whilst they were all fast bound up with a band they were secure either from cracking or bending but when once divided by one and one easily snapt asunder Whilst we are all under the bond of peace we are secured by Gods protection but when once divided at the Devils mercy Whilst we hold together we need not fear treating an enemy in the Gate but when once broke asunder with distractions a prey to them that hate us Remember that Joah and Abishai's united strengh put the Syrians and Ammonites to flight consider that ye have enemies enow abroad ye need not seek any so near home Make not those the objects of your malice that should be the bulwarks of your defence against the impetuous storms and batteries of an insnaring world a bewitching flesh and an envious Devil c. Know that there 's unity amongst wicked men for they hold together against the Righteous Simeon and Levi are Brethren in evil and shall we be at odds Nothing can be done well that 's not done in unity that 's not well done that 's done through discension The Apostle tells us That love is the fulfilling of the Law how then can the Law be fulfilled without love Those blessed Angells who wellcomed the new Born Saviour into the world with a Song did in a short sentence express both Tables They sang Glory to God on High Good will to men Peace on earth makes joy in Heaven and those that will not embrace peace on earth shall have nothing to do with the God of peace or the peace of God in Heaven You know what our Saviour said to his Disciples By this shall men know ye have an interest in me if ye love one another If ever therefore ye expect to end in peace or have peace in the end be peaceable in your Pilgrimage so shall ye in good time arive at your journeyes end and be no longer strangers abroad but Kings at home The Young mans Monitor AND Old Mans Admonisher A Meditation on Eccles 12.1 THis golden Book of Ecclesiastes was pen'd by the wisest King upon his repentance and may be fitly stil'd King Solomons Recantation which he wrote after he rose from that fall occasioned through his inordinate love of strange women and after he had with all his Wisdom found out the true Natures of all things here below then this wisest of Kings wrote this Book in the Front whereof he gives a briefe but full description of all the Glory and Pleasures of this world Vanity of vanities saith the Preacher all is vanity Saith the Preacher something must be said to that Solomon the son of David the richest wisest and mightiest Monarch that then reign'd vouchsafes to take upon him the title of Preacher though the Preacher in these dayes must not think much of the worst of titles but no more of that Solomon having thus truly weighed all the pomps and greatness of this world in the balance of his understanding and finding them too light to give satisfaction to the enjoyers thereof in the end of this Book he gives a heavenly Exhortation tending to the attainment of that true felicity as will make those eternally happy that reach it Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of man And for our better direction to keep Gods Commandments this last Chapter is usher'd in with a most excellent wholesome and seasonable Exhortation Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth Before I proceed further here must one Objection be remov'd Some may perhaps question the Preacher why he did not as well say Remember thy Creator in thy old age as in the dayes of thy youth I answer This memento is chiefly given to young men because they take the greatest liberty to wallow in all kinde of sensual pleasures and with the greatest eagerness to pursue the deceiving vanities of this world for now are their veins full of blood and their bones full of marrow and Repentance seems as unseasonable to them as Snow in Summer or Rain in Harvest Is not our youth say they given us to glut our selves with all kindes of pleasures and to walk in the wayes of our own hearts Shall I then sayes one grieve in my prime and repent for my crimes to hasten old age and make my smooth face full of wrinkles and bring gray hairs on my head ere I am an old man old age will fasten on me soon enough without all this let me therefore make hay while the sun shines and make the best use of my time I can to the utmost improvement of Pleasures and when I am growne so old as to be past using them I le cast them off and think of repentance and another world when 't is not possible to stay long in this These are the Common Pleas of Youth and therefore the Preacher looking upon them as the furthest from instruction and to stand in the greatest need of advice directeth his speech in a most especiall manner to them Remember now c. Young men have no more a lease of their lives then aged persons and there doth as many of them go to the grave as of older persons Death arrests some in their Cradles and many in their Infancy Childehood and Youth The dayes of man upon earth are but a shadow no certainty of any thing as of Death and nothing more uncertain then the time when and the maner how Come hither then thou darling of the world thou great favorite of flesh and blood thou whose Honors here are as blooming as the Lillies and Roses in thy youthful cheeks know Image that though thy Head be of Gold thy Body of Silver thy Feet are but of Clay If thou walk'st into the fields in the forward time of the Year thou canst not be unfurnisht of lively Emblemes of thy own Mortality how do the Lilly the Rose the Cowslip and the Gillyflower bemantle the earth as so many stars to represent Heaven glorious tapestry upon sight whereof you may easily be convinc't to believe That Solomon in all his glory was not arayed like one of these And yet how subject are they to fading pluck them and they are stubborn soon crapt assunder smell them and they wither and if the winde but blows over them they are gone and be no more And is it not so with thee doth not St. James compare our life to a vapor and that 's but short David to a span a thought a tale and those not long Isaiah to grass and the flower of the field and those you see not lasting But of all the sacred Limners in holy Scripture I finde Jobs pencil to be the freest in pourtraying man to stubble and that not standing neither to a leaf and that not fast but shaken and to a weavers shuttle and many other such transient resemblances He came something near the drawing man to the life who compared this life to a spot between two Eternities the time
past being dead the future unborn and onely the narrow compass of the present all that man can challenge We know not how soon death may overtake us when we are sent into the world the greatest part of our errand is to dye and the onely business of our life to prepare for death We are not certain to be Masters of one minute of time when we begin to breath the next moment may be our last How many have lien down to take a healthful sleep that have wak't in another world Death saith a learned man lies in wait for us in all places and there 's no escaping his tyranny Death borders upon our Births and our Cradles stand in our Graves How many have we seen carried from the Womb to the Tomb from the Birth to the Burial and what a short cut hath the longest liver from the Grave of the Womb to the Womb of the Grave Ever since the fall of our first Father death hath ranged through the world and made a general slaughter of mankinde sparing none The most eloquentest Orator that ever was could never charm him nor the potentest Monarch that ever breathed could never bribe him the greatest Warriour that ever was death hath civilized and made a green turf or weather-beaten stone cover that body that living a Lordship could not cloathe or the world contain the most famous persons that ever the world enjoyed hath death laid at his feet without regard either to Worth Dignity Majesty Youth or Age Sex or Condition he favours not the best nor spares the worst Samson with all his strength Absolon with all his beauty Josiah with all his zeal David with his conquests and Solomon with his glory Crasus with his wealth and Irus with his poverty Lazarus with his boyles and Dives with his bravery the Beggar with his rags and the Courtier with his robes all come under the rugged imbraces of this grim Sergeant He spared not Innocency it self but had the confidence to look the Son of the Highest in the face arrests him and keeps him three dayes his prisoner in the Grave The mortal Sythe is master of the Royal Scepter and it mows down the Lillies of the crown as well as the grass of the field death uses no civillity to Princes more then Pesants he findes them out in their Palaces and it may be in their most retired Closets and handles them no otherwise then the meanest person in the street Death saith a learned Divine suddainly snatcheth away Physicians as it were in scorn and contempt of Medicines when they are applying their preservatives and restoratives to others as it is storied of Caius Julius a Chyrurgeon who dressing a sore Eye as he drew the Instrument over it was struck by an Instrument of death in the act and place where he did it Besides diseases many by mischances are taken as a bird with a bolt while he gazeth at the bow Death is that King against whom there is no rising up which all men are sure to meet with whatever they miss of but when that 's unknown Of Dooms-day there are signs affirmative and negative not so of death every day we yield something to him our last day stands the rest run And how should this put us all in minde to prepare for death that he snatcheth us not away at unawares Whatsoever thou takest in hand therefore remember thine end saith the wise Man and thou shalt never do amiss No thoughts so wholsome as those of death and none so profitable as those of our end We read of Isaac that he brought his new Bride Rebecca into his Mother Sarahs Tent thereby to moderate those Nuptial pleasures with the thoughts of her Memory whose Corps but few dayes before were carried thence And King Saul was no sooner anointed but Samuel sends him by Rachels Sepulchre lest his new greatness of being a King might puff him up and make him to forget that he was a man We read of many heathens who did so much contemplate on their mortality as their discourses their houses and their tables should be constant Monitors of it The Aegyptians were wont to carry about their Tables a Deaths head at their greatest feasts and the Emperours of Constantinople on their Coronation day had a Mason appointed to present unto them certain Marble-stones using these words or to this purpose Choose mighty Sir under which of thesâ— Stones Your pleasure is ere long to lay your Bones And 't is storied of Philip King of Macedon that he caused a Lackey everâ— morning to awake him with that shâ— Memento of Sir remember that you arâ— a man Shall heathens be thus mindful 〈◊〉 their dissolution and shall we put thoâ—â— thoughts far from us surely no but â—â—ther cogitate of it and make every dâ—â— our last Certainly did we but considâ—â— that we are Men that all our actioâ—â— stand upon record and shall one day be impartially rewarded We should so demean our selves every day as men that endeavoured that no action of any day should be such as should stand against us at the last Young men remember this you that may promise your selves many dayes upon earth let not every day that is added to your life bring new sins with it but let grace be added to your dayes that so your last dayes may be better then your first and your burial day better then your birth as the wise Man speaks Make God the Alpha and Omega of all your actions and remember him in your work and he will remember you in the reward remember him as an Omniscient and Omnipotent God one that beholds all thy actions and will reward them remember him in thy youth and let him have thy best dayes as well as thy worst the blossoms of thy Youth as well as the leaves of thy Old age and be sure that thou spend the glory of thy years as well as the dregs of thy age in his service so shall thy life be prosperous thy death happy and thy resurrection glorious On the contrary if thou forget him now a day will come when he will not remember thee but strangely excommunicate thee with a depart from me for I know you not therefore ever bear this wholsome lesson in minde and forget it not Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy Youth It may be some may think that Old Men come not within the verge of this exhortation and that Solomon had nothing to say to them when he directed his speech to the Young Man I answer that Old Men are more concerned to take notice of this then the Young man and thus I prove it Young Men are but newly come into the world and they must have some time to look about them Old Men are ready to leave the World and 't is not long ere they must render an account to God for all their actions 'T is but the dawning of the day with the Young Man but night begins to shew it self
up and earnest on your way towards home that if death shall snatch you away in a moment it may be onely to waft you to happiness whilst ye are inquiring after it David rose up early in the morning and was earnest in his inquiries after this Jerusalem he long'd after it panted for it and perpetually did he during his tedious Pilgrimage in Mesech lift up his hands with his soul towards it The Father of the Faithful rose up early too and did chearfully set out and held out to the end as all those must do that hope to reach his bosom I le now leave the young man on his march and after a good beginning expect a Perseverance in well doing and a happy conclusion And now come and direct my speech to the Ancients even to you whose decreped bodies signifie your night at hand when you shall lie down in the dust and rest in oblivion till the last Trumpet shall summon you before that dreadful tribunal Let me humbly request you now to be inquisitive after the other world have you trifled away the morning of your day and all this while not put one foot forward on your journey for Heaven Let me acquaint you that it may not now be too late if you defer no longer remember there were some called at the third hour as well as at the first and labourors entertained in the evening that were rewarded with those that came in the morning Are you on your way go chearfully along and you may yet finish the work of the day ere the approaches of the night wherefore be not weary of well doing but remember that the end crowns the work and he onely the gainer who endures to the end How many have set out betimes and made a promising beginning that have fainted on their journey and fallen short of Heaven that which hath a diadem in the end may well admit some bitterness in the beginning Let therefore the worth of the reward promp you in your greatest difficulties to undergo all with patience who would not do much for such a crown and what will not some do for a worse In Races all press towards the mark but the foremost onely wins the prize Not so here here 's a reward for every one that deserves it a prize for more then the foremost not onely he that runs swiftest and is soonest there but every one that runs well though he comes behinde shall have something My advice to you is that you would so prepare your selves in the evening of your day for the approaches of your night that all things being ready for a change you may court death to convey you from the work to the reward And it may not unfitly be said of you as of that glorious courser of Heaven The Sun knoweth his going down and your setting here may but make you rebound to shine more glorious in a higher Sphere And this brings me from the third particular observable to the fourth from our haste in setting out and perseverance in our walk to the choice of our Comrades to accompany us in our journey Sort your selves with the best company Remember thou art a Kings Son said Mindemus to his Pupil so say I to thee Christian Reader thou art son to a greater King then Mindemus was and wilt thou undervaluethy self with base company shall one so nearly allyed to the Prince of Light be a companion for a brat of darkness an heir of Heaven for a firebrand of Hell the son of a King for the slave of a Devil It may be guest by the company we keep to whom we belong for birds of a feather will flock together sayes our comon Proverb 'T is most certain that nothing of good can be gained by bad company and to shun the workers of evil is the way to decline an evil work for we are apt to be drawn more by example then precept and to intimate those we have most converse with be it to good or evil better therefore to have no company at all then not have good I had rather go to Heaven alone then to Hell with company How then are we all concern'd to make choice of such religious consorts as by their Heaven-like conversations may draw us to a trade of godliness such as may be thought fit by the most wise God to be both our companions upon earth and with us to be admitted Denizons of Heaven To keep company with our betters is the way to improve our selves for as a late Author wittily observes that to be best in the company is the way to grow worse and the best means to grow better is to be the worst there If therefore you have chosen such endear your selves each to other for there 's no such friend to a tedious journey as a good companion and let your souls be as it were linkt in the bonds of true friendship that as David and Jonathan ye may be lovely in your lives and in your deaths may not be divided And like the same David ye may bid defiance to the works and workers of iniquity with a depart from me ye wicked so shall ye clearly quit your selves from the number of those that shall at the last day be terrified with that direful excommunication of the great judge Depart from me for I know you not And this brings me from the fourth particular observable to the fifth from the choice of our company to our deportment in our journey Take heed that ye fall not out by the way For brethren and fellow so journers to disagree is against the rules both of Piety and Policy small harmony nor delight in that journey where Travellers do jangle When two Israelites fell at variance Moses a spectator of the discord useth no other arguments of perswasion to compose and appease the difference then this Sirs ye are Brethren intimating that 't was not for brethren to wrong one another The Father of the Faithful how tender was he in preserving friendship with his Nephew Lot Let there be no strife betwixt me and thee for we be brethren What manner of men were those whom ye slew at Tabor said Gideon to Zeba and Zalmunna Oh! they were my brethren Oh! had you favoured them I should have spared you For my Brethren and Companions sake saith David I will wish thee prosperity 'T is for enemies to fall out not for such near and dear allyes to disagree they must hold together live together and walk together in love as being related in an higher and nobler sense then that of Nature being fellows of one family Sons of one Father Children of one Mother Stones of one Building Branches of one Vine Sheep of one Fold Members of one Body and Professors of one Truth Made by one God Redeemed by one Jesus and Sanctified by one Holy Ghost one would think these tyes enough to debar division from among such friends Esops bundle of Cudgels in the Fable are very remarkable
is briefly this That sin is the cause of sorrow or that all the miseries that ever hapned unto mankinde came by sin which I shall clearly demonstrate both by Scripture Reason and Experience with such perspicuous clearness as none but a son of contention will contradict 'T was sin that excluded Adam out of Paradise Gen. 3.24 Brought a deluge on the old world Gen. 7.12 Fire and Brimstone upon Sodom Gen. 19 24. Plagues upon Egypt Exod. 7.20 Destruction upon Pharaoh Exod. 14.28 Ruine upon Jericho Josh 6.24 And so many miseries upon Eli and his family that to hear would make the ears of any Israelite to tingle 1 Sam. 3.12 'T was sin that made Saul lose two Crowns the one on earth the other in heaven That brings a catologue of plagues on the head of the sinner Deut. 28.16 Makes the whole creation groan Rom. 8.22 Made the Sun withdraw himself the pale-fac't Moon to hide her head the twinkling Stars to disappear the Rocks to rend the Graves to open the vail of the Temple to part a general darkness to take place over the whole world brought the whole fabrick of heaven and earth out of course the Lord of Glory to a shameful end and the Prince of Life to an infamous death Luke 23.46 In a word I may truly say of sin as Abner did of war Knowest thou not that it will bring bitterness in the latter end 2 Sam. 2.26 God is so severe against sin that he would not spare his own Son when he undertook for the sins of the world and is so just in his chastising of sinners that he gives plagues answerable to the offence that oftentimes the world may read the sin by the punishment Instance the Sodomites who burnt with unnatural lust man with man therefore Hell comes from Heaven Fire and Brimstone out of Heaven upon Sodom Gen. 19.24 Pharaoh orders all the Hebrew males to be drown'd and he and his host are serv'd so in the Red Sea Exod. 14.21 Adonibezek in his wanton cruelty cut off the fingers and toes of seventy Kings and made them scramble for the crumbs of his Table and in the manner did God requite him 't is his own acknowledgement Judg. 1.7 Abimelech kills his seventy brethren upon one stone and his own brains are dasht out with a stone from the Tower of Thebes thrown by a Woman Judg. 9.53 Sauls sword slue eighty five of the Lords Priests and does the like courtesie for him 1 Sam. 31.4 Ahab and Jezabel who conspired to fool Naboth at once both of his Life and Vineyard ere long the dogs lick their blood on the plat of ground they so bloodily purchast 1 Kings 22.38 c. Zimri conspir'd against his master King Elah and put him to death for his Crown reigned but seven dayes but is forc't to be his own executioner 1 Kings 16.15 Queen Athaliah slayes all the blood Royal and she her self is sent with violence into another world to answer for her cruelty in this 2 Kings 11.20 Haman makes a Gallows of fifty Cubits high for Mordecai and sues for a general Massacre of all the Jews himself meets with a violent and infamous death on the Gallows he had prepared for Mordecai Esth 7.10 Those Persian presidents that conspired against Daniel to have him thrown into the den of Lions are themselves cast in and tore in pieces ere they came to the ground Dan. 6.24 Nebuchadnezzars pride transported himself beyond himself therefore Gods Justice brings him lower then a man makes him a beast by name that before was one in nature Dan. 4.33 Herods pride made him forget he was a man and therefore an Angel from the Lord makes him know himself to be but a man or rather a worm and smites one worm with many till he dyes Acts 12.23 'T was Jerusalems sin to stone the Prophets and her punishment was answerable not to have one stone upon another Mat. 23.37 The Judge objects against those on the left hand I was a stranger and ye took me not in naked and ye cloathed me not sick and in prison and ye visited me not and therefore their punishment is to finde no mercy themselves that would afford none to others and are for ever excluded the Judges presence and all happiness at once Mat. 25.41 Thus just is God in making the punishments so suitable to the sins But here is one Objection ready to be thrown into my way which I must not pass by without answering Doth God so severely punish sin and he the authour of all The Prophet Amos asks the question Can there be evil in the city and God hath not done it Amos 3.6 And that word when 't is put as an Interogatory in the beginning either of a Verse or Sentence 't is the highest affirmation and confirmation of a following Negative turth Instance Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burnt Can a man that is old return a second time into his mothers womb and be born again Can we bring a clean thing out of an unclean a pure Spring from a polluted Fountain surely no. Can there be evil in the city and God hath not done it there cannot And did God move David to commit the sin of numbering the People and doth he yet punish that sin of Davids with the death of no less then seventy thousand men Is he so severe against that sin of which himself is the authour I answer 'T is the greatest blasphemy imaginable to make God the Authour oâ— sin Let not any man when he is tempted say I am tempted of God for God cannot bâ— tempted of evil neither tempteth he any to evil James 1.13 You are to know that there are two sorts of evils the evil of Sin and the evil of Punishment the one proper to God the other incident to man We read of several in Scripture that did evil in the sight of the Lord there is the evil of Sin and then we read how God did inflict judgements upon them for those sins there was the evil of Punishment The guilt of the one requires the Justice of the other Again God is said to be the Authour of sin because he swayes all the actions of men and were he pleased he could take off the sinner in the heat and height of his sin and with a word as he made the World of nothing bring all that is therein to nothing no sin can be committed or cruelty acted without his permission And here by the way you are to take notice of a great Truth viz. That God permits many things to be done which he doth not approve of when they are done and to make this plain to the meanest capacities I could heap multitudes of Examples to confirm it I am not ignorant that many have measured the justness of a Cause by the success of it and because God for the sins of a Nation or other reasons best known to his Divine wisdom oftentimes suffer
for posterity to read Judas Iscariot who also was the Traytor Matth. 10.4 And God is so just that he will not act that himself for which he so severely punishes others for being guilty of But secondly did God move David to number the people and doth he yet punish that sin of Davids with the death of no less then seventy thousand Men Is he so severe in punishing that sin of which himself is the Author I answer in the 2 Sam. 24.1 't is said That God moved David to number the people and in the 1 Chron. 21.1 't is said That Satan tempted David to number the people For the reconciling of these Scriptures you are to take notice that God is said to move David to number the people because he did for a little withdraw the Arms of his Protection from him left him to himself and permitted Satan to tempt him who fraught with malice enough against David proves successful in his attempts and brings David to commit this sin And for further confirmation of this Truth I shall borrow an Arrow out of a Learned Quiver and demonstrate the several kindes of Tempters with the various natures of their Temptations God Satan Man the World and the Flesh are all said to tempt God temps Man to try his obedience Satan temps Man to draw him from obedience Men tempt men to try what is in them and Men tempt God by distrusting his Power The World is a Tempter to keep Man from God and the Flesh is a Tempter to bring him to the Devill So God tempted Abraham in the offering of his Son Satan tempted Job in the loss of his Goods A Queen tempted Solomon in trying his wisdom The Israelites tempted God by unbelief in the Desert The World tempted Demas when he forsook the Apostles and the flesh tempted David when he fell by Adultery and his own corruptions together with the instigation and sollicitation of Satan tempts him to commit this sin for which God was so highly displeased with him that he sent such a harsh summons to him that instead of answering he breaks out in the language of the Text And David said c. And thus have I fairly remov'd this great block out of the way at which many have stumbled and many more might have fallen what now remains but that I onely in brief set down the sad effects of sin in general to all mankinde and so I le conclude But by the way I must crave leave of my Readers to make a short digression briefly to shew how glorious man was by Creation how happy in his state of Innocency how great his fall and how miserable the effects of it and that shall be my conclusion Man was created a glorious Creature and heir to much happiness put in a state of innocency seated in an earthly Paradise and placed as a Monarch over all the Creatures that God made except those blessed Angels that are resident in a higher Sphere the Beasts of the Field and the Fowls of the Air the Fish in the Sea and all Creeping things did him homage and he gave them their Names The place of his Residence the Garden of Eden a fit Emblem of that Celestial Paradise that is above there being all the varieties that heart could wish or desire to make a life happy without either carking or caring moiling or toiling sighing or sorrowing and to make his happiness compleat he was to continue without the limits of Threescore Years and Ten or Fourscore Years his Body no less immortal then his Soul Here was a happy life indeed where there was no Sicknes to torment no Death to affright or Devil able to hurt And as a further addition to his Happiness that nothing might be wanting that may any way conduce to his well being a beloved companion is given him with such a body and such a soul as he had for his perpetual consort to keep him from the dumps of melancholly and be a constant sharer with him in all his felicity Adam thus happy the fruit of every tree in that glorious Eden onely one excepted was for his use and to eat of that one tree was death to himself and posterity This tree stood in the midst of the Garden and served as a touchstone to try their obedience The Devil not long before thrown from Heaven for his pride perplext not more at his own misery then mans happiness envying that Man a creature inferiour to him by creation should usurp his place to fill up that room or shine in that Orb whence himself was cast resolves to work his wits to bring Man as miserable as himself and thus he manages the design he gets into the Serpent so climbs the tree waits his opportunity and sets upon the Woman tells her the tree is handsome the fruit beautiful and the taste much more delightful and finding her not so tractable as he desired further bespeaks her thus Fear not the threats or menaces of thy Creator for no evil shall acrue to thee or thine by eating the lovely fruit of this fair tree Do not make me believe a thing I know to be false tell not me of dying the death 't is no such matter for when you have once tasted you shall be no longer servants of him that made you but Lords and Masters of your selves and every way as great and as good as he that made you Were not trees made for fruit and what was fruit made for but to eat then why not this as well as others And thus by the alluring speeches of this subtil deceiver the Woman is deluded Adam perverted the most high God highly dishonoured and all mankinde without an infinite mercy ruined she tastes and gives her husband with her and he did eat And so man that was so fearfully and wonderfully made and in so happy and glorious condition hath forfeited all by this one act of disobedience is become a Map of perfect misery so that as one wittily observes man is shut out of the doors of his everlasting habitation for two pretty toyes an Apple and a Woman And now the judgements of God like a troop pursue him and his posterity and all the miseries and calamities of this life and that to come follow close at his heels as the effect and reward of sin and brings him to such a Non-plus being loaded with so much gilt and attended with so many judgements and therefore no wonder to see him cast down and dejected Wherefore doth a living man mourn or complain was a Prophets question and 't is sadly answered by himself A man for the punishment of his sin Lam. 3.39 I have sinned and what shall I say unto thee O thou preserver of men sayes Job Wo unto us for we have sinned cryes the Church Lament 5.16 David cryes That his sins were gone over his head and become a burthen too heavy for him to bear and therefore after his committing this sin no wonder if he
were so amaz'd at the proposal of those terrors for it that he breaks out into the discontented expressions of the Text And David said unto Gad I am in a great strait Had it not been for Sin Death had never fetcht his circuits through the world Neither Adam or any of his sons had never come under his power 'T was Sin that brought in those terrible Harbengers of Death those various kindes of sicknesses to afflict mankinde For as the shadow follows the body so plagues attend Sin and had the cause been wanting which is Sin the effects had never been which is Misery There had been no sweeping away of mankinde by Sword or Famine Famine should never have conquered his thousands or the Sword his ten thousands There should have been no wasting Consumption no grievous Gout nor groaning Stone or tormenting Collick no burning Feaver or quaking Ague nor trembling Palsie or loathsome Jaundies nor a thousand other Infirmities and Casualties which now attend frail man to his Grave But this is not all for Death eternal also is the reward of Sin which is the second Death Rev. 20.14 and may well be term'd a death and no death being a privation from all that 's good or to a life desirable and a constancy in suffering that which is evil even intollerable torments that shall never know either end or measure impossible for life to suffer did not an infinite Justice keep the tortured from dying for there the best company shall be Devils and the best musick Blasphemy The ear shall be entertained with the grievous screeches of parties condemned and hideous howlings of woful Devils the eye with no better prospect then damned Ghosts the taste with no greater dainties then grievous hunger the smell with no choiser odours then sulphurous brimstone and the feeling with those terrible extreams of burning and gnashing of Teeth In a word 't is a death because they are excommunicated from such glory as the wit of man is not able to express and 't is a life too or rather a living death because they are alive to endure such hellish torments as the learnedst pen is not abâ—e to delineate nor the eloquentest tongue to describe the rarest wit to imagine or the knowingest mortal to define Ever to be dying yet never dye This this shall be the unrepentant sinners portion Matth. 25.41 Rev 20 10. To conclude since the effects of sin reach not onely to heap plagues upon the sinner here but also everlasting torments upon soul and body hereafter â—hat manner of persons ought we to he in all holy conversation My advice is that we shun thâ—t cause which brings such sad effects avoid sin that we never partake of those plagues as the rewards of it And in order hereunto that we set a narrow watch over our thoughts words and actions that we give not way to the least temptation but kills this cockatrice in the egge destroy sin in the birth get the mastery of every corruption and bid defiance to the destructive alurements of our immortal enemy And because all of us brought such a load of gilt with us into the world as without an infinite mercy would sink us into that place whence is no redemption and being not of our selves not able so much as to think a good thought let 's make our addresses to that all sufficient Saviour who for our sakes wrought glorious salvation conquered Death Sin and Satan foiled the powers of darkness and led the devils in Triumph as his Captives Hos 13.14 1 Cor. 15.57 Let 's endeavour to have an interest in him that his merits may be imputed unto us and we may be cloathed with the long white robes of his righteousness Rev. 4.4 That at the great day of Audit we may hold up our heads with joy before that bar whence the wicked shall be sentenc't and rejoyce that all straits are at an end and all our miseries out of date that our sins and death are laid in one grave ever to be forgotten and forgiven and are now ready to take livery and seizin of that glorious incorruptible and unfading Inheritance which the Lion of the Tribe of Judah the Captain of the Lords host and of our salvation hath purchast for us and be ever enjoying that glory which Moses so earnestly desired onely to behold and eternally chant forth Halle lujahs to the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity to whom be ascrib'd by Men and by Angels here and hereafter all Honour and Glory Thanksgiving and Obedience World without End Balaams happy Wish ANDVnhappy End A Meditation on Numb 23.10 Let me dye the death of the Righteous and let my latter end be like hiâ— THese words were utter'd by Balaam the son of Beor of Mesopotamia the notedst Conjuror of those times whom Balak King of Moab sent for to curse Israel and being come for that purpose from the Mountains of the East to the high places of Baal beholds a glimpse of Heavens Glory and Israels happiness discovers better wages then Balak could give him greater preferment then Balak could exalt him to and infinitely more honour then was at Balaks disposal Balaam being in an extasie and as it were ravisht with the glory which he sees turns his prophesie into a prayer and his prayer is this Let me dye the death of the righteous and let my latter end be like his Were these the words of a Sorcerer a better mouth might have spoke it we may well admire that so sweet a saying should proceed from so foul a mouth that such a flower of Paradise should grow on such a Dunghil that a stranger and an enemy to the God of Israel and the People of Israel should so excellently set forth the glory of the one and the happiness of the other and that he should have so much of heaven in so short a prayer Let me dye c. 'T was our Saviours question Matth. 7.16 Do men gather Grapes of Thorns or Figs of Thistles Here 's a Thorn brings forth Grapes an Inchanter with the expressions of a Prophet How can we sufsiciently admire the wisdome and power of God in making wicked men to sound forth his praises even the Devil himself to set forth the glory of the Father and proclaim the divinity of the Son Hard hearted Pharaoh must confess his power the Magicians his works and Balaam shall be sensible of his glory witness his Petition Let me dye c. A foul breath may make a Trumpet sound sweetly a crackt Bell may toll in others to Church a stinking carcase may have a honey-comb in it and a Sorcerer may speak good Divinity I am sure Balaam did and a prayer as excellent Let me dye the death of the righteous and let my latter end be like his Hence observe that we are not to judge of any man by his words or pass our verdict by the out-side for many cry Templum Domini with their mouths that have the Devil in
their hearts and the Devil himself sometimes counterfeits an Angel of light Many make a fair profession of Christianity that speak well hear much and understand more upon examination you will finde by their actions that they have meerly a form of godliness but deny the power of it that at best will appear but like the Devil in Samuels Mantle We use to say that all is not gold that glisters and 't is as true that all are not holy that seem so all not Saints that have demure looks and specious pretences Our Saviour hath told us that the tree is known by his fruit and God that searches the reins knows the heart and judges of the outward actions by it Balaams words bespeak him both a Prophet and a Saint and he did as clearly prophesie of Christ as any Prophet of the Lord either before or after him and 't is thought by some that his Prophecy of a Star to rise out of Jacob c. drew those Persians King to attend the motion of that Star that appeared at our Saviours Incarnation 'T is most certain that Balaam spake so well that no man could speak better yet he could speak so bad that the Devil himself could not speak worse as when he advised the Moabites to send their Daughters to commit whoredom with the Israelites which occasioned the death of twenty four thousand Hebrews And so I pass from the Speakers description to the description of his Speech The speaker was Balaam and his speech or rather his prayer was Let me dye the death of the righteous and let my latter end be like his Balaam is so taken with the rayes of that Glory he beholds at a distance that he grows impatient No more of life nothing in it so desirable No more of this world he sees more glory in the next and therefore courts death to convey him to that glory which he so much longs for Let me dye c. What could he not dye without asking leave without much intreaty death was ready to attend him and for want of help he might have been his own executioner and as King Saul did a long time after made his own sword to have given him his Mittimus to the grave No Balaam as bad as he was would not lay violent hands on himself he knew that God would not entertain any runnagate or straggling sons that came without his call That God who infus'd a living Soul into our Bodies when we began to be will not have that soul come forth till he require it 'T is written Revel 3.21 To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne To him that overcomes not to him that runs away to him that conquers not him that flies from his colours We are now but on our way not yet in our countrey In this world we must do our work in that to come we must have our wages Here we must fight under the Banner there we must receive if we deserve it the Crown This world is a Sea of trouble that a Haven of rest and those who to avoid the troubles of this rush themselves out by laying violent hands on themselves shall never reach the happiness of that For how can God afford Mercy to those who have none for themselves Balaam would dye but how There are saith one three sorts of death the death of Nature the death of Sin and the death of Grace or rather a gracious death or the death of the Just 'T is onely the last that Balaam sues for Let me dye sayes he but no death will serve his turn but that of the Just Let me dye the death of the righteous and let my latter end be like his My latter end he is not altogether for himself he hath some care of his posterity after him he knew that God would be Abrahams exceeding great reward and that he would be the same to his seed that he was to him be the God of his seed and of his seeds seed and in them should all the Nations of the world be blessed So Balaam prayes in respect of his own particular end and for his posterity those that were come or were to come out of his loins Let my latter end be like his Now for the further amplifying of this Prayer of Balaams I shall draw these following Conclusions from it First That the Righteous dye c. Secondly That their death is happy and attended with glory Thirdly That none shall dye so but those that live so or that a holy Life is the onely prologue to a happy Death Lastly I shall present you with some short Directions how to lead such a life how to reach such a Death and this shall be my conclusion That Death is a debt of Nature to be paid by all the sons of men is so known a truth that it needs no further proof then common experience the decree hath long since gone forth that all men must once dye So sure as death sayes our common Proverb and that 's so sure that nothing more certain For of all the Priviledges that Christ purchast for the sons of men he never granted this for he himself tasted of death and so must all those do that breathe upon this earth except those onely that shall be found alive at the day of judgement which shall not dye but be chang'd None are exempted from deaths rage no honey without this gall no exaltation without this humiliation all must pass through his black Gates ere they can enter into glory And this brings me from the first conclusion to the second from the certainty of death to all mankinde to the Happiness of it to the righteous Let my latter end be like his I cannot blame Lalaam for making such wishes and it had been well for him if it had fallen so he had then been eternally happy as now miserable Indeed death to a righteous man is but a sleep for so our Saviour stiles it it puts an end to our miseries and a beginning to our joyes it cures all diseases the aking head and the fainting heart Asa of his Gout and Mephibosheth of his lameness Lazarus of his Sores and Gehazi of his Leprosie finishes that life that was a kinde of death or a passage to it and gives birth to another not subject to mutation and serves as a short bridge to conduct the Pious soul to a spacious inheritance But it may here come within the verge of an inquiry whether the righteous may desire death 't is answer'd that it may de desired not for it self but for what it brings First we may desire it as it puts a period to sin there 's no offending of God in the Grave sin will be an inmate with the choicest of Gods Saints whilst they are here but is forc't to leave them when they leave the world For as one observes sin was
the Midwife or rather the womb that brought death into the world and death must be the Grave to bury sin so the Mother is killed by the Daughter Again we may desire it as it brings us home to our Fathers house near our Head and our elder Brother so Saint Paul desir'd it Phil. 5.23 Secondly That none shall dye so but those that live so c. For as the effect follows the cause or the shadow the body so happiness is the attendant of holiness Would Balaam dye the death of the Righteous that was so far as a learned Author observes of him from living the life of the Righteous that he gave Pestilent counsel against the lives of Gods Israel and though here in a fit of compunction he seem a friend yet he was after slain by the Sword of Israel whose happiness he admires and desires to share in Carnal men care not to seek that which they would gladly finde some faint desires and short-winded wishes may be sometimes found in them but their mistake is in breaking Gods chain to sunder Holiness from Happiness Salvation from Sanctification the end from the means they would dance with the Devil and sup with Christ at night Live all their lives long in Dalilahs lap and then go to Abrahams bosom when they dye The Romanists have a saying that a man would desire to live in Italy a place of great pleasure but to dye in Spain because there the Catholick Religion as they call it is so sincerely profest And a Heathen being askt whether he would rather be Socrates a painful Philosopher or Craesus a wealthy King answer'd That for his life he would be Craesus but for the life to come Socracrates But stay not here and hereafter too you know what Father Abraham said to Dives in flames Son Remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and therefore now must look for evil That King Balaks proffers were so liberal that Balaam was loath to forgo so fat a Morsel his mouth watred and his fingers itcht to be dealing with Balak he will ask God again and again to gain such a prize and his heart again is ravisht with Israels happiness he would fain please Balak if he might not displease God in it and partake of both but as Balak had not his will so neither had Balaam either his wages or his wish God oftentimes fools wicked men of their expectations that whilst they strive to gain the happiness of both worlds at once finde neither so here I know not how fitter to compare Balaam then to a stranger travelling a far Countrey beholds the state and magnificence of the Court but no interest in the King or to a surveyor of Lands that takes an exact compass of other mens Grounds of which he shall never enjoy a foot I shall see him sayes Balaam so shall every eye and those also that pierc't him but not as Abraham saw him and rejoyced nor as Job Chap. 19.25 The pure in heart onely see him to their comfort when Balaam beholds him it shall be with terror and though when he made this prayer his soul danc't on his lips ready to flye off yet was he never nearer heaven then those Pisgah Hills Had Balaams works been answerable to his words or his worth to his wishes he might have reacht his desires But as Saul who was once among the Prophets fell after from God so Balaam is not long in these raptures and therefore for all his devotion though he were not so wicked as to kill himself is nevertheless so unfortunate as to fall by the Sword of the Israelites even among the thickest of Gods Enemies the Midianites as you may read at large in the one and thirtieth Chapter of this Book of Numbers v. 8. There is no man so much an enemy to himself but would be happy if happiness were to be gain'd with wishing for Ask the wickedst man upon earth if he does not hope to dye well he will tell you he does and so he will if a word upon his death-bed will do it A Lord have mercy upon me but alas Heaven is not to be attained on such easie tearms Cain may be distracted for his Murder Balaam and Saul may Prophesie Ahab walk in Sack-cloth Judas Preach and do miracles and all to no purpose 't was not Esau's blubber'd eyes that could recover either his Birth-right or his Fathers blessing I cannot but reprehend their folly that spend their dayes in sin and vanity and at the point of death think to turn suddain penitents as if that would do how foully are they mistaken that think so for he that lives like a devil upon earth though under an Angels vail shall never be a Saint in Heaven So I have now done with the parts propos'd what remains but that I in brief give some short directions how to lead this happy life how to reach that happy death and so I le conclude For the certain and speedy attainment of which be pleased seriously to weigh these following instructions First be conversant in the Scriptures make that your day and your night studies and take notice of the lives of all Gods Saints and endeavours to track them in those steps which brought them to glory Make Abrahams faith and Jobs patience Eliahs zeal and Hezekiahs Integrity patterns of your immitation Let Joseph be an example of unconquer'd chastity and Moses of meekness and humility Let Davids troubles teach us to depend upon Gods Providence and Pauls perseverance not to be weary of his Corrections Remember the Character which our Blessed Saviour gave of the Baptist That he was a burning and a shining light Indeed the Saints of God in all ages have serv'd as Beacons on hills to give light to a crooked and perverse generation Oh that we could but learn by their examples to adorn our profession and we shall be no losers in the end What sayes David Marke the upright man and behold the just indeed he is worth the noting for the end of that man is peace He it is that may be truly said to leave this world like a Lamb and shall for ever be owned in a better for one of Christs fold But above all look upon him that is the Author and finisher of your Faith strive to immitate the blessed steps of the holy Jesus whose feet were ever running Gods Commandements whose hands were ever busied in works of Charity his eyes ever looking for Objects of Mercy whose Soul was ever yerning with bowels of Compassion whose discourse was alwayes gracious and guile never found in his lips And that we may be the better fitted to write after such blessed copies let us set a narrow watch over our thoughts words and actions that we offend in neither but remember that he is an Almighty and Omniscient God with whom we have to do and all things naked and bare to his all-seeing eye and that we may make a happy progress in
our Christian course let 's trample on the vanities of this world and have our conversation in Heaven whilst we are on Earth Put a right value on the things of this world and whilst we are in this make sure of a better that when this fabrick shall be on a flame we may finde a place of refuge in those glorious and everlasting Habitations and that we by no means put off our Repentance from day to day but take time by the fore-top for we know not what a day may bring forth There are many now in Hell yelling forth their too late Lamentations that would have repented had they had a morrow let us be ever contemplating of our last end and of that great account we must all one day make and account every day as our last that when death comes we may be so prepar'd for his approach as to entertain him as a friend not dread him as an enemy 'T was a good prayer of Davids Psal 9.20 Let the Nations know themselves to be but men Oh that we did but seriously take this into our consideration and rightly understand our frame whereof we are made and remember that we are but dust and what is dust but the slave of the beesom and the sport of the winde That the luxurious person would consider that he is the fouler dust by so much as he is stain'd and have beheld before never such a wonder in the world The Child of a Virgin and God a child saith the Evangelical Prophesie never such a Jubile in the World as a Christ and a Saviour sayes the Angellical History what was foretold by Isa's Pen is fulfilled in Gabriels Tongue which speaks comfort not to some Persons but to all People all else Persons and People had been eternally lost To you he is born to you men he is to us Angels he is not We that stood have not the need they that fell have not the grace of Salvation nor shall any means be ever us'd for their restauration as being included under the eternal decree of Gods everlasting displeasure This day it seems then he had a day for his incarnation or Nativity though this profane age deny it him by his birth made a blessed day Proclaim'd by one Angel a joyful feast observ'd by many for a feast of joy By many Angels that day and by all Saints since in all ages as the Birth-day of no petty Prince but the great Soveraign and Saviour of the World who was annointed and appointed for that purpose This is a true saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners And now having a Saviour and such a Saviour for my subject I shall bend my inquiries after his Person Names and Offices his Actions and Passions the end of both Parallel his Divinity with his Humanity his first with his second coming and so conclude First then for the object or person here spoken of who it is who is this that comes sayes Isay 'T is he that was from eternity before the Mountains were brought forth or the foundations of the world were laid God from everlasting and world without end The second person of the glorious Trinity his Name Jesus because a Saviour and Christ the Lord because the annointed of God the one answering his Divinity the other his Humanity and both his Office design'd he was of old for mans Redemption promised and prophesied of long before he came as the Womans Seed Abrahams Son Davids Throne Balaams Scepter Isay's Immanuel Micahs Ruler and Judahs Lion whom Abraham saw afar of and Balaam beheld but not nigh In a word he was the Light of the Gentiles because to them he manifested himself by a star or rather by an Angel as some think in a Pillar of fire and the glory of his people Israel because to them he was proclaime'd by Angels Thus you have now seen who it is that is here spoken of I now come to the act that he is here said to do He came he bow'd the heavens and came down exchanged his Fathers Bosom for the Virgins womb and became Immanuel God with us The express Immage of his Father takes the form of a Servant He who in the beginning of time made man in his own image is in the fulness of time made after our likeness the Word flesh the Ancient of Dayes a little Child the Highest Majesty cloathed in the lowest Misery the most High God a Servant and the Lord of Glory a Man of Sorrows Admire we may but Apprehend we cannot the matchless Humility and unparallel'd Condescentions of our Blessed Saviour that he that was so great that the Heavens could not contain him should be so little as to be circumscrib'd in the Womb of a Virgin That he that was so rich that all the Gold and the Silver was his and the Cattel upon a thousand hills should be so poor as to be destitute of a penny to pay Caesar tribute without being beholding to a fishes mouth That he that was so powerful as to command the Devils to their Chains should be so meek as to suffer himself to be led like a Lamb to the slaughter Yet thus he suffer'd it to be to fulfill all Righteousness and nothing did he think too much either to do or suffer for mans Redemption Man had finn'd against an infinite Majesty and satisfaction was to be made to an offended Deity and that satisfaction to be as infinite as the nature of the transgression was which satisfaction could be given no other way but by suffering that suffering no less then the utmost of an inraged and incensed malice that malice as general as men and devils the punishment great the punishers many Heaven Earth and Hell an angry God an incenst World and an inraged Hell and he that was to indure all this to be innocent No man so pure no angel so powerful to undergo all this God could not dye nor men or Angels bear such a burden therefore it must be a God-man a God and Man united in one Person the one to bear the other to suffer and such a one was our Blessed Saviour whose spotless innocency and unconquered Patience in in his expresless pains represents the refulgent Rayes of a Divine Power that kept frail Humanity from sinking to desperation under so great a pressure all must needs acknowledge that the miseries he indured were unspeakable and his patience infinitely beyond a president If we take but a strict survey of the means and miseries that attend his Birth the inexpressable grievances of his life and the sadness of his death we shall in each of these finde him demonstrated a man of Sufferings He was born in little obscure Bethlehem not in great and glorious Jerusalem and not in a Palace there though the City of David but an Inne a place of common resort Not in the guest Chamber or choicest Room in the Inne but in a Stable a place of
repose for Beasts far unfit for the King of kings Bed-chamber the Lamb which all the shepherds left their flocks to finde is laid in a Manger his attendants but mean and not many his reputed Father and the Blessed Virgin no sooner eight dayes old but the circumcising knife according to the Law must pass upon him that came to fulfill both the Law and the Prophets with the loss of his Blood as an earnest of that which after in a more abundant manner flowed from him And before two years old is forc't to flye for his Life when he could not go his whole Life 't was but a continual supply of Crosses from his Alpha in the Manger to his Omega on Mount Calvary from his Cradle to his Crucifixion and from his Womb to his Tomb he might truly be termed a man of Sorrows When once he shewed himself to the world how was he hunted like a Partridge upon the Mountains in often hazards of his Life ere his hour was come he should lay it down He had not his mean Birth for nothing for as he was born under another mans roof so all the time of his Life had he no house of his own he that was Lord of all possest nothing He was poorer then the Foxes and not so rich as the Fowls of the Aire for the one had holes the other had nests but he no place of his own to rest in For a house he hath not a hole for Lands he hath none but what he treads upon for moneys a fish brings him a piece to pay his Tribute with for pleasure the Cross is his Cognisance for Honour Contempt is his common Livery How much ignomy and contempt did he pass through and how many opprobrious words did he patiently receive from the foul-mouth'd Multitude who were ever guilty of putting the worst glosses and constructions on his â—ctions If he works miracles they presently twit him with his Parentage Is not this the Carpenters son and can good come out of Nazareth If he converse with sinners he must be one himself or at least a friend to them and in that they spake truer then they were aware 〈◊〉 for he was the best friend that Sinners or Publicans ever had If he heals a Cripple or do any other work of mercy on the Sabbath day he is presently censur'd for a profaner of the Sabbath If he cast out devils he doth it by Belzebub at last his Exit draws nigh that all the miseries of his life shall be infinitely transcended by a painful and shameful death as a sad preface to which in order to the compleating the work of mans Redemption begins his agony in the Garden where indeed he receiv'd the first relish of that bitter cup of his Fathers Indignation which he was to drink of Here began the travel and anguish of his Soul that produc't those drops of bloody sweat which in so plentiful a manner flowed from him in a cold Winters night The conflict must needs be sharp that put him in such a heat in so cool an Aire as doubtless it was for the sins of the whole world lay upon him 'T was thy sin O man caused this blood-shed Thy guilt this sweat that was the Sword this the fire which made this blood and sweat Adam sinn'd in a Garden Christ there sweats for it his day lust made this night sweat Mans spirit was distempered in Eden Gods body therefore is thus bedew'd in Gethsemane that we might not burn and fry in Hell he thus sweats and bleeds on earth he suffers this horrid Agony for a time that we should not endure a hellish and worse extremity for ever so he was Gods Holocaust that we might not be the Devils Burnt-offering Besides Gethsemane's pains Golgotha's was upon him those floods of blood foreseen made these drops trickle The passion then to be acted on his body was now imprinted in his minde the rage of Hell the wrath of Heaven the wretchedness of man ingrateful man for whose sake all this was suffered to save him from that wrath and Hell Heaven Earth and Hell all in Union to afflict one though God and Man must needs make a heavy conflict a bloody Agony And that it might not be long ere he finish that on Mount Calvary which he hath so sadly begun here that the one might be but a short and sharp preface to the other he is betrayed be that did eat at his Table with him kicks up his heel against him and traytor-like betrayes him with a kiss and delivers him into the hands of his cruel enemies who with an unlimited rage do begin to abuse him and is now tost like a Ball from one place to another whilsâ— malice is inventing new tortures He iâ— first brought to the house of Annas the high Priest who restrains not the inraged multitude from venting their malice in revenge thence is sent to Caiphas another of the Devils Sanedrims who had formerly in a councel resolved he should dye yet now paliating the designe with the scheme of a Tribunal They seek out for Witnesses and the Witnesses are to seek out for allegations and when they finde them they are to seek for proof and those proofs were to seek for unity and consent but all too short to reach his innocency he is sent to Pilate who understanding him to belong to Herods Jurisdiction sends him to Herod who sets him at naught and his men of War abuse him what else to be expected from rude Souldiers whose very sports are cruelty then sent back again to Pilate attended with the hiddeous exclamations of the Rabble-rout whose note as they pass along nothing but Crucifie The Roman President smelling malice in the business uses several arguments of perswasion to appease the multitude and asswage their malice in order to the saving of his life The first drawn from his Innocency I finde no fault in him nor yet Herod he is an innocent Person one so far from deserving death and that I cannot finde he ever did any thing to merit a reproof malice it self cannot tax him of any Crime except innocency be Criminal here I bring him forth to you that you may know that he is clear from all objections and nothing justly to be laid to his charge and no fault no sentence I that sit in the place of Judicature must not commit so great a piece of injustice as the sentencing an Innocent to death But this not satisfying the multitude he delivers him over to bloody chastisements so he is torn with Whips crowned with Thorns blind-folded derided and buffeted even to the wearying of his tormentors Pilate being himself mov'd with pitty at the sight presents him in this forlorne and dolorous condition to them that his blood might become a mantle to him that if his innocency could not speak sufficiently for him his sorrows might Behold the man behold an Innocent afflicted one without Crime miserably chastiz'd who can behold him without pitty
and the abominable stench he there was sensible of For his taste he had nothing administred it to sweeten the bitterness of death but Gall and Vinegar For his feeling we have spoken of that before if it were not altogether unspeakable what he felt In a word all heads are working and all hands busied in lengthning his torments and now tormentors and tormented both weary the one in doing the other in suffering he yeilds up the ghost But their malice doth not terminate with him though he be dead their malice still lives which we shall see presently break forth for though Joseph of Arimathea one of their councel but not against his life had begg'd the body of Pilate they also go to Pilate fraught with malice against his memory that had done their worst to his person and bespeak Pilate Sir This deceiver said whilst he was yet alive that in three dayes he should rise again therefore let his Sepulchre be made sure with a guard lest his Disciples come and steal him away by night and say he is risen Pilate grants their request and now they triumph in their villany and think perpetually to keep him there whom they had brought thither Is this the Saviour of the world say they that could not save himself Where now are these dreaming shepherds who spake so big of a quire of Angels that should sing his Nativity Where those Angels that they come not to his Rescue Where are those besotted vulgar that rob'd the trees of their branches and themselves of their garments to strow his way to Jerusalem and sang Hosanna's to him as the son of David a Saviour of the world have not we laid their Hosanna's in the dust and he whom they adored as a Deity executed as a Malefactor Is this he that would deliver Israel that could not himself We do not expect ever to be delivered by so mean a hand and so slender a retinue we expect a glorious Prince with a princely train of unconquer'd warriors not a Carpenters son and silly fisher-men God never gave us any promise or president of such a Saviour We know that 't was by a strong arm he delivered our Fathers out of Egypt and that he gave them Saviours afterwards when they were in Canaan such as by force of arms broke the bonds of their oppressors and are not we involv'd in as miserable slavery and bondage as ever our fathers were hath not the invincible Roman Eagle spread his wings o're the greatest part of the world and seized many kingdoms with his ravenous talons making Kings his Prey and Scepters his Conquest and who but a mighty Saviour can deliver us and our Countrey from so potent an adversary If this be he that undertook to do it or were sent from God for the purpose where 's his power to make him so where 's his red-coat Souldiers whose very garments might speak nothing but blood and death to our insulting foes where 's his Magazin and Money his Swords and Pistolls his Granado's and Murdering-pieces his Captains and Officers to lead his Army that they did not perfect that happy work but suffer their Lord and Master thus to fall O fools and slow of heart to believe what the Prophets have spoken ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory was he not long before prophesied of to come in the form of a servant not in the gayish magnificence of an earthly prince that he should be a man of sorrows and by his sufferings should purchase freedom and happiness for inthral'd mankinde How exactly doth your Prophet Isay pourtray to the life both his person and sufferings and writes of him in the Present Tense not the Future as a thing then really acted not after to be fulfilled as more becoming an Evangelist then a Prophet in giving rather a History of his sufferings then a Prediction of them but lest ye should not think one witness enough look upon all the Prophets that have been since the world began you will finde they did all unanimously breathe with one mouth the mystery of his coming and of that redemption which by his death he was to accomplish Was not his Birth long before prophesied of as to the time manner and place of it his person names and offices his tribe and Family his eternal Generation the union of his God-head with his Humanity his Humiliation upon earth his perfect obedience to his Father his riding to Jerusalem in triumph the childrens Hosanna's his Agony in the Garden the manner of his delivery the price he was sold for the flight of his Disciples the parting his garments the piercing his hands and his feet his revilings on the Cross his companions in death his patience in suffering his dying words for whom be should lay down his life and whom he should conquer and what clearer proof could ye desire then the mouths and attestations of so many witnesses and could ye be so blinde as not to discover this to be he that was of old design'd and foretold to be the worlds Saviour did ye not behold a majesty in the sufferer did not the refulgent beams of his divinity shine through the greatest clouds of his adversity and did not Humility and Glory go hand in hand through the several passages of his life and death that by miracles as well as miseries he might convince the world That he should abase himself so low as to be born of a Virgin that spake his humility but to have his incarnation publisht by an heavenly host and kings to rise to the brightness of his coming this his glory to suffer himself to be baptized in the common river of Jordan that speaks his humility but there to be proclaim'd the onely beloved Son and Saviour of the world both by the testimony of the Father and presence of the Holy Ghost this his glory to receive the slaunders of his Countrey-men that he cast out devils by Belzebub that spake his humility but to make the devils confess him to be the Son of the Highest this his glory to suffer death even the death of the Cross that speaks his humility but to make the foundations of the world to shake the Sun to vail it self in black the moon to hide her head the rocks to rend and the vail of the temple to part in sunder at his yielding up of the ghost this his glory to be laid in another mans Sepulchre that shews his humility but to make the Graves to open to receive him as their Lord and the dead to rise to attest his Divinity this his glory to suffer himself to be seal'd up in his Sepulchre with a guard of Souldiers to keep him there that was humility but in that house of death to have the visits of Angels and to rise from thence by his own power this his glory to sojourn forty dayes on that earth where he had been so cruelly handled speaks his humility but
but for a time they did not last alwayes every Day hath his Night every Summer its Winter every Spring his Fall and every Life his Death and as some nights are darker then other some Autumns more unseasonable some Winters more sharp and some Death 's more yea much more cruel then others be some men fall like fruit others are cut down like trees some cut up as the flower others by the root some men dye onely others with torment which is two or more deaths in one but among all deaths that ever were suffer'd never any so strange never any so sad as our Saviours was for in it both pain and patience met in their extremities pain did her worst to overcome patience and patience her best to overcome pain and yet neither had pain the upper hand though it kil'd nor patience lost though Christ dyed such was his passion that the whole world cannot sample it with its parallel for Christs pain was such as never creature felt and his patience so great as for all the forrow he felt on the Cross he is not said to have utter'd a groan there so that it may easily be discerned that patience had the victory because pain could neither make her leave the field till she list nor bring her to any conditions but her own which were most honourable Though God be crucified Life be dead and Righteousness suster all effected yet nothing done to advance the contrary party For through his body Death slue it self and Sin and Satan took their deadly wounds for now the flesh hath lost her life and sin in that his throne and death with it his sting and the grave with this his power and hell with them her keys and the devil with all his victory whilst he hangs despicably on the tree of shame the powers of hell are dragg'd captive after the triumphant Chariot of his Cross Well might he therefore say 'T is finished for the Satisfaction is full Salvation sure Sin is nail'd Hell foil'd Satan chain'd the World baffled the Flesh wounded Death slain the Grave buried and every Adversary-power conquer'd by Christ Triumphant over all all is finished mans redemption compleated and that perfected he came about This is a true saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners But what is all this to us what is it to know that Christ is a Saviour if he be not ours what to know that he came to save the world if we are not one of the world he came to save what to know that his death is satisfactory to expiate the Justice of his Father if we have no interest in it I answer that as Christ hath done his part so must we do ours if ever we hope to have part in his sufferings he never came to save any that had no minde of salvation or to use those means which he hath appointed for all those that shall inherit eternal life as he did both do and suffer for us 't is requisite we should either do or suffer something for him His love to us and sufferings for us were unspeakable and they justly challenge our deepest affection and admiration that he should purchase our happiness at so dear a rate as his own Blood that God should be in Gore that man might be in Bliss the Prince of Life should dye that the Childe of Death might live that he should suffer on a Cross that we might not in Hell Did he sweat for our guilt and shall not we weep for our own and dissolve into love and tears for our dying Lord. O my soul shew thy affection to him that exprest so much to thee love him above thy life to serve him think milstones light to suffer for him make tortures pleasures hate sin more then death the Crown of pride as his Throns thy hearts lust as his spear thy iron neck and evil works and wayes as his nails their habit as his hammer which drives them home into his heart and his hands and feet Think not any thing enough thou sufferest for his sake that suffer'd so much for thine Though violent Tongues were laid on our Credit Hands of Rapine on our Estates of Bondage on our Persons of Blood on our Lives be so far from shrinking at it that hadst thou for one a thousand souls give all to his service a thousand bodies all to his suffering a thousand heads all to his study a thousand hearts bate not one to thy Saviour a thousand lives lay out all to his honour Hadst thou for two two thousand hands let them all do his business two thousand feet let them all go his errands if thou shouldst not thou wert unworthy of such a Saviour Now that we may know the cause or causes of Christs coming and understand our own duty in order to the making it a happy coming to us be pleased to take notice of these following particulars There are saith one four causes of mans salvation The Efficient cause The Meritorious cause The Instrumental cause And the Final cause First the Efficient cause which is the love of God 'T was Gods love to the world that caused him to send his Son into the world Had he not loved the world he would not have permitted his Son to dye for the world And he that denied us not his Son who is Heir of all things will not deny us any thing whereof he is heir Secondly the Meritorious cause That is Christ 'T was his Merits that purchast our happiness his Blood that gives us a right and title to that glorious undefiled and unfading Inheritance which he aforehand hath taken possession of Thirdly the Instrumental cause that is Faith Christ is the onely cure of our leprous souls Faith the hand to convey his merits to us Suppose a plaister of a soveraign nature were laid by a man dangerously wounded be the plaister never so excellent he may dye of his wounds if it be not applied to him for without an active hand to apply the plaister to the sore the worth of it is not at all available Christ saith one may be compared to sope Faith to the hand of the Landress though sope in it self be of a purifying nature yet without the hand of the Landress it does nothing The Apostle tells us that we are saved by Faith but that we may understand what that saving Faith is which the Apostle speaks of we are to present it first in the Negative what 't is not then in the Affirmative what it is Not an Historical Faith onely for that the Devils and damned in hell have that shall never receive any benefit at all by the death of Christ they know that Christ came into the world and that he suffered and that a day will come in which he shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire when he shalâ— take vengeance on all the ungodly of the earth and compleat their torments Not a Temporary
and swells highest in a joyfull imitation when she is in the Spring-tyde of her light either towards the heavens as in the change or towards the earth as in the full and as she doth wax or wain so doth he either flow into a Pleuresie or ebb into a Consumption of his waters And even thus is the World the Page of Fortune whose unconstant and ever changing motions do hurry about like spokes in a wheel the condition of all Mortalls We have it confirmed to us by a more then humane authority 1 Cor. 7.31 That the glory of this world passeth away An Hour-glasse doth change its posture every hour and that part which was even now above is now below that which was but now full is now empty nor can one side be filled but by emptying the other Such is the world every moment turn'd upside down and men are now full now empty Nor can they often fill themselves without the ruine and prejudice of others and although sometimes it be at the full of glory yet is it even then like her also mingled with the spots of adversity and subject to the change of every moment And therefore as 't is reported at the Consecration of the Popes the Master of the Ceremonies going before carries in one hand a burning Taper in the other a stick with some flax tied on the top thereof which he setting on fire cries with a loud voice Pater sancte Sic transit gloria mundi Holy Father so passeth away the glory of this world The plenty of Histories in this kinde exceeds our Arithmetick Every particular mans condition almost being a volumn of the worlds fraily and a constant witness of its inconstancy Adonibezek who had been the Triumphant Victor over 70. Kings and in his wanton cruelty had cut off their thumbs c. and made them pick up the crumbs under his table enforcing the Act and depriving them of thâ—â—â— power making them do that which hâ— had disenabled them to perform was ere long in full measure paid home for his cruel frolicks which made him cry out that he was justly requited Judges 1.7 Nabucadnezzars unparallel'd Metamorphosis who knoweth not who from a man and so great a King became a beast in nature now as he was in practice before to shew that when men sin against the light of nature they may sufferagainst the law of nature It is reported of Dimetrius one of Alexander the Great 's Captains that in the whole circle of his life being sixty four years after the measure of his age had stil'd him a man never continued three years in one condition Of Julius Caesar also that great awer of the world and victorious Martialist it is doubted whether in the whole course of his life fortune were an indifferent Arbitrer to him of good and evil success but in the sadness of his death no doubt all his lifes happinesse was exceedingly over-bâ—lanced who in the Zenith and highest erection of his glory with twenty three wounds the deepest whereof given him by his dearest Brutus in the Senate House yielded up his life a sacrifice to the peoples liberty The like unhappy change pursued the ever renowned and once highly advanc't General Bellizarius who after he had triumphed over the Persians and reduced to the Roman obedience all Africa and Italy so long possest by the Goths and Vandalls his wife that was given him for an help became the onely help to his destruction whose insolent behaviour against the Empresse like windes thrown upon the seas rais'd such billows of indignation in the Emperour that this mans fortune was put to utter shipwrack not onely to the loss of his goods but of the means by which he might get more his sight and forc't to beg his bread with a Da Obolo Bellizario Thus he that had made Armies fly Kingdoms quake and Kings his Captives is now an humble Petitioner to the meanest for a bit of bread 'T is storied of Dyonisius King of Syracusa that he represented the brittle felicity of his Kingdom to his Parasite Democles who had made his happiness to seem exceeding great through the multiplying-glass of his flattery by seating him in a Royal Throne at a sumptuous banquet with all the state and glory of the Kingdom about him but withal a naked sword hanging over his head onely held by a horse-hair which every minute threatned his destruction It was the custom of the ancient Romans in their triumphs for a slave to ride behinde in the Chariot with the Triumpher who did often whisper unto him to look behinde him there being likewise a Whip and a Bell tied to the Chariot to admonish him that notwithstanding the present exaltation his honour he might be brought to such a degree of calamity as to be scourged or put to death of which the Bell was the sign How hath the world frowned on those she sometimes smil'd and made them that seem'd the happiest most miserable Instance Pompey that famous Warrior for his eminency stil'd the Great who after all his victories and triumphs put to a violent death and that head taken off by the hands of a Traytour that had so oft been adorn'd with victorious Laurels and being dead denied a burying place Queen Cleopatra once so formidible as to be rather fear'd then contemn'd by her neighbour Princes she drank Jewels desolv'd a draught worth a Kingdom expir'd on a dunghill Guillemer King of the Goths who long reigned in so much prosperity but taken Prisoner by Bellizarius was reduc't to so much misery that he onely beg'd these things of the Conquerour Bread and Water the one to keep him from famishing the other from thirst a spunge to wipe his eyes and a harp to tune his sorrows to Andronicus Emperour of the East a man of such large and vast Dominions that his very name was terrible to all Neighbour-Kings all his glory is eclipst in one Battel and he delivered into the hands of those who think themselves happy in inventing and inflicting new tortures he is thrown into the common Goal where the best sents are the excrements of nature taken thence and derided and abus'd through the streets of the City put to open disgrace in the Market-place and to the further grief of so great a spirit the muddy brain'd Rabble are both his Judges and Executioners Alexander the Great who was said to conquer the World could not guard his own person from a violent and untimely death He that had vanquisht a world was himself overcome by an inferiour person in it poysoned to death and his corpse for thirty dayes denied a burying place his Conquests above ground gave him no title to a possession under ground So our William the Conquerour lay three dayes unburied he that had vanquisht Kingdoms living is denied six foot of ground being dead Coriolanus that famous Grecian who was once admir'd and fear'd of all murthered openly in the Market-place at Antium and none to pitty
shining on it well nigh puts it out so Vertue flames more brightly being blown on by the cold winde of adversity but is extinguisht by the sun-shine of prosperity like lime which is set on fire with water and as some report is quenched with oyl That prosperity doth draw more to ruine then adversity doth drive the Prophet David intimates where he sayes A thousand shall fall besides thee and ten thousand at thy right hand There is ten to one whose vertue the right hand of prosperity doth choak more then the left hand of adversity doth starve Afflictions are Gods troops and he their Captain intended for the perdition of the wicked for the purgation of the godly he will not lay any more on any of his servants then he shall enable them to bear alas the miseries of this life are not worthy of the felicities of the next nor may these crosses stand in competition with that crown nor are the greatest torments that can here be inflicted comparable to those endless and insufferable tortures which the wicked shall be sensible of the greatest that a Saint can suffer here is but the malice of men and devils the damned in hell shall taste the wrath of the Almighty The sufferings of the Saint and the triumphs of the sinner are but for a moment but the reward of the one and the plagues of the other are to eternity Suppose our life here spread with roses yet they are marcessible and if with thorâ—s yet they are dying The jewels of the Crown will receive a damp and the terrors of the Cross will soon be at an end Groans and joyes in this life are both expiring our troubles and our triumphs have both their setting The distresses of the world are a short and a sudden tempest and the delights of it are a shedding flower Now as an elegant Writer observes who would not rather endure the Hell of a few dayes miscries here and enjoy the Heaven of eternal happiness hereafter then enjoy the Heaven of a few days pleasure here and endure the eternal miseries of Hell hereafter Temporal pleasures are dearly bought with the loss of eternal and temporal sufferings are well requited with eternal pleasures That is a miserable happiness that must end in such miseries as must never end and those are happy miseries that shall soon end in endless happiness This life is but a journey towards death and but a short one and death is yet a shorter passage to a longer and a better life That life of joyes is worth the wishing that shall never have an end and that end of our life is full as worthy of our wishes that shall begin the joyes of that endless life and that end must be ere long for life is short Man that is born of a woman is but of few dayes and full of trouble He is of few dayes that he might not live too long in trouble and his dayes are full of trouble that he might not long for more of them then a few Mans dayes are full of trouble that a few might serve his turn and make him weary of them and his dayes of trouble are but few that he might not be too much wearied with them If it be mans misery that his few dayes are full of trouble 't is Gods mercy that mans days of trouble are but few The few dayes of mans life are full of trouble that man might be daily minded of his duty in seeking after another a better life and mans dayes of trouble are but few that man may not be wearied so as to leave seeking for the other life before that this doth leave him What but the happiness and glory of that better life held up the spirits of Gods afflicted servants in their greatest sufferings in this 'T was the recompence of reward that Moses had respect to which made him spurn at the treasures of Egypt and refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter and to slight all the discouragements and afflictions which he here met with Let the miseries therefore which accompany mortality wean us from all fondnesse towards this life present and the felity of life eternal make us the more earnestly to long after that The thoughts of the Elizian happinesse did so encourage a poor Grecian a meer Pagan at the instant of his death that he rejoyced much to think of going to Pythagoras and other learned Philosophers to Olympus and other skilful Musicians to Hecataeus and other approved Historians to Homer the prince of Poets and other famous Wits that were his followers that Poetical Paradise the Elizian Field could make a Pagan give his longum vale to this present world with notable resolution and shall not the real pleasures of the celestial Paradise the fulness of joy in the glorious presence of God encourage a Christian at his death to depart as comfortably as a faithlesse Grecian Shall fantasie in an Heathen be more powerful then faith in a Christian Is not the company as good which we believe to be at Gods right hand as that which he imagined to be in Elizio campo and are not the joys as many and as great Well therefore may a Saint chear up himself at his departure by thinking of his going to Saint Peter Saint Paul Saint James Saint John and to all that glorious company of Apostles and of his going to Elias and Elisha and Isaiah and Ezekiel and to Daniel and all that goodly fellowship of the Prophets and of his going to Saint Stephen the Proto Martyr and to Ignatius and to Justinus and to our Cranmer and our Ridley and our Hooper and our Taylor and all that noble army of Martyrs and of his going to that Reverend Patriarch Abraham the father of the faithful and to Isaac and to Jacob and to all the holy Patriarchs and of his going to the holy Angels and Arch-Angels and Thrones and Powers and Principalities and to the spirits of all just men made perfect Who can think of being thus transported and not be transported with the very thoughts of it Surely it must needs be a very consolatory Viaticum to the soul of a dying Saint to think of exchanging Earth for Heaven and the sordid company of sinners for the sweet society of Saints And this is it which makes the Saint entertain death as a friend whom the sinner fears as an enemy The Saints of God in all Ages have lookt upon him as a friend because by him they have been wafted to glory Moses sing when he was told his last Elijah had his Sufficit he desir'd his God to take away his life Old Simeon craved a dismission and St. Paul a discharge In the times of Persecution how did the Martyrs run in troops to the flames even to the amazement and admiration of their Persecutours which made a mortal Enemy to Christianity in the dayes of Queen Mary who speaking of some of the Primitive Christians and of the glorious Martyrs that
then suffered bade a vengeance on them for he thought they took delight in burning and that they long'd for death I should swell this Volumn too big if I should here insert the last sayings of dying Saints who exprest as much willingnesse to be disrob'd of their mortality as ever they did to put off their cloaths to go to rest And no marvel for death to a righteous man is but as a door to let him into glory to such endlesse glory as I shall not here stand to insist of for with a discourse of that everlasting happinesse I shall close the Book and for the present leave it to fall on a worse Subject We 'l now come to the sinner who as we have seen already seems by his outward prosperity to be the onely happy man as having the world at will and all things in it at his command but alas notwithstanding all this we shall finde that he and happiness are at a great distance if we but seriously consider the shortness of his joyes and the eternity of his miseries that this is all the heaven he is ever like to have he hath his portion in this life and these short pleasures to end in endless torments This world as it is a School to the Saint so a Stall to the Sinner it fits the one for a Fellowship in the New Jerusalem and fats the other for an eternal slaughter here the Saint suffers a while to be eternally happy and here the sinner flourishes for a moment to be everlaâ—â—ingly miserable What more woeful then a sinners welfare It is for slaughter that the Oxe is fatned ease slayes the simple and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them they spend their dayes in wealth and end their dayes in woe their merry dance determines in a miserable downfall the sinners cup of honey is mixt with dregs of gall He loves his belly well that with Esau will sell his birth-right for Pottage I had rather beg my bread with Lazarus then my water with Dives In what slippery places hath God set wicked men He that now thinks himself as high as heaven knows not how soon he shall be laid as low as hell and he that is now carouzing and quaffing with his dammy Blades and pampering his guts with the left hand blessings knows not how suddenly he shall be plac't at the left hand of that Judge who shall give to all their right and send him and his crew to yell out their late Lamentations in Tophet Zophar though none of the best men himself could tell Job that the triumphing of the wicked is but short and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment like the thorns in the fire the bubble in the water the flowers in the earth or the clouds in the air they blaze and consume they flourish and fade they vanish and fly away A candle burns more brightly when nearest the end and the wicked are in greatest pomp when nearest their ruine witnesse those sad examples of Absalon Jezabel Haman Herod c. so that his joyes here are but like a fit of musick before a fearful execution or a Syrens song before a dismal storm and of the short time he hath here to frollick it how often is he disquieted by Gods judgements from without and by his own conscience from within First from without God oftentimes meets with the sinner here to put him in minde of what he shall feel hereafter and that if he will not take warning by this he shall be paid to purpose in a worse place As a Saint looks upon afflictions from God as the gentle chastisements of a loving Father the sinner looks upon them as the severe punishments of an angry Judge and as a sad presage or preface of those insufferable miseries he shall finde in hell 2. From within his guilty conscience oftentimes proves as a cord to strangle his joyes and to mar his mirth Did not Josephs Brethren experiment this in Egypt and Ahab in his house of Ivory and Belshazar amidst his sensualities this is it that tells him of his past offences and future miseries which so much distracts him that it makes him afraid both of himself and others ever fearful lest some just hand should cut off his happinesse with his life Our Richard the Third after the murther of his two innocent Nephews had fearful dreams insomuch that he did often leap out of his bed in the dark and catching his sword which alwayes naked stuck by his side he would go distractedly about the chamber every where seeking out the cause of his own occasioned disquiet And Charles the Ninth of France after the Parisian Masacre was so inwardly terrified that he was every night laid to sleep and wakened again with a set of Musicians Alas what happinesse is it to have a house of Cedar adorn'd both within and without with beaten gold to have his chests lin'd with the Gold of Ophir to have the richest Robes that ere the sun shin'd on the largest Wardrobe the coicest Cates and the most desir'd delights that his way were spread with Roses and pav'd with Diamonds when his roof is open to the thunderbolt of Heaven and has a hell in his conscience and God for his enemy But put the case the sinner were not troubled with these outward calamities nor inward afrightments yet he were notwithstanding this still miserable for in the highest exaltation of his mirth the very name of death cools his courage and strikes him through with terrours he would not if he might have his will ever part with this world for he knows that there is nothing of happiness to be found for them in the next he could with all his heart accept of St. Peters motion to build Tabernacles here and live for ever but alas that must not be for put the case he sees many go before him his turn will come shortly after old age will soon seize upon him when his feet will be full of gouts his back full of pain his heart full of sorrow and his soul full of sin and now all his happiness is blown over as though it had never been or if he could call to minde his past felicities the thoughts of them would be so far from administering any comfort to him that it would but distract him and he does now begin to wish he had never been born or else a longer lease of his life 'T is storied of Lewis the Eleventh King of France that he was so wedded to this life that he prohibited the mention of the word Death in his Court but alas death regards not the threats of Princes nor the tears of Peasants The stoutest man and greatest Monarch that ever was hath been forc't to submit to him and his messengers The honourable Garter cannot cure the Gout nor the Chair of State ease the Choluck nor a golden Diadem remove the headache Nuga the Scythian despising the rich presents and ornaments that were sent
unto him by Michael Paleologus Emperour of Constantinople askt whether those things could drive away calamities diseases or death No this they cannot do as Henry Beauford that rich and wretched Cardinal found by woful experience in the dayes of Hen. 6. who perceiving death at hand askt wherefore he should dye being so rich if the whole Realm will save my life I am able either by policy to get it or by riches to buy it Fie quoth he will not death be hired will money do nothing No money in this case bears no mastery death as the Jealous man will not regard any ransom neither will he rest content though thou offer many gifts Prov. 6.25 'T was but a vaine conceit of one who when he heard that his sickness was deadly and that he was for another world call'd for a bag of gold and laid to his heart as if that which had solely swayed him in his life to the committing of many prepostrous actions should now do something for him but he finding no ease by it threw it away crying it would not do Nor was he less ridiculous who being ready to expire clapt a twenty shillings piece of gold in his mouth saying some wiser then some I le take this with me howsoever alas he and his gold must now perish together death shews him a dismal change for now Balaam and his Bribes Belshazzar and his Bowls Dives and his Dishes Herod and his Harlots the Usurer and his Bills the Merchant and his Measures shall part assunder for ever which made one that was ready to breath his last call for his bags of money and sadly took his leave of them in these words Ah! I must now leave you there is no remedy I tremble to think in how sad a manner the wicked leaves the world to think what a sad fit of trembling doth surprize him when the cruel Sergeants and merliless Officers of the King of Terrors do arrest him as it were in the Devils name when death shall come with a writh of Habeas corpus and the Devil with a writh of Habeas animam when the cold Earth must have his Body and hot Hell hold his Soul Reader now tell me which is the happiest man Adrian the Emperour when his soul was ready to fly from his body bespake it thus O animula vagula blandula quae jam abibis in loca Poor forlorn soul into what gloomy and dismal mansions art thou now departing but of those Mansions in my next discourse I shall now with a few words to the Temporizing Professor and my Readers in general bring this to a conclusion First to the Temporizing Professor you I mean that in all mutations will be men of the Times be they never so bad and call those Men and Times blessed and glorious which make you gainers that admire all men for their greatness and conclude those to be hated of God that are despised of men and censure all as Reprobates that are not of your spirit You that pretend to such a transcendent measure of perfection to such high notions and revelations as if with St. Paul ye had been wrapt up into the third heaven and understood more then all your forefathers did as if Christ had led his Church in ignorance and blindness for 1600 years and upwards till you came with your new Discoveries You that have prated Religion out of the Nation as if it consisted in nothing but words and instead of practising the Graces of the Spirit as Faith Repentance Humility Charity c. studied nothing but needless and unnecessary Questions not at all tending to Edification but Vain glory which have enlarg'd the Breaches of the Church instead of closing them up Remember that God is just as well as merciful and though he spares you long will pay you at last and though you feed your selves like porkets with the fat things of the world a time will come when you shall cast it up again and all your hypocrisie shall be unmaskt and unvail'd both to Angels and men Humble your selves therefore under the mighty hand of God left for your pride God inflicts on you the saddest Judgement that is mention'd in the Book of God of being deliver'd over to a Reprobate sense Oh take heed that Satan couzen you not to hell and there twit you as he did Saul in Samuels mantle when there is no place for repentance You know what a plausible speech he made in the mouths of Ahabs Prophets when he tic't that King to his ruine have a care that ye are not condemn'd one day for condemning others and spued out of the Bridegrooms mouth for your lukewarnnesse think not me your enemy for telling you the truth be not Solomons fools to hate instruction better repent these things here then in a worse place consider seriously the foregoing Discourse take notice of the sad exit of wicked men that the doleful sound of their sad and too late Repentance may seasonably caution you by their harms to beware One word more think not without Repentance ever to arrive at Glory there 's no going to heaven on beds of doun you have more cause to fear exchanging doun pillows for beds of flames there 's no leaping from Dives his diet to Lazarus his crown nor from Dalilahs lap to Abrahams bosom Lastly To my Readers in general Let me caution you to take notice of Gods Omnipotency Omnisciency and Justice and our own Mortallity and these severally and seriously considered may be a motive to startle us from the very thoughts of those sins that we commit with greediness First his Omnisciency Remember that he is an all-seeing God that discovers all our actions and beholds all our wayes to whom the day and the night the darkness and the light are both alike If we dare not commit our beastly sins before the eyes of men how dare we presome to commit them before him that is able everlastingly to damn us and throw our souls into Tophets endless flames Secondly his Omnipotency Let us adumbrageously fancy as one hath it the Firmament to be his face the all-seeing Sun his right eye the Moon his left the Winds the breath of his nostrils the Lightning and Tempests the troubled actions of his ire the Frost and Snow his frowns that Heaven is his throne the Earth his footstool that he is in all things that his Omnipotency fills all the vacuities of Heaven Earth and Sea that by his power he can ungirdle and let loose the seas impetuous waves to orewhelm and bury this lower Universe in their vaste wombs in a moment that he can let drop the Azure Canopy which hath nothing above it whereto it is perpendicularly knit or hurl thunderbolts through the tumerous clouds to pash us precipitate through the center into the lowest dungeon of hell and that all the creatures in their several ranges are as so many Regiments of the great King and that with the meanest of these he can avenge
himself on sinners as he did on Pharaoh Herod c. In the next place let 's acknowledge his Justice Remember that he is a jealous God a perfect hater of sin and will bring every work to judgement And last of all that we take notice of our own Mortality and let the thoughts of that debar us from sinning we know not whether we shall live to see another day and shall we be found sinning on our last Let the uncertainty of that which will certainly once come put us in a posture of preparation for its coming and since that upon this moment depends our either everlasting woe or welfare let 's lose no time For as the Poet no less sweetly then discreetly sung who knows o're night that he next morn shall breath Therefore take Davids early in the morning not the Devils stay till to morrow think not to be accepted in thy makers presence one day if thou crammest the devil with thy sap of strength full gorge him with the purest fruits of thy sinewy virility if at last when thou art not able to do God or the devil service thou comest limping on Times tottering Crutches to present unto him the offall husks and morosity of thy doting decrept age Think every day thy last and spend it as if it were so for we know that God will bring us to judgement yet we know not when nor in what year nor in what moneth of the year nor in what week of the moneth nor in what day of the week nor in what hour of the day nor in what minute of the hour nor in what moment of that minute for he will come like a thief in the night suddenly before with a wink thou canst lock up thine eye or within thy brain create the nimblest thought the apprehension of which must needs stir us up to live in Gods fear so shall we dye in his favour and rest in his peace and rise in his power and reign with him in his glory world without end Godliness bearing its Rewards with it both here and hereafter and Sins pursuit of the Sinner to the other World Of the last Judgment and those succeeding Events that ensue thereupon A Meditation on 1 Tim. 4.8 HAppinesse is the mark and center which every man aims at the next thing that is sought after being is being happy where David begins his Psalms we all hope to end and that 's with blessedness and no way to reach that but holiness That holinesse is the way to happinesse or that the godly man is the truly happy man I have already sufficiently manifested in my last Discourse and therefore shall be the more sparing here in my Allegations for I would not take the pains o're again to prove what is proved already but happinesse is such a subject that I could willingly dwell upon and fill a large Volumn with a discourse upon it desiring that my portion may rest here but I am confin'd to such narrow limits both of time and paper that I cannot insist long on any one particular I shall therefore briefly strike at that which is here chiefly intended and before I have worn my Readers patieence quite out shall draw to a conclusion That the godly man is the happy and onely happy man will be further manifested in the end after the end of all things but first in this life we will prove him happy here as well as hereafter in this world as well as the world to come though not so happy here as there Neither prosperity nor adversity can come amisse to him though the times vary his happinesse is still the same like his God that changes not all things still work together for good to him and albeit he hath no perogative above the sinner from those two beds of mankinde of sicknesse and the grave his priviledge lies another way No Kings except such hath like perogative to the Saints God is their Father Christ their Brother the Holy Ghost their Comforter Angels their Guardians Saints their Associates Death their desire the Grave their rest the Bar their joy God their portion the Trinity their propriety Heaven their home Eternity their term before death their perogative is much at it more after it most but from death and diseases none by death they have from it not Put the case that God permits wicked men to ride over him and men and devils to use their utmost extremity to him which is to put his dayes to a shameful and a painful period for the shame Christ hath taken that away and for the pain that will soon end in endlesse pleasures what unhappinesse in this when all they do or can do is but to open the prison-doors of his body to let out his soul to fly to rest from the labour of the servant to the joy of the master from the work to the reward and from the crosse to the crown there to solace it self in those rivers of pleasures at Gods right hand whilest his precious ashes are preserved as in a safe store-house till the last trumpet shall shall alarm it to give its beloved companion the meeting to be made eternally happy together never to part more a Saint at his death is assured that a few moments will bring his departing soul to endlesse happinesse and that Angels attâ—nd him to do their office of wafting it into Abrahams bosom And now judge Reader whether I may not upon good consideration say that godlinesse is gain I know there are some and they such whose hopes extend not further then this life that invert this saying and tell us that gain is godliness and no happinesse without gain their sordid gain and albeit it I have sufficiently exploded this errour in my last Discourse I shall now notwithstanding more fully if that may be give a confutation in this as ye will the more clearly apprehend if ye minde the conclusion The longest day with have a night and the longest life will have an end Let the sinner live as long as he can a miserable period will at last be put to his sinful dayes and that period will decide this controversie Those who in their life were the Diana's of the people that seem'd the most high and happy will at their death but more clearly afterward appear most miserable as they have spent their dayes in the unprofitable works of darknesse so they shall finde but an unprofitable reward for their works they shall for their pains meet with such pains as shall never have a period The Devil comes now to expect his due that as he was their slave for a time upon earth they may eternally be his vassals in a worse place that as they did the works of darknesse and workt for the Prince of darknesse now receive their portion in utter darknesse There 's no denying or forswearing of bargains no talk of circumventing this experienced Politician the richest presents nor the loudest cryes nor the saddest tears nor
sad because they are all blown over The godly shall rejoyce and the reprobate howl then shall base apparel be glorious and proud attire infamous then shall all black and diabolical designs perpetrated in darknesse be made visible and the most retiredst actions and transactions that ever were huddled up in the world with the greatest privacy be exposed to the open view both of men and Angels Then if ever as one ingeniously hath it naked breasts and black spots shall be in fashion when all things shall be naked and bare and the sinner appear like the Leopard full of spots Then shall it appear who have been the Idolaters whose God was their belly and gold their hope and flesh their arm that with the French fool would not have left their part in Paris for their part in Paradise Then shall it appear who have been the swearer and common perjut'd person who have set a brazen face on a bad matter and gilded a falshoood with an oath of sanctity though it proceeded from the father of lies whither they are going Then shall it appear who have been the Ahabs that have killed Naboth for his vineyard and who the Ishmaels the make-bates that hated their brethren with a perfect hatred whose hand was against every man and every mans hand against them Then shall it appear who have been the Machiavels that have neglected those pretious opportunities Providence put into their hands to advance the glory of God and the good of Nations for their own base interests raising themselves out of the ruine of thousands Then shall it appear who have lorded it over their brethren more righteous then they and maliciously persecuted for no other cause then filthy lucre sake to the temporal undoing both of them and their posterity If any that read this Book as 't is possible some may with prejudice against the Author are guilty of this let them respect me for giving them this timely advice aforehand Then shall it appear who have been the nice Non-conformist that not out of tenderness of conscience or zeal to Gods Glory but for sedition sake and vain glory would be of the singular number Then shall it appear who have under pretences of zeal jugled their brethren out of their estates and term'd those malignant whom the righteous Judge shall proclaim the contrary Then shall it appear who have been at the charge of clothing with silk and gold the images of men and let the poor go naked who is the image of God Then it shall appear who have worn a cross on the belly while the belly was an enemy to the Cross of Christ Then shall it appear who have slily slided into Brothel-houses in the dark to commit their obscenities and return'd unseen of men and presently busied with their Pater nosters and who have maintain'd those Shambles of forbidden flesh with their Pimps Panders c. and other devilish and unquoth titles which then shall be known Then shall it appear who have blinded the eye of Justice with bribes and shut their ears against the clamorous cryes of the innocent that made the Law a nose of wax to turn and fashion to their own private ends to the disparagement of Justice and lamentable subversion of many an honest and upright Cause their quirks dilatory demurs conveyances and connivances cannot quit them for now whether they will or no they must be removed with a Writ into the lowest and darkest dungeon of damnation For no bribes shall be taken in this Court here shall Justice be obtain'd without money no relations shall take place here for there shall be no respect of persons with this Judge the great Jehovah shall now judge the world in righteousness Acts 17.31 Set now before thine eyes therefore that which thou must then set before them when thy self shall be set before so terrible a Tribunal above thee an angry Judge before thee the Books of Indictments at thy right hand the Devils accusing and calling for sentence which Justice cannot deny at thy left hand the world of wicked ones howling behinde thee the Angels guarding and presenting thee in Court within thee thy conscience gnawing without the world flaming beneath Hell yauning and gaping wide for thee as an eternal and irrecoverable morsel when to appear will be intollerable to be hid shall be impossible O the horror of that day of that sentence Go ye cursed what doom so great great as this depart from peace from life from hope from possibility of being any other then eternally exquisitely miserable 't is pain to mention these woes 't is more then death to fell them into hell take him Devils binde him hand and foot cast him into utter darkness where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth for ever shut on him seal to him the eternal impregnable doors of vengeance Rouze up your selves hellish furies horrors fears agonies madness vexations despisers never dying worm and the ever burning fires According to the several degrees of vanity let several degrees of tortures and torturers devils and devilish plagues masacre and torment them let no eye pitty them and let their vain eyes be put out in obscure darkness see nothing but infernal visions the vain ear hear nothing but shrieks and derided cryes of the tormented let loathsom brimstone fill the sent and let the flesh that before embracing and embraced vain wanton touches be food stubble fuel to a never quenched fire within without every way in body soul conscience Let vanity kindle those flames which are easeless endless remediless Sit mors ipsa immortalis Had we now but a glimpse of those miseries and did but hear the uncessant groans of those dying ones and had but the least sense of those torments for a moment we should soon guess what it were to live with everlasting burâ—… the thoughts of which would 〈◊〉 a divorce 'twixt us and our most beloved sins which are hells fuel as one calls them that like Samsons foxes carry fire in the tail of it O forlorn and miserable wretch to receive this fearful and irrecoverable sentence when not onely Devils but Saints and Angels shall plead against thee and thy self maugre thy self be thy sharpest appeacher What wilt thou do in these dreadful exigents when thou shalt see the gastly dungeon and huge gulf of Hell Aetna-like breaking out with most fearful flames yet perpetual darkness when thou shalt see the weeping and gnashing of teeth the rage of these hellish monsters the horror of the place the rigor of the pain the terror of the company and the eternity of all these punishments where the fire is unquenchable and the pains unsupportable our fires here may be endured that is intollerable ours are for comfort that for torment ours must be fed or will go out that burns continually without feeding ours gives light that none ours consumes the matter and â—â—ds the pain that torments but never conâ—â—mes to make the pain perpetual There idle persons