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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49757	Christ's power over bodily diseases Preached in several sermons on Mat. 8. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. And published for the instruction especially of the more ignorant people in the great dutie of preparation for sickness and death. By Edward Lawrence, M.A. minister of the gospel at Baschurch in the county of Salop.	Lawrence, Edward, 1623-1695.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1672 (1672)	Wing L653; ESTC R223651	140,079	330

What shall a man give in exchange for his soul Be pleased to accept this poor thing which I humbly offer to you give it a little room in your Study and Closet and let the truths therein have a great place in your hearts Now blessed of the Lord be you and your hopeful posterity for the precious things of the earth and the fulness thereof and especially for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush NOw for the rest of you my dearly beloved my joy and my longed for It is now thirteen years since upon your free choice and consent I was setled to be your Minister I mourn that I have done you no better service yet I bless God that I have done you no worse Some of you are the people of my joy others are the people of my hopes but God knows you are all the people of my love possibly you may not enjoy my Ministry long though if any thing but death part us it is like for your sakes to be one of the saddest days of my age Some know I might have had better places both before and since I knew you but I never thought my self too good for you the Lord make me better whilst I stay and give you a better when I am gone You will wonder to see me appear to you thus publick my late visitation whereby I was brought down to the gates of the grave and brought up again was the occasion of my preaching these Sermons and the unanimous advice of four godly reverend and learned Ministers all known to you caused their printing without which my own private thoughts of them had never consented to have them licensed for the Press I have devoted this little plain Treatise to the Will of God knowing that if he put power and savour in it it will prosper I expect to be scorned by some but if God say Well done I care not who findes fault I had rather bear the reproaches of thousands then that one poor ●oul should lose the least spiritual and saving good which I may be a means to help him unto I leave it with you as a testimony of my sincere love to you not so much that you may remember me but that you may remember your selves your sins and your souls and that you may remember God Christ Heaven Hell Death and Judgement which are always present before you Brethren I must needs witness that most of you have been constant hearers of the Word and that you have many hundred Sermons to answer for but you must be doers as well as hearers of the word the sins of men and the terrors of the Lord make me afraid that there is a storm rising and I doubt there will be a great fall of many professors and if you will believe our Saviour you shall finde that those onely are built on a rock and shall certainly stand who are both the hearers and doers of the word I refer you to his own words Matth. 7.24 25 26 27. I beseech you let not the world and sin come between your hearts and Christ let nothing keep you from heaven which cannot keep you from hell Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the sheep through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen Your servant for Jesus sake Edward Lawrence Baschurch July 11. 1661. Reader THough nothing be more certain and common then Death it is no common thing to be prepared for it or else salvation would be common As there are no Truths that are more necessary to be oft preacht and heard then those which almost all men know so also no duties are more necessary to be urged then those that almost all confess and think they practice who will not acknowledge that preparation for death should be the daily business of our lives and done with the first and most serious of our cares And yet to the shame of corrupted humane nature we must speak it thousands that are uncertain to live an hour and certain to be lost for ever if death surprize them in the state which they are in are as mindless of a serious preparation and of the change which should go before that change as if it were no part of their concernment Methinks it is a very doleful spectacle to see men unprepared to dye as busily taken up with impertinent diversions as if their work were done already One drinking and prating and singing in an Alehouse or Tavern though unprepared to dye another imployed in feasting and complement and such company and discourse as will least trouble him with such thoughts while yet he is unprepared to dye another scraping for deceitful riches or gaping and scrambling for preferment while yet he is unprepared to dye another quieting his carnal heart with meer hypocritical outsides and lip-service as if he could charm an unprepared soul into Heaven by saying or hearing a few words and few will know feelingly what an important work Preparation is till the terrors of approaching death be upon them One of Gods means for mens preparation is to give his Ministers a special fitness to assist them in the work As Christ took part with the children that were partakers of flesh and bloud Heb. 2.14 and in all things must be made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful High-priest and in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted v. 17 18. so that we have not an High-priest that cannot be touched with the feeling our of infirmities Heb. 4.15 Even so his Ministers must be mortals frail and subject to like passions as other men James 5.17 and the treasure of the spirit must be in earthen vessels 2 Cor. 4 7. They must be sick that they may the better teach you to prepare for sickness and they must be exercised in preparing for death themselves that they may be the fitter to teach you to prepare The God of Comfort comforteth them in all their tribulations that they may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the Comfort whe●ewith they are comforted of God ●nd whether they be afflicted or comforted it is for your consolation and salvation Even when they are pressed out of measure above strength insomuch as they despair of life they receive the sentence of death in themselves that they may not trust in themselves but in God that raised the dead that thanks may be given by many on their behalf 2 Cor. 1.3 4 6 8 9 11. Whereas those that are insensible of their neerness to eternity and in healthful prosperity grow secure are like to be no lively feeling Preachers nor fit to waken others to that serious preparation which they

work the great shout will then make among the prophane Swaggerers and Ranters o● the world So when thou art troubled with diseases and the fearful thoughts of death consider thy glorious victory over them at th● day of judgment 1 Cor. 15.54 When thi● corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed u● in victory Look on this corruptible an● mortal body which is now sometimes s● loathsome with diseases that a man ca● scarce endure to carry it about him or to lie with it and will shortly be so contemptible that the worms of the earth wil● crawl and feed all over it and these ver● arms and thighs and legs may be throw● up and lie like the bones of horses an● sheep at the graves mouth yet the day i● coming when this corruptible and mortal body shall put on immortality and glory and saith the Apostle Then at that day shall come to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory Beloved here diseases conquer the strongest bodies and death overcomes the lives of the best and greatest men and the grave devours and eats up our flesh but then we shall obtain a glorious victory over all when in despite of them the bodies of Believers shall be raised incorruptible and immortal and diseases death and the grave which have prevailed for so many thousand years to swallow up so many millions of men and women shall themselves be swallowed up of life and swallowed up in victory Last Vse is of Exhortation I shall conclude this discourse with a Use of Exhortation which I shall first direct to all in general and then more particularly 1. To such who are in health 2. To such who have been sick but are recovered 3. I shall direct to some duties to be practised in time of sickness I begin with the first wherein I shal● exhort all to these six duties grounded o● this Doctrine 1. Live in the knowledge and sense o● this truth that the health and lives of al● men are at the will and command of Jesus Christ 1. See your own health and lives at th● command of Christ acknowledge with David Psal 31.15 My times are in thy hands Consider that of the Apostle Jam 4.13 14. Go to now ye that say To day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow For what is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and presently vanisheth away Observe Go to ye that say To day or to morrow Why a day is but a little while and it is but a short time till to morrow Well but time hath a teeming womb and you know not what a day may bring forth We often see one day working strange changes and alterations with men a day may bring you into eternity and put an eternal period to all your designes and it is most certain that you know not what shall be on the morrow thou mayest be sick or dead to morrow thou mayest be in heaven or hell to morrow oh but sure there is no such danger yes that there is and therefore it is added What is your life It is even a vapour that appeareth a little while and presently vanisheth away As a vapour fills the air and makes a shew a little while and then presently vanisheth away So man appears a little while in his family in the Field Market or Congregation but presently vanisheth out of sight How would the serious thoughts of this make men hasten to repent if they did know that there is very great danger that unbelief and impenitency may bring them to hell before to morrow If so surely they would not venture one hour out of Jesus Christ for as many mountains of gold as there are sands upon the Sea-shore yet for want of this poor souls are still deferring their repentance till to morrow until at last death seiseth upon them and leaves them never a morrow to repent in So how vain would the world appear to them if they did consider that they could not say they should enjoy their riches and pleasures and preferments till to morrow Consider thus with thy self I have provided meat but I may be in Eternity before I eat it I have bought me good cloaths but I may be put in a winding-sheet before I wear them I have sowed great fields but I may be in hell before I reap them Look on all the world about thee and tell thy soul This is but a poor portion when thou mayst loose all in a breath 2. See thy Friends and Relations in the hands of Jesus Christ Beloved herein appears the great difference betwixt our worldly and heavenly enjoyments As fo● our heavenly enjoyments we are best whe● we are most fit to enjoy them but as fo● our worldly comforts we are best when w● are most fit to loose them as thus it is ou● holiness and happiness to be fit to abide for ever with God and Christ in heaven but we are most holy and spiritual when we are in a readiness to part with Husbands Wives Parents Children c. Now what poor comforts are these when a man is in the best frame when he can be content to be without them 3. See the great ones of the world in the hands of Jesus Christ Oh what a sight is this to look upon all the Kings and Nobles and Gallants of the world in their very fa● into Eternity Sirs as you see them catching at the Crowns and Honours and Estates of the world so see diseases and death catching at them We have this passage Psal 49.12 20. Man being in honour abideth not he is like the beasts that perish that is say some like beasts that die of the Murrain which are thrown away for stinking Carrion which is good for nothing Did we consider this we should not make men our trust and confidence See Jer. 17.5 What a cursed sin is this for a man that hath the Immortal God to be his trust to rest on a lump of flesh that cannot so much as keep himself from being sick or dead or damned for one day Psal 146.3 4. Put not your trust in Princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help His breath goeth forth he returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish Observe the Psalmist pleads against putting our trust in the Princes and great ones o● the world because they are dying men and in the day of death their thoughts perish Many great men have great thoughts of honours and preferments and perhaps thoughts of doing much mischief to Gods Church and people but death comes and in that very day their thoughts perish In Esth 6. we read that Hamans thoughts were full of this

risen with a burning heat but it withereth the grass and the flower thereof falleth and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways Oh tell thy friends lands silver and gold that thou art going into Eternity and art presently to stand before the Judge of Quick and Dead and see what help they can afford thee Thou wilt certainly finde Solomons words true Prov. 11.4 Riches profit not in the day of wrath Beloved If we would know whether a man be happy or miserable we must not look upon him as he appears in his honours and riches c. but follow him to his death and the day of judgment see how he speeds there and how he comes off then for then the man comes to his proof and we shall see that all the riches of the world yield no profit in those great daies but then the highest carnal Monarch shall be no more respected by the Judge of all the world then the ugliest Devil of Hell when a poor godly servant or day-labourer shall be crowned with incorruptible glory before his face Oh therefore you rich men look among all your jewels and treasures whether you have a God and Christ and grace for your poor souls these only are the provision which will maintain you against the terrors of death and the dread of judgment 6. Exhortation to poor men to prepare for sickness and death We think them poor who have nothing to live on in this world but they are poor who have nothing to live on in the other world Poor people you cannot come at the silver and gold and riches of this world when you will but you have as much freedom to the riches of the other world as the mightiest Prince upon earth Thou mayst call God Father and ask what thou wilt and live upon the everlasting Kingdom of heaven as thy own and therefore you that are poor and godly let your riches of the other world comfort you against the poverty of this Look on thy cold Cottage and then look on thy house not made wi●h hands Look on thy poor leathern cloaths and then look how thou shalt be cloa●hed when thou appearest with Christ in glory Look on thy brown bread and course fare and then remember the entertainment which Angels and Saints have in heaven Oh poor people though you know not how to be maintained whilst you live yet get saving grace and you will be rich enough to go to heaven when you die The last Exhortation shall be to such who in some respects seem nearer death then other persons I shall instance only in three sorts of people to whom I shall direct this Exhortation to prepare for sickness and death First Such whose callings and imployments do expose their lives to daily and great dangers as Water-men Colliers Carpenters Masons c. These men by a leak in a Boat or Ship a fall of a little earth a slip of a foot may be turned to heaven or hell every day Yet we often see that many who live in the greatest dangers live in the greatest sins My earnest advice to you is to prepare for death that though you stand in dangerous places yet you may stand upon sure ground for the salvation of your souls Sirs for ought I know you may get heaven with less danger then you get your livings Remember what precious souls you have and that every time you venture your lives you venture your souls too Labour by sound repentance to forsake your sins and to turn to God Do not swear and lye and be drunk and deceive others Do not prophane the Lords daies if you expect that God should preserve you on working daies labour by a sound faith to rest on Christ to save your guilty souls see your nearness unto Eternity be often looking from the places where you are into heaven and hell and see what a little there is betwixt you and them and seriously consider if now you should fall into Eternity in which of those two places would be your portion Get such a saving knowledge of God that you may comfortably commit the keeping of your lives unto him and solemnly worship God in your Closets and Families and live in the fear of God and in peace with him and use your callings to his glory that he may preserve you in your ways or however that if you do die in your callings you may not die in your sins Secondly Such who though they have ordinarily present case and health yet they are subject to dangerous and sudden pains and fearful distempers as Convulsions Falling-Sickness Stone c. you have need in regard of these to be always prepared for sickness and death you would not be without what remedies you can get when your distempers come Oh do not be without God and Christ and Grace if death should come in them Whatever you are doing consider Now my distempers may surprize me therefore if they take you in bed at meat at work let them not take you in your sins in all likelihood these fits will shorten your daies therefore let them hasten your repentance these distempers will fill you with torturing pains or for present deprive you of your reason parts senses c. so that then will be a very unfit time to prepare for death therefore improve your times of health and ease as merciful opportunities that when your diseases or death finde you they may not finde you unprovided Sirs always remember that you carry death in your bodies therefore be sure to carry grace in your souls Lastly Women that are with childe have special reason to be prepared for sickness and death God hath inseparably fixt this punishment upon this Sex that in sorrow they shall bring forth children Gen. 3.16 And our Saviour tells us Joh. 16.21 A woman when she is in travel hath sorrow And experience witnesseth the grievous pangs and pains of all and the sad deaths of very many in this condition so that thou must certainly within a few weeks be grievously diseased and thou mayst probably dye do not then venture into such dangers in a Christless state Poor woman perhaps thou hast bred that life which will be thy own death therefore labour to finde that Christ is as sure formed in thy heart as the babe is formed in thy womb and before that sad and dangerous hour of the birth of thy childe come examine throughly whether the new birth be past in thy soul I would not have thee oppress thy heart with the dismal fore-thoughts and distracting fears of that time for to be sure sufficient to that day will be the evil thereof but I would have thee so prepared that the short pangs of childe-bearing may not end in the everlasting pangs and torments of hell and that thou mayst be a new creature and found in the righteousness of Jesus Christ that if thou shouldst no longer live with thy

cheerful yet look for another fit sickness is like to come again and death will be sure to come shortly therefore take heed of security Lastly that heed of pride and vain-glory this was the sin of good Hezekiah of whom we read that after he was recovered from his sickness his heart was lifted up 2 Chron. 22.24 25. and this appeared in that when he was courted by the King of Babylon he did in a bravado shew all his riches Isa 39.2 Poor Hezekiah thou wast in a better frame when on thy sick-bed thou wast turning thy face to the wall but we may see by this sad instance how apt we are after a mercie and deliverance to be puft up with high thoughts and conceits of our selves The last Duty which I shall mention is this Be careful to perform thy sick-bed-vows and resolutions A vow is a solemn promise made to God either of a duty or of something which may further us in our duty to God The matter of a vow is either to do that which God commands or to forsake sin which God forbids or to do something to further our obedience or to abstain from something which might be an occasion of sin and which we may abstain from A vow must not be of a thing unlawful for that were as if we should promise God to hate him or not to love him it must be also of that which we have power to do else we have no power to promise to do it The nature of a vow is a promise made to God which promise brings an obligation upon us to perform it this promise must not be made rashly for a vow must be the fruit of grace and not the fruit of sin and we must not make promises to God in a passion yet I do not deny but such vows must be performed for it 's one thing sinfully to vow and another thing to vow to sin in such a case we must be humbled for the manner of the vow and graciously pay what we sinfully vow'd It hath been the practice of the godly to make vows to God in their troubles Psal 132.1 2. Lord remember David and all his afflictions how he sware unto the Lord and vowed to the mighty God of Jacob. Now Sirs in the fear of God make conscience to perform your sick-bed-vows Indeed wicked men are forward to make vows when they are sick and as forward to break them when they are well As Pharaoh when the plagues were upon him he would let Israel go but when they were removed his heart was hardned and they should not go But it is the property of a godly man to make good his vows Psal 15.4 Hence saith David Psal 56.12 Thy vows are upon me O God Beloved vows are heavy things David felt them lying upon him and pressing him to the performance of them Vows take up a great deal of room in the soul they fill the conscience when a man is tempted to do that which he hath vowed against his vow will be upon him presently that he dare not do it See what conscience David made of his vows Psal 66.13 14. I will pay thee my vows which my lips have uttered and my mouth hath spoken when I was in trouble Psal 116.14 I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people Sirs if you break your vows your vows will break you I shall conclude this in the words of Solomon Eccles 5.4 5. When thou vowest a vow unto God defer not to pay for he hath no pleasure in fools pay that which thou hast vowed Better it is that thou shouldst not vow then that thou shouldst vow and not pay So much for the Exhortation to those who are recovered from sickness My last Exhortation is to exhort you to some Duties to be performed in time of sickness which I shall lay before you in these twelve particulars Duty 1. Own and acknowledge the hand of God in thy visitation as a man in a croud that receives a blow upon his head will presently turn about to see whence the stroke comes so as soon as Gods hand toucheth thee let thy eye be upon him and labour to finde a special presence of God appearing in thy visitation Poor soul thou art now parted from the use of Ordinances in publick and thou must labour to finde Sabbaths and Sermons and Sacraments in thy sickness that is thou must endeavour to finde the presence of God that appears in these Ordinances appearing to thy soul in the aches and troubles and pains of a sickness To this purpose I have read a saying of an holy Minister of the Gospel which he spoke on his sick-bed concerning people that were then worshipping God in publick Oh said he that they did now see what I do now feel we have a choice example of this duty of acknowledging the hand of God in our visitation in Job cap. 1. where we read that after he had stood still and heard the messengers which came one upon the heels of the another with the sad tidings of the loss of his cattel and servants and children the very first thing he does is to turn to God and to fall down and worship him and acknowledge his hand in his affliction vers 20 21. so I say So soon as ever thy disease begins presently own and acknowledge and worsh●p God who is the cause of thy visitation so did David Psal 38.2 Thy arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore Consider this affliction comes from the Wisdom and Will and Power and Justice of God and by this disease he hath now chosen to come to thee and to appear to thee therefore labour to have thy heart filled with him that all thy words and actions may favour of him Hereby thou wilt see Reason against all Sin and Reason for all Duties and withal a ground for all comforts Duty 2. Labour to have thy heart filled with the thoughts of thy death and judgement it is the great sin of many that in their sickness strive to put the thoughts of death and judgement far from them and labour to fill their hearts with confidence that they shall live and so many poor wretches fall into hell before they did think they should dye But certainly it 's the safest and wisest way so soon as thou art assaulted with sickness to see thy death and judgement standing before thee and to receive the sentence of death in thy self 2 Cor. 1.9 Look upon thy disease as bringing thee to death and after that to a judgement which will settle thee in heaven or hell presently As thou lyest on thy sick-bed look into the other great world where thou art entring see in what state place and company thou art now to all eternity to be fixt Look into hell and see those many millions of Devils that are chained up there Look what a dreadful case the learned great rich strong and beautiful swaggerers ranters