others with whom she had long and private intimacy of many years acquaintance I must and will speak That which I told you was recorded of Rachel that she was fruitful in procreation of Children may in a great measure be spoken of her for if the Scripture account bearing but of two children fruit certainly it will make an extraordinary fruit in bearing of twelve which she did It is a certaine token of a true and faithful servant of God to frequent his house to pray unto him to praise him in his Church earnestly to labour to be instructed in his will out of his Word then and there read and preached to them all which evidences of a good Christian were found in this our Sister For her constant coming to Church I my self can now speak upon my own knowledge I have seriously and strictly examined my self and I profess ingeniously before God that knows my heart and you that here me speak that I cannot call to mind that ever she mist coming to Church twice a Sabbath day since I came which I would be heartily glad I could speak as well of others of this Parish as of her For some of them have got such a fisking trick up and down to go to other Churches as if there were no rellishable food at their own that I fear at the last they will come to none at all I pray God they amend this fault It was a vertue in her that deserved commendation and it is a vice in them that deserves reprehension When she was in Gods house she did not as too too many do imploy her time in sleeping or some such ill course but I ever observed her to listen very diligently and attentively to what was delivered for the nourishing of her soul I confess I do not remember that ever I saw her take any notes in the Church of Sermons that were preached for it seems she did it when she came home for since her death going to her house accidentally I met with a book of hers wherein she had written many texts of Scripture with notes the day when they were preached and the persons by whom most of those which I have preached I saw and perused and others of strangers that I my self have heard these qualities are not to be past over in silence but are worthy of your serious imitation Neither did she think it fit barely to set them down for her own instruction only but what she heard upon the Sabbath day that she constantly practised upon the week dayes She catechised her children in those points spending some time in training them up in the knowledge of God and putting them in mind of their duty to him in whom we live and move and have our being by repeating Gods word delivered by hearing them read Gods word printed and by singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs That she was a most provident and careful Wife and a most indulgent and loving Mother all that knew her can best testifie and some of them have informed me And this let me speak and I have it from the mouth of some that prehaps did not think I would have mentioned it at this time and would have had it concealed but for reasons best known to my self I hold it very fit to relate she was ever held to be of a most sweet nature and of a very loving disposition that she was very charitable and inclined to relieve the poor It is likewise testified of her she was liberal alway but more liberal now then usually having had a consideration of the hard and needy times to which end as if she had prognosticated her own death she laid some money according to that ability that God had blessed her with for the relief of the poor Let no man censure me for speaking these things I do for if I should not have given her her just and deserved praises some that now hear me and knew her from her cradle might justly have censured me for too much remisness Thus for her life As for her death I can say little touching it It pleased God not to give her any long time of sickness but to take her away though not unprepared yet on a sudden with a short warning When her bitter pangs first came upon her she called to her Husband and desired him to joyn with her in hearty prayer to Almighty God that he would be graciously pleased to extend his mercy towards her that he would be pleased to let her live longer that she might repent of her sins and beg mercy at his hands for them that she might amend her life And if he would not grant this for her yet for those many poor Children that were young that she was to leave behind her she desired him to be a careful Father over them all she prayed to God devoutly to send a blessing both upon him and them Much she could not then speak because of her pains that now began still to increase upon her When she was in the extremity of her labour he being absent as it was fitting she sent down to him to desire him to pray to God on her behalf that he would ease her of those grievons pains and preserve her in the great pain and peril of Child birth The propitious God it seemed heard him and granted his request for presently to the thinking of the standers by she was well delivered Not satisfied with this having received so great a blessing from God she sent down again to desire him to give God thanks for her safe delivery But God that had determined to take out of this miserable life quickly turned that hope of the standers by into a fear and suddenly she changed which perceiving as long as she was able to speak she cried Lord Jesus have mercy on my soul Lord have mercy on me Lord pitty me poor miserable wretch and when she could not speak she held up her hands to heaven as desirous to make her peace with that God whom she knew she had highly offended I make no question but God hath translated her from the valley of tears to the Mount Sion of blessedness whither God of his infinite mercy bring us all THE DEATH OF SINNE AND LIFE of GRACE SERMON XXXVII ROM 6.11 Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. THe intent of this Chapter is to take off an abuse of the Doctrine of the Gospel which publisheth the free Grace of God to great sinners The Apostle had said in the latter end of the 20. Verse of the former Chapter where sin abounded Grace did much more abound From hence some did infer that therefore under the Gospel they might take liberty to sin the more their sins were and the greater they were the more they should occasion God to manifest his abundant Grace upon them This the Apostle answers in this Chapter and he answers it two wayes
whipping his people to hold them under such sharp discipline it is for the profit of the children so the Text expresseth it but he for our profit Which first of all implieth that afflictions and chastisements are a means conducing to the profit of those that undergo them A point plain in the Text and the Scripture abundant in the proof of it and the experience of the Saints in a plentiful manner confirming it It is good for me saith David that I have been afflicted And Joseph giveth this honourable testimony of God The Lord saith he hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my afflictions and thereupon giveth his child a name sutable Afflictions and chastisements they become profitable as the furnace to the gold to purge out the dross to make a separation between the pure mettal and the ore Profitable as physick to the body to purge out the malignant humours Profitable as sope to the cloth to fetch out the stains to take out the greasie spots it is the Scripture expression their hearts are as fat as grease to make them white Profitable as the Thunder to the Ayr to purge it to make it more commodious to breath in Profitable as the wind to the water to make it the purer by its ventilation Profitable as the pruning knife to the tree to make it more fruitful These and the like metaphors we have and by them we are to conceive of the good and benefit that comes to us by Gods castigation and fatherly exercising of his people with his discipline and rod of Affliction But what are these blessed fruits what is the profit accruing to the soul of the people of God by this means I can but name part of them Besides that which is exprest in the Text that we might be partaker of his holiness there are these gracious effects of afflictions Weaning from the world a bringing us into more acquaintance with God Manasseth when he was in affliction he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers and prayed unto him and then saith the Text he knew that the Lord he was God God by this means makes us know our selves the vanity of the creature the sinfulness of sin the sweetness of the Word the excellency that is in the promises makes us more compassionate to others keepeth us from hell and many other fruits there are of afflictions But to pass this A second thing implyed in the Doctrine is this that as afflictions are means conducing to our profit so God in exercising his people with them mainly intendeth it The Lord saith Moses led thee through that great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery Serpents and Scorpions and drought where there was no water suffered thee to hunger brought thee into hard straits but what was Gods aim in this that he might humble thee and that he might prove thee to do thee good at the latter end By this saith the Prophet speaking of the afflictions of the Church shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin This I say is that which God intendeth by the afflictions of his people and this is that which the servants of God by faith have been able to apprehend and to interpret the Lords meaning in all his sharp dispensations towards them As the Propbet Habakuk having made a terrible description of the Babylonish rod he concludes in the twelfth verse of his first Chapter Art not thou from everlasting O Lord my God We shall not die O Lord thou hast ordained them for Judgment and O mighty God thon hast established them for correction This is that likewise which the Saints of God have looked for and expected that while the winds of afflictions have been blowing some ship or other should come home richly fraighted So David when that storm of cursing came from the mouth of Shimei Oh saith David let him alone let him curse it may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction and that the Lord will requite good for his cursing this day So when Rabshaketh came up against Jerusalem Let him alone saith Hezekiah answer him not a word it may be the Lord will hear the words of Rabshaketh whom his Master hath sent to reproach the living God and will reprove the words which the Lord hath heard It may be the Lord will open his ear upon this rage and blasphemy and consider his people and do them good The Saints of God I say have expected good and benefit from Gods afflicting of them For the use of this and so to draw to a conclusion In the first place Seeing this is Gods intent in all his administrations to his people especially in his castigations of them and reaching out unto them such sharp and bitter potions It may serve to check and controul all those hard thoughts that we are apt to suffer to lodge within us concerning Gods dealing with us in the time of our distresses Apt we are to speak foolishly and unadvisedly concerning God and to misconster his administrations This hath been the frailty of Gods dearest servants in their affliction I shall one day said David perish by the hand of Saul Woe is me saith Isaiah for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips The Lord saith the Church hath broken my teeth with gravel stones and covered me with ashes he hath removed my soul far off from peace and I said my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. The Lord hath forsaken me saith Zion and my Lord hath forgotten me Job though for a good while he carried himself very fairly and demeaned himself very warily toward God yet when he began to be wet to his skin then he speaks foolishly and unadvisedly falleth to the cursing of his day not to the cursing of his God as Satan thought he would but of his day though that was too much and ill beseeming so holy a man The Saints I say are apt to mistake themselves this way and to over-shoot themselves in this case We should therefore humble our selves before the Lord for this distemper of soul and labour to keep down such unquiet thoughts and hard disputings that are apt to rise within us against God and his dispensations And consider that whatsoever our thoughts are yet the Lord knoweth his own thoughts concerning us as he himself speaks in Jer. 29. howsoever saith he you may think that I intend to cut you off for ever yet I know my thoughts that I think towards you even thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end Again secondly it may serve to comfort the godly concerning all the means and instruments of their sufferings whether they be men or devils Wicked men and devils whom God useth as a Rod to chastise his people their malice is great and their
parts the main matter whereof things were made and shall that be the destruction of that whereof it is made Yes saith the Apostle All things were made by water too and yet they were destroyed by water and why not then by fire But God deserreth the promise of his coming What of that He putteth it not quite off though he deferre yet it is not long with God for there is no time long to him that is eternal and in that he deserreth it is that some men may be brought to salvation and others made inexcusable Thus the Apostle takes off all objections of the Atheists of the world and sheweth that there shall be a day of Judgment Secondly it serveth for instruction If there shall be such a Judgment to come if God will have such a time of rekconing with all his Stewards in the world Then it teacheth us first not to busie our selves in judging one another why because there shall a time come of Gods Judgment Who art thou saith the Apostle that judgest thy brother we shall all stand before the Judgment seate of Christ As if he should say What a bold part what a presumptuous part is this that thou shouldest judg thy brother Dost thou not know that there is one that shall judge him and thee is it fit that he that is a prisoner at the Barre should come and leap up into the place of the Judg and sit in his seat Ye are all fellow prisoners together and ye must all stand before the Judgment fear of Christ So in another place the same Apostle when he would take men off from judging saith he Judg nothing before the time Why for the Lord will come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darknesse and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts and then shall every man have praise of God As if he should say Thou art not able to judg aright it may be that man that thou dispraisest at that day may find praise with God Secondly Turn the Judgment on thy own heart be more in Judging of thy self that thou mayest not be Judged of the Lord. Will God call thee to a reckoning then begin to call thy self to a reckoning first How shall that be done There is a double reckoning that every man must undergoe that will avoid this reckoning with God First he must reckon with his own heart Secondly with others First with his own heart Every man must take all the advantages opportunities that God hath given to reckon with himselfe Doth God awaken thy conscience by the preaching of his word Descend into thy own heart It is that that the Lord looks for that a man should say What have I done Doth God smite thee with some afflictions if with losses reckon with thy self how thou hast gained thy wealth If with disgraces reckon with thy selfe about thy pride and ambition and vanitie of thy heart If God smite thy body with sicknesse reckon with thy self about the imployment of thy health and the well usage of the times and seasons of grace Every evening call thy self to an account What have I done this day where have I been In what company how have I carried my self there what good have Idone what good have I received In the matters of thy calling reckon with thy self with what heart thou hast followed it with what care to conforme thy selfe to Gods word the rule of righteousnesse If thou hast been in pleasures whether they were lawful and if they were whether they were lawfully used Thus must every man reckon with his own heart as the Church in Lament 3.39 Wherefore is the living man sorrowful Man suffereth for his sinâ—… let us search our wayes and turne again to the Lord. There are many that 〈◊〉 to out-face God and men in their sins but know this who-ever thou art that if thou forbear to reckon with thy own heart God will assuredly reckon with thee thou must reckon here or hereafter with thy self or with God therefore saith David Psal 4 Commune with your own hearts upon your beds that is be sure to take time from your sleep rather then to neglect this businesse of reckoning with your own hearts Secondly Reckon with others too Let that man that is in authority a Magistrate so carry himself in his imployments that he may reckon with the people and give an account to them if need be as Samuel did Whose oxe have I taken or whose asse have I taken or whom have I defrauded whom have I oppressed or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith The Lord saith he is a witnesse that ye have not found any thing in my hand And not only so but that they may be able to witnesse that they have been great instruments of Gods glory and of the good of others Let Ministers reckon with the people committed to their charge as Paul did when he took his leave of the Ephesians and was to go up to Jerusalem I take you to record this day saith he that I am pure from the blood of all men for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God and I have kept back nothing that was profitable unto you but have shewed you and tought you publikely and from house to house And because I know that after my departure there will somewhat remain to be done for Grievous wolves will enter in not sparing the flock therefore I will be carefull that there be a succession of faithfull Ministers afther me and therefore I give carge to the rest that follow that they take heed to themselves and to the stook over which the holy Ghost hath made them overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own bloud Let Masters reckon with their Familes their servants and children whether they have done their duty as faithful Masters not only in furthering the service of God but also in furthering of them by instruction and example to all good Let those that are in a way of traffique learn to reckon with those that they deal withal If thou hast wronged any by unjust gain thou must reckon with him by restitution there is nothing that thou hast gotten unjustly for which thou dost not reckon now but as Saint James saith at that day shall eat they flesh as it were fire Therefore Zacheus when salvation was brought to his house If I have done uujustly and wronged any I restore it Doubtless there are many men that cloath themselves in Sattin and Velvet and abound in all variety and bravery that would now be houseless and moneyless and apparelless it may be if they should make restitution of their unjust gain Well do it as ye love your own souls you shall reckon as you are Gods Stewards with him how you have come by every penny that you have in the world and
we carry in our bosomes The Divell is a Serpent in Hell the world is a Serpent in our hand the flesh is a Serpent in our bosome We carry it with us where ever we go It is a con-natural concorporate Enemy All our other enemies could do us no hurt if it were not for that if this enemy that cohabiteth with us did not combine against us Know who ever thou art there is no Enemy like thy self thy self is the worst enemy of all All the sparks that slie out of Sathans engines could never sindg a hair of our heads if our flesh were not as tinder All the winds that blow in the four corners of the world could not make shipwrack of us if our flesh were not a treacherous Pilot. Death that gnaweth the thread of our soul and body asunder could not separate them or them from God if the flesh did not what the teeth of it and sharpen it with a sting So then we see we have a great many Enemies more to encounter us besides Death some without some within Therefore how should this teach us circumspect walking to behave our selves wisely in every thing as David when he knew Saul was his Enemy and had an eye upon him to do him mischief How should it teach us to pray with David Lord teach me thy way and lead me in the right path because of mine enemy That is one thing I have to note Again another thing I have to note If Death be the last enemy then in all probability it is like to be the worst Of the Divels regiment it is I told ye before He is the General of the Army And beloved beleeve it the Divel is very politick and subtile in marshalling his forces he will not place his best Souldiers in the forefront of the battel but keeps them in the Reare he puts them behind that when all the rest have wearied and tired us they should set on us afresh He is so cunning a disputant that he reserveth the best arguments for the last A cunning Gamester that plaies his best play at the last A cunning Archer that shoots his best shaft at the last So since Death is the last Enemy it is like to be the sorest Now the sorer we are like to find him the carefuller we should be to arme against him alwayes to put our selves in a readiness that whensoever he cometh he may find us weaponed that if it were possible we might be alwayes doing as if we were dying it being the height of the perfection that any soul can attain to as the heathens themselves well obierved for a man to spend every day as if it were his last day That is one reason why the Apostle here calleth Death the last Enemy because the last is like to be the worst Again another reason As it is the last by which we are assaulted so it is the last that shall be destroyed That the Apostle principally meant here as Interpreters commonly understand it when he saith the last enemy that shall be Destroyed is Death he meant that Death is the Enemy that shall be destroyed last And this leadeth me to the last point I propounded to speak of That Death is an enemy and the last enemy and at last shall be destroyed It shall be destroyed that is one thing Who undertakes the doing of it Our selves In likelihood Death is more likely to destroy us then we it But as it is said of the seven-sealed book in the Revelation when there was none in heaven or in earth or under the earth that was able to open it the Lion of the tribe of Judah prevailed to open the book So the Lion of the tribe of Judah prevaileth to destroy this enemy that none in heaven or in earth or under the earth but only he is able to destroy He saith of him as David of Goliah when he defied the host of Israel and all men ran away Let no mans heart fail him So saith the son of David The Lord of David let no mans heart fail him I will go to fight with yonder Philistim Oh Death I will be thy death It is spoken in the person of Christ whom Saint Peter calleth the Lord of life He subdueth all Enemies and it is he that will destroy Death he will not leave him till he have trod him under foot But when will Christ do this We see Death playes the Tyrant still it killeth and spoyleth as fast as it did his sickle is in every ones harvest as fast as the corn grows up he cuts it down he leaveth not an ear standing How long Lord how long before this that the Apostle tells us of will be At last His meaning is at the general day of the Resurrection when the end of the world shall come then Christ shall destroy him And he bringeth it in the rather to assure the Corinths of that that some of them doubted of namely that there should be a Resurrection For unless the dead should arise how can Death be destroyed But Death shall be destroyed therefore it is out of question that the dead shall rise again But what comfort have we in the mean time if Death be not destroyed till then if till then it play the domineering Enemy No not so neither We have comfort enough in that that Christ hath already done Though it be not already destroyed yet it is already subdued It is not only subdued but disarmed and not only so but captivated and triumphed over He subdued it when he died in suffering death he overcame Death he beat him in his own ground at his own weapons in his own hold he disarmed him When he rose again then he spoyled him of his power and took his weapons away and triumphed over him in the open field When he ascended into heaven then he carried those spoils with him in token of conquest as Sampson took the Gates of Gaza on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill Christ by Death took the sting of Death away by his Resurrection he took the strength of Death away by his Ascension he took away the hope of Death for ever conquering or prevailing more finally at the last Judgement he will take away the name and Being of Death so that it shall never be more remembred but mortality shall be swallowed up of life I Christ hath done this for himself perhaps but what is this to us Nay Christ hath done it not only for his own victory but he hath given us victory he is not only a conqueror but he hath made us conquerors thanks be unto God that hath given us victory In a word Christ hath and will do by Death as he doth by our sins he hath subdued them already at the last he will utterly destroy them sin and Death both of them are already subdued at last they shall be abolished and destroyed that they
overcoming of all sin and by the vertue of Christ he shall prosper in this I beseech you therefore set your selves awork about this great business to get Repentance and Faith and New Obedience it is much more needful then sleep then meat then attire there is nothing in the world so requisite for thy welfare as these things Scrape thou riches together in the same quantity that Solomon did and ten thousands times more yet thou shalt see Death once within a hundred or half a hundred years Get wisdome yet thou shalt see Death after a few years Take pleasure with as much greediness as he did once when he forgat himself for a space yet thou shalt see death These things that the foolish world hunts after with so much earnestness of desire will not secure thee from the sight of the King of feares Death as Job calleth it But if thou once get Faith and Repentance and new obedience then thou hast obtained that that all the riches and honour and pleasures and learning or whatsoever seemeth desirable in the world will not help their possessors to What will you do brethren Grovel still on the earth and still be mad after back and belly Or will you now begin to think I must die I must shake hands with that dismal enemy pale-faced Death that is able to strike terrour into the strongest heart and amazement into the stoutest soul that is not well confirmed and if this Death find me destitute of true Repentance and Faith and New Obedience it will seize upon me and dragg me before the Judgement seat of God where I shall be Henced away with a malediction and curse and be forced to take my place with the Divel and his Angels in unquenchable flames Oh what shall I do then to secure my self from the great from the strong arme of death I will repent now I will begin Lord draw me help me that I may do it I will beleeve now Lord do thou work Faith that requirest it I will obey Lord inable me to preform such needful duties as thou commandest me Shall this be your practice when you come home Will you thus study to practise Repentance and Faith and Obedience and study to cry and call for it and use all your endeavour Or what will you do will you be as idle and careless as negligent and slothful in making after these graces as before Will you be as greedy of the transitory vanities of this life as in former times Oh abuse not the word of God If thou go out of the Church without a full purpose to apply thy self from hence forward either to begin or to proceed in the practise of the saying of Christ Cursed be thou in thy hearing cursed be that hour that thou hast spent and cursed be thy misbestowed labour thou dissembling hypocrite But if thou labour to practise this of Christ namely to keep his sayings the Doctrine of the Gospel to repent to beleeve and to obey blessed art thou in thy hearing and in thy doing and in thy obedience happy is the time and the place and all things that concur together to draw thee to so needful a work I pray Brethren set not your labour upon gold and silver and money and trash not upon the pleasures and delights and contentments of the world not on any other thing but mainly and principally above all things let your chief care be for Faith and Repentance and Obedience If you strive for these things earnestly and heartily and constantly as sure as the Lord is in heaven he will bestow them upon you and with them the benefit of benefits Freedome from Death And now I shall speak comfort to those few that are in the world that keep these sayings of Christ Let them be of good comfort if their capital enemy the King of fears and the King of Afflictions be held from a possiblity of doing them harm nothing can harme them He that Death cannot hurt paine cannot hurt poverty and disgrace cannot hurt nothing can hurt him You know if the King of an Army be reconciled to a place he will keep his Souldiers from spoyling and burning and destroying that place If Death be put out of power to do thee hurt and God be reconciled in Christ because thou keepest the saying of Christ nothing can hurt thee thou art the happiest man under the Sun Why should the poor sad afflicted grieved mourning lamenting Saints of God envie them that are rich and jolly and merry worldlings any of their pleasures and profits any of those things wherewith they like Idiots make themselves laugh at What hath not God given thee better things then he that thou shouldest murmure and whine and weep for want of them art thou still complaining for want of them Remember what Saint James faith Let the brother of low degree that is abased and dispised in the world rejoyce yea rejoyce with great boasting and glory in his Exaltation This is the exaltation of the Saints Christ writing his sayings in their hearts and inclining them through the operation of his Spirit and the powerful work of his Word to repent and beleeve hath freed them from the danger of Death and interessed them into eternal happiness and that blisse that no tongue can expresse nor no heart conceive This is thy happiness it is not to be rich or to be great for these cannot deliver the owner from the hurt of Death natural nor from the danger of Death eternal But to have Faith and Repentance and Obedience this is riches and exaltation for he that hath them shall not alone escape the Dungeon of eternal darkness but be advanced to the Palace of everlasting felicity The Saint is the happy man the penitent beleever and true practiser of Christian obedience he is the sole and only happy man under the Sun for whatsoever storme he suffereth in this present world he shall certainly escape Death and obtaine Glory Blesse God and bless thy self in God magnifie him rejoyce in him take comfort in thy lot and portion Death that devoureth Kings that destroyeth Emperours that conquers Captaines and men of valour shall not be able to approach thee for thy hurt for thou keepest the saying of the Lord Jesus Christ Rejoyce I say in this magnisie him that is the Authour of it and account thy self happy that thou hast receâ—…ed from him so excellent a gift as to be in some measure inabled to keep his saying Yea if it were so may some Christian heart object then I should esteem my self the happiest man alive â—… but alas where is this Repentance you describe where is this New Obedience in me that still still find my self captive and thral to passion to this and that and the other lust and divers corruptions Where is I say that Repentance when I find so much fin Where is that Faith when I find so much wavering and quaking so much aptness to distrust and almost
spirits meaneth to keep us under his discipline suppose it be all our time and perhaps it shall be so yet all that is but the time of our minority and therefore if we have been content to submit to our earthly parents their discipline for a few dayes shall we not much more be in subjection to the Father of spirits to his chastisement though it be for our life-time for the disproportion is infinitely greater between the time of this life compared with the state of maturity and ripe age which the Saints shall come to hereafter and the time of our minority and child-hood compared with the state of full age and man-hood in this life for alas how short are our dayes they are spent even as a tale that is told But lastly that the Apostle might over-power the spirits of the godly and quiet their minds and make them compose themselves to a patient waiting upon God and a willing submission to whatsoever condition he shall bring them into Our earthly parents saith he according to their pleasure and many times in the strength of passion and with over-much unadvisedness and heat of bloud not so much respecting the weak condition of their children chastened us but he that is our heavenly Father the Father of spirits for our profit and what profit that we might be partakers of his holiness This is an Argument I conceive very sutable to the occasion of our meeting together at this time in regard of those whom more especially and neerly it concerneth the Parents of this deceased young Gentleman whom the Lord is pleased now deeply to afflict and to reach out to them a bitter Cup I shall endeavour therefore to speak somewhat in this Argument And though it concerns them in a more special manner yet it is a meditation that concerns us all to take knowledge of and such a one as if we belong to God and that the Lord hath a purpose to bring to heaven we shall have occasion in our time to make often use of Passing over therefore other things let us come to consider of this latter part of the verse and of the latter part of the comparison here framed by the Apostle in order to the strengthning of his main Argument whereby he urgeth his exhortation to the patient bearing of those Afflictions that God shall be pleased to exercise us withall Our earthly Parents for a few dayes chastened us after their own pleasure but He the Father of our spirits for our profit that he might make us a partaker of his holiness In the words themselves we have to consider these particulars And the main pillars of our discourse for the present letting passe the rest shall be these severals First we are to take knowledge of this point in the general viz. That God Almighty is graciously set to procure and further the good and profit of his people Secondly and more particularly That in all the afflictions and chastisments he bringeth upon his people his eye and aim is at their good Thirdly The great profit and benefit that God aimeth at and intendeth to his people in all his fatherly administrations especially of castigation is that be might make them partaker of his holiness I begin with the first and the more general point You see the Text importeth it plain enough that God Almighty is graciously set for to procure and promote and further the good and benefit and profit of his people of such as fear his name of such as he is pleased to receive for his own his heart I say is set upon them to do them good he is studious of their profit he hath a due respect to their benefit in all his dealings and administrations to them Next to his own glory which is dearest to him of all things else and good reason too for that is better then salvation and eternal happiness But I say next to his own glory and the glory of his beloved Son Jesus Christ the main thing that he aimeth at is that he might make his people happy with him and that they might be every way profited and advantaged both in soul and body and furthered to eternal happiness This will appear to us if we consider first The ordinances of God which he hath appointed in order to his peoples good Secondly if we consider his commandements and impositions And Thirdly if we consider all his various administrations toward them All which will clearly manifest to us that Gods aim in all is at the profit and benefit of his people I shall touch but upon some particulars and on them neither I shall but onely glance because I would keep my self within the compass of the time First consider the Lords ordinances that he hath provided for his people and calleth them out to give attendance upon they are all with respect to his peoples profit and an eye to that As for instance That great Ordinance which God hath set up in his Church namely that of preaching and dispensing of the sacred misteries of the Gospel it is with respect to his peoples profit To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in Christ That they might be brought into the fellowship of this mistery and be inriched with all the treasures of the Gospel And the Apostle saith that all Scripture which this ordinance of Preaching is to be conversant about that Scripture which we are to break abroad among you this way it is profitable Profitable for Doctrine for reproof for instruction for correction and it will make the man of God perfect So profitable as that it is able to perfect a man to make him wise to salvation and we need no more wisdom The like might I speak concerning the Sacrament of the Lords Supper It is instituted of God with an eye to his peoples benefit that they may come to be made partakers of that profitable flesh and bloud for so I may justly call it of the Lord Jesus It is not the bloud of Bulls and of Goats it is not the bloud of all the men in the world that is profitable for such purposes as the pacifying of the wrath of God the quenching of the flames of his displeasure the purging of the conscience from dead works of those we may say as David in another case what profit is there in my bloud But there is profit in the bloud of Christ and with respect to that this ordinance is provided in the Church that the people of God attending thereon according to his institution may come to be made partakers of the vertue and benefit thereof having the remission of their sins thereby sealed up to their consciences through faith in that bloud The like Instance might I give of Prayer and the rest of those holy ordinances
rage violent and they march on with much fury against the godly they intend their utter ruin and devastation and purpose nothing less But O Assyrian saith God the rod of mine anger and the staffe in their hand is mine indignation howbeit he meaneth not so neither doth his heart think so but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off But saith the Lord whatsoever his meaning is I know what my intentions are he is but the rod in mine hand and I will give such stroaks with it as my people may bear and such as may be for their profit This I say should comfort us concerning all the instruments of our suffering whatsoever they be The Physitian you know applieth the horse-leaches to his distemppred Patient the Horse-leech intendeth nothing but the satiating and filling himself with the bloud of the sick party but the Physitan hath another aim even the drawning out of the putrified and corrupted blood God suffereth wicked men devils as Horse-leeches to suck his people to draw their blood but it is in order to their good it is no matter what wicked men think though Ashur think not so yet God purposeth it and aims at it and in conclusion effects it and then saith he it shall come to pass that when the Lord hath performed his whole worke upon mount Sion I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria and the glory of his high looks Again in the third place Seeing this is Gods aim in all his afflictions whatsoever the instrument be how sharp soever the castigation be or of what nature whether it be in a spiritual way by sore temptations and buffetings of Satan or outwardly by losses in our estate or death of friends c. seeing I say this is Gods purpose and intent that his people may be profited Let us quietly and patiently apply our selves unto God and expect the quiet and peaceable fruit of righteousness that shall spring up in due time to those that are this way exercised by the Lord Look for it and press on to this quietly to wait on the Lord our God for a blessed fruit of such administrations An argument ab utili is an argument of great prevail what will not men do for Profit It is for profit that men rise up early and go to bed late and eat the bread of carefulness The Husband-man takes much pains and plows his ground endures many sharp storms and piercing winters the Merchant runs divers hazards abroad and all for profit so should we be willing patiently and quietly to submit to Gods dealing humbly to apply our selves to his wise and fatherly administrations seeing he intendeth by it our profit And take heed of murmuring and repining against the Lord this will make him indeed to lay heavier blows upon us an impatient Patient makes the Physitian deal more harshly and a strugling child procureth for himself the more and sorer stripes what though our potion be bitter so long as it is wholesome have we not reason to submit our selves But here is the main thing we stick at You may happily reply Indeed if we could see our corruptions subdued our hearts humbled the pride that is within us abated and that God would be pleased to bring us more neeâ—…er to him and make us more heavenly minded and wean our affections from the world If we could see the fruit of all our sufferings and temptations and crosses it would be an abundant satisfaction to our souls but alas alas we cannot see this profit our hearts are still full of many spiritual distempers and great prevailings of evil there is upon us notwithstanding all these Storms and Frosts and tempestuous hard Winters yet these weeds of wickedness grow and are marvellous lively this is the bitterness of the cup and this is that which sinketh the heart most under all those pressures which lie upon us To which I answer first we must judge rightly and wisely and consider well whether it be the time for the fruit of affliction to spring forth No affliction for the present seemeth joyous and no affliction it may be for the time of its working appeareth commodious But saith the Apostle they do bring forth the quiet fruit of righteousness Again secondly we may perhaps bear too much upon the physick alas afflictions and crosses of themselves they will rather drive us further then draw us nearer unto God we are therefore to submit our selves unto God in his way of administration and to intreat his blessing upon them that through that they may be made successful As every creature so every condition both of prosperity and adversity is sanctifled to us by the Word and by prayer And take heed of disputing against the Lord as we are apt to do he is wise above all that we can conceive he is wonderful in working and knoweth now to bring about the good of his people in a wonderful way what if he will plunge thee into the mire in order to holiness what if Christ will put clay upon a mans eyes in order to sight a medicine more likely to put out his eyes Considering therefore that God is wise and wonderful in his working let us apply our selves to him and in due time we shall see the fruit and benefit of all his administrations I should now have come to the third and last proposition and that was That this profit that God aimeth at in all his castigations of his children is to make them partakers of his holiness And this is profit indeed when God thereby draweth us from the world and makes us more heavenly minded and more dead to the creature purgeth away our dross and takes away that filth and corruption that is in us oh this will acquit all the cost and make amends for all the labour and pains and hardship we have been made to endure But I shall forbear to insist upon this So much for the Text. There is a word to be spoken according to custome with respect to the occasion of our meeting I have done the main part of my task which was to present to you a word of instruction and therefore for the occasion concerning this young gentleman disceased whose Funerals we now solemnize I shall but speak a few words and so conclude I need not to speak any thing concerning his parentage and discent nor much concerning his education I am cousident that that was religious and gracious and such as wherein there was a second travel in order to his spiritual birth that Jesus Christ might be formed in him For his own particular though I can speak nothing upon my own knowledge being a meer stranger yet I have such a testimony concerning him from those that deserve credence both of me and you as that I shall conclude that of him as may give us good hope concerning his final and eternal estate If so be contrition of
all the Angels and Saints in Heaven the spirits of just men made perfect to Abrahams bosome to be with Christ Et quanta 〈◊〉 felicitas What greater happiness 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 eternal fellowship with God the father with Christ the Redeemer with the Holy Ghost the sanctifier The knowledg of this benefit of Death makes the face of it comfortable to Gods servants and causes them to strive with their own natural weakness 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 sin And else-where he stiles it Christs enemy the last enemy that he shall subdue is Death How should not death then be rather a day of misery to be trembled at then a day of happiness to be longed for To this I answer that we are to distinguish touching Death for it must be considered two wayes First as it is in its owe nature Secondly as it is altred by Christ in the first sence it is true that Death is the wages of sin 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 door opening out of this world into Heaven Now the godly look 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 we read of many that have prayed against death as namely first David Return O Lord faith he and deliver my soul oh spare me for thy mercies sake for in death there is no remembrance of thee Secondly Hezekiah when the message of death was brought to him Thirdly Christ himself Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me To all these I answer first touching David that when he composed that sixt Psalm he was not only grievously sick but also exceedingly tormented in mind for he wrastled and combated in his conscience with the wrath of God as appears by the first Verse of that Psalm therefore we must know that he prayed not simply against Death but against death at that time in asmuch as the coming of it was accompanied with extraordinary apprehensions of Gods wrath for at another time he tells us that he would not fear though he walked through the valley of the shaddow of Death And the like I say touching Hezekiah that his prayer proceeded not from any desperate fear of Death but first that he might do more service to God in his Kingdom And with such a kind of thought was Saint Pauls desire of dissolution mingled Secondly he prayed against Death then because he knew that his death then would be a great cause of rejoycing to evil men to whom his reformation in the State was unpleasing Thirdly because he wanted issue God had promised before to David that there should not fail a man of his seed to sit upon the throne of Israel so that his children did take heed to their wayes Now it was a great discomfort to him to die chidless for then he and others might have thought that he was but an Hypocrite in as much as God had promised issue to all those Kings that feared him and for this cause God heard his prayer and after two years gave him a son Manasseh by name And so I say the same touching our Saviour Christ that he prayed not against Death as it is the separation betwixt Body and Soul as appears by what the Apostle faith that he was heard in that he feared for he stood in our room 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 he feared and from this according to his prayer he was delivered But thirdly we see in most good men a fear of Death and a desire of life and I my self may some godly man say do feel my self ready to tremble at the meditation thereof and yet I hope I belong unto God I answer that there are two things to be 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 weak And as in all other good purposes there is a combate betwixt the flesh and the spirit so is there in this betwixt the fear of Death and the desire of Death sometime the one prevails and sometimes the other but yet alwayes at last the desire of Death doth get the victory Carnal respects do often prevail far with the best care of wise children and the like These 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 clearly the happiness into which their Death in Christ shall enter them do even sigh desiring to be clothed upon with their house which is from Heaven Here then is a good Mark 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 be most for the comfort of those that truly fear God I demand therefore of thee Dost thou know that the confident and comfortable expectation of Death is the work of the Holy Ghost in Gods servants Dost thou desire unfeignedly that the same may be wrought in thy heart Dost thou labour to know what happiness comes by Death to those that feare the Lord Dost thou grieve at thine own weakness to whom the thought of Death is sometime troublesome and unsavory Dost thou pray the Lord so to assure thee of his favour in Christ that death may be 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 these things shew that thou art Gods servant and that by Death the Lord will draw thee to a place of rest If these thoughts which I have now named be strangers to thy heart and thou dost not love to trouble thy self to study about Death it is an evil sign The servants of God are not wont to be so secure in matters of this quality And thus much for the first particular in the first general part the desire in the godly of death the second is their care for it the point thence is that It is the care of Gods servants to be alwayes so prepared for death as at what instant soever the Lord shall send it they
may be comfortably ready to entertain it So much may easily be gathered out of Simeons words here Nunc dimittis Now let thy servant depart He did not as it were take a day over in which and against which to be provided as though he should have said Lord now will I settle my self to make provision for my last end but even now Lord at this very instant if thou wilt Death hath been my ordinary meditation and if thou wilt now call me home to thee I am ready to depart As in the former point I shewed you how Saint Pauls longing agreed with Simeons Oh let thy servant depart faith Simeon I desire to be dissolved faith Paul So here I will shew you that there was the same care in respect of Death in Saint Paul as in Simeon Now if thou wilt faith Simeon I am now ready to be offered faith Saint Paul And else-where I did daily I am ever thinking upon death and daily making provision for my end This was holy Jobs mind All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait till my change come there was a continual expectation So teach us to number our dayes prayeth Moses that we way apply our hearts to wisdome And what wisdome did he wish he might apply his heart unto but this a holy care to make provision for another world seeing in this there was no continuance The same in effect the Authour to the Hebrews professeth touching himself and those that were like to him that they had here no continuing City but did seek one to come We know faith he here is no abiding we dwell in tents which must remove in houses of clay which will be broken therefore we desire to be ever ready for that place which is of more perpetuity And so much may be gathered from that which is upon record concerning Joseph of Arimathca he did not only make ready his Tomb in his life-time but in his garden his place of solace and delight and how could so good a man so often think on death without labouring and caring to be ever provided for the same and therefore our Saviour Christ compares his faithful servants unto those which daily wait for their Masters coming Now the reason which so much prevails with the godly in this particular and which ought to be of sufficient force with every one is first the certainty and uncertainy of death Morte nihil certius As sure as Death is an ordinary Proverb What man is he that liveth and shall not see death faith the Psalmist That all must die it is Heavens decree and cannot be revoked The thing it self we see is most certain yet for some circumstances most uncertain for first Tempus est incertum No man knows when he shall die in the night or in the day in Winter or in Summer in youth or in his latter age Secondly Locus est incertus None know where they shall die whether at home or abroad in his bed or in the field who knows but that he may die in the Church of God even while he is asleep at the Word Thirdly Mortis genusest incertum No man can determine how he shall die whether suddenly or by a lingring sickness whether violently or by a natural course These things the servants of God know full well and seriously weigh the same and that makes them to make conscience of continual preparation that whensoever or wheresoever or howsoever they die they may with comfort commend their souls into the hands of God as into the hand of a faithful Creatour Secondly they know the misery of being taken by Death unprepared put case a man should die as Ishbosheth lying upon his bed at noon or as Jobs children while they are seasting or that a man like the rich man in the Gospel should have his breath taken from him at the very instant having made no provision for another world what hope can there be that such a one should be saved They know thirdly that the time of sickness is the most unfit time for this business of preparation the senses are then so taken up with the pain of sickness that a man cannot think seriously upon ought else and besides it is not in our own power to turn to God when he will ordinarily God forgets those in sickness that forget him in health And it is commonly seen that that preparation for Death that begins but in sickness is as languishing and faint as is the party from whom it comes And although Vera poenitentia be nunquam sera yet sera poenitentia est raro vera Though I say true repentance be never too late yet late repentance is seldome true when men leave their sins because they can continue to practise them no longer what thanks have they or what can that repentance be These things work with Gods servants to study to be ever ready for the Lord not to delay preparation but to seek continually to be provided My exhortation hence shall begin with that speech of Moses Oh that men would be wise to understand this and that they would consider their latter end I would there were a heart in us to entertain this doctrine in our best thoughts I remember the Complaint of old that men had made a Covenant with Death and were at agreement with Hell Death indeed will make truce with no man but here is the meaning Evil men perswade themselves that they are in no danger of hell or of the grave Death will not come yet thinketh the oldest man and when it comes I hope I shall do well enough thinketh the most godless man Thus men couzen themselves with their own fancies and so Death steals upon them at unawares and becomes Gods Sergeant to arrest them and to carry them away to eternal condemnation Who amongst us is able to say truly and upon good ground as Simeon Now Lord if thou wilt now command Death to seize upon me welcome shall it be unto me I am even now ready to receive it How many are there that are extraordinary ignorant in the means how to escape the sting of Death How many extreamly secure that never in their lives yet thought earnestly upon this how they may die with comfort and end their dayes in peace How many prophane ones that set light by Death being apt to say like those Epicures Edamus c. Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die How many that do put all to a desperate adventure God made us and he must save us and we shall do as well as please God and there is an end How many are there whose hearts albeit they be in the house of God and in his presence are notwithstanding fraughted with malice with envy with worldliness with disdain with secret scorning repining at the Word which they hear with wearisomeness with spiritual sleepiness and security You
that are such as I have now said think in your consciences what would you die if God should now stop your breath and ascite you by Death presently to appear before his Majesty being thus full of ignorance of security of presumption of unsanctified of vicious of malicious of covetous thoughts could you find in your hearts to say Lord now let us depart Sure we could not but Death must needs be to us as it is said to be to the wicked Rex terrorum the King of terrours if it should come upon us and find us in this case And yet what know we how soon how suddenly we may be overtaken some of us drop away daily some young some old some lie sick longer some lesser time and how soon it will be our turn we cannot tell Our hreath is in our nostrills we are all as grass If the breath of the Lord blow upon us we do suddenly wither as the slower of the field and return again to our first Earth Why will we not labour to be now ready sith it may be alwayes truly said We may now depart either while we are here or in our way home or in our beds or at our meat Who can truly say to himself I am sure I shall not die this hour It may be now thou wilt demand of me What shall I do that I may be ready To insist upon particulars would be too long onely therefore in a word The best preparation for death is a reformed life He that lives religiously cannot but die preparedly And it is a thousand to one if a wicked liver make a gracious end The Scripture makes mention of a double Death and so likewise of a twofold Resurrection the first Death is the death of the body which is the separation of it from the soul The second death is of the soul which is the separation of it from God The first Resurrection is the rising from the Death of sin to a new life the second is that which shall be of the body out of the Grave at the day of Judgment Now what faith the Scripture Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no power Wouldest thou then be freed from the second Death hell destruction when thou art dead Now that thou art yet alive labour to have a part in the first Resurrection Note what Saint Paul faith of the wanton widdow that she is dead whilst she lives So he that lives in the pleasures of sin and in the wayes of his own heart and after his own lust he is dead in soul though he be alive in body and if he seek not to come out of this grave eternal death shall be his portion Well then wouldest thou prepare for Death wouldest thou be able alwayes to say Lord now now I am ready labour to know God out of his Word that is eternal life Labour to feel Christ live and raign in thee by his Spirit labour to renounce every sin do not go on in any known sin against conscience renew thy repentance daily and still survey the state of thy soul that wickedness may not get dominion over thee Let Death come when it will though the Lord should so visit thee that thou shouldest drop down suddenly yet it shall not find thee unprepared thou hast a part in the first Resurrection there is no fear of the second Death But if thou wilt cherish thy heart in evil thou wilt go on in thy ignorance in thy careless worship of God in thy prophaning the Sabbath in thy whoredom oppression malice drunkenness excess voluptuousness thou makest ready for hell and it is not thy Lord save me or I cry God mercy c. that shall serve thy turn I will tell thee who thou art like unto even to a man appointed after a year or two to be burned and in the mean space must carry a stick daily to the heap so thou heapest up wrath against thy self and makest thy score so great that when Death comes thou shalt not know how to be prepared And thus have I finished the first general part of my Text touching the disposition of the godly in respect of Death I proceed now in a word to the second the ground rule or warrant of this desire and preparation for death according to the word as if Simeon had said this desire that I have now to end my dayes proceeds not from any carnal discontentment because I am now old and can take no great comfort in worldly things but the ground of it is thy word and Promise thou Lord hast revealed unto thy servant that I should not die before I had seen my Saviour This word is now fulfilled and the sweetness thereof hath given me that encouragement that I do even long to be dissolved and to be united unto thee Or again thus Oh Lord this care that I have had to provide thus for Death and to be alwayes in a readiness it hath not come from my self nature never taught it me but thy Word hath instructed me If I had not proceeded according to thy Word I should never have known how to have prepared my self to the time of dissolution This is the meaning of the words and so the Doctrine is plain viz. that Men ignorant in Gods word can never take comfort in death nor be truly prepared to undergo it This is plain if we consider the Exposition which I have already given of that part of Simeons speech It is a general Rule that of our Saviour Ye err not knowing the Scripture A man ignorant in the Scripture can never rightly perform any spiritual duty Hence was that of David Thy testimonies faith he are my delight and my counsellors If any matter came in hand that concerned his soul straight to the word of God went he to know thence how to do it as a man for his Lease or conveyance goeth to a Counsellor for direction So again he confesses that if Gods Law had not been his delight he should have perished in his afflictions And so no comfort no true quiet in any trouble much more at Death without the guidance and information of the Word The assurance that the sting of Death is plucked out that Gods wrath is appeased that sin is pardoned that Heaven gate is opened whence shall we fetch these but from the Scripture the directions for a holy life which is the best preparation for Death where shall we find them but in the Scripture Here then we see is a Caveat to all that have no will nor desire to be acquainted with the Scripture Divers think they should have done well enough though we had no such Book as we call the word of God To be a Scripture-man is a by-word a reproach a matter of disgrace and sooner will men listen to some idle Pamphlet then to a matter of Scripture Well beguile
that is onely in the former part and most of all in the latter part only in the former part that straitneth and restratheth our hope most of all in the latter part that inlargeth our misery and so it may well for when the hope is restrained to the present there the misery may be infinitely inlarged But not for the present is our hope only for the present ergo c. I need say no more it is the Text. I shall raise to you six several Consectaries or Corrollaries or Conclusions that naturally arise out of this Scripture and I purpose at this time to run them all through it must be roundly it shall be plainly do you hear patiently The first Assertion we make out of the Text it is this that The faithful are hopeful The godly have hope we have hope that is taken for granted The second concerneth the object of this hope and the Point is this that Christ is the object of the Christians hope We have hope in Christ The third is touching the time of our hope and that is for this life the Lesson is this that The life-time it our hope-time We have hope in this life The fourth is that Hope in this life it is not onely of the things of this life Not only of this life for if in this life only we have hope oh no take that away our hope in this life is not onely set upon the things of this life If in this life onely not so Fistly this life you see how that standeth convertible with another term in the Text with misery shewing thus much that This life is miserable The last is that The faithful the hopeful they are not of all the most miserable they are not miserable at all Then were we miserable but the former being not true that cannot be true These are the six Points Of which to content my self with a touch of them as I pass along and so onely to present them severally unto you I begin with the first that The faithful they are hopeful We have hope so are the words Faith is the evidence of things hoped for so saith the Apostle Heb. 11.1 And they that have access through this Grace they rejoyce in hope of the glory of God they go joyned together Hope is a constant expectation of the performance of such promises of God as we apprehend out of his Word by faith For example Faith doth beleeve Gods promises to be true Hope doth expect the performance of them according to that truth By Faith we beleeve God to be our Father by Hope we expect that he should shew himself such a one to us By Faith we do beleeve eternal life by Hope we attend when this life shall be revealed Spe as one speaks what is it else but persever antia sidei the perseverance of Faith Faith is the Mother Hope is the Daughter the Mother is iucouraged and comforted by the daughter as Naomi was by Ruth Hence it is that the holy Apostle Saint Peter he ascribeth the salvation of our souls to our faith saying that the end of our faith is the salvation of our souls Well and Saint Paul he assureth the same to belong unto Hope saying we are saved by Hope So then Faith saith I beleeve these blessed promises of God to be true and Hope faith I see them and I wait for the enjoyment of those things that are reserved for me Thus Faith and Hope are woven one in another Thus the faithful are the hopeful We have Hope That 's the first Point The Use of this Point briefly it shall be but this First to teach us to seek and to find out this Hope in our selves And secondly to strive and to fight against some impediments that oppose themselves and are hindrances of this Hope First thou must go and seek thy self and search out and find whether thou hast this Hope in thee yea or no and thou must be sure that thou beest so far from being a desperate past-hope like Cain that rather thou beleeve and hope above hope with Abraham not presumiug but beleeving as he did Now then how a man may know whether he have this Hope in him or no I think he may find it out thus in few words There are divers temptations and especially three of a mans faith not to enlar ge my self further in every of which Hope if it come in and play its part then it doth appear to be present to be there As for example The first temptation that is a kind of battery against the strong hold of a mans faith it is the prorogation of Gods promises He is pleased to put them off longer and to dispose of them many times other waies then we look for Hereupon we that are weak in Faith we stumble at it and we would hasten them on apace though we know what the Prophet saith He that beleeveth maketh not hast But we are such faithless persons that we hasten on too much and would have God to come apace to make good his promises Now when God defers these promises if a man cometh in with his hope and faith The vision is yet for an appointed time though it tarry wait for that that shall come will come and he will not tarry and though the Lord doth hide himself as it is in the Prophesie of Isaiah yet he will return again If Hope will prompt Faith and tell it that the Lord is not slack as some count slackness but he will make sure his promise in the end then this is a manifest sign to a man that hath his faith thus supported that Hope is present there Here is then one search of it Another time there is another temptation that betideth a faithful man and that comes to pass by Gods appearing in a manner an enemy by visiting him in his soul by wounding his conscience by setting him in a kind of sight of Hell when he is distressed in spirit as if God were now come out as a man of War against him and would not have mercy upon him Now if Hope can come in and say that God cannot forget to be gracious nor cannot shut up his loving kindness in displeasure and therefore I will endure and I will stay on the Lord for He will appear and He will have mercy upon Zion I when the time the appointed time cometh I will stay this time If I say Hope thus perswadeth the faithful man of this goodness of God that shall be revealed to him here is a manifest sign Hope is present There is a third temptation that Faith meets withall and that is concerning the mockings of men in the World when they deride the profession of Christians and faithful men and will say as those profane and profuse fellows in the Epistle of Saint Peter Where is the promise of his coming it is so long since his promise was made
Apostle Rom. 8.15 a man is then said to wait for death when he is looking for it at every turn as a Steward waits for his Master when he continually expects his return when upon every voyce he hears or upon every knock at the door he saith oh my Master is come this is he that knocks So a man is said to wait for death when in every action of his life in every motion of his estate in every passage of his courses saith well I must die when though his bones are full of marrow yet I must die when though riches come in like a flood yet I must die when changes appear upon himself or others yet I must die I have no abiding here I am but a sojourner and a stranger as all my fathers were I must not enjoy my Wife for ever Children for ever Friends for ever Lands for ever these comforts for ever my life for ever it is but a lease which may soon expire I am but a steward and I must be called to an account such a one is gone before and I must follow after the writ of Habeas Corpus hath seized on him and for ought I know the next may be for me so when death comes I am ready to answer it as Abraham did his Son Isaac here I am it comes not upon me as a thief in the night when I am asleep and think not of him but as Jonathans arrow to David who stayed in the field and expected when it should be shot and then he rose up and embraced him Yee brethren faith Paul in 1 Thes 5.4 are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a theif ye are all the children of the light therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober This is the first thing that waiting imports Another thing it imports is a serious preparation for the day of our change for it is not a naked expectation of a change arising from the certainty of death but it is also a religious preparation improving the intrim of time for the best advantage for a mans soul before the day of change doth come which is here implyed in waiting Solomon calls it a remembring Eccles 12.1 Remember thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth whiles the evil dayes come not and the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them what is this remembring of the Creator but a care to know him a fear to offend him a study to obey him and when is that to be done Now now remember there must be a present acting of this Moses calls it a numbring of our dayes Psal 90.12 and more then that such a numbring as is joyned with an applying of our hearts to wisedome and the reason is because wisedome it directs to the choyce of such particular actions and works as tend to happiness so should a man after his serious consideration of death apply himself to such wayes and such actions by which he may comfortably close up his life with death it is a great point of wisdome to sute actions with their ends to sit and square the wood before we build the house to learn and discipline a troop before they go to battel to rig and trim and furnish the ship before we launch to sea this is preparation indeed Now this preparation for death consists in two things First in an undoing of that which unsits us to die Brethren he who is not fit to live he is not yet fit to die and that which ever masters the life will be of greatest force in death The Father spake it boldly on good grounds I am not ashamed to live nor afraid to die now that which unfits a man to die is sin it makes him find a bitter enemy of death Oh when this Kng of terrours shall present himself by thy bed side with his arrows in his hands I mean thy sins he will wound thee with infinite amazement and horrour the sting of death is sin faith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. Thou dost not prepare thy self for death if thou dost not undo thy sins which thou hast done in thy life the which consists First in a narrow search of thy sinfulness both of nature and practice Secondly in a secret humbling of thy soul for them Thirdly in an unfeigned repentance and forsaking of them Fourthly in a constant imploring and obtaining of mercy for them in the blood of Christ If thy soul doth give sin its discharge now death shall give thy soul a discharge hereafter Secondly in the qualifying our persons for the conquest of death there are three things by which we shall be able chearfully to meet and assuredly to conquer death First by having interest in the Lord Jesus the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God who hath given us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ If thou hast gotten Christ into thy arms by faith thou carriest thy peace strength and advantage both through life and death For we are â—…ove then conquerors through him that loved us saith the Apostle Rom. 8.37 And to me to live is Christ and to die is gain faith the same Apostle Phil. 11 21. If thou hast a good Christ thou maist be consident of a good death Secondly renewedness of our nature What Saint John spake of he Martyes as some conjecture Blessed and happy is he that hath part in the first 〈◊〉 on such the second death hath no power that say I of a person renewed by the sanctifying quality of Gods Spirit I happy is he he shall have power even over the first death The Spirit and the Bride saith come if a man hath gotten the heavenly Spirit which beautifies the soul with the ornaments of Grace as the Bride is with her ornaments he is a fitted person he may well say to Death come and to Christ come Lord Jesus come quickly Thirdly uprightness of conversation Righteousness delivers form death saith Solomon and the righteous hath hope in his death if a mans work be Christs service if he have a heart enclined to keep a good conscience in all things to keep himself exact to the rule and to walk with God Blessed is that servant which his Master when be cometh shall find so doing that man that hath looked to Gods Word to guide his life may confidently look up to Gods mercy to comfort him in death Remember O Lord saith Hezekiah Isa 39. how I have walked before thee intruâ—…h and with a perfect bea rt Now all this doth the waiting for our change import in the Text to wit a serious expectation of it first by undoing those sins of ours which else for eyer will undo us and by interesting our persons into Christ from whom we must likewise receive the Spirit to change our hearts and uprightness to form a new our conversation But then you will say
the world that desireth not that every Saint should be gathered in and the whole body of Christ perfected in the whole members of it before Christ come to judgment None must be neglected every beleever must frame his will to the will of God God hath revealed that the number must be gathered in and when it is so Christ will come and gather all together under his wing Now the Saints of God think not much that the number should be gathered in they are well contented with it So likewise God hath revealed his will that though he be exceeding patient to wicked men yet he is not forgetful of his promise God will be contented though he be provoked every day infinitely by the highest sins of the world patiently to endure all this and to offer conditions of peace and mercy even to the worst to shew himself rich in mercy and so full of goodness that he makes offer even of goodness to the worst Now the Saints of God here frame their will to Gods and are content still to wait because God still putteth forth his patience and still offereth Conditions of mercy and peace to those that are wicked and out of the way whereby some are converted and others convinced and prepared for the work of Gods justice So this question need not trouble men or hold them off from a chearful and fruitfull expectation of Christ though he come not in our age as he hath not in others before The use of the Point is this First if this be the property of the godly to wait and earnestly to expect the coming of Christ then we may observe the general ungodliness of the World by the general want of this expectation And if ye say but who is there that doth not expect the second coming of Christ and who doth not beleeve that he shall come to judge the quick and the dead I answer notwithstanding that every man confesse this Article of faith with his mouth yet every man beleeveth it not with his heart for every man frameth not himself according to the faith of it Very few are those faithful servants that wait and prepare for their Masters coming Christ when he cometh he shall scarce find faith on the earth What a number of Men and Women are there though they hear these things and they are beaten upon them upon many occasions and they are in their judgments convinced that it must be so yet notwithstanding the faith of their hearts apprehend it not they do not beleeve it they do not listen and frame to it We like Caleb tell them of the good Land and the fat of the Land and the fruit of the Land and the fulness of the Land of Canaan but generally men like the unthankful Israelites murmure and repine and rebel and scarce hear us or if they do they do not beleeve it For if men did beleeve it it could not be that men should live like Saduces as they do that neither beleeve the soul nor immortality neither that there are spirits nor Devils nor resurrection nor nothing the lives and conversations of men plainly bewray that they beleeve not this Doctrine though they can profess with the mouth that Jesus Christ shall come again to judge the quick and the dead but like the Cardinal of whom we read that profest he would not give his part in Paris for his part in Paradise so men live as if they would not give their part here on earth for a Childs part in Heaven Like that wicked Pope that we read of when he was about to die now saith he I shall know that which I never beleeved whether there be a Heaven or Hell an immoatality of the soul or no. So men live as if they never meant to know those things or beleeve them till they come to the tryal and experience of them And besides what a number of men and women are there that can profess these things with their mouth but they cast themselves into a fast sleep in sin and security and sleep on both sides Gods Messengers and Ministers cannot awake them but as though their souls were to sleep everlastingly so they sleep on in their lusts and sins and will not be awakened And my brethren who doth not observe that it is not the fashion of men even of those that profess themselves Christians to say come Lord Jesus till they be on their death-beds and till they be scarce able to speak or breath out a word they never say come Lord Jesus till they know not what to do with themselves till they can enjoy their lusts and the World and their sins no longer they cannot tell how to bequeath themselves longer to the service of sin and unrighteousness till then they never call after the Lord Jesus to come to them and when they do it is not out of love and affection to Christ but out of self-love to help them out of the hands of death that is too strong for them and to fetch them out of that misery they are too weak to sustain Therefore they call Lord Jesus but as I said it is far from the love of him in their hearts for were these men to live over their lives again and to be restored to health again it would be the last breath of their lives still to call the Lord Jesus My brethren where these things are and we find them too general every man that looks into his own heart may find himself in some measure touched therein certainly it cannot be that this same lively desire of a Christian can be there and these persons can have little comfort in themselves they have few arguments to prove themselves Elect of God having the Spirit of God or to be those that hear the promises with faith or those that thirst after Christ there is no argument in them that they are Christs because they long not and desire after him But therefore in the second place since this desire is so rare let us try our selves a little even those that profess better things and hope well that they are indeed the Spouse of Christ Let us try and search our selves whether this expectation be with us or no that we may find comfort in our estate and in our union and conjunction with Christ For tryal of this Point first we must know that a necessary attendant and companion of this expectation of Christ and waiting for him is sighing and longing and a vehement desire after him It is no slight no superficial desire but an inward vehement desire a sighing and panting after Christ as those that see the need of him And therefore as the Wise man saith hope deferred paines the heart the godly desires of the soul bring pains to the soul for want of Christ in the absence of Christ And as the Apostle expresseth it in Rom. the 8. We sigh in our selves saith he wayting for the redemption of our bodies We sigh in
angry with the World they feel not the wrath of God therefore they conclude he is no God and as long as God holds off from punishing they hold off from praying His Judgments prove him a God when his Mercies cannot perswade the world so much Every man hastens to seek the Lord when he is angry his Justice terrifies us his Mercy hardens us his Goodness makes us to rebel his Anger teacheth us to pray we forget God when he is gracious and fly amain to him when he threatens Let us often think of the wrath of God and let the thought of it so far work upon us as to keep us in a constant awe and fear of God and let this fear drive us to God by prayer that fearing as we ought we may pray as we are commanded and praying we may prevent the wrath of God If our present sorrows do not move us God will send greater and when our sorrows are grown too great for us we shall have little heart or comfort to pray Let our fears then quicken our prayers and let our prayers be such as are able to avercome our fears so both wayes shall we be happy in that our fears have taught us to pray and our prayers have made us to fear no more Now is the time for us to pray before grief wax too strong for us for the time may come when we shall not be able to pray by reason of the sense and feeling of the wrath of God upon us Now our prayers in the time of health may be as Incense before the Lord as a sweet odour in the nostrils of God but if we neglect to offer up this Incense we must look for the Incense of Vengeance to fall down upon us Apoc. 8.5 If God take the Cenfer in his hand and fill it with the fire of his wrath then follows nothing but thundrings lightnings and terrible commotions in the Soul Vespasian Gonzaga gave for his Symbol three Flashes of Lightning the first did touch the second did burn the third did rend and tear in pieces The first affliction haply may lightly touch and affect us the second may scare us and stir up the fire of devotion in us but the third will prove so terrible as that it will tear asunder all our prayers so terrifie our spirits as that we shall not be able to pour out our complaints before the Lord or acquaint him w th our troubles The anger of God at the first may be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a little Cloud as big as a Mans hand but if we neglect it it may break out upon us with that fierceness violence as that it may interrupt our prayers and hinder the ascent of them to the Throne of Grace Therefore before the wrath of God break forth upon us let us seriously think of it and prevent it by our prayers Let a timely fear incite our prayers and quicken our devotion This holy fear will kindle an holy devotion in our hearts and as a watchful keeper of the heart shall suffer no thoughts to break forth but such as shall amount alost to Heaven As cold water makes the fire more fierce and vehement so does this fear make our prayers more earnest and servent And this is our first Observation The fear of Gods wrath drives us to our prayers and makes us the more importunate with God for mercy The second Conclusion now follows which ariseth from the Context after the prophet had given us a description of the wrath of God he pitcheth his next thoughts upon Death And this brings in our next Observation The wrath of God thought upon makes us to think of Death He that ruminates upon the wrath of God which he hath incurr'd by sin must needs think of Death the sad effect of sin When I remember how far I have provoked the anger of a just God by Sin I cannot choose but think of Death This was Jobs case who while he was under the wrath of God and felt not the comfort of the pardon of his Sins he did imagine there was no other way but death with him Job 7.21 Why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquities for now shall I sleep in the dust and thou shalt seek me in the morning but I shall not be As if he had said Deliver me O Lord from thy wrath and grant me the pardon of my sins otherwise I am but as a dead man before thee Solomon speaks of the wrath of a King Pro. 16.14 that it is as messengers of death Surely then the wrath of God may very well be a Messenger sent from God to put us in mind of Death If the Wrath of man be so fierce what is the wrath of God if the frown of a King strike a man dead what power is there in the looks of an angry God to bring us to nothing If the smoke of mans anger can do this what cannot the flame of Gods wrath do even consume us to very ashes Does the fear of Gods Wrath put us in mind of Death 1. This discovers our own guilt what a weight of sin lies upon our Souls otherwise what reason had we to tremble at the denunciation of Gods wrath against us if we were not conscious to our selves of a world of wickedness which harbours in our breasts Were we not privy to a masse of Corruption lurking within us the fear of death would never affright us A strong wind is able to shake and bend the strongest tree and the wrath of God will make the most godly man alive to quake and tremble Imagine the easiest death that is it cannot be but that Nature will have some struglings with it It is impossible to die such a death as shall have no pangs to attend upon it Thus it is even in the death of the greatest Saints there must needs be some strivings and wrestlings in the Conscience with the wrath of God The heart of no Christian is so far quieted and appeased at the hour of death as that all fear is banished out of it and a man hath not the least remembrance of sin and of the wrath of God due to sin lodging in his breast This holy fear is in the best of Gods children and proves as an excellent preparative for death He is best fitted for Death that meditates of tenof the wrath of God due to sin We see we have many occasions presented to us to put us in mind of Death we are never without some Watchword or other to beat the remembrance of Death into our thoughts David had Death ever in his eye Psal 119.109 My soul is continually in my hand like a Souldier he carried his life in his hand and was prepared for the next encounter and made ready for it In all the Judgments of God Death like the ashes which Moses sprinkled is scattered and cast over all our heads Death like