What shall a man give in exchange for his soul Be pleased to accept this poor thing which I humbly offer to you give it a little room in your Study and Closet and let the truths therein have a great place in your hearts Now blessed of the Lord be you and your hopeful posterity for the precious things of the earth and the fulness thereof and especially for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush NOw for the rest of you my dearly beloved my joy and my longed for It is now thirteen years since upon your free choice and consent I was setled to be your Minister I mourn that I have done you no better service yet I bless God that I have done you no worse Some of you are the people of my joy others are the people of my hopes but God knows you are all the people of my love possibly you may not enjoy my Ministry long though if any thing but death part us it is like for your sakes to be one of the saddest days of my age Some know I might have had better places both before and since I knew you but I never thought my self too good for you the Lord make me better whilst I stay and give you a better when I am gone You will wonder to see me appear to you thus publick my late visitation whereby I was brought down to the gates of the grave and brought up again was the occasion of my preaching these Sermons and the unanimous advice of four godly reverend and learned Ministers all known to you caused their printing without which my own private thoughts of them had never consented to have them licensed for the Press I have devoted this little plain Treatise to the Will of God knowing that if he put power and savour in it it will prosper I expect to be scorned by some but if God say Well done I care not who findes fault I had rather bear the reproaches of thousands then that one poor â—oul should lose the least spiritual and saving good which I may be a means to help him unto I leave it with you as a testimony of my sincere love to you not so much that you may remember me but that you may remember your selves your sins and your souls and that you may remember God Christ Heaven Hell Death and Judgement which are always present before you Brethren I must needs witness that most of you have been constant hearers of the Word and that you have many hundred Sermons to answer for but you must be doers as well as hearers of the word the sins of men and the terrors of the Lord make me afraid that there is a storm rising and I doubt there will be a great fall of many professors and if you will believe our Saviour you shall finde that those onely are built on a rock and shall certainly stand who are both the hearers and doers of the word I refer you to his own words Matth. 7.24 25 26 27. I beseech you let not the world and sin come between your hearts and Christ let nothing keep you from heaven which cannot keep you from hell Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the sheep through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen Your servant for Jesus sake Edward Lawrence Baschurch July 11. 1661. Reader THough nothing be more certain and common then Death it is no common thing to be prepared for it or else salvation would be common As there are no Truths that are more necessary to be oft preacht and heard then those which almost all men know so also no duties are more necessary to be urged then those that almost all confess and think they practice who will not acknowledge that preparation for death should be the daily business of our lives and done with the first and most serious of our cares And yet to the shame of corrupted humane nature we must speak it thousands that are uncertain to live an hour and certain to be lost for ever if death surprize them in the state which they are in are as mindless of a serious preparation and of the change which should go before that change as if it were no part of their concernment Methinks it is a very doleful spectacle to see men unprepared to dye as busily taken up with impertinent diversions as if their work were done already One drinking and prating and singing in an Alehouse or Tavern though unprepared to dye another imployed in feasting and complement and such company and discourse as will least trouble him with such thoughts while yet he is unprepared to dye another scraping for deceitful riches or gaping and scrambling for preferment while yet he is unprepared to dye another quieting his carnal heart with meer hypocritical outsides and lip-service as if he could charm an unprepared soul into Heaven by saying or hearing a few words and few will know feelingly what an important work Preparation is till the terrors of approaching death be upon them One of Gods means for mens preparation is to give his Ministers a special fitness to assist them in the work As Christ took part with the children that were partakers of flesh and bloud Heb. 2.14 and in all things must be made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful High-priest and in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted v. 17 18. so that we have not an High-priest that cannot be touched with the feeling our of infirmities Heb. 4.15 Even so his Ministers must be mortals frail and subject to like passions as other men James 5.17 and the treasure of the spirit must be in earthen vessels 2 Cor. 4 7. They must be sick that they may the better teach you to prepare for sickness and they must be exercised in preparing for death themselves that they may be the fitter to teach you to prepare The God of Comfort comforteth them in all their tribulations that they may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the Comfort wheâ—ewith they are comforted of God â—nd whether they be afflicted or comforted it is for your consolation and salvation Even when they are pressed out of measure above strength insomuch as they despair of life they receive the sentence of death in themselves that they may not trust in themselves but in God that raised the dead that thanks may be given by many on their behalf 2 Cor. 1.3 4 6 8 9 11. Whereas those that are insensible of their neerness to eternity and in healthful prosperity grow secure are like to be no lively feeling Preachers nor fit to waken others to that serious preparation which they
the cruelty and injustice that laid me and the Timber answers and cryes Make inquisition for the blood that laid me Oh you that eat the bread of deceit and live upon lyes and injustice were your consciences awakened you might hear the very bread on your tables and the money in your purses and the stones and timber of your houses cry for the vengeance of God against you and yet this infinitely patient God bears with you Lastly the sighs and groans of Gods people cry aloud for vengeance against their Persecutors and Oppressors Exod. 3.7 I have seen the affliction of my people which are in Aegypt and have heard their cry Psal 12.4 For the oppression of the poor and the sighing of the needy will I arise Beloved the godly are hated for their likeness to God this makes the difference betwixt them and the wicked for herein they differ from the world and a man must either make God his enemy and the Devil his father and be content to damn his own soul or else the world and he will never be friends but he that is born after the flesh will persecute him that is born after the spirit Now herein is glorified the patience of God when they that wrong his people rake in the apple of his eye and yet this tender Father stands by and sees his children scorned and loathed and murdered for choosing and honouring and fearing and pleasing him and for a long time bears all Lastly the infinite patience of God appears in that he can always ease himself of his enemies and yet he forbears God complains that the sins of men are a trouble to him Isa 1.14 and that they weary him Isa 43.24 and saith he Amos 2.13 Behold I am pressed under you as a Cart is pressed that is full of sheaves Now the Scripture speaks as if God did ease and comfort himself in the destruction of his enemies Isa 1.24 Ah I will ease me of my adversaries Ezek. 5.13 I will cause my fury to rest upon them and I will be comforted Now God can suddenly thus ease and comfort himself let him but command the Pestilence the Fever the Pocks c. they will quickly fetch them to hell never to trouble him more but in his infinite patience and long-suffering he spares them and bears with them Thirdly Informs us of the reason why godly Ministers are so serious in shewing men their danger and pressing them to repentance because they see Almighty God armed with such a multitude of diseases and judgments and deaths against men when a Minister is filled with love to and longing for the salvation of his people and sees the diseases and other judgments which lye at the door of every sinner and knows that the want of his care and faithfulness may be the damnation of a soul or more before another opportunity this must needs make Ministers labour earnestly for the salvation of their people and therefore it is an excellent thing for a Minister to preach and pray and administer Sacraments and live as if he saw God and Christ and Angels and Devils and Death and Judgment looking him in the face to preach as if he were to die preaching and people were to die under his Sermons Hence saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.10 We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ whence he infers vers 11. Knowing therefore the terrors of the Lord we perswade men Beloved we know what Christ will do to us if we preach the word deceitfully and damn the souls whom we are sent to save We know the doom of those who know not God and obey not the Gospel 2 Thes 1.8 9. We know whither drunkards and whoremongers and blasphemers and worldlings and all unregenerate persons are going and therefore knowing the terrors of the Lord we perswade men we are sent in the stead of Christ to perswade you to heaven and therefore dare not stand in the stead of Devils to flatter you into hell Sirs it is not many weeks since I was even past preaching and I know that death and I must shortly meet again and I know ere long you will be past hearing and therefore I would preach and live so that when sickness and death return I may be found labouring to save my self and them that hear me In the mean time when I look upon God and see millions of deaths in his hands and every death hell following it I dare not but warn you to flee from the wrath to come Mat. 3.7 Beloved a faithful Minister would never tell you of your sins but to cause you to forsake them and the word Hell should not be so often in his Pulpit but that he is afraid lest his people should come there he hath no secret grudge against you neither desires the woful day God knows Jer. 17.16 but he dares not deceive you he dares not be damned for you in preaching you and himself into hell The fourth informs us whence it is that we hear so much of the unexpected deaths of men why here is the cause God commands a disease or some other messenger of death to go and to fetch them away and they are gone if any die God tells all the world who kills them I kill saith he Deut. 32.39 Hence we see great men for a while fill a Country and a frown of their faces and a stamp of their foot makes all to quake about them but they prove like Pharaoh of whom we read Jer. 46.17 Pharaoh King of Egypt is but a noise So they make a great noise in the Country a while and then like a sound in the Air pass away Methinks a great man is like a great winde it blows violently and rageth a while as if it would throw down all afore it but it proves but a wind which is soon spent and laid So a furious wicked man he blusters and ruffles a while as if he would blow down God and man but a disease and death comes and he gives up the ghost and where is he David made this observation Psal 37.35 36. I have seen the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a green Bay-tree Observe he spreads himself he enlargeth his power and riches and greatness But see what follows Yet he passed away and lo he was not yea I sought him but he could not be found for a sickness comes and like a tempest takes him away in a night Job 27.20 and so by the blast of God they perish Job 4.9 So we see others which would be as great sinners but that they are not so great men for instrumenta explicandae nequitiae desunt as Seneca speaks they want instruments to do mischief these curst Kine have short horns and so cannot do so much hurt these men are full of lyes oaths drunkenness and are set on fire against God and godliness sinning with that impudence as if they would out-face and brow-beat God and man and make death
their curses to pass We read of a Mother that in a passion cursed her Son thus Get thee gone I would thou mightest never come again alive and the same day her Son went into the water and was drowned Another woman said in her anger to her Childe The Devil take thee and presently the poor childe was possessed with the Devil These and many more such dreadful examples should make all afraid of such or any other words of cursing Consider once more that every man should have his heart filled with love unto and earnest desires of the good of all men and should be always in a frame to offer up these desires in prayer to God Now how contrary to this is that devillish spirit which inclines thee to hate and to curse others The Apostle James sets out the great hypocrisie and wickedness of a man who with the same tongue will bless God and curse men James 3.9 10. Therewith bless we God even the Father and therewith curse we men which are made after the similitude of God Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing My brethren these things ought not so to be Lastly This Doctrine reproves those who hasten diseases and death to themselves by their own sins I may reason with such sinners in Solomons words Eccles 7.17 Be not over-much wicked neither be thou foolish why shouldst thou die before thy time It is not meant the time absolutely appointed by God for that cannot be prevented but it 's meant that time which in the course of nature they might have probably lived unto as a Lamp will burn till the Oyl be spent but it may be quencht or blown out sooner So in the course of nature many a man might have probably lived many a year but oftentimes either by a sudden blast of God or by some diseases which are bred by his own sins the lamp of his life is quickly blown out and some of such sins I shall here particularly reprove I might instance in that horrible sin of self-murder which ordinarily proceeds from pride unbelief revenge covetousness discontent or despair when men cannot despite God and man enough by their lives they will attempt to do it by their deaths and will venture with their own hands to cut the thred of their own lives and to loose themselves out of the troubles of earth into the torments of hell I might also mention the horrid sins of Treason Murder Witchcraft Theft c. which sins binde their bodies to the wrath and justice of men and their souls and bodies to the wrath and vengeance of God These sins bring men to be hanged like dogs because they could not be contented to live like men I shall instance in these five sins which do provoke God to visit men with diseases some of which do of their own nature bring men to untimely sickness and death 1. Persecution of Gods people This is a sin which doth not only bring everlasting damnation hereafter but usually it also brings some fearful judgments on the bodies and families of Persecutors here Hence we read Psalm 55.23 Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their daies It would take up far more room then I can here spare to instance in the fearful examples of Gods vengeance upon the very bodies of the cruel enemies of Gods Church and people whereby we might see that all the cruelty which the most barbarous persecutors have invented to torment the Christians with hath not been comparable to those torments wherewith God hath tortured their Enemies with fearful and strange diseases We read of that bloody Herod who murdered the Infants Matth. 2.16 that he was smitten by the hand of God with a most shameful and painful disease so that his body boiled and burnt with heat and his bowels were gnawn he was tormented with a ravenous and insatiable appetite after meat his privy parts were rotten and full of filthy vermine and after he had endured a while the horririble pangs of a lingring death he died in desperate madness and misery See Eusebius Ecclesiastic Histor Lib. 1. Cap. 8. Tertullian amongst other examples of the like kinde reports that one Claudius Herminianus in Cappadocia being enraged that his Wife was turned Christian to revenge himself did exercise much cruelty upon the precious Christians for which God did smite him with a fearful plague wherewith after a while he was tormented he dyed ad Scapulam cap. 3. Steven Gardiner a bloudy butcher in Queen Maries days hearing that Bishop Ridley and Master Latimer were burned at Oxford rejoyced greatly and being at dinner ate his meat merrily but whilst the meat was in his mouth the wrath of God came upon him so that he was taken from his board to bed where continuing fifteen days in intolerable anguish by reason he could not expel his urine his body being miserably inflamed within he was brought to a wretched end with his tongue all black and swoln hanging out of his blasphemous mouth I shall conclude this by warning all that either love their souls lives or posterity or country to take heed of wronging the precious people of God the truth is the Nation which persecutors are a curse unto and the souls of persecutors themselves are dearer to godly Christians then all their own private interest which persecution can take from them and therefore I say to all malicious enemies as Tertullian said to Scapula a Ruler in Carthage and a cruel enemy to Christians Parce tibi si non nobis parce Carthagini si non tibi Spare thy self if thou wilt not spare us spare Carthage if thou wilt not spare thy self So I say if ye will not spare the holy people of God spare your selves if ye will not spare your selves spare your families spare your poor children if you will not spare your families spare the precious nation spare London spare England for you swallow up all by swallowing up Gods people The second sin which I shall here reprove is unworthy receiving the Lords Supper God often punisheth this sin with bodily diseases Hence we read 1 Cor. 11.30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep Now that you may know the evil and danger of this sin I shall shew you what it is to eat and drink the Lords Supper unworthily A man eats and drinks the Lords Supper unworthily when he is without the gracious qualifications which make the heart fit and meet and agreeable to this blessed Ordinance The best way to understand this is to consider what is in the Ordinance and what is in the heart and then by comparing them together to see whether they do meet and agree as for example in the Lords Supper Jesus Christ crucified with all the blessings of the Gospel are shewed forth 1 Cor. 11.26 well and there is a Believer who by faith sees and discerns the Lords Body as it is set forth therein now such a heart and the
thy self as it were in the grave and see thy ghastly skull lying in the dust among the worms of the earth and then look on thy glorious Head in Heaven and so comfort thy self with this that as vile and loathsome a spectacle as thy diseased body is now and thy dead body will be shortly yet it is a precious member of Jesus Christ who will by his infinite power change and fashion this contemptible dust into the likeness of his glorious body in heaven 4. Comfort in respect of death it comes to the godly without a sting In this we are taught to triumph 1 Cor. 15.55 56. O death where is thy sting Now to clear up your comfort in this consider that sickness and death are said to sting when God as a revenging Judge sends them to execute the curse of the law for sin so that death is compared to a fearful Serpent which kills and devours all the men and women in the world And saith the Apostle the sting of this Serpent Death is sin it 's sin that makes the sting and then he adds the strength of sin is the law The strength that sin hath to sting is from the curse of the Law and the Law hath its strength and power from the wrath of God for the law worketh wrath Rom. 4.15 So that by all you see that by the sting of death is meant the dreadful torments of hell which at death come from the wrath of God through the curse of the Law for sin O poor Christless sinner what a miserable case art thou in Look well as thou fittest in thy seat and thou mayst see this stinging Serpent Death lye under thy feet when thou liest down this Serpent lies under thy bed when thou art at meat this Serpent lies under thy table when thou goest out of thy house thou mayst see this Serpent at the door ready to sting thee to heâ— But now here comes in the unspeakaâ— comfort of believers for though death hâ— power to kill them yet it hath no poâ—er to sting them because all the cauâ— of Deaths sting are taken away by Jesâ— Christ 1. Sin is gone for this lamb of Gâ— hath taken away the sins of the world Joâ— 1.29 Observe they are taken away â— if they had never been Hence 1 Pet. â— 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his owâ— body on the tree So that by the righteouâ—ness of Christ given to us by God and received of us by Faith and thereby maâ— our own we are fully cleared and absoâ—ved from sin and God will never impuâ— it to us 2. It follows that the curse of the Law is gone for Christ hath delivered us froâ— the curse of the law being made a curâ— for us So that the law hath no strength tâ— binde us to punishment there being neither sin to binde us for nor punishment tâ— binde us unto 3. The wrath of God which makes thâ— punishment is also taken away for it iâ— God that justifieth Rom. 8.33 and we havâ— thereby peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 5.1 So that God is ours and for us to love bless and save and glorifie us and therefore every believer may with comfort hold up the Blood of Christ in the very face of the King of Terrors and say Here is my Christ my righteousness but O death where is thy sting Nay further Death is now changed from coming to execute the curses of the Law for it comes to fulfil the blessings of the Gospel for death to a believer is a work of a reconciled Father whereby he looseth his childe out of earth into heaven so that we may see death so full of the love and goodness of God that it should even indear it to us and make it lovely and precious to our souls That is a most comfortable promise Joh. 8.51 Verily verily I say unto you If a man keep my saying he shall never see death It is not meant he shall never die as the Jews understood it ver 52. And I conceive it is not only intended he shall never die the second death but the meaning also seems to be this that a Childe of God shall see so much of God and Christ and Heaven that he may even overlook the fears of death which are swallowed up by God and Christ and Life Lastly Comfort in respect of our glorious victory over all diseases and death at the day of Judgment This victory consists in two things 1. In putting a final period to all diseases and death Sickness shall never trouble us more and death shall never kill us more I warrant thee Christian thy head will never ake in heaven and for certain there will be no Funerals in that Country but corruptible must put on incorruption and mortal shall put on immortality 2. In that the bodies of believers shall then be never the worse for the diseases and death which they have suffered but the bodies which were sown in dishonour shall be raised in glory Beloved a Saint may live comfortably in any condition by living in the joyful knowledge of the day of judgment Hence when the Apostle had propounded this as an argument of comfort that yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry He adds this Now the just shall live by faith meaning they shall live a life of holiness and comfort in believing the day of judgment And Saint Paul having made a glorious description of that great day 1 Thes 4.15 16 17. makes this use of it vers 18. Wherefore comfort one another with these words And in this the godly did comfort themselves Rom. 8.23 And not only they but our selves also which have the first-fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our bodies This is a most comfortable life to live as those that are always groaning and waiting for the day of judgment A believer may apply this to his comfort against any particular trouble Art thou disgraced and reproached in thy name summon as it were all thy accusers to the day of judgment and believe what a name thou shalt have then and that thou shalt be sure to come off with credit at that day when the glorious Judge of quick and dead shall confess thee before his Father and Angels and Men and as mean and obscure as thou seemest now the world will have other thoughts of thee when they see thee appear with Christ in glory Col. 3.4 And therefore we learn that one great work of that day will be to make a clear and open manifestation of the sons of God Rom. 8.19 Art thou troubled with unreasonable and wicked men so that thou mayst say with David My soul is among Lyons and I lye even among them that are set on fire Psal 57.4 Consider what Christ will do to them at the day of judgment and what
wholly turned and set for the service and glory of God So that in this case a man may improve his knowledge and faith by all the advantages both from Scriptures and Creatures and get his soul filled with the highest thoughts of the infinite power and wisdom and goodness of God and then boldly say This is my infinitely great and good Father and all his glorious power and wisdom and love is on my side then he may look into the world and see all things working busily about him and then conclude that this is the greatest work upon the wheels to bring happiness and salvation to me and to that body of which I am a member And then on the other hand he may look in himself and see all the powers of his body and soul united in this great designe to please and praise and enjoy God So that by these things you may learn what it is to be at peace with God whereby you may also see what is the enmity betwixt God and a sinner it is that whereby a sinner is against God so as to be fearfully bent to hate and deny and despite him and God is against the sinner so as to blast and curse and damn him so that this is thy case sinner if thou art not at peace with God all manner of diseases and all kindes of deaths and dangers yea and all the curses of the Bible are against thee because the God of all these is against thee I would therefore seriously perswade you to come to agreement with God which that you may do let me tell you that I am this day sent as an Embassador of peace from the Lord of life and death who hath committed to me the word of reconciliation So that I have authority from him to offer most blessed conditions of peace viz. if you will this day sincerely turn from sin to God and truely receive Jesus Christ as he is offered in the Gospel you shall have the great God to be your Father his onely begotten Son the true God to be your Husband and Saviour the infinite and blessed Spirit to be your Comforter you shall have grace and peace to abide with you here and an everlasting Kingdom of glory to possess and enjoy hereafter Sirs are not these blessed and honourable terms Well where lyes the difference Answ In nothing but sin Now what a fearful case is this that after God the Father hath sent his onely begotten Son and after he hath dyed the most shameful painful and accursed death of the Cross and after so many hundred Sermons and offers of peace Wilt thou now break with God for a base lust canst thou indure hereafter to lye among the Devils and damned in everlasting burnings and to see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God and hear thy own conscience upbraiding thee to all eternity that thou hast lost heaven and dost lye in hell for loving thy cups oaths whores or the dust of the earth better then Jesus Christ O Sirs repent and believe quickly you have more need to do it then either to eat drink or sleep for ought you know you may be in hell before such another offer be made I am sure there are millions of diseases and deaths waiting at your doors to break up the treaty I shall therefore conclude this in the words of Eliphaz to Job cap. 22.21 22 23. Aquaint now thy self with God and be at peace thereby good shall come unto thee Receive I pray thee the law from his mouth and lay up his words in thy heart If thou return to the Almighty thou shalt be built up thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy Tabernacles Fourthly prize and improve godly Ministers and people whilst you have them seeing it appears by this Doctrine that you know not how soon they may be sent for to heaven where I am sure they will be better respected Now the greatest honour that you can shew to godly Ministers is to be doers of the Word which they are Preachers of Ministers are more honoured by the conversion though of the poorest servants then by the highest commendations which the most able and learned Doctors are able to express for this is their greatest glory to be instruments of Gods glory in the salvation of poor souls for thereby the Word of God is glorified 2 Thes 3.1 By the applause of men Ministers may be cryed up for persons of excellent gifts and parts but this is their greatest glory when by the salvation of souls the excellencie of the power appears to be of God and not of men But Beloved the ignorant unbelieving world knows not the worth of godly Ministers or Christians because they see not the excellencie of God and Christ and Holiness and Heaven which are the causes which make them so precious The world knoweth us not because it knew him not 1 Joh. 3.1 But whatever the men of the world think who can prize nothing but honours and riches and pleasures to which they should be dead and crucified I tell you godly Ministers and Christians are the blessings of their age and those are the best Kingdoms and Countries and Towns and Parishes and Families which have most of them and which love them best Solomon tells us Prov. 10.11 The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life I need not tell you what a necessary publick mercy a well of good and wholesome water is to the Town or Family where it springs Now a righteous man is a Well of Life he is a spring of spiritual Aqua vitae Many a poor sinner or sad swounding Christian receives the spiritual life of grace and strength and comfort from the mouth of a godly Minister or Christian Prov. 15.4 A wholesome tongue is a tree of life It 's a Metaphor taken from the Tree of Life in Paradise which was Gods Ordinance to preserve man alive had he continued in innocencie Thus a godly man is a tree of life in this evil world he turns a Family into a Paradise where he grows and is prized so that many a man who was dead in sin and many a fainting childe of God is quickned and revived by feeding on the fruit of his wholesome tongue Now my Brethren the serious consideration that these blessings are by sickness and death ready to be taken from us should cause us to esteem and improve their spiritual and savoury company How did Elisha cleave to Elijah when he knew he was presently to be taken from him and therefore we finde that three times Elijah to try Elisha his constancie seemed to shake him off but Elisha every time answers most solemnly As the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth I will not leave thee 2 Kin. 2.2 3 6. and if you read the story you will finde that it proved well for Elisha that he was so wise and careful to improve that precious opportunity See Acts 20.25 where Paul useth this
of Christ is as truely thine by faith as it is Pauls or ever a Saints in heaven Rom. 3.22 The righteousness of God is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference So that I say thou mayst stand in this righteousness and put all the enemies of thy salvation to the trial and ask Who can lay any thing to thy charge or condemn thee And thou mayst in effect hear from all the like answer which was made by other things in Job in another case Sin saith It is not in me and Satan saith It is not in me and the Law saith It is not in me and Death saith It is not in me we have nothing to charge upon a justified person and therefore be always taking new and fresh hold in this righteousness for it is observable that God doth not onely in a set and solemn way as in Sacraments and Sermons c. offer and give Jesus Christ but also he is constantly offering him in the Gospel and declaring it to be his will that we should take him and thou shouldst not onely in the duties of Gods worship but also upon all opportunities in secret and at other times be applying to thy self and owning and glorying in this righteousness of Jesus Christ believe that God is always smelling a sweet savour in this righteousness as offered for thee and that Christ is by his continual intercession presenting it to his Father for thee and it 's always offered in the Gospel to thee do thou therefore always take it for thy righteousness to justifie thee that when sickness and death come thou mayst be found so doing Direct 2. Learn to dye daily for it is a certain truth that he that will live when he dies must die whilst he lives and therefore Paul affirms it to be his practice 1 Cor. 15.31 I protest by your rejoycing that I have in Christ Jesus our Lord I dye daily But how can a man dye daily Answ Three ways 1. By a daily separating and loosing his heart from all things which death can loose him and separate him from I mean so as not to account his life and happiness to consist in them death you know is a separation from that which is our life Now we have a kinde of life in husbands wives children estates c. and when death comes it separates us from these therefore I say we dye daily by a daily loosening and parting the heart from them this duty is clearly taught by the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.29 30 31. where the Apostle exhorts that because our time to enjoy relations pleasures and estates is but short and we are presently to spend an eternity without them therefore let them that have wives be as though they had none and they that rejoyce be as though they rejoyced not and they that buy be as though they possessed not that is they must live with their hearts loosed and parted from these things for as a traveller useth the necessary accommodations of his Inne soberly seasonably and cheerfully whilst he stays yet so as to forward and not to hinder his journey home So a Christian must use the comforts of this life holily cheerfully and thankfully yet so as not to stop him in his way to heaven Our sweetest enjoyments must neither make the thoughts of eternity less sweet nor our passage into eternity more hard Now hereby a man is very much prepared for sickness and death for one thing which makes these so grievous is because the heart hath taken such hold of the creature that it exceedingly torments him to be broken from it so that it is often a greater trouble to loose his soul from the world then to loose it from the body but when by grace the heart is already loosed from the world a great part of deaths work is done already because death findes him dead to the world when it comes to take him out of the world 2. A man dyes daily by a daily living on those things which he must live upon after death We are commanded this duty Col. 3.1 2. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God Set your affections on things above and not on things on the earth As the heart must be parted from the things on earth so it must be set and fixt and fastned on the things in heaven and this is the property of grace to make the heart dead to the world by turning it to a life in God and Christ and heaven Now this also is a dying daily for death to a childe of God is a removing him from a life on earth to a life in heaven and hereby he doth as it were go beyond death and hath his life and joy and comfort in the other world He walks by faith in the streets of the City that hath foundations and rests and refresheth his soul in his house not made with hands he secretly departs from the company and comforts of this life and gets his heart among Angels and Saints in heaven beholding and praising and rejoycing in the face of God and Jesus Christ Now such a man must needs be fit to dye because his heart is set on every thing that death brings him unto Like Paul who having his heart fixt on Christ in heaven cries out Phil. 1.23 I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Lastly a man dyes daily by daily looking upon himself as a dying or dead man he lays death to his heart Eccles 7.2 his heart is full of the serious thoughts of death Job 17.13 14. If I wait the grave is my house I have made my bed in the darkness I have said to corruption Thou art my father to the worm Thou art my mother and my sister Ah sirs to one that knows he shall dye and sleep in Jesus death and the worms are as sweet as his dearest relations And thus a man prepares for death when he doth as it were accustom himself to dye and makes death familiar to him Christians look upon your selves as always at the very point of death when you are putting your flowers in your bosoms remember you are as it were dressing a Corpse for the grave when you are washing and kembing your heads and faces and looking on them in the glass remember what ghastly skulls they will be shortly yet let thy thoughts be often among the graves think here lyes my Grand-father and Grand-mother there lyes my Father and Mother yonder lyes my Brother and Sister and I my self am just going to lye down amongst them Thus learn to dye daily Direct 3. Labour by an eye of faith to discern between things that differ Beloved faith hath a very deep and piercing insight into things it judgeth of things by Scripture it believes what God in his Word speaks of them and so a believers carriage towards every thing is
according as the Word describes and presents it to him and surely this makes people so unprepared to dye because they want an understanding of things It cannot sink into their hearts that sin is so bad and Christ so good or the world so vain or grace so precious or hell so terrible or heaven so glorious but they are so confident that lust is sweet and riches are precious and death is far off and hell is but a bug bear and heaven is but a fansie And in this confidence they will live and dye and therefore the Apostle prayes that the Philippians may try things that differ that they may be fit for the day of Christ I shall therefore give you this Direction in these following particulars 1. Look upon God and the world together and you shall see the difference for this end I beseech you search and believe that Scripture Isa 40.15 -17. Behold the nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance Behold he taketh up the isles as a very little thing All nations before him are as nothing and they are counted to him less then nothing and vanity Now let thy heart judge of and act towards God and the world according to this difference Set all the world before thee give every creature its due see what a vast world of Kingdoms and Nations it is look upon the strong Islands which are fortified and moted about with the Seas which this great God takes up as a very little thing see a world of great and mighty men before thee see the rich world of gold and silver and precious stones lying on heaps before thee look upon the lands and buildings which make all the woods fields pastures medows orchards vineyards gardens towns cities and stately houses in the world O what a glorious world is this which made the very Angels shout for joy at the rearing of it Well take a full survey of the glory and beauty of this great world and then looking on a drop of water hanging on a bucket what a poor thing is this which is ready to break and fall on the ground and no body catcheth at it look also upon the small dust of the balance a thing of neither weight nor worth it doth not so much as turn the scales Now labour by faith to have such a clear insight into the greatness and goodness of God and Jesus Christ that thou mayst be able to judge all the world to be but as a drop of the bucket or as the small dust of the balance to thy Father and Saviour and let thy whole man act according to such a wise holy just judgement and this will exceedingly fit thee for sickness and death which come to loose thee from such a vain world into the presence and everlasting injoyment of such a glorious God 2. Look upon sin and upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ look upon these together Beloved faith hath a deep insight into the evil of sin for it sees the glory of God which sin is against wherein the evil of it appears and believes the dreadful curses of the law and what the wrath of God and what hell is and what an immortal being a man is that must suffer these Faith also hath a piercing insight into the excellencie of Christs righteousness it sees what an infinitely-glorious God Jesus Christ is which makes his righteousness so precious and meritorious and so savoury and satisfactory to the Father and for this reason so all-sufficient for faith to rest and live upon for this is the precious property of justifying faith that it receives Christs righteousness for salvation for the same reason which God receives it for satisfaction that is because it is the righteousness of God and indeed faith must see God satisfied before it can see the believer saved and seeing enough in Christ for the satisfaction of God it sees the same sufficiencie in him for the salvation of the Believer Now Christs righteousness never appears more precious then when the soul is filled with the deepest sight and sense of sin for then the soul believes him to be a great Saviour when he sees the great evil of sin which he saves him from and therefore it is observable that the Apostle demonstrates the direful guilt and filth of sin as a preface to that great Doctrine of Justification by faith in the righteousness of Christ Rom. 3. from vers 9. to the end of that Chapter And as you know it was a sad and fearful case for the poor Jews to be bitteâ— with the fiery Serpents and to lye groaning under the pain and anguish of those poisonous and deadly wounds yet then what a glorious sight was it to look upon the brazen Serpent and thereby to finde power and vertue to heal them presently So my Brethren it is a fearful case in it self for a man to stand in the very jaws of death and to look into the horrid nature of sin and see death and devils and hell and all the curses of the law ready to flee in his face and yet how glorious is it then to look upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ and see them all swallowed up and himself saved And thus as he sees the grace of God in Christ raigning and over-abounding all sin Rom. 5.20 21. so his faith and hope and joy grounded thereon doth rise above and over-abound and swallow up all his fears of death and hell which he was in because of his sins 3. Look upon all your sufferings on earth and upon the glory of heaven together The Apostle tells us Act. 14.22 We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God Observe there is an entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven out of all our afflictions and our way to heaven lyes through much tribulation an hypocrite seems to go strongly in the way to heaven but oftentimes when he comes to trouble persecution c. there he is stopt and can go no farther but he that believes the goodness of duty and the glory of heaven if tribulation sickness poverty persecution seek to stop him he goes through them he knows duty is sweet and safe and therefore he will follow it till it bring him to heaven whatever it cost him Tertullian comforts the Martyrs in prison with this That in their close and dark prisons they might see illam viam quae ad Deum ducit that way which leads them to God There is a way to heaven out of prison sick-bed or any other affliction Hence those that come to heaven are said to come out of great tribulation Rev. 7.14 Sometimes a poor Saint comes hot as it were out of the furnace of affliction into heaven from chains and bolts in a prison he is loosed into heaven from gasping and groaning upon a sick-bed to heaven surely when he comes there he findes a strange alteration Well look upon thy self now as standing
Hence we finde that the godly in Scripture were full of the thoughts of death in the time of their sickness David prays on his sick bed that his visitation may be sanctified to this purpose Psal 39.4 Lord make me to know my end and this improvement made Heman of his sickness when the wounds of his soul caused wastings and diseases in his body Psal 88.3 4 5. For my soul is full of troubles and my life draws nigh unto the grave and this was good Hezekiah his frame in his sickness Isa 38.10 11 12. I said in the cutting off my days I shall go to the gates of the grave I am deprived of the residue of my years I said I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the earth Mine age is departed and is removed from me as a shepherds tent I have cut off like a weaver my life He will cut me off with pining sickness from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me So when Job was almost throtled with a disease for saith he Job 30.8 It bindeth me about as the collar of my coat He makes this gracious use of his Visitation vers 23. I know that thou wilt bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living So that by all we see that sickness is a special means to fill our hearts with the thoughts of death End 4. To fill the heart with the knowledge and sense of God Beloved our hearts are apt to be senseless of God as he appears in the ordinary course of his Providence and mercy therefore God often manifests himself in the crosses and changes of our life which makes us more apt to inquire into the cause of such alterations as when corn grows in its ordinary course first the blade then the ear then the full corn in the ear few observe the good Providence of God herein but when God by frost hail or blasting destroys the fruits of the field so that it neither yeilds bread to the eater nor seed to the sower hereby his hand is more remarkably seen and observed so whilst God continues men in health and ease and strength few are sensible of his goodness herein but when he fills their bodies with aches pains and diseases then his power and providence is more observed in such visitations Hence saith Job cap. 10.17 Thou renewest thy witnesses against me as Gods mercies are called his witnesses his doing good and giving rain and fruitful seasons Act. 14.17 so sicknesses and other judgements are fitly called Gods witnesses the use of which is to declare and testifie of God to us Oh saith the Pestilence He is a terrible God that sent me and saith the Fever He is a mighty God that sent me and saith the Consumption He is a just God that sent me If you will not receive the testimony of Gods Ministers and of his Mercies will you receive the testimony of your afflictions certainly every sickness if the conscience be awakened will testifie the same things of God and Christ which Ministers preach to you Consider further I pray you that there is a more special aptness in diseases to convince the heart of man then in divers other things which yet will leave us inexcusable as it is the use of outward mercies to commend the power and wisdom and care and goodness of God to ours heart and a man may improve every mercy so as out of it to fill his heart with God but there are snares and temptations in these to steal the heart from God and therefore men are apt to lose God and to forget him when they are most full of these mercies So in injuries form men we should see the hand of God From men which are thy hand O Lord saith David Psal 17.14 but we are usually so fill'd with anger and revenge towards men that we forget the hand of God But now in a sickness the name of God and the hand of God is more clearly known and seen so that there is no such provision for lust in a sickness as in the mercies here is no profit nor credit nor pleasure for lust to feed upon and here is no instrument to quarrel with will a man be angry with a Fever or be revenged on a Consumption No we must own the Power and Will of God who is the cause of the visitation End 5. Christ sends diseases to turn men from sin and the world unto himself Hence God complains of the want of this as a great disappointment Amos 4.10 I have sent among you the Pestilence to cause you turn to me yet have ye not returned unto to me saith the Lord and therefore it 's observable that in a sickness God doth blast that which makes the snare to hold our hearts from God as we know much of the life and strength of pride and covetousness and other lusts is in the profits and pleasures and preferments of the world now what are all these to a sick man his sickness doth as it were block up all provision from the flesh and now he may see that none but God and Jesus Christ can answer the necessity of his soul and therefore let me ask you What is the best thing which you would propound to a friend on a sick bed who is just upon his flight into eternity will you provide him a sumptuous feast or a rich suit of cloaths or offer him some place of preferment No no shew him a God and Christ to save his poor soul shew him a happiness which will make him blessed when he is turned out of all which sickness and death can take from him Moreover it appears that sickness is appointed by God as a means for our conversion because this and every affliction calls us to do that which the word calls us unto Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest him out of thy law This makes a man a blessed man when in his chastenings he is full of the teaching of the Law Hence we are commanded to hear the rod and who hath appointed it Micah 6.9 Beloved the rod speaks as well as strikes and we should hear the rod as well as feel the rod now what doth the rod speak I answer The rod speaks the minde and will of God who smites with it the rod and the word speak the same language therefore we should see our sickness full of Scripture Oh saith the Dropsie Turn to the God that sent me and saith the Ague Make your peace with God that sent me And this is the voice of every disease which comes upon us And therefore consider that God doth often so bless and sanctifie a sickness to us that it is a means to turn the heart to God and causeth us to bring forth the fruit of many other dispensations as for example God sends to allure us by his mercies Hos
and hell afraid of them but a sickness and death comes and they are driven away in their wickedness Prov. 14.32 whose end Job describes cap. 24.29 Drought and heat consume the snow-waters so doth the grave those that have sinned So also we see godly people who are the blessing of their Age of whom the world is not worthy Hebr. 11.38 the world deserves not the prayers and counsels and examples of such men yet these perish though few lay it to heart Isa 57.1 for in this case there is one event to all Eccles 9.2 for as they lie at the graves mouth we cannot see the difference betwixt a skull that sleeps in Jesus and a skull that is condemned to hell and therefore it 's true of these gracious ones as was said of the good Patriarch Gen. 47.29 Israel must die or as we read of David Acts 13.36 After he had served his own generation by the will of God he fell asleep All these things are from Jesus Christ who sends sicknesses and death at his pleasure and many such things are with him Lastly It informs us of the great mercy of God that we enjoy our health and lives so long when he hath so many diseases in his hands to deprive us of both Hence he is called the Preserver of men Job 7.20 It is the Lord who is our life and the length of our daies who preserves us and keeps us alive Consider the many deaths and dangers we are preserved from that thereby we may see and acknowledge the greatness of this mercy Our Bodies and Souls were no sooner united in the Womb but thousands of deaths were ready to part us again we were liable to all the dangers that our Mothers were in in whose lives our lives were bound up besides multitudes of evils might have kill'd us there and a miscarrying Womb might have loosed us into Eternity And if we look through the whole course of our Age what year or week or day can we name wherein some have not died Oh infinite mercy that keeps us alive in a world of devouring devils and bloody men what multitudes of diseases might have bred in our own bodies what sudden deaths by Falls Fire Water Thunderbolts c. There is never a beam in our houses or beast in our fields or bit of meat on our tables or stones in the streets but methinks it 's like a Pistol charg'd and cockt if God say the word to strike us dead in the place where ever we sit ride walk lie down there is from thence a fall into Eternity We may well wonder when we read of the three Childrens preservation in the Fiery Furnace Dan. 3. and of Daniels safety in the Lyons Den Dan. 6. and yet I tell you our daily and hourly deliverances are as great only they are not so rare for to name no more Devils can as easily kill us as the Fire or Lyons could them and we have no more power to resist or escape these Murderers then they had the merciless Flames or greedy Lyons but as God miraculously preserved them so doth he wonderfully preserve us even in a croud of deaths and dangers Vse 2. Of Reprehension Secondly This Doctrine reproves those who in time of sickness do either for themselves or friends seek to Witches or Wizards for cure Christ makes them sick and they will go to the Devil to make them well but if Christ command all diseases to go and come at his will it must needs be a damnable sin to forsake Christ and the Ordinances appointed by him for our health and to seek help from the Devil This was King Sauls sin though in another case who consulted the Witch of Endor when he was invaded by the Philistins 1 Sam. 28.7 Then did Ahaziah in his sickness send to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron 2 Kings 1.2 And this is the horrid wickedness of many ignorant Atheistical wretches who when they have lost their goods or are visited with sickness seek to Conjurers and Wizards such as they call wise men or wise women to help and relieve them This sin is often condemned in Scripture Lev. 19.31 Regard not them that have familiar spirits Observe do not regard them but look upon them as the basest people in the Country neither seek after Wizards See Isa 8.19 Lev. 26.6 Observe the evil and danger of this sin in these four particulars First This is a sin which brings a man under the heavy wrath and curse of God Lev. 20.6 The soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits and after wizards to go a whoring after them I will even set my face against that soul and will cut him off from among his people Observe for this sin God will set his face against thee all his power and wrath is set and bent against thee O how canst thou hold up thy face when the face of God is set against thee and whereas thou thinkest thou art planted in thy Country and planted in the Church of God and planted in thy Family God will cut thee off from among thy people Thus poor wretch thy disease is perhaps abated and thou rejoycest in thy ease and health but remember thou hast got the Devils blessing and Gods curse Secondly This is that filthy sin of whoredom See again Lev. 20.6 The soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits to go a whoring after them Do not you account this a beastly sin for people to go up and down a whoring Well though thou thinkest thou keepest thy self honest and wilt say I thank God no body can touch me in my honesty yet although all thy Neighbours judge thee to be honest the Lord judgeth thee to be a filthy Whore and Whoremonger for though perhaps thou hast not defiled thy body with a Whore yet thou hast defiled thy soul with the Devil Lev. 19.31 Regard not them that have familiar spirits to be defiled by them and thou mayst be assured that the Devil will not heal thy body except it be to kill thy soul and thou dost hereby joyn that person to the Devil which should be united to Christ thou dost yield thy self to the power and will of the Devil Hence those are the most ignorant sottish prophane or covetous people that seek to Witches Beloved we should do nothing but what we may comfortably go from the doing of it into the presence of God in any duty or to enjoy his presence into Eternity Now as a wife can have no delight to go from a whoremonger into the presence or society of her husband so how canst thou comfortably go from a Wizard to Prayer to a Sacrament or to a Sermon or from a Wizard into Eternity Thirdly This sin is the most abominable sin of Idolatry Lev. 11.31 Regard not â—hem that have familiar spirits I am the Lord your God Implying that they that seek to such do deny God to be the Lord and do disown him from