ◠mans heart and sanctified his nature then his work his religious work is right 't is then right in the eye of God and in the account of God and in estimation of God and therefore his Petitions are as soon granted Isa 65.24 as they are offered and his requests performed Sealh here is a special note of observation to work us to a serious marking of the things that are mentioned as things that are of special weight and of highest concernment to us as soon as they are mentioned Psal 32.5 I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin Selah Holy David had an inward purpose and resolution to confess his sin but before hee could do it God throws him his pardon thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin God loves to bee before-hand with his people in acts of grace and favour Gods eye and his ear was in Davids heart before Davids confession could bee in his tongue O! the delight of God O! the pleasedness of God with the duties and services of his holy ones Psal 4.3 But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself the Lord will hear when I call upon him that is the Lord will approve of my prayer hee will accept of my prayer he will delight in my prayer and hee will answer my prayer when I call unto him and what can the Godly man desire more Psal 61.1 Hear my cry O God attend unto my prayer Aquinas saith that some read the words thus Intende ad cantica mea attend unto my songs and so the words may bee safely read from the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ranah which signifies to shout or shrill out for joy to note that the prayers of the Saints are like pleasant songs and delightful dirties in the ears of God no mirth no musick can bee so pleasing to us as the prayers of the Saints are pleasing to God Cant. 2.14 Psal 141.2 Let my prayer come before thee as incense and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifize What 's more sweet what 's more pleasing and what 's more perfuming then incense why the prayers of the Saints Rev. 5.8 ch 8.3 4 as they are in the hands of a Mediatour are as sweet and pleasing to God as incense that is made up of the choicest and sweetest spices are sweet and pleasing unto us 1 Pet. 3.12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his ears are open unto their prayers or rather as the Greek hath it his ears are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to their prayers that is when their prayers are so faint and weak that they cannot reach to God that they cannot travel as far as Heaven then God will come down to them and lay his ears as it were unto their prayers O what matter of joy and comfort is this to all the holy seed that God will graciously bow his ears to their prayers when hee turns his back with the greatest disdain and indignation upon the most costly sacrifices of the wicked O you precious Sons of Zion that are daily lamenting and mourning over the weaknesses that cleaves to your best services know for your comfort and joy that though with Moses you can but stammer out a prayer God once accepted of a handfull of Meal for a sacrifice and of a gripe of Goats hair for an oblation Artaxerxes the Persian monarch accepted with a cheerful countenance a little water as a present from the hand of a poor labourer c. or with Hannah weep out a prayer or with Hezekiah chatter out a prayer or with Paul sigh and groan out a prayer yet the Lord will own your prayers and accept your prayers and delight in your prayers O what a rare comfort is this for a Christian to consider that when hee is under outward wants and inward distresses that when hee hath sickness upon his body and reproach upon his name and death knocking at his door that in all these cases and in all other cases hee may run to God as to a Father and tell God how 't is with him and when hee hath done that hee may sit down satisfied and assured of Audience and Acceptance in Heaven O Sirs this is a priviledge more worth than a thousand worlds and had unsanctified persons as many Kingdomes to give as they have haires on their heads they would give them all for an interest in this priviledge when guilt and wrath is upon their consciences and when the arrows of the Almighty stick fast in them and when the terrours of death are round about them and when the dreadful day of their account is every moment remembred by them O! if it bee so great a favour to have the ears of an earthly King at pleasure what a transcendent savour must it bee to have his ear at pleasure who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and yet this favour hath all his Saints But Eleventhly If thou art a Holy Person if thou art one that hast that real holiness without which there is no happiness then know for thy comfort that Jesus Christ will certainly preserve thy holiness Next to Christ holiness is a