There is not that part of the true Church of Christ under heaven upon which the hour of temptation is not in an eminent manner The sinners in Sion abound every where pray ye that the number of the mourners in Sion may abound more and more And ye that are the Lords Remembrancers behold you have your Commission keep not silence and give him no rest till he establish Isa 62.6 7. and till he m ke Jerusalem a praise in the Earth How willing is God to be overcome that bids his people wrestle How desirous is God to grant that commands his supplicants to take no denyal at his hands nor suffer him as it were to live a quiet day in Heaven till he gives Rest to his Church upon Earth Improve your Commission O ye Saints of God cry a loud spare not beg of Jesus Christ that King of Saints hat he would bow the heavens and come down or ever his Sp use die that he would take her up in his Arms wipe off dust from her face tears from her eyes and blood from her wounds Oh forget not Jerusalem lest your Right-hand forget her cunning plead hard for her lest your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth Ps 137.5 6. Oh prefer Jerusalem above your chief joy 5. She was a woman of great Faith the life she lived in the flesh was a life of Faith In her natural life in all the publick calamities of the times and private afflictions upon her own person as she was a woman of much sorrow God having exercised her with sharp trials and afflictions in the married estate Frequent Abortions loss of Children and that which must needs follow a feeble distempered body c. I say in all these she lived by faith and was more then Conqueress through him that loved her All her afflictions were but the trials and triumph of her Faith Faith it was that which kept her Vessel so steddy in the midst of all the Waves and Billows which fell upon her in her passage that in them all she was observed by all the standers by to be of an even tranquil spirit not transported with joy in her better times nor dejected with sorrow in her worse but that which was said to be Queen Elizabeths Motto was really her temper and felicity Semper Eadem she was still the same In her spiritual life she lived much by Faith when she could not see she did believe and when in darkness and had no light Isa 50.10 she could trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon her God But in this did the excellency of her Faith consist she durst not believe without a promise nor the promise without the qualification in some good degree Faith without a promise she believed was not Faith but Fancy not believing but presuming This she believed and therefore never durst believe further then she had a word for it Hence she made the promises her dayly study Hear this all you that take up your salvation upon trust and swim down the stream of security not working out your salvation with fear and trembling but think it enough to hope well and to believe you do believe c. and what will ye do in the latter end When your Faith will prove but fancy and your hope but as the Spiders Webb wrought out of your own bowels and blown away with the least of temptation Take heed deceive not your selves with shadows instead of substances what good will it do you to go down to the Grave with a lie in your Right-hand one Grain of Faith well tryed is more worth then a pound of Faith taken up upon trust The sixth and last Grace which I shall hint to you though herein I do both her and you wrong is her Patience Truly her life and her death was nothing else but a Lecture of humility I told you before that her life from almost the first of her married estate was a life of suffering Not truly by reason of the least unsuitableness in the Conjugal relation nor meerly in regard of Abortion and loss of Children both which she bare with a gracious chearfulness in submission to her Heavenly Father but also in respect of an infirm Constitution which she carried about her insomuch that when the time of her dissolution came it appeared to her learned Physitians that her dying sickness was nothing else but a Complication of her diseases now come to the birth which had for near Twenty years before bin breeding and ripening in her tender body which though they did not seldom make a visible impression upon nature yet she did carry with so ingenuous a dissimulation that her nearest Relations could hardly discover any habitual distemper prevailing upon her but judg'd it only some accidental errour in nature easily capable of correction by prudent observation But at length those sparks which for many years lay smoaking and kindling within brake out into a flame and for near twenty weeks together by degrees prevailed upon the Walls of her feeble Tabernacle the anguish whereof though at times it was beyond expression full of bitterness and torment yet she sustained it with such an invincible sweetness of patience as did flatter her friends into a delusive hope that her sickness was not mortal untill the dissolution of nature convinced them of their too easie dulity She had a peculiar patience of her own Luk. 21.19 and that patience gave her the possession of her soul so that in her sharpest conflicts with pain and sickness though as an holy Minister said of himself she might possibly groan yet she did not grumble an impatient complaint was never heard from her lips but if asked how is it Her answer was the Holy Martyrs word mixt up of Patience and Faith It is well and it will be better It is well there was her patience and it will be better there was her Faith Through both which as in the Text She inherits the Promise Her Wisdome and Judgment I might easily enlarge the Catalogue of her Vertues she was of great wisdom and judgement not as a Woman only in managing all her affairs with Discretion but much more as a Christian woman She was not a light Sceptical professour nor one that took up her Religion upon trust or imitation She knew what she believed and having weighed her principles in the balance of the Sanctuary Joh. 4. and tried them by the touch-stone of the holy Scriptures which from her youth she had known she became rooted and grounded in the Faith 2 Tim. 3.15 and stood unmoveable and unshaken against all the blasts and storms of seduction Able not only to give an answer to every one that might rationally ask her a reason of the hope that was in her with meekness and fear 1 Pet. 3.15 but as a good proficient in Christs School to make an Apology for the truths she had learned from the Gospel of Jesus
such a Child never to have been Husband to such a Wife never to have been adopted to such a Mother or Servant to such a Mistris never to have enjoyed fellowship with such a friend then when all is done to have her come in as a witness against us in the great day of Judgement Oh to have bin possest of such a mercy so many years as it were for no other end then to render our sin the greater and our condemnation the more grievious that the very remembrance of her should add to our torment this will be intollerable Oh that the serious consideration of our danger might awaken us to a fruitful contention of being like her A Second Motive 2. Motive It will prevent a double sin 1 Envy This will prevent a double sin The first is that whereby we are very apt to envy the praises of them which are better then our selves The Scripture observes such a baseness in our degenerate natures Jam. 4.5 the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy It is usual in Scripture to call the bent and strong inclination of the soul either to good or evil Spirit so it calls a worldly frame of heart the spirit of the world 1 Cor. 2.12 Hos 4.12 Isa 19.14 An whorish disposition the spirit of whoredome frowardness of heart a perverse spirit c. So here a malignant disposition towards others a spirit lusting to envy carrying men strongly to fret and envy at the graces or praises of our brethren We have it as soon as we come into the world and it is an hard matter to kill it wholly before we die our selves it is almost an epidemical disease We cannot bear the praises of them that out-shine us And there is pride and self-love at the bottom of it whereby we are ready to think that those Eulogies and Commendations which are ascribed to others are due rather to our selves the Laurel of praises would better become our Temples Hence Saint James having mentioned envy speaks in the verse immediately following of pride as the root of that bitter fruit God resists the proud c. Hence the humble mans question is Who am I The proud mans question is Who am I not Am not I as good as such a one Wherein am I inferiour to such and such Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses Num. 12.2 hath he not spoken also by us Thus Aaron and Mirian envyed Moses Jam. 4.5 Ad solamen calamitatis suae non desinit perditus perdere Men. Fel. Oct. It is a sin as the Text that dwelleth in the Saints but it reigns in the wicked the Devils proper sin He is an envious spirit envying God his glory and the Saints their felicity and honour the Devil first envyed us the favour of God and ever since we have envyed one another Well it is our disease Yea but an holy imitation of our betters will help us to mortifie and cure it by an humble and conscientious reflection upon our selves Thus I am ready to envy them which excel in grace but am I as careful to imitate them their graces and excellencies will carry them to heaven but my envy may sink me to Hell from whence it came while I should imitate the Saints in their graces behold I imitate the Devil in envying those graces Ah what will become of such a wretch as I am A second sin 2 Sin Flattery which Imitation of those that excel us will happily prevent is that whereby we are prone to rest in a sleight commendation of their persons If we give them a few good words If we can but say Oh such a Minister was an excellent Preacher he had a rare gift in prayer a man of admirable parts and of singular piety c. Such a man was a man of great worth and incomparable abilities Such a woman was a woman of a meek spirit one that had much communion with God an holy woman of large bowels and compassions to the afflicted Church and people of God c. I say if we can but give them a good Character though we never contend after an holy imitation of their virtues we think we have done enough and there 's an end But my Beloved know we thus much First that Commendation without Imitation is but an unprofitable Complement Jam. 2.16 just such another thing as in the matter of Charity is as Saint James his Be ye warmed be ye filled and give them neither fire nor food c. or like an handful of flowers strewed upon the Graves of the dead which makes the Corps smell never the sweeter Secondly Yea Commendation without Imâ—tation is but our Condemnation we condemn our selves of gross hypocrisie while we commend them for if we believe that precious which we commend why do we not imitate them If we do not why do we commend them Thou Hypocrite why doth thy tongue belie thy heart or thy life contradict thy tongue Out of thine own mouth thou shalt be condemned For the curing therefore of this vanity apply we our selves to a sincere and industrious following of their gracious examples If we did really believe that conformity to them were our duty and that such choice Patterns whether of the departed or of the surviving Saints were a talent for which we must be responsable to our Lord as well as for the Word and Sacraments and other helps to salvation that our non-improvement of our Patterns as well as of our Precepts will render us unprofitable servants it would frighten us out of our torpor and sluggishness and make us tremble to satisfie our selves with a frigid and fruitless commendation of their shining excellencies A Third Motive By a faithful imitation of her vertues 3. Motive Imitation makes the absent person present we may still enjoy our lost Relation Imitation like Faith brings the object and the faculty together The Limner draws not his Picture without the Person or the Effigies before him Imitation makes absent persons to dwell together by our imitation of our deceased Relation we may preserve our converse with her and she being dead will yet speak with us that in a more excellent manner then while she was yet in the body We may have Communion with her pure spiritual unmixt self her self abstracted from what ever was carnal or terene in her a communion of an higher more Angelical nature advantage then that which the best of Saints are capable of in this lower region what Prelation the Apostle ascribeth to the Communion which the Apostles and other Saints had with Christ after his Ascention above that which they attained while he was with them on earth namely that whereas the converse they had with him in the dayes of his flesh was but after the flesh in a Civil Natural Humane way such as poor weak ignorant indigent servants have with a rich powerful wise bountiful Lord they converst not with him in his
Here in the Text the sin the punishment who can expound them to us Well if you will stand fast eye your Presâ—dents See what they did and suffered in their hour of temptation rather then turn back upon the profession of Religion Remember what the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs of Christ have suffered and stand fast Remember how they lived How they died As the Apostle exhorted concerning Christ Heb. 11 3â— Consider them what they endured lest ye faint in your mindes Their perseverancâ— well said to heart will be your Preservative 8. Reason By this means the loss of the Saints will be less felt 8. Reason Our following the Saints by holy imitation will wake them be less missed in the world when they are taken away Elijah was less wanted because Elishâ— vvas endued with his spirit Moses absence vvas recruited by Joshuas succession O do you stand in the gap and fill up the breach of them that are gone with your gracious influences and their absence will be the better born My seed shall serve him said Christ upâ—â— the Cross or going to it Psa 22. â—â— q. d. Though I am going out of the â—orld I shall leave a spiritual Generatiâ—â— behind me that will carry on my Faâ—â—ers work in the world It was Christ his â—â—mfort upon the Cross 9. Reason By imitation of others we become exemplary 9. Reason By imitating of the Saints â—e out selve shall have the honour of beâ—â—g exemplary unto others See how the one is inseperably annext â—â—to the other in that famous encâ—mium â—hich the Apostle gives his Thessalâ—nians Thes 16 Ye became folloâ—â—rs of us â—â—d of the Lord verse 6. there he comâ—ends their piety And what follows Why verse 7. So that ye became ensamples all that believe in Macâ—donia c. â—ere he celebrateth their Hâ—nour It is our grace to imitaâ—e others it is â—â—r glory to be patterns to others This is â—e Crown the Apostle sets upon the â—â—ads of his excellent Thessalorians And it shall be your Crown also if â—ith an holy ambition ye contend to be â—â—llowers of them who excell in vertue â—â—r thereby you also will become standingâ— â—atterns and presidents for others imitation The Baptist followed the Propheâ— and excelled them of common Soldierâ— you will become Captains and Leaders 〈◊〉 the Lords Army By intensive and vigâ—rous imitation you will transform you selves into shining and glorious Luminâ—ries by whose light others may see the way to Heaven 10. Reas Imitation is the way to the Kingdom 10. Reason This is the way to thâ— Kingdom This way all the Saints and woâ—thies of God went and are now entreâ— into glory the foot-steps of Companionâ— is suggested by Christ as an infallible conduct in her way Cant. 1.8 Go you in the Path tread in their steps and you shall enter also This is the encouragement whicâ— the text holds out Be ye followers of them who througâ— faith and patience inherit the Promiseâ— q. d. Abraham Isaac Jacob and otheâ— of the Primitive Heroes have by their holâ— diligence and inconquerable industry in thâ— wayes of holiness attained assurance 〈◊〉 Heaven while they lived and possession 〈◊〉 Heaven when they died They have finished their course and received their robeâ—â— and their Crowns By faith and patience in well-doing they inherit the promise Press hard after them follow them close and you shall be partakers of the inheritance with the Saints in light You shall also in the end of your dayes receive the end of your hope even the Salvation of your Souls Thus our Lord encourageth his Soldiers Rev. 3. v. 21. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my Throne as I overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne Follow me in my Conflict and Conquest and you shall share with me in my Reward and Triumph If we be dead with Christ we shall aslo live with Christ if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him 2 Tim. 2.11 12. This may suffice for the first Querie Why the Reasons and Grounds of the point 2. Quest. Wherein the Saints are to be imitated I come now to the second Querie Wherein or in what things we are to imitate the Saints To which I Answer 1 Negatively 2 Affirmatively Answ Negat wherein Not. 1. Negatively The Saints are not to be imitated in every thing Ex. Gra. 1. Not in their sins 1. The Saints are not to be imitated in their sins and infirmities The best of Gods servants have had their failings and infirmities and they are held out in Scripture to our observation As Abraham's diffidence Gen. 12.11 12 13. ch 20.2 Job's impatience Iob. 3.1 2. Noah's transgressing by Wine Gen. 9.21 Lot's incest Gen. 19.33.35 David's Murder and Adultery 2 Sam. 11.15 4. Elijahs Passion Jam. 5.17 Peter's denying his Lord Mat. 27.70 72 74. These and many other failings and falls of the Saints are Recorded in the Book of God But they are 1. For the support and comfort of lapsed Christians that reflecting upon their own surprises by temptation they may not despond and despair as if their spot were not the spot of Gods Children 2. For the caution and admonition of all surviving generations to the intent that we should not presume to sin as they sinned 1 Cor. 10.6 But to be sure they stand not in the holy Register as Patterns and encouragements to sin They are our Take-heeds not our Warrants they tell us here is a Rock avoid it here is a Quick-sand come not near it lest you suffer shipwrack We are not to imitate the best in their worst 2. Not in what they did by miraculous inspiration 2. They are not be imitated in what they did by immediate and miraculous assistance of the Holy Ghost As we are commanded to be followers of God as dear Children but not in the creating of the world not in causing the Sun to rise and the Rain to fall c. that is we must not attempt such an imitation of our heavenly Father as being above the Sphere of the creature the Prerogative only of the great God Our Lord commandeth us to learn of him but not in raising the dead Mat. 11.29 not in multiplying loaves not in casting out Devils by a word c. these being works which Christ did not in his Private but in his Mediatory Capacity So also the Prophets Apostles and other of the Saints of God though they be out Standards and Patterns yet they are not to be followed in those actions which they did by vertue of an extraordinary afflatus or inspiration of the Holy Ghost those actions being peculiar only to their extraordinary commissions and functions and not common to them as believers â— Not in â—hat they â—id by â—pecial diâ—pensation 3. Neither are they to be followed in those actions which they did by special dispensation or by way of probation and tryal Ex. Gra. VVe
and Aâ—aâ—ice of the latter Pontificians hath prevailed with them to Canonize for Saints such as they knew to be the worst of men and to create them little Dâ—ities who by the justest Character which could be collected out of their Doctrine and lives are now amongst Reprobate Spirits suffering the vengeance of Eternal fire Surely thus to commend the dead is nothing less then to blaspheme God and to enrich the Devils Territories with Castawayes The true end of celebrating the Graces of the Saints is 1. That God may have the Glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 2.9 whilest the Saints shew forth the praises or vertues of him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvelous light 2. That the world may have the benefit and advantage of their worthy Patterns and Exemplars ut sup Thanks be to God for such excellent helps in our way to heaven 2. Use Use Repr It may serve to Reprove divers sorts of people 1 Such as account the Saints the worst of men 1. Such as account the Saints of God the most dangerous kind of men in the world not fit for humane society Surely there is not such a reviled persecuted defamed generation again under heaven The very filth and off-scouring of all things 1 Cor. 4.12 13. the dregs the sordes the scraping of the shoes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the superfluous froth and scum that is good for nothing but to be cast into the fire Yea the more holy the worse The Saints are look't upon as the Troublers of Israel the Pests of the places where they live the Deformities of humane society Mal. 3.17 Rev. 3.1 1 16. Surely these men are not of Gods mind God accounts them as his Jewels Phil. 2.15 Mat. 5.14 the Starrs in his right hand the Sons of God the lights the world to give light to a dark world Patterns and Exemplars worthy to be held forth to the observation and imitation of the Sons of men as here In a word men think the Saints not worthy of the world Act. 22.22 Heb. 11.38 2 Cor. 44. when in the mean time Gods thinks the world not worthy of them Oh how hath the God of the world blinded the eyes of them that believe not 2 Such as imitate the worst 2. It may serve to reprove such as do not care whom they follow or what Patterns in the world they do imitate none so vile so debaucht so prophane so great a derider and persecutor of holiness but is good enough to make a Copy for them to write after men do as they see the major part of men do they follow the multitude as thinking it not good to be singular and stricter then their neighbours though that be a rule upon which God hath set a special brand of infamy Fellow not a multitude to do evil Exod. 23.2 Especially the great and learned men of the world men are prone to look upon them as infallible Guides and do greedily follow their conduct Have any of the Rulers believed on him Joh. 7.48 Great men have followers of their vices as well as of their Persons Alas we should take our Patterns from Heaven Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven and the greatest of men do not care out of what filthy ditch Spiritus sunt insinceri vagi a coelesti vigori virtute destituti c. ad Solamen calamitatis suae nil dedesinum perditi prodere Min. Fel. 3. Them that imitate the best but in the worst or from what dunghill they take up their examples even from Hell it self people are not afraid to fetch their Patterns as proud as the Devil as malicious as the Devil as blasphemous as the damned Reprobates themselves as hating of God and goodness as the Angels that kept not their first estate as greedy and industrious to drag others with them into perdition This is a lamentation and shall be for a lamentation 3. It may reprove such as it may be will imitate the Saints but not in their Sanctity but in their sins Lot in his Incest Noah in his Drunkennesse and David in his Adultery and Peter in his denying his Master c. And when they have done can quote such instances for their Authority Oh the wonderful perversness that is in our Apostate natures that men should imitate the Saints only in their deformities Imitate Saints only in that wherein they are not Saints Is there any such thing in nature Are there any amongst men that desire to be like others in their natural defects and deformities be they persons never so great Do you observe any that take delight to imitate men under distraction or mad men Did it ever ease any that lay sick of the Gout Stone Strangurie Dropsie Fever c. to tell them that many Noble Rich learned Persons have been tormented with the like pains Surely Object you will say no wonder if not since these are the blemishes infelicities and destruction of the humane nature And are not mens lusts and corruptions so too Answer Even of the Saints themselves save only by interposition of divine grace Hos 14.4 Psal 23.3 healing and restoring them Yea and of so much worse nature and effect then either intellectual or bodily distempers by how much the soul is better then the body and Hell worse then Death Rom. 1.18 God himself testifying it from Heaven And the Saints themselves after they have recovered their lapses having confest it before all the world with greatest self-abhorrency and abasement Ps 73.22 So foolish was I and ignorant and like a beast before thee cries David when he came out of the Sanctuary he is so incenst against his sin that he cannot find a term vile enough to reproach himself withall And yet is sin the only imitable thing men can discover in the Saints Prov. 1.22 How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and Scorners delight in scorning and fools hate knowledge Lord who hath believed thy report or to whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed 4. Reproof 4. That will follow the best but in the best But there is yet another sort of people that justly merit the lash of reproof and they are such who though they dare not be so bad as to imitate the Saints in their sins yet love not to be so good as to imitate the Saints in their strictness and holy severity in Religion They think it enough to follow them in their morality and civil deportment to be just and true in their dealings to be charitable to the poor and to keep their Church as they call it But their holiness their zeal mortification and close walking with God to be alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord Here they leave them as deeming these nothing else but the unnecessary strains of a fruitless precisenesse and that which may expose them to the