of heaven for the love of earth Let us labour for this main piece of wisdome even to provide for the eternal well-being of our Souls This is the only wisdome which will stand us in stead when we grow wise for a better life And that we may provide for the life to come let us learn this point of wisdome even to remember our latter end know how to die well Deut. 32.29 Oh that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end This is the wisdome of a Christian to prepare himself for death to be ever in a readiness to die that when his change shall come he may have this to comfort him that whatsoever becomes of his body for the present he hath made good provision for his Soul He is the only wise Christian that provides for Eternity and minds this only above all other things how he may enjoy his God and live with him for evermore The Greeks have but one word to express a wise man and an happy man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies both as if that were only to be accounted for true wisdome which leads to Eternal Bliss and happiness Herein is the wisdome of a Christian in labouring to attain true Blessedness even the sight and enjoyment of God for evermore Oh blessed is the man that is so wise as to provide for Eternity who dies with this comfort that though his body moulder into dust and ashes for a time yet his Soul shall rest in the arms of his Redeemer The second particular now follows and that is the subject of this wisdome where it is seated even in the heart and affection This in brief is our next Conclusion True wisdome is to be beloved and embrac'd Prov. 2.2 If thou incline thine ear unto wisdome and apply thine heart to understanding Wisdome is the Mother of us all Mat. 11.19 Wisdome is justified of her children and it is fit the Mother should be loved of her children The Urim was to be laid upon Aarons heart Exod. 2.8 30. to note that wisdome must be seated in the heart there she must lodg and be entertain'd the heart is only a fit Receptacle of wisdome and there she must live and abide The Queen of Sheba was so in love with the wisdome of Solomon as that she took a tedious journey to give that wise King a visit Mat. 12.42 And behold a greater than Solomon is here What is Solomon to Christ what is the wisdome of man to the wisdome of God It is but as a Cloud to the brightness of the Sun as the shadow to the substance and he that loves the wisdome of the World and forsakes the wisdome of God embraceth a shadow and forgoes the substance What can we love if our hearts be not enamoured with wisdome There is nothing amiable but wisdome and if we despise ber what is there of this worlds good whereon we many set our love and affection The learned men of old would only be called Philosophers Lovers of Wisdome not wise men as if this were the highest perfection of wisdome and no man was so wise as he whose heart was enflam'd with the love of wisdome It is not enough to know that which is good but we must be in love with that good which we do know Let us be in love with true wisdome and embrace her as our only delight and joy David bore an hearty affection to the commandments of God he made them his only delight and comfort Psal 119.24 Thy Testimonies are my delight and my counsellors Let us not so much affect the things of this life as to forgo all love of God and heaven Let us not be slaves to the world and despise the freedome which wisdome promiseth to them that love her Let us not say as the servant of his Master Exod. 21.5 I love my Master I will not go out free I love the world so well as that I am content to be a Slave for ever so I may have the wages which the world can give me I value not the joyes of the life to come so I may have the good things of this life for my portion Oh for shame shake off the love of these vanities and be in love with heaven esteem nothing amiable but what is reserv'd for thee in another world Let thy heart be set upon true wisdome and do not suffer the fooleries and vanities of this world to steal away thy heart from God Let wisdome be precious in thine eyes and do not seem to love her but love her in truth and in heart Let us not content our selves with a bare sight of heaven with an outward view and speculation of the glory of heaven but let us fasten our deepest thoughts and meditations upon it Let us not speak of heaven but let our hearts be ravished with the love of heaven Our tongues are but the Suburbs of wisdome but the heart is the City Let not wisdome remain without the gate in the mouth and outward profession of piety but let her be received into the City and entertain'd with joy and gladness into the heart and there rest and repose her self as in the bosome of her best beloved And now that I may not have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a tongue without a door that cannot be governed and kept within the compass of time I hasten to the third particular and that is the means were by we may attain this wisdome and that is by numbring of our dayes Our last observation is this the consideration and meditation of death makes us wise the remembrance of death makes us truly wise The wise man shows us who is wise and who is a fool Eccles 7.4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth A wise mans heart is bent to sadness and the serious meditation of his end and makes choice of such mournful thoughts as will present death before his eyes the desires of a fool are carryed after unseasonable mirth and jollity and he minds nothing less then the sad remembrance of his death The thought of death casts a man into a melancholly fit therefore he cannot away with it What saies he Shall I think of that which torments and afflicts my Spirit and causeth sadness and pensiveness of mind The remembrance of death it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a daily death and the medication of our latter end is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a continual sorrow and vexation of the heart But let careless Christians imagine what they please that which is a grief to them will prove no little joy and comfort to those whose thoughts are taken up with the meditation of their latter end When the hour of death approacheth we shall account it the only wisdome to have fitted and disposed our hearts aright for the last day of our dissolution and departure out of
things God will bring thee into Judgment Abrahams Purchase c. Page 233. GEN. 23.4 I am a stranger and a sojourner among you give me a possession of a burying place with you that I may bury my dead out of my sight Gods Esteem of the Death of his Saints Page 243. PSAL. 116.15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints The desire of the Saints after immortal Glory Page 251. 2 COR. 5.2 For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven The Careless Merchant c. Page 265. MAT. 16.26 What is man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul Christs second Advent c. Page 273. REVEL 22.12 Behold I come shortly and my reward is with me to give every man according to his works The Saints longing for the great Epiphany Page 263. TITUS 2.13 Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Lifes Apparition and Mans Dissolution Page 291. JAMES 4.14 For what is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little while and then vanisheth away Saint Pauls Trumpet c. Page 303. ROM 13.11 And that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep The Righteous Mans resting-place c. Page 313. GEN. 15.1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abraham saying Fear not Abraham I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward The righteous Judge c. Page 323. JAM 2.12 So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty Sins Stipend and Gods Munificence Page 335. ROM 6.23 For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Profit of Afflictions c. Page 343. HEB. 12.10 For they verily for a few dayes chastened us after their own pleasure but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness Spiritual Hearts-ease c. Page 355. JOHN 14.1 2 3. 1. Let not your hearts be troubled believe in God believe also in me 2. In my Fathers house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you 3. And if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there you may be also Faiths Triumph over the greatest Tryals Page 367. HEB. 11.17 By Faith Abraham when he was tryed offered up his Son Isaac and he that had received the promise offered up his only begotten Son The Priviledge of the Faithful c. Page 377. IPET 3.7 As Heirs together of the grace of life Peace in Death c. Page 387. LUKE 2.29 Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word The Vital Fountain c. Page 399. JOHN 11.25 26. 25. Jesus said unto her I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live 26. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die Death in Birth c. Page 411. GEN. 35.19 And Rachel died The Death of Sin and life of Grace Page 419. ROM 6.11 Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Hopes Anchor-Hold c. Page 433. 1 COR. 15.19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable The Platform of Charity c. Page 445. GAL. 6.10 As we have therefore opportunity let us do good to all especially to them that are of the houshold of faith Death prevented c. Page 463. JOB 14.14 All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait till my change shall come Iter Novissimum or Man his last Progress Page 473. ECCLESIAST 12.5 Man goeth to his long home and the mourners go about the streets Tempus putationis or the ripe Almond gathered Page 485. GEN. 15.15 And thou shalt go to thy Fathers in peace thou shalt be buried in a good old age Io Paean or Christs Triumph over Death Page 493. 1 COR. 15.55 O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory Fato Fatum The King of Fears frighed c. Page 501. HOS 13.14 O Death I will be thy plagues Vox Coeli The Deads Herauld Page 509. APOC. 14.13 And I heard a voyce from Heaven saying unto me Write blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth c. Victoris Brabaeum or The Conquerours Prize Page 517. APOC. 14.13 So saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works follow them Faith's Eccho or The Souls AMEN Page 527. REVEL 22.19 AMEN Even so come Lord Jesus Deaths Prerogative Page 539. GEN. 3.19 For dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return The Patriarchal Funeral Page 549. GEN. 50.10 And he made a mourning for his Father seven dayes The true Accountant Page 559. PSAL. 90.12 So teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdome The Just-Mans Funeral Page 575. ECCLES 7.15 All things have I seen in the dayes of my vanity there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness The Righteous Mans Service to his Generation Page 587. ACTS 13.36 For David after he had served his own Generation after the will of God fell asleep c. The Crown of Righteousness c. Page 597. 2 TIM 4.7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto them also who love his appearing THE STEVVARDS SUMMONS SERMON I. LUKE 16.2 Give an account of thy Stewardship for thou maist be no longer Steward IN the Chapter going before our blessed Lord and Saviour had preached the Doctrine of the Free Grace of God in the Remission of Sin and receiving of Repenting and Returning Sinners in the Parable of an indulgent Fathers receiving of a prodigal Son The Pharisees were a People that hardned their own hearts and scoffed at every thing that Christ delivered therefore now in this Chapter he cometh to summon and warn them to appear before God the great Master of the world to give an account of their stewardship that by the consideration of Gods proceeding in the day of Judgment they might know the better how to prize the Remission of Sins in the day of Grace This he doth by presenting to them a Parable of a certain rich man that had a steward who was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods calleth him to an account and to the end that the Pharisees might not think that it was a matter to be jested withal and that such considerations
ariseth out of this This is necessary to awaken mens drowsinesse and to quicken up mens dulnesse to a serious consideration of that that is so usefull to themselves A man would wonder that in the Wildernesse where so many thousands died for the hand of God was out against them for their murmuring and rebellion and they were destroyed by the destroyer as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 10. that there Moses should pray Lord teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdome though they had a sight of so many dying before them and that continually yet they needed to be stirred up to pray that God would teach them to make use of it So it is with us We have seen not only one or two die before us but there was a time not long since and you cannot forget it wherein the destroying Angel did walk at liberty about the Citie and kill thousands in our streets yet when so many died what security was there even among those that lived in so much that after awhile the sicknesse grew common and usual and so unregarded Have we not need then as much as ever Moses had in the Wildernesse to crie to God to teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdome Nay much more now when there is scarce one or none in comparison of those multitudes that were swept away in that visitation we have need of such helps as these are and to joyn our prayers with them too that we may be stirred up to a serious application of it to our selves That 's the first thing it is necessary for living men to take to heart the death of those that are departed that they may see and be brought seriously to think of the certainty of their own death Secondly therein also we see the nature of death what the proper work of it in the world is It is of singular use too The nature of death the proper work of it is to dis-unite to separate to dis-joyn things here you have the soul separated from the body the estate separated from the man the man separated from his friends and all by Death First I say ye have the body separated from the soul and this is a useful consideration The soul and the body while they keep together in a man they may be helpful and useful one to another the time will come when they must be separated Alas the not considering of this is the cause of those great errours that are in the lives of men that they bestow so much time upon their bodies that they so much mind the present things of this life and their outward welfare as if they had no souls at all to regard as if there never should be a separation of body and soul one from another What is the reason that there is all that care took for food for the body for apparel for the body for health for the body and such an utter neglect of the soul but because that men doe not dream do not thing of a time of separation of a time of dis-junction of a time of parting these two All the work of a mans life should now be to make a good use of the faculties of his soul that the body may be happy by it the soul will draw the body after it to its own estate Now they are together if they joyne now in sin after there separation there shall come a time when they shall be joyned in punishment if they joyn now in the service of God after they have been separated a while by death there will come a time when they shall be again joyned in glory and happinesse That is the first There will be a separation of soul and body therefore make good use of them while they are together let the body be serviceable to the soul by all its senses and members let the soul rule and order the body by its understanding and affections c. that both body and soul may be made blessed in an eternall conjunction together after death and in an everlasting union in the sight of God Secondly Death makes a separation between a man and all his outward estate in the world The rich man in Saint Luke 12. thought not upon this Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years he thought his soul and his goods should never have parted therefore take now thine ease saith he See what the end of it was Thou fool saith the Lord this night they shall fetch away thy soul and then whose shall these things be The time is coming that these things shall be none of thine they shall be another mans they shall be some bodies else they shall be taken from thee How necessary is this consideration to take off mens affections from the world and to stir them up to use their wealth and their estates while they have them so as may make for the glory of God A time shall come that they shall not have it to use that nothing shall be left them but a bare account to be given up Give an account of thy Stewardship Luke 16. The main businesse is now to be done while a man and his wealth are together while a man and his estate continueth together to use it to Gods glory otherwise it will be a woeful and heavy parting when death shall come to make a separation The young man went away sorrowful when Christ would have his wealth from him because he had great possessions How sorrowful will a man go out of the world when he hath a great deal of wealth but he hath not prepared his account he cannot give up a reckoning of his getting of it of his using imploying of it it is necessary therefore I say that men take to heart the death of those that die before them that when they see the bodies and souls of men parted men and their estates parted they may learn how to use their bodies souls themselves and their estates while they are yet joyned together Thirdly Death doth not only part a mans body and soul a mans self and his wealth but it parteth a man from his friends from all his worldly accquaintance from all those that he took delight in upon earth Death makes a separation between husband and wife see it in Abraham and Sarah though Abraham loved Sarah dearely yet Death parted them Let me have a place to bury my dead out of my sight It parteth father and child how unwilling soever they be see it in David and Absolom Oh Absolom my son would God I had died for thee and Rachel mourned for her children and would not be comforted because they were not It parteth the Minister and the people see it in the case of the people of Israel lamenting the death of Samuel and in the case of the Ephesians at the parting of S. Paul sorrowing especially when they heard they should
they mistake Gods wayes and that very way that he intendeth them good in they complain of as if it were their utter undoing Again thirdly another way whereby men increase their impatience and distemper is when they will not give way to comfort they will not only be exceeding vehement and intent upon their Passions but besides stop all passages and in-lets against comfort It was Iacobs fault concerning the death of Joseph When he heard that Joseph was dead not onely his heart sunck within him but he rends his garments and covereth himselfe with sack-cloth he takes on so that when his sonnes and children rose up to comfort him he would not be comforted Why Because Joseph was not and I will go to the grave to Joseph nothing would comfort Jacob but he would goe downe to the grave to Joseph by all means What a great matter was this He only heard that Joseph was dead he was alive he knew not so much but he heard a present sound of fear and he was carried away with that So it is with us the very apprehension of our feares are as bad to us as the things themselves could possible be Nay we multiply upon our selves our fears and we will not hear counsel and comfort as Rachel that mourned for her children and would not be comforted because they were not Again a fourth thing whereby men increase impatience in themselves and aggravate their sorrowes is this when men look only upon the present afflictions and not upon the mercies they have as if they had but one eye to behold all objects with as if they could look but upon one thing at once there should be a looking upon the affliction and there should be a looking upon the mercy too This was Hamans case when he was vexed that Mordecay did not do him reverence all his wealth and his honours could do him no good he had much wealth and the glory of his house was increased he had the favour of the King and was inclining to have the honour of the Queen put upon him yet all this availeth me nothing saith he so long as I see Mordecay the Jew sitting in the Kings gate He looks only on this particular that vexed and grieved him and not upon the rest So it is with us if there be but one particular affliction upon us we fix our eyes upon that Like a Flie that flieth about the glass and can stick no where till she come to some crack or as a Gnat that cometh about the body of a beast that will be sure to stick on the galled part or some sore or other So it is with these disquieted thoughts of men that are of no other use but to further Sathans ends to weaken their faith and discourage their own hearts men stick on the gall on the sore of any affliction there they will rest It is true God hath given us such and such favours and mercies hath offered us such and such opportunities but what is this this and that particular affliction is upon me This is that that increaseth impatience when a man will not look on the mercies he receiveth but only looks on that that he wanteth Again a fifth course that men take to aggravate their sorrows and increase impatience in themselves is this They look upon the instrument of their sorrows and afflictions but never look up to God that ruleth and over-ruleth these things Men look upon such a person such a man and no more Ye see how David was disquieted at this If it had been an enemie that reproached him then he could have born it but it was thou my freind my equall my guid my acquaintance that sate at my table we took sweet counsel together and walked unto the house of God in company This troubled him and see how he multiplied his sorrows when he looked upon the instrument till he looked upon God and then I was dumb I opened not my mouth because thou didst it There is no quiet in the heart when a man looks upon man till he looks upon God that ordereth all things by his wisdom and counsel Lastly men aggravate their sorrows and increase their impatience by another course they take that is when they look on their sorrows and afflictions only and not upon the benefit of affliction they look only upon that that flesh would avoyd but not that which if they were spiritual and wise they would desire No affliction faith the Apostle is joyous for the time that is to flesh and nature but grievous nevertheless afterward it yeeldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them which are exercised thereby Now men look upon that only which is grievous in affliction upon the smart of it but not upon the profit of affliction the quiet fruit of righteousness that cometh by it As a man when he hath a Corroding plaister put to a sore he cryeth and complaineth of the smart it putteth him to but takes no notice of the healing that cometh by it and the cure that followeth Thus it is with men they complain of God as if he envied them the comfort of their lives as if he intended to rob them of all conveniencies and to make them utterly miserable to begin a Hell with them on earth when they never look how God by this means fitteth them for heaven by this means purging out corruption and strengthening grace in them We are afflicted of the Lord that we may not be condemned of the world Men look upon the affliction not upon their freedom from condemnation So much for that I come now to a second use You see here the way whereby men aggravate affliction and get causes of impatience in themselves and if we seriously consider it we shall find one of these the ordinary causes of all distempers and impatience in losses in sicknesses in distress of mind in crosses upon a mans name or whatsoever befalleth him amiss in the world that which makes him flie out that which makes him that he cannot submit unto God it is some of these particulars here spoken of Let it therefore in the second place stir us up evety one in the presence of God to set our selves upon this task of Christianity to labour for Patience that we may be perfect Christians and to be perfect in Patience Let Patience have her perfect work But all the question is how a man may get it As there are two sorts of afflictions in a mans life so Patience hath two offices One affliction is those present evils that a man undergoeth and suffereth Patience is to support him in those present miseries and calamities Another sort of tryal is when the good that a man expects is delayed and is not presently granted and here patience is necessary in this case also I will shew ye how a man may set patience a work in both these and so conclude First for the
beyond and short and above and below us in those that are elder and younger and richer and poorer all forts he will strike us at last this thing I say should stirr us up to prepare for our own dissolution A man would think that there were no need of such a thing the very bare sight of a Corse or a Hearse the bare sight of a deed corpse the bare ringing of a bell or a Funeral Sermon should be warning enough to the living to tell him of death When a man sees a company carrying a dead body to the grave he should say to himself It may be the feet of these may carry me next But how cometh it to pass hat it is not thus Certainly there is not power in all examples to work this it is the work of Gods spirit Though a man observe the death of never so many before him yet his cannot work in him a serious care to make preparation for his own death except God adde a further work to it We may see this in the expression of Moses when so many died in the Wilderness Lord teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdom As if he should have said Though so many thousands died in the Wilderness and that by so many several kinds of death yet we shall never apply our hearts to wisdom by those examples except God teach us that wisdom Therefore we should pray to God to teach us by his Spirit to make use of Examples Men must give account for examples as well as for rules men must give account for examples of mortality as well as for Sermons of mortality therefore let the example of others mortality stir you up to prepare for your own and that you may do so be much in calling upon God Lastly He shall not return to me that is in this sense to converse on earth as he had done before I shall return to him but he shall not return to me He doth but reitterate and repeat what he had said before in effect This is the thing then that Parents must make account of both for themselves and their children For their children It should make them moderate therefore in their sorrow for them God now hath shewed his purpose and declared his will therefore we should rest in that will of God This is the thing that David aymed at Gods will was not only to take away his child but so to take him away as never to return to him again in that manner Now God had declared his will and therefore Why should I fast saith he as if he should say I will now rest in the will of God In all the things which we account crosses and losses in children and friends c. The main business of a christian is not to expresse sorrow but submission and subiection to God to exercise and inure his heart to patience and to rest in Gods good pleasure and will As Eli though he failed in his carriage to his sons yet he shewed a dutiful respect to God his heavenly father When Samuel told him the judgement of God that should come upon his house It is the Lord saith he let him do what seemeth him good in his own eyes though it were a heavy judgement such as whosoever should hear of it both his eares should tingle yet it is the Lord let him do what seemeth him goad As if he should say I have nothing to do in this business but to subject my self with patient submission and contentedness to his will it is the Lord it becometh not me to contend with him and to reason with God concerning his work I confess he is righteous let him do what see meth him good in his own eyes And so Aaron There was a heavy judgement befallen him his sons were consumed with fire yet the text saith Aaron held his peace When God manifested so great wrath to his house in wasting and consuming and burning his sons for offering of strange fire yet Aaron held his peace that is he did only mind how to glorifie God by a contented submission to his will So Job he heard not only of the losse of his children but that he lost them in such a manner by a violent death by a house falling on their heads yet the Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. Whereas a carnal worldly man would have fallen to strugling and contending and quarrelling against God and so trouble and perplex his own spirit We do exceedingly imbitter Gods cup by mingling with it ingredients of our own passions and so make the affliction more heavy and grievous then God intends it Here is the reason we possess not our souls with Patience When we are sensible of the losse of friends and children c. let us learn to make it our business to think I have a greater work to do to prepare for my own death God in the death of this man speaks to me to prepare for my own And then to glorifie God by submission to his will make it appear that thou acknowledgest a power in God to dispose of thy house to do every thing by patiently resting in his will And yet this comfort is added though children be took away that they shall not return in an earthly manner yet they shall in a better manner Parents are contented to part with their children for a time for their preferment Children though they are very young that are commended by the prayers of the godly Parents into the hands of God these whose hearts God hath inlarged and quickned fervently and faithfully to pray in the besalf of their children they may rest in this assured that they shall meet at the Resurrection in a better manner their children shall be better preferred then if they were on earth and shall be raised up to perfection Here you see there is not a tooth bred in a child without a great deal of pain and every tooth cost some pain but this mortal body shall put on immortality and this corruption shall put on incorruption This weak body shall be made strong weak children strong without pain Death endeth these things and the Resurrection shall present him in a perfect measure of strength in a glorified estate So much for this text and for this time THE STING OF DEATH OR THE STRENGTH OF SINNE SERMON VI. 1 COR. 15.56 The Sting of Death is Sin and the Strength of Sin is the Law SOlomon telleth thus that there is a season for every thing there is a time to be born and a time to die These two are the two great seasons of all men we are as sure to die as we are sure we have lived and every degree of our life is but a step to our death Every man of us hath but a part to act here in the world when we have done that that God hath appointed us we are drawn off from
Zacheus his offer was but half of his goods Lord half of my goods I give to the poor For ought I can perceive and understand above half of her estate she hath given to charitable uses I say no more of her These works of her will praise her in the gates She died in the Country And I am sorry that I had not information as I did desire of her behaviour in her sickness I have it not I can say nothing of it but thus much It was not possible that such a creature that lived thus as we know she did in obedience to God in repentance in faith with invocation of Gods mercy in Charity in Peace but that her death was blessed She that lived in the Lord no question but she died in the Lord and she is blessed for Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. Good Lord teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdom and grant that as we grow in years we may grow in knowledge of thy truth in obedience to thy will in faith in thy promises in love toward thee and toward our neighbours for thy sake that when we come to the end of our dayes we may come to the end of our hope the salvation of our souls through Jesus Christ to whom with thee oh Father and thee oh holy Spirit three Persons but one true and immortal and only wise God be given both from us and all thy creatures in heaven and in earth continual praise honour glory dominion and power now and for evermore Let all those that hear the word of God depart from iniquity Now the God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus the great Shepheard of the sheep through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect to do his will working in you that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ Amen THE CHRISTIANS CENTER OR HOW TO LIVE TO GOD. SERMON X. ROM 14.7 For none of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself for whether we live we live to the Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords THese words contain an Argument or reason which the Apostle useth to prove that the weak Christian should be born withal and that men should not judge because of the difference of meat amongst them He sheweth that they did not with the neglect of the knowledge of any truth keep themselves ignorant in this particular but it was their weakness The strong should bear with the weak and the weak should not censure the strong the reason is because they agree in one end they propound one general end to themselves that guides them in all their actions they walk in one way and in one path and therefore they should in these things agree together The general end at which they all aymed in their doings is the Lord He that eateth faith he eateth to the Lord he that eateth not to the Lord he eateth not that is still he propoundeth God as his end and the pleasing of God in his actions as the rule of them That he may prove this unto us that they stand thus affected both of them notwithstanding this difference he bringeth in this as the general reason where to every particular of their lives may be reduced All their life is ordered by the Lord they live to the Lord they die to the Lord so that whet her they live or die they are the Lords Therefore all their particular actions are to the Lord. Whether we live we live to the Lord and whether we die we die to the Lord. Now this general reason he propoundeth two wayes First Negatively None of us living to himself and no man dieth to himself Secondly Affirmatively which consisteth of two parts Their duty to God Gods acceptance of them and protection over them Their duty to God if we live we live to the Lord and if we die we die to the Lord. Gods acceptance of them Whether we live or die we are the Lords That which we shall now insist upon is the former part the negative expression and proposal of this general reason none of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself Now when the A postle affirmeth this of the beleevers of those times he therein intimateth thus much that it is the course of beleevers in all times It is a duty belonging to all others of which they must make account not to live to themselves but to the Lord. Therefore though he speaks generally here yet there is in his speech a kind of particular universality a generality with a restraint He saith none of us he saith not none in the world live to themselves for there are many in the world live to themselves and not to the Lord but none of us none of those that we rank our selves with that are in the condition of beleevers none of those concerning whom we speak in this question none of us live to our selves Life in general is nothing else but that power whereby we act or move As we read Gen. 2. God breathed into man the breath of life and he became a living soul he gave him the power whereby he acted The acting of this power is the exercise of that life whether the action be of the mind or of the body And so as there is a donble life there are two sorts of actions of life there are natural actions of a natural life and there are spiritual actions of a spiritual life When the Apostle speaks of living he intends both these We live not that is we do not the actions of life whether natural or spiritual to our selves but to the Lord. No man liveth to himselfe By himself he meaneth not only a mans person either soul or body but all those advantages that conduce to the well-being of a man No man of us so ordereth the actions of his life with reference and respect to our selves as the uttermost end we do not make our own well-being or well-fare the uttermost end of our actions none of us live to our selves You have the sense and meaning of the words which being a patterne to other Christians a thing which the Apostle supposeth is or should be in every beleever it giveth us this point of instruction whereupon we shall insist at this time That is No Beleever none that are in Christ should make themselves the end in their actions None should live that is spend their time and strength and endeavour ayming at no higher end then themselves No Christian should so spend his time as to seek himself only in the actions that he doth None of us liveth to himselfe But here it may be objected for the clearing of the point May not a Christian seek himself in the things that he doth When they do good things that which God commandeth that
they will never be comforted for their brother for their sister for their children c. What shall we say to these things Do you think the Lord speaks not as he meaneth or that the Apostle when he saith here absolutely and determinatly that thus and thus you must do if you be Christians if you be brethren Shall we do the contrary to all this and yet think that all will be well I know you may put it off many of you and alledge many things we have callings and we must follow our Callings if God brings me in imployment blame me not if I follow it And I know not how to live if I do not do thus and thus But be not deceived God is not mocked In a word therefore to put you on the tryal If thou findest in the middest of thy trading and merchandizing or whatsoever calling thon art of thy heart daily gathering towards heaven that thou canst say blessed be God for this and other commodities but Christ is my darling this is good And then in these things if thou hast a care to use them aright as well as to get them and to thank God for them and that thy project is how thou shalt do good with that thou hast that thou art alwayes saying with thy self Lord how shall I do good with so much as I have got by such a bargain God forbid I should say against thee though thou be full of business from morning to evening But alass there are many good people and godly that have hope that they serve God yet if they go home and examine themselves throughly their own consciences will tell them that in the things of this world they are not as if not but rather that they have been over-careful and too full of distractions in business And so for matter of joy if a man have a little pleasure or preferment given him his heart is so up that he knows not where he is he is so transported that he hath clean forgot himself This cannot stand this is not to be as if not and therefore I beseech you in the fear of God think of it Now if a man would know how he should come to have his heart in a good temper to be in these things as if not In one word let me tell you that rule of Saint Paul In all things be filled with the Spirit and then thou wilt not take thought much for other things if once you let your souls be filled with the things of a better life then wife and children and wealth and pleasures or any thing else will not draw away your heart Get a good hand-fast of Jesus Christ work out your salvation and that you may know that you are beleevers upon good grounds and that you have the graces of the Spirit of God in you indeed and in truth that you are new creatures And then often think of the rare things that are provided for you in another life What to have God to be your Father and Angels your keepers to be children to be the companions of Angels Weigh these things daily and then you will be as if not in all these outward and worldly things And untill thou dost this and thinkest withall of that I have formerly said that thou art ready to strike sayle I will never beleeve that thou wilt be as if not This is the second thing A word or two of the Third and so I have done And that is the Spur that the Apostle Saint Paul useth And it is necessary he should use such a spur for it is a very hard lesson If you would be as if you were not consider this The fassion of the world passeth away That is it signifieth I touched it before such a fashion as is on a stage All these things below they are but as the Acting of a Comedy as a Scaene it may be it is done in half an hour and though it make a fine shew yet in truth there is no substance in it There is one it is a fashion besides it passeth away So then in this spur there are two things I will but name the heads First That the things of the world all that I named before are but a shew without a substance Even as a Scaene or Comedy things that have a glorious glittering shew to the eye but if you look indeed and in truth upon them there is no such matter That is one thing that I note that our life is but as the acting of a part in a Comedy and so by consequence in all these outward things thy contentment in wife or children or credit or pleasures thou dost but act a glorious part it may be thou hast a goodly outside fine clothes rich apparel an outward representation of comfort but look thorow them and there is no such matter But the second thing which I rather would presse is that it is suddenly gone it passeth away saith the Apostle As a man hath but a little time to tarry in the world so all the things he enjoyeth in the world are wondrous inconstant That look as it is in a Play he that now acts the part of a King it may be next he may act the part of a Begger or as it is with some of your delicate fashions that while you are speaking of them the fashion is spoyled Even so the fashion of this world it will not continue That is the sum of that I desire you to take notice of that if you will not be perswaded by me or by the Spirit of God in his unworthy minister to use the things of this world morderately and carry your selves as you ought in crosses and afflictions yet know this that the fashion of these things will shortly be spoyled And if they be all so unconstant what a fool art thou to set thy heart upon them We may learne this wisdome from the foolery of our English Nation esteemed now the idlest people of the world for changing their fashion They will never make clothes twice of one fashion but one gown of this fashion and another of that and though he be never so good a Taylor that makes it yet he must make no more of the same fashion but the next Terme they will come to another Learn I say this wisdome from that foolery Now the Lord giveth thee comfort in thy wife set not thy heart too much upon her the next Term the fashion may change Now thou art rich let not thy heart dote upon thy riches it is but a fashion a shew it passeth away to morrow thou maist be a begger to day a man to morrow none But if thou wouldest keep the fashion get the fashion of grace get a right to heaven an interest in God and be content in Gods name to follow his fashion If the fashion that God will have thee be in be to be an humble dejected man be content with that fashion if anon
of this expectation of Christs coming when it is right and as it should be in the soul of a Beleever The first companion of it is Patience If we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it faith the Apostle Rom. 8.25 If we have hope and expectation of Christ coming if it be right it will stay the heart and calm and quiet the spirit in the middest of all injuries and crosses and afflictions in the world it will make us to wait with patience He that beleeveth will not make hast When a man beleeveth that there is a time when Christ will put an end to all these things it is that which mortisieth and subdueth the rising of his spirit and discontentedness in afflictions it makes him possesse his soul in Patience There is a kind of impatient waiting of men in the middest of discontent and revilings and evil speakings and threatings of others and then Oh that Christ would come But when Faith works kindly in the soul of a man there is a calm composedness of heart a submission to God in the present tryal and yet nevertheless a rejoycing in hope of the coming of Christ and of that glory that shall be revealed That is the first thing there is Patience accompanying it The second thing that accompanieth it is Love No man can in truth and aright hope for and wait for the coming of Christ but he that loveth Christ and his coming Now this Love must be grounded on our taste of Gods love Not that we loved him but that be loved us first faith the Apostle no man loveth Christ but first he is loved of Christ no man loveth God but first he is loved of God and the taste and relish of Gods love in my soule works love to God again as from the heat that cometh from the Sun there is a reflection that boundeth back again to the Sun so Gods love in us reflects love to God again This Love will appear in the secret sighings of the heart All the creatures groan yea we also sigh in our selves faith the Apostle waiting for the adoption even the redemption of our bodies There is I say a secret sighing of heart and that not only in the time of trouble and affliction but in the time of comfort and prosperity when a man hath abundance of outward things about him yet then because his love is set upon Christ and the perfection and end of love is the fruition of the object loved therefore there is a sighing a holy discontent as it were a kind of yearning of the heart toward Christ When shall I come and appear before God faith David how long Lord how long faith the Church in the Revelation If a man love Christ and his coming only because it shall end those miseries and those troubles that are upon him in this life this is not so much love of Christ as love of a mans self of his own ease and peace and rest But the love of Christ is this when for the injoying of himself I long for the fruition of him whom my soul loveth and I account nothing amiable in comparison of Christ nothing delectable nothing comfortable nothing sweet to Christ this is it that putteth the soul out of taste and relish with any thing makes it sigh as it were under the enjoyments of all the comforts of this life and long for the appearance of Christ because then he shall he perfected in the perfect enjoyment of Christ himself This is that love of Christ that is accompanied with Faith in a Christian and hope and expectation of his coming Now then if thou wait for Christ in truth how cometh it that thou dost not love him thou caust not wait for him aright except thou love Christ himself and for himself And if thou love Christ it wil appear by thy care to walk in Christ to derive virtue from him in all holy actions to derive all heavenly wisdom all heavenly disposition of heart from him to please Christ in all thy waies to do that whereby thou maist approve thy self to God in Christ This is the disposition of a heart loving Christ and this is that loving of Christ for himself and in himself that giveth me assurance that I love the appearance of Christ That is the second companion of this waiting for Christ if it be right there is a love to Christ The third and last companion of a mans waiting for Christ is the continual affection of the heart those same ejaculations that intercourse that holy and heavenly communion which the soul hath with Christ here First in his ordinances having a holy communion with him in them waiting at the Posts of the door of wisdomes house to here what Christ who is wisdome it self will speak to us waiting if that he will come now in the ministry of his Word in his Spirit whom we hope to enjoy fully in glory Waiting for him likewise in the Sacraments to receive a further confirmation of our faith in him waiting for him also in prayer to receive further consolation and strength from him Thus Annah it is said that She was one that waited for the consolation of Israel and served God in the Temple in prayer day and night So where there is a waiting for Christ there will be a continual intercourse of the soul with Christ a heavenly and holy communion with him in duties Dost thou wait for Christs coming and yet run from Christs ordinances How can these stand together There is no man that can ever wait with comfor for Christs coming in glory but he that now waiteth upon Christ in his ordinances If thy delight be in holy duties in the worship of God and that in such religious performances thou waitest for a further conveyance of the Spirit of Christ into thee thou hast warrant to wait for and to expect with comfort the second coming of Christ Try your selves therefore by these things It is not every one that faith I would that the Lord Jesus would come or I would that these dayes were full and finished It is not every one that saith thus that rightly looks for or desires the coming of Christ But he that thereby becometh patient and stayes and composeth his heart in a calme and quiet temper in the middest of all crosses and troubles and afflictions that befal him and that upon this ground because Christ will come and put an end to my sin as well as to my sorrow therefore I will wait with patience till he come And again he that loveth Christ that sigheth for his coming and he that now delighteth in his ordinances this man only waiteth for the coming of Christ There is yet a third Tryal and that is the effects and fruits of our waiting for the coming of Christ And that is threefold to go no further then the Text. The first is a heavenly conversation The second is
mad merrimemt he is a mad man that rejoyceth in that for which except he betake himself to serious and bitter mourning he cannot be saved Thirdly the inordinateness of the joy of young men may appear in this because they rejoyce excessively in lawful things for any joy when it is inordinate and excessive it is carnal It is lawful to rejoyce in recreations a whetting is no letting as the Proverb goeth But for a man to let out himself to the hinderance of the service of God to the disturbance of his duty to men it is unlawful It is lawfull to delight in the blessings and comforts of God that he affordeth us we read of the Joy of harvest in Isa 9. But for a man to delight in the gifts of God more then in the giver it is unlawfull Now if young men examine themselves they shall find their hearts mount not up to God in their joy and jollity and that they are excessive in the joy of the creature but altogether cold without joy of the Creatour Fourthly the carnalness of the Joy of young men may well appear in this because they terminate and conclude not their joy in God This followeth on the former for it is impossible that what beginneth not in God should end in God Now when Joy beginneth in sin it cannot end in God but in the Divel Secondly let young men take notice of themselves how they walk after their own hearts The heart that saies Come put away pensive thoughts trouble not your self about the day of reckoning and Judgement enjoy the time present what need this strictness of conversation zeal is but rashness there is no need of it take thy sill of pleasures thou hast goods laid up for many years Thus they Judge and thus they walk after their carnal heart This heart is as no heart as we read of Ephraim in Hosea 7. He was a silly dove that had no heart Certainly the heart that doth not guide men in the right way and direct men to the fear of God it is no heart For as the eye that will not lead us in the right way that performs not its office is no eye so the heart that leadeth not men to God and to goodness it is like the heart of Ephraim it is as no heart Again in the third place Let young men take notice of themselves how they walk after the sight of their eyes That is they stand gazing on things temporal and neglect things eternal they see a beauty and lustre in these outward things and perceive no glory and brightness in Christ Jesus and in his precious Ordinances Beloved if we follow our own heart and our own eyes it will be thus We should rather labour with Job to make a covenant with our eyes Oh how few young men are there that make a bargaine and agreement with their eyes that they Oh how few young men are shall not be as open Casements to let sin into the soul there that like Jeremy have their eyes as fountains of water to weep day and night for the afflictions of the people of God Oh how few yonng men are there that with Moses have an eye to the recompence of reward that they may suffer affliction with the people of God rather then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Now I beseech you take a survey of your selves in these things These are the vices and sins and deformities of young men to be seen and lamented by all those that hope to dwell in Gods holy Hill The second use of this point is for exhortation to young men they should labour to be reformed in their affections and hearts And away away with this carnall joy we ought to cast it out of us Carnal Joy will you know what the event of it will be It will end in carnal sorrow and without repentance in hell it self Wo unto you faith our Saviour Christ that laugh now you shall weep and mourn The triumphing of the wicked saith Zophar in Job is short and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment though his excellency mount up to the heavens and his head reach unto the clouds yet he shall perish as his own dung they which have seen him shall say where is be He shall fall away as a dream and shall not be found yea he shall be chased away as a vision of the night But not to give you this only in Precept but also to shew you how to reform your selves in these vices that Solomon speciâ—…eth bo bear sway in young men let me lay you down these few directions First you must betake your selves to mourning for you sins as Saint James saith Be afflctied and weep and mourn let your laughter be turned into heaviuess If we be not reconciled to God if we have not assurance that we are interested in Christ there is no time for us to rejoyce we should rather betake our selves to bitter mourning for the wrath of God is due unto us and we know not how soon it may fall upon us In the second place Consider how vain all things are in which youthfull persons rejoyce If young men rejoyce in human wisdome and understanding this is a vain thing For first it is gotten with a great deal of trouble and vexation of spirit so faith Solomon Eccles 1.13 I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven this sore travel hath God given to the sons of men to be exercised therewith And verse 18. in much wisdome is much grief and he that increaseth knowledg increaseth sorrow God doth so punish the pride and boldness of the wit of men even from the fall of our first Parents Secondly this human wisdome it must needs be a vain thing for Eccles 1.15 that which is crooked cannot be made straight and that which is wanting cannot be numbred by human wisdome The meaning is this that the natural wisdome of man cannot supply the defects of nature which are innumerable much lesse can it furnish the soul with grace or salvation Thirdly it is but vexation of spirit Solomon though he had gotten wisdome and understanding and had experience more then all the Kings of Jerusalem that were before him yet faith he Behold this is vexation of spirit Again God will abolish this human wisdome 1 Cor. 1.19 I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent Where is the wise where is the Scribe where is the disputer of this world Hath not God made foolish the wisdome of this world Besides all your human wisdom it shall not go down to to the Grave it shall leave you when you die There is no work nor device nor knowledg nor wisdome in the grave whether thou goest Eccles 9.10 This is the first thing in which young
men oft rejoyce they are prudent and wise And you see that this is a vain thing In the second place if a young man rejoyce in his honour and credit amongst men this also is vain Solomon hath shewed it Eccles 2.16 He declareth to us that all the honour of the world will end in oblivion there is saith he no remembrance of the wise more then of the fool for ever for that which now is in the dayes to come shall be forgotten and how dieth the wise man as the fool Again if a man rejoyce in honour and much glory he cannot beleeve so faith Christ John 5.44 How can you beleeve since you seek honour one of another and not the honour that cometh of God only And it is noted to be the reason why many of the chief Rulers that beleeved on Christ did not confesse him without which faith cannot be unfeigned because they loved the praise of men more then the praise of God John 10.43 Nay further the Apostle sheweth us that this is the cause of envy Gal. 5.26 Be not desirous of vain-glory envying one another Envy is a vexing affection this vain-glory is the cause of this envy whereby we shall pine away when we see the happiness and welfare of our brethren Further if young men delight in pleasures which is the common course of youth these also are vain things I said in my heart saith Solomon Eccles 2.2 Go to now I will prove thee with mirth therefore enjoy pleasure and behold this also is vanity Kings that have had the greatest wisdome to invent them and the greatest leisure to use them yet they never found full contentment in the same I made me saith he vers 4. great works I builded me houses I planted me vineyards I made me gardens and orchards and planted trees in them of all kind of fruits I made me pools of water I got me servants and maidens also I had great possessions of great and small cattel above all that were in Jerusalem before me I got me men-singers and women-singers and the delights of the sons of men as musicall instruments of all sorts Here were the pleasures of Solomon But vers 11. Behold saith he I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought and on the labour that I had laboured to do and behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit and there was no profit under the Sun The wise Solomon that had been trying every creature whether it had any thing in it that might give him a true rellish profest that there was no profit under the Sun Yet further these pleasures shall cease there shall be an end of them 1 Cor. 7.29 The time is short it remaineth that those that have wives be as though they had none they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not they that buy as though they possessed not they that use the world as not abusing of it for the fashion of this world passeth away Lastly our Saviour Christ in Luke 8.14 sheweth that the pleasures of this life choak the word of God that it cannot bring forth grateful fruit to God Fourthly if young men delight in riches and rejoyce in their estates that God that given them this likewise is a vain thing For first many times wealth is gotten by deceit and then God bloweth on it Jer. 5.27 As a cage is full of birds so are their houses full of deceit therefore they are become great and waxen rich shall not I visit for these things saith the Lord and shall net my soul be avenged on such people as this Again wealch is kept with much sorrow Eccles 5.12 The sleep of the labouring man is sweet whether he eate little or much but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep Thirdly wealth is lost with a great deal of sorrow and vexation Rev. 18.18 when the smoak of Babylon ascended up to heaven Oh what lamencation there was they cryed out What city is like unto this great city and they cost dust on their heads and cryed weeping and wailing saying Alas alas that great city wherein were made rich all that had shipps in the sea by reason of her costliness for in one hour is she made desolate But suppose further that a man should get and keep his wealth in the fear of God yet these things are most uncertain as the Apostle faith 2 Tim. 1.16 Charge them that are rich in this world that they trust not in uncertain riches Lastly these riches cannot preserve our life so faith Christ himself Luke 12.25 Take heed and beware of Covetousness for no mans life is preserved by the abundance of that he possesseth In the last place If young men rejoyce in friends and Allies this also is a vain thing For Psal 62.9 The man of low degree is vanity and the man of high degree is a lie to be laid in the ballance they are lighter then vanity Again no friend can deliver us from Death Psal 49.7.8 No man can by any means redeem his brother nor give to God a ransome for him for the redemption of their soul is precious and it ceaseth for ever that he should still live for ever and not see corruption Thus I have shewed several things that young men rejoyce in and have shewed likewise that their joy is founded upon vanity upon nothing And this is the second means to heal young men of the inordinateness of their Joy to meditate with themselves how vain and frivolous all things are that they delight in The third means is to betake themselves to seek spiritual joy The well-head of this Joy is God whom the Scripture calleth the God of cousolation The instrument to convey this Joy is Faith Rom. 5.1 Being jnstified by faith we have peace with God The grounds of this Joy are twofold First the good things exhibited Secondly the good things promised The good things exhibited That God hath written our names in the book of life Here is the fountaine of spiritual joy to a true Christian Rejoyce saith Christ not that the divels are fallen before you but that your names are written in the book of life Secondly the other ground of spiritual joy is the good things promised us And those may be reduced to two heads God hath made promises either in regard of evil things as we call them of afflictions that befall us Or the weakness of the graces that are in us Now in the evil of Affliction we may rejoyce first In the promise of protection in affliction 2. In the promise of Edification by affliction 3. In the promise of deliverence from affliction All in the best season Again for the defects of grace in us which indeed is a thing exceeding grievous to a true Christian Here we may rejoyce First In the promise of preserving of grace 2. In the promise of augmentation and
growth in grace 3. In the promise of bringing the weakest grace to perfection Here you have the well-head of Joy Oh that young men would know God and Christ Jesus and the word of God and the promises that they might leave this sinful and sottish joy whereto they are so adicted This is the means to be rid of it by getting into their souls the sence and feeling of the true Joy of the children of God Again in the second place Young men should be exhorted not to walk after their own heart which is the next thing that Solomon noteth as a fault in them The heart saith Jeremy is deceitful above measure and desperately wicked It is so deceitful such a Cheator that we are not able to comprehend it it is desperately wicked Who will follow a false guide and a disperate wicked guide so is the heart of man Lastly they should not walk after the sight of their eyes David prayed Turn away mine eyes that I regard not vanity and quicken me in thy Law And again Open mine eyes that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law There is much danger in following our eyes Eve was misled by her eye she looked upon the forbidden fruit and saw it beautiful and so lusted after it And when I saw saith Achan among the spoiles a goodly Babylonish garment and a wedge of gold then I coveted them and took them David was defiled by the eye He saw Bathsheba from the roofe of his house washing her self and then he lusted Holy men have prayed to God that he would keep their eyes in a right frame and temper These are the particulars that Solomon giveth to young men in direction to take heed of carnal joy to take heed of walking after their hearts or after their sense And these things brethren I have now committed in direction to you The last use of this Doctrine is for old men For if young men may not rejoyce carnally much less may old men Youth may plead for it self in want of wisdome and gravity sobriety and experience better then those of age If young men may not have evil hearts and evil eyes much less old men Look to it you that hear me this day that are stricken in age as the Scripture speaks that are smitten in your limbs with age that you cannot walk with activity and nimbleness and are smitten in your senses with age that you cannot well see and hear and taste Oh that your hearts would smite you for your sins May not young men rejoyce in pleasures in friends in honours in wealth Much less may those of old age Must young men be careful to chase away all carnal joy and to get spiritual joy that beginneth in godly sorrow much more must old men It is no time for those that are old to rejoyce in carnal things a few daies will make an end of them and lay them in the Grace Oh then you that are of years break off your sins by repentance and your iniquities by mercy Rejoyce in being good and in doing good This Joy will continue with you as for the Joy of corn and wine and oyle and silver and gold this joy will die when you die Yea notwithstanding all the supports of this joy in this life yet in another life you may be transported to hellish torments Thus much for this first In the second place Solomon sheweth the remedy against this carnal Joy in young men which also may be a preservative against sin both for young and old But know thou saith he that for all these things God will bring thee to judgement The Doctrine is thus much That the Lord God will certainly bring men to judgement for all the sins they have committed This is an infallible truth Know thou this that for all these things God will bring thee to judgement Malach. 3.18 A book of remembrance is written before God for those that fear the Lord and thought upon his name So the Lord hath a book of remembrance wherein he writeth down the sins of the sons of men and this shall be opened and unciasped in the evil day Eccles 12.14 God will bring every work into judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil 2 Cor. 5.10 We must appear before the Judgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that be hath done whether it be good or bad 1 Thes 4.16 The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voyce of the Arch-angel and with the trump of God Epistle of Jude vers 14 And Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied of this saying the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints to execute Judgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him For opening of this point I will briefly shew you these two things First what is the reason that God will bring all these things to Judgement Secondly what manner of Judgement it shall be For the first What is the reason that God will bring all these things to Judgement The first reason is His Decree Heb. 9.27 It is appointed to all men once to die and after this the Judgment Even as it must needs be that man must die because God hath so appointed it so also it must needs be that men must come to Judgement in regard of the purpose and decree of God Secondly God will do this in regard of his righteousness He is a holy God a hater of iniquity But many times in this world it is well with the wicked and ill with the godly Lazarus he is in woful misery and Dives he is in abundance of prosperity Now God will shew his love to the righteous and his hatred to the wicked in this Judgement If judgement here begin at the house of God It is impossible the family of Sathan should escape hereafter Thirdly God will by this means clear his wayes as the Apostle speaks Rom. 2.5 There are many wayes of God that are dark and cloudy to us but then God will manifest himself before men and Angels Then those wayes and works of God against which the hearts of unsanctified men have boyled shall appear to be as they are holy and good and righteous to their condemnation and terrour Yet further The particular Judgement that God inflicts upon men in this life may prove the universall The burning of Sodom and Gommorah the drowning of the old World the plaguing of Egypt and the desolation of Jerusalem These shew the insinite hatred of God against sin therefore no doubt he will take a time to revenge himself of the impenitent amongst the sons of men because of their sins Lastly the consciences of men may prove that
he takes care for them he visits and comforts and assists them in their dying he helps them with strength with memory in their understanding their senses c. 2. He takes much delight in their sweet holy calm deaths and resignations of their souls 3. He takes care of their very bodies too to lay them up sweetly to rest in Repositories or Dormitories as the Ancients were wont to call Church-yards and Graves 4. Lastly he entertains their souls immediately when they are breathed forth and places them In Sinu Abrahoe in Abrahams bosome wheresoever that is to possess present joy and quietness And no wonder that he doth all this because he hath bought them and redeemed them unto himself with so great a price as his Suns bloud and hath graced them with so many gifts and priviledges and hath made over unto them as Co-heirs with Christ so great and large benefits We may make this Use of it to serve for the establishment of us in our belief of him and our waiting on his providence If their Death be so pretious their sufferings also in any kind are dear unto him That word in the Text which is Death and which by the Seventy is ordinarily turned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet is taken in the Scripture sometimes for sickness or any affliction Exo. 10.17 For infection 2 King 4.40 For wounds Prov. 26.18 and sometimes in the Septuagint for the soul The very sicknesses and afflictions and dangers and wounds and griefs of his holy ones are dear unto God But especially their souls their lives their good and safety God writes a Ne perdas Touch not Destroy not as a notable caveat for the safety as of Kings most particularly so also of all that fear him and that trust in his mercy I have hastned over these points that I might come to the testimony that I am to give to our deceased Brother Master John Moulson which I may not omit nor to be particular in it having never such a subject of discourse before such an exemplary man I would not be bought to flatter a prophane and wicked great one but here Gods glory in this his Servant and the edification of you that are present require of me that I speak fully for he was Vir nec silendus nec dicendus sine cura He copied out in his life the old way of Christianity and writ so fair after those Primitives that few now can imitate his hand And truly as in a garden in which there are variety of flowers we know not where to pick so in those many commendable parts of his I know not which to choose to present unto you or in what method But you may take notice I. Of his moral parts where I commend four things 1. His Calmness and moderation of affection No passion was observed to be a tyrant in him they had an oequipoise 2. His sober taciturnity an imitable wisdome in this age of talk and pratling 3. His affable carriage and easiness of access by which like another Poplicola he gained reputation and the love of the neighbour-hood where ever he dwelt Some are so hairy and rough like Esau that they may be discerned by their handling and some so churlish as Nabal that a man cannot speak unto them Which sourness and clowdiness of spirit I wish were not a blemish to many that give their names unto religion He honoured it by his sweetness and affalibility 4. His grave deportment and carriage As nothing is more contemptible then a light youthly wanton old man so the gray head and wrinkled cheeks accompanied with sage gravity commands respect from the beholders as that old grave Bishop Paphnutius though he had lost an eye did from the Emperour Constantine Gravity dwelt in the face of this man and his very presence was such as would discountenance the rude and prophane But all these are but mean commendations in respect of the next II. His practice of holiness Where I will observe and commend unto you 1. His unoffensive youth of which they that can remember him since that time are confident to say of him as the Emperour said of Piso Hujus vita composita à pueritia His life was composed and settled even from his very child-hood and then began to sort himself with the gravest company chiesly with that learned and godly Master Christopher Harvy sometime incombent in this Church to whom he was dear He was observed to be so sober and modest in his youth that he was desired to accompany and attend an honourable Nobleman to Oxford where he was very watchful and careful of him and prayed twice a-day with him in his chamber So ready was he to bear the Lords yoak from his youth 2. His unmarried estate which was chast and modest He lived above fifty years unmarried and in that state expressed two vertues his wisdome not to be rash and his care to keep his vessel clean 3. His married estate course of hous-keeping 1. When it pleased God to dispose his heart to marriage he married in the Lord. 2. When God gave him Children he nurtured them and his Family in Gods fear 1. He prayed four times a-day 2. He read three chapters in the old Testament and three in the New every day 3. After dinner he called not for game for digestion but read a Chapter before he rose from table 4. He catechised his children and servants constantly according to some plain form 5. He usually rose early on the Lords day which time he gave to meditation and prayer and what he could remember of the Sermon he usally repeated to his people 4. His exemplary vertues in his whole course of life 1. His meekness and peaceableness of disposition A grace which in the sight of God is much set by and a notable testimony of inward holiness according as it runs Jam. 3.17 pure then peaceable He was not apt to quarrel in matters that concerned him not never being observed to bear a part in any faction a favourable interpreter of things not evident readier to reconcile then to make differences and choosing rather to part with his right then with peace as appeared in a suit known unto many here 2. Though he were meek in his own cause yet he was zealous in Gods He could not endure any thing repugnant to holy Scripture nor would he neglect either seasonably to admonish or reprove the faulty that were within the compass of his admonition or to whet on and exhort others to love and good works 3. Yet his Zeal did not miscarry being allayed and tempered with wisdome as the heart is by the brain and as the conceit is of the Primum mobile with the Chrystalline heaven neer it His wisdome appeared first in his disscreetness in his undertakings and all affairs an argument of which some take to be this That he was never troubled not so much as questioned in any Court concerning any fact Second in
a Sarah for obedience Rebecca for wisedome Mary for piety Martha for houswifery a true Lydea she heard and God opened her heart that she attended to those things she heard A true Dorcas full of good works they that knew her knew her so far as wisedome and discretion dictated to her full of charity of good works and almes-deeds But her life was a vapour that appeared for a little while and then vanisheth away She verified my Text too truly in that it pleased God suddenly to call her even in the prime and strength of her years she was but a young woman and she dyed in Child-bed You that are Child-bearing women I wish you to set this pattern and example before your eyes and learn by this spectacle to see how neer you walk to the brink of your grave when you come to be delivered of child I wonder therefore by the way that any should find fault with that solemn thanks-giving that is appointed by the Church to be rendred to God for women for his preserving them from the great danger of Child-birth there is but a step between you and death you should then have a care to prepare for your death I see a great deal of time spent to prepare all brave and fine God may quickly turn all your chambers and hang them with black and turn your jollity into mourning therefore you shall rather prepare for your winding-sheet and for your grave for undoubtedly she did so and I may in some sence apply that litterally of the Apostle to her In bearing of children she is saved It is true the Apostle gives that as an argument of comfort to women because before he had preached obedience to them a doctrin that they do not well relish yet he gives two reasons because Adam was first made and she first sinned that is another reason yet lest she should be too much discouraged with that of the Apostle and because the pain of child-bearing was threatned to women for a part of their curse the Apostle adds that as a comfort In bearing of children they shall be saved Notwithstanding the pain and sorrow of child-bearing was inflicted as a punishment upon them yet under that curse there is a way of salvation opened if they be such women saith the Apostle as continue in faith and charity with holiness and sobriety These vertues being eminent in this dear Christian sister of ours no doubt but in bearing of children she is saved that is she found under that curse a way to a blessing an everlasting blessing of salvation How she disposed her self in the time of her sickness those of the family well know truly I have not oft scarse ever heard of a woman of her rank and quality for she was a woman well descended and well bred and yet I never heard of a woman more beloved and more bewayled her Husband complains of his loss never man lost a better wife all the servants never any had a better Mistriss and all the neighbours never any had a better neighbour Concerning her in the time of her sickness they can give a better and more particular testimony then I I only did one office and service to her when in the absence of your reverend Pastor I was called I visited her an hour or two before she went when God knowes she was faint and weak and able to breath but a few words but they were sweet I told her I hoped and doubted not but that as she had made a Christian profession in her life time so now she would seal it up she answered I have endeavoured to serve God but with a great deal of infirmity and weakness I rest not upon that I rest upon my evidence and there is my comfort I doubt not but he that hath given me the evidence will also give me the inheritance I think these were the last words she spake Thus she is gone to her rest her body to rest as a prisoner of hope till the Resurrection her soul rests in the arms of God I have no more to say to her or of her then that Christ said to the woman in the Gospel Woman go in peace thy faith hath saved thee SAINT PAULS TRUMPET OR AN ALARM FOR SLEEPY CHRISTIANS SERMON XXVI ROM 13.11 And that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep THe holy Apostle in this Chapter he delivers a number of precepts and general rules for satisfaction and enforceth them with sundry reasons Among them all the words that I have read they are one principal both Precept and Reason enforcing it Considering the season it is time that ye arise from sleep These few words may be called Saint Pauls Trumpet to rouze the sluggish Christian They were the occasion of the conversion of that famous instrument St. Austin as he saith in the eighth Book of his Confessions the last Chapter He reports that when the time of his Conversion came near he was in a marvellous great agony and conflict beset with a number of Temptations whereby Satan would still have detained him in the spiritual sleep he was in being in this marvellous conflict he could not but go from his Chamber to his Garden and there he prostrated himself on his face before the Lord and earnestly and ardently called upon God And in his Prayer as himself records he seemed that he did hear the voice of a Child speak to him Tolle lege Take up the book and read Hereupon running back again to his study his Book being open the first place that he cast his eye upon was this Verse It is now time considering the season that you awake ouâ—… of sleep And saith he with the end of the sentence I found an infused life He found in the reading of this sentence as soon as he had read it the life of grace infused into him and his conversion was compleat This place of Scripture hath been famous in the Church for the conversion of that famous instrument I would to God as we do not despair that the Lord would bestow the same blessing among some of us who not only hear these words read but are now to be expounded in your ears For the understanding of which we are to inquire of divers things for the meaning of the words First we are to inquire what is here meant by sleep It is time to awake out of sleep Secondly what is meant by arising or awaking out of sleep Thirdly who they be that must arise or wake out of sleep Fourthly and lastly why the Apostle doth bestow this exhortation upon sleepy persons that cannot hear what he saith For the first of these what is meant by sleep Sleep in Scripture is threefold Natural Moral Spiritual Natural sleep is that spoken of Psal 3.5 I will lay my self down to sleep and rise again This natural sleep is the rest and restitution of nature Moral sleep is natural death
heart and sorrow for sin If earnest and constant prayer unto God If lamenting of youthful miscarriages and the not answering of time and means and opportunities and religious education and that godly care that was exercised in order to his spiritnal welfare and building of him up in the knowledge of God and of Christ If I say the lamenting of the neglect of opportunities of this kind If so be the desire of the prayers of others for him and that out of a sense of his own disability to plead his own cause If so be a gracious communication of God unto him in wayes of comfort in the time of his sickness supporting him under divers pressures and many sore and grievous temptations that lay upon him If so be his setled resolution concerning his spiritual estate and the satisfying of others in many doubts and disquiets of spirit that rose within him If so be the due respect to the Lords day the desire of promoting the sanctifying of it both by himself and others with a continual grief proceeding from a sense of his own disability to answer to the occasion and duties of the day If there be any thing to be concluded of concerning Religion from such passages as these then brethren I have all these as so many materials put into my hand to build withall and so to reare up a testimony before you concerning this disceased And thus in brief have I testified of him and to you all he though dead now speaks but in a more special manner to you that are young men his death and that example we have in him of mortality is as a loud Sermon preached unto you concerning the care you ought to have to bethink your selves in your younger years of the things that concern your spiritual and eternal welfare and how much it concerns you now to give all dilligence to make your calling and election sure Your thoughts it may be are too much upon your patrimony and inheritances your houses and possessions your great estates and your matches that thereby you may as you use to say raise your fortunes too too apt you are to be taken up with these considerations and to pursue thoughts of this nature but you see by this example how God may come and prevent the accomplishment of all these and in that day in that very day all these thoughts will perish death may come marry you to the dust and call you not to your fathers mansions but to the common house appointed for all living where you must say to corruption thou art my father and to the worme thou art my mother and my sister this was his condition and so may yours be too Therefore you young men remember you your Creatour in the dayes of your youth and know you that God hath provided instructions and counsels in his Word that are directed to young men that they may know how to cleanse their way and to flie the lusts of youth and betimes to begin with God that so whether they live to old age or be cut off in youth they may be gathered to their Fathers in a good and a full age like a Shock of Corn and so receive the blessing of the promise SPIRITUAL HEARTS-EASE OR The VVay to Tranquility SERMON XXXI JOHN 14.1 2 3. 1 Let not your hearts be troubled you beleeve in God beleeve also in me 2 In my Fathers house are many Mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also IN the 33. verse of the former Chapter our Saviour Christ told his Disciples that he must now go away from them Little children yet a little while I am with you and you shall seek me and as I said to the Jews whether I go you cannot come so say I now to you This message of the departure of Christ from the earth of his being took from them did exceedingly sad their hearts and very much perplex and disquiet their spirits they knew what a comfort they had in the presence of Christ they knew what a faithful Teacher he was what a mighty Protector he had been how gracious and full of Heavenly comfort he had manifested himself to them at all times in his being with them and they could not now think of parting with him without much perplexity and disquiet and trouble of spirit Therefore the words that I have now read are the speech of our blessed Saviour to comfort them strengthening their hearts against those disquiets under which they were exercised In which words you may briefly observe these three things for time will not suffer me to stand much upon them First a duty whereunto they are exhorted Secondly the means whereby it may be performed Thirdly the lets that were to be removed that hindered them in the performance of the duty in the use of these means The duty that is to be performed is in the beginning of the first verse Let not your hearts be troubled The means whereby to perform it in the words following You beleeve in God beleeve also in me The lets and impediments of the performance of it in the use of these means are so many objections and doubts as are wisely prevented by the wisdome of God in the two verses following I shall take them as I come to them in order and but give a brief touch upon every one of them First the duty that is to be performed it is this to stablish comfort their hearts Let not your hearts be troubled The word that is here translated trouble it signifieth such a trouble as is in water when the mud is stirred up or when the waves and surges are raised by some tempest or storm It signifieth such a trouble as is in an Army when the Souldiers are disranked and routed when they are disordered and it shewes thus much that those distempers that are in the hearts of men in the affections of men do exceedingly hinder their judgments that they can see no more nor discern things no better then a man can do in a muddy water All the affections are as so many Souldiers in an Army disordered that keep not their due subordination to their leader and guide by reason that the understanding that should guide the will and affections is now made a servant to them And this distemper of spirit ariseth from the inordinacy of the affections the inordinate motion and agitation of them This is called trouble Let not your hearts be troubled Be not disturbed thus and disquieted and disordered So that no faculty of the soul can perform its own work So as that it is disabled to judge of things according to truth but that you are misled and deluded by mists and appearances It is with the mind in sorrow as it
thing or other and therefore it was thus with him Nay Christ himself the censure of all men was thus much concerning Christ himself We did esleem him stricken smitten of God and afflicted The intent of the phrase is as one smitten for his own ill as if God had now manifested that he did not acknowledge him to be so holy and righteous So thus you see the inclination in the heart of man to uncharitable jndging of those that God hath cast down and suffers to be exercised under many afflictions and troubles Let us learn then spiritual wisdome let us learn love and spiritual mercy to judge more favourably of the state of those whom we see troubled in spirit Many times God infeebleth and distresseth the spirits of his best servants to abate the pride of men that none might exalt himself before God Nay in the very thing wherein they have excelled in the same thing he sometimes abaseth them you see Abraham he is called the Father of the faithful his excellency was his faith yet faithful Abraham is detected in Scripture of much unbelief in some particulars Who would think that he should expose Sara as he did to save himself that he should do it that was called the Father of the faithful you have heard saith the Apostle James of the patience of Job the very excellency of Job was his patience who would think that ever patient Job should utter such things as he did sometime even cursing the very day of his birth David a man of a chearful spirit a man full of the praises of God a man wonderous large when he comes to speak of the glory of God at several times A man would have thought him of an invincible fortitude and courage yet nevertheless you shall have David so cast down as that he thinks the Lord had forgotten him and that the Lord would shew no mercy upon him that the Lord had hid himself from him and that he would never regard him more who would think that ever David that abounded so in the comforts of the spirit sometimes should be so dejected at such times as those were when he was in such a conflict Why doth God do this To shew thus much that the very best of his servants in the chief of their excellencies are dependant on him still they have nothing of themselves or from themselves Therefore they shall sometimes seem to want that they have that the very having and using of it may be ascribed to his glory Then let us now reason thus when we see the servants of God in trouble exercised under disquiet Let us conclude now God is glorifying himself This the Apostle infers He will rejoyce in his infirmities because the power of Christ is manifested by it For our selves it should teach us according to the intent of this place above all things to labour that our hearts may be kept in that blessed plight of spiritual joy that we may be strengthened with freeness of heart to serve God in our inward man Let not your hearts be troubled How should this be done The Text tells us here and so I come briefly to the second thing observable in the Text the means you beleeve in God saith he beleeve also in me As the words are read in the translation they seem to be uttered by way of concession as much as if Christ had said since yon already beleeve in God now beleeve in me The Syriack seems to express it otherwise and so render it by way of command and to make here an intimation of two duties as a help of quieting the heart and so it reads it Let not your hearts be troubled beleeve in God beleeve also in me propounding a twofold object where-about faith should be exercised that the heart may be quieted in the time of any trouble The first is God considered in the Trinity of persons in the unity of Essence The second is Christ Mediator God and Man Now saith he beleeve in God that is the first rest upon God Then the second is beleeve in me also as one that is the Mediator between God and you now making your peace with God So the second part seems to be the prevention of an objection For when he saith Let not your hearts be troubled beleeve in God they might say Alas shall we beleeve in God that are sinful men The sinners in Sion cry out Who shall dwell with consuming fire c. Therefore saith Christ beleeve also in me that is know that God will be your God in and for my sake he is reconciled and well pleased with you Therefore in all your approaches to God take me with you look up to God pray to him depend upon God through me still keep me as a Mediatour between God and you and this will preserve your hearts in peace The time would not serve if I should go over things particularly and in a full way Therefore I will touch the heads of things and it shall be thus much that A special means to preserve the heart of man from excessive sorrow and fear from trouble and disquiet of spirit is faith Let not your hearts be troubled But how shall we help it Beleeve in God beleeve also in me And this we shall see through the Scriptures David found it thus Psal 40. he speaks to his disquieted soul Trust in God I will wait on him he is my God Jehoshaphat in that excellent speech to his Souldiers that were now troubled for the multitude of their enemies against them Beleeve in God and you shall prosper beleeve his Prophets and you shall be established that is the way to stablish the heart to beleeve in God revealing himself in his Word It is noted of Moses in Heb. 11.27 He therefore endured all that he did because he looked on him that is invisible And those three companions of Daniel Dan. 3. Our God say they whom we serve is able to help us but if he will not we will not worship thy golden Image There was matter of trouble and disquiet in the heart to be put to such a plung that they must either worship or be cast into the Furnace heated seven times hotter Well this eased them of all trouble and disquiet they knew whom they have trusted and he was able to keep that that was committed to him to the coming of Christ As Saint Paul expresseth it with which he also rested abundantly satisfied On the other side the want of this hath been the cause of that perplexity and disquiet that hath been upon the hearts of Gods servants at all times That was the reason that Abraham was so disturbed and disquieted in that fear of what should be done to him in Egypt certainly he failed in this in resting upon God Moses was wondrously troubled when the Lord bad him go to Pharaoh and deliver Israel out of Egypt saith he Lord send by him whom thou shouldest send I am a
may be comfortably ready to entertain it So much may easily be gathered out of Simeons words here Nunc dimittis Now let thy servant depart He did not as it were take a day over in which and against which to be provided as though he should have said Lord now will I settle my self to make provision for my last end but even now Lord at this very instant if thou wilt Death hath been my ordinary meditation and if thou wilt now call me home to thee I am ready to depart As in the former point I shewed you how Saint Pauls longing agreed with Simeons Oh let thy servant depart faith Simeon I desire to be dissolved faith Paul So here I will shew you that there was the same care in respect of Death in Saint Paul as in Simeon Now if thou wilt faith Simeon I am now ready to be offered faith Saint Paul And else-where I did daily I am ever thinking upon death and daily making provision for my end This was holy Jobs mind All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait till my change come there was a continual expectation So teach us to number our dayes prayeth Moses that we way apply our hearts to wisdome And what wisdome did he wish he might apply his heart unto but this a holy care to make provision for another world seeing in this there was no continuance The same in effect the Authour to the Hebrews professeth touching himself and those that were like to him that they had here no continuing City but did seek one to come We know faith he here is no abiding we dwell in tents which must remove in houses of clay which will be broken therefore we desire to be ever ready for that place which is of more perpetuity And so much may be gathered from that which is upon record concerning Joseph of Arimathca he did not only make ready his Tomb in his life-time but in his garden his place of solace and delight and how could so good a man so often think on death without labouring and caring to be ever provided for the same and therefore our Saviour Christ compares his faithful servants unto those which daily wait for their Masters coming Now the reason which so much prevails with the godly in this particular and which ought to be of sufficient force with every one is first the certainty and uncertainy of death Morte nihil certius As sure as Death is an ordinary Proverb What man is he that liveth and shall not see death faith the Psalmist That all must die it is Heavens decree and cannot be revoked The thing it self we see is most certain yet for some circumstances most uncertain for first Tempus est incertum No man knows when he shall die in the night or in the day in Winter or in Summer in youth or in his latter age Secondly Locus est incertus None know where they shall die whether at home or abroad in his bed or in the field who knows but that he may die in the Church of God even while he is asleep at the Word Thirdly Mortis genusest incertum No man can determine how he shall die whether suddenly or by a lingring sickness whether violently or by a natural course These things the servants of God know full well and seriously weigh the same and that makes them to make conscience of continual preparation that whensoever or wheresoever or howsoever they die they may with comfort commend their souls into the hands of God as into the hand of a faithful Creatour Secondly they know the misery of being taken by Death unprepared put case a man should die as Ishbosheth lying upon his bed at noon or as Jobs children while they are seasting or that a man like the rich man in the Gospel should have his breath taken from him at the very instant having made no provision for another world what hope can there be that such a one should be saved They know thirdly that the time of sickness is the most unfit time for this business of preparation the senses are then so taken up with the pain of sickness that a man cannot think seriously upon ought else and besides it is not in our own power to turn to God when he will ordinarily God forgets those in sickness that forget him in health And it is commonly seen that that preparation for Death that begins but in sickness is as languishing and faint as is the party from whom it comes And although Vera poenitentia be nunquam sera yet sera poenitentia est raro vera Though I say true repentance be never too late yet late repentance is seldome true when men leave their sins because they can continue to practise them no longer what thanks have they or what can that repentance be These things work with Gods servants to study to be ever ready for the Lord not to delay preparation but to seek continually to be provided My exhortation hence shall begin with that speech of Moses Oh that men would be wise to understand this and that they would consider their latter end I would there were a heart in us to entertain this doctrine in our best thoughts I remember the Complaint of old that men had made a Covenant with Death and were at agreement with Hell Death indeed will make truce with no man but here is the meaning Evil men perswade themselves that they are in no danger of hell or of the grave Death will not come yet thinketh the oldest man and when it comes I hope I shall do well enough thinketh the most godless man Thus men couzen themselves with their own fancies and so Death steals upon them at unawares and becomes Gods Sergeant to arrest them and to carry them away to eternal condemnation Who amongst us is able to say truly and upon good ground as Simeon Now Lord if thou wilt now command Death to seize upon me welcome shall it be unto me I am even now ready to receive it How many are there that are extraordinary ignorant in the means how to escape the sting of Death How many extreamly secure that never in their lives yet thought earnestly upon this how they may die with comfort and end their dayes in peace How many prophane ones that set light by Death being apt to say like those Epicures Edamus c. Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die How many that do put all to a desperate adventure God made us and he must save us and we shall do as well as please God and there is an end How many are there whose hearts albeit they be in the house of God and in his presence are notwithstanding fraughted with malice with envy with worldliness with disdain with secret scorning repining at the Word which they hear with wearisomeness with spiritual sleepiness and security You
Apostle Rom. 8.15 a man is then said to wait for death when he is looking for it at every turn as a Steward waits for his Master when he continually expects his return when upon every voyce he hears or upon every knock at the door he saith oh my Master is come this is he that knocks So a man is said to wait for death when in every action of his life in every motion of his estate in every passage of his courses saith well I must die when though his bones are full of marrow yet I must die when though riches come in like a flood yet I must die when changes appear upon himself or others yet I must die I have no abiding here I am but a sojourner and a stranger as all my fathers were I must not enjoy my Wife for ever Children for ever Friends for ever Lands for ever these comforts for ever my life for ever it is but a lease which may soon expire I am but a steward and I must be called to an account such a one is gone before and I must follow after the writ of Habeas Corpus hath seized on him and for ought I know the next may be for me so when death comes I am ready to answer it as Abraham did his Son Isaac here I am it comes not upon me as a thief in the night when I am asleep and think not of him but as Jonathans arrow to David who stayed in the field and expected when it should be shot and then he rose up and embraced him Yee brethren faith Paul in 1 Thes 5.4 are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a theif ye are all the children of the light therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober This is the first thing that waiting imports Another thing it imports is a serious preparation for the day of our change for it is not a naked expectation of a change arising from the certainty of death but it is also a religious preparation improving the intrim of time for the best advantage for a mans soul before the day of change doth come which is here implyed in waiting Solomon calls it a remembring Eccles 12.1 Remember thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth whiles the evil dayes come not and the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them what is this remembring of the Creator but a care to know him a fear to offend him a study to obey him and when is that to be done Now now remember there must be a present acting of this Moses calls it a numbring of our dayes Psal 90.12 and more then that such a numbring as is joyned with an applying of our hearts to wisedome and the reason is because wisedome it directs to the choyce of such particular actions and works as tend to happiness so should a man after his serious consideration of death apply himself to such wayes and such actions by which he may comfortably close up his life with death it is a great point of wisdome to sute actions with their ends to sit and square the wood before we build the house to learn and discipline a troop before they go to battel to rig and trim and furnish the ship before we launch to sea this is preparation indeed Now this preparation for death consists in two things First in an undoing of that which unsits us to die Brethren he who is not fit to live he is not yet fit to die and that which ever masters the life will be of greatest force in death The Father spake it boldly on good grounds I am not ashamed to live nor afraid to die now that which unfits a man to die is sin it makes him find a bitter enemy of death Oh when this Kng of terrours shall present himself by thy bed side with his arrows in his hands I mean thy sins he will wound thee with infinite amazement and horrour the sting of death is sin faith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. Thou dost not prepare thy self for death if thou dost not undo thy sins which thou hast done in thy life the which consists First in a narrow search of thy sinfulness both of nature and practice Secondly in a secret humbling of thy soul for them Thirdly in an unfeigned repentance and forsaking of them Fourthly in a constant imploring and obtaining of mercy for them in the blood of Christ If thy soul doth give sin its discharge now death shall give thy soul a discharge hereafter Secondly in the qualifying our persons for the conquest of death there are three things by which we shall be able chearfully to meet and assuredly to conquer death First by having interest in the Lord Jesus the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God who hath given us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ If thou hast gotten Christ into thy arms by faith thou carriest thy peace strength and advantage both through life and death For we are â—…ove then conquerors through him that loved us saith the Apostle Rom. 8.37 And to me to live is Christ and to die is gain faith the same Apostle Phil. 11 21. If thou hast a good Christ thou maist be consident of a good death Secondly renewedness of our nature What Saint John spake of he Martyes as some conjecture Blessed and happy is he that hath part in the first 〈◊〉 on such the second death hath no power that say I of a person renewed by the sanctifying quality of Gods Spirit I happy is he he shall have power even over the first death The Spirit and the Bride saith come if a man hath gotten the heavenly Spirit which beautifies the soul with the ornaments of Grace as the Bride is with her ornaments he is a fitted person he may well say to Death come and to Christ come Lord Jesus come quickly Thirdly uprightness of conversation Righteousness delivers form death saith Solomon and the righteous hath hope in his death if a mans work be Christs service if he have a heart enclined to keep a good conscience in all things to keep himself exact to the rule and to walk with God Blessed is that servant which his Master when be cometh shall find so doing that man that hath looked to Gods Word to guide his life may confidently look up to Gods mercy to comfort him in death Remember O Lord saith Hezekiah Isa 39. how I have walked before thee intruâ—…h and with a perfect bea rt Now all this doth the waiting for our change import in the Text to wit a serious expectation of it first by undoing those sins of ours which else for eyer will undo us and by interesting our persons into Christ from whom we must likewise receive the Spirit to change our hearts and uprightness to form a new our conversation But then you will say
this life yet in death thy hands must open â—…emselves and let it go thou must not hold the world above thy life nor thy life beyond the day of death no we cannot alway have that which we desire we must certainly part with what we most esteem of Secondly what comfort is this to a good soul If we had hope only in this life faith Saint Paul we of all men are most miserable 1 Cor. 15. Death is a happy change to a holy person First it is a change which shall put a period to all his changes in this life his outward condition how oft doth it change sometime by joy and sorrow sometime by comfort and misery by health and sickness by abundance and want but when Death comes all sorrow shall fly away for ever thou shalt never be more troubled with a sick body with a sad estate with common losses but the change of a temporal life shall set thee in a full and settled possession of an heavenly His inward condition how oft doth it change sometime free anon distressed now a sweet view of heaven anon darkned with fear now rejoycing in Christ anon buffeted with Sathan now blessing God for grace anon distracted with the insolent workings of remaining corruptions but when death comes then comes a change of all this it will release thee for ever of sin and Sathan after death sin shall be a burden no more and Sathan shall be a tempter no longer but thou shalt be as happy as thou canst desire and shalt enjoy thy God and thy Christ without fear of trouble in glory in felicity in eternity all the cruel insolencies of tyrants shall come short of thy soul thou shalt be above their malice and beyond thy self Secondly it is a change and no worse then a change just as Joseph changed his garments and went into Pharaoh so thou shalt put off thy body and go into glory put off thy mortality and go into immortality Oh what terrour to wicked men a day of change will befal them Why didst thou say Oh David there is no bands in their death and they are not in changes like other men Verily I should have checked thee hadst thou not recanted it presently thy self Psal 73.4,17,18,19 and reported it to us that they are set in slippery places and are brought into desolation and cast down into destruction in a moment and utterly consumed with terrour Good Lord what a change is that to them they judged with insolent and unrighteous judgment the Children of God now but death will change this the unjust steward shall be called to a an account and he that beat his fellow servant shall be eternally judged by a righteous God and their honour shall sinck in the dust neither shall their riches deliver them from wrath but they shall see him whom they have peirced and persecuted and shall not be able to escape his presence A dismal thing will this be that a man shall have his honour die and the great God put disgrace upon him a dismal change indeed when a man shall see all his power changed into impotency his pleasures into torment and wrath put upon his soul when God shall seperate thee from his presence thou shalt not have a drop of ease nor any friend to assist thee nor any hope of comfort thou shalt be stript of them all in a monent shall a change of all this be O consider this if there be any here that forget God least he tear you in pieces and there be none to help remember and consider your latter end and apply your hearts to wisdome Last of all shall there be a change that shall befal every son of man then Oh that this people were wise as Moses faith that they would remember their latter end all the dayes of our appointed time to wait till our change come What do you think of servants to whom you had committed servile imployments till you came home and if when you come home they were absent and you found one in the street drunk another in a chamber with a strumpet how would you take this Brethren think upon it we are Gods servants or should be two things are imposed upon us one to honour God another to save our own souls if he find us doing the works of the Devil and the flesh and find us in the works of the world how will he take this Come faith God I have lent you a life thus many years I told you what you should be and what you should do and what have you been doing all this life what have your works been what courses have you taken are these the fraits of your wayes to have a life run over with ignorance with prophaness c. Alus when a man at that time shall have nothing to say but Loâ—…d I have lived in such a sin all my dayes I have fulfilled my own desires thou hast for me in this World and I have laboured to get a great estate all my dayes Another may say I have spent my time in 〈◊〉 society c. What will God say to these men are these the endings of thy life the fruits of thy opportunities where is the repentante I called for at thy hands where is that godly sorrow that I called for for the sins of thy life did not I send thee into the world for this end to get Grace to get Faith to make up thy accounts with me thy God and hast thou no regand to it Well thou hast been foolish inconsiderate for the time that is past yet now understand that a day of change will besal thee O let us be perswaded I beseech you be perswaded to it in this our day to know the things that concern our peace whilest it is called to day not to hearden our hearts whilest it is called to day not to deser our repentance thou art not assured of any more time then present Death may meet with thee as thou sittest in thy feat as thou goest out of the Church doer and thou knowest thy heart hath been wicked oh why wilt thou set thy eternal estate upon so small a point as it were the cast of a Die Remember what Daniel said to Nabuohadnezzar let it have acceptance with thee break off thy sine by repentance c. Seeing we must die and appear before the judgment feat of God what manner of persons ought we to be in all holiness of life and conversation as soon as we are we begin to sin and as soon as we are we begin to die let us look upon our account and be faithful to our souls perhaps thy accounts are yet to make oh be sure to let it be the first thing thou doest and give thy self no rest till thou hast done it and when thou hast done this labour to clear it with the bloud of Christ labour by humble confession and hearty repentance to turn unto the Lord go on
dispose themselves for their dusty dissolution David saith Psal 19.7 I will bless the Lord who hath given me warning my reins also instruct me in the night season He speaketh this in relation to his mortality it following soon after my flesh also shall rest in hope God gave David warning that death should not surprize him of his mortal condition his reins that is some inward wastings and secret weakness of nature minded him that he must return to his first original God in like manner gives us warning and may we have wisdome to take it some years before our eye-strings break our eyes are blind as to small prints our ears deaf as to love sounds evident monitors that our bodies are ungiving to return to dust God of his goodness sanctifie unto us all decayes in nature that they may effectually mind us of our mortality it is said of Sampson when his hair was cut off Jud. 1.6.20 He awoke out of his sleep said I will go out as at other times before and shake my self but he quickly found the case was altered with him Thus we in our declining age think to rise as early go as late run as fast travel as far do all things as actively as twenty years ago when we were young but it will not be age hath clipt our strength God make us sensible thereof that we may remember our end and apply our hearts unto wisdome AMEN THE PATRIARCHAL FUNERAL GEN. L. 10. And he made a mourning for his Father seven dayes THere are two great names concealed in this Text but express'd by the Prophet David in a peculiar and eminent manner Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people the Sons of Jacob and Joseph Great was the name of Abraham but all his Sons were not accepted only Isaac was in the Cevenant Great was the name of Isaac but his Son Esau was rejected Great then must the name of Jacob be who had twelve Sons and all accepted The whole people of God descended from him and were called Israelites and the Sons of Jacob as his by generation from his loins One of these twelve was Joseph and the rest did equally descend from him and might be called his Sons by preservation from his care and power Howsoever he is exempted from the number of his Brethren and that he might be styl'd a Father two Sons of his are numbred with his Fathers Sons and ranked with the Patriarchs Thus were all the people of God the Sons of Jacob and Joseph and Joseph while the Son of Jacob the Father of the Sons of Jacob. These are the two concealed in the Text Jacob the Father and that Father dead Joseph the Son and that a mourning Son for he made a mourning for his Father seven dayes These words contain a brief relation of a Patriarchal Funeral in which two general parts are presented to our view The Solemnization of the Obsequies and The Continuation of the Solemnities In the description of the Solemnization there are four particulars observable The Connexion The Person The Action The Occasion The Connexion in the conjunctive particle And the Person understood in the following pronoun He the Action represented what He that is Joseph did he made a mourning The Occasion expressed for whom he mourned for his Father The Connexion of the Text is double in reference to the Person and in relation to the Action The Connexion of the Person And he the Connexion of the Action with the precedent actions of that person And he made a mourning I shall begin with the Connexion of the Person and in my whole discourse exactly prosecute the method of the Text. When aged Jacob yeelded up the Ghost and was gathered unto his people the Physitians embalmed Israel and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten dayes They were not as yet the apparent enemies of God they had their tears for Jacob who afterward would have drowned all his Sons they preserved and prolonged the dayes of his life and when those were cut off they continued the dayes of his weeping But there is a difference between a formal and a real sorrow between a solemn and a serious grief between a popular and a filial sadness Wherefore Joseph is not contented with the Egyptian mourning he hath a nearer relation then those strangers had and therefore more of affection is expected from him his filial sympathy must go beyond their accustomed civility the Egyptians mournned and he made a mourning for his Father This is the Connexion in respect of the Person that of the action followeth When Jacob was near the time of his dissolution Joseph put his hand under his thigh and sware unto him that he would deal kindly and truly with him that he would bury him in the burying place of his Fathers When he gathered up his feet into the bed and dyed Joseph fell on his Fathers face and wept upon him and kissed him and so paid the first fruits of a Funeral with his eyes and with his lips After this be commanded the Physitians to follow with Spices and embalm him desirous to preserve that body to the utmost possibility from corruption from which he had received his generation Then he entreated and obtained leave of Pharaoh to perform his Oath which he sware unto Jacob he went up to the Land of Canaan to take possession with his Fathers body and laid him in the field which Abraham bought There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife there they buried I saac and Rebekah his wife there Jacob buried Leah and there Joseph buried Jacob. And having thus fulfilled all the duties belonging to a Son there remaining but this one fitter to be performed then required he made a mourning for his Father This is the Connexion of the Action The Person or chief mourner then is Joseph he which once was dead in the thoughts of Jacob and desires of his brethren survives his Father to attend his Funeral and to preserve his Brethren alive His coming into Egypt cost aged Jacob many a tear and he must pass into Canaan to demonstrate his gratitude and pay that debt unto his Father there This eminent Person is proposed for an example unto all ages of the world what he here performed was no legal Ceremony he was a Patriarch and long before the Law he was a singular and signal type of Christ and hath done nothing which may misbecome the most retired and sublimed Christian And this will readily appear if we joyn the Action to the Person He made a mourning I call 't an Action which may as well be term'd a Passion as a mourning so a Passion as he made it so an Action a passionate Action or an active passion The internal grief of his mind and sorrow of his heart as an inward passion of his Soul was voluntarily rais'd within him by resolved and continued thoughts of his Fathers death and at the same time the expression of
as wisely continued upon a presumption and as an encouragement of the same vertures in their Successors Your Honor knows how long the greatness of your Family hath been preserved acknowledg first the vigilant providence and infinite goodness of God in the preservation of it while so many glorious Titles have been lost so many Noble Families cut off Next study to preserve and advance it further by the exercise of those vertues upon which it was first built and hath been since continued endeavour to uphold not only your own but the very name of Honor in this Age in which partly the want of such vertues as are necessary to support it partly the weakness of that power which first gave life unto it partly the unreasonableness of foolish men who endeavour to cast a dis-esteem upon it have too much eclipsed the glory of it Lastly as I have advised you with the Son of Sirach to let tears fall upon the dead and to use lamentation as he is worthy so I shall conclude with his following advice when that is done then comfort thy self for thy heaviness that is not only be comforted after sorrow that consolation may succeed your griefs this is the common revolution of the world not only be comforted in lieu of your sorrow that consolation may recompense your griefs that were but a vulgar compensation but take comfort in your sorrow and rejoyce in your self that you have been so happy as to be truly sad There is so much deceitfulness in the heart of man so much hypocrisie in Funeral mourning that you may bless God for your own assurance of the sincerity of your natural affection and religious respect to your Parents and take delight in a just expectation that it will be rewarded by the future respect of your children So having performed the duty of Joseph who made a mourning for his Father you may expect the blessing of Joseph given by the mouth of Jacob for whom he mourned Joseph is a fruitful bough even a fruitful bough by a Well whose branches run over the Wall That this Benediction may be your Honors portion shall be my constant prayer By the God of thy Father who shall help thee and by the Almighty who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above blessings of the deep that lyeth under blessings of the breasts and of the womb Amen Amen THE TRUE ACCOUNTANT SERMON L. PSAL. 90.12 So teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts unto wisdome SUch is the pravity of our natures ever since the first fall of Adam as that we prove very apt Scholars to learn that which is ill but we are very dull and backward to mind any thing that is good We want no teaching to set us forwards in the wayes of wickedness but in the performance of the least good we are not able to move one step without the guidance and direction of the holy Spirit of God Therefore it is a good prayer of David for every one of us Psal 143.10 Teach me to do thy will for thou art my God thy Spirit is good lead meinte the land of uprightness There are many Teachers abroad in the world and more than know how to teach aright and there are many Doctrines which are dayly prest and intruded upon the weak and simple and more than are useful and saving But there is but Unum necessarium one thing that is needful one thing in special to be minded and looked after even so to live as that we may become wise for Eternity so to walk on earth as that we may be fitted for Heaven This is the main Doctrine we are to learn and our Instructer is God We have none to teach us but God and we have no other way to implore this favour of God but by our prayers in the words of Moses So teach us c. You know the Penman of this Psalm by the Inscription A Prayer of Moses the man of God and I think it is safer to keep to the letter of the Text than to busie your thoughts with the various and doubtful conjectures we meet with in ancient and modern Expositors The Text is a Prayer to God to teach us the true Art of Arithmetick to make us true Accountants for Heaven how we may know to number our dayes aright In this Prayer we meet with two things First what he begs of God 1. To number his dayes 2. To be taught this duty 3. To be taught it in such a manner So teach us Secondly the end wherefore he begs this of God That we may apply c. The end is the gain of true wisdome to make us wise for Heaven And here we have 1. The kind and nature of this wisdome what this wisdome is of which Moses here speaks and that is in making the best provision we can for the eternal welfare of our Souls 2. The subject of it our Hearts 3. The means of obtaining this wisdome and that is by the consideration and thought of Death By the careful numbring of our dayes we attain this wisdome The meditation of Death makes us truly wise Before we fasten upon the Text we will take a survey of the Context which stands thus 1. Observe Moses having spoken of the wrath of God in the foregoing verse Who knoweth the power of thine anger even according to thy fear so is thy wrath of the sudden he betakes himself to prayer The thought and consideration of Gods anger makes us to pray 2. Observe here after that Moses had given us a description of the wrath of God presently his thoughts are taken up with the meditation of Death The wrath of God thought on makes us to think of Death First of the first the anger of God meditated upon makes us to fly to our prayers The fear of this quickned the devotion of Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 20.3 And Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord. He feared therefore he prayed The thought of Gods anger may well bring us upon our knees and when danger approacheth it is high time to seek the Lord. The Romans made Fear a god and worshiped it for a god the Indians worship the Devil for fear he should hurt them and all this shews us what a command fear hath over the hearts of men to make them to pray They that never think of God in the day of prosperity will hasten to call upon him in the day of trouble The text sayes When the ship was ready to sink the marriners were afraid and every man cryed unto his God Joh. 1.5 A man will never sooner acknowledg a Deity then in the midst of his fears Such is the base spirit of man as that the long-sufferance and patience of God makes some men turn meer Atheists Therefore it is that so many believe there is no God saith Tertullian quia seculo iratum tam diu nesciunt because they do not see that God is
effectually but God alone no man can shew us the right way to heaven but God Therefore let us pray So teach us c. We now come to the end wherefore Moses begs of God to teach us to number our dayes That we may apply c. In which we meet with three particulars 1. The kind and nature of this wisdome wherein it consists and it is in making the best provision we can for the eternal welfare of our Souls 2. The Subject of it our Hearts 3. The means of obtaining this wisdome and that is by the meditation of Death 1. Of the kind and nature of this wisdome wherein it chiefly consists that is in having an eye to heaven in looking after the eternal welfare of our Souls Our next Conclusion is this It is the only true wisdome of a Christian to provide for his Soul Then are we wise indeed when we are wise unto Salvation when we know how to provide for Eternity True wisdome consists not in gathering riches but in living in the fear of God and ordering our steps so as that we may make sure of heaven another day It is our obedience to Gods Commandments which cries us up for wise Christians in the repute of God and man Deut. 4.6 Keep therefore and do them for this is your wisdome and your understanding in the sight of the Nations which shall hear all these statutes and say Surely this great Nation is a wise and understanding people What is it for a man to be wise for the world and a fool for heaven what 's the wealth and honour of the world to the happiness of the Soul what 's a man the better for being rich and honourable in this world if in the end his Soul be lost Mat. 16.26 What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own Soul What the people said of David 2 Sam. 18.3 Thou art worth ten thousand of us the like I say of the Soul It is more worth than a thousand worlds and the Salvation of thy Soul is more to thee than the gaining of many worlds What the man pleaded to Joab for not slaying of Absolom 2 Sam. 18.12 Though I should receive a thousand shekles of Silver in my hand yet would I not put forth my hand against the Kings Son The like maist thou reason within thy own breast Though I might purchase the riches of a thousand worlds yet would I not seek the destruction of my Soul whatsoever thou dost still have an eye to thy Soul that that perish not in another world what if all other things go amiss with thee in this life â—…f thy Soul be in safety It is wisdome I confess to provide for the world for the body but the main wisdome is to provide for the Soul Be careful of the outward man but be sure thou dost not neglect the inward man Provide for both the body and Soul but let thy chief care be for the Soul which is thy better part It was the Symbol of Rodolphus the second Emperour of Rome who gave an Eagle with a double Head with the one he lookt upwards to the Sun and with the other downwards upon the Earth with this Motto Utrumque I have an eye to both Thus it is Lawful for a Christian to look downwards to the Earth and provide for the body but he must have one eye chiefly sixt upon the Soul and in the first place provide for it we must look directly to heaven obliquely upon the earth fix our eyes upon the one cast a glance upon the other It becomes a Christian to consider what may become of him hereafter and whither he is going Consider thy beginning from whence thou camest and consider thy end what will befal thee hereafter He cannot be a wiser man faith the Healthen wo does not know either from whence he came or whither he must go Sure enough he cannot be a wise Christian that knows not what will become of his Soul It is by way of just Reproof of such as are wise for the world but meer fools for heaven The wisdome of the flesh is meer folly in the sight of God Some men would be reputed wise in the world and yet know not which way to take for the gaining of heaven Such a man passeth in the world for a crafty subtile worldling that knows how to mannage his affairs with the best advantage to himself and yet he knows not a step of the way to heaven It is a Maxime amongst the Jesuites Uti scientia to live by their shifts so do many in the world who have only a little wit to carry them out in secular affairs and their brains serve them to gather a little wealth and muck but they are meer Idiots in all that concerns heaven and salvation and the purchasing of the true riches of the Soul And yet see the fondness of these men that though they know not which way to take to get heaven yet they make themselves sure of it as if Salvation and eternal life were within their reach and power to command it when they please Papyrius Massonus writes of the Jesuites that count themselves so wise ut se putant soelo vel ipsi quandoque imperaturos as that they think they shall one day have the command of heaven it self The like presumption is in many Christians at this day that they believe heaven is at their command and they shall easily obtain it though they do nothing for it Oh shake off this folly make what provision thou wilt for other things thou art but a fool if thou dost neglect thy Soul As provident as the rich man was in the Gospel God gave him the title of a Fool and Cajetan gives the reason of it because he did not provide for himself in such things as were needful for the Salvation of his Soul He is a fool that prefers and Apple before a piece of Gold who keeps those things that are to be cast away and neglects such things as are to be preserved who heeds not his house where he must abide for ever and beautifies that place where he is to lodg but for a night Such an one is he that forgets his Soul and is careful for all other things Give me leave to speak the truth and not alwayes to drop oyl into your ears and speak unto you smooth things Where shall we find the man that desires to save his soul that would willingly part with this world to gain a better We daily hear the word of God we talk much of Religion we boast of our interest in heaven but when the matter comes to decision when we are put to our choice whether Heaven or Earth whether we will forego the profits of this world for the love of heaven this is the fiery Chariot which divides between Elijah and Elisha which parts us and God and makes us to cast away our hope
this world Heathens themselves were wont to say that the chiefest wisdome and the main study of Philosophy was only this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even a careful and serious thought of death The memory of a Christian is never better employed then when the thought of death is presented before it This is our wisdome to consider and study how to die well He is a wise man whose memory serves him to think of death The soundness of the stomack is the strengthening of all the rest of the parts of the body so the vigour and strength of the memory in thought of death is the chief support of the soul and if the remembrance of death decay not in us there is no want of wisdome in the soul Is it the meditation of death that makes us wise Judge ye then how many fools there are in the world that never entertain the least thought of death into their hearts that live and run on in sin and never think of the hour of death It is the folly which the Prophet chargeth Ierusalem with that she did not consider her latter end Lam. 1.8 She remembreth not her last end therefore she came down wonderfully In the height of her pride she never thought of death It is strange to see that we should neither think of our own departure nor heed the death of others who are constant Monitors and Remembrancers to us of our own frailty If the Sun chance to be eclips'd we stand amazed at the sight of that darkness which over-spreads the face of that glorious body but we never regard the declining and eclipse of man who is the more noble and glorious creature If the Sun be darkned we wonder at it if man die we never heed it Why then let me stir up your thoughts to the meditation of death that ye may be so wise as to have ever in mind the approach of death 1. Let us think of others that are daily going to their long homes Do we not see some continually coming into the world and others making as much speed out of the world some entring upon the stage others going off As it is in the constant revolution of the heavens some Stars rise and others set and fall so it is with the Sons of men some live others die some daily come forth out of their Mothers wombs others daily return to the womb of their common mother even the earth from whence they were taken 2. Let us look upon our selves and consider how neer death is approaching to us and what hast it makes towards us We know not how soon death may surprise us therefore let us be so wise as to provide for his coming Death for all that we know is now digging of our graves even now he thinks of us when we little think of him let us then be as watchful for death as he is for us let us think of sickness in the time of health and in the day of prosperity remember the hour of death Even in the midst and height of all the glory and happiness of this world let us bring into our remembrance the time of our change and dissolution It is observeable that at the very time of Christs glorions transfiguration the conference which past between Christ and Moses and Elias was concerning the death of Christ Luk. 9.31 They speak of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem to shew unto us that when we are in the height of our glory and honour our thoughts should be busied with the remembrance of our death and departure out of this world I do not like the proverb which is too frequent in your mouths I thought of such a thing no more then of my dying day Let us remember the old Canon in another sense Finis primus sit in intentione Let our end be first in our thoughts and intention let the time of our death be the first thing we think of either morning or evening that so the constant thought of death may take away the terrour of death and being so well acquainted with death before hand we may never he terrified with the approach of it but being guarded with faith and a good Conscience we may boldly look death in the face and triumph in the conquest of the Conquerour through Christ our Saviour by whom we obtain victory over death and the fruit and benefit of our conquest even the Salvation of our souls in Jesus Christ I have done with the text now I fall upon the more careful part of this duty We Ministers at such solemn times as these have an hard Province put upon us in these occasions commonly the wind stands in our faces and we have a crabbed Dilemma cast in our way even that of Agathon in Athenaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If we seek the truth we shall not please if we please we shall hardly speak the truth We walk between two fires the displeasure of God and the frown of man We value not the latter so we may not run the hazard of the former Our chief care is in respect of God that while we seek to give to breathlesse man a little breath of praise we do not dare to dishonour the living God And if this we aim at we need not be afraid to give some satisfaction to the world and right the honour of the dead provide that while we seek to keep up the Fame of another we do not lay to pawn our own reputations or which is far worse make shipwrack of a good conscience On the one hand charity binds me to speak all the good I can of my Neighbour on the other hand conscience in joyns me to utter nothing but the truth Therefore while charity guides me and conscience awes me I hope I may promise to my self a favourable construction from you of all that I now speak I shall not flie out into any empty schemes of Rhetorick concerning the birth of this Worthy Knight Sir William Armyne well known and belov'd in these parts ye all know his descent and extraction he was cut out of no mean quarry Here his bones now rest where he once liv'd with honour and many of his Ancestors before him Do you think I lay any great weight upon all this It is not Birth but Breeding not Breeding but Geace that ennobles a Family Blood without Manners is base Blood Manners without Grace like a glorious Shadow without the Substance I remember what a good man mean of birth answered one that was Noble in Blood and base in Manners 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As my Birth and Parentage is a shame to me so art thou a shame to thy Birth Grace in the heart not Gold in the Purse is the best Inheritance of a Christian There are some stains in the best in the Purse is the best Inheritance of a Christian There are some stains in the best Coats there are spots in