admonition to put us in mind to be moderate and sober in spirit in the use of things worldly Man is subject to a necessity of dying therefore set not your hearts too much upon those things ye must sometimes leave 1 Cor. 7.31 Vse the world as not abusing it we abuse it and it abuseth and abaseth us when we make it Master of our affections then make we the earth our heaven and happiness and by so doing the world draweth away the heart from true happiness The Apostle telleth us the fashion of this world passeth away like a Stage-play as the word imports within the space of an 100. years if the world endure so long new Actors and Players will come upon the Stage One generation goeth and another cometh like some going to the common market others who have made either a good or evil bargain coming from it you would think that Son foolish and evil-advised who being sent by his Father to travel for a short time in a strange countrey should marry there without his Fathers consent in a place which he must leave and he knoweth not how soon his father may send for him and reckon with him for misdemeanors abroad and shall we be so foolish and unadvised as to espouse our hearts to the world For who can tell how soon the Lord may send his messenger death for us and sentence us with an eternal divorce because our hearts went a whoring from him after strange lovers 2. Be not proud of any thing enjoyed Let us not be proud of any thing we enjoy in this present world Thou canst not tell how short a time thou maist enjoy it It is both vanity and folly to be proud of a borrowed cloak thou canst not tell how soon it may be sent for and thou divested of it The Romans of old did put a Sergeant in the triumphal Chariot to keep the triumphing Conqueror amidst all his triumph within the bounds of moderation and sobriety of spirit by crying to him Memento te esse mortalem Remember thou art a mortal man Philip of Macedon directed his Page every morning to call at his chamber door with this morning salutation Memento mori Remember death Thoughts of mortality in the morning keeps our spirits sober all day long Tamberlane that great captain and conqueror caused a winding sheet to be carried in his march before him the displaying of deaths banner made him sober minded amidst all his warlike and victorious banners it is well known some Jews of the greater and better sort had their sepulchers in their gardens that in the midst of their pleasures they might be mindful of death The thoughts of it were as water to their wine for preserving them from surfeit and drunkenness with worldly cares and pleasures This doctrine serveth for exhortation Vse 4 seeing sin hath brought on man a necessary subjection unto death Be preparing for our change it is the wisdom and duty of every person to be preparing for their change this is a duty required both of young and old The Preacher giveth the same counsel to young men Eccles 12.1 Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth and his reason is taken from deaths insensible and yet most certain approach because the time is coming when the marrow of the back-bone which joyns all the members to the head and one to another as a silver cord will be loosed The heart that is like a golden bowl from which all the parts of the body drink in the vital spirits will be broken And the head that is like a wheel eminent and conspicuous above other members as the wheel is above the cistern it will be broken and laid in the dust Although thou be young yet remember the day of death comes on apace No sooner begin we to live but so soon begin we to die Our life is in a continual flux and sometime it will run out The serious fore-thought of this change will be a mean to mortifie youthful lusts This will make sin die in thee before thy self die and thy life will be most comfortable after thy dying to sin from thenceforth Christ liveth in thee Gal. 2.20 and he comforteth and reviveth the heart where he dwelleth and liveth Isa 57.15 If the young should prepare for their change what should those do who are of riper years and by course of nature neerer to the end of their journey should not such prepare for their removal as Job did Job 14.14 All the days of my appointed time will I wait Motives till my change come Consider 1. The necessity of death is inevitable it is appointed for all to die Heb. 9.27 Nothing earthy can exempt thee not thy riches the rich Glutton died Not thy honour Kings are laid in the dust Not thy wisdom Solomon died against it nor might nor strength wil guard thee Great Commanders have been arrested and hurried to deaths prison in the head of their armies yea grace will not exempt thee Abraham the believing Patriarchs died 2. Consider the circumstances of time place and manner are all most uncertain One said truly we all come into the world one way but we go out of it a thousand divers ways Therefore thou shouldst be preparing at all times for thou knowest not at what hour of the day or watch of the night death may come upon thee as a thief Did not death and destruction come upon the old world when they were most secure Mat. 24.38 And upon the rich man at the time he had most rest and plenty of provision for many days Luke 12.18 Therefore number to thy self not years but days and count every day as thy last day Psal 90.12 So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom and is not this a special point of wisdom to foresee the plague and hide our selves under the shadow of Christ and the merit of his death from the curse of death Prov. 22.3 A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself but the simple pass on and are punished yea the Heathen Poet could say Think every day thy last day in all places guard thy heart and be preparing for death at home and abroad thou mayst go out of thy house in good health in the morning but return home sick and die before the evening 2 King 4.18 Old Eli went out in good health in the morning but dyed before the evening 1 Sam 4.18 How to prepare for death Object But how shall I be prepared for death Answ 1. Labour for repentance and reconciliation with God be reconciled with thine adversary while thou art in the way Mat. 5. which place Augustin applieth to this same purpose Augustine for if thou dyest in thy impenitency having God thy adversary consider in time what will be thy fear and confusion in the day of thy appearing before his tribunal Sin unrepented of is the sting whereby the first death woundeth a
a Table in the Wildernesse Psa 78.19 Such Unbelief in a time of a great and common calamity may provoke God to seclude thee from the comfort of the common deliverance That unbeleeving Lord who blasphemed God in his power was trod down in the gate and was not partaker of the common benefit 2 King 7.19 20. 5. Thou that usest unlawfull means to be freed of thy trouble consider in time such means provoke to more wrath Ahaziah his consulting with wizards in the time of his sicknesse brought him to his death 2 King 1. The Jews did persecute the Prince of life thinking thereby to preserve their place and nation Joh. 11.48 but such a means brought upon them desolation and destruction Mat. 23.37 38. This Doctrine serveth for a seasonable warning to the children of God who are subject to the like passions within Vse 2 Directions how to behave our selves in all estates 1. In prosperity and to the like temptations from without how they should carry themselves in an equable tenour both in prosperity and adversity In thy day of prosperity 1. Be thankefull to thy God Deut. 8.10 When thou hast eaten and art full then thou shalt blesse the Lord thy God for the good Land which he hath given thee So did good Jacob Gen. 32.10 I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies which thou hast shewed unto thy Servant For with my staff I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two bands Remember that wrath was upon good Ezechias for his ingratitude 2 Chron. 32.25 2. Walk humbly with thy God remembring thou hast nothing but what thou hast received It is the Lord who of rich and free bounty makes thee to differ from the poor Remember the rich and poor meet together Pro. 22.2 they are alike in their birth both come naked out of the womb and alike at their death they return naked to the womb of the earth the difference only is for a moment of time Remember Ezechias his pride in his treasures provoked God to give them to the spoiler 2 King 20.17 3. Walk in charity toward them that want the good things of the world Remember as this is the day of thy receiving so there will be a day of reckoning when thy Lord will say Give me an account of thy Stewardship Profession of love to God without this is but hypocrisie 1 Joh. 3.17 Whoso hath this worlds good and seeth his brother hath need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him yea thy outward performances of publique worship and solemn humiliation by fasting is abomination before the Lord without this labour of love Isa 58.6 7. The Lord requires that thou deal thy bread to the hungry c. If God send a change the remembrance of thy mercifull dealing with the poor will comfort thy heart in adversity Augustine It was Jobs comfort in his saddest hour Job 31.16 17. c. Augustine saith well God made the rich man that he might help the poor and he made the poor man that he might try the rich 4. In thy abundance moderate thy affections Let not thy desire joy and delight dwell on things worldly Phil. 3.20 Let your conversation be in heaven The Merchant though he trade in a forreign Countrey for a time and be never so well entertained there yet his more frequent thoughts and stronger affections are on his own Countrey and the comforts there here thou art a sojourner Amidst all thy transient pleasures here let thy minde and heart be set upon the things that are above Col. 3.2 5. Of thy worldly commodities make a spirituall use as the skilful Chymist extracts subtil spirits out of the grossest Minerals so the spiritual man draweth a spiritual use out of things earthly Out of any sweetnesse he tastes in the creatures his appetite is inlarged toward that full joy and pleasures for ever at the right hand of God as a profane worldling in a Church-meeting many times hath earthly thoughts so the spiritual man even in his civill meetings in the midst of his earthly pleasures is a heavenly-minded man He looks through the creatures to heaven He can at once look both to the earth and to the third heaven From earthly objects his heart is raised to things heavenly and after such thoughts he returns to the use of the creature with great moderation as a man refreshed already with more excellent delicates then the creatures can afford In the day of adversity carry thy self also in an equal way 2. In adversity I know also saith our Apostle how to be abased 1. Be not regardlesse of thy Crosse Heb. 12.5 It is the Lords visitation and thou must take notice of him when he visits thee humble thy self before him with Ephraim bemoan thy self Jer. 31.18 accept the punishment of thy sin and justifie the Lord in all his dispensations Lev. 26.41 and seek to God by praier for comfort Isa 26.16 They poured out a praier when thy chastening was upon them 2. Be not faint-hearted this is another extremity whereunto the dear children of God are subject in time of oppressing troubles Good Baruch fainted in his sighing in a time of adversity and dis-appointment of his hopes Jer. 45.3 Jonah fainted in a time of great perplexity Jonah 2.7 Prepare cordials against this fainting As men subject to fainting in the body carry alwaies about with them some preservatives lay up store of the precious promises with faith to them in thy understanding and with love to them in thy heart The taste of this bread of life will keep thee from fainting Carry Christ and his Crosse in thine heart and the smell of his Crosse and the sweet fruits of it will keep thine heart from fainting If at any time thou faint then with Jonah Jon. 2.7 Remember the Lord and his former kindenesses He is unchangeable in his love He loveth to the end Joh. 13.1 The meditation on former experience and on the unchangeablenesse of his love is a Restorative to a fainting soul 3. In thy adversity be patient Jam. 1.4 Let Patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and intire wanting nothing It is not perfect in any man in a perfection of degrees but in the purpose of their will and affection of their hearts The godly should be willing in all things present or to come to submit to the good will of God Patience is joyned to hope as the Cable to the Anchor 1 Thes 1.3 Patience of hope As in a stresse of weather the more the Cable is lengthened there is the lesse agitation of the Ship so in a time of trouble the more our patience is encreased the commotion of our spirit is the lesse It is true the dear children of God may have their own fits of impatiency as Moses at Meribah Job had his Job 3. Jeremiah Jer. 15.10 and Jonah had a sore fit Jon. 4.8 It is
in hand of a great bargain covenanted by a faithful party makes men content with a small portion for a time in the sure expectation of perfecting the full bargain So the assurance the children of God have by the Spirit of Christ of their full redemption and deliverance from all their troubles maketh them in all their troubles to rejoyce in hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.3 3. 3. By comforting The Spirit worketh this contentment in the children of God by comforting them and giving them some first-fruits of eternal life Rom. 8.23 Such are the sense of Gods love shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit Rom. 5.5 Peace in the conscience and the joy of the holy Ghost 1 Thes 1.6 Having received the Word in much affliction with joy in the holy Ghost These are like the sweet refreshing Grapes in the Land of Canaan whereof Joshua and Caleb brought some clusters to make the people content with present troubles in the wildernesse and to encourage them to go to the place of their rest where every thing grew in great plenty for their full refreshment and satisfaction The sense of Gods love makes the childe of God content in his lowest estate Mephibosheth the Son of Jonathan was unjustly slandered by Zibah and rashly divested of all his goods by David yet was he so affected with joy for the Kings safe return to dwell in his own house that he could in calmnesse of spirit dispense with his own private losses 2 Sam. 19.30 Mephibosheth said unto the King Yea let Zibah take all forasmuch as my Lord the King is come again in peace into his own house So a Beleever is content to suffer contumelies and injuries at all hands when the Lord dwels in his soul and gives him peace the sweetnesse of his love expels the bitternesse and gall of our afflictions It is as wine to the heavy heart Pro. 31.7 He forgets his poverty and remembers his misery no more David was so affected with the sense of Gods goodnesse in giving him peace and rest from his enemies that he was content to forgive private injuries 2 Sam. 19.22 Shall there any man be put to death this day in Israel for do not I know that I am King this day of Israel So the sense of peace with God in Jesus Christ the peace-maker makes the children of God content and obedient to the will of God Eph. 4 32. Forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you 4. 4. By strengthening The Spirit worketh our hearts to contentment by strengthning us to bear the burthen of affliction It is the Apostles prayer to God for the Ephesians Eph. 3.16 That God would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man and here it is said I am able through Christ strengthning me to do all things whereof in the strength of his grace we shall speak hereafter This Doctrine serveth for Admonition Vse 1 In the day of thy prosperity Seek not contentment in earthly things neither seek nor place thy contentment in things worldly Contentment is not learned in the school of the creature the most pleasant roses have their own pricks Riches are accompanied with thorny cares Royal Crowns are tinned with fears and jealousies Pleasures are deceitfull and have an hook under the bait when thy conscience awakes with terrour for unjust purchase of them or though the purchases be lawfull yet if thine heart smite thee for ingratitude to God in the possession of them for abusing of them to pride riot and excesse and for not using of them to the relief of the poor thou shalt have no contentment in them but the possession of them in unrighteousness or ingratitude and the misimploying or not imploying of them to a good use will augment thy discontentment and in a sad experience thou wilt be forced to say they are comforters of no value When Belshazzars conscience was awaked with the sight of the hand writing on the wall all his plenty of wine and other cordials of that kind all his magnificence and the smooth speeches of his Queen and Princes could neither quiet his spirit nor fasten his joynts In thy adversity and troubled estate seek not contentment or ease to thy spirit from worldly divertisements these are but as Davids playing on the Harp to Saul at the time of his great distemper 1 Sam. 16.33 But the evil spirit returned again Such poor means may for a time divert thy thoughts but cure not the disease and distemper of thy unquiet spirit they are as a cup of cold water to an hydropick man which refresheth him for a moment but encreaseth his thirst and pain 2. Vse 2 It serveth for a ground of Exhortation to stir us up to go to the school of Jesus Chaist Go to the School of Christ to learn contentment that in all our troubles we may learn this necessary and profitable lesson of solid contentment Some enclining to a Consumption are easily induced to the study of Medicine to prevent the symptomes of that distemper discontentment is a frettig consumption of the spirit and it is hereditary to us from our first parents in whose aggregate sinne to speak so discontentment with their present condition was an ingredient 1. This inward contentment makes us pleasing to God who is highly displeased with male-contents at his Providence Nehemiah was sore afraid when the King perceived him sad Because he knew Kings are jealous of discontented persons Neh. 2.2 much more is the King of Kings displeased with them who fret at his dispensations who in the right of his supream dominion may do what he pleaseth and as a righteous Judge is ever holy and righteous in all his procedings towards the children of men 2. It will make thee social and pleasing to all men with whom thou hast thy conversation in the world thou canst condole with them in their adversity and rejoyce with them in their prosperity but the discontented spirit is sullen and surly either when evil befals himself or good to his neighbour 3. This inward contentment is to thee an earnest of that absolute contentment in heaven and on the contrary fretting discontentment unlesse it be broken off by repentance is no other but the beginning of the worm that dieth not As ye have shewn us how that profitable lesson of contentment is taught Helps to the practise of Contentment shew us also some helps for furthering us in the practise of it 1. Break off thy sins by repentance and be reconciled to God An out-law pursued from place to place eats his bread with much quaking and fear So a soul pursued by God in wrath cannot have any content in the things he enjoys in the time of his life and hath lesse contentment in things worldly at the hour of death As a condemned person hath no contentment in the best entertainment given to
be fully manifested in the day of the glorious resurrection of our bodies Object Object But is not the punishment of sin as well as the fault taken away in our Justification by the blood of Jesus how comes it to pass that the children of God notwithstanding the forgiveness of their sins are yet punished by temporal death Answ I answer Answer Death is not inflicted on Believers in wrath that death temporal is formally and properly a punishment when it is inflicted by God as a Judge in his wrath and when it is a door and passage to the second death and to a perpetual separation from the face of God But the death of the godly is not inflicted by God in wrath for these reasons 1. Because in the remission of their sins and reconciliation with God in their justification all wrath is taken away God forgiveth and forgetteth their sins Isa 43.25 I blot out thy transgressions for my own names sake and will not remember thy sins But where wrath remaineth sin is not forgotten 2. That which is sent and turned by God into a blessing is not inflicted in wrath but death is turned into a blessing to the children of God Rev. 14.13 it is a passage unto their eternal rest in their countrey that is above It is as a speedy passage by sea to a traveller returning home to his Fathers house 3. That which which is precious in the eyes of the Lord is not inflicted in wrath for precious things are testimonies of love and not evidences of wrath but the death of the Saints is precious in the eyes of God Psal 116.15 Next I answer death to the godly is not a door of fear and condemnation but of hope and salvation Rom 8.1 There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus There may be in a great Princes house a common door and gate at which Malefactors do enter and go down into the dark dungeon at which also the children may enter and go up to the rooms above that are full of light The door is one and the same but the use of it is far diverse in the respect to the one and the other So dissolution at death is common both to the godly and wicked but the relation that death hath to them is diverse to the one it is a passage for glory and to the other for eternal pain from whence it appeareth that the punishment standeth not so much in the dissolution of the person which is common both to the godly and wicked As in that ordination of the first death to be a passage unto eternal death which in Gods purpose is ordained and in justice executed on the wicked It is true death wil be bitter in the pains of it even to the godly but this bitterness of death is not properly a punishment to the godly as a bitter potion given out of the hand of a loving father to his weak child is not given as a punishment but as a medicine that though it be painful for a time yet he may have stronger health in time to come So after the bitterness of death is passed the children of God get confirmed health and salvation in the kingdom of heaven Object Object But hath not Christ by dying once fully satisfied for us how is it then that Believers are not freed from that debt of death for the which their surety hath given satisfaction Answ I answer true it is Our Lord died Answ Believers dy not to satisfie divine justice that by his death he might satisfie divine justice fully but to this end we dy not that we may satisfie divine justice for a finite creature cannot satisfie infinite justice yea the wicked in hell do not by their sufferings fully satisfie they will be ever in satisfying but never able to make out the satisfaction The end of the death of the Godly is not as was the end of Christs death to satisfie the justice of God as a Judge but to subject themselves to his fatherly pleasure and wisdom that by death they may be purged from the dross of inbred corruption and thus enter into the glory and Joy of their father for corruption cannot inherit incorruption did not our Lord fulfill all righteousness for us in his active obedience and yet we stand obliged to the mandatory power of the Law as we have endeavoured to prove elsewhere in Serm. 4. on Ezek 36 6.27 though we be not bound to obey the Law for the same end our Lord obeyed it to wit for our justification yet we are bound thereto for this end that by our obedience we may testifie our thankfulness to the Lord our creator and redeemer likewise in our Lords passive obedience his end was to satisfie for our guiltiness and obligation to punishment but a special end in all our sufferings is that we may be conformable to the Lord our head Rom 8.29 not by satisfying with him but by our patient submission to the will of our heavenly father like as our Lord in all things submitted to the will of his father Object Object But many of the dear children of God are not freed from the fear of death as David and Ezechias had their own fears in a large measure Psal 116. Isa 38. How then say ye that Christ hath delivered us from the fear of death Answ Answ Believers have a natural fear of death I answer it is no wonder the godly have a natural fear because they have as all creatures a natural desire of self-preservation and this natural fear being concreated with man in the state of integrity was not sinful But sometime this natural fear exceeds in the godly when faith and hope is weak This excess of natural fear is in them a sinful infirmity not to be defended by any but to be pitied by others and mourned for by themselves and prayed against by all weakness of faith at such times makes their fears great and strong when the children of God have deep apprehensions of death and but weak apprehensions of Iesus Christ and of eternal life by him then is their eye fixed on the bitter potion which breeds astonishment until the time they gather their thoughts and by faith and hope look to that eternal health which will follow upon this bitter potion Our Lord said to Peter Mat. 14 Why art thou so fearful O thou of little faith little faith makes much fear but a vigorous faith into Gods special presence though it do not altogether expel yet will it moderate and regulate our natural fear of death Psal 23.4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff comfort me They are as children in their loving Fathers hand and fear not to pass through that dark trance to their eternal Mansions of light and glory This doctrine serves to rouse raise our hearts unto the duty of Thankfulness