at her death Her life was well knowne to most of this place and her death was every way answerable to her life all that visited her in her sicknesse might behold with sorrow a pittifull anatomie of fraile mortalitie and yet with joy a perfect patterne of Christian patience and a heavenly conversation and though shee were full of divine conceptions and shee had a spring by her of the waters of life in the devotion of her dearest helper especially in the best things yet when I came to her shee desired shee might be partaker of some of my meditations they were her owne words and when I prayed with her and for her shee joyned not so much with me with her tongue as her affections and answered more in sighes and teares then in words often shee complained of her tuffe heart that would not yeeld to her dissolution and long long sheethought it till shee should come to appeare before the God of Gods in Sion Her last words were sweet Father helpe me and shee had her request for presently hee helped her both by the zealous and most feeling prayers of her Husband and by the holy spirit assisting her in her owne prayers with sighes and groanes that cannot be expressed and immediatly her swâ—…et Father released her of her pangs and received her to himselfe on his owne day On the Lords day morning before the morning watch I say before the morning watch shee entered into her rest and began to keepe her evarlasting Sabbath in heaven where shee reapeth what she sowed and seeth what shee beleeved and enjoyeth what she hoped for and is now entered into those joyes which never entered fully into the heart of any living on earth nor shall into ours till wee with her be made perfect and all of us come to Mount Sion and the heavenly Ierusalem and innumerable company of Angels and to the Congregation of the first-borne whose names are written in heaven and to the spirits of just men and women made perfect Whether the God of peace bring us in our appointed time who brought againe from the dead the great sheepheard through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant To whom with the holy Spirit c. FINIS FAITHS ECCHO OR THE SOVLES AMEN ISAY 64. 1. Oh that thou wouldest rent the Heavens that thou wouldest come downe IER 11. 5. So bee it O Lord. Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. FAITHS ECCHO OR THE SOVLES AMEN SERMON XLVII REVELA 22. 19. Amen Even so come Lord Iesus THese words they afford to us a comfortable and sweet argument to bee conversant in From the sixt verse of this Chapter is set down to us the confirmation of the whole Prophesie and booke of the Revelation partly by the affirmation of God as likewise of Jesus Christ and of Iohn himselfe that heard and saw all these things and likewise of the Church of God in the 17. verse it is likewise confirmed by the promise of blessing and happinesse pronounced upon them that shall doe all these things and shall faithfully expect the accomplishment of them This verse a part of which I have read to you is the repetition in few words of all that matter that goeth before from the 6. verse to it and hath in it First an attestation of our Lord and Saviour Christ in the former part of the verse Behold I come quickly Secondly an acclamation of the Church in the latter part these words I have read to ye Amen even so come Lord Iesus In the attestation of Christ hee promiseth hee will come to his Church hee will come shortly both for the accomplishment of all his promises and likewise for their safety and deliverance from all enemies and all miseries and molestations whatsoever To this the Church makes an acclamation and saith Amen even so come Lord Iesus In this acclamation of the Church to which wee must now come we are to consider First the person of the speaker whose words they bee Secondly what is the matter or substance contained in them Yee shall see whose words they bee if ye looke backe but to the 17. verse of this Chapter there ye shall finde that first it is sayd the Spirit sayth come By the Spirit is not meant the third Person in Trinitie the holy Ghost because hee is not subject to these passions to these desires but hee resteth himselfe in the execution and present disposing and dispensing of things according to his owne will and pleasure Neither by Spirit here is meant any wicked spirit or Angell for they doe with feare and horrour expect the same comming of our Lord and Saviour Christ because his comming shall bee the accomplishment of their miserie and eternall infelicitie But by Spirit here is meant the spirit in all the Elect and holy people of God in whomsoever the Spirit of God is that Spirit doth say come and doth wish the accomplishment of all these most gracious promises For this is not the desire of the flesh or of nature but an earnest and vehement desire of the Spirit of God in the Elect that saith come Againe secondly the same verse telleth us that the Bride sayth come That is the Church of God in generall the Catholike Church the whole Church of God being now hand-fasted to Christ and entred into a spirituall contract with him Shee desireth the consumation of the Marriage the solemniation of the Marriage which is alreadie begun in the contract of it and not onely every particular member of the Church in whom the Spirit of God is saith come but the Church of God in generall the Bride sayth come the whole Church saith come wishing and desiring the accomplishment of the Marriage which is already begun In the third place the same verse telleth us that as the Spirit and the Bâ—…ide say come so hee that heareth saith come that is not onely the Church of God that is now present here upon the face of the earth but the successive parts of the Church in all future Ages they are all of the same minde having received the same Spirit they all say come Whosoever heareth this Prophesie whosoever heareth of these promises in any Age or Countrey of the World all they having the same spirit they must needes say come hee that heareth sayth come hee that is acquainted with the promises that commeth to the knowledge of them and doth mingle them with the faith of his soule this man must needs say come to the accomplishment of them And lastly Hee that is a thirst sayth come too that is whosoever hath tasted of the sweetnesse of Christ in any measure whatsoever and therby hath wrought in him a vehement thirst after more this man will say come Whosoever hath such a sence of Christ in his promises as to taste of the sweetnesse of these never so little as hee that hath tasted a droppe of honey wisheth for more so hee that hath tasted of the sweetnesse of Christ a
same debt Looke overall the times of the world and the dispositions of persons looke over learning and folly greatnesse or poorenesse find me a man that escaped Death Die we must and we have need to have this much pressed upon us for it is a hard matter to beleeve that we must die that I must be the man that must die common notions of Death are granted but that I must die and lie in the dust and stand before God it is a hard matter to beleeve this And consider this secondly that Death will be terrible to thee if he knocke and find a sting in thee Thou that now wilt not be reclaimed from swearing Alas what will become of that blaspheming soule of thine when Death shall come and find a sting of blasphemy in thee How darest thou thinke of giving up that swearing soule of thine to the Judge of heaven and earth Thou unrighteous person that wilt not sanctifie the Lords day how darest thou give up that unholy soule of thine to the holy God Dost thou thinke to have an eternall rest in heaven and wilt not give God a rest here So I might say for all kind of sinners Thinke of this take heed lest Death find a sting in thee for all the sting that Death hath it findeth in thy selfe looke to it thy condition will be fearfull if Death come and find Sin unmortified unrepented of in thee God will certainly bring thee to judgement for every thought and word and action Thirdly consider this that naturally we are so tempered that if Death come he shall find his weapons and strength in us in every man of us I meane considered naturally But how shall I know whether Death when he commeth shall find a sting in me or no I will only give you two tryals you shall know it thus First if thy conscience now sting thee for some approved sinne if thou repent not Death will assuredly meet thee with a sting that approved sinne of thine will be the sting of death Conscience will sting a man either for the act done or for the approbation of the act if conscience sting a man for his approbation of a sinfull qualitie or for a sinfull course if a man continue in that course surely that will be the sting of death to his soule therefore looke to thy selfe perhaps thou art convicted of such a sinne perhaps thy conscience hath so wrought on thee that it hath stung thee for such a sinne thou yet approvest thy selfe in it and thou wilt goe on in thy pride still in such and such sinnes stil thou wilt doe so doe but know this that stand thou never so much upon thy resolution Death will certainly come and if he find thee in such a sinne against thy conscience thou hast reserved in thy selfe a sting for Death Secondly a man shall know if Death come with a sting by this tryall that Solomon giveth us in Eccles. 11. 9. Rejoyce oh young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheare thee in the dayes of thy youth and walke in the wayes of thy heart and sight of thine eyes but know that for all these things God will bring thee to judgement If thou live a voluptuous life Death will certainly come with a sting Dives hee lived a voluptuous life had he not a sting for it So others in Scripture did not their plentifull tables and voluptuous courses bring a sting on them A voluptuous life makes a sting for Death When a poore wretch is a dying and shall begin to reflect backe on his life what have I done how have I lived so much time I have spent or mispent inapparell in vanitie in eating in drinking in swaggering What comfort is this to his soule how can he answer this before God this is the very thing that will sting him at such a day when he can reade nothing in his life but barrennesse and unfruitfulnesse nothing that hath honoured God in all his life Certainly my brethren if there be an Epicurious voluptuous life this life will provide a sting for Death Alas you will say Is it so then we may feare that Death will seize on us thus for we confesse we have gone on in a voluptuous life gone on in sinne that our conscience hath condemned us for how shall we doe to pull out this sting I would to God you were thus affected that you were convicted what a fearfull thing it will be if sinne remaine But wouldest thou have the sting of death pulled out before death come 1. How shall I disarme it that I may looke death in the face with comfort I shall give you some wayes and meanes remember them and practise them First get but a part in Christ and the sting of death is gone thankes bee to God saith the Apostle here that hath given us victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. It is he that in the Revelation is said to have the keyes of Hell and of Death they are under his command and subjection he is victorious over them hee hath vanquished them so that if a man have Christ he hath victorie and power over Hell and Death I told you in the beginning that that which giveth a sting to Death is the guilt of sinne It is so and it is a fearfull sting Now that which takes away the guilt of sinne is Christ. If Christ be mine I have enovgh to answer the guilt of sinne Therefore the Apostle saith Death cannot separate from the love of God in Christ What shall then Indeed nothing it is not the guilt of his sinnes Christ hath satisfied from them So that if thou wilt have the sting of death out get faith in Christ if thou be not hidden in the clefts of that Rock in the bloud of Christ if Christ be not thy Justification and thy righteousnesse what hast thou to answer the Justice of God you must die and stand before God and how can you stand before God in your sinnes you cannot without Christ why doe you not then studie more for Christ Why doe you not labour for faith in him It will be your wisedome to labour earnestly to make sure of him if you have him the sting of death is gone Death cannot hurt a person that hath Christ. Get faith in Christ therefore that is the first Secondly if you would not have Death terrible and fearfull to you labour for sincerity My brethren it is a marvellous thing and yet the truth uprightnesse and sincerity of heart it is an enabling grace All the particular things that we account particular otherwise they have not an inabling vertue in them Some persons have a great deale of learning and wit and many friends much riches and the like yet there commeth an occasion sometimes that puzzleth all these there commeth an occasion sometime that a mans learning is of no use and naturall parts and wit cannot helpe and riches cannot inable him What time
this is it that makes him industrious to avoide evill courses that this is it that makes him diligent in good actions that this is it that makes him constant and to persevere to the end in all holy wayes and in avoyding of all evill because he lookes for and waites for the comming of Christ. Now then take this for a maine tryall of your selves concerning the former point Whether can you with comfort looke for the comming of Christ or no There shall bee abundance at that day that shall hang downe their heads I saw saith Saint Iohn the Divine the Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chiefe Captaines and the mighty men and every bond-man and every free-man men of all sorts hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountaines and said to the mountaines and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lambe for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall bee able to stand Would you therefore hold up your heads with comfort and with joy that when you heare a Funerall Sermon it might comfort you to thinke It will not be long before my time shall come before my time shall bee would you in truth have freedome from the feare of death which Christ hath purchased for hee tooke upon him the same nature because the children were partakers of flesh and blood that hee might free them who for feare of death were held in bondage all their life Would you have comfort in Christs comming to Judgement See how effectually this workes in you Is it thus effectuall that because you looke for Christs comming therefore you prepare your selves therefore you purge out your lusts and corruptions because there shall bee nothing then when the secrets of all hearts shall bee manifest that shall bee displeasing to him when hee shall come Are you carefull to let fall worldly affections because you have a comfortable apprehension of heavenly joyes Are you carefull to turne your course from sinne because you would not lye open to the judgement of condemnation Are you carefull to doe good to persevere in the practise of godlinesse because hee that shall come will come and will not tarry If it bee thus with you then you may with comfort thinke of that day then you may with cheerefulnesse looke upon the day of death the day of death then is better then the day in which thou wert borne It is better to thee then the day of thy mariage it is the day of that great Mariage that shall bee made betweene Christ and thy soule to all eternitie It is better then the day that thou obtainest thy freedome then the day that thou commest out of thy Apprentiship it is the day wherein thou ait set free and brought into the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God It is a day that is better then the day of the enjoyment of the greatest comforts of this life because it sets thee in the possession of pleasures that are at Gods right hand for evermore Take this consideration therefore to heart and that you may walke in a holy course the better and with more constancie keepe the object alwayes close to your eye Thinke with your selves and say If wee would walke as Saints in heaven wee must live as Saints on earth But how shall wee doe this Be often thinking of the comming of Christ often put this question to your soules What if Christ should now come If hee should come now I am in the Church am I hearing the Word with that affection that I ought to heare it with If hee should come now I am in my calling in my worldly businesse doe I follow it with a heavenly disposition as I ought to doe What if hee should come now while I am feasting should he take mee as one feasting with feare lest I should sinne against God in my mirth What if hee should come and take mee asleepe have I made my peace with God before I went to rest Worke these considerations upon thy soule When the morning commeth thinke it may be Christ will come and take mee away before evening how shall I walke this day that I may have comfort in the comming of Christ When the Evening is come thinke It may be I shall never see morning before the great day of the Resurrection what now shall I doe that if I die in my sleepe I may rest in the Lord and so may have comfort in his appearance Either this moment either this minute settle thy comfort and peace with Christ or it may bee the next houre it will be too late And remember that if ever you will live a holy life if ever you will have a heavenly conversation on earth you must be much and seriously settled in this meditation slight it not passe it not in your thoughts as a matter of discourse but let it bee a working meditation let it bee effectuall to produce somewhat in you that may warme and heat your hearts and to set on fire the whole soule and to purge out the drosse of corruption that remaines in you Thus you see what it is that the Apostle here undertakes for himselfe and for as many as walked as hee did they had a heavenly Conversation and that which made them have a heavenly conversation was the looking for the comming of Christ. This was the fruit of their looking for the comming of Christ it made them walke in a heavenly conversation on earth There is another fruit of this by their looking for Christ they shall find him to bee a Lord and Jesus Wee looke for the Saviour the Lord Iesus Which word sheweth that all that Christ did for the purchase of our redemption hee did it by price and by power Hee did it by price hee satisfied his Fathers Justice and so hee is a Saviour Wee waite saith the Apostle 1 Thes. 1. 10. for his Son from heaven whom hee raised from the dead even Iesus which delivered us from the wrath to come And by power too over Sathan so hee is a Lord the Lord of might Thou shalt find at the day of Christ that hee will both bee Saviour and Lord to thee A Saviour to free thee from sinne and condemnation A Lord to bestow upon thee heaven and glory with the Saints This is another benefit of our looking for Christs comming in the manner before spoken of wee shall find him then to be a Lord and Jesus one that will save us from our sinnes and one that hath power to bestow heaven upon us Wouldest thou then have this comfort at that day Let him bee so here to thee in this life let him be thy Lord and commander of all thy affections of the wholeman yeeld obedience now to his will and thou shalt find him a Jesus then Hee is not a Jesus a Saviour except
saith the spirit Or because this asseveration concerning the condition of the Saints departed is propositia necessaria as the Schooles speake we will cloath the members of the division with tearmes apodicticall and in this verse observe 1. A conclusion sientificall whereof the parts are 1. The subject indefinite mortui the dead 2. The attribute absolute beati blessed 3. The cause propter quam the Lord or dying in the Lord. 2. The proofe demonstrative and that two-fold 1. A priori 1. By a heavenly oracle I heard a voyce c. 2. A divine testimonie So saith the spirit 2. A posteriori by arguments drawne 1. From their cessation from their worke They rest from their labours 2. Their remuneration for their workes Their workes follow them Where the matter is pretious a decision of the least quantitie is a great losse and therefore as the spie of nature observeth the Iewellers will not rubbe out a small clowde or specke in an orient Rubie because the lessening the substance will more disadvantage them then the fetching out of the spot advance them in the sale Neither will the Alcumists lose a drop of quintessence nor the Apothecaries a graine of Bezar nor an exact Commentatour upon holy Scriptures any syllables of a voyce from heaven the eccho whereof is more melodious to the soule then any consort of most tuneable voyces upon earth can be In which regard I hold it fit to relinquish my former divisions and insist upon each word of this verse as a Bee sitteth upon each particular flower that wee may not lose any drop of doctrine sweeter then the honey and the honey combe any leafe of the tree of life any dust of the gold of Ophir 1. I there were three men in holy Scriptures tearmed Iedidiah that is Beloved of God Solomon Daniel and Saint Iohn the Evangelist and to all these God made knowne the secrets of his Kingdome by speciall revelation and their prophecies are for the most part of a mysticall interpretation This Revelation was given to Iohn when hee was in the spirit upon the Lords day and if wee religiously observe the Lords day and then bee in the spirit as hee was giving our selves wholly to the contemplation of Divine mysteries wee shall also heare voyces from heaven in our soules and consciences Heard with what eares could Saint Iohn heare this voyce sith hee was in a spirituall rapture which usually shutteth up all the doores of the senses I answer that as spirits have tongues to speake withall whereof wee reade 1 Cor. 13. 1. Though I speake with the tongues of men and Angels so they have eares to heare one another that is a spirituall facultie answerable to our bodily sense of hearing The Apostle sayth of himselfe that hee was in the spirit and as he was in the spirit so he saw in the spirit and heard inthe spirit and spake in the spirit and moved in the spirit and did all those things which are recorded in this Booke When Saint Paul was wrapd up into the third Heaven and heard there words that cannot be uttered and saw things which cannot bee represented with the eye hee truely and really apprehended those objects yet not with carnall but spirituall sences where with Saint Iohn heard this voice A voyce from Heaven The Pythagoreans taught that the Calestiall spheares by the regular motions produced harmonious sounds and the Psalmist teacheth us that the Heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy worke and that there is no speech nor language where there voyce is not heard but that was the voyce of Heaven it selfe demonstrately proving and after a sort proclaiming the Majestie of the Creatour But this is vox de coelo a voyce from Heaven pronounced by God himselfe or formed by an Angell so Gasper Melo expresly teacheth us Saint Iohn heard a voyce not sounding outwardly but inwardly framed by that Angell who revealed unto him the whole Apocalypse Saint Iohn here heard a voyce from Heaven commanding him to Write and Sain Austin heard a voyce from Heaven commanding him to Read Tolle lege and most requesite it is that where Heaven speakes the earth should heare and where God writes that man should reade There never yet came any voice from Heaven which it did not much import and concerne the earth to heare The first voice that came from Heaven was heard on Mount Sinai and it was to confirme the Law to bee of divine authoritie and establish our faith in God the Creatour A second voice from Heaven we heare â—…o in Saint Peter on the holy Mount when the Apostles were there with Christ and it was to confirme the Gospell and to establish our faith in Christ the Redeemer A third voice or sound was heard from Heaven in the upper roome where Christs Apostles were assembled in the day of Pentecost and it was to confirme out faith in the holy Ghost the Comforter A fourth voice that came from Heaven was heard by Saint Peter in a vision and it was to confirme our faith in the Catholike Church and the Communion of Saints and the incorporating both Iewes and Gentileâ—… in one mysticall bodie Lastly a voice was heard from Heaven by Saint Iohn in this place to establish our faith in the last Article of the Creed concerning the happinesse of the dead and the glorious estate of the Tryumphant Church and the life of the World to come If wee desire to bee informed concerning the affaires of the Abissens or those of China Sumatra or Iapan wee conferre with those that are of the same Countrey or have travelled into those parts and for the like reason if wee desire to bee instructed concerning the state and condition of the Citizens of the Heavenly Ierusalem their infinite number their excellent order their singular priviledges their everlasting joyes their feasts their robes their palmes their thrones their crownes wee must enquire of them who either are inhabitants there or have brought us newes from thence nothing but a voice from Heaven can enforce our assent to these heavenly mysteries Now as all words of Kings are of great authoritie but especially their Edicts and Proclamations so all voices from Heaven are highly to bee regarded and religiously obeyed but especially Decrees and Statutes which are commanded by the authoritie of the high Court of Heaven to bee written for perpetuitie such as this is in my Text I heard a voyce from Heaven saying Write with a Pen of Diamond in letters never to bee obliterated write it so that it may bee read of men in all succeeding Ages even to the last man that shall stand upon the earth Here I cannot sufficiently admire the boldnesse of Cardinall Bellarmine who to disparage the necessitie of holy Scripture and cry up unwritten traditions which are the best evidence hee can produce for his new Trent Creed blusheth not to publish it to the World in
all this And there be these two reasons for it The first is because the wicked not only sinne in soule but in body too the body hath beene the instrument of the soule in sinning and therfore it cannot serve the turne that the soule is punished and the body lie in the graue no but those that have joyned in sin must also joyne in punishment Secondly howsoever the sinfull actions of the wicked are transcient and seeme to die with them yet in respect of the contagion and evill effects these actions worke upon others and upon posteritie by the ill example of their predecessors the actions I say of those wicked men continue to the day of Iudgement Thus wee shall see the Iewes in Ierem. 4â—… reuived the sinnes of their fathers Our fathers say they made cakes to the Queen of heaven and so willwee So the succeeding Kings of Israel that went on in the steps of Ieroboam who made Israel to sin they continued the sin of Ieroboam As long as men go on in the steps and sins of their forefathers the sins of their forefathers live so that some mens sinnes by a continued imitation are perpetuated to the day of Iudgement therefore there must be a judgement then that may fill up a measure proportionable to their sinne This was that that Dives feared in Hell and that made him crie out as hee did that one might goe and tell his brethren upon earth that they might not come into that place Why would hee have them tell his brethren was there such love to the kingdome of Christ in hell that Dives would have his brethren converted no such matter Was it love to the soules of his brethren that hee would not have them damned no such matter neither What then Certainly it was nothing else but a sense of his owne guilt hee knew what evill example hee had giuen and what a counseller hee had beene to his brethren and if they should goe on in his steps and their children follow the same steps all this would but adde to his punishment and torment in the great day when soule and body shall bee joyned together to make up the full measure of their torment For this reason I say it is therefore necessary that there should bee a judgement after this life at the end of the world The second thing remaineth and that is why the holy Ghost expresseth Gods proceedings by way of reckoning or calling to an account What need the Lord reckon with men he may proceed by way of a Iudge but he saith come give an account of thy stewardship I answer There are foure things implied in this all shewing the manner of Gods proceedings at the day of judgement with his stewards that it shall bee like the proceedings of a Master with his seruants in an account and reckoning The first is this that it shall bee a proceeding in particulars God shall then proceed not by grosse sums and in the totall yee have done evill in the generall none will deale thus with an Accountant but he will run over the particulars and Account for pounds for pence for every thing Thus God will deale with all his stewards when hee bringeth them to a reckoning hee will reckon on particulars for all things that hee hath enabled them with for his service Those that are rich men first how they have gotten their estates whether they have built their houses as a moth as Iob speakes that is raised their estates to the hurt of others as men doe that raise themselves by Vsurie and oppression and fraud and bribery and such like courses Secondly how they have kept their wealth whether with the injurie of others with-holding the goods from the owners therof from the poore for I call them in case of want the owners of their goods because God hath given them to his stewards for their sakes therefore marke how Saint Iames expresseth it Goe to now yeerich men weepe and howle why so your riches are corrupted and your garments moth-eaten your gold and silver is cankered c. As if hee should say you have beene hoarding up your treasures you had rather bee laying of it up then laying of it out and therefore because you have not layed out your estates for the service of your master rust is come upon your gold and the moth hath eaten into your garments yee have heaped treasure together for the last day Thirdly how they have spent what they have had whether on their lusts or no Yee aske and have not saith Saint Iames because yee aske amisse to spend it on your lusts so yee lay out amisse yee spend it on your lusts When men for pride in apparell for excesse at their tables for vaine buildings for sinfull upholding of wickednesse for unnecessary and injurious proceedings in law sutes or in whatsoever indirect course men lay out their estates it is a mis-spending of their Masters goods And as hee that hath got his wealth unjustly and hee that keepeth it unjustly shall give an account so hee that layeth it out in a confused sinfull profuse way shall be called to give areckoning for that And not only for matter of estate but besides for matter of place and authoritie Moses knew this well enough and therefore when hee was to goe out of the world hee first cleares all reckonings with the people of Israel I have beene a Ruler thus long let any man come and stand up and say I have done him wrong let every man come and cleare me this day before the Lord that I have walked all my life time unblameably inoffensively promoting the glory of God and suppressing all the evill that I could with my might this was the account that Moses made with the people of Israel before hee â—…ed that hee might lift up his head with comfort in the day of the Lord. Thus it must bee with you yee must give an account of your places And so for the state of your bodies The health thou hast had how hast thou spent thy strength and thy health Marke the speech of the Wise man to the young man Rejoyce saith hee in the dayes of thy youth as if hee should say Doe if thou wilt doe if thou dare but know that for all these things thou must come to judgement Now thou hast a great deale of health a great deale of strength but hast thou beene the better for Gods service hast thou imployed it for Gods glory or no And so for the members of thy body thou must give an account for thy imployment of those instruments Thy tongue every idle word saith Christ that men shall speake they shall give an account of at the day of judgement If for every idle word what then for thy swearing and cursing and lying what for the abundance of filthy obscene and rotten communication that commeth out of thy mouth Thou must give an account for thy tongue And so for
love but besides that there is a course of affection that floweth naturally and kindly from the Father to the child as it is with those rivers that fall downward they fall more vehemently then those that are carried upward so the more naturall the affection is the more vehement it expresseth it selfe in the motion to such objects Now when the Father expresseth his affection to his child this is more vehement because it is more naturall there is more strength of nature in it I cannot stand upon this only a word by way of inference and application to our selves First are naturall parents thus to their children Then here is a ground of faith for the children of God that he is pleased to stile himselfe by the name of Father and to receive them into the adoption of sonnes and daughters This was Davids expression of God As a father hath compassion of his children so hath the Lord on those that feare him And the Prophet Isaiah expresseth it fully In all their affliction hee was afflicted and the Angel of his presence saved them in his love and pittie hee redeemed them and bee bare them all the dayes of old hee bore them upon his wings This giveth confidence and boldnesse to Gods children in making their requests knowne to him This was it that incouraged the Prodigall I will arise and goe to my father and say Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee c. God saith S. Bernard alwayes grants those petitions that are sweetned with the name of father and the affection of a child I should hence speake somewhat to children to stirre them up to answer the love of their Parents but other things that follow forbids me any long discourse of this Secondly here is Davids pietie expressed in this Who knoweth whether the Lord will bee gracious to mee Hee exprest not only the Pittie and affection of a naturall father to a child but pietie also arising from the sense of his guilt Hee was guiltie of sinne and by sinne he had brought this sorrow upon himselfe and therefore who knoweth whether the Lord will bee gracious to me in sealing to me the pardon of my sinne this way in adding this mercy as a further assurance of his love in granting me the forgivenesse of my sinne God had told him by Nathan that his sinne was pardoned though he told him the Child should die it may be by the same mercy he will release me from this sentence of death upon my Child whereby he released me from the guilt of my sinne before Here I say is the sense of his owne sinne The point I note hence is That Parents in the miseries that befall their children should call their owne sinne to remembrance All the sorrowes and sicknesses and paines and miseries that befall children should present to Parents the remembrance of their owne sinne It was the expression of the Widow of Sarepta to the Prophet Eliah Art thou come to call my sinnes to remembrance and to slay my childe Shee saw her sinne in the death of her Child So I say in all the afflictions and crosses that befall children the Parents should call to remembrance their owne sinne But some men will here say There seemeth to be no need of such a course for God hath said plainly That the child shall not die for the sinne of the Parent And after God cleareth his owne waies from inequalitie and injustice by that argument The sonne shall not beare the iniquitie of the father Therefore what reason is there that Parents should call their sinnes to remembrance in the miseries that befall their children I answer Though he say the child shall not die for the Parents sinne yet we must understand it a right for what doth hee meane by the sinnes of the Parent And what doth hee meane by death By sinnes of the Parent he meaneth those sinnes that are so the parents as that the children are not at all guiltie of those sins then the children shall not die By Death he meaneth as the word signifieth the destruction of nature So death shall not befall the child for that sinne that himselfe is not guiltie of But how then come little children to die before they have committed any sinne actually was this for their owne sinne or for the sinne of their Parents I answer for their owne sinne they die for the soule that sinneth it shall die and all children have sinned they brought sinne into the world and sinne brought death as the Apostle speakes therefore death reigneth over all even over those that have not sinned according to the similitude of Adams transgression that is that have not sinned actually as Adam had done yet neverthelesse they die because they have sinne upon them they have the corruption of nature In sinne they were borne and in iniquitie their mother conceived them and the wages of sinne is death therefore they die for their owne sinne But what if temporall judgements and afflictions befall them is this for their owne sinne or for the sinne of their Parents I answer for both both for their owne and for the sinne of their Parents for as death so all the miseries of this life are fruits of originall sinne which is an inheritance in the person of every child by nature as soone as it is borne but yet if the sinne of the Parents be added to it that may bring temporall judgements There are many instances and examples of this how God hath visited upon the posteritie of wicked persons the sinnes of their Fathers according to that threatning in the second Commandement And this you shall see either in godly children of wicked parents or in ungodly children of godly Parents Suppose a man leave a great deale of wealth to his children and have one that feares God amongst them it may please God to lay some losse or crosse upon him to the undoing of him he may utterly be impoverished and beggered and deprived of all that meanes that his father left him by unrighteousnesse Hee getteth an heire and in his hand is nothing saith Solomon that is God deprived him of all that estate his father left him by unrighteousnesse Now I say here is a judgement upon the father and yet a mercy upon the child A judgement upon the father that all that he hath laboured for that which hee lost his soule for should bee vaine should come to nothing and not benefit his posteritie as he thought Yet it is a mercy to the childe to the child of God He by this meanes is humbled it draweth him from the world Nay when God emptieth him of these things that were unrighteously gotten he giveth him it may be an estate another way wherein he shall see God his Father provide for him without any indirect and unlawfull courses So sometimes the very shame and reproach that falleth upon wicked children here it is a
woman that doth that but shee may perhaps out-live her Husband A vertuous woman will doe him good and not evill all the dayes of her life And for this amongst many other things I doe commend this vertuous Gentlewoman I may almost say with the words there in the end of that Chapter Many daughters have done excellently but thou surmountest them all So I may say many women peradventure have done excellently in this kind but I doe not know of any one that ever hath done the like to her Husband I pray you heare it Her Husband had a brother that lived in Portugall at the time of his death who was there married he had there three children at least two sonnes and a daughter This vertuous good Woman would give her selfe no rest till she had these children out of Portugall shee got the two sonnes hither And what was her care here is another excellencie of hers her chiefe care was for their soules What did shee or rather what did shee not to winne those children from Poperie in which they have beene brought up and to bring them to the true service of God Shee obtained it she got it When shee had done that wonne them to our religion she had not done all one of these had a desire to exercise some Merchandise by Sea Shee furnished him to the Sea shee furnished him with money for his adventures The other shee bound Apprentise here in the Citie to an honest trade and shee hath given them a liberall childes portion I may say so A childes portion that they may thanke God and I hope they wil have the grace to do it that they had I do not say such an Aunt in law but such a Mother Here was not all Shee sent for the Mother too shee was but sister-in-law to her Husband she sent for the Mother she sent for the Daughter they were here Shee clothed them she fed them some moneths and if shee could have wonne them to our religion she would have maintained the Mother while shee had lived shee would have brought up the Daughter as her owne child But that could not be done it was a worke beyond her strength You see here a vertuous Woman that did good to her Husband not all the dayes of his life but all the dayes of her life To the very last day of her life shee never did cease to doe good to her Husband in his kindred and I thinke I may say that shee was more carefull of his kindred then of her owne But this is not all This kindnesse you will say was shewed to her Husbands kindred Heare a little more therefore Shee knew that there were many Ministers that had a great charge of children and peradventure would be very glad to have some of their children taken off of their hands Shee hath given to the putting out of five Ministers children to bind them Apprentices fiftie pounds Shee knew that there were some poore persons of the Palatinate here which stood in necessitie Shee hath given to the reliefe of them twentie pounds Shee knew that there were many poore soules that lay in Turkish slavery Shee hath given for the redeeming of them twentie pounds Nay yet more Shee considered that her Husband was sometime a poore scholler in the Universitie of Cambridge And shee considered too that there are many Ministers Widowes that lived well while their husband lived that are faine to crave reliefe the greater is the shame of some men when they are dead Shee hath therefore given five hundred pounds to purchase lands and with this land to maintaine partly two Schollers in the Universitie from their first comming thither till they bee Masters of Art And then with the residue to maintaine foure Widowes that have beene the Wives of honest preaching Ministers Zacheus his offer was but halfe of his goods Lord halfe of my goods I give to the poore For ought I can perceive and understand above halfe of her estate shee hath given to charitable uses I say no more of her These workes of her will praise her in the gates Shee died in the Countrey And I am sorry that I had not information as I did desire of her behaviour in her sicknesse I have it not I can say nothing of it but thus much It was not possible that such a creature that lived thus as we know she did in obedience to God in repentance in faith with invocation of Gods mercie in Charity in Peace but that her death was blessed Shee that lived in the Lord no question but she died in the Lord and shee is blessed for Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. God Lord teach us to number our dayes that wee may apply our hearts to wisedome and grant that as we grow in yeares we may grow in knowledge of thy truth in obedience to thy will in faith in thy promises in love toward thee and toward our neighbours for thy sake that when wee come to the end of our dayes wee may come to the end of our hope the salvation of our soules through Jesus Christ to whom with thee oh Father and thee oh holy Spirit three Persons but one true and immortall and onely wise God be given both from us and all thy creatures in heaven and in earth continuall praise honour glory dominion and power now and for evermore Let all those that heare the word of God depart from iniquitie Now the God of Peace that brought againe from the dead our Lord Iesus the great Shepheard of the sheepe through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect to doe his will working in you that which is pleasing in his sight through Iesus Christ. Amen FINIS THE CHRISTIANS CENTER OR HOW TO LIVE TO GOD. PHILIP 1. 20. Christ shall bee magnified in my body whether it be by life or by death 2 COR. 5. 15. They which live should not hence-forth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose againe LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. THE CHRISTIANS CENTER OR HOW TO LIVE TO GOD. SERMON X. ROM 14. 7. For none of us liveth to himselfe and no man dieth to himselfe for whether we live we live to the Lord and whether wee die wee die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die wee are the Lords THese words containe an Argument or reason which the Apostle useth to prove that the weake Christian should bee borne withall and that men should not judge because of the difference of meat amongst them Hee sheweth that they did not with the neglect of the knowledge of any truth keepe themselves ignorant in this particular but it was their weaknesse The strong should beare with the weake and the weake should not censure the strong the reason is because they agree in one end they propound one generall end to themselves that guides them in all their actions they walke in one way and in one path and
place Though thou shouldest have a wife that thou shouldest love mightily though thou shouldest have pleasures that thou takest full content in Why doest thou so Wee are ready to strike sayle wee have but a little time to continue So that because all the blessings of this life let them be never so many never so great yet they all die with us when our time is ended hee that could but seriously thinke that hee hath but a little time to continue below hee will never let his heart be set violently upon them that is the first Argument The second and principall Reason why the meditation of the shortnesse of our time should bee such a marvellous meanes to take us off from all the things of the world is this Because wee shall find worke enough in this short time for things that more concerne us Now the very nature of our soule that God hath put into us is this that a man cannot intend earnestly and violently two things at the same time Let a man for a certaine houre wholly bee tooke up with some businesse though there were a great many other things that he could find in his heart to thinke upon yet the soule intends that one mainly and can find no time for the other Thus is our case Wee have but a little time but in that little time admirable is the worke wee have to doe before this time be spent if wee would give a comfortable account What have we to doe I tell you in a word The maine and needfull thing of all that wee have to doe in this little time here allotted us is How to shoote the gulph of hell how to make our peace with God how to get his favour in Christ how to have the corruptions of our soule cured and healed how to grow up in grace and to get sure evidence against that day when all shall stand naked before him that then we may be found in Christ. Have I ever heard that I have a great worke to doe and that I have but a little time to doe it in Surely then if I seriously thinke of it I cannot find in my heart to let my soule pitch earnestly upon the things below Beloved our time here is the only time we have to make heaven sure It is the most precious thing that ever we have in the world Now if a man have such a precious thing and but a little of it will hee goe and spend it for toyes and baubles It is a thing that the Emperour Caligula is laughed at for in all Stories There was a mighty Navie provided admirable and strange and all trimmed and every one expected that with it the whole countrey of Greece should be conquered and so it might have beene But hee imploped his souldiers to gather a company of Cockleshells and pibles and so sayled home Had not every one cause to lavgh at the folly of this Emperour Verely such a foole is every man and so wee would acknowledge if wee would but weigh this God hath given thee but thus much time it may be twenty yeares it may be but a day or two more in this time he hath furnished thee with that which may bee a meanes to conquer heaven it selfe now if thou lay out this little about wife or children or to purchase a little wealth or these things here below is it not the greatest folly that may bee Suppose that a servant hath a great deale of worke to doe and knowes that he must give an account to his Master thereof and that if all be not done that should bee done he can never appeare with comfort before his Master and hee sees also that the Sunne drawes low and the day hastneth to an end doe you thinke that this servant can find time to play If a man have much to write and but a little paper to write in he must write small and thicke and close as ever hee can So it is with every one of us I warrant you there is not any soule of us but wee shall find so many thousand things to repent of so many graces to obtaine that wee stand in need of so many evidences for heaven to get that yet we have not got sealed so many particulars concerning a better life that a man may wonder that ever any one should find one halfe day to intend any thing else Thus you see the reasons why the serious meditation of the little time we have to continue below should bee a marvellous meanes to take us off from the world and to put us upon the studie and thought of better things Well now let me briefly apply this unto you that so I may come to that I principally intend Oh that we had learned this excellent lesson that the Apostle teacheth the Corinths here what wondrous happy people should wee be You shall find ever-more in the Scripture the Spirit of God putting the neglect that is amongst men and carelesnesse of heaven and all the wickednesse of their lives upon this the not serious meditation of that small time they have to continue below If a man come to those that are not brethren as Saint Paul bespeakes the Corinths in the Text they will say It is true it is a good point to be prest upon a man that is in a consumption on one whom the Doctours have given over to tell him that hee cannot continue a weeke that his time is short But for our parts wee are but in the beginning of our voyage it may be wee are but twenty yeares old we began but the other day to be furnished with a stocke wee we are but newly entred and doe you thinke that we are striking sayle Or another that hath lived fortie or fiftie yeares in the middest of a full trade that beginneth to get something in the world doe you thinke that he is striking sayle Thus people put it off Alas what is thy time What is all thy life Let God decide it doth not he say it is a vapour a dreame a tale that is told like a Ship that sayleth by and is gone and that in the turning of a hand almost If thou have no more time of life here but only while a little sand is running out of a glasse while a Ship is sayling out of sight while a short tale is told God saith it is no more wilt thou account that thy voyage is yet scarsly begun I beseech you beloved all goe home and often thinke of this point Say within yourselves How long Lord am I like to continue below and what is there for me to doe before I goe out of this world But the truth is men dare not thinke of this and the divell laboureth for nothing more in the world then this to make men put off the serious consideration of the brevitie of their lives and that they have longertime to continue here then they have because hee knowes the truth of this
that I have spoken that the meditation thereof will stirre them up to make cleare all reckonings with God before they goe hence and bee seene no more You may find this to be true in your owne experience how loath men are to entertaine thoughts of their latter end Goe to one that lies sicke of a Consumption and hee will tell you the Doctors say that I may live and I doubt not but I shall get up againe such a one hath beene brought as low as I and hee is recovered and why may not I. I once knew one that when the Phisitians came and told him that hee must die Good Lord said hee what a deale of worke have I to doe I have all my seed to sow all my evidences to seale that my soule should bee saved c. Such thoughts should enter into us now pitch on them seriously buckle to them soundly Wee may learne this point of wisedome of the divell himselfe Hee because hee knoweth his time is short hee is so much the fuller of rage and malice and plies his worke with so much the more eagernesse Woe bee to the Inhabitants of the earth and the Sea Revelat. 12. 12. for the divell is gone out amongst men having great wrath because hee knoweth that hee hath but a short time So should wee doe Thinke with thy selfe the seventh Angel will come ere long and sweare by him that liveth for ever and ever that there shall bee no more time but GOD will have an account for the time past What if the Angel should come now and sweare as tenne to one but there is some man or woman in this Congregation concerning whom GOD hath determined that they shall have no more time before a weeke bee at an end Put the case it should bee any ones case thine or mine that God should say Goe fetch such a man I will give him no more time It is true I gave him some but now his voyage is at an end his sayle is strucke and then we shouldhave all to seeke no Christ no true faith no evidence for Heaven when wee must come and give an account to God What have you done with all your time will God say I must have a reckoning of it And then commeth in Imprimis so much time in drinking so much in revelling so much in dressing my selfe every day And then God shall say Were these the things I gave you time for Did I bestow time on you for to bee spent about such things as these No it was for Heaven Beloved how could we answer to these things It is good and profitable seriously to consider of this betimes say to thy selfe I have not long to live after a while I must goe hence and be no more I must give an account and a reckoning unto God of all that I have done whether it bee good or evill But this is not the principall point I have to speake of therefore I passe it briefly I come to the Exhortation it selfe It remaineth that both they that have wives bee as though they had none and they that weepe as if they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use the world as not abusing it c. In a word I take the summe of the Exhortation to be as if the Apostle S. Paul had said thus Brethren you are ready to cast anchor trouble not your selves bee stedfast gird up the loynes of your mindes let your care bee greatest for heaven as for these things that are here below if you have wives bee as if you had none thinke assoone as you are ashoare you shall have none if you bee sicke or under any crosse or affliction bee as though you wept not suppose you bee as a fellow that is faine to plie the pumpe all the day assoone as hee is ashoare hee is free if you rejoyce if you be in prosperity if you be as the Master of the Ship that hath great preferment bee as if you rejoyced not Why you are almost come ashoare therefore bee as if not in all these I will briefly open the meaning of all these particulars and then put all into one point of instruction and so come further to applie it unto you as God shall enable me What therefore is the meaning first Let them that have wives bee as though they had none To that I answer A man that hath a Wife hath two things that another hath not that hath no wife The first is He hath a great deale of joy and comfort he hath a second selfe a loving yoak-fellow one in whose Bosome hee can poure his heart at any time one that he can make partaker of all his contentments one that is willing to helpe him to carry all his crosses so in a Wife supposing her to be a good Wife hee hath that comfort that another knowes not of Secondly he that hath a Wife hath a great many cares that another hath not hee hath a great deale of feare lest hee should leave her in distresse a great deale of care how shee and the children that are begotten by him of her should be provided for when he is gone so that as Saint Paul saith hee cannot but care for the things of the world how he may give content to his wife These two things a man hath that hath a Wife Now What is it to bee in this as if hee had no wife That is this In all contentments that come by a wife to use them as if hee had none at all that is to be moderate not to gluâ—… himselfe and to thinke now I am a happy man I need no more God hath given me such a yoake-fellow and I have abundant joy in it But to moderate his heart in this And for the other thing for care and thought how to provide for her and her children to goe on as if he had no wife and children to provide for to leave all to God to goe on in his calling in obedience to God and let God doe what hee will And for matter of providing food and rayment when hee is gone let him even carry himselfe as if all the world were gone when hee is gone This is to have a wife as if hee had none to be as moderate in the enjoying of the contentments that come by his wife to be as moderate in cares required for a Wife so moderate in them as if he had no wife at all to joy in or to take care for For the second They that weepe as if they wept not That is for matter of Affliction One man commeth out and he exceedingly glorieth in his happinesse that he hath a wife Another complainet no man is so full of crosses as I every day one crosse after another no man hath such children such a husband such an estate so poore so afflicted so weake ever groaning and
much for other things if once you let your soules bee filled with the things of a better life then wife and children and wealth and pleasures or any thing else will not draw away your heart Get a good hand-fast of Jesus Christ worke out your salvation that you may know that you are beleevers upon good grounds and that you have the graces of the Spirit of God in you in deed and in truth that you are new creatures And then often thinke of the rare things that are provided for you in another life What to have God to bee your Father and Angels your keepers to be children to bee the companions of Angels Weigh these things daily and then you will be as if not in all these outward and worldly things And untill thou dost this and thinkest withall of that I have formerly said that thou art ready to strike sayle I will never beleeve that thou wilt bee as if not This is the second thing A word or two of the Third and so I have done And that is the Spurre that the Apostle Saint Paul useth And it is necessary hee should use such a spurre for it is a very hard lesson If you would be as if you were not consider this The fashion of the world passeth away That is it signifieth I touched it before such a fashion as is on a stage All these things below they are but as the Acting of a Comedie as a Scaene it may bee it is done in halfe an houre and though it make a fine shew yet in truth there is no substance in it There is one it is a fashion besides it passeth away So then in this spurre there are two things I will but name the heads First That the things of this world all that I named before are but a shew without a substance Even as a Scaene or Comedie things that have a glorious glittering shew to the eye but if you looke in deed and in truth upon them there is no such matter That is one thing that I note that our life is but as the acting of a part in a Comedie and so by consequence in all these outward things thy contentment in wife or children or credit or pleasures thou dost but act a glorious part it may be thou hast a goodly outside fine clothes rich apparell an outward representation of comfort but looke thorow them and there is no such matter But the second thing which I rather would presse is that it is suddenly gone it passeth away saith the Apostle As a man hath but a little time to tarry in the world so all the things hee enjoyeth in the world are wondrous inconstant That looke as it is in a Play hee that now acts the part of a King it may be next he may act the part of a Begger or as it is with some of your delicate fashions that while you are speaking of them the fashion is spoyled Even so the fashion of this world it will not continue That is the summe of that I desire you to take notice of that if you will not be perswaded by me or by the Spirit of God in his unworthy minister to use the things of this world moderately and to carry your selves as you ought in crosses and afflictions yet know this that the fashion of these things will shortly be spoyled And if they be all so unconstant what a foole art thou to set thy heart upon them Wee may learne this wisedome from the foolery of our English Nation esteemed now the idlest people of the world for changing their fashion They will never make clothes twice of one fashion but one gowne of this fashion and another of that and though he bee never so good a Taylour that makes it yet hee must make no more of the same fashion but the next Terme they will cometo another Learne I say this wisedome from that foolery Now the Lord giveth thee comfort in thy wife set not thy heart too much upon her the next Terme the fashion may change Now thou art rich let not thy heart dote upon thy riches it is but a fashion a shew it passeth away to morrow thou maist bee a begger to day a man to morrow none But if thou wouldest keepe the fashion get the fashion of grace get a right to heaven an interest in God and be content in Gods name to follow his fashion If the fashion that God will have thee be in be to be an humble dejected man be content with that fashion if anon he will have thee on the toppe of the wheele of prosperitie thanke God for it take heed of abusing the things thou enjoyest Remember the things of this life are inconstant things as a flower as a nosegay that seemeth as a dainty fine thing but while we are smelling at it and praising it it withereth away so is it with all these things I would I could tell how to speake home to your soules and yet I know that little I have spoken if it be entertained with faith if you beleeve this to be the truth of God not as the speech that a man makes to you but as the speech of Saint Paul an Apostle of Christ that sets it downe by the direction of God that it is thus I say if you lay downe this as a truth that comes from God and seriously thinke with your selves I have but a little time to tarry here below and when I am out of the world I shall live for ever in heaven or in hell while I doe enjoy the things of this world God will have me to be as if not in them and there is good reason why they are shewes and not substances Grace and the favour of God is only that which is substantiall whatsoever you looke upon that is under these are but shewes riches and honours and worldly contentments they are but shadowes like one in a play that is but a Peasant under the coat of a King these have but only outsides under them there is no such matter This I say which I have spoken being seriously considered and faithfully received may through the blessing of GOD and your owne prayers to God to teach you this be a meanes to moderate you in the use of all those things that are here below FINIS SECVRITIE SVRPRIZED OR THE DESTRVCTION OF THE CARELESSE JOB 18. 10. The snare is laid for him in the ground and a trappe for him in the way HEB. 2. 3. How shall wee escape if wee neglect so great salvation LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. SECVRITIE SVRPRIZED OR THE DESTRVCTION OF THE CARELESSE SERMON XII 1 THESSAL 5. 3. For when they shall say peace and safetie then sudden destruction commeth upon them as travaile upon a woman with child and they shall not escape IN the latter part of the Chapter going before the blessed Apostle S. Paul to the end that he might draw those to whom
in a carnall and sinfull security wee 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 doe that for others which they will not doe for themselves to bee more earnest in prayer more frequent in humbling our soules for our owne sinnes and theirs that God may lay aside and cast away his judgements and displeasure that either are feared or lie upon us It is not a fearfull 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 doe not tremble before him Shall the beasts of the Forrests bee afraid of the Lyon more then the poore wormes 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 businesse to awaken himselfe in his owne particular person Consider that there are others that are awake that may bring you sorrow enough bee you awakened to prevent those miseries Sathan is awake to tempt you Bee sober and watchfull saith Saint Peter for your adversary the divill goeth about seeking whom hee may devoure Sathan is busie and watching to make you his prey watch you therefore that you enter not into tentation Your owne Corruptions are alwayes awake The concupisence and depraved disposition of the soule it is awake still to further every evill motion to draw you aside by its tentations Therefore saith the Apostle I beseech you abstaine as pilgrims and strangers from fleshly lusts that warre against the soule Doe as men in warre when they know that they have a waking enemie against them they will be sure to keepe 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 bee not found in a spirituall sleepe that corruption prevaile 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 bee 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 evill 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 evill disease a spirituall lethargie That disease we know in the body it takes a man with sleepe and so he dieth Oh how many are in this spirituall lethargie in this deepe sleepe of sinne at this day the Lord awaken them It is the more dangerous because it is a senslesse disease A disease that takes the senses from the soule and diseases we know that take away the senses are dangerous for it is not only a signe that nature is overcome by the disease but besides it draweth men from seeking for cure Thus it is with the spirituall lethargie it shewes not only that sinne hath prevailed in the heart that it hath overcome grace and thereupon you have yeelded unto it to your pride and covetousnesse and vanity as those that are subdued under a disease but it hindreth you from seeking the meanes 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 shee sought not to Christ. It is our condition we have knowledge enough therefore we care not for the ordinances of God Wee have faith enough and therefore wee 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 wickednesse of the wicked saith in my heart So may I say the neglecting of the ordinances the carelesnesse of men in the use of the meanes of salvation saith in my heart that there is abundance of securitie that they are in a spirituall lethargie that leadeth to death As it is an evill disease so it causeth much evill It is that which driveth away the Spirit of God It is the counsell of the Apostle Grieve not the Spirit quench not the Spirit When wee neglect the motions of the Spirit the Spirit withdraweth it selfe Doth not your owne experience tell you this Consider a little what motions you have had how God by the checks of your consciences sometime by secret incitements as it were a spurre upon your hearts hath moved you to dutie and to leave your sinnes How have these moved you you have had purposes it may be to performe these duties to walke in the wayes of God to please him in all things the neglect of these purposes hath driven away the Spirit it may be God now leaveth you to finall hardnesse Againe it letteth in Sathan When the uncleane spirit is driven out hee goeth about seeking rest and finding none at last hee returneth from whence hee went and findeth the house swept and garnished and he entreth in and bringeth seven spirits more worse then himselfe Alas how many men are there that for a fitt in some particulars have altered their course and have thought to become new men yet rushing upon former occasions and temptations to sinne they have growne secure and carelesse and now Sathan hath gotten stronger hold of them with seven spirits worse Nay this is that that drives away Christ and the comfortable influence of his Spirit in the heart The Church in Cant. 5. was asleepe was in a spirituall slumber and Christ goeth away Shee seekes him whom her soule loved but shee could not find him I speake now to those that were awake and are now asleepe their hearts it may be are awake but they walke not with that watchfulnesse and humility of spirit before the Lord as they ought therefore now they are heavy and destitute of the comforts of the Spirit Well they may thanke themselves Christ hath hid himselfe to teach them to be more watchfull And to conclude This is the cause of positive Judgements You know what came upon the old world and upon Sodome and Gomorrah for their securitie And likewise of future Judgements it is that which casteth men from heaven to hell That servant that saith in his heart my Master deferreth his comming and therefore hee eates and drinkes with the drunken what is the issue of it Hee shall have his portion given him with hypocrites where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Mat. 24. Here is enough I suppose to awaken you Whensoever the heart of man is held downe with secure
First by way of comfort Against the feare of Death or against over-much sorrow for those that Death takesaway It is true Death is an Enemie But to whom only to the wicked that are out of Christ to those that have no benefit at all by his Death and Resurrection and ascension When Death commeth and findeth out these they may say as Ahab did to Eliah and more truly a great deale hast thou found me oh mine Enemie It is the worst Enemie they have in the world It is a cruell Sergeant that catcheth them by the throat and arresteth them for a debt that they are never able to pay It dragges them to the Jayle casteth them into the Dungeon to the chaines of Darknesse I have not a word of comfort to say to them They have no more comfort in Death then they have in Hell where though they shall lie in torments and paine they shall not have a drop of water to coole their tongue But to the faithfull in Christ there is comfort upon comfort For though Death be an Enemie yet remember first it is a subdued Enemie Secondly a reconciled Enemie Thirdly and lastly an Enemie that one day shall not be at all It is a subdued Enemie that is one comfort The strength and sting of it is gone When a Bee hath lost his sting and is a Droane it can hurt no more So Death is a Droane to a Christian it hums and buzzeth it doth no hurt it cannot sting the sting is gone Against all those Enemies that I formerly told yee of that are attendants on Death here is comfort First it is true Death commeth with ill Harbingers it bringeth sicknesses and aches and paine but there is comfort against this For when God sendeth paine remember hee promiseth to send patience too that he will put his hand under to helpe His left hand shall bee under us and his right hand over us to catch us hee hath promised comfort upon our sicke beds to make our bed in our sicknesse Wee need not make such an Allegorie as Ambrose doth this sweet flesh of ours the Bed of our soule it is under infirmities and weaknesses God helpeth us he makes our bed hee saith to the sicke of the Palsey Take up thy bed hee turneth our bed in our sicknesse either he sends us health so some expounds it hee turnes the bed of sicknesse into a bed of health or God turneth our bed for us in our sicknesse that is he refresheth us giveth us ease when we lie upon our sicke beds It is a Metaphor borrowed from those that attend sicke persons that helpe to make their Beds easie and soft and turne them that they may lie at ease So God hath promised his children in the painfull time of sicknesse to make their Beds easie and soft to cause them to lie at ease by the Patience that he will give them Secondly it is true Death bringeth dissolution and dissolveth the frame of nature it separateth and divorceth those two loving companions the Soule and the Body But there is comfort in this For though it divorce the Soule and the Body yet it cannot destroy the soule and the body even the body is in the hand of God when it is rotting in the earth as the Soule is translated to heaven Againe though they be separated yet it is but for a time one day they shall meet more joyfull and glorious then ever before and after that they shall never be separated againe Lastly though he separate the soule from the body and the body from the soule yet neither from Christ nor Christ from them Nay it is so farre from separating that it helpeth to unite us to Christ as I said before the dissolution of those shall bee the conjunction with him I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Thirdly it is true the horrour of the Grave attendeth Death and the putrifaction of this flesh of ours that must turne to corruptnesse it makes it terrible and fearfull But there is comfort against this For after that time of putrifaction there shall bee a time of restitution and though the wormes devoure this flesh of ours yet in that very flesh of ours wee shall see God another day These eyes shall see him There is comfort in that that when God shall come to restore us with himselfe what the Grave hath clothed with corruption he will cloath with glory these vile bodies hee will make them like the glorious body of Christ without all corruption Fourthly it is true Death depriveth us of worldly friends of worldly imployments this makes it terrible Yet there is comfort against this Though we be deprived of worldly friends it carries us to heaven to better company to Angels to the spirits of just and perfect men to God the Iudge of all to Iesus the Mediatour of the New Testament Nay besides one day hee will restore againe those very friends of which here we are deprived though wee lose them for a time in heaven wee shall meet againe and there renew a perpetuall league of societie and love So though it deprive us of worldly benefits it cannot of heaven and those are better they are not pleasures of sinne that last for a season but at the right hand of God that endure for ever So though it deprive us of worldly services it carrieth us to heaven to those that are better that are high and proper to the Church triumphant such as befit the Church to sing Hallelujahs and such as are profitable to the Church militant by the memorie of good examples and by the prayers they offer to God not in particular for they know no mans particular wants yet for the generall and common good of all Fifthly and lastly It is true the consideration of sinne and of Judgement and our uncertaine estate after death makes it terrible like the face of an Enemie Yet there is comfort against these For sinne I told you that though there bee a sting in the Serpent yet Christ hath drawne out that sting so that being a Serpent without a sting we may doe as Moses take it in our hand put it into our bosome and it will never doe us hurt to them that die in the Lord Death rather came by sinne then for sinne It is not betweene sinne and damnation but betweene sinne and salvation For judgement It is true Death presenteth judgement but it presenteth it with comfort for the day of Judgement is the day that the godly looke for and long for as the day of redemption not of confusion when they shall receive the sentence by which they shall bee absolved and not condemned For they know when God shall come to be their Judge hee shall come to be their Saviour And so for the uncertaintie of our future estate after death It is true the state of the dead in regard of naturall understanding it may be a thing
Christ shall sit on the Bench as Judge Hee shall then openly come to shew himselfe a just Iudge amongst men as before he came to be judged when he came privately he was judged of them that were unjust It was once a scorne that he the Sonne of man should bee Iudge of the world therefore God will have him come and appeare in that very forme he was scorned in that now they may behold him in his Majestie that before would not take notice of him when hee appeared in humilitie that they who the more contemptuously before esteemed him in his basenesse may now more severely tast of his justice God then is Iudge Not men Not Angels but God himselfe Had men beene our Judges we might not feare the face of men because they are vessels of the same earth as wee tooke out of the same pit hewen out of the same rocke If Angels had beene our Judges wee should not have stood in so much feare because though they be Spirits more glorious then we yet by their owne confession they are our fellow creatures and our fellow servants therefore we after a sort participate with them in some degree of nature But neither men nor Angels shall be Judges then but Almighty God that as much excelleth men and Angels as the heavens doe the earth And looke what is necessarily required to the office of a Iudge it is incomparably found in him To the office of a Iudge there are three properties specially required Knowledge to discerne Power to determine Justice to execute In God these are all of them transcendent and emminent For Knowledge he is the most wise For Power most absolute For Execution most just Knowledge to discerne that is the first He that assumeth the person of a Iudge must needs be one of wisedome and understanding Though he have the Scepter of authority in his hand if hee have not the eye of wisedome in his head if he be not able when men plead their case before him as the two Harlots before Solomon to decide to whom the right of the case belongeth as hee to whom the living child pertained he is as unfit to be a Iudge as an illiterate Ignaroe is to be a Priest The Iudges ignorance is the honest mans overthrow We commonly paint Justice blind not because he should be so that sits in Gods seat of Justice to decide Cases but only in respect of persons Blind Isaac was faine to put forth his hands to feele whether it were Esau or no that came to aske the blessing it is a hard case when Iudges have sore eyes that they cannot discerne the right Case but only by feeling But it shall not be so here God is the Iudge that is of infinite wisedome and understanding that is able to discerne right and wrong Of necessitie it must be so because he is Omniscient hee knoweth all things he hath the true understanding of them it is impossible to deceive him Earthly Iudges they sometime are blinded in the hearing of Cases that are brought before them for what their eyes see not they are not able to discerne there are not glasse windowes into the bosomes and breasts of men by which they are able to come into their hearts all the information they have is from Evidences and Witnesses the hear-sayes and reports of others where if any thing bee concealed or mistold how easily may they miscarry But Gods knowledge is not so unsound or uncertaine because he himselfe is an eare and an eye-witnesse of all things that are he knoweth whatsoever is done he beholdeth not the actions only but the very intentions he is able to judge of the thoughts and intentions of the heart It is but folly to thinke to hide any thing from him heaven is not so high but he can reach it hell is not so deepe but hee can search it the earth is not so wide but hee can span it the night is not so darke but he can see it the chamber the bed the closeâ—… is not so close but hee can pierce it Hee that sitteth upon the circle of the heavens and whose eyes are as flames of fire seeth everything Heb. 4. There is no creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open like an Anatomized body for thence the Metaphor is drawne where the bowels are laid open and every nerve and muscle and ligament every Atome discovered so that we may take a full view of it In a word if it were Davids commendation that he was wise as an Angell of God how wise must God be that infuseth wisdome into the Angels and in whose sight the Angels are foolish That is the first thing requisite in a Iudge he must have knowledge to discerne In the second place Hee must have power to execute hee must have authoritie to command and not be as an Image set against a wall for if he be so Abjects will insult over him though peradventure some may regard him because hee hath eyes to see yet others will contemne him because hee hath no hands to punish so innocencie shall be hopelesse of recompence and the wicked of their desert Againe if he have not power if hee have power only to heare and not to determine or if his power be restrained to some petty Cases and not also extended to matters of greater consequence and moment Appeales will bee made as commonly they are from inferiour Courts to the higher But it is not so here God is the Iudge who as hee is infinite in knowledge so he is in power and authority Wee stile the King Supreame head over all persons and in all causes in his Dominions but God is over all the Dominions of the earth supreame over all not only in all causes and over all persons but over all causes too even Kings are subject to his regiment Hee bindeth Kings in chaines and Nobles in fetters of Iron Psal. 149. The kings of the earth saith Saint Iohn and the rich and the great men and the great Captaines and the mighty men they shall all hide themselves in the caves and rocks and mountaines Revel 15. crying to the mountaines and rockes to cover them from the face of the Iudge and from the wrath of the Lambe because the day of desolation is come Nay God is not only over all the Kings of the earth but he is Potentate of heaven and hell too He hath a commanding power over all the Angels feare the Divels tremble when they come to stand before God In a word as Saint Paul saith all power is of God then of necessitie followeth that God himselfe in his power is most absolute That is the second thing belonging to the office of a Iudge as he must have knowledge to discerne so he must have power to execute Thirdly there must be Iustice in the Execution therefore the Grecians were wont to place Justice betweene Libra and Leo to
the Doctrine of repentance because the kingdome of God was at hand This is that upon which Saint Peter groundeth his exhortation unto the people Acts 3. 18. Repent saith he and bee converted that your sinnes may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord Therefore repent and returne unto God doe away your sinnes because there will a time of refreshing come and you had need then to be found in another hue in another state then in your old rotten withered condition and sinfull lusts This is the Argument that the Apostle used to the Athenians to bring them from Idolatrie to serve the living God because God hath appointed to judge the world in righteousnesse by that man whom he hath ordained Even for that reason because God hath appointed a time to judge the world in righteousnesse therefore they should turne from their Idols to serve the living God There is nothing that doth so unbottome the heart nothing so shakes and looseneth a mans hold of sinne and unrighteousnesse as the consideration of Christs comming to Judgement What will it boote me will the soule reason to keep my sins when Christ will come to judge me for my sins What shall I get by going on in a course of a sinne when I can looke for nothing then but a sentence of wrath to be denounced against me This then is that that doth settle a man in a holy conversation in that respect Nay fourthly this is that also which quickneth a man to the practise of all holy duties in his place both in his generall and particular Calling It is the very argument which the Apostle Saint Peter useth to stirre us up to holinesse of conversation Seeing saith he that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought wee to be in all holy conversation and godlinesse looking for the comming of the day of God wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heate As if hee should have said Looke now about the whole world and see what it is that now can comfort you if you be such as goe on in a course of sinne It may be you will say I feare not much for I have many friends Yea but all these shall die It may bee thou hast store of lands but all that shall bee burnt with fire It may be thou hast many pleasures but then there shall bee nothing but Judgement The comming of the Lord that shall then put an end to all these and turne the course of things the expectation thereof is a speciall meanes to take us off from a course of sinne and put us on to a course of obedience to make us walke in another kind of fashion while wee are in the world Therefore the Apostle Saint Paul when he would stirre up Timothy to the worke of the Ministrie what is the Argument that hee useth I charge thee before Christ who shall judge the quicke and the dead As if hee should say there shall be an appearing before the Lord and therefore if thou wilt give thy account up with joy at that day I charge thee to looke to thy Ministrie So may I say to every man in his place I charge thee that art a Master of a Familie looke to the businesse of thy Familie to the salvation of the soules of thy people I charge thee that art a Father or a Mother to looke to the salvation of the soules of thy Children I charge thee that art a Christian to looke to the salvation of thy owne soule And how is the charge I charge thee before the Lord Iesus Christ who shall judge the quicke and dead Because there shall come a time when both thou and they shall bee present before Christ at his appearing therefore if thou wilt have comfort in them and in thy selfe and in Christ be carefull to doe the dutie that concernes thy place looking for the comming of the Lord Iesus So then you see in this respect also thereis nothing so forcible an Argument to settle a man in a holy conversation in a heavenly course as this for a man alwayes to looke for the second comming of Christ. Lastly there is nothing fixeth a man so constantly in a holy course as this Our conversation saith the Apostle is alwayes in heaven Wee alwayes walke on earth as those that aspire to heaven because wee alwayes looke for the comming of Christ. Wert thou carefull to serve God yesterday doe it to day also it may be Christ may come now and take thee away by death to day and there is no preparation for judgement afterward Little children saith Saint Iohn now abide in him that when hee shall appeare wee may have confidence and not bee ashamed before him at his comming What is it that giveth a man boldnesse and takes away shame from him at the comming of Christ What is the reason that a man hath not that spirit of feare and trembling upon him that shall bee upon the hearts of all those that goe on in sinne when they shall cry to the mountaines to fall upon them but this that hee hath continued in a holy conversation and constantly walked before the Lord with an upright heart I have finished my course saith the Apostle I have fought a good fight I have kept the faith hence-forth is layd up for mee a crowne of righteousnesse which Christ the righteous Iudge shall give to mee and to all them that love his appearing Still the servants of God have incouraged themselves to persevere in a holy course from the expectation of the comming of Christ that will give them a reward for their constancie in his service It is the Argument that the holy Ghost useth to the Church of Philadelphia Rev. 3. 11. Hold fast that thou hast and let no man take thy crowne As if hee should say There is a time comming when Crownes shall bee given but to whom to those that hold out that persevere in a godly course Be thou faithfull to the death and thou shalt receive a crowne of glory This is that I say that will make a man goe on will make him that is good in youth be good in age also because whensoever he dieth he shall receive his Crowne This will make a man that he shall not begin in the spirit and end in the flesh this will make him that having put his hand to the plough hee will not looke backe because hee no further lookes for comfort in the appearance of Christ then hee hath had care to walke on constantly in a good course Thus you see the point proved to you that a Christian soule hath a maine benefit by his looking for the second comming of Christ and that this is it that makes him carefull to mortifie his secret lusts that this is it that makes him carefull to purge himselfe from worldly affections that
us in this life and crowne us in the life to come Hee that can truly say that while he lived hee lived to God not to himselfe that he sincerely propounded the glory of God and the good of others unto himselfe this man may write upon his Tombe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have lived take this out of the life of man and what is it but a meere death if not worse though it bee protracted to the yeares of Methusalem twice told Thus simply to defire death is not good but cloathe this with some circumstances and then to desire death is not onely warrantable but commendable when we have done all the good we can when our lives will be no more serviceable to Church or Common-wealth when we have with all fidelitie done our Masters worke when we have the testimonie of a good conscience that wee have fought a good fight that wee have kept the faith that wee have finished our race then may we say with old Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace then may we with our Apostle lift up our eyes to the crowne of righteousnesse which the righteous Iudge hath laid up for them that feare him then we may expect the Euge of the good servant Well done good and faithfull servant enter into the joy of the Master Againe when we are called to be Holocausts or sacrifices oblations of sweet savours the Frankincense of the Church to perfume others to deliver up our lives unto God to seale his Truth with our bloud to encourage others then we ought to runne unto death with all alacritie rejoycing that wee are counted worthie to suffer for his Name to triumph to boast in this out of these cases to have such a taste of God such a rellish of the joyes of heaven such a longing after the presence of Christ as not to be ready but to be willing not to be prepared for the stroake of death but to be desirous of it to esteeme of death as the funerall of sinne the interring of vice the period of miseries the Charter of freedome the Pattent of of exemption from evill of sinne from evill of punishment the day of our birth the season of harvest the seale of our victorie the haven of our happinesse our introduction into heaven our inauguration into a kingdome the Chariot of our triumph the day of our returne to our proper house to our Parents to our best friends This is the affection which is required in us at which we ought to ayme Let this house of clay be resolved into the principles of the same what wonder if that which is built be throwne downe and that which is compounded be resolved and that which was borrowed of the Elements bee repayed againe and that which was taken from the earth be committed to the custodie of the earth Nay let me triumph in the resolution of this peece of clay into the exilest atome and admire the counsell of God that this Carkasse is crumbled into the smallest dust and sifted into the coursest branne even to dust and ashes Were not this body resolved into dust who would beleeve his originall to be from the earth what pride what elevation would follow what carking and caring for this earthly Tabernacle if now when we see it to be but a spawne of wormes and the food of Emmits there is such immoderate excesse what would there be if the body were exempted from putrifaction what desolations would follow in Cities in Townes how many would dwell in monuments with those whom they have honoured or affected in their lives if many be now so impotent that though the body bee putrified they cannot forbeare imbracing of it and to solace themselves make Pictures of their dead friends and dote upon these what would they not doe if their bodyes were immortall What neglect would there be of the soule the better part of a man who would know the vertue of it that it is not onely salt to the body to keepe it sweet but the life the beauty the comlinesse of the body Who would beleeve the consummation the period of the world if our bodyes were immortall who would mind heavenly things who seeke those things that are above what deifying of the body would follow what Idolatries what superstitions what Temples built what Altars erected what varietie of Ceremonies instituted to the body All which God hath pluckt up by the rootes by this putrifaction and incinneration of our bodyes by this teaching us to contemne earthly things to have our cogitations on heaven to thinke upon this scale to ascend up to this Mount to aspire to this intention which that we may let me adde fuell to the fire and oyle unto the flame the expression of this affection to the intention of it earnest groaning to eager desiring In this wee groane earnestly That is for this wee sigh out not our breath but our spirits we groane out not fuliginous vapours but our very hearts we weepe not teares but bloud for this wee immolate the sufferings of our bodyes and macerate them with watchings and fastings we roule them in dust and ashes we exercise them in all humiliation and repentance And this is to groane earnestly in my Text. This is the negotiation of the outward man whereby it trades for heaven this is the conversion of a peece of clay into a pile of frankincense this addes wings unto our Prayers this openeth the eares of God this dissipateth the cloudes of his countenance this inclineth him to clemencie towards us this maketh the Widow continent and the Virgin unspotted this lifts up the voluntarie Eunuch to the kingdome of heaven this perfects the grace that is in the soule this washeth away the staines and contaminations that are in the soule this is the beautie and comelinesse of a Christian. How lovely were the Ninivites how glorious was the King in sackcloth sitting in his throne of dust and ashes what were his Robes of Majestie and Royaltie to these ornaments they might dazle the eyes of the body for a time these dazle the eyes of the mind even at this day after so many hundred yeares they might procure him honour with men these made him honoured by God himselfe Letcorporall eyes looke upon an abject and meane apparance of a King in these weedes yet doe not spirituall eyes see through these garments Humilitie Patience submission feare of God and the like and are there any Jewels like unto these what are those garments which are the labour of a worme to these robes that are the worke of Gods Spirit What is a chaine of Pearle to a chaine of warme and successive teares beaten out of the rocks of a broken and contrite heart they may adorne the body this adornes the soule and which is more bindes the hands of God himselfe Let whose will admire the victories and triumphs of David over the enemies of Israel which are indeed worthy of admiration I admire him
living after their owne lusts saying Where is the promise of his comming You preach so much that Christ Jesus is comming to Judgement and to call every one of us to account for our wayes our words and actions but where is the promise of his comming for all things continue alike from the beginning of the Creation Miserable men that would be perswaded that the day of Judgement should never come because it was deferred but such jesting and mocking and scoffing at this great and terrible day heretofore used and indeed now practised in the whole progenie of unbeleevers it may be an argument to us that it shall not be deferred for so saith Saint Paul 1 Thes. 5. 3. when they shall say peace peace and safetie then destruction shall come on them as travell on a woman with child and they shall not escape But Saint Peter answers these scoffers that asked Where is the promise of his comming hee gives them two answers The one in verse 8. the other verse 9. In the eighth verse he saith Christ deferres not long to come to judgement for saith he one day with the Lord is as a thousand yeares c. alluding to Psal. 90. 4. A thousand yeares in thy sight are but as yesterday since they passe as a watch in the night As if he should say were it possible for a man to live a thousand yeares yet those thousand yeares in respect of God assoone as they are past they are as one day in respect of men nay they are but as a watch of the night that is but as three houres The old Jewes they divided the night into foure Watches and appointed to each Watch three houres as may appeare by comparing of these places of Scripture together Mat. 14. 24. Num. 14. 25. Luke 12. 38. So then the words beare this exposition that a thousand yeares in respect of God are but as one day nay but as a Watch of the night that is but as three houres It doth plainly shew to us that Saint Peter meant not to speake distinctly of a thousand yeares but of a long time so that his meaning is innumerable yeares in respect of God are but as one day Saint Peter might as well have said 2000. or 3000. or 10000. thousand yeares in respect of God are but as one day Thus you have his first answer to those scoffers that said Where is the promise of his comming His second answer is in the ninth verse where the Apostle saith The Lord is not slacke concerning his promise Where is the promise of his comming Why saith the Apostle The Lord is not slacke as we account slacknesse For we account them slacke that goe slowly about a worke but God is not so to bee accounted slacke but saith the Apostle Hee is patient towards us and would have none perish but come to repentance Then the slacknesse of Christs comming is his patience because he would give us time to repent and have us prepared before hee come O then beloved let us not make a mocke as others doe of this patience but while we have time let us take time that when he comes we may be worthy of him Thus you have the first heresie confuted The second was quite contrarie to this set abroach by certaine false teachers who taught the Thessalonians that the day of Judgement was so neere that it should happen in their age Where by the way you may take notice of the exceeding great subtiltie of the Divell that labours by all meanes possible to bring men to one of these extreames Either that the day of Judgement shall never come or it shall come in such a limited time and age And indeed it is ranked among the opinions of some that held that the day of judgement should be just 6000. yeares after the Creation 2000. before the Law 2000. under the Law and 2000. under the Gospell But Saint Paul answers these false teachers among the Thessalonians and all of the like opinion therefore to arme them against their assaults he bids them for a certainetie beleeve it 2 Thessal 2. that the day of judgement was not at hand And hee gives the reason verse 3. For saith he that day shall not come except there be a departing first and that man of sinne the sonne of perdition bee revealed But how is it that the Apostle tells the Thessalonians that the day of Judgement was not at hand seeing it is plaine in the places before recited that the end of the world was at hand and that now was the last times and Heb. 9. 26. Christ appeared in the end of the world It was in the end of the world that Christ appeared to sacrifice himselfe for our sinnes how is it then that he tells the Thessalonians here that the day of the Lord is not at hand Master Calvin saith the answer is easie for saith he in respect of God it was at hand but as for us we must be continually waiting for it But Master Beza and Rollock give another Exposition which I take to be more naturall to the place for say they in all those places where it seemes to be avouched that the day of the Lord is at hand they understand the word in the Originall to signifie generally a time drawing neere As to say the day of Judgement may be this day as well as to morrow and to morrow as well as this day and many dayes hence as well as now But in that place where he saith it is not at hand they understand the word precisely to be meant of a precise time so the Apostle speakes truly the day of Judgement is not at hand so as that any man can say it shall bee this day or this moneth or this houre or this yeare or this age This is no more but the doctrine of Christ Of that day and houre no man knoweth no not the Angels in heaven no not Christ himselfe as man but the Father only So you see it is plaine and evident that the day of Judgement is at hand but in what precise limits of time or age it shall happen it is uncertaine Our Saviour Christ tells his Apostles Act. 1. 7. It is not for you to know the times and seasons that the Father hath put into his own hands It is not for you to know these times Then beloved why should we have an eare to heare where God hath not a tongue to speake Let it suffice us to know that it is at hand which if wee make good use of it will make us warie and watchfull and vigilant over all our wayes that we say not with the evill servant Our Master deferres his comming let us eate and drinke and beat our fellow servants but betake our selves to the good servants dutie to watch Watch we therefore wee know not the day and houre when the Sonne of man commeth But when he commeth and findes us doing well dealing
faithfully and living holily happy nay thrice happie shall we be we shall bee sure to partake of the blessing of those upon mount Gerrazim we need not feare the curse of those upon Mount Eball Wee need not bee afraid of the Thundering and lightning on Sinai nor the fire and tempest nor smoake of the furnace nor of the sound of the Trumpet for all our joy shall be in Sion But when he comes if he find us living wickedly dealing unfaithfully cursed nay thrice cursed we be we are sure to partake of mourning for joy of ashes for beautie of a rent for a girdle whatsoever becomes of our garments assuredly our hearts shall be rent in sunder Watch wee therefore wee know not the day and houre when the Sonne of man will come In the second place that the children of God may bee armed and prepared for his comming hee hath set downe in his Word certaine signes which being effected and come to passe they may easily judge that then the day of redemption draweth nigh Now these signes are of three sorts Some are in respect of us a long time before he comes to judgement A second sort are immediatly before his comming The third in his comming The signes that prognosticate his comming long before are these First of all the preaching of the Gospell to the whole world which is set downe by Christ Mat. 24. 14. The Gospell of the kingdome shall bee preached to the whole world for a testimonie to all Nations then shall the end bee Which words of our Saviour Christ we are not so to understand as that the Gospell should be preached to the whole world at any one time for that never was nor I thinke never will be but if we so understand it that the Gospell shall be preached to all Nations successively and at severall times then if wee consider the times since the Apostles wee shall find that the sound of the Gospell hath gone out to all the Nations of the world as it was spoken by the Prophet so that this first signe is already past the end cannot be farre The second signe is the revealing of Antichrist saith the Apostle 2 Thessal 2. 3. That day shall not come except there bee a departing and that man of sinne the sonne of perdition which is Antichrist bee revealed Concerning this signe in the yeare of our Lord 602. after Christ S. Gregorie seemeth to avouch that whosoever taketh the name of universall Bishop and Pastor of the Church that was Antichrist Five yeares after Boniface succeeding him by Phocas the Emperour had the title of Universall Bishop of the Church and ever since all their successours have taken that name so that it is evident that at Rome hath beene and now is the Antichrist so that the second signe being fulfilled the end cannot be farre The third is the generall departure of the most from the Faith There hath beene a generall departure in former times when Arrius spread his heresies almost all the whole world became an Arian and for the space of 500 yeares together from the time of Boniface the world was so infected with Popish heresies that the faith of Christ could scarsely be discerned they were as a handfull of wheate to a great deale of chaffe so that this signe it is already fulfilled in part but there shall alway be a falling away and a departing from the faith till Christ come to judgement The fourth signe stands in exceeding great corruption in the manners of men And the Apostle makes this a signe of Christs last comming to judgement 2 Tim. 3. This know that in the last dayes perillous times shall come men shall be lovers of themselves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unholy without naturall affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good traitours headie high-minded lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God The Apostle makes this a signe and marke that shall bee in the last dayes Beloved if ever this were fulfilled it is fulfilled in these dayes of ours for there is a generall corruption in the manners of men It is very hard to find those that in all truth and sinceritie labour to discharge a good conscience towards God and men And Christ hath said himselfe that when hee comes to judgement hee shall scarse find faith on earth such a generall corruption there shall bee in the manners of men so that this fourth signe being already past the end cannot be farre The fift signe is exceeding great persecution and affliction of the Church and the Saints of God This hath beene fulfilled in former times You know there were ten fearfull persecutions in the Primitive Church And so it is fulfilled even in these dayes of ours for the Whore of Babylon that spotted beast shee laboureth to make her selfe drunke with the bloud of Gods Saints There are but few yeares nay moneths or weeks wherein some of the bloud of Gods Saints is not sacrificed to appease the wrath of the Persecutors Then if in these dayes this signe be fulfilled the end cannot be farre The sixt is a generall securitie so that men will not be moved neither with the preaching of the word of God nor yet with judgements from heaven they have such exceeding dulnesse and deadnesse of heart that neither of these will move them For the former you know God hath sent many judgements amongst us we have had fire and famine and pestilence and invasion of forreine enemies inundation of waters thunder and lightning from heaven but all these will not worke upon our hearts The Lord he hath scourged us oft but yet we set light by his corrections we harden our hearts against all his judgements our hearts will not be softned and molified what effect hath all these wrought where is our humiliation our repentance and reformation And for the preaching of the word of God alas that can get no entrance at all mens hearts are so crustie and so hardened that the seed of Gods word it lies uncovered it takes no roote at all in the heart it workes no reformation at all so that if ever this signe were fulfilled it is in these dayes It shall be saith Christ speaking of the generall securitie that shall bee when hee comes to judgement as in the dayes of Noah and of Lot they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage till the fire came from heaven and burned them and the water over-flowed the world so that this sixt signe being past the end cannot be farre The seventh and last signe of Christs comming to Judgement is the calling of the Jewes which the Apostle Rom. 11. 25. calls the fulfilling of the Gentiles When God hath the number of his Elect among the Gentiles then the Jewes shall bee called againe but of the time and the manner and number the word of God doth not reveale it so that it is
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 griefe and sorrow or miserie 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 yeares 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 be some comfort that at last they should have an end but this word never it breakes the heart that after they have continued there so many thousand yeares and millions of ages they are as farre from the end of their torment as at the first Secondly we might note here againe the extremitie and strictnesse of those torments the straitnesse of them there is no mercy shewed Take him and bind him hand and foot and cast him into utter darknesse And againe the gate is shut after the sinner is once cast into hell there is no getting out againe the gate is shut The straitnesse of these torments may bee exceedingly layd downe to us in the Parable of the rich glutton who in hell roaring in everlasting flames lift up his eyes and saw Abraham a-farre off and Lazarus in his bosome hee desired Abraham to send Lazarus but to dippe the toppe of his finger in water to coole his tongue a small request hee askes not to bee delivered from his torments or for a flaggon of water but for a droppe yet to see the strictnesse 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 soares and hungrie yet hee refused to refresh him with crummes from his table see the just judgement of God against the mercilesse wretch Dives refused to give a crumme when he asked he is denied one drop So that as Saint Iames speakes Iam. 2. there shall be judgement mercilesse to them that yeeld no mercie Beloved all you that have the wealth of the world remember this example when the poore distressed members of Christ come to your gates shutte not up the bowels of compassion open your hands and your hearts to relieve them for as I said before there shall bee judgement mercilesse to those that shew no mercie But I come to the last thing that I will but only name that is the reward of the godly that everlasting eternall felicitie in heaven The time will not suffer mee to speake largely and particularly of the reward of the godly which is a great incouragement and comfortable to the servants of God I will only speake in generall The Prophets when they speake of the Kingdome of Christ they set it out by good things there is no need of their good things Nation shall not rise against Nation they shall breake their speares into mattocks The wolfe shall dwell with the lambe and the Leopard with the Kidde They shall eate of the tree of life and the hidden Manna there They shall bee made pillers in the Temple of God There they shall be cloathed with long whiterobes Which places take us by the hand and bring us to some conceit of those joyes How then doth it stand every one upon now while wee have time to labour to have interest in those joyes Thrice happy is that man or woman that comes to enjoy those joyes It is spoken of Christ that hee the joyes of heaven being set before him hee susteined the crosse Saint Paul accounted all but dung that hee might winne Christ and come to those joyes And Ignatius saith that breaking of bones fire and gallowes quartering of limbes come what will so I may come to those joyes I would wee had all the like zeale after those joyes Our coldnesse in seeking those joyes come from a base esteeme of them for if wee did esteeme them wee would labour exceedingly after them Many things for use might be inferred hence As first here is comfort and incouragement to all the Saints of God the servants of Christ that take paines to live a godly life However here they indure afflictions and mockings and reproaches and scoffes of the world yet Christ hath a great reward for them Let them rejoyce great shall their reward be Give me a man then that hath buckled with the sinnes of the times that hath studied the advancement of Religion give mee such a one as hath incouraged those that are feeble that hath provided for the Lords Prophets that hath reformed the abuses of the Lords day as Nehemiah what will inflame his zeale more then this that Christ his Saviour sees it and regards it and will reward him And lest hee should faint before the reward come he saith he will come shortly This comforted Elias in the Wildernesse and Ieremiah in the Dungeon and Iob on the Dunghill so that they were more then conquerours through Christ. Secondly is it so that Christ will come to Judgement and hath his reward with him here is terrour to all the wicked workers of iniquitie Behold saith Malachie Mal. 4. 1. The day of the Lord commeth it shall burne as an oven and all the wicked and ungodly of the earth shall bee as stubble and straw and fuell for the furnace of Gods wrath What a wofull and heavie day will this be to all the wicked and ungodly Me thinkes they might conceive the terrour and they shall crie out at the last day when hee shall come to reward them is not this he whose lawes wee have contemned whose sides wee have pierced whom wee have nayled to the Crosse whose Ministers wee haue reviled whose servants wee have reproached And this shall strike great terrour to the hearts of all wicked men when Christ shall pronounce against them Goe yee cursed Whither to the divell and his place of torments Then they shall crie to the mountaines to fall on them Oh that some wilde beast would follow them and teare them in peeces but it will be too late their part and portion is in that Lake that burnes with fire and brimstone Lastly this should stirre every one up to fit himselfe to prepare for this judgement And let us continually therefore lift up our hearts to heaven and as the Apostle speakes waite for the appearing of Christ to Judgement Then all teares shall bee wiped from our eyes there shall bee no more sorrow and mourning there we shall sit with the Saints and sing with the Angels Halelujah halelujah all praise and honour and glorie and might and dominion and majestie bee to him that is upon
free gift of God And in Rom. 8. hee saith that the sufferings of this life is not worthy of the glory that shall bee revealed all our sufferings all our workes they are not worthy of the glory of God we cannot properly merit them This was the constant Doctrine of the primitive Church that a good life when wee are justified and an eternall life when wee are glorified they all grant that all that is good in us is the gift of God that eternall life is not a retribution to our workes but the free gift of God When God crownes our merits hee crownes nothing else but his owne free gift these and many other sentences wee finde among the ancient Fathers plainely convincing our adversaries that in this point they swerve not onely from Scripture but from all sound antiquitie Secondly then to come to our selves this should humble us in respect of our owne deservings doe all the good thou canst take heede it doe not puffe thee up thinke not to merit heaven Alas thou canst not doe it for what is it to the Almightie as it is sayd in Job that thou art righteous Thy well doing extends not to him thou canst doe him no good therefore thou canst looke for nothing at his hands since thou canst doe him no good but all that thou doest in his service it is not for his but for thy good yet he commands thee and thou art bound to doe it but all thou canst doe is no more then thou art bound to doe Therefore when thou hast done all that thou canst acknowledge thy selfe to bee an unprofitable servant and thou hast done no more then thy duty If thou hast many good workes yet thou hast more sinne and the least sinne of thine in the rigour of justice will deprive thee of thy interest in God Therefore thy appeale must bee to the throne of grace and thy onely plea must bee that of the Publican every one of us God be mercifull to me a sinner when wee have done all wee can it must be mercie and not any merit of ours that must bring us to heaven Thirdly here is comfort for the children of God in that this inestimable treasure of eternall life is not committed to our keeping but God hath it in his keeping It is his gift it is not committed to the rotten box of our merits then wee could have no certaintie of it the devill would easily pick the Locke yea without picking he would shake in peeces the crazie joynts of the best worke wee doe he would steale it from us and take it away and deprive us of this excellent benefit but the Lord hath dealt better for us hee hath kept it in his owne hands hee hath layd it up in the Cabinet of his owne mercy and love that never failes for with everlasting mercie hee hath compassion on us Esay 54. hee loves us with an everlasting love It is his mercie that wee are not consumed because his compassions faile not and whom hee loves he loves to the end It is layd up in the mercy of God hee will have it his gift least we should keepe it and it should be lost hee hath reserved it in his owne hands Therefore in temptations when they drive us to doubt of our attaining of eternall life let us cast our eye upon the keeper of it it is the Lord he is warie to discerne and faithfull to bestow it therefore let us comfort our selves and say every one of us as Saint Paul 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have trusted and I am perswaded that hee is able to keepe that which I have committed to him against that day Lastly seeing eternall life is the free gift of God it must make us thankefull to him for it which wee should never doe if we deserved it doth a master thanke his servant for doing his dutie So if wee did thinke heaven were our due we should never be thankfull for it Pride is a great enemy to thankefulnesse therefore the way is to humble our selves and to consider that wee deserve no good thing at Gods hands then wee will take this great benefit at Gods hands most thankefully Especially when wee consider it is all that God requires of us as he saith Psal. 50. Call upon me in the day of trouble I will heare thee and deliver thee and what shalt thou doe Thou shalt glorifie me Glorifying God and being thankefull to him is all the tribute wee are to pay to this our royall Lord and shall we deny him this It is a small benefit that is not worth thankes We set eternall life at too low a rate if wee forget to bee thankefull There was never a precious Iewell afforded so cheape as eternall life for our thankefulnesse If wee did know what it were to want it we would give ten thousand worlds rather then be without it Therefore as Naamans servants sayd to him concerning his washing in Iordan If the Prophet had commanded thee a greater thing wouldest thou not have done it So if God had commanded us a great matter for eternall life wee should have done it how much more when he saith take it and be thankfull be but thankefull Thus I have described to you this twofold seruice the wages of sinne that is death temporall eternall The service of righteousnesse the wages and reward of that eternall life which is not wages but the gift of God So that I may now say to you as Moses did to Israel Deut. 30. 19. Behold I have set before you life and death cursing and blessing Therefore choose not cursing chuse not sinne nor the wages thereof it is death but choose life that you and your seede may live If wee follow sinne the wages will be death if wee apply our selves to righteousnesse in the service of God our reward shall be eternall life not that wee deserve it but that it is the pleasure of our heavenly Father to bestow it upon us For the wages of sinne is death and the gift of God is eternall life through Iesus Christ our Lord. FINIS THE PROFIT OF AFFLICTIONS OR GODS AYME IN HIS CORRECTIONS PSAL. 119. 71. It is good for me that I have beene afflicted that I might learne thy Statutes ISA. 27. 9. By this therefore shall the iniquitie of Iacob be purged and this is all the fruite to take away his sinne LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. THE PROFIT OF AFFLICTIONS OR GODS AYME IN HIS CORRECTIONS SERMON XXX HEB. 12. 10. For they verely for a few dayes chastened us after their owne pleasure but Hee for our profit that we might bee partakers of his holinesse THere are two things among many others eminently in Jesus Christ which declare him to be an all-sufficient Saviour of his people and these the Scripture frequently setteth forth unto us in a most sweet conjunction Righteousnesse and strength So the Prophet Surely shall one
must be restored God is the Lord of life and whether we are willing or not when he calls the comfort and we must part and in this respect a man who wants a lively faith may acquit himselfe in a triall when hee sees that floods of teares will not help him specially when he sees it is past recovery he resignes up a comfort when he can keepe it no longer hee will part with a blessing when hee cannot avoid iâ—… But then there is a pious acquitting of our selves when God calls for a comfort backe the hand of Faith presents the comfort to God againe when God calls for Isaac Abraham presently resignes up his beloved Sonne againe upon this ground God is the Lord who gave him and now the Lord calls for him backe againe I and the Lord shall have him thus Faith acquits the soule in great triall and joynes with God against all our owne contentments to set downe with much patience in great losses to submit to Gods call and Gods appointment Now the reasons why Faith can acquit a man in great trialls may be these First Faith can exalt Gods will above all and submit our wills to Gods will remember this God is the Authour of mercy when he will he gives us and when hee pleaseth hee takes it away againe It is well to have abundance saith nature and sence we cannot be without it no saith Faith I will yeeld to Gods will it is good to enjoy this saith Sence it is better to part with it saith Faith when God calls for it Secondly Faith can give God the glory of all outward comforts this is a great occasion of stilling our soules to find out the right owner of ourcomforts if a man did once discerne that by faith that God is the Authour of all comfort and that all mercyes come from God this would make us submit in the day of triall this is certaine God is the God of our bodyes and of our soules and of our comforts who hath more right to possession then the owner all our comforts are but Gods servants God is the great Land-Lord of heaven and earth the God of all our possessions what if hee be pleased to gather a flower wee are but tenantsat will and whatsoever our outward estate is Faith overlookes all and submits all to God and receives it by Gods permission and doth as it were heare the Lord say I must doe what I will with mine owne Faith makes a man say nothing is mine owne my Child is not mine owne my Wife is not mine owne it is Gods possession when God calls for it Faith resignes it up as Gods due faith renders unto God the things that are Gods Thirdly Faith can make the soule acquit it selfe in great trials because faith findes no losse by obedienciall submission for all our unwillingnesse to resigne up and to part with any comfort it doth arise from infidelitie or from the stubbornnesse that is in a person when a man haves and holds his comfort contrary to Gods will or else it doth arise from a conceit that some dammage will redound to our selves in parting with such a blessing but faith sees safety enough to yeeld up all into Gods hands who is the Father of mercy and God of all consolation Thus we see Abraham being put to it about his only sonne he gives up his child his Isaac and God bestowes Isaac upon Abraham againe nay a further degree of blessing confirmed with an oath In blessing I will blesse thee and in multiplying I will multiply thee and will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven This is ever true faith makes a man give back a blessing with this conclusion either God will continue the comfort to a person or else he wil give him more or a better for it Fourthly a fourth reason why Faith can make a man acquit himselfe in great trialls because Faith can find all losses made up in God alone Faith can find God as a most ample and universall good Faith doth looke upon God as a particular good and such a good that answers all againe that abundantly makes up all losses There be many broken peeces of comfort that must concurre to make up our outward good for our good here below is a compounded good the Wife is a part that makes up our good below and our children are a part that makes up our good below and our health and our riches and our friends many of these concurre together to make up our good below but God is all this in himselfe and much more whatsoever good whatsoever comforts are in a Child a Wife a Husband or in friends in riches in health all that is in God and much more to faith what is that thou seest in a Husband or in a Wife or in a Child that thou mayest not see in God What is that thou findest in a friend that thou mayest not findin God and what is there in riches that thou mayest not have much more in God the Husband can doe thee no good without God who can doe thee so much good as God the Husband can comfort thee who can comfort thee so much as God a friend may counsell thee and direct thee but hee cannot deliver thee Faith sees more in God then in riches more in God then in all outward blessings bring all the outward comforts together they cannot make up a Christians comfort Faith is never satisfied with these things it is not a Child alone nor a Husband alone nor a Wife alone nor a friend alone that makes up a Christians comfort but God alone can doe it whatsoever is in any outward comfort Faith findes it much more in God God and his favour God and his gracious countenance these make up a Christians comfort this alone supports the Christian and in the want of all things Faith can comfort it selfe in the favour of God in the losse of all things Faith can find all againe in the favour of God This is a fourth reason why Faith makes a man acquit himselfe in great Tryalls A fift reason why Faith makes a man acquit himselfe in great troubles because Faith knowes upon what tearmes wee possesse all these outward comforts upon what small grounds wee possesse them upon moveable and changeable titles Faith lookes upon all these things as upon things that hee must part from we have here no abiding Citie our place and bâ—…ing here is but for a short time and remember this God never bestoweth any comfort upon thee or mee with an assurance of an immortall possession all the assurance that he hath given thee is nothing all the creature is but vanity it is of a shifting nature and therefore it is said of riches that they doe take to themselves wings they skippe away honour is soone gone riches are soone gone the life of man is soone gone the life of man is but a breath a vapour which is presently consumed
your selves with these things And particularly concerning the Female sex because the Apostle here applieth it to them and saith of them as well as of men that they are heires Co-heires of the same inheritance this therefore is to be applied to them for when the Apostle makes distinction of outward conditions in Gal. 3. 28. hee putteth in this Male and Female and of these and those hee saith all are one in Christ no difference for the Female at first were made after the same Image that the Male were Hee made them Male and Female in his owne Image Gen. 1. 27. Both sorts have the same Saviour and are Redeemed by the same price A woman said My soule rejoyceth in God my Saviour they are both sanctified by the same Spirit the Apostle saith that when an unbeleeving Husband is knit to a beleeving Wife the husband is sanctified by the wife as well as in the other case the Wife is sanctified by the Husband And this my brethren giveth a checke to the undue the unjust censure that many doe give to this weaker vessell that this Sex is as it were the imperfection of nature and I know not what I will not stand upon it as most unworthy the confutation But for the Sex it selfe it is a particular consolation against that matter of griefe which it might conceive through Eves first sinne not onely in sinning her selfe but in taking Sathans part to tempt her Husband whereupon followed subjection to the Man and likewise paine in travell and bringing forth of children But notwithstanding saith the Apostle of that Sex they shall bee saved if they continue in faith and charitie and holinesse with sobrietie So that you see they have a right too And the truth is that God hath graciously dealt with them in making them the meanes of bringing forth the principall ground of this right of the one and of the other which is the Lord of life the Saviour of the world who was borne of a Woman Now this Sex is to comfort themselves in this that notwithstanding there bee some differences in outward condition yet they are made partakers of the greatest and best priviledge alike joynt heires of the grace of God I find but two things that in Scripture are exempted from that Sex two priviledges one to have jurisdiction over the Husband another publikely to teach in the Church of God But yet notwithstanding marke a kind of recompence made for this The former is but particular betweene Husband and Wife but in lieu thereof a Woman may reigne over many men yea over Nations Queenes shall bee thy nursing mothers saith the Prophet Isaiah to the Church And for the later to recompence that they may bee and have beene endued with the gift of prophesie so that wee see how God doth every manner of way incourage them One word more concerning men and so I will conclude this point Namely admonition to them answerably to respect the other Sex as those that are Co-heires with them and therefore while they live according to their places according to their gifts according to the bond of relation that is betweene them to respect them and to shew the same when they are dead by a decent comely Funerall and maintaining their credit and giving of them their due praises Thus much for the Text. And now my brethren give mee leave I beseech you to steppe a little further and to speake a word concerning this object before mee Howsoever I am not over-forward at any time to speake much on such occasions yet at this time I suppose I should doe much wrong to the partie in concealing those things that are meete to be made knowne to the honour of that God who bestowed those excellent endowments upon her and also injurie to those that knew her I doe not feare to be accounted a flatterer by any that heare mee and if any else shall imagine any such thing it may it must needs bee their envie in that they censure what they know not My feare is lest those that did know her should thinke that wrong is done to her by that little that shall be spoken for enough cannot be spoken of her You see here a blacke Herse before you a body in it deprived of life and within these few dayes animated by a divine soule now as we have just cause to beleeve glorified in heaven The body of Mistris I. R. in regard of Mariage being the Daughter of Master I. B. a Gentleman in C. It seemed that as God endowed her with excellent parts every way so shee had good education Shee was married to Master I. R. a grave prudent man that lived in the fore-named place who had beene twice Major there and long continued Alderman still relyed upon when any matter of employment was to bee performed and therefore oft chosen to be a Burgesse of the Parliament out of that Corporation In the beginning of her mariage shee attending to the Word as Lydia did God was pleased to open her heart and that specially under the Ministrie of a reverend Pastour now some yeares with God faithfull painfull powerfull in his place while he lived who yet liveth in the many workes hee published in his life time I say by his Ministrie being wrought upon she wonderfully improved the grace that was so wrought in her and used all meanes for the growth thereof by continuall applying her selfe to the publike ministrie of the Word conscionably on the Lords day frequently also on other dayes both in that Citie and in this also whither she came oftentimes upon sundrie imployments both while her Husband lived and likewise since she hath beene a Widow which hath beene about the space of five yeares Now I say as shee did thus helpe on the growth of grace by this publike meanes so also by private diligently reading the Word not contenting her selfe with a coursorie reading it over by taske as some doe but shee had a Paper booke by her and in reading would note downe particular points note speciall duties that belonged to such and such persons to Magistrates to Ministers to Husbands to Wives to Masters to servants Generall duties that belonged to Christians as they were Christians and that in such a manner as if so bee they had beene the Common places of some young Divine And here by the way let me tell you what my selfe have seene of an Alderman of this Citie some while dead who left behind him Volumes of bookes written with his owne hand his manner was first he would reade and after that he would walke up and downe and meditate upon what he read and write downe the summe and particulars of it as he conceived by which meanes hee made himselfe excellently skilfull as in Divine so in humane learning Thus did this grave Matron hereby she came to much knowledge shee gathered also many signes whereby she had evidence of the truth of grace and
the Holiest and dearest servants of God are exercised with and divers of these doe make them many times mourne exceedingly and to cry one while O wretched man that I am and to groane out another while Woe is mee that I am constrained to live in Mesech and to have my habitation in the tents of Kedar of all these miseries Death is the end to Gods servants And so also it is an entrance into happinesse for albeit their bodyes rot in the Grave and bee laid up in the Earth as in Gods store-house untill the last day yet the soule forthwith even in an instant comes into the presence of the ever-living God of Christ and of all the Angels and Saints in Heaven the spirits of just men made perfect to Abrahams bosome to bee with Christ quanta haec felicitas What greater happinesse It was much that Moses obtained to see the back-parts of God but how much greater favour is it to see him face to face to have eternall fellowship with God the Father with Christ the Redeemer with the Holy Ghost the sanctifier The knowledge of this benefit of Death makes the face of it comfortable to Gods servants and causes them to strive with their owne naturall weaknesse that so they may even long for their day of dissolution But now against this point divers Objections may be alledged For first the Apostle Paul sayes that Death is the wages of sinne And else-where hee stiles it Christs enemie the last enemie that hee shall subdue is Death How should not death then be rather a day of misery to bee trembled at then a day of happinesse to bee longed for To this I answer that wee are to distinguish touching Death for it must be considered two wayes First as it is in its owne nature Secondly as it is altered by Christ in the first sence it is true that Death is the wages of sinne and the very suburbs and the gates of hell But in the second taking of Death it ceases to be a plague and becomes a blessing inasmuch as it is even a doore opening out of this world into Heaven Now the godly looke not upon Death simply but upon Death whose sting and venome is plucked out by Jesus Christ and so it is exceeding comfortable But then secondly it is objected that wee reade of many that have prayed against death as namely first David Returne O Lord saith he and deliver my soule oh spare mee for thy mercyes sake for in death there is no remembrance of thee Secondly Hezekiah when the message of death was brought to him Thirdly Christ himselfe Father if it bee possible let this cup passe from me To all these I answer first touching Daâ—…d that when he composed that sixt Psalme hee was not only gâ—…vously sicke but also exceedingly tormented in mind for he wrestled and combatted in his conscience with the wrath of God as appeares by the first Verse of that Psalme therefore wee must know that hee prayed not simply against Death but against death at that time in asmuch as the comming of it was accompanied with extraordinary apprehensions of Gods wrath for at another time hee tells us that hee would not feare though hee walked through the valley of the shadow of Death And the like I say touching Hezekiah that his prayer proceeded not from any desperate feare of Death but first that he might doe more service to God in his Kingdome And with such a kind of thought was Saint Pauls desire of dissolution mingled Secondly hee prayed against Death then because he knew that his death then would be a great cause of rejoycing to evill men to whom his reformation in the State was unpleasâ—…ng Thirdly because hee wanted issue God had promised before to David that there should not faile a man of his seed to sit upon the throne of Israel so that his children did take heed 〈◊〉 their wayes Now it was a great discomfort to him to die childlesse for then he and others might have thought that he was but an Hypocrite inasmuch as God had promised issue to all those Kings that feared him and for this cause God heard his prayer and after two yeares gave him a sonne Maâ—…asseh by name And so I say the same touching our Saviour Christ that hee prayed not against Death as it is the separation betwixt Body and Soule as appeares by what the Apostle saith that hee was heard in that hee feared for hee stood in our roome and became a Curse for us it was the Curse of the Law which went with Death and the unspeakable wrath and indignation of God which hee feared and from this according to his prayer he was delivered But thirdly wee see in most good men a feare of Death and a desire of life and I my selfe may some godly man say doe feele my selfe ready to tremble at the meditation thereof and yet I hope I belong unto God I answer that there are two things to bee considered in every Christian Flesh and Spirit Corruption and Grace and the best have many inward perplexities at times and doubtings of Gods favour Now it is a truth which our Saviour delivers that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weake And as in all other good purposes there is a combat betwixt the flesh and the spirit so is there in this betwixt the feare of Death and the desire of Death sometime the one prevailes and sometimes the other but yet alwayes at last the desire of Death doth get the victory Carnall respects doe often prevaile farre with the best care of wife children and the like Thâ—…se are their infirmities but as other infirmities die in them by degrees so these also at last are subdued and the servants of God seeing clearely the happinesse into which their Death in Christ shall enter them doe even sigh desiring to bee clothed upon with their house which is from Heaven Here then is a good Marke by which we may know our selves to be Gods servants viz. by the state of our thoughts and meditations touching Death I will so deliver it as may bee most for the comfort of those that truly feare God I demand therefore of thee Dost thou know that the confident and comfortable expectation of Death is the worke of the Holy Ghost in Gods servants Dost thou desire unfeignedly that the same may bee wrought in thy heart Dost thou labour to know what happinesse comes by Death to those that feare the Lord Dost thou grieve at thine owne weaknesse to whom the thought of Death is sometime troublesome and unsavourie Dost thou pray the Lord so to assure thee of his favour in Christ that death may bee desired before it comes and welcome when it is come Dost thou when thou hearest this speech of Simeon wish that thou wert able to use the like words with the like resolution Surely
all the actions of men it were an endlesse worke where wee finde dead workes wee conclude there is a dead man when men doe the things that are the actions of a man spiritually dead we conclude they are spiritually dead the Holy Ghost sayth so for they are dead in trespasses and sinnes therefore now let us come a little closer There are abundance that perswade themselves that they are alive therefore a little try your life by your death to sinne What are your opinions and judgements concerning your owne wayes those things that the Word of God condemnes for evill those things that out of the Word are preached to you day lie by way of reproofe of sinne that are spoken to you by Christian friends by way of admonition to bring you out of your sinnes how doe you take them and digest them are they pleasing to you because they tend to the killing of sinne or are they distastefull because they give you not rest in your sinnes What doe you judge sinne worthy to live and your selves not dead the while It is a note of a man that is alive in sin that hates reproofe that hates him that reproveth in the gate hee that hates him that reproves his ill workes hee is not dead to sinne for hee doth not judge his sinne worthy to die Againe come to your affections what is it you delight in When a man lookes upon a thing that is dead if it be indeed dead the sight of it is terrible and gastly and troublesome to him When Sara was dead though Abraham loved her deare in her life remove my dead out of my sight If sinne in thee bee as a dead thing how doest thou looke upon it dost thou looke upon it as a thing that thou art afraid of as a thing that thou art the worse when thou seest it When the objects and occasions of sinne are presented to you how stand you affected then all that are dead in sin take thought to fulfill the lusts of the flesh as the Apostle sayth they delight in it sinne is sweet to them as Iob sayth but if on the otherside you looke on it with indignation loathing and detesting and abhorring sinne and your selves for sinne then it is a comfortable signe of your death to sinne Againe when you doe looke on it doe you looke upon it as a ruler or as an enemie for there is a great deale of difference A theife may come into the house as well as the Master of the house but they come not with the like authoritie nor with the like acceptance the theife comes but you know all the house sets against him and never rest till they cast him out and if they want strength they cry for helpe but the Master of the house comes in and then all the servants are in their places to doe him service all take care to please him and give him content How entertaine you the motions of sinne looke upon your former wayes upon your former customes and vanities looke upon your wonted course of ill and consider now whether there bee an endeavour to satisfie the sinfull inclination of your hearts or is there a striving and using all meanes to be rid of it Do you make this your question to the Ministers you converse with to the Christian friends with whom you consult in this case how to be rid of such a corruption how to get such a sinne purged out Is this the matter of your prayer to God doe you crie to Heaven for helpe to get out this theife that is stollen into your hearts this traytour that conspires against the glorie of God this rebell that maintaines a fight against the kingdome of Christ doe you so looke on it It is a signe you are dead to sinne or else sinne is alive in you and you are dead in sinne Thirdly and lastly consider your actions consider your conversation doth sinne get strength or is it weakened For know that this is not the mortification of sinne that a man be never troubled with it more that hee never heare more of it that hee be never more troubled with the motions of sinne no As a man that hath a deadly wound given him it may bee hee more fiercely sets on him that gave him the deadly blow then ever before yet he falls dead at his feet after so it is with the motions of sinne thinke not when sin is dead by vertue of our union with Christ that we shall not bee tempted any more to sinne that you shall not have sinne any more in you no it will bee in you and molest you But what fruit doe you bring forth What actions doe you what strength hath sinne all the strife it hath is but to disquiet and disturbe you not to rule and command you as it was wont to doe It is a signe that sinne is dead naturally by way of incoation it will die in the end you shall heare no more of it at the last and though it a great while disturbe you and disquiet you yet this is your comfort you are disturbed and you maintaine Gods quarrell against your corruptions and fight against it it is a signe it hath a deadly blow Therefore let every one consider his estate let no man denie himselfe his owne portion let him that is dead in sinne know that hee is dead and the wretchednesse of that condition eternall death begins in that death And let him that is dead to sinne know that hee is alive to God and is among those that live in Christ and shall be saved A word of exhortation and so I conclude Doth this testifie our life in Christ that wee are dead to sinne Then as you hope for any comfort or privilege or advantage by Christ labour to make this good to your soules and labour to secure this evidence more and more that you are dead to sinne There are none that heares mee this day but they professe they hope to bee saved by Christ and they looke for no other name under Heaven to bee saved by but the name of Jesus It is certain but who will Christ save they are such as whom hee sanctifies and will hee sanctifie such as by union with him are dead to sinne and alive to God Then I beseech you make this good to your selves strive more and more to kill sinne take this as a quickning argument that you are in Christ and therefore you must bee conformable to Christ. Sayth the Apostle Hee bore our sinnes in his bodie on the Tree 1 Pet. 2. 24. that wee might be dead to sinne and live to righteousnesse Why did Christ beare your sinnes in his bodie upon the Tree but for this very end that as hee dyed for sinne you might dye to sinne Now that wee may perswade you know that it is upon speciall ground you lose nothing but get much by it the more you dye to sin the lesse you lose by it First you
that may be meant but that which is unrighteously kept is unrighteous Mammon to you if you procured it never so justly unlesse you doe rightly dispose of it and if you be desirous to doe right in disposing of your mammon of your wealth doe it now That when you want that power and those times you may enjoy the comfortable fruit of the well-redeeming of the time of your life to receive you into everlasting habitations In the 25. verse of the 16. Luke it is the challenge of Abraham to Dives Sonne remember that thou in thy life-time haddest thy goods for so the word signifieth thou haddest thy opportunities of life and of goods too but now thou hast neither life nor goods left thee to doe good with and therefore hee is blessed and thou art tormented It was the folly of those five Virgins They tooke not the opportunitie of life for that is the thing meant there but they posted over all to the last and hoped that all might bee effected in a trice or minute of their life which would haue held them employment enough all the dayes of their lives And therefore they came short of heaven the gates were shut against them as you see when the Bridegroome came If any man imagine because it is said Blessed are they that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their workes follow them That therefore it matters not so long as a man doth good at his death though hee have neglected the wayes of goodnesse all his life Let them know that by works there is not meant the actions of men but the fruites of their actions Their workes follow them not the workes they have deferred untill death but the fruites of those workes they did while they were living and received not the benefit of them untill death Their workes follow them that is the fruits of their workes It is more good and pleasant by farre to have the actions goe before and the fruites and comfortable effects to succeed and follow after But if any man yet suppose that hee may make that up in his Will which he hath neglected all his life long and though hee have lived miserably covetously and unprofitably all the dayes of his life yet his thoughts may tell him that by the Charitable Bequests of his last Testament as bequeathing largely to the Church and Common-wealth and to all sorts of people hee may at the last make fit compensation and satisfaction for neglect of former duties Let no man deceive himselfe with such a bad resolution for first it argues a signe of infidelitie that a man will not trust God for feare he should want in his life-time what is the reason else that he deferres the doing good in health unlesse it be for feare of wanting himselfe such distrust hee hath in the providence of God Besides the same God which bids thee doe good when thou hast opportunitie and while thou enjoyest the advantage of life hee expects it now And it may bee truly said of many that neglect those times of doing good while they lived and have now supplied that defect in their death by the large benevolence of their Wills Their will is good but their deed is â—…ught So much for the first point I proceed unto the second that is thou must not only take the time of thy life but also the opportunitie of thy meanes and thy estate while there is yet a price in thine hand while thou hast opportunitie and enjoyest wealth to doe good with redeeme the advantages and opportunities by employing them in that way for which thou didst receive them The time may come wherein you may desire to doe good but cannot wanting at estate and opportunities whereby to doe it Marke what Solomon saith Wilt thou trust in a thing of nothing for Riches have wings as an Eagle and flie away toward heaven It is the vanitie of men that they still forbeare and stay while their estates increase pretending that then they shall bee better able to doe good and extend themselves more largely or that they may keepe their wealth and waite for a better opportunitie But why wilt thou trust in a thing of nothing Thou seest a fowle in her flight and now it may be thou perceivest it but instantly it vanisheth out of thy sight Why riches have wings saith Solomon Thou hast them now in thy possession and retainest them fast in hold but presently they are departed they flie as an Eagle out of thy sight And the same wise man when he exhorteth men to cast their bread upon the waters Hee gives them this reason Thou knowest not what evills thou knowest not what judgements and calamities God intends to bring upon that Nation where thou livest upon the Citie upon the Familie 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 hee not high-minded and that they trust not in uncertaine riches but in the living God that they bee readie to distribute and to communicate and to doe good workes What is it that hinders men from distributing and communicating Because they trust in uncertaine Riches For if they would now learne not to trust in uncertaine Riches but account them uncertaine as they are and put confidence in the living God who can provide for them when those outward meanes which they so much rely on faile their expectations they would then be more liberall and bountifull and readie to doe 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 doe good and then take the meanes the wealth and estate which is the time of your meanes For this observe Iobs case hee goes on discoursing of this very point he was now a man stript of all hee had but the other day the Richest man in the East the Sâ—…ans and Caldeans had carried away his goods his cattell and his children and all things were taken from him Yet there was onething that administred comfort in the day of his adversitie and his affliction And it was this saith he If I have made the eyes of the poore to faile or if I eate my morsels alone or if I have not relieved the fatherlesse c. If I have not done thus and thus then let the Lords fiercest judgement fall upon mee But herein consists my comfort my conscience beares mee witnesse that when I had wealth and estate and enjoyed the goods of this life I did good I was father to the fatherlesse a foot to the lame and eyes to the blind I did all the good that lay within the compasse of my power to doe when I had meanes to doe it I say little doe you know beloved whatsoever thou art whatsoever estate thou hast though thou
here we see to the end we should not exceed in our mirth or too farre set our heart upon the pleasures and comforts of this life which like sticks under a pot after a blaze fall suddenly into ashes Let us learne from all the changes and chances of this mortall life not to sing a requiem to our soules here with the foole in the Gospell because wee have wealth laid up for us for many yeares for if our riches take not their wings and flye away from us wee shall bee taken away from them we shall be arrested by Gods Bayliffe Death and then wee must goe But thou shalt goe Our observations from this Scripture ariseth from two springs 1. The manner 2. The matter The former divides it selfe into two Rivelets the latter into three In the former to wit the manner I observe 1. That these words were spoken to Abraham in a Dreame when the Sunne was going downe a heavie sleepe fell upon him 2. That they were spoken by way of Gracious promise In the latter to wit the matter I observe three blessings bestowed upon Abraham 1. A comfortable death Thou shalt goe in peace 2. An honourable buriall and bee buried with thy Fathers 3. A seasonable time for both in a good old age First of the manner When the Sunne was setting a dead sleepe and dreadfull darknesse fell upon Abraham and God shewed him in a dreame the miserie and thraldome of his posteritie in Egypt Know of a suretie that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them and they shall afflict them 400. yeares vers 13. and lest at the sight hereof his heart should utterly have failed him and his bowels dried up within him like a pot-sheard God cleareth the skie which was clowded with a smoake of a fiery furnace ver 17. and cheareth his heart reviving him with a promise of safetie and peace for himselfe and of deliverance of his posteritie also out of their grievous servitude after a certaine period of yeares allotted for the promise of the growth and ripenesse of the Amorites sinnes For dreames in generall the great Secretarie of Nature discovereth unto us that the Dreames of good men are better than the Dreames of bad and he will have his foelix or happy man to have a singular priviledge above other men even in his sleepe And doubtlesse as a good conscience is a full feast in the day so it is a light banquet in the night for better thoughts and phantasies in the day beget better dreames in the night as the brighter colours in the Window when the Sunne shineth cast clearer species intentionales or reflections from them on the Wall God is with his children as well in the night as in the day and he imparts his counsells and discloseth his secrets as well by dreames in the one as by visions in the other That prophesie of Ioel I will poure out my spirit upon all flesh and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dreame dreames though it were fulfilled in the day of Penticost as Saint Peter instructeth us yet ought it not to be restrained to that day or the Apostles time only For it hath been verified in all after-ages and holdeth still for profitable and comfortable irradiations of Gods Spirit upon the soule by day and night though not for supernaturall and propheticall revelations or not so frequent Dreames therefore as they are not with the Easterne people superstitiously to be observed so neither are they utterly to be neglected as idle and vaine nocturnall phantasies The Poet could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iupiter sends Dreames and Aristotle dreamed not when hee wrote his exact discourse of Divination by dreames nor Artemidorus when hee published his curious tract intituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judgement of Dreames for the experience of all times proveth that the Dreames of many men especially a little before their death have been very considerable When the Windowes of the senses are shut the soule hath best leisure to looke into her selfe and after sicknesse hath battered downe the walls of the darke prison of the body in which she was close kept more light breakes in upon her and she seeth farther off then she could before and this is the meaning of the Platonicks in that their Apophthegme anima promonet in morte The soule lookes out as it were neere death For this particular in my Text God is gracious to many of his children now adayes by Dreames or otherwayes to give them notice of their departure hence To some he maketh knowne the yeare to some the moneth to some the very day and houre when they shall goe the way of all flesh And as here he fore-shewed Abraham his departure from hence per viam lacteum by the milkie way as it were that is by a sweet and pleasant passage of a naturall death in the autumn of his life so also in a Dreame he represented to Saint Polycarpe and Saint Cyprian their passage per viam sanguineam The bloody way of martyrdome Policarp not many moneths before hee was sacrificed for a whole burnt-offering to God dreamed that his bed was all on fire under him and Saint Cyprian saw in a Dreame the Proconsull give order to the Clerke of the Assizes to write downe his sentence which was to have his head cut off with a Sword which when the Clerke by signes made knowne to Saint Cyprian the godly Bishop earnestly desired a little delay of the execution that he might set his house in order and the Clerke answered him in his dreame that his petition was granted and so it fell out accordingly that that day twelve moneth after he had this Dreame this Saint of God closing first his owne eyes lost his head on earth but received a glorious crowne of martyrdome in heaven The second thing I observed in the manner was that these words were uttered by way of promise to Abraham whence Calvin rightly inferreth that Abrahams long life was a favour of God unto him not the purchase of his owne merits much lesse the fruit of his owne care for although speaking in ordinè ad secundas causas a man may be said by the observation of physick rules to prolong his dayes upon earth as Galen did who was otherwayes a man of a very crazie body and could not in all likelyhood have held out halfe so long yet if wee speake simply and absolutely it is certaine that as no man can by his care adde a cubite to his stature nor an houre to his life beyond the period set by God before all time for my times are in thy hands saith David and our dayes are determined saith Iob the number of our moneths is with thee thou hast appointed man his bounds which hee cannot passe Job 14. 5. and 7. 1. Is there not an appointed time to man are not his dayes as the dayes
for thy sinnes and call upon the only true God with confession and faith pardon is given unto the confessing thy sinnes and saving grace is granted to thee by the divine pietie or mercie and at the very moment of death thou hast à passage to immortalitie Secondly Eccles. 12. 5. Man goeth to his long home and the Mourners goe about the streetes Which words Gregorius of Neocesarea thus paraphraseth The good man shall goe to his everlasting house rejoycing but the wicked shall fill all with lamentations And S. Cyprian allâ—…ding to this passage resolveth that after this temporall life is ended we are diversly bestowed at the Innes of death or immortalitie at neither of which hangeth any signe of Purgatorie as any man may see Thirdly Luke 16. 22. The begger dyed and was carried by Angells into Abrahams bosome This beggers case Macharius a learned Monke of Egypt maketh a president for all the servants of God who when they remove out of the body the quires of Angels receive their soules into their owne side into the pure world and so brings them unto the Lord. And Saint Ierome raiseth a strong fort of comfort upon the ground of this parable Let the dead bee lamented but such a one whom hee doth receive for whose paine everlasting fire doth burne but let us whose departure a troupe of Angells doth accompanie whom Christ commeth forth to meet account it a grievance if wee doe longer dwell in this tabernacle of death And as Machareus and Saint Ierome so Saint Hillarie also draweth a generall rule from their example that as soone as this life is ended every one without delay is sent over either to Abrahams bosome or to the place of torment and in that state are reserved till the day of Iudgement Fourthly Luke 23. 43. This day thou shalt be with mee in Paradise and Philip. 1. 23. I desire to bee dissolved and to bee with Christ and 2 Cor. 5. 18. If our earthly tabernacle be dissolved we shall have an eternall in the heavens and when we are absent from the body we are present with the Lord From whence Iustine Martyr inferreth After the departure of the soule out of the body there is presently made a distinction betwixt the just and unjust for the soules of the righteous are carried by Angels into Paradise where they have commerce and sight of Angels and Archangels but the soules of the unjust to hell and Tertullian collecteth that it is an injurie to Christ to hold that such as bee called from hence by him are in a state that should bee pittied whereas they have obtained the chiefe ayme of their desires If we repine at this that others have obtained this their desire by this our grudging at it we seem to be unwilling to obtain the like and his scholler S. Cypriam censureth them yet more severely who either feare death or leave this world in discontent it is for him to feare death who is not willing to goe to Christ it is for him to bee unwilling to goe to Christ who doth not beleeve that he beginneth to reigne with Christ if thou dost truely beleeve in God and art secure of his promise why dost thou not embrace the message that thou art called to Christ why dost thou not rejoyce that thou shalt be rid of the divell Fiftly 1 Iohn 1. 7. the blood of Christ purgeth us from all sinne no sinne is therefore left for Purgatorie fire to burne out Were there sinnes to be purged yet after the night of this present life there is no place left saith Gregorie Nazianzen for purging it is better to be corrected and purged now saith he then to be sent to torments there where the the time of punishing is and not of purging But to leave other springs this in my Text affordeth store of water to extinguish Purgatory fire and therefore our adversaries seeke to damme it up two manner of wayes First by restraining this Text to Martyrs onely who die in the Lords quarrell though their soules flye to heaven their wings being not singed with this fire yet others say they are not saved but after some time of abode in it Secondly by cooling the heat of this fire and making it not only tolerable but also comfortable bearing us in hand that they that are in Purgatory may be said to be blessed because they rest from the labours of this life and they are secure of their eternall estate they are sure to feele no other hell From the first starting-hole I have beaten them already by demonstrating that all that beleeve in Christ are ingrafted by faith into his mysticall body and consequently that as they live in him so they die in him in which regard the Apostle speaking of all that depart in the faith of Christ saith they sleepe in the Lord and die in Christ. Their second starting hole is lesse safe then the former for to say that this blessednes and Purgatory paines may subsist in the same soule is an assertion neither politique nor reasonable First it is not politique for if they coole Purgatory fire in such sort they will stop the Popes Mint from going perswade the vulgar that the soules in Purgatory are in a tollerable nay in some sort in a blessed estate because they rest from their labours and their workes follow them and the Priests may set their heart at rest for gaining any remarkable summes for Dirges and the Popes tole-gatherers also for sucking any great advantage out of pardons to ransome soules out of Purgatory And as this answere standeth not with their profit so neither agreeth it well with their owne tenents for they teach that Purgatory fire is as hot as Hell for the time surpassing the smartest torment that can bee devised or ever was endured on earth and call they those happy who lie soultring in this fire yea but when they are there they receive singular comfort in this that they are sure they shall never go to hell Surely small comfort to one who is in hellish torments and shall continue there he knowes not how long to tell him that he is sure he shall goe to no other Hell and how prove they that Purgatory is a supersedeas to Hell What security have they for it Gods Word but in all Gods Word there is no sillable of Purgatory neither let they the people to know Gods Word for in Spaine and generally where the inquisition is in force the proverbe is that he smels of a Faggot who is found with a Bible about him in the mother tongue These things being so I wonder that any ordinary Papist be willing to die seeing the best hee can hope for is to bee cast presently into the flames of Purgatory and there to frie hee knowes not how long perhaps a hundred perhaps a thousand yeares But God be blessed for it we have otherwise learned of Christ and his blessed Apostles Wee know that if our earthly tabernacle
bee dissolved wee shall presently have not a temporary habitation in Purgatory but an eternall in Heaven wee know that those who beleeve in Christ come into no condemnation but passe from death to life Wherefore let us not take on too much for those whom God hath taken away from us let us not trouble our selves for them that are at rest let us not shed over-many teares for them who can now shed no more teares let us not â—…oo much grieve for them who are free from all paine and griefe And for our selves let us not be as some are strucken dead with the very name of death let us not draw backe when God calleth for us when wee draw on and our Sunne is setting when the pangs of death give us warning againe and againe to goe out from hence out of our houses of clay let us embrace the day which bringeth us to our everlasting home which having taken us away from hence and losed us from the snares of this world returneth us to Paradise and the Kingdome of Heaven It followeth And their Workes follow them In the handling of this branch before wee tast of the sweet juyce we must pill the root wherein wee shall finde a fourefold difficulty 1. How workes are here distinguished from labours 2. How workes may be said to follow them 3. Whither they follow them 4. When they overtake them The first difficulty is thus expedited the workes of the dead are neere distinguished from their labours as the fruit from the branches that beare them the hyre from the day labour the prize from the race As those who taste the fruit of a tree are said by an Hebraisme to eate of the tree to him that overcommeth saith the Spirit I will give to eate of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God So here in this Text workes are taken for the fruit of workes or their recompence of reward But how are workes in this sense said to follow the dead For all the works of the dead are either transient as meditations prayers pious ejaculations present relieving the poore and the like or they are permanent as their writings their building Colledges Hospitalls Churches and other Monuments of Pietie the former cannot follow the dead because they remaine not now nor the latter because they stay behind them here on earth I answer the speech is figurative and signifieth no motion of the deads workes but rather promotion of their persons and plentifull remuneration for their workes the phrase imports no more then that all their workes whether they bee actions of Saints or passions of Martyrs shall not come short of their guerdon but shall bee most certainely and undoubtedly rewarded If wee follow this interpretation of the verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may some say will not Popish merit follow thereupon is not Heaven compared to servants wages to the souldiers crowne to the racers garland and here to the labourers pay and doth not a true labourour merit his pay a faithfull servant his wages a valiant souldier his crowne a speedie racer his prize this doubt may bee cleared and the question resolved by these Assertions following 1 That our good workes shall undoubtedly bee rewarded for it is the very dictate of nature that hee that soweth should reape and it is one of the first principles of Divinitie that there is a God and that hee is the rewarder of them that diligently seeke him yea so exact a rewarder is hee that not a widowes Mite not a cup of cold water but shall have an allowance for it Did Abraham did Isaack did Iacob did Ioseph did Iob did Solomon did Constantine did Theodosius and other prime servants of God serve him for nought did hee not open the treasures of his bounty in such sort to them all that they could not but in thankefulnesse subscribe to that protestation of the Propheticall King verily there is a reward for the righteous even in this life and much more in the life to come for Ecce venio behold I come quickly and my reward is with mee to give to every man according as his workes shall bee to them who by patient continuance in well doing seeke for glory and honour and immortalitie eternall life whence Saint Bernard draweth this corollarie though charity is not mercenary yet shee never goes from God empty handed 2 That this reward is some way due unto our workes for the labourâ—… sayth Christ is worthy his hire and the Apostle is bold to say it is just with God to recompence to them that trouble you tribulation but to you rest and hee seemeth to claime a crowne to himselfe as his due I have fought a good fight henceforth is layd up for mee a crowne of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous judge shall give unto mee it is sayd to be given indeed but given by a righteous judge and as a crowne of righteousnesse and therefore some way due 3 Our good workes concurre actively to the attainment of this reward the words of our Saviour seeke ye first the kingdome of God and the righteousnesse thereof labour for the meate that perisheth not and strive to enter in at the narrow gate and of the Apostle worke out your salvation with feare and trembling and this momentarie affliction worketh unto us a superexcellent weight of glory import no desire 4 Notwithstanding all this our good workes no way merit at Gods hand their reward neither absolutely neither by the contract of the Law nor by the covenant of grace Not absolutely 1 Because no creature can simply merit any thing of the Creatour as Saint Austin proves by many invincible arguments 2 Because our workes are no way advantagious or beneficiall to God wee indeed gaine by them but he gaines nothing 3 Because there is no proportion betweene our worke which is finite and the reward which is infinite Neither can wee be sayd to merit by the contract of the Law as our Romish adversaries would beare us in hand 1 Because what God requireth by the written Law wee are bound to performe even by the Law of nature and when we doe but that which wee ought to doe our Saviour teacheth us not to tearme our selves arrogantly meritours at Gods hands or such as hee is engaged to recompence but unprofitable servants 2 Because we do not our work sufficiently and therfore cannot challenge as due by contract our reward our best workes are scanty and defective 3 Because wee loyter many dayes and though at some times wee doe a dayes worke such as it is yet many times wee doe not halfe a dayes worke nay for one thing wherein we doe well we faile in a thousand Lastly neither can wee be truly said to merit no not by the covenant of Grace 1 Because the Grace which worketh in us all in all is no waies due to us but most freely given us of
Judgement The one An expectation with desire and with an earnest longing the expectation of the faithfull of a Lord of a gracious Redeemer nay of a loving Husband Therefore every faithfull soule cannot but waite upon him As a faithfull servant that hath done his worke longeth for his Masters comming home that hee may give an account of his faithfulnesse and may bee acceptable ◅o his Master for his faithfull service that hee hath done in his absence that hee may expect his Masters remuneration But there is annother expectation of Christ to come that is not with desire but with horrour and dread and feare out of guiltinesse of conscience This is the expectation of a Malefactor in the Jayle he wayteth and lookes for the comming of the Judge to passe sentence on him and so to bee dragged to execution thus wicked men expect Christ thus wicked Angells expect him But the expectation of the godly is an expectation with love and desire an expectatiō not of a severe Judge but of a loving husband of a faithfull Master that hath promised a recompense to the service of beleevers even the least and lowest if it bee the gift of a cup of cold water in his name Therefore ye must take knowledge of the expectation here meant This I say is proper to beleevers Let us see the truth of the Doctrine in the Reason of it why every faithfull soule must needs long and desire the second comming of Christ. First because it is a part of Christs gracious promise which the faith of the soule leaneth on The proper object of faith is the promise of the Gospell this yee may see in the Text Christ had promised to come Amen even so here is the reason of this desire because his promise goeth before it The faithfull soule apprehendeth every other inferiour promise and every lesse promise much more this maine promise the very knot of all the very complement of all faith must needs expect and claspe fast hold upon this promise and give assent and acclamation to it as in the word Amen even so come as thou hast sayd and promised Many promises to this purpose hath our Lord and Saviour Christ pronounced for the stirring up of our faith and affection as namely that in the 14 of Saint Iohns Gospell toward the beginning where hee comforteth his Disciples in his absence If I goe I will come againe And so in Acts 1. 11. As yee see him ascend with your bodily eyes in his Person and flesh so yee shall see him descend But wee need not goe far for promises for immediately before the words and two verses besides in this Chapter the 7. and 12. Behold I come shortly This is the property of every godly man having the promise of the comming to leane upon it and to desire the accomplishment of the promise In the old Testament they had the promise of the first comming of Christ that they earnestly desired as Iacob Gen. 49. Lord I have wayted for thy salvation and Abraham saw Christs day afarre off and rejoyced And in the New Testament wee read of Anna and Zacharias and Elizabeth and the faithfull that waited for the consolation of Israel they waited for the accomplishment of this promise the comming of Christ in the flesh his first comming Shall they waite and earnestly desire the first comming of the Sonne of God in humilitie and humanitie and basenesse and shall not we earnestly expect his second comming in glory to manifest not only his glory but our glory shall not wee expect that comming of his wherein we shall be married to himselfe and whereby we shall be tooke up to himselfe Thus yee see the promise of Christ is one ground yea and a principall ground of this expectation of the faithfull The second Reason is drawne from the Union and conjunction betweene Christ and the faithfull soule That is in the Text too the Bride saith Come Now there is a neere union and conjunction in this same conjunction of Mariage amongst men wherein the love must needs be imperfect and but a-drop of that Ocean and wherein the love of the parties must needs be finfull yet notwithstanding wee see how vehement it is In the absence of one another the one longeth and pineth after the other and one partie enjoyeth not himselfe without the other Much more ought it to be so here in this heavenly contract betweene Christ and his faithfull Spouse should not here the Spouse bee sicke of love as the Spouse professeth of her selfe in the second of Canticles This vehement desire must needs arise out of the neerenesse and undevidednesse of that conjunction that is betweene Christ and a Christian There is little love where there is little desire of the thing beloved when it is absent Why doth the member of the Bodie desire immediate conjunction with the head but because it knows that the separation from the head is the death of the member So it is in this neere conjunction betweene Christ the head and his members the Church they must needs desire immediate and inseparable conjunction with the head because the separation from the head must be the death of the members That is the second Reason The third Reason of the Point is this because the Saints of God they know that the accomplishment of the full happinesse of the Church of God and likewise of themselves that are members of the Church it consisteth in this in Christ his second comming againe to judgement therefore they doe earnestly desire it and affect it and say Amen even so Come because I say they know this is the comming that perfects the Church of God perfects their glory in the state of happinesse which the Church and every member thereof doth expect they know that that is the time which shall be the Revelation of the sonnes of God who are here obscure and shall be till that day come They know well that all the graces and perfections that the child of God can attaine to in this imperfection all is but the first fruits all is but a tast and therefore they cannot possibly but lift up their heads and raise up their hearts to the expectation of that day wherein these first fruits shall bee perfected with full measure shaken together and running over whereas there shall be an absolute freedome from all sinne and from all the appurtenances of it an absolute perfection not of grace only but of glory which is the highest grace They shall be one with the head this is that which makes them looke for it Heb. 9. 28. the place I named before it is said Christ shall appeare to save them that waite for him Hee shall bring a full horne of salvation he shall perfect the salvation of the Saints till that day there is no perfection in the salvation of the Saints No though they goe to heaven yet before that day there is no perfect salvation because their bodyes are not joyned to
of a hireling The Almond tree groweth not upon the head of any without dew from heaven here it grew and bloomed in a seasonable time If life be a blessing long life is a greater blessing especially if it be crowned with a happy death for the last Act maketh our life a Comedie or a Tragedie and as the evening proves the day so a mans estate at his death and after over-rules the verdict of his life Dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet and so I fall into the road of my Text and begin to treate of the peaceable end of those who die in the faith and lie in the bosome of Abraham Goe to thy fathers in peace There is a great difference about the interpretation of this phrase Ibis ad patres and the reason of the difference is the difficultie which insueth upon every interpretation For if we referre these words to the body of Abraham and the buriall thereof in the Sepulchres of his Fathers this Exposition complieth not with the truth of the storie for none but Sarah lay in this cave Abrahams Fathers were else-where bestowed If we referre them to the soule of Abraham and illustrate them with this glosse Thou shalt goe in thy soule to the glerious troupe of thy Ancestours a question then will grow what that place is whether his Fathers went before him is it Heaven but some of Abrahams Fathers were Idolatours and we have no warrant to place any Idolatour there Is it Hell thither no man goes in peace neither did ever yet any Jew or Christian so rubbe his forehead or rather arme it with brasse as to affirme that the soule of Abraham in whom all generations of the earth were blessed was in Hell shall wee then send him to the Rabbins Limbus or the Popish Purgatorie or the auncient Fathers occulta receptacula hidden receptacles or unknowne places wherein Tertullian conceiveth that the soules of the faithfull departed resemble those among the Romans who stood for offices and the day of the election while the voyces were in calculation expected in a white gowne whether they were chosen or not Saint Austine also is very expresse for these hidden Cells from the death of a man till the last resurrection the soules are bestowed in hidden receptacles as every soule is worthy either rest or paine To dispell this mist which hath caused many to misse their way first by the light of the Scripture I will cleare the Point in question and then interpret the phrase First then for the soules of the faithfulls flight after shee is free from this clog of flesh I answer that it is straight to Heaven to the assembly of the first borne there and the spirits of just men made perfect for of Enoch who was translated that he might walke with God and of Elias who was carried up into Heaven in a fierie Chariot there is little doubt can bee made and lesse of Abraham to whose bosome in Heaven Lazarus was carried and least of all on the Theife to whom Christ promised on the Crosse this day thou shalt bee with mee in Paradise Why should Saint Paul so earnestly desire to bee dissolved and to bee with Christ if after his dissolution till the day of judgement hee should not come neare him nor see his face Why should all godly Christians bee so willing to bee absent from the bodie that they might bee present with the Lord if after they were absent from the bodie they should not come into the Lords presence who dare question that which the Apostle so expresly and so confidently delivers wee know that if the house of our earthly tabernacle bee dissolved wee have an eternall in the Heavens As for the phrase thou shalt go to thy Fathers it is but an elegant circumlocution of the period of our life a quaver upon the close thereof for the meaning is thou shalt dye or go the way of all flesh Quo pius â—…neas quo dives Tullus Ancus whether all thy Fathers went before thee good and bad rich and poore for Deaths sickle like the Italian Captaines sword which could not distinguish betweene a Guelf and Gibelive slaies all and makes a prey of all The righteous soule must for a time be divorced from the body as well as the foule of the wicked and in the graves the Wormes claime kindred of the elect as well as of the reprobate the consideration whereof put the Preacher into a passion how doth the righteous man dye as well as the wicked as it is said of Abraham that hee is gathered to his Fathers so it is sayd also of Ishmael and may bee of the wickedest man that breathes And herein the language of Canaan and the language of Ashdod doe not much differ for what the Romans meane by that their phrase abijt ad plures hee is gone to the many The Hebrewes in a sanctified phrase expresse by abijt ad patres hee is gone to his Fathers or gathered to his people where of some interpreters give this acute reason It cannot bee sayd of us here whilest wee live that wee are gathered to our owne people in a spirituall sense because here good and bad are gathered together Elect and Reprobate so journe together all are as it were joynt Comminers upon the earth the Citie of God and the Citie of the World sayle in the same shippe to the Haven of death The Draw-net of the Gospell catcheth sweet and stinking fish in Gods field Tares grow with Wheat in his floare there is much Chaffe with good graine But after death God taketh his Fanne in his hand and purgeth his Floare After wee depart hence God placeth and sorteth his Children by themselves and the Children of the World and the wicked are by themselves and so every man is exactly gathered to his owne people every starre is set in his owne constellation every graine is put in his owne heape every person and family is joyned to his owne tribe wee all passe by the same gate of death but presently after wee are out of it some take the right hand and are ranked with sheepe others the left hand and are ranked among his goates We are all like Plate worne out of fashion and wee must all bee altered and therefore of necessitie must bee melted that is dissolved by death but after wee have runne in the fire of the judgement of God of that which was pure mettall God will make Vessells of honour but of the drossie and alcumie stuffe that is the prophane or impure person or hypocrite vessells of dishonour and these shall shine like the sunne in the Firmament those shall gloe like coales in the fire of hell for ever more By this it should seeme may some object that the righteous have no prerogative in death above the wicked but onely after death and consequently that God promised Abraham no blessing in these words thou shalt goe to thy fathers it