that befall the wicked chastisements Levit. 26 28. Deutr. 11 2 3. Ps 94 10. Ier. 30 14. Nor doe I well understand how that which is in it selfe and owne nature a punishment should ever be otherwise tho it com from different causes I know and is used for different ends and effects or how thô afflictions may be chastisements to the righteous whilst they live their death can be so to them and much les how that of Infants which make so great a part of mankind and if of believing parents are charitably judged by most and I would be glad to see well proved are righteous and saved for the Apostle makes it the effect of Adams transgression and therefore properly a punishment Rom. 5 12 13 14. 1 Cor. 15 21 22. And therfore that distinction allso used by Dally and others that death to the righteous is only materially or improperly a punishment not formally as the cutting or burning a patient by a Phisitian differs from the like inflicted out of Justice by a Judge on an offender seems not consonant to the Apostle's doctrine seeing death is inflicted by the law-giver for the breach of his law whereas a Patient suffers not as a malefactor It is true that neither death nor any other punishments of the Righteous are meerly vindictive in reference to satisfaction for sin as the Papists mantaine Christ having fully satisfied for their sins and procured the pardon of them which upon their believing is granted them by the covenant of grace but not so as to free them from the temporal evils of this life or death and their bodies lieing in the dust these being excepted after the promis of the Messias Gen. 3. For God having given man a law and threatned his transgressing it with death which implies the temporal of the body the spiritual of the soul and the eternal of both our first parents comprehending all man-kind having trangrest it God coms and hold Assizes summons them to appeare before him charges them with their sin convinces them of their guiltines and then allaying the severity of his Justice with Mercy and free Grace first promiseth a Messias and Salvation and deliverance through him from their Sins by his satisfaction to Justice for them so as he had determined and after agreed with Christ the seed of the Woman in the Covenant of Redemption so that though they and all in them had Sinned and come short of the Glory of God being Spiritually dead in Tresspasses and Sins and therby liable to eternal Death yet they and all their rightteous Seed should be Saved by the Messias from these two kinds of Death which are the great destructive penalties of Sinners And then proceeds to Sentence them what they should all suffer notwithstanding First the Woman who was first in fault declaring her peculiar Punishment as to her Sex besides those common to her with Man in her sorrowful Conception bringing forth and subjection to her Husband and then the Man and all mankind in him both Men and Women are sentenced to Misery in this Life mortality and their Bodies lying in the dust from whence they were taken The Promise and its preceding the Sentence implying that all those tâ—at imbraced God's Mercy through the Messias should have no other Punishment then these temporal and all those that rejected it and so remaining on their first terms with their Creator commonly call'd The Covenant of Works should suffer the Death threatned therein for their Transgressions The Execution of this Sentence hath continued ever since and will continue till the Resurrection that all may feel the bitter fruits of their Apostacy in these temporal Punishments for the bettering of God's People not for their satisfying Justice for their Sins as the Papists affirm seeing they neither can no meer Man much less Sinful being able to satisfy divine Justice for the least offence nor have need Christ having done this sufficiently for them and for the leaving the incorrigible Wicked that will not be bettered by them the more inexcusable in their suffering Eternal Punishment So that those metaphorical expressions of Pardon of Sins by God 's not seeing or remembring them blotting them out covering them casting them behind his back and into the bottom of the Sea c. denoting the plenariness thereof and those sayings of our Divines remtssa cuspà remittitur poena and that Justification takes away all Punishment c. must be understood according to the Covenant of Grace and agreably with the execution of God's sentence upon Sinners For thô remission on of Sin be nothing else then the remission of its puishment yet it s that punishment only which is opposite to pardon such as belongs to the impenitent and is Eternal whereas all those whom God justifies he also glorifies Insomuch that thô the righteous have through Christ the remission of their Sins and eternal Punishment granted them in the Covenant of Grace together with a sanctified use of their temporal that they shall all work together for their good and the sting of Death taken out of their Sin that brought it in being now thereby turn'd out again and victory over the Grave in the Redemptiom of their bodies from their Captivity under it at the Resurrection yet Death is still in all the degrees of it antecedent in the miseries of this Life and kinds of it first and second or temporal and eternal the wages of Sin according to the original threatning And temporal Death a punishment in all according to the original Sentence thô to the Righteous Eternal Life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ their Lord who hath abolish'd Death or Sin which is Spiritul Death and Eternal the consequent thereof thô not their Temporal and brought Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel from the first promise of himself still more clearly and by himself at last most fully to whom be Glory Rom. 6 23. 2 Tim. 1 10. 2. The causes or reasons of the Adjuncts of Death in the kinds manner and other circumstances thereof as why some die a violent others a natural Death these suddenly those leisurely one sooner another later or at such times or places rather than others are in the ordinary course of Providence of which we speak secret to us thô well known to the all-wise God There being such a stupendious variety herein that as in living faces so in dying persons ther 's no perfect agreement in all circumstances each of which are particularly and only known to him who numbers the hairs of our heads and so orders and governs every single person and thing as if it were all he had to do and so all things as if he were not imployed in any particulars The Apostle gives us the clearest account hereof that I know in few words saying God worketh all things after the Councel of his own Will Ephes 1 11. where we have counsel directing will determining and power working or executing all things
and we Christians ought and should and for which God is pleased to use them in his Church For thô we have the law that discovers sin and condemns sinners to eternal punishments and the Gospel that tenders us pardon and eternal salvation yet so great is our unbelief and the love of our lusts that we litle regard them till God awaken us and lets us see and feel experimentally by outward or inward troubles or both the evil of our sins and how destructive they are to us and therby bring us to condemn and loath them and our selves for them and valew his mercy through Christ for pardoning them For which ends he makes use especially of those that are most powerful to convince men of and affect them with his justice sins hainousnes the sinners desert and need of mercy Of which kind are those punishments which are generally inflicted on all apparently according to his threatnings wherein are seen the greatnes of the offence God's resolution to punish his power and impartiality in punishing great as well as small so that none can flatter themselves with hopes of impunity And those that have the offence legibly written upon them so that all may read the sin in the punishment and see God's equity therein whereby he is justified and the offender condemned even by himself as well as others as we find among the very heathen Judges 1. v. 7. And those punishments that are great and so shew the greatnes of the offence justice never proportioning them greater but mercy mitigating them to less than the offenders deserts All which kinds of punishment concur in death as most clearly appears by the scriptures which declare God's threatning thereof before and sentencing all it to it after for our apostacy Gen. c. 2. and c. 3. as a suitable punishment for our wilful despising of life virtually promist in the threatning of death and that which shews us the greatnes of our offence in that it is the greatest of punishments comprehending all other miseries as life it deprives us of all other mercies Rom. 6 23. And yet more signally do all these appeare in the kinds of death we this day celebrate the mother bringing forth in sorrow because the woman was first in the transgression and dying for her having transgrest and the litle infant for that only So that its better for us to goe to this house of mourning than feasting as Solomon saith Eccles 7 2. for that is the end of all men and therefore will be thine and mine and the living will lay it to heart intimating the reason of that being the end of all from the usefulnes thereof to the living that seriously will confider it as a spectacle of their own mortality whereof sin especially original was the moral cause whatever were the natural together with the manner thereof in regard of their inward and outward man How bitter therfore should the remembrance of and sorrow for our first transgression be to us and all other sins as proceding from it especially our wilful and deliberate offences which are as so many approbations of our first parents apostacy whereby we have so often declared we should have done as they did had we been in their place how hardly soever we are apt to think and many allso to speak of them And how acceptable should Christ be to us as the only Mediator to bring us back again to God from whom we have fallen and reconcile us to him whom we have offended who by his death hath redeemed their souls from destruction that will embrace him taken away sin the sting of death strength from the law to condemn them eternally sanctified the grave to their bodies by his own lying in it and by his resurrection given them assurance of their victory over it in their bodies rising again and being fashioned like to his glorious body For it is this our apostacy from God at first that brought in this sad separation of all our comfortable relations both spiritual between God our father and us and natural between husband and wife parents and children kindred and friends and soul and body at last here and both from happines for ever hereafter and also intaild upon us all miseries which are more in this life than can be numbered and greater in that to com than can be exprest And Christ only that makes up again the union for his people in spiritual relations his father ours himself our husband all his brethren and fisters and all necessary comforts in natural relations in this life and soul and body to meet again and both with happines for ever freeing us from eternal miseries and all those temporal which he procures not to work together for our good 4. That such as are taken away by untimely death may be examples and warnings to the living 1 To deter them from the like sins where they were notorious and the cause of their punishment every example of punitive justice being a fulfilling of the threatning of the law on the Offender and vertually a threatning for the like offence to others This course God took especially with his Church in its infancy training them up as we doe our children with temporal threats and promises mercies and judgements whereas now in its maturity under the Gospell on a better covenant he uses more especially spiritual promises of grace and salvation and threatnings of spiritual and eternal punishments and deals with us accordingly the more powerfully to allure us to holines and deter us from wickednes Yet in regard we are still men of like passions and no less moved with examples he declares this to be the end of all such temporal judgements to us Christians and requires us to make this use of them 1 Cor. 10.6 The Israelites suddenly destroyed several times in the wildernes saith the Apostle were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they allso lusted commanding us to avoid their sins thereafter mentioned and declaring that all these things happened to them for ensamples or types and are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come v. 7. 11. Thus the untimely death of many of the Corinthians for their profanation of the Lord's supper is recorded that we should beware thereof 1 Cor. 11. v. 30. So allso when the crime is apparent in the punishment as Paul's being guilty of stoning Stephen in his being stoned by the Jews and drawn out of the city supposing he had been dead thô he was miraculously revived or at least restored Acts 14.19 20. And this use we are to make of those extraordinary examples of God's judgments that fall out in all ages and nations for execrable murders perjury and dreadful imprecations great persecution and oppression c. wherein histories abound and †Reinold's God's Revenge of murder Camerarii opere subcisiva centur 1. c. 86. contur 3. c. 3 33 34 36.38 Gorrutius de providentia l.
ventilated they were not judged necessary at the interment there being neither precept nor precedent in Scripture for more than decent buriall with lamentations nor any reason why they should not be made for the godly poore of exemplary lives and deaths as well as the rich whose purses generally procure them Yet upon occasions it was judged very necessary on the Lord's day or in weekly lectures to admonish the living of their mortality direct the sorrowfull Relations in their duty and stir up all to immitate laudable examples and prepare for following those departed in the faith Seing then it is not material whether we have the corps in a coffin before our eyes according to the custome in England or it be coverd with earth as here so that we have but the Deceased's life and death in our minds and memories for our betterment I shall proceed to shew you the agreablenes of this portion of Scripture to the present occasion Vers. 16. Shews where Jacob and his family were viz. but a litle way from Eprath whither they were going How exactly doth God in his providence set the bounds of journeys as wel as habitations the places and times of our lives and deaths And what befel them there Rachel travailed and had hard labor The best of women may have the bitterest pains in child-birth and the saddest remembrance of God's sentence In sorrow thou shalt bring forth child'ren Gen. 3 16. Vers 17. The midwife incourages her in her pains and fears with having another son i. e. besides Joseph she had allready But all in vaine she regards it not as in the like case Phineas wife 1 Sam. 4 20. Earthly comforts signify litle to dieing persons Vers. 18. Rachel who was not satisfied with Joseph alone but desired another son Gen. 30 24. now when she haith him calls him Ben-oni the son of my sorrow It is dangerous not to rest contented with our present injoyments When we desire creature comforts immoderatly God may grant them so that they not only proove comfortles but bitternes to us Numb 11 4 33. and Ps 78 29 30 31. The time when she thus named him was as her soule was in departing whereby her death as all others is set forth to us which the following words for she died declare Souls die not with our bodies They goe to God that gave them to be judged by him Eccles. 12 7. The union of our souls and bodies being life and their parting againe death 1 Kings 17 21 22. therfore dieing Stephen prays Lord Jesus receive my spirit Act. 7 59. But Jacob lost that name should be a continual renovation of his sorrow calls him Benjamin the son of the right hand denoting his affection to him Ps 80 17. It is wisdom to suit names to occasional providences Vers 19. In the Text we have I. Rachel's death II. Burial III. Place of both I. Rachel died Beutiful Rachel Jacob's dearly beloved Rachel dies whilst blear-eyed Leah lives The more we love any creature person or thing the more danger we are in to lose it God often times crossing our inordinate affections for our good in taking away our beloved comforts and sparing those that are despised Rachel that so passionately desired children that she said unto Jacob give me children or else I die Gen. 30 1. now dies by having them Our immoderate desires many times cost us very deare II. And was buried The most beloved alive when they are dead we desire to have buried out of our sight as Abraham said of Sarah Gen. 23 4. A decent burial of the dead is the living Relations duty Yea somtimes memorials of the deceased may be expedient when free from ostentation and superstition as we see in the following verse Jacob sets a pillar upon her grave as a standing monument of his affection and her desert III. In the way to Ephrath which is Beth-lehem Renowned for our Savior's birth called Beth-lehem Ephratah Micah 5 2. and of Judea Math. 2 1 5 6. to distinguish it from that in Galilee and the city of David Luke 2 4 John 7 42. for his birth and education as Zion was for his building and habitation 2 Sam. 5 7 9. c. which is by interpretation a house of bread and so most fitting for Christ's birth who was the Son of David according to the flesh and the true bread of life as he inculcates at least 7 times on one occasion Iohn 6 About a mile as some say that have seen the place short of this Beth-lehem Rachel dies in the way distant from her own and husbands friends in an unsetled condition without habitation We all may know where we were born but none knows where or in what condition they shall die And is there buried If we live the life and die the death of the righteous it matters not much where we are buried nor at what distance from the rest of our friends How delicate soever the body may be the carcas is not curious in what bed of dust it sleeps and the souls of Gods people find as neare a way to heaven from any one place upon earth as other Many superstitious people now adays would think themselves happy to die so neare Beth-lehem that they might be buried there But Jacob well knew that burial places are not of religious consideration but any fit place pointed out by providence might serve well enough for the best of his family Thô he and his son Joseph likewise that died in Egypt would have their body and bones buried in Canaan yet that was to testify their dieing in the faith of God's promis of that land â—o their posterity and to assure them of their return thither and therfore is otherwise of no consideration to us It is but of later times that any were buried in Churches or cities but allways abroad as all scripture and other Histories and laws allso witnes When the opinion of Purgatory and holines of places prevailed at first men would be buried nigh the Churches that they might be remembred in the prayers and oblations of those that met there and afterwards in them because they thought them more sacred which tho opposed by * V. Durantus de ritib. Ecclesiae l. 1. c. 23. Gerhardus de morte §. 78-88 many laws civil and Ecclesiastical and writers ancient and modern by some as an innovation others as superstitious and many as dangerous to the health of the living especially in times and places of infection yet all in vaine the tyrant custom hath so prevailed that it s grown too strong for all contradiction But I have deteyned you too long from that I chiefly designe which is not so much to speake of death and mortality as such a surprising death as this Scripture speaks of clearly to the occasion and to vindicate God's providence therein and shew what improvement we should make thereof D. God takes from us our dearest Relations and creature comforts sometimes suddenly when we least exspect
so that as he hath right by Creation and continual preservation of all his Creatures to govern them as he pleases so his understanding being infinite his will just and his power almighty his government in all he doth must needs be most excellently perfect But who hath known the mind of the Lord or been his counceller and acquainted with his secrets for which reason we should with the Apostle humbly adore them and not vainly enquire after them presumptuously prying into those things which belong not to us O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom aed knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his Judgments and his ways past finding out Rom. 11.33 34. But thô we must not be curious to know what we ought not we must not be careless to know what we ought Scripture frequently requiring us to observe God's dealings incouraging us thereto and condemning the neglect thereof Let us therefore proceed more particularly and for the understanding these riddles of Gods Providence plow with his Heifer the Sacred Scriptures wherin we have a multitude of examples for our instruction and rules also for our direction that we may wisely consider his doings as we are commanded These kinds and manner of Death are considerable in reference to God the persons that Die and the Living that survive As they come from God so they are in themselves Punishments for the breach of his law but very different in their causes and effects according to the diversity of the subjects they are inflicted upon or that are therein concern'd which we must carefully regard lest we dangerously mistake For which end we must consider I. That as all God's glorious Attributes whereby he is pleased to display himselfe are equally in him so those that relate to his government are alwayes jointly though unequally exercised in his works in this world even those that to us seem most opposite as his Mercy and Justice which are singly exercised in the world to come Even the Devils have some Mercy and Patiance mixt with Justice at present being reserved in chains as malefactors unto Judgement for greater Punishments who yet feel so great that they believe and tremble for fear of their future Jude 6. James 2 19. And in the greatest severity towards Men God in wrath remembers some Mercy even to the worst that he suddenly destroys besides the remnant that he saves in warning them before delaying till their iniquities be full and mittigating their Punishment in taking them away none suffering to the utmost here nor none so much hereafter as they should had they lived longer ' to treasure up more Sins against the day of Wrath as the old World Sodom and Gomorrah the Amorites Amalakites and many others But though Justice be very apparently the chief reason of some Punishments especially those extraordinary commonly called Judgements and such as are general yet for the most part especially in particular and ordinary cases God hath many other reasons and greater than that we imagine some of which though unkown at present are yet well known afterwards If not here to be sure hereafter when we shall see a distinct exercise of those Attributes that here are mixt so that there will be no Atheists or Unbelievers of Gods Justice in Hell nor no mistakes of Gods Judgment and Mercies in Heaven In the mean time from this manifold Wisdom of God and the mixture of causes joyntly acting in this Life we may see the fundamental ground of our mistaking Gods dealings with us here and learn to take heed that we separate not those reasons which appears not to us from those which seem most apparent and so divide where we should only distinguish which often arises from our narrow conceptions of the great and holy God and his ways judging of him too often by our selves thô he hath told us that his thoughts and ways are not ours but as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are his thoughts and ways higher than ours in Pardoning the Penitent which is the choicest of Mercies however they be otherwise dealt with in this World Isa 55.7 8 9. So that though we must take notice of Gods Justice in all Punishments acknowledging our Sins to have deserved greater yet not only and as separate from his goodness and Mercy which may be greater therein for any thing we know though not so manifest at present lest we mistake the Righteouss God in these his judicial dispensations Lam. 3 18-26 In the next place let 's consider the dieing Persons themselves and they are either Righteouss or Wicked there being no middle state and consequently their Death is an entrance into their future Happiness or Misery Now in regard we cannot judge of the Spiritual and Eternal condition of those that die suddenly but by their lives ' for us to conclude either way of them as is too customary from the manner of Death seeing all these externals fall alike to all is great uncharitableness on the one hand or gross presumption on the other To be sure if they belong to God it is more in Mercy to them than in Justice as in freeing them from the fear of Death that King of Terrors as Job calls it or future backslidings and loss of God's Favour which is worse to God's People than Death it self his loving kindness to them being better than Life or taking them away from the evil to come and many other ways unknown to us And is more eligible to those prepared then a lingring in regard of its end and for a greater good as the sudden cutting off an Arm or a Leg to save the Life so that the Apostle groand earnestly desiring it not for that he would be unclothed or desired only to die but for its consequents to be clothed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life 2 Cor. 5. v. 4 Though to the wicked or unprepared this circumstance is a sad aggravation as I suggested before and the best of God's Servants in the want of Assurance cry with David to God O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence yet to them there is more fear than danger their great and blessed Physitian so mixing the poyson of Death with stronger ingredients that sometimes are cordials to comfort them and always means to cure them perfectly of all their and Sins Miseries so that Death in general of what kind soever is reckoned amongst the privilidges of Believers in subordination to their future Glory 1. Cor 3.22 As to the surviving the Death of Relations and Friends in what manner soever is to be accounted an Afflilction in the general but very different many ways according to the qualifications of the Dead and Living their nearness in Relation dearness in Affection kindness and other circumstances aggravating or extenuating the loss and according to their future use both as to Temporal and Spiritual good and their being Sanctified accordingly or otherwise not improved But herein we must
with this world especially the healthful and those that wallow in pleasure and prosperity that they have neither list nor leisure to think seriously and prepare for the next As if they were priviledged from the like stroke and had a protection from death's arresting them or when it doth could bride it off for some time or make such a covenant with hell as will secure them So great is the security and stupidity of most that they regard not these warnings nor think themselves longer concernd when once the funerals are over Therfore that we may make better use of them 1 Suppose the like or worse may befall thee or thine whilst secure sinners still suppose the best Not to disquiet thy selfe with groundles fears but to prepare for all events of providence which are so never the neerer thee but thou much fitter for them unexspected crosses of all others being the hardliest born Say then what befalls others may befall me allso by this supposition as a prospective bring thy own and thy friends death neer thee think of it frequently and converse with it familiarly that so neither may surprize thee Exempt not thy selfe or thy Relations from that which frequently befalls others How many are the acute diseases that quickly snap mans life asunder How many the casualties and accidents whereby men of all ranks and conditions have perisht in all ages and places unexspectedly * Plin. l. 7. c. 53. de mortibus repentinis Val. Max. l. 9. c. 12. Zuinger Theatrum l. 18. To reckon those recorded by authors and known to our selves would take up our whole time 2. Flatter not thy self that thou and thine shall live long and die leisurely Oh the vain and deceitful hopes that most have of living still on and on they know not how long The younger that have death on their backs think they must of course live to be aged the old that have death before their faces and gray hairs not only here and there upon them but all over them hope still of holding out yea when sicknes is entred and death at the door we still hope that we or ours shall escape with life I have seldom met with one so old that hoped not to rub aut som years longer and never with any to whom their years past and to com did not seem of a different length Looking backwards on many years past they count them but a short time and usually their work therein litle but looking forwards on a few before them reckon them long and what a deale of work they shall doe therein so casily doe we deceive our selves in numbering our days and measuring our work that will not be deceived by others in any accompt that is of concernment 3 Reckon life by days not years seing none know what hour the son of man will com and call for them Thus the best and wisest of men reckoned their lives as Jacob Moses Job David and Solomon Gen. 47. v. 9. Ps 90.14 Job 14.5 Ps 39.5 Eceles 8 15. This right numbering our days would make us apply our hearts to wisdom by improving our present time and opportunities in the day of grace cutting off our vain hopes of future uncertainties and looking on every day as a new gift of God for his work Lam. 3.23 If Horace a heathen could say Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum much more should a Christian believe and live every day as his last because it may be so and if it be not it is more than any one knows Our Lord having wisely and mercisully conceald both the time and place of our departure from us that our lives might not be spent in continual madnes of mirth and vanity in our former and of fears and melancholy in our later days but might be restrained from sin and quickned to duty not delaying our preparations for death but living in a constant exspectation thereof nor presuming of future time not in our power but rightly improving our present with our Apostle dying daily and as a good man said that of twenty years he had known no morrow This divine arithmetick of numbring our days Moses and David begd of God and much more need have we to make our hearts so sensible of our frailty from these examples that we may get ready to follow and may not be only unwilling to live as many through the troubles of life but willing to die which grace only enables us to when prepared 4 Set these examples before thee so as they may affect thy heart and make it restles till they be duly improved by serious consideration That when others are destroyed from morning to evening or every hour of the day it may not be without any regarding it Job 4.20 Say how soon may this befall me or mine How uncertain is our time here and how certain death and eternity hereafter How doe I loyter whilst time flies and my glas perhaps ending and how litle of that work don which must be don or I am lost for ever Am I fit to look death in the face or a just and holy God in judgment have I not delayed long enough allready and is there not danger in these delays Is my soul and eternal salvation of so litle consequence that my heart should still deceive me in disregarding them Is it not wisdom to doe that first that is of greatest consequence and necessity Is not all my time litle enough for so great a work as preparing for eternity and shall I lose more Have so many of God's servants that have taken so much pains so long time in Religion fasting weeping praying hearing c. confest themselves unready for death what shall I be that have don so litle How dismal will death be to me if no better prepared for it Will Christ stay any more for me then he did for the foolish virgins was it not only they that were ready that entred in with him Or will he when once the door of mercy is shut open it for me alone No no I cannot exspect it and therfore will take his counsel and watch not knowing the day or hour wherein he cometh 5 Make sure to be habitually prepared at least for death by being reconciled to God through Christ Acquaint therfore thy self with him and be at peace and take heed of living in that state wherein thou wouldst be loth to die See to the soundnes of thy repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and the sincerity of thy obedience as ever thou meanest to secure the better part thy soule and thy future happines in eternity And labor after assurance that when this earthly house of thy tabernacle is dissolved thou hast an house eternal in the heavens as ever thou desirest to die comfortably The want of this makes death so dismal to those that are sensible what it is to die How many that live under the Gospel and know no more than the heathen Adrian
Ezeh 16.50 so when som are extraordinarily delivered that is allso ascribed to his soveraignty and befalls the wicked as wel as the righteous as scripture shews us I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and ye were as a firebrand pluckt out of the burning yet have ye not returnd unto me saith the Lord. Amos. 4.11 So that the experience of all ages verisies Salomon's words which ate interpretative not exclusive of providence and shews how things goe ordinarily under its conduct when he saith all things come alike to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wickâ—d Eccles 9.2 The same manner of afflictions and death materially befalling the one as the other By which unseeming providence God secures his people from the rage and malice of Sathan and wicked men in this world which would not be habitable for saints if they were certainly known and keeps off the scandal of Religion none knowing who are sincere or only hypocritical and mens coming to him for base ends whereby we should have more professors but worse Christians It being sufficient for his people's security that he knows them perfectly and makes a difference between them and the wicked of the world in the same providence where we can make none in his fatherly affection to them therein in his intention direction and ordering thereof for their good and in his issuing all in their eternal salvation 2 As we must not judge amis of God's proceedings so neither must we rashly judg of those so taken away Either of the cause like the Barbarians that judged the Aposte Paul a murderer from the viper fastning on his hand thinking he would fall down dead suddenly of which I have spoken in the reasons or of their eternal state and condition For if the life be good no manner of death is bad and if the life be bad the death is seldom good no evil of punishment but only of sin abates God's fatherly affection to his children but rather increases it or any way lessens their interest in his favor witnes Abel and all the Prophets to Zacharias slain between the Temple and altar Stephen and all the Apostles and Martyrs and best of men in all ages I know but one place of scripture that looks like judging mens eternal state by temporal judgments and that is of Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them suffering the vengeance of eternal fire Jude 7. Which yet is not meant of the next world in hell thô being the worst we read of and not ten righteous amongst them are damned most of them as Christ that knew intimates when he saith Math. 11. it shall be more tolerable for them than Corazin at the day of judgment the degree implying the kind but only the duration of the judgment in this world and as an emblem of the day of judgment when God shal bring a diluviam ignis as Irenaus calls it or rain hell out of heaven upon the world that now is and of the punishment of the wicked as the Psalmist alluding therto tells us this shall be the portion of their cup Ps 11.6 Learne we then to goe no further than scripture that speaks sparingly of mens eternal state and never that I know of concludes damnation from God's punishments here but allways from mens sins unrepented of and let us make no conclusions upon such false grounds nor presume to ascend Christs tribunal in condemning any to eternal punishments Pererius and others are too bold in asserting all the old world that were drowned except infants were damned For not to mention their number that world in all probability being as populous as the present and granting the generality were even of the sons of God that had corrupted their ways yet scripture speaking only indefinitly it is not for us to make it universal that all had or that nome repented upon the flood 's approaching allbeit God only establisht covenant with Noah and his family as afterwards with Abraham and his as the best in their generations Nor lastly must we censure the Relations of any suddenly taken away as if it were for som extraordinary sins that God so deals with them Which was the fault of Job's three friends For the devil whom God ordinarily restrains of his will more than wicked men in regard of his great malice and power and his being in termino or condemnd thô not fully executed whereas men are here only in via or probationers in reference to their future judgment having accused Job falsly and being by God extraordinarily permitted his pleasure on all he hath for the tryal and exercise of this noble champion begins with his estate knowing Job would have valewed that less if he had before lost his children then destroys them allso suddenly sparing the wife that was in his power who it should seem was none of the best for his second in this combat And his friends knowing these things and seeing his bodily sufferings allso to be very great allthô the loss of his children seems his greatest outward affliction his personal being greater in his inward troubles of spirit than bodily for thô he was greivously sore and pained yet not heart-sick or in dainger of death they in stead of comforting him add affliction to the afflicted censure him as unrighteous and think to prove him so by this argument That he that is sorely afflicted of God is either an open sinner or secret hypocrite this Job denies and disputes it with them and Elihu moderates determining God's favor and afflictions to be consistent which God confirms and shews his displeasure against the others Let this example of these good men's censoriousnes keep us from playing the Criticks in such cases and to judge nothing before the time either of God or men rashly lest he deal with us after our folly but stay till this dust that blinds us be blown out of our eyes and then shall we see clearly the reason of all at the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God Rom. 2.5 5 For Application to those especially concernd in the loss of their deare Relations that they bear it Christianly I need say the less of this because many have said so much tho the practise of most is not answerable and especially those that are surprized For the suddennes thereof discomposes our minds makes us inconsiderate and laying aside the rule both of scripture and reason comply with present sense quarelling with God as Jonah for the loss of his guord or any thing next us as the cause thereof as Job's wife with her husbands religion and the good widow with Elijah for the sudden death of her son 1 Kings 17. Briefly therfore 1 Eye God as the author and orderer of all that befalls us His soverainty power goodnes justice wisdom c. in the kind manner measure time and issue of afflictions David was dumb in silence opened not his mouth in murmuring
ye or they shall know that I am the Lord. And experience shews us that while things goe on smoothly and evenly as men suppose they should all run along with them and are apt to judge them the effects of humane counsels and actions in the use of such means as conduce thereunto but when any thing happens above or contrary to their thoughts and expectations and is accomplisht by such means and in such a manner as they could not think of or imagin and cannot find out any satisfactory reason for then they looke above and beyond natural causes and acknowledg the finger of God Who frequently deals with us in our lives as Jacob with Joseph's sons crossing his hands contrary to exspectation and in our death allso making one or other that we thought should live drop down dead unexspectedly whereby we are put to a stand and look on as all the people did at Amazah's and consider whence this came and not satisfying our selves concerning any visible cause of this difference are ready to acknowledg an invisible power and providence in both the parts of it viz preservation and government in preserving us and others that were as likely to die and taking away those that were as likely to live So that God's extraordinary providences being the great witnesses of himself to the world it becoms our duty to eye and acknowledge him in them accordingly his wisdom in contriving such a concurrence of causes and circumstances as we never thought on his power in executing what we never feared his mercy in sparing greater sinners his justice in cutting off whom and when he pleases and his dominion over all ruling high and low rich and poor together so that as men see or may see so let them say among all nations that the Lord most high reigneth over all the inhabitants of the earth II. That all men may see more clearly that their times are onely in God's hand Ps 31 15. or in his sole power his constant care and custody and his disposal at his pleasure All its true have or may have a notional knowledg of this from the light of nature and those in the Church most fully from Scripture but this is too weak to make us look beyond the course of natural causes above to him who hath the ordering of them all so as to keep the eye of our souls habitually fixt upon him as we ought He is therefore pleased somtimes to use such providences in great daingers deliverances and deaths so circumstantiated as therein we may acknowledge his hand and thereby gaine such experimental knowledg of him and his dealings with us as will lead us to the owning and acknowledging of him and seconded by grace set up his soverainty in our souls For it is not so much death in it self that affects us because it is common as the remarkablenes of it one way or other which leaves an impression upon us and raises our sluggish minds to consider from what hand such a blow should come Who except som few Relations think themselves concernd at the death of weak infants and sickly persons or aged But when the young are taken away in the flower of their age or the strong that were most likely to live are dead on a sudden and laid in the dust or the great and rich that have all means possible to preserve them are cut down like the gras and wither as the green herb these are so many sensible demonstrations to convince us that our times are not in the hands of second causes or meerly casual and fortuitous seeing these are so frequent but onely in God's who disposes of them as he pleaseth Time indeed strangly wears out the present sense we have of these things but God is pleased so often to give us such pregnant examples hereof as if we duly regard them are not only sufficient to renew the former impressions upon us but afford us stronger convictions of this truth This improvement of such providences would bring us as Moses desired the Israelites to acknowledg God as the cause of our lives and length of our days who gives them at his pleasure and for his pleasure continues them that orders them as he pleases and cuts them off when he pleases and to depend upon him continually for them and with holy Job not to charge God foolishly but whether he gives continues or takes away still to bless the name of the Lord. As we learn this lesson more or less so we shall find it accordingly not only thus useful but also comfortable to us by the assurance God's people have thereby that in all times tryals and changes they are allways in the hands of their tender father that knows their frame and remembers they are dust thô the wicked that will not be instructed are in the hand of God as a Judge whose sentence and execution they shall not escape Considering that if our times were in Satan's or our enimies hands they would swallow us up quick or in our friends power they would not suffer us to depart and be with Christ which is far better or in our own we should in our discontents be weary of them and ready to cry out as Moses Elijah Job Jeremiah and Jonah have don now Lord take away my life rather than patiently wait his pleasure III. That sin may be imbittered and mercy embraced and particularly our first apostacy from God and our Savior and the means of recovery For as God's sentencing man to bodily penalties after his first sin for good to his soul was to humble him for that and all other sins that followd upon it and make him feare his justice by seeing and feeling such effects of it and fly to his grace and mercy through the promised Messiah so his inflicting them must therfore be accordingly accounted a means for these ends conjointly The All-wise God knowing what prodigious blindnes of mind and security of heart followed sin in us is therfore pleased for our awakening to use outward punishments ordinarily these being only visible and so fitter to have influence generally on all men and being allso more feared by the secure world than those inward and spiritual judgments on the soul So that the very heathen who being through their forefathers seperate from the Church are ignorant of the causes and manner of the entrance of these punishments by the fall and much more of Christ and so account death because common to all a debt to nature and the grievous accidents thereof punishments only for actual offences yet by these external judgments they may and should be brought and when extraordinary and general often are to feare God's justice and fly to his mercy in the general tho they cannot make that especial use of them for those higher ends and in subordination to especial grace that Scripture declares and which the Jews who have the Old Testament shewing the fall and clearly testyfying of Christ thô they wilfully reject him
shall not be to me why should I think to be spared when others are taken away whose sins mine have exceeded the time by-past is too much to have wrought the will of the flesh I am resolved now to make better use of the present and future so long as God shall spare me to prepare for death and for eternity And as these providences are thus merciful means to bring about a blessed change in us so allso to cary it on still further and further How livelily doth sudden death set-forth to us the necessity of repentance in all the kinds of it As the vanity of the creature and the necessity of making God our portion the shortnes of our own righteousnes seeing we must appear before a just and holy God and the necessity of Christ and his righteousnes the evil of sin whereof we have nothing to exspect but shame and sorrow and the necessity of holines all its paths ending in peace and without which we shall never see God in happines And how much the same contributes to promote these gradually allso in us the constant experience of all Gods people abundantly witnes 5 That all may learn experimentally many particular and necessary lessons they formerly disregarded The light of nature shews us sundry of them and the light of scripture more clearly all of them but unbelief doubts of them sensuality constantly opposes them and as men asleep we generally neglect them God is therfore pleased to use unexspected providences which draw the curtain and let in the light so convincingly and sensibly upon us that without wilful shutting our eys we cannot withstand it that so his truth being taught and backt by our own experience may be more readily embraced and obeyed For experience is a more sensible argument than notions to convince us of the truth and less liable to ignorance and mistake for confirming us in it and more particular and prevalent with us to practise it Let me therfore name som of those excellent lessons which still hang on this one bough suddenly broken off from us As 1 the vanity and frailty of life Such a death cryes to us with the word all flesh is grass and all the goodlines thereof is as the flower of the field the wind passeth but over it and it is gone and the place thereof shall know it no more Is. 40.6 Ps 103.16 2 The nearnes of death and judgment If thou willst put these far from thee this summons will convince thee of thy folly that this night thy soul may be required of thee Luke 12.19 20. 3 The necessity of being prepared for thy dissolution For the night of death cometh whether thou thinks of it or no when no man can work there being no knowledg nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest no casting up thy accounts in the dark nor perfecting them with God in the grave Joh. 9.4 Eccles. 9.10 4 The danger of deferring thy preparation For in an hour thou thinks not of may Christ call thee to give an account of thy stewardship for thou shalt be no longer steward Math. 24. Luke 16. v. 2. 5 The pretiousnes of time to prepare for eternity For time is short and were it longer litle enough for so great a work and allso uncertain as thou seest and therfore not to be lavisht out upon thy lusts seeing thine eternal welfare depends upon it 1 Cor. 7.29 6 The vain hopes of living many years Since thou knowest not what a day may bring forth no more than what a woman with child whether male or female living or dead as t is this day Prov. 27.1 7 The groundles presumtion of a lingring death when thou seest some in a moment go down to the grave and many die in their full strength Job 21. 13 23. 8 How quickly the greatest hopes are dasht and expectations disappointed Here 's a child com to the birth and no streugth to bring forth but mother and child die together there 's a strong man saith with Agag surely the bitternes of death is past and the next hour it returns and carries him away 1 Sam. 15. 9 Moderation towards the things of this life For the Lord is at hand ready to call thee quickly from thy good things who makes them thy portion and then whose shall they be and where wilt thou be and to take thee who makes him thy happines from the evils of this life that they no more shall torment thee Philip 4.5 10 The different nature of earthly enjoyments and heavenly Earthly promise much and in the tryal faile our exspectations But heavenly we find best upon tryal and such as will never fail us nor forsake us Heb. 13.5 And lastly the vast difference between our present and future state Here we meet and part presently there we meet and never part here 's nothing but changes there 's none but a stable eternity 1 Thes 4.17 These Reasons I hope may suffice for the several sorts of sudden death mentioned on this occasion to justify God's proceedings therein and to shew us the gracious design of these kind of providences that seem of all others most dismal to us none so much as these conducing to the general good of mankind as tending to awaken us out of our security cure us of our spiritual distempers and point out to us and quicken us to our duty Let us see to it that we make use of them accordingly and what further improvement may be made of the present providence we shall now speake to by way of inference and application Vse 1. Hence learn the uncertain tenure or manner of holding our nearest Relations and dearest friends and acquaintance That seeing them liable continually to be lost we may be more sensible our enjoying them is but of meer curtesy and that we are but tenants at will for them and all our other earthly comforts to God the great Lord of all having by our sinful apostacy lost our right and title to the enjoyment of them which he gave us at first by the covenant of works in our creation For had we continued in our original state of integrity there would have been none of this sorrowful parting of friends but we should either have continued happy together on earth or without suffering death have been as S. Anstin and others think after some certain time translated into heaven and whether all together at last or successively at such a term of years it would have been matter of triumphant rejoycing to all But now having by sin forfeited and lost all our mercies God hath been graciously pleased in the covenant of grace to alter his dispensation not to trust us bank-rupts with a new stock in our own hands but to commit all to Christ in whom he hath treasurd up spiritual life for his people so that that is now in safe keeping being hid with Christ in God Colos 3.3 And this he hath assured us of by promise upon our fulfilling the condition
whither they shall goe at their death is lamentable to consider Get thy self allso as much as possible actually prepared by keeping up thy assurance evenning thy accounts daily with God walking with him as Enoch having thy conversation in heaven whilst on earth and thy fellowship with the Father and his son Jesus Christ so shall death never surprize thee or affright thee much less hurt thee changing only thy place not thy company opening the door for thy entrance into life and being ever with the Lord which then thou wilt find bejond all thy present faith and hopes infinitly better than being in this world Lastly prepare allso for thy Relations leaving thee Our seldom thinking of this before hand makes it difficult for us to beare Be sensible of and thankful for God's giving and continuing them to thee seeing he denies them som and takes them from others use them as his left hand blessings but enjoy them not as thy portion depend on him for comfort from them resigne them to him from whom thou receivedst them doe thy duty towards them whilst thou hast them so shalt thou have comfort when thou losest them 4 Let this caution us from rash censuring and judging of these kind of providences seeing in the text God's taking away unexpectedly a good Rachel from Jacob one of his best servants 1 Not the just and holy God for them In denying him and his providence with the Atheists Who seeing often the vilest of men spared as Diagoras did a perjur'd person and better taken away as Cotta his friend Drusus and Ovid his Tibullus open their mouths against heaven in denying a God and his providence in the world Or 2 in judging him unjust and cruel For he delights not in death as it is the destruction of his creature but as it is the exercising of judgment and righteousnes in the earth Jer. 9.24 His works are wondrous that though a wise man as Solomon think to know them yet shall he not be able Eccles 8.17 The most inquisitive run but into a labarynth wherein they lose themseves at last For how can we possibly be able to judg of his proceedings who are wholy ignorant of the grounds of them It is God only that knows mens intentions and his own designs that he hath to accomplish and all the links in the chaine of providence so that where he manifests not these we are in the dark and incompetent judges Our profoundly learned Contry-man Bradwardine * De Causa Dei L. 1.0.31 hath a remarhable story to this purpose of a devout man tempted to blaspheme providence to whom God sent an angel in humane shape that commanded him to follow him And leads him to the house of a good man who entertaind them very kindly that night from whom he secretly took a cup he valewed highly and going thence to a wicked mans house the second night who treated them not so well gives him the cup at their departure Having been the third night most curteously entertaind in the morning he threw the mans servant off a bridge and drowns him and coming the fourth night to an honest man that made them heartily welcom slew his litle son that cryed and sufferd them not to sleep Then he acquaints his follower why he did these so strange things saying he was sent of God to satisfy him I took the cup saith he from the first a good man for his good because he lov'd it too much and gave it the second a bad man that he might receive his reward at present I drowned the servant of the third because he had resolved the next day to slay his master whom I preserved from death and his servant from committing murder that he might be less punisht in hell The fourth before he had a son and heir was very charitable and after grew penurious therfore I took away the cause of his covetousnes and conveyd his sons soul to paradise So true is that of the Psalmist Thy righteousnes is like the great mountains thy judgments are a great deep Thy foot steps are not known and therfore cannot be traced by us poor ignorant mortals Ps 36.6 and 77.19 Nor 3 must we judge when we see the righteous and wicked taken alike away that God's Providence goes blindfold to work as the Heathen think the fates doe and sweeps away one and another hand over head for so we shall neither eye God in nor make a right use of his dealings with us We cannot indeed make or discern the difference as to us sicknes and sword devours one as well as another but this is fallacia sensus both scripture and reason teaches us that there is a very particular direction in all that befalls us from the hand of God Every disease that happens every bullet that flies every wave of the sea and every casualty have their commission from God before they can touch or destroy any If a sparrow falls not on the ground without him much less a mans life and if the very hairs of our head are all numbred much more our days are so determined Math. 10.29 30. Job 7.1 and 14.5 14. Prov. 16.33 Nor lastly must we imagin that righteousnes will exempt us from sudden destruction in common calamities with the wicked As Abraham seems to judge in his pleading for Sodom Gen. 18.23 24 25. For thô God will rather spare the wicked for the righteous sake as he there declares and in extraordinary cases where he hath past his particular promise doth so as God gave Paul all that sailed with him Acts. 27. and makes a distinction as Ezek 9.4 5 6. Mal. 3.17 18 yet in ordinary it is not so but the green and dry tree denoting as it follows the righteous and the wicked perish together Ezek 20.47 and 21.3 And no wonder for usally the good are infected with or one way or other guilty of the sins of the times and places where they live and if they partake in sins its reasonable they allso partake in plagues Rev. 18.4 Or if not yet being mixt with the wicked in an ordinary way it cannot be otherwise as experience shews us in wars famin pestilence inundations shipwracks and the like Especially earth quakes wherein many cities have been wholy swallowed up and many with the inhabitants in a great patt destroyed the histories whereof would fill a volum Passing those of old 12 cities of Asia say Pliny and Tacitus 13 saith Ensebius in our Saviors daies in one night Coloss Laodicea Hierapolis in the year 63.3 in Cyprus in 77.4 in Asia and 2. in Greece in 105.3 in Galatia in 109. Antioch Nicomedia and Nice several times Nicopolis and Caesarea in 128. Smyrna allso and Corinth afterwards and 10 in Crete in one year so 20 in Germany in later times besides many others these being sufficent for my purpose in most of which multitudes of Christians as well as others perisht And as God takes them away as he sees good
or complaining because God did it Ps 39.9 Peter looks only at Christ's enemies and quarrels Christ at God and submits to death the cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it Jâ—b 18.11 If Epictetus could say I have yielded my desires to God how much more should we that are Christians 2 Be sensible of thy sins and deserts for them so wilst thou more willingly accept and better beare the punishment of them Wherfore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Lam. 3.39 I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him saith the Church Micah 7.9 Those complain most that least know themselves and their sins 3 Compare our sufferings several ways and we shall see small reason for impatience under them of what kind soever they be As 1 with our sins The Church complaind there was no sorrow like hers yet after acknowledges it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed and thou our God hast punisht us less than our iniquities deserve Which is true of the greatest punishments on this side hell For if we had our desert in stead of weeping here for wives or children and as Rachel will not be comforted because they are not we might be howling there in despaire in a state for ever uncable of the least comfort 2 With our enjoyments Many mercies for one affliction many spiritual mercies for one temporal affliction 3 With the suffering of others What are any of ours to Job's and many of God's best servants whom he often strips not of one only but of most or all their earthly comforts at once If all men or especially God's people should bring their miseries together and lay them in a common heap none of us should have our share by much 4 With the good we may gather by them As to fins for the discovering them to us and making us search and try our wayes and turne again to the Lord. For the curing them in us as security pride hypocrisie worldlines doting on creature comforts unprofitablnes under the means of grace c. And for the preventing sin from us Which otherwise we should he apt to fall into if God did not hedge up our way with these thorns So in reference to graces Afflictions being as fire to refine and purify them and make for the exercising improving and quickening of them as our faith hope love zeale patience experience humility heavenly-mindednes prayer c. And in regard of more communion with God here and more glory in heaven hereafter The loss of friends is abundantly made up in more enjoyment of God which his people experience frequently who never enjoy him so much as when they enjoy the creature least May not Christ say am I not better then all these These all die away but God and Christ remain the same A good woman when her friends died would often say well however my God lives at length her husband dying she lamented bitterly that her child askt her Mother is your God dead at which she took up blaming her self for her impatience And the Apostle declares That our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us not meritoriously but occasionally and instrumentally when sanctified a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 4 Let faith and patience have their perfect work in you Faith in God through Christ and the promises for a holy use and blessed effect of these sad providences it being He that teaches you to profit by them making you partakers of his holines and them to yield the peaceable fruit of righteousnes Patience to bear them aright in a holy submission and compliance with Gods will in the greatest crosnes of events when you have rekond comforts and are arrested with sorrows If the vertue of patience be as Seneca faith a salve for all soars much more the grace which thô it make not miseries none yet keeps us from being miserable by them In our duty it is good to doe that of choice we must doe of necessity Quarrel not therfore with God for this is but like the wild and ignorant Indians that shoot their arrows at the sun when it scorches them which fall back upon their own heads Nor repine at his dealings for this will but double the affliction not remedy it Say not I could beare any cross but this For you doe but deceive your self in this plea for your impatience being most sensible of the present having forgot former and not knowing or much regarding future as we are allways most sensible of the present weather And were it so as you think it is not for you to choose your own crosses no more than your comforts Check your selves and indulge not impatience which discomposes and unfits you for your duty both towards God and men as we see in Jonah whose prayers in that temper are nothing but quarrelling with God Be not so sinfully selfish as to wish them so much to their loss as to be with you again who have finished their course past the fears and pangs of death left this troublesom world and got rid of their sins and Satan's temptations and crowned with righteousnes in eternal life Envy not the early happines of thy wife that is gon to a better husband nor of thy child that is gon to his heavenly Father But prepare thou to follow and be with Christ and them in heaven where there will be no more parting Now that God by the clouds gathering so thick and black about us threatens us with a dreadful storm we have reason to count them more than ordinary blest and happy that are got safe home to their father's house and those heavenly mansions out of the reach of men or devils God's smoking us out of these houses of clay by these particular providences allso may and justly should make our eyes water but not be filld with tears or our hearts with sorrows too much either in degree or duration for those gon before us who might say to us as Christ to the daughters of Jerusalem weep not for us but for your selves and your children that are left behind in the days a coming in a troublesom world And that none should sorrow for this our sister as others which have no hope I might shew more largely if I had known her longer Who thô taken from us in an hour we thought not yet we have reason to believe neither unthought of nor unprepared for by her not only in regard of the hazardous condition she knew she was to pass thorow but the tenure of her life which was vertuous and unblamable her conversation having been answerable to her pious education The certainty of death and uncertainty of the time is not more commonly said than abused by the most who in stead of being allways ready because they know not the time are less ready at all times but the godly wise have not so learned Christ who have been taught by him to watch because they know not what hour he will come To speak of that good in her which she held in common with all other Christians is needles In these loose and declining times she kept her integrity and was at more than ordinary pains for the injoyment of the publique ordinances both in season and out of season as God afforded opportunity How should her early rising to them shame most of us for our sloth if we had any shame in us She redeemed the time in these evil days for her private devotion not vainly spending it in pleasure as too many doe but improving it for eternity making God's word her companion and counsellor Her converse and carriage was modest and prudent guiding both her tongue and affairs with discretion Never speaking evil of any or censoriously judging of others as the unbridled and licentious tongues of many that run at random who feare not to speak evil of dignities and spare not uncharitably to censure all and often better than themselves because they are not of their way In brief she was a Mary in God's house as well as a Martha in her own Finally for her eternal salvation she was nether presumtuously confident as the ignorant nor fearfully diffident as the unbelievers but in a way of duty reposed her soul on Gods mercy and the merits of her Savior being wont to say the feared death but not to be dead Who seemed to be heard in that she feared God removing death as it were out of her sight by those apoplectical or convulsive fits that seised on her and made her senseles wherby death became less terrible to her at least if it was any terror at all And for a Christian sensible of sin and future judgement and eternity not to be affraid to be dead is to me an argument of more than ordinary faith in Christ and more than most of us I feare if we were put to it can truly say For such a one as Epicharmus whom Tully * L. 1. Tuscul Quaest Emori nolo sed me esse mortuum nihil aestimo q. d. mortem horreo idque natura verum ubi fuero mortuus nihil amplius faciam quia nullus ero Pagnini Scholia mentions who neither believes the immortality of the soul or a future state to say so is no wonder but for a Christian that believes both is rare Let 's then comfort our selves that she sleeps sweetly in Jesus and get ready that at what hour soever he shall call for us we may not have our work to doe and both fear death and to be dead but may be fitted to give up our accounts with comfort and be ever with the Lord. FINIS