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
ever Lot was got up to Zoar presently the Lord rained down fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah Assoon as ever the mourners are marked presently cometh the destroying Angel upon the rest Beloved when we see those that are mourners for the evils of the times and places where they live look away we should lay it to heart and consider it as a sign of Gods displeasure as a sign that he is a going and departing when he takes away his jewels as a sign that he is a coming to judge the world when he beginneth to separate to take to himself his own Certainly as soon as ever that number of the elect shall be accomplished when the company of those that God hath determined to eternal life shall be fulfilled when the sheep of Christ that are yet to be brought into his fold are gathered together when the fulnesse of the Gentiles is come in and the nation of the Jewes added then the world shall he burnt with fire and the day of Judgement shall come nothing shall hinder that general destruction that shall be the end of all things here below As it is with the general Judgement of the world so with particular Judgements upon Nations when God takes away his people when the Saints go out of Jerusalem to Pila then cometh the sword of the enemie upon Jerusalem when God drawes out his own people presently cometh judgement upon the rest It is good to observe Gods method and order that he takes in governing of the world at this day that in the death of the servants of God we may consider our own time that we may prepare for those evils that are a coming and for those greater judgments that are hastning Thus you see what use may be made of laying to heart the death of others God is much glorified thereby For all his attributes are seen in all his works and the glorifying of God is a declaring of God to be as glorious as he hath revealed himself to be in his attributes which is by shewing of them forth in his works When men can see the wisedome the justice the power the mercy the truth the soveraignty of God and all in the death of others then they glorifie God in taking to heart the death of others You see likewise what good cometh to a mans self by laying to heart the death of others He sees thereby the certainty of his own death He sees the nature of death and what the proper work of it is viz. to separate between him and all those outward comforts all those props and staies whereupon his heart rested too much on earth in the dayes of his vanity And lastly he sees the end and cause why God sendeth Death into the world sometime in judgement that men should take heed of sin sometimes in mercy in mercy to the men themselves and in mercy also to those that live that they seeing the servants of God lodged up before the tempest may learn to fear and to hide and secure themselves under Gods special providence who can either hide them amongst the living or the dead in the worst times Now let us conclude with some application to our selves In the first place it serveth for the just reproof of that great neglect that is in the world at this day that men lay not to heart the death of others I wish that this were only the sin of worldly men I know to a worldly man it is of all things the most unpleasant thought that can be to think of death he cannot indure to hear this they shall fetch thy soul from thee It is as unpleasant to him as it is to a Bankrupt to hear of a Sergeant coming to arrest him as unpleasant as it is to a Malefactor to hear of being brought before the Judge And that is the reason why men in the time of feasting cannot endure such discourses at their Tables as might put sad thoughts of death into them oh these are too melancholly thoughts Yea but in the mean time it is thy folly thy want of wisedome He that was guided by the spirit of wisedome and had now bought some wisdome at a deare rate by woeful experience of his former follies he now seeth that it was farre better to go to the house of mourning that is seriously to consider of that which men account the most ordinary cause of mourning that is the death of others and of themselves then to go to the house of feasting that is to sport a mans selfe in the pleasures of the world and to give liberty to a mans selfe to all manner of delights But I say I wish that this were their fault onely and that it may die with them But it is too much the fault of Gods own people Moses is fain to pray for Israel in the Wildernesse where they saw so many die before them that God would give them wisdom to number their dayes And Ministers have still the same cause to pray for the people and Christians to pray one for another that God would give them wisdome to lay to heart the death of other men Have you well considered of Death when you can only discourse that such a one that was profitable in his instruction is dead such a one by whom we have had good in conversing with is dead such a one that was young and likely to live many years longer is dead What of all this this is but idle and empty discourse What use makest thou of this to thy self dost thou gather from thence the certainty of thy own death Dost thou consider what death will do to thee when it cometh how that it will separate between thee and all things in the world as it hath done them Dost thou consider for what cause God sendeth Death abroad into the world Dost thou consider this with thy selfe as thou oughtest to do This is an act of wisdome This is that we call due consideration when the soul reflects upon it self it is their case now and it will be mine and mine in the same manner therefore it is good for me to set my accounts strait with God When thou accompaniest another to the grave dost thou conclude thus with thy self the very next time that any death is spoken of it may be mine or as Saint Peter speaks to Saphirah after the death of Annanias the feet of those that have buried thy husband are at the door and shall carry thee out also This is reason of all that worldly-mindednesse of all that earnestnesse and invention to gain the favour of men by indirect means this is the reason of all that immoderate care about our businesse with the neglect of our souls this is the reason of all that carnal security of all that forgetfulnesse of God and the account that shall be made at the day of Judgment this is the reason of the unfruitfulnesse of our lives of our unprofitable spending of our times or
and the same person arising from divers principles In every renewed soul there is is a principle of nature and a principle of grate I speak not now of corrupt nature but of pure nature for we may so speak There is a desire that ariseth from nature and that tendeth to the conservation of a mans beeing and to the conservation of a man in all the comforts and contentments of his beeing This is and may be in a child of God But then it is overswayed by grace which makes a man now resign up this will of his to Gods hand to be content against his own natural desires to be disposed of according to Gods will This we may see in our Lord and Saviour Father faith he if it be possible let this cup pass from me Hear is a desire to keep not onely in his natural beeing but to keep in the comfort of nature and life And this is lawful and a good desire for these affections are the works of God upon the soul of man The will of man moveth naturally by these affections these desires they are the fruits of nature and so the works of God in nature and therefore not simply to be blamed But now that which keepeth them within compass is an over-ruling work of grace whereby the creature is made to acknowledge his distance from the Creatour and that subjection he oweth to God as the soveraign Lord of nature and of all creatures And in this sense our Saviour Christ doth check his natural desires if it be possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt faith he So here is a work of grace ordering and over-ruling nature that it might not exceed that proportion of the creature and those desires that should be in nature So then you see what kind of willingness we mean such a kind of willingness as in the issue and close resteth in Gods will The object of this Patience is Afflictions and the changes of this life Affliction is properly any thing that is grievous to a mans sense any thing that crosseth a mans will There are some things that indeed are Afflictions but not to this or that person because he is not sensible of them or because he is not carried with any desires against them But when a man is crost in his will that is an affliction to him but specially when this is set on him with a change when God brings as Job speaks changes upon him when a man is in another turning and course of life this is an affliction indeed A man that hath tasted the sweetness of prosperity now to be left in affliction this was Jobs case and this is specially the object of Patience You have heard of the Patience of Job But how did Jobs Patience appear in the Afflictions in the changes of his life That notwithstanding he had felt the sweeness of a prosperous estate and the comfort of freinds yea and the comfort of Gods favour shining upon his heart and many other particular mercies yet when God turned his hand and took away the comforts of his life the comfort and society of his freinds the comfortable expressions of his own love to his soul and threatned the taking away even of life it self Job could now in this case resolve to rest in the determination and appointment and will of God Here is Patience now Thus briefly you have heard what the duty is to which the Apostle exhorteth It is Patience that is a willing resigning of our selves to Gods appointment in the changes of our life But now that is not enough the Apostle contents not himself to say Have Patience but let Patience have her perfect work He would have them grow in Patience to grow from one degree to another to abound in Patience as the Apostle speaks of Hope and Joy in Rom. 15.13 that they might not only have patience but have it brought to perfection which in Coll. 1. 11. is called all long suffering that there might not be the least defect that they might have a measure of patience proportionable to the measure of Tryals that look as God increased the measure of their tryals upon them so they might have patience to answer those tryals somewhat to support the heart when the greatest weight should be laid upon the soul to press it down so the word Hipomene that is translated patience signifieth to bear up a man to support him under a burthen that he be not prest down by it So he would have them have such a measure of Patience as might bear up the soul in the greatest pressures that though they were afflicted they might not be broken in their afflictions Thus you have the duty opened Let Patience have her perfect work The reason is that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing That you may be intire Some understand it thus that you may be intire in respect of every grace in respect of all gracious habits that you may have one grace as well as another that as you have knowledge and faith so you may have Patience too that which is so necessary a grace for a Christian as well as any other Others by intireness here and wanting nothing think that the Apostle meant this that they might have that which might supply comfort to their souls in all their wants A man is then said to want nothing when he is content and satisfied with that estate wherein he is as if he had all things So David when Ziglag was burnt his Wives carried away captive his souldiers began to mutiny and threaten him yet nevertheless he seemed to want nothing when he could comfort himself in the Lord his God Godliness is great gain but how with contentment that is there is such a sufficiency with contentment of heart as if a man had the things he wants So then hear is the thing that you may be intire in respect of all gracious habits necessary to the beeing of a Christian that you may have that inward store and supply of comfort that may support your hearts in all outward wants Thus you have the meaning of the words The parts are two An exhortation to duty An argument to enforce that exhortation The duty whereto they are exhorted is that they should be perfect in Patience let Patience have her perfect work The Argument whereby they are perswaded to this duty is that they may be intire and wanting nothing that they may have all that is necessary to a Christian We will observe two Conclusions hence which we shall follow at this time The first is this That Patience is necessary to the perfection of a Christian Or A Christian is not perfect without patience The second is this That every Christian should strive for a perfection of degrees of Patience Or that a Christian must labour to attaine the highest degree and perfection in Patience These two Conclusions we
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
present calamities of a mans life For crosses of any kind in name state freinds or families or in whatsoever a man hath or goeth about they may all be reduced to this one head when a man cometh from a state of health to a state of sickness from a state of comfort to a state of sorrow from acquaintance and society to be as a Pelican in the wilderness as David speaks destitute of all freinds and helps from inward rejoycing in his heart in the assurance of Gods love to spiritual disertions wherein he seemeth to be as in a cloud under the frowns of God When a man is in this case how shall he exercise Patience how shall he come to it Briesly the way for a man to get patience in such cases as these is this First to consider that there is no change in my life there is no condition whatsoever that I am cast into but it is ordered by God Set thy soul awork now to give God his glory in that change of thy life First give God the glory of his absolute Soveraignty and Dominion Secondly give him the glory of his wisdome Thirdly give him the glory of his mercy in those changes of thy life that seem most grievous to thee First I say give him the glory of his absolute soveraignty Acknowledge him an absolute in-dependant Lord that doth what he will among the creatures His will is the rule of all his actions upon the creatures here below and uncontroul'd unquestionable It is high arrogancy and presumption and pride of spirit for the creature to contest with his Creator concerning his actions on earth Let every man reason thus I must give God the glory of his Soveraignty and acknowledge that he hath power and right to rule all the families of the earth and why not mine as well as another Why not my person as well as anothers Why not to order all the changes of my life as well as another mans That which Benhadad spake proudly to Ahab thy silver and thy gold thy wives and thy children and thy house and thy Citie are mine That may God speak truely and by right All that thon hast and all that thou art is mine therefore give him that glory that Job did in the change of his life The Lord hath given the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. The Lord that gave hath right to take what he will There is nothing that will keep the creature in his due place but the consideration of Gods absolute soveraignty This consideration was that that meekned the spirit of Eli when that heavy message was brought to him that there should come such misery upon his house that whosoever heard it both his eares should tingle well saith he It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good It is the Lord and it becometh not servants to stand and contend with their Lord. So David when the Priests offered him their service to go along with him to the field from Absolom If saith he I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me back to Jerusalem and his tabernacle but if he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do to me as seemeth good unto him Here was that that humbled the spirit of David when he considered that he was under the hands of an absolute Lord let the Lord do with me what seemeth him good Secondly as thou must give him the glory of his soveraignty so of his wisdome Know that God ordereth all his wayes with wisdome and counsel he knoweth what is good for his children Ye are content when ye are sick that the Physitian should diet ye because ye account him wise and one that hath skill in that course If God diet thee for the purging out of some corruption and for the curing of some spiritual disease in thy soul submit to God in this case be willing to resigne thy self up to be ordered by him A man that hath a Gangreen or such a dangerous disease in his body submitteth to the Surgeon in his course though it be to the cutting and sawing off a limb though it be never so painful and the losse be never so great yet he is for the saving of his life willing to have that taken away God is a wise God that knoweth what estate is best for thee not onely when tryals are better than comforts but what one kind of tryall is better then another it may be it is better to exercise one with poverty another with disgrace another with spiritual trouble another with restraint of liberty which particular tryall is necessary to cure that disease and which this that is in my soul the heavenly Physitian will bring that upon thee as a spirituall prescription and a heavenly course that he takes in insinite wisdome to cure thee Lastly give him in all this the glory of his mercy What hast thou lost but thou maiest have lost a great deal more What dost thou suffer but thou maiest have suffered a great deal more As Alcibiades when he was told that one had stollen half his plate I have cause faith he rather to be thankeful that he took no more then to be troubled that he took so much I am sure it is true of God in this case what hath God took from thee some part of thy estate some friend some comfort of thy life some one or other particular comfort could he not have done more He afflicteth thee in thy body he might have afflicted thee in thy soul and a wounded spirit who can bear He hath afflicted thee in some one member of thy body he could have cast body and soul into Hell There is not a tryall upon thee but God could have made it heavier let that make thee therefore to submit with a more meek heart and willing spirit to God as a merciful God as the Church in the Lamentations It is the Lords mercy that we are not consumed the Church was in great affliction when the Babilonians came upon them and they were driven from the house of God and their own houses but yet it was Gods mercy that they were not consumed So the Prophet Jeremy telleth Baruch in the captivity Seekest thou great things for thy selfe thou shalt have thy life for a prey Baruch was wondrously disquieted he complained that the Lord had added grief to his sorrow What grief was that that He must go to Egypt and after to Babylon Well saith the Prophet thy case is not so heavy as thou seemest to make it thou shalt have thy life for a prey in all places wheresoever thou goest God might have taken away life and all but thy life thou shalt have for a prey Therefore be content with so much So I say to thee when great afflictions comes upon thee they might have been greater therefore consider that that thou maiest give
God the glory of his mercy And so much for the first direction that is to acknowledge God in all the changes of life that befalleth thee Secondly look to sin as that deserving cause that draweth on all the afflictions of this life Consider thou hast fallen by thy sin into Gods displeasure therefore whatsoever affliction befalleth thee thy sin hath deserved that at the hands of God The Lord now dealt with the as a just God though not in the extermity of rigor yet neverthelesse there is a righteous proceeding in it as the Church confesseth Righteousnesse belongeth to thee O Lord though they were in great affliction yet God was righteous in it It is profitable to consider this nay and not only that thou sufferest righteously as the Theif on the Crosse said We suffer according to our deserts but thou sufferest not so much as thy sins deserve thy sins deserve greater things at the hands of God then yet he hath infflicted on thee We see that a commutation and change of punishment a less for a greater hath the place of a mercy upon a malefactor that deserveth greater when he deserveth to be executed and to die he is not only content to be burnt in the hand but the confesseth it to be a mercy of the Prince So it is with us whatsoever affliction God hath laid on thee thou maiest conclude I have deserved greater Therefore saith the Church Why is the living man sorrowful Man suffereth for his sin let us search and trie our wayes and turn again to the Lord. So let this be the main businesse of thy life in this case rather bethink thy self how to get the favour of God then to be eased of such a trouble Let a man look to sin in all this Lastly consider the gratious and comfortable fruit of Affliction that is born with patience For first patience lesseneth the judgment impatience increaseth it on a man The strugling child hath more stripes A man in a Fever the more he strugleâ—…h and striveth the more he increaseth his pain The more patiently a man yeeldeth himself to the hands of God the more by the mercy of God he findeth ease and mitigation of the affliction And this God promiseth Because thou hast kept the word of my patience I will deliver thee in the time of trouble God will take off the affliction when once he hath perfected Patience by affliction for you must know this that all that God aymeth at in all afflictions that he layeth on men is to perfect patience in them therefore the issue will be good There will for the presene be more ease to the heart and afterward a gracious issue and deliverance from trouble when thou art exercised by patience Secondly there are other afflictions of our life and that is not only in those cases wherein some positive evil as we account it naturally some affliction grievous to nature and sense are upon a man but mercies are delayed and hope deferred maketh the heart faint It is an affliction to a man to be kept and delayed in the expectation of that good he hath not if he seem to catch at it it is drawn from him further and further There are many men that have sent many a prayer to God yet the thing they ask is not granted to this day Many a man hath waited long and sought the Lord yet he hath not that his soul desireth How shall a man come to exercise patience in such a case as this In such a case when God delayeth know first that Gods delayes are not danyals though God delay the thing he may and will in time certainly grant it yea though he delay it a great while As we see in other servants of God we may see it in David in Job in Paul in the Canaanitish woman and in others The Vision is for an appointed time saith Habakkuk wait for it it will come and it will not tarry it will not lie God will be known a God of truth what he hath promised he will performe in due time only what doth he expect of thee to wait for the present Now this is an act of faith He that beleeveth will not make hast Glorifie God by beleeving put to thy seal that he is true Whatsoever God hath promised in the Word and thou hast a warrant to beleeve wait for it Secondly Gods delayes are not only not denials but improvements of Gods favour God increaseth and commendeth the excellencies of his mercies by delayes he recompenceth our expectation and waiting for them with putting in greater sweetness into those favours when they come I say God increaseth the comfort answerable to the delay as in the 61. Isa 7. God to comfort the distressed Church in the time of calamity for their affliction faith he they shall have double Double what Double comforts for their tryals Our light afflictions faith the Apostle that are but for a moment cause us a farr more excellent and sxrpassing weight of glory A weight of glory for light Afflictions an eternal weight of glory for momentary afflictions Here is the issue As our afflictions have abonnded so our consolations abound much more This is the course of God Thirdly know that Gods delayes are never long at the longest they are but for a short time what if he delay a year what if twenty thirty forty years what if the the life of a man this is no great delay Compare this time of thy waiting for mercy with the time to come of thy enjoying of mercy A small time of waiting on earth to an eternity of recompence in heaven Compare eternity with the time of thy suffering Alas how little what a small or no agreement is between them A moment to eternity If the life of a man should extend to a hundred years to a thousand yeares to which age never man yet lived yet that is but a point a moment to eternity A thousand years past and to come they are but as yester-day to God Take the eternity past in God himself that is without all beginning and the eternity to come that shall be without all end and put the life of man in the middest of these two and we will conclude it is as a point in the middest of a circumference it is but a moment nay not so much as a moment of time Stretch out the duty of Patience then hast thou waited a week wait a month a year seven years seventy years nay seventy Ages all the ages of the world if it were possible All these are but a moment to eternity And where is there a man that hath waited so long but God that his servants may not faint in their expectation either supports them with other comforts lest they should faint in their desire or else giveth them that which they desire before their hearts faint Know therefore that it is no such great matter for
if it be possible to sever them the world hath more miss of mercyful men then of righteous men every man should mourn for their departure and miss them though piety and righteousness may go unmourned for But these were come to that stupidity that they had no sight nor sense of their own good being a mercyful man it is likely there were many naked that he had clothed many starved souls that he had sed there were parched bowels that he had simpathyzed with he used to mourn with those that mourn to lament with those that lament Many Interpreters would have it spoken that Isaiah said this of himself in regard of the persecution that he suffered he was taken away by the Saw but whether it were of one merciful man or of all a man would think that mercyful men should not go out of the world without mourners there are Orphans and Widows that will mourn for mercyful men that have been relieved by them Yet this stupidity so benumned them in their own senses they were so frozen that they had no simpathy at all neither respect to piety or mercy Righteous men were taken away and they looked not on that side merciful men were taken away and they looked not on that side neither So it is an aggravation of their stupidity Secondly another reason why he varieth the word Righteous men first and merciful men after is this To shew how much God honoureth the works of mercy Though it be a glorious title A righteous man yet the Spirit of God will not let him go without another title A mercyful man Righteousness is best known to God but mercifulness to men Mercifulness is an evidence of piety and godliness Mercy is that grace that honoureth God most and God honoureth it most All the high Elogies that are given to piety in the Scripture are specially stated on mercy God honoureth it with large and ample promises Blessed are the mercyful for they shall obtain mercy It hath not the least beatitude set to it as Basil of Seuleucia well observeth God honoureth it likewise with an approbation When I was hungry ye fed me when I was thirsty ye gave me drink and with a publike approbation at the last day in the presence of Angels and men it is mercy that God then magnifieth Come ye blessed when I was hungry ye fed me c. God honoureth it likewise with an excellent memorial he alwayes mentioneth it with honour see it in Cornelius see it in Job see it in other Saints they were noted for mercifulness in the Scripture here in this place the spirit of God because the righteous man shall not go without an Epitaph he makes on this righteous man a memorial Merciful men are taken away That is the second reason that they might understand how farre God honoureth the works of Charity and mercy Thirdly that the Prophet might instruct them and us now who are to be reputed and accounted true righteous men Those that God accounteth so And those are merciful men These two righteousness and mercy they meet in God so they must in every Christian They are the two wayes of God saith David all his wayes are mercy and righteousness They are the two wayes that Christ takes in the world the first way at his first coming a coming of mercy to call men to mercy the second at his second coming a coming of judgement to judge the quick and the dead So they are two wayes of God so saith Saint Bernard They are the two feet of God by which he walketh through the world God visiteth men upon one of these two feet either in mercy or righteousness as they are the feet upon which God walketh to us so they must be the two feet that we walk on toward God Righteousness that is one by which we tread the way of the first Table in works of piety to God and mercy is the other by which we tread the way of the second Table in mercy towards men So that as the two Tables kiss each other they are infolded one in another the love we owe to our brethren it hangs and depends on our love to God the love that we shew to God is to be testified by our love to our brethren So these two are to embrace one another we must not sever them that God severeth not according to this others will judge of us that we are truly righteons according to this scantling we take of our selves Deceive not your selves if their be not works of Charity and mercy slatter not your selves with an oppinion of righteousness it is an empty name where mercy is not So the Apostle makes the argument He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen So likewise here is it possible that there should be righteousness toward God when there is not mercy toward men It is the first of those pious instructions that I will commend to this place Ostentation of righteousness there is a great deal in the world men desire to be accounted godly men because they can be reserved to themselves They can get pretences of piety and zealous they will seem to be for works of the first Table Did God give only one Table No but we shall be tried by the works of the second Table When I was hungry yee fed me not when I was thirsty ye gave me no drink Why do we make boast of piety to God that men cannot judge of For there is one little grain of hypocrisie that spoileth all We may act mercy to men but we cannot act piety piety will shew it self here Here is the touch-stone to give proof of the piety in our hearts if it bud out in mercy the righteous man is mereiful in every kind Where there is piety there will not be reviling and disgracing and quarrelling and contention it is impossible that piety in the heart should be contentious that pure and untainted liquor should pass through a filthy kennel if there be grace in the heart it will shew it self in the hand in the lip in the words in the actions in all It is but a touch that I give you I know you easily ghess where I am I come not to put you in mind of what you know or rather to put you in mind I am not conscious to your courses but I will tell ye what the world faith It is a great deal of wrong done to this parish and this place if there be not much contention in it and it is not upon this occasion that I heard it for before now I never knew any one in the parish but as the Apostle faith of the good works of one of these Churches It is spoken of in all the world so the strife of this place is spoken of in all the City Here is the fruit whereby you must examine you selves mercy to men If we be not those that nourish brotherly love
as it is in the Revelation that the time is now come too neer He that is filthy let him be filthy still that is let him go on to the end It is evident and apparent that sin is increased since the sickness it is apparent that our sins are aggravated though they are dayly cryed down And now at this time as if we would defie God to his face and call upon him to hasten his judgments upon our Land upon our Families and persons every one strives as it were who shall outdare him most in our excesses in impenitency in hardning our selves in a course of sin These things convince us of our security There are many more that might be named if the time would permit But put these together and they may shew us our wretchedness When we consider how little we have profited by judgments how little we have profited by the ordinances how full of vain confidence and idle dreames how notwithstanding all these we abound still in wickedness and there is no reformation of our hearts and lives what may we not conclude against ourselves If ever people were drowned in a drunken security we of all people under heaven are at this time For of all people under heaven we are in a manner the last God hath spared us to the last We have had warning by judgments inflicted upon others for many years together It hath come neerer to us hy degrees it began a far off in Bohemia and then in the Phalatinate and in Germany The Lord would have us see how he cometh to us by degrees by steps that at the last we may meet him by repentance But where is the man that yet gets out of the bed of security that cometh out of his sleep to meet the Lord that comes with a broken heart to beg for forgiveness of his sins past and to beg for mercy for the time to come Well now since it is so that we are convinced by these signs that we are in a carnal and sinful security we see then so many of us at least that are children of the light and of the day what cause we have to be awakened and to do that for others which they will not do for themselves to be more earnest in prayer more frequent in humbling our souls for our own sins and theirs that God may lay aside and cast away his judgments and displeasure that either are feared or lie upon us Is it not a fearful thing that when the Lyon roareth the beasts of the Forrests tremble Yet the God of heaven roareth against the world at this day and the proud hearts of men do not tremble before him Shall the beasts of the forrests be afraid of the Lyon more then the poor worms of the earth of the mighty God of heaven and earth But this is the horrible Atheisme and Infidelity that is in the hearts of men that they beleeve not Gods power and justice nor his threatnings I beseech you let every man be exhorted to stirre up his soule to this business to awaken himselfe in his own particular person Consider that there are others that are awake that may bring you sorrow enough be you awakened to prevent those miseries Sathan is awake to tempt you Be sober and watchful saith Saint Peter for your adversary the devil goeth about seeking whom he may devoure Sathan is busie and watching to make you his prey watch you therefore that you enter not into tentation Your own Corruptions are alwayes awake The concupisence and depraved disposition of the soul it is awake still to further every evill motion to draw you aside by its tentations Therefore saith the Apostle I beseech you abstain as pilgrims and strangers from fleshly lusts that war against the soule Do as men in warre when they know that they have a waking enemy against them they will be sure to keep their Watch. Beloved you cannot but know that your corruptions are awake you may perceive it in your sleepes and dreames take heed that you be not found in a spiritual sleep that corruption prevail not over you Besides these the enemies of the Church are awake Heretiques are awake every where to bring men from the faith to pervert the faith of many oh be awake to prevent those Besides others are awaken to ransack houses to destroy Cities oh be awake that you may be at peace with the Lord of Hosts the God of Armies that hath all power in his hand to keepe you safe Againe secondly consider the evil of this security you are in of this disposition of heart when you cry peace peace to your selves in the middest of Gods displeasure It is an evil disease a spiritual lethargy That disease we know in the body it takes a man with sleep and so he dieth Oh how many are in this spiritual lethargy in this deep sleep of sin at this day the Lord awaken them It is the more dangerous because it is a sensless disease a disease that takes the senses from the soul and diseases we know that take away the senses are dangerous for it is not only a sign that nature is overcome by the disease but besides it draweth men from seeking for cure Thus it is with the spiritual lethargy it shews not only that sin hath prevailed in the heart that it hath overcome grace and thereupon you have yeelded unto it to your pride and covetousness and vanity as those that are subdued under a disease but it hindreth you from seeking the means to escape out of it Thou saist saith Christ to the Church of Laodicea that thou art rich and needest nothing and that was the reason she sought not to Christ It is our condition we have knowledg enough therefore we care not for the Ordinances of God We have faith enough and therefore we care not for increasing it though none of us say thus with our tongues yet most of us beleeve thus with our hearts As David saith of the ungodly man the wickedness of the wicked saith in my heart So may I say the neglecting of the ordinances the carelesness of men in the use of the means of salvation saith in my heart that there is abundance of security that they are in a spiritual lethargy that leadeth to death As it is an evil disease so it causeth much evil It is that which driveth away the Spirit of God It is the counsel of the Apostle Grieve not the Spirit quench not the Spirit When we neglect the motions of the Spirit the Spirit withdraweth it self Doth not your own experience tell you this Consider a little what motions you have had how God by the checks of your consciences somtime by secret incitements as it were a spur upon your hearts hath moved you to duty and to leave your sins How have these moved you you have had purposes it may be to perform these duties to walk in the wayes
the outward man which is the separation of the Body from the Soul it is no Death if it separate not both from God which it can never do if a man keep the sayings of Christ therefore though his body that keepeth the sayings of Christ be took from his soul yet he seeth not death so as to have any hurt by it he feeleth no ill by it nay it is good to him for it is a passage from misery to rest and felicity Thus ye have these words as faithfully interpreted to you as I know how And now I will make proof of this Doctrine thus explicated namely that thus to keep Christs sayings to know and follow the Doctrine of the Gospel is the only sure way to escape the danger and hurt of Death Saint Peter acknowledgeth as much when he said to the Lord Jesus Christ that he had the words of Eternal life then he that keepeth them is certainly safe against the hurt of Death So the Angel speaks to the Apostles whom the Pharisees had imprisoned when he brought them forth of Prison he biddeth them speak to the people the words of this life since Christs Doctrine is the word of life it must needs follow that the keeping thereof is a perfect Antidote against the poyson of Death And Saint Peter when he gave an account to the rest of the Apostles and the brethren of Judea of his going to the Gentiles he saith that an Angel appointed Cornelius to send for him that he might speak words to him whereby himself and his family should be saved and those words which cause a man to be saved you know will give him freedome enough from Death Thus I have proved the point by expresse Texts and there are two reasons of it The first is delivered by the Apostle Saint John in the first Epistle and second Chapter where he faith let that abide in you which you have heard from the beginning that is the Doctrine of the Gospel which Christ taught his sayings if that remain in you you also shall continue in the Son and in the Father He that hath fellowship with the Son and with the Father can never see Death for God is the fountain of life therefore those that are one with him and continue in him cannot see Death no more then he can be overwhelmed with darkness that is where the Sun shineth fully no more then the body can be dead as long as it hath communion with the soul so those in whom the word of Christ remaineth and stayeth they are assured that they shall remain with the Father and the Son and therefore being united to that that is life God the Father and the Son it is impossible that ever they should be hurt by the first or ever at all taste of the last Death Again the Word of Christ freeth him in whom it remaineth from the power and hurt of sin bringing to him remission of sins and sanctification And being free from sin the cause of Death it is easie to conjecture that he shall be freed from Death it self Let a mans Debt be satisfied and let the favour of the Prince be obtained and a Pardon granted the Prison shall never hold him long he shall not be brought to the place of Execution but when his guives are knocked off he is set at liberty so when we have obtained power against sin by the powerful work of the Spirit of God which alwayes at the same time doth bend the heart of man to rest on Christ for salvation and heartily to indevour to walk before him in holiness and righteousness when I say we are thus freed from the power and guilt of sin it is impossible that Death should lay hold upon us as his prisoner to carry us to the dungeon of Hell and to hold us under the wrath of God and that fiery indignation of his that causeth Hell to be Hell Therefore certainly the words of Christ are an undoubted truth and we must rest upon them without all distrust and wavering that he that keepeth his sayings shall never see death and that the knowledge and beleeving and obeying the Doctrine of the Gospel is the only sure way to escape the hurt and ill of Death it self Let us make some Application of this Doctrine to our souls First to stir us up to a right hearty thankfulness unto Almighty God that is pleased to cast our times and dayes into that age and those places where the Doctrine of the Gospel this Saying of our blessed Saviour is so clearly and plainly and evidently laid open to you and frequently and earnestly prest upon your souls where the Lord cometh to declare unto you the way to life where he scoreth you out a path that will bring you quite out of the clutches and danger of Death this is the happiness of our present Age and place where we live and this whole kingdom too The grace and mercy and favour of our loving God hath so disposed of us that we do not live in times of Paganisme and darkness where there was no news of Christ that we live not in places of Popish darkness where the Doctrine of the Gospel is so mixed and darkned with tricks and devices of their own that they cannot see Christ clearly It is our happiness I say that we do not live in those places and times where either Paganisme or Popery with their darkness covered Christ from us and caused us that we could not clearly see or hear him and so not keep his sayings But now grace is offered light is tendered to us we may be saved we may escape the danger of damnation if the fault be not solely and wholly in our carelesness and wilfulness and neglect and abuse of the means that God hath afforded us The heathen men that have not heard of Christ cannot possibly attain to life as far as we can judge by the Scripture And it is very difficult for the Papists that hear so darkly and are told of the Doctrine of the Gospel with so many sophistications to come to be saved But for us that have the Doctrine of the Gospel so plainly and carefully taught us and revealed unto us we may be saved and may easily see the way to obtain salvation So we go beyond them in happiness Oh blessed be the name of the Ever-living God that beside the peace and plenty and other temporal benefits wherewith he hath crowned this unworthy Nation of ours he hath added this blessing of blessings this King of favours to give us so clear a revelation of the Doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ alone Blessed be his name and let your hearts say Amen to this thanksgiving and let it be one part of your endeavour this day to give solemne praise every man apart and his Family apart for this unspeakable mercy of his in making you live in the dayes of Light and in the bright Sun-shâ—…ne of
overcoming of all sin and by the vertue of Christ he shall prosper in this I beseech you therefore set your selves awork about this great business to get Repentance and Faith and New Obedience it is much more needful then sleep then meat then attire there is nothing in the world so requisite for thy welfare as these things Scrape thou riches together in the same quantity that Solomon did and ten thousands times more yet thou shalt see Death once within a hundred or half a hundred years Get wisdome yet thou shalt see Death after a few years Take pleasure with as much greediness as he did once when he forgat himself for a space yet thou shalt see death These things that the foolish world hunts after with so much earnestness of desire will not secure thee from the sight of the King of feares Death as Job calleth it But if thou once get Faith and Repentance and new obedience then thou hast obtained that that all the riches and honour and pleasures and learning or whatsoever seemeth desirable in the world will not help their possessors to What will you do brethren Grovel still on the earth and still be mad after back and belly Or will you now begin to think I must die I must shake hands with that dismal enemy pale-faced Death that is able to strike terrour into the strongest heart and amazement into the stoutest soul that is not well confirmed and if this Death find me destitute of true Repentance and Faith and New Obedience it will seize upon me and dragg me before the Judgement seat of God where I shall be Henced away with a malediction and curse and be forced to take my place with the Divel and his Angels in unquenchable flames Oh what shall I do then to secure my self from the great from the strong arme of death I will repent now I will begin Lord draw me help me that I may do it I will beleeve now Lord do thou work Faith that requirest it I will obey Lord inable me to preform such needful duties as thou commandest me Shall this be your practice when you come home Will you thus study to practise Repentance and Faith and Obedience and study to cry and call for it and use all your endeavour Or what will you do will you be as idle and careless as negligent and slothful in making after these graces as before Will you be as greedy of the transitory vanities of this life as in former times Oh abuse not the word of God If thou go out of the Church without a full purpose to apply thy self from hence forward either to begin or to proceed in the practise of the saying of Christ Cursed be thou in thy hearing cursed be that hour that thou hast spent and cursed be thy misbestowed labour thou dissembling hypocrite But if thou labour to practise this of Christ namely to keep his sayings the Doctrine of the Gospel to repent to beleeve and to obey blessed art thou in thy hearing and in thy doing and in thy obedience happy is the time and the place and all things that concur together to draw thee to so needful a work I pray Brethren set not your labour upon gold and silver and money and trash not upon the pleasures and delights and contentments of the world not on any other thing but mainly and principally above all things let your chief care be for Faith and Repentance and Obedience If you strive for these things earnestly and heartily and constantly as sure as the Lord is in heaven he will bestow them upon you and with them the benefit of benefits Freedome from Death And now I shall speak comfort to those few that are in the world that keep these sayings of Christ Let them be of good comfort if their capital enemy the King of fears and the King of Afflictions be held from a possiblity of doing them harm nothing can harme them He that Death cannot hurt paine cannot hurt poverty and disgrace cannot hurt nothing can hurt him You know if the King of an Army be reconciled to a place he will keep his Souldiers from spoyling and burning and destroying that place If Death be put out of power to do thee hurt and God be reconciled in Christ because thou keepest the saying of Christ nothing can hurt thee thou art the happiest man under the Sun Why should the poor sad afflicted grieved mourning lamenting Saints of God envie them that are rich and jolly and merry worldlings any of their pleasures and profits any of those things wherewith they like Idiots make themselves laugh at What hath not God given thee better things then he that thou shouldest murmure and whine and weep for want of them art thou still complaining for want of them Remember what Saint James faith Let the brother of low degree that is abased and dispised in the world rejoyce yea rejoyce with great boasting and glory in his Exaltation This is the exaltation of the Saints Christ writing his sayings in their hearts and inclining them through the operation of his Spirit and the powerful work of his Word to repent and beleeve hath freed them from the danger of Death and interessed them into eternal happiness and that blisse that no tongue can expresse nor no heart conceive This is thy happiness it is not to be rich or to be great for these cannot deliver the owner from the hurt of Death natural nor from the danger of Death eternal But to have Faith and Repentance and Obedience this is riches and exaltation for he that hath them shall not alone escape the Dungeon of eternal darkness but be advanced to the Palace of everlasting felicity The Saint is the happy man the penitent beleever and true practiser of Christian obedience he is the sole and only happy man under the Sun for whatsoever storme he suffereth in this present world he shall certainly escape Death and obtaine Glory Blesse God and bless thy self in God magnifie him rejoyce in him take comfort in thy lot and portion Death that devoureth Kings that destroyeth Emperours that conquers Captaines and men of valour shall not be able to approach thee for thy hurt for thou keepest the saying of the Lord Jesus Christ Rejoyce I say in this magnisie him that is the Authour of it and account thy self happy that thou hast receâ—…ed from him so excellent a gift as to be in some measure inabled to keep his saying Yea if it were so may some Christian heart object then I should esteem my self the happiest man alive â—… but alas where is this Repentance you describe where is this New Obedience in me that still still find my self captive and thral to passion to this and that and the other lust and divers corruptions Where is I say that Repentance when I find so much fin Where is that Faith when I find so much wavering and quaking so much aptness to distrust and almost
world when he is covered with the rich hangings of natures wardrobe in his mothers womb then man tumbles in sin as the word in the original signifieth He is sinful in his birth in his life in his thoughts his words and actions and shall he that is thus spotted and stained and polluted stand before the pure Judge of heaven and earth without trembling surely no The mighty the Kings of the earth the Captaines high and low of what condition soever as many as have not made their garments white in the bloud of the slaughtered Lambe Christ they shall tremble and flie to hide themselves and cry to the mountains to cover them before the face of this glorious Judge We come now to the last thing and that is the end of Christs coming to Judgment The end of Christs coming you know is to give a reward And this reward shall be both to the wicked and to the godly for he shall give the reward according to every mans work First I will speak of the reward of the wicked And after conclude with the reward of the godly The reward of the wicked shall be endless woe and perpetual misery in hell There was never any man that descended into that fiery lake and returned thence to tell us what torments are provided for the wicked in Hell but yet as by one drop of the Sea water you may conceive of the saltness of the rest and as a man may ghesse at the stature of a Giant by the length of his foot even so we may have some conceit of those endless and easeless and remediless torments prepared for the wicked in hell by a taste of the miseries we have in this life Great may the grief of a mans heart be even in this life as great as mortality is able to bear Can we read of the mourning of Joseph of Hannah of Job of Jeremy of Jerusalem and not be moved our hearts are hard Can we read of the hideous torments invented by Tyrants Caldrons of boyling oyl roasting upon spits tumbling down Mountains in barrels of nails rending of joynts with horses can we read of these merciless torments and not be moved our hearts are harder then a milstone Alas beloved these are nothing but shadows but counterfeit to those torments that are prepared for the wicked in Hell For though the bowels of hell labour to empty the bowels of judgtment yet she hath an immeasurable portion for her children now living nay for those that are unborn a patrimony of blackness of brimstone of the wrath of God of wailing and gnashing of teeth Certainly death shall take them away but they shall never die they shall consume for ever and yet shall not be consumed they shall be in fire unquenchable and yet see no light You may read of the wine of giddiness Psal 60.3 of a strange kind of Worm Isa ult of fire and brimstone Ezek 38.22 of the Wine-press of Gods wrath Revel 14.10 All these and if worse then these can be are prepared as so many torments for the wicked workers of iniquity Their cup is the deadliest that ever was drunk even of Gods wrath wherewith they shall be filled for ever their worm is that that continually gnaws upon the conscience they shall be tormented in fire and brimstone before the Lambe and his Angels Not such as that of Sodom and Gomorrah for then there were hope that they might be converted at the last into heaps of Ashes or pools of Pitch but such fire and brimstone that as a bottomless Mine gives them neither rest night nor day the smoak of it ascending for ever and is appointed for a time times till time shall be no more Their torment in such a measure as neither eye hath seen nor ear heard nor heart of man hath conceived But beloved all this is but general if the time would suffer we could shew the torments of the damned in particular as First the eternity of those torments in that they shall never end and I verily perswade my self that this is a great increase of their torments the very conceit and thought that they shall never end it is a great increase and aggravation of the torment You know there is no grief and sorrow or misery in this life but time will either deminish it or take it quite away either the tormented or the tormentor will die but in hell there you have them tormented day and night for ever and ever neither the tormented or the tormentor die but they live to endlesse woe O! saith a godly Father in his meditations if a wicked sinner in Hell did know that he were to continue there no more thousands of years then there are sands upon the Sea-shore or no more millions of Ages then there are piles of grasse upon the ground yet this would he some comfort that at last they should have an end but this word never it breâ—… the heart that after they have continued there so many thousand years and millions of ages they are as far from the end of their torment as at the first Secondly we might note 〈…〉 in the extremity and strictness of those torments the straitness of them there is no mercy shewed Take him and bind him hand and foot and cast him into utter darkness And again the gate is shut after the sinner is once cast into Hell there is no getting out again the gate is shut The straitness of these torments may be exceedingly laid down to us in the Parable of the rich Glutton who in hell roaring in everlasting flames lift up his eyes and saw Abraham a far off and Lazarus in his bosom he desired Abraham to send Lazarus but to dip the top of his finger in water to cool his tongue a small request he asks not to be delivered from his torments or for a flaggon of water but for a drop yet to see the strictness of those torments it was denied him Dives had before the world at will what his heart could desire but Lazarus comes to his gate full of soars and hungry yet he refused to refresh him with crums from his table see the just judgement of God against the merciless wretch Dives refused to give a crum when he asked he is denied one drop So that as Saint James speaks Jam. 2. there shall be judgement merciless to them that yeeld no mercy Beloved all you that have the wealth of the world remember this example when the poor distressed members of Christ come to your gates shut not up the bowels of compassion open your hands and your hearts to relieve them for as I said before there shall be judgement merciless to those that shew no mercy But I come to the last thing that I will but only name that is the reward of the godly that everlasting eternal felicity in heaven The time will not suffer me to speak largely and particularly of the reward of the
discouragements on him that he desires Secondly another advantage he hath for this end is this that is he wondrously prevails upon the heart of man by a careless neglect that is in men every man loves ease There is such a spirit in man such a disposition in the spirit of man that he avoids the things ordinarily that have great labour this disposition to ease and rest Satan serves himself on and makes great use of so when a man hath come from hearing the Word and reading the Scriptures whereas he should now be exercised and labour in meditation to work those things on his heart that now the root might fasten and things might settle on the soul he passeth by these easily now the heart of a man lies open as the high way you know the parable Matth. 13. when the seed fell on the high-way the Fowls of the ayr came and picked it up and it was gone presently where there is no pains taken with the heart of a man as there is none taken with the high way that the seed that falls there might grow as in the plowed ground when there is no pains taken with the heart now every notion every direction and every spiritual instruction it lies lightly there and is soon carried out this is the advantage that Satan makes of a mans love of ease But there is another thing concerning the way that Satan takes not only to steal it out of the mind by those two wayes but again by presenting the very truths of God to men in false glosses so as a man cannot discern them in their own shape and nature but in such colours as he presents them to them If the time would have served I might instance in several particulars I will but touch upon one or two and leave the inlargement to your own meditations Sometimes things that are great and of precious use shall be presented small and of no account and things again that are small and little shall be presented wondrous great The mercies of God the Attributes of God the promises of the Gospel the sufficiency of the merits of Christ these shall seem small things little to be regarded less then ever God intended them to be And on the contrary a mans own sins his own distempers shall be made exceeding great Worldly things shall be presented as things of the greatest consequence and spiritual things as meer accessories as things that depend upon them and that come in after Sometimes again things that are most necessary to be understood and known things that should be particularly applyed shall be presented obscurely and confusedly and sometimes things of lesser consequence the knowledge whereof is not so necessary shall be presented with more clearness and with strong perswasions to the study and knowledge of them But I will not stand on this this is enough to give you a taste of Satans subtilty this way whereby he wondrously prevails in bringing trouble upon the spirits of men Thirdly it is from our selves and so it comes to pass from that general corruption that is in our natures from whence all other sins flow that the spirits of men are troubled and disturbed by things that fall out from day to day And first it comes to pass that the soul of man is miserably in bondage and captivated and inthraled and is deprived of liberty as it were through the distemper of the body as in Melancholy and sickness we see how the soul is disâ—…urbed by the very diseases and distempers in the body it self and that by vertue of that simpathy in the soul with the body it riseth from the union of it to the body by the spirits but this I will pass by Sometimes we see the soul subdued with lusts and corruptions somestrong lust some strong sin or other prevails And then as it is with the Fowl that is now flying in the air it may be there is bird-lime cast upon the wings of it it falls down presently and can flie no further so it is with the soul somewhat presseth it down somewhat compasseth it about and coups it in as that expression is used Heb. 12.1 Let us cast off the sin that compasseth us about and that presseth so heavy down that we may run with patience the race that is set before us And sometimes the soul is disturbed by inordinate passions which arise from that general distemper that is diffused through every faculty and so the understanding looks upon things as through a mist it sees nothing clearly and in most common things it is blind and it is led by blind affections too and when the blind leads the blind both fall into the ditch saith Christ and so the memory that should retain the precious treasures the promises of the Gospel to relieve the soul in all cases it is like a leaking vessel that lets things run out as it is Heb. 2. Take heed that the things you have heard run not out saith the Apostle alluding to that Metaphor And the very conscience it self that should be conclusive it now rests in generals and uncertainties conscience should determin what my case is whether I be the child of God or no whether I be in the state of grace or no to put a man to bring things to particular now for the most part by mans own neglect it remains in doubt it may be I am it may be I am not it may be I have a right in the Covenant of grace it may be not c. And now because conscience is not come to that resolute conclusive act that a man may determine of his own particular case hence it is that every thing troubles and disquiets him Thus beloved you see the reasons of it We will briefly pass it over with a word of Application And first it should teach us compassion towards those whose spirits are troubled our Saviour Christ saith here Let not you hearts be troubled He considered of them in their weakness and doth not much upbraid them with it but helps to bring them out of it in much mercy and love and so should we There is such a disposition rising from the pride cruelty and uncharitableness of the hearts of men that they are apt to add to the burthen of the afflicted and to make their afflictions more by their censuring of their troubles You know the speech of old Eli a good man but yet he failed in that when he saw Hannah in great trouble of spirit uttering her heart before the Lord Lay away thy drunkenness saith he he thought she was drunk at lest with some passion and all came but from perplexity and disturbance of spirit and in that manner he rather added to her grief then eased hen So Jobs friends you see what they said they presently judged him in that case as one that God had cast off for hypocrisie and for his pride and covetousness or for some one
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
that are such as I have now said think in your consciences what would you die if God should now stop your breath and ascite you by Death presently to appear before his Majesty being thus full of ignorance of security of presumption of unsanctified of vicious of malicious of covetous thoughts could you find in your hearts to say Lord now let us depart Sure we could not but Death must needs be to us as it is said to be to the wicked Rex terrorum the King of terrours if it should come upon us and find us in this case And yet what know we how soon how suddenly we may be overtaken some of us drop away daily some young some old some lie sick longer some lesser time and how soon it will be our turn we cannot tell Our hreath is in our nostrills we are all as grass If the breath of the Lord blow upon us we do suddenly wither as the slower of the field and return again to our first Earth Why will we not labour to be now ready sith it may be alwayes truly said We may now depart either while we are here or in our way home or in our beds or at our meat Who can truly say to himself I am sure I shall not die this hour It may be now thou wilt demand of me What shall I do that I may be ready To insist upon particulars would be too long onely therefore in a word The best preparation for death is a reformed life He that lives religiously cannot but die preparedly And it is a thousand to one if a wicked liver make a gracious end The Scripture makes mention of a double Death and so likewise of a twofold Resurrection the first Death is the death of the body which is the separation of it from the soul The second death is of the soul which is the separation of it from God The first Resurrection is the rising from the Death of sin to a new life the second is that which shall be of the body out of the Grave at the day of Judgment Now what faith the Scripture Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no power Wouldest thou then be freed from the second Death hell destruction when thou art dead Now that thou art yet alive labour to have a part in the first Resurrection Note what Saint Paul faith of the wanton widdow that she is dead whilst she lives So he that lives in the pleasures of sin and in the wayes of his own heart and after his own lust he is dead in soul though he be alive in body and if he seek not to come out of this grave eternal death shall be his portion Well then wouldest thou prepare for Death wouldest thou be able alwayes to say Lord now now I am ready labour to know God out of his Word that is eternal life Labour to feel Christ live and raign in thee by his Spirit labour to renounce every sin do not go on in any known sin against conscience renew thy repentance daily and still survey the state of thy soul that wickedness may not get dominion over thee Let Death come when it will though the Lord should so visit thee that thou shouldest drop down suddenly yet it shall not find thee unprepared thou hast a part in the first Resurrection there is no fear of the second Death But if thou wilt cherish thy heart in evil thou wilt go on in thy ignorance in thy careless worship of God in thy prophaning the Sabbath in thy whoredom oppression malice drunkenness excess voluptuousness thou makest ready for hell and it is not thy Lord save me or I cry God mercy c. that shall serve thy turn I will tell thee who thou art like unto even to a man appointed after a year or two to be burned and in the mean space must carry a stick daily to the heap so thou heapest up wrath against thy self and makest thy score so great that when Death comes thou shalt not know how to be prepared And thus have I finished the first general part of my Text touching the disposition of the godly in respect of Death I proceed now in a word to the second the ground rule or warrant of this desire and preparation for death according to the word as if Simeon had said this desire that I have now to end my dayes proceeds not from any carnal discontentment because I am now old and can take no great comfort in worldly things but the ground of it is thy word and Promise thou Lord hast revealed unto thy servant that I should not die before I had seen my Saviour This word is now fulfilled and the sweetness thereof hath given me that encouragement that I do even long to be dissolved and to be united unto thee Or again thus Oh Lord this care that I have had to provide thus for Death and to be alwayes in a readiness it hath not come from my self nature never taught it me but thy Word hath instructed me If I had not proceeded according to thy Word I should never have known how to have prepared my self to the time of dissolution This is the meaning of the words and so the Doctrine is plain viz. that Men ignorant in Gods word can never take comfort in death nor be truly prepared to undergo it This is plain if we consider the Exposition which I have already given of that part of Simeons speech It is a general Rule that of our Saviour Ye err not knowing the Scripture A man ignorant in the Scripture can never rightly perform any spiritual duty Hence was that of David Thy testimonies faith he are my delight and my counsellors If any matter came in hand that concerned his soul straight to the word of God went he to know thence how to do it as a man for his Lease or conveyance goeth to a Counsellor for direction So again he confesses that if Gods Law had not been his delight he should have perished in his afflictions And so no comfort no true quiet in any trouble much more at Death without the guidance and information of the Word The assurance that the sting of Death is plucked out that Gods wrath is appeased that sin is pardoned that Heaven gate is opened whence shall we fetch these but from the Scripture the directions for a holy life which is the best preparation for Death where shall we find them but in the Scripture Here then we see is a Caveat to all that have no will nor desire to be acquainted with the Scripture Divers think they should have done well enough though we had no such Book as we call the word of God To be a Scripture-man is a by-word a reproach a matter of disgrace and sooner will men listen to some idle Pamphlet then to a matter of Scripture Well beguile
that way for which thou didst receive them The time may come wherein you may desire to do good but cannot wanting an estate and opportunities whereby to do it Mark what Solomon faith Wilt thou trust in a thing of nothing for Riches have wings as an Eagle and fly away toward heaven It is the vanity of men that they still forbear and stay while their estates increase pretending that then they shall be better able to do good and extend themselves more largely or that they may keep their wealth and wait for a better opportunity But why with thou trust in a thing of nothing Thou seest a fowl in her flight and now it may be thou perceivest it but instantly it vanisheth out of thy sight Why riches have wings faith Solomon Thou hast them now in thy possession and retainest them fast in hold but presently they are departed they fly as an Eagle out of thy sight And the same wise man when he exhorteth men to cast their bread upon the waters He gives them this reason Thou knowest not what evils thou knowest not what judgments and calamities God intends to bring upon that Nation where thou livest upon the City upon the Family where thou dwellest upon thy person or estate Thou knowest not what evils God will bring upon the earth And so likewise charge rich men in this world that they be not high-minded and that they trust not in uncertain riches but in the living God that they be ready to distribute and to communicate and to do good works What is it that hinders men from distributing and communicating Because they trust in uncertain Riches For if they would now learn not to trust in uncertain Riches but account them uncertain as they are and put confidence in the living God who can provide for them when those outward means which they so much rely on fail their expectations they would then be more liberal and bountiful and ready to do good and to communicate So then here is the meaning of the point Take the opportunities of life That is first take the time of life while you may do good and then take the means the wealth and estate which is the time of your means For this observe Jobs case he goes on discoursing of this very point he was now a man stript of all he had but the other day the Richest man in the East the Sabeans and Caldeans had carried away his goods his cattel and his children and all things were taken from him Yet there was one thing that administred comfort in the day of his adversity and his affliction And it was this faith he If I have made the eyes of the poor to fail or if I eat my morsels alone or if I have not relieved the fatherless c. If I have not done thus and thus then let the Lords fiercest judgment fall upon me But herein consists my comfort my conscience bears me witness that when I had wealth and estate and enjoyed the goods of this life I did good I was father to the fatherless a foot to the lame and eyes to the blind I did all the good that lay within the compass of my power to do when I had means to do it I say little do you know beloved whatsoever thou art whatsoever estate thou hast though thou be as a nail fastned in a sure place and thinkest thou shalt never be moved from this condition Thou knowest not how soon God may turn his hand upon thee when thou maist be as Job was on the dunghil deprived of all comforts What will be thy consolation then that when thou hadst wealth thou didst good with it It will add to thy affliction that thou hadst great possessions and didst neither glorifie God nor do good to men So much for the opening of the point I come to apply it First then it serves for the reproof of many to whom God hath given the price in their hands But they want hearts to embrace the opportunities of doing good They pretend to do good and have a mind inclining to good But they have no heart to take the opportunities and advantages of times and means which God hath bestowed on them for the same purpose they want hearts to embrace those Remember what Solomon faith Say not to thy neighbour go and come again to morrow If it be now in thine hands to give him The Lord will not only have a man not deny to do good but besides that he would not have him delay to do good put him not from thee till to morrow if his help remain in thine hands to day yea though thou have a purpose to do it to morrow if it be in thy power to day do it and defer it not till to morrow But what shall we say to those who do not only delay their purposes but by protracting lose their purposes There is nothing more ordinary then in some cases for men not only to purpose truly but to promise heartily to God that they will perform these and these acts of mercy if God will deliver them from such fears and dangers as they at such times are incompast with A man that endures extremity of weather in a tempestuous Sea if happily he may attain the land in safety a man that is diseased with sickness if now he may recover his health again or one that suffers imprisonment if he may procure his liberty or a man that is in fear of the loss of his estate by the means of some unhappy casualty if now he may escape that loss he will bestow a great deal on God and on the servants of God nay he promises and vows unto God in his extremity But how many of those promises as well as those other purposes come to nothing they have liberty they receive health they enjoy safety and have the full fruition of all their desires but alas how short come their vows of performance not one of many of them but turns God away without his bargain Remember how the Lord taxeth the people of Israel In the day of their distress and the Lord reckons up divers and sundry troubles they were in then they speak good words to God they would cleave to him and promised to do thus and thus But thus faith the Text They flattered the Lord with their lips and were false in the Covenant with God Is it not it so beloved with many of us Oh that your hearts might smite you this day before the Lord for many purposes and promises that you have made of doing this or that for the glorifying of God and the discharge of your duty One man hath promised restitution of unjust gain another to become more liberal and bountiful toward others And the Lord hath waited week after week moneth after moneth and year after year and yet nevertheless you continue the same men either unsensible or careless to accomplish your promise to God or
us as proportionable to our extraction God knoweth that the Angels are not Dust and therefore he may justly expect from them and require of them to serve him in altitudinibus in height of performance having a fourfold advantage above men by their very origination First the Angels are incorporeal who can act quicker then I can think My sluggish imagination cannot keep pace with their performances It was but a Poetick fiction that the Spanish gennets were conceived of the Wind. But it is a Theological truth Heb. 1.7 He maketh his Angels Spirits and his Ministers a flaming fire Whereas we poor men do drale and drag a cumbersome corps about us which much hindereth us in all our devotions Secondly Angels have no flesh and we have flesh this will some say interferreth with the former Oh no. Our Saviour had a body and that a real one but no flesh in this sence that is no relique and remnant of original corruption whereas we have both body and flesh too in the worst acception of the latter This Esquire of our body as I may call it is over officious in his dayly attendance so that whilst the Wind of Gods Spirit bloweth us one way the tide of our corruption hurrieth us another way a mischeif from which Angels are secured by their nature Thirdly Angels have no World to tempt them We live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the middle of Snares so bad that we should not look upon them but so common that we can hardly look beside them Fourthly and lastly Angels are free from any Devil effectually to tempt them should Satan indeavour he could not accomplish it The match cannot be lighted where there is no tinder to take fire Whereas such our corruption it is quickly enflamed with Satans temptations Angels having thus a fourfold advantage above men and seeing they Psal 103.20 Excell in strength whilst we poor mortals exceed in weakness God will expect from us service sutable to the mean matter we are made of and in his accounting with us will give us grains of allowance make favourable abatements and accept of proportionable defalcations remembring that we are but Dust Let me hear make a supposition not only seasable in it self but which de facto we see dayly performed suppose a man had two Sons the one grown to the full strength and stature of a man the other which usually happeneth by the same venter an infant which hath newly learned the method of going alone Suppose further that the Father at the same time commandeth them both to come to him and bring with them somewhat proportionable to their strength in obedience whereunto the man-son bringeth a Beam or Log on his shoulders The Child-son cometh also and what doth he bring with him It is very well if he bringeth himself for every step he stirreth he ventureth a stumbling if not a falling but what if also over and above himself he bringeth a straw or reed in his hand I appeal to you who are Parents of Children others being but incompetent judges of the case in hand to you I say who have paternal affection resident in your breasts and maternal legure in your bosomes whether you would not take it in as good part a reed of your Child-son as a Beam of your Man-sons bringing I trough you would Have earthly Fathers who are but parcel-pittiful such a Court of Chancery in their hearts and shall not God whose mercy is over all his works exceed us in all bowels of compassion God I say who may be said to have two forts of Sons Angels already arrived at their full strength and perfection In the laws of England the Kings eldest Son as Duke of Cornwel was presumed to be to all legal intents and purposes of full Age on the first day of his Nativity sure I am that Angels at the very instant of their creation were out of their non-age and in full maturity whilst men during their living in this life are still in their minority Until Ephes 4.13 we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledg of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ and therefore God will dispence with our dusty performance remembring that we are but Dust However none can without manifest usurpation entitle themselves to the least share in this Use of comfort if the connection of Davids words whereon they are founded be seriously considered Psal 103.13 14. Like as a Father pittieth his Children so the Lord pittieth them that fear him For be knoweth our frame he remembreth that we are dust See here God only reflecteth with favours on the dusty extraction of those that fear him and no others Therefore let no prophane person suck poyson out of the sweet flower of our comfortable use and dispose himself to leudness or at the best laziness in Gods service presuming that God knowing his Original of Dust will therefore accept of his as of but dusty performance Here let me distinguish betwixt dusty and Dung-hil serving of God Dusty serving of him is when men endeavours to the utmost strength of their weakness to serve him when they present him as Jacob did unknown Joseph Gen. 43.11 with the best and those God knowes but had fruit of our Land in our vessels doing all in sincerity which is Gospel perfection and the mean time confessing of groaning for and fighting against those many corruptions and more imperfections which cleave unto their most perfect performances This is Dusty serving of God Dung-hil serving of him is which proceedeth from persons Dead in Trespasses and sins Ephes 2.1 sending forth the same savour in the nostrills of the God of Heaven with Lazarus when he had been three dayes buried John the 11.39 And although such actions may appear spetious to the beholders yea and breath forth no bad sent at all to wicked men in the same condition one rotten corps is not offensive to an other yet as dead flies cause Eccles 10.1 Ointment of Apothecary to send forth an ill savour so Hypochricy appendant to such actions rendereth them noisom to that infinite being who is Emunclissiminaris most exact and critical in his smelling This is Dung-hill serving of God most odious unto him and therefore the Godly do detest and abhor it whilst they only grieve and bemoan at their dusty service of God which notwithstanding if qualified as formerly stated is acceptable in Jesus Christ Come we now to the Mark to which we all run and unto dust shalt thou return Whence we observe this Doctrine All humane art cannot preserve a corps from final returning to dust I say final although for a time it may repreive the same from being pulverized Far be it from me dispitefully to decoy the ingenious indeavours and they be but endeavours of any in Chyrurgery I will not add any to my ignorance in that mistery yet I say Art must cry craven in
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
the best Ermine It is nothing to be born a Gentleman it is all in all to live and die a good Christian This was the sweet expression of this your honourable Neighbour feeling a want of Grace in his heart wherewith he desired to be satisfied Oh says he to me one drop of grace in the heart is more worth than all the wealth and honour in the world I shall not commend to you the goodness of his Nature the sweetness of his Disposition because he bewailed it as a Snare and an occasion of sin to him A mans good Nature leads him many times into sin and the loving temper of his spirit temps him and puts him forward to sin Where Grace does not command there a good disposition is soon marr'd and drawn aside This likewise was matter of grief to him that his frail Nature was soon wrought upon and carried aside to that which his own heart soon after told him was sinful and displeasing to God What need I tell you that he was an affable friendly and obliging Gentleman winning and gaining upon all that came near him He that look'd but upon his Face might have seen goodness and courtesie looking out of his Eyes And what 's all this when he did acknowledge with tears that this pleasantness of his countenance was suddenly clouded with a violent and over-ruling storm of passion which carried him beyond himself But it is strange to see what a command grace hath over the Soul which speaks to these unruly passions as Christ did to the boisterous billows of the Sea Peace be still Mar. 4.39 as easily as the Nurse charms the crying Infant in the Cradle As prevalent as these passions were in the time of his health they were so allayed by God in his sickness as that all his friends about him did rejoyce to see the patience and calmness of his Spirit all the while the hand of God was upon him And that I may give you a clear proof of the mortified Spirit and happy change which God wrought in his Soul When I took the boldness to mind him of a late difference between himself and the Reverend Pastor of this place he burst out with tears and laid this charge upon me That I would right him so far as to acquaint him that he did heartily desire him in particular to forgive him and all other good Christians that he had wrong'd in the heat of his passion either rich or poor Judge ye now what could I have spoken more for his honour than I have done in this discovery of his frailty and his happy conquest of it Therefore I thought good to make this publication of it to the world that ye may know ye never honour you selves more than when ye glorifie God by shaming of your selves when we are most vile in our own eyes we are most honourable in the repute of God and good men But all this that I have spoken is nothing to that which is yet behind Therefore go along with me a little further and I shall in brief relate unto you such comfortable passages as fell from him in the time of his sickness and then leave him to your Christian Charity to judge how well he acted the latter part of his life and with what earnestness of spirit he strove to gain the love and favour of God in Christ At my first coming to him I found him deeply toucht with a serious apprehension of the former errours of his life how far he had provoked a good God by the many sins which his Conscience then charged him with Then dâ—d he break forth into 〈◊〉 free and voluntary confession of all his sins and exprest with many tears his loathing and detestation of them I was glad to see those Limbecks of his eyes distilling and dropping down in such a plentiful manner to find his heart thus smitten and bruis ed with the remembrance of his sins and prest him to a greater measure of sorrow as knowing such clouds of grief would make way for the beams of joy and comfort to shine in his Soul The truth is I have not come near a man that hath reckoned up his fins wiâ—h greater abhorrency and detestation than he did I askt him whether if God should be pleased to grant him a further respite in this world he would become a new man and take off his heart from his former vanities He answered I would not for the gain of the whole world live such a life as I have done and I desire next to Gods glory to live for this very end that I might testifiâ— the truth of my repentance to the world I askt him whether his heart did witness the truth of all this Oh sayes he my heart is deceitful and treacherous but if I know my own heart all that I speak is in truth and sincerity I should be the most cursed Hypocrite alive if I should either dissemble with God or man at such a time as this Oh remember to deal faithfully with your own hearts if you speak otherwise than ye find it to be in your own breasts you turn Imposters to your selves and deludes your own Souls not us It is the integrity of the heart which God looks at if there be no rottenness there there is a good foundation of joy and comfort laid in the Soul 1 Job 3.21 Beloved if our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards God And now from the example of this good Knight let me press this one thing upon you That when ye find your hearts opprest with the weight of your sins ye would give them a speedy vent and seek to ease your hearts of so mighty a clog by a serious confession of them He that smothers sin in his breast will in the end be choaked with the noisome scent of it What is a man the better for hiding and locking up his sin in his bosome Let me advise you to open a vein in your own hearts and let out the corrupt blood that lies there The longer we hide sin in our bosoms the more it festers and what man will not do his best to get rid of a bruise before it rots and putrisies Confession is a soveraign Remedy to procure the pardon of our sins Prov. 28.13 Who so confesseth and for saketh his sins shall have mercy He is most likely to find mercy that is most ready to acknowledge that he deserves none We see what David gain'd by an humble confession of his sins He no sooner cried Peccavi 2 Sam. 12.13 I have sinned against the Lord then the Prophet return'd him a comfortable answer from the Lord The Lord also hath put away thy sin thou shalt not die Quantum valent tres syllabae Peccavi How prevalent are three syllables pronounced by a penitent heart I have sinn'd to move the God of mercy to mercy And here I hope I shall seasonably cast in a word of advice to my Brethren of
the Clergy that dejected sinners may with safety lodge their grievances in their breasts let me desire them That as the Lawyer and the Physician are true to their Profession so they would be faithful in their Ministery that poor souls may fly to them with confidence for comfort in their sad conflicts for sin and with sin This makes so many Christians to carry their sin with them to their graves rather than they will disclose it because they dare not repose any trust in those that ought to be as true to them as there own hearts If we find a man truly penitent for his sins let us cover them with the vail of Charity and onely declare his repentance to the world that God may be glorified and good Christians on Earth as the Angels in Heaven rejoyce in the conversion of a sinner I have much to speak but am willing to contract my self as knowing you are fully satisfied in that faithful Testimony I have already given you Be not so uncharitable as to think I might be mistaken in this good Gentleman I was often with him and had frequent converse with him and the freedom to speak and I found him alwayes in the same humble frame and temper of spirit and I must profess this I have not often received more satisfaction from any man in respect of the fruit and comfort of my endeavours than from him I met with an humble and tractable spirit willing to hear of the wrath of God due to sinners and careful and solicitous how he might avoid it truly sensible of the weight of his sins much dejected with the thought of them and so far the sense of his sins had humbled him as that I may say Malice it self could not judge worse of him than he did of himself And that which made me believe the truth of his humiliation for sin was this That I found no presumptious thoughts arising in his heart of Gods mercy but when I sought to cheer him with the hope of Gods mercy to penitent sinners he told me He was not yet humbled enough to partake of it I was much satisfied in this answer as knowing the deeper the foundation is laid the surer is the building the more humble we are the firmer will our confidence be in Christ And from that time I strove to comfort him with the precious Promises of the Gospel and told him he might upon the word of Christ challenge an interest in them Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Such as are truly penitent and onely such might claim a special Title to the Promises of Christ This did revive his fainting spirit and the thought of Gods mercy in Christ did as much cheer him as ever the sense of sin had dejected him Then he began to feel the comfort of Gods love glowing in his breast soon after he felt the heat of it and his affections were so enflamed with the love of God as that his thoughts were restless till he enjoyed him whom his Soul loved and this made him to count every minute too long to be parted from Christ his Saviour Therefore being now fit for heaven and weary of the world and desirous to enjoy God in a better place the last words I heard him utter were these Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly Christ cannot come too soon for that heart that is ready to receive him The Lord makes us fit for his coming and we shall be happy whensoever he comes And now after all this that I have spoken you will say I have said nothing for the honour of this good Knight I have not buried him like himself I have strew'd no flowers of Commendation upon his Herse befitting his quality and Degree and the House he came from I confess all this As he desired all vain pomp and oftentation should be laid aside at his funerals For what have I done said he that I should deserve it so have I declined all pomp and vanity of words in the Pulpit which is no place to shew our quaint and lofty strains of Oratory but our zeal to Gods glory and the edification of his people I came not so far to sawn and flatter but to testifie my pious respects to the memory of the Dead and my unfeigned affection to the Souls of the Living But what Is not this that he dyed a good Christian that he loathed his former Vanities that he was truly humbled for his sins and rested upon the Mercy of God in Christ for the free pardon of them If you value not these things pardon me if I think there is nothing to be valued in you but vanity and what the value of that will be you will know at the hour of Death God grant you may know it sooner and then you are happy when you will find that piety in the heart is more to be accounted of then all the wealth and honour in the world I think I have said enough to honour this Noble Knight at his Funerals that he dyed a true Child of God and left a goodly Inheritnance on Earth to be possessed of a better in Heaven There have I a good ground to believe he rests in peace and joy and there I hope we shall all meet at the last And thus in an holy intention to Gods glory a zealous desire of your good and an honourable respect to my Friend I have now run through the duty of this day not aiming God knows my heart at the least applause from you nor yet valuing the censure of malevolent spirits who shake off all Charity to the Dead and to the Living I have endeavoured to approve my self faithful to God in speaking nothing but the Truth faithful to my self in the discharge of a good Conscience and faithful to my Friend in publishing the truth of his Conversion to the world Thus have I sought to honour God to right your worthy Neighbour and in so doing I hope I have not wronged my self And now it is my earnest prayer to God for you not that I may injure the Dead but in love to your Souls that all of you may have the grace to live better than he did And this I wish again from my heart hoping the best of him and fearing the worst of some of you that ye may obtain the like Faith and Repentance to die no worse than he did His Soul now rests in Bliss and joy do ye that survive labour to enter into that rest which remains for the people of God in the glorious Mansions of God the Father Now bestir your selves and do your best for heaven while ye have time and opportunity work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling shew all diligence by Faith Repentance and Obedience the old and sure tract and road to Heaven to make your calling and election sure live holily that ye may die comfortably Learn to number
him to rule and command his own Generation and yet it is said he served the same Princes are not priviledged by their greatness only to tyrannize over others but are accountable to God how well they discharge their duty to all such to whom they are respected Proceed we to see how David served his generation which he did in an eight-fold capacity First as a dutiful son to his Father and Mother 1 Sam. 22.3 And David went thence to Nizpeh of Moab and he said unto the King of Moab Let my Father and Mother I pray thee come forth and be with you till I know what God will do for me And be brought them before the King of Moab and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the hold The case was thus David foresaw that the tempest of Sauls fury would fall full heavy on his Fathers family he foresaw also that though he himself might be alwayes on the wing hunted from place to place as a Partridge on the Mountain yet his aged Parents could not keep pace with his suddain uncertain unseasonable late and long removeance and therefore as a dutiful son he provided for them a private place of peaceable repose Secondly he served his generation as a very loving Brother witness the dangerous visit whith at his Fathers command he gave his Brethren in the Camp when Goliah was in the field victualling them with all necessary provision on the same token that he received nothing for his pains save a jeer from Eliab his eldest brother 1 Sam. 17.28 Why camest thou down hither and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness I know thy pride and the naughtiness of thine heart for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle Thirdly he served his ganeration as a kind and carefull Husband I will not excuse his Polygamy having many wives at once nor dare I flatly condemn it God conniving thereat in the antient Patriarches However David cannot be charged with want of love amongst his store of wives Once I confess he made a tart and sharp return to Miehal 2 Sam. 6.21 mocking him for dancing before the Ark. But was there not a cause when through the sides of David she struck at all true devotion and smartness on such occasion is zeal and no trespass against Marital affection Fourthly he served his generation as a tender Father indeed he faulty it was in the excess being over-indulgent to Absolom and Adoniah whom he never took to task nor called to account 1 Kings 1.6 Why have you done so and seeing he would not use the rod on them God therefore used them as a rod on him such cockerings we confess is a catching disease amongst us parents but to give David his due for the main he behaved himself no doubt as a discreet and tender Father to his numerous issue Fifthly he was a fast and faithful Friend witness the exchange of hearts as well as cloathes which passed betwixt him and Jonathan yea David made a tripartite expression of his affection 1. He loved Jonathan in his life 2. Lamented him at 3. Shewed mercy to him after his death 2 Sam. 6.3 in restoring Nephiboseth to all his lands and making him Fellow-Commoner at his own Table So that we may truly say and justifie the expression There was two men Jonathan and David and it will be made good by the Rules of Amity if any question the phrase in the Rule of Grammer Sixthly he was a loyal Subject whereof he gave two signal testimonies like to find more to admire then to imitate them amongst posterity if any should chance to be estated in his condition with the same advantage For being Reversion'd to the Crown he twice had an opportunity if so pleased to put himself into the present possession thereof Once when he had Saul in the Cave 1 Sam. 24.5 and his heart smote him for being over-bold with Gods annointed though he did but cut off a skirt of his Garment Again 1 Sam. 26.12 When he found Saul a sleeping and if so disposed might have left him a sleeping till the sound of the last Trumpet should summon him to awake A surly General walking the Round and finding one of his Centinels asleep nailed him with his spear to the earth and excused his act with this jest whether witty or cruel let others judge Dormientem inveni Dormientem reliqui Sleeping I found him and sleeping I left him David might have done the like especially seeing Abisha not to say Providence impelled him thereunto but would not as having a principle of piety within him which remonstrated against such proceedings Seventhly he was a prudent Soveraign both in peace and war in Court and Camp for the space of full forty years going in and out before the people of Israel whom he ruled prudently with all his might I confess his son Absolom taxed him with neglect of the affairs of State 2 Sam. 15.3 that no man was deputed by him to hear the causes and redress the grievances of his oppressed subjects But what saith our plain proverb Ill will never speaks well And therefore I listen to Absoloms words as to a loud Libell and we should be no less injurious to our own judgements then to Davids innocence in giving credit to a proud ambitions son against an holy and humble Father Eightly and lastly David served his generation as a gracious Saint this was the Diamond of the Ring and I have kept the best wine for the last to close and conclude Davids character therewith He is termed in this Chapter ver 22. a man after Gods own heart being the best transcript or copy of the best Original Objection But you wittingly and willingly and wilfully will some say have suppressed and concealed a necessary truth because tending to Davids disparagement Saint Paul saith Titus 3.3 that some men serve divers lusts and pleasures and so did David himself He did not serve his generation but his own wicked wantonness when he imbroydered his Adultery with Bathsheba with the Murder of Uriah Answer O not a word not a syllable not a letter not a tittle hereof God hath forgotten it why should man remember it God hath cast it behind his back why should we cast it in the teeth of Davids memory let us never mention it to his disgrace but for our own direction Partly to teach us not to trust in our selves lest we fall into sin partly to comfort us that after sin committed pardon is obtainable on our unfeigned repentance Yea this is a very comfortable consideration That though there be many faults failings and defects in our performances yet if there be sincerity Gospel perfection therein if our hearts be set to seek the Lord God of our Fathers God will be mercifull unto us though we be not purified according to the purification of the Sanctuary Thus Lot not withstanding the soul
a man to wait upon God it is but a short time and resolve in the time of thy waiting upon this that when thou art fittest for mercy it shall come and when it cometh it shall come with an abundant weight and sweetness such as shall countervail all thy expectation and waiting Thus I have told you how men should exercise patience by exercising their faith and how they should strengthen patience by hope and how they should perfect patience by selfe-denyal The reason why I took this Text for the present occasion is that there might be a concurrence between the rule and the example Here is the rule Let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and intire wanting nothing One reason among others was this because we know not what changes and tryals God hath reserved any of us to therefore we had need of patience Our Sister here is the example a pattern to others of those tryals of life whereto a Christan may be exposed even to extremity Howsoever it pleased God to give many other mercies to her yet nevertheless she had a continual exercise of patience in extream anguish of body in a vexing tormenting pain that a long time for many years together held her under such extremity of torture that a man on the rack or in any other extremity could hardly have greater torments then she sometime felt in the time of that extremity upon her God laid this affliction upon her to perfect her patience and that she might be a pattern of patience to you that you might study and pray for Patience and endeavour after it that when afflictions fall upon any of you you may not be found wanting and destitute of patience So much for this time A RESTRAINT OF EXORBITANT PASSION OR GROUNDS AGAINST Unseasonable Mourning SERMON V. 2 SAM 12.22 23. And he said while the child was yet alive I fasted and wept for I said who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the child may live But now he is dead wherefore should I fast can I bring him back again I shall go to him but he shall not return to me THese Words contain Davids answer to a question that was put to him in the Verse going before the Text by some of his servants The question was grounded upon their observation of his divers carriage when the child was sick and when the child was dead When the child was sick he fasted and wept and lay upon the ground and prayed When the child was dead he forbeareth weeping washeth himself calleth for bread c. And now they ask him the reason for they thought rather that he would have exprest a greater sorrow then he had done before as it may be discerned in the consultation among themselves every man was loth to tell David of the great losse that was beâ—…llen him that his child was dead When he heard of it and altereth his carriage and sheweth himself more chearful contrary to their expectation they plainly put the question to him What should be the reason of this The words I have read to ye 〈◊〉 an Answer to that question He telleth them the reason both of his fasting and weeping in the time of the sicknesse of the child and of his calling for meat and forbearing to weep now at the death of the child The reason of his former carriage he giveth in the 22. verse While the child was yet alive I fasted and wept for I said who knoweth whether the Lord may be gracious to me that the child may live The reason of the alteration of his carriage why he exprest himselfe in another manner upon the death of the child he giveth in the 23. verse But now he is dead wherefore should I fast 〈◊〉 shall return to him he shall not return to me In the former part the reason of his sad and mournful carriage during the time of the sicknesse of the child then saith he I did fast Yea have first the declaration of his action and behaviour and carriage at that time While the child was yet alive I fasted and wept And the reason of this action and carriage for I said Whoâ—… aâ—… tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live I shall be brief in speaking of this part only First for his carriage I fasted and wept These are â—…ut external actions fasting of it self is not a worship of God but as it helpeth and furtheâ—… another 〈◊〉 as it helpâ—…th a man in prayer as it fuâ—…eretâ—… the work of humination and declareth that For neither if we eat are we the better nor if we eat not are we the worse as the Apostle speaks And the kingdom of God consisteth not in meat and drink There is a fast inforced by necessity that which either is by sicknesse or want and is meerly civil and outward without any respect to God And there is a fast too which hath a pretence of respect to God which is not acceptable as that of the Pharisees that rested only in the external action There is a fast that is religious and accepted of God and that is that which is both a testimony of the inward humiliation of the soul as also a help and furtherance of it Such a fast was this that David speaks of here A fast that did arise from a sense of his unworthinesse of the creature and did expresse the sorrow of his heart for sin A Fast which he did set upon only for this end that he might be more free and more fit for prayer And so likewise for the mourning and weeping he speaks of It was not such a weeping as ariseth meerly from the temper of the body as in some that are more apt for tears are such as the tears of Esau to his father he lift up his voice and wept hast thou not one blessing more blesse me even me also oh my father But they were tears that did arise from a holy affection from a gracious disposition of heart from inward contrition and sorrow like the tears that Peter shed when he went out and wept bitterly They were tears that discovered the inward vehemency of his spirit in prayer like those tears of Jacob when he wrestled with the Angel the Prophet Hosea telleth how he wrestled he prayed and wept Such tears were these as did expresse the fervency of his spirit in prayer the earnestnesse of his desire in putting up this request he had now to God like those of Hezekiah I have heard thy prayers and seen thy tears saith God such tears as God putteth iâ—…to his bottle such tears as he takes special notice of There are no tears that are shed for sin our of an inward sorrow of heart that are shed in prayer to exprese a holy desire that proceed from an inward inflamed affection and fervency of spirit but they are very precious with God as far I say as