11.4 I drew them with the cords of a man with the bands of love there are secret cords and bands in all our mercies to draw and to bind our hearts to God and when we finde our selves nourisht with meat and refresht with sleep we should finde a secret vertue in these mercies to joyn our hearts to God but God useth this means with many one but the soul yet abides in his sins then God sendeth another servant he sends a faithful Minister to call him to himself and a faithful friend to perswade him to come but yet the poor sinner will not come Well saith God I will yet try another messenger Go Fever Go Ague c. Now these are often so blessed that all the former dispensations work afresh Now he remembers his mercies and Sermons and counsels and they all work so effectually that the poor sinner is savingly converted unto God End 6. To convince people of the necessity and excellencie of godly Ministers Beloved Gods Ministers are the strength of King and Kingdom the very Militia of the Land The charets of Israels and the horsemen thereof 2 Kin. 2.12 The Apostle shews how we should esteem godly Ministers 1 Cor. 4.1 Let a man so account of us as the Ministers of Christ If we esteem Ministers aright we should prize them as Ministers prize them for that which makes them differ and wherein they are separated from other men as if you would truely prize the Lords day and call it a delight and honourable as the Scripture requires you must esteem it as sanctified and separated from other days and thereby you shall see it a more holy and blessed day so if you would prize the Lords Supper you must esteem the bread and wine as separated from other bread and wine and as consecrated and sanctified to such a use so if you would honour an Embassadour from a great King you do not so much look upon his personal worth but he is honoured and received as he is sent from the King and stands in his stead So my Brethren if we would prize a Minister aright look upon him as separated to the Gospel as cloathed with authority to preach the Word and administer the Sacraments as one through whose hands God hath in wisdom chosen to transmit the treasures of the Gospel to you and as one who stands in the stead of Jesus Christ who is ready to revenge all the affronts that are offered unto him Now my Brethren there are no sorts of men so much abhorred by the world as godly Ministers these whom our Saviour calls the salt of the earth Matth. 5.13 as if the world of men would be but as a piece of stinking carrion if it were not for godly Ministers and godly people And the Apostle tells us they are unto God a sweet savour in Christ 2 Cor. 2.15 yet they are hated as if they were the loathsomest excrements in the world This Paul elegantly expresseth 1 Cor. 4.13 We are made as the filth of the world and are the off-scouring of all things unto this day Ministers are loathed as if they were a curse and plague to the world and as if they were the nastiest jakes or sink on the earth for thus the words in the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imply But now when God throws a sinner on a bed of sickness then a â—aithful Minister is for worth and excellency one of a thousand Job 33.23 for the more a man sees his need of those soul-saving mercies which Christ sends by his Ministers the more he will prize Ministers themselves If a man sees what hell is he will prize Ministers that labour to save him thence If a man believes what heaven is he will account Ministers precious who are to be the greatest means under God to bring him thither If the soul be wounded for sin then how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace and bring glad tydings of good things Rom. 10.15 So look on thy self as gasping under sickness at the door of Eternity and then see whether thou darest boast that thou hadst rather hear a Piper then hear a Preacher or rather set up a May-pole then set up a Minister these will prove but poor frolicks when thou seest nothing but death and hell and the day of judgement before thee thou wilt be glad then to send for these Elders the Ministers of the Church to pray over thee and as fast as thou canst spit in their faces now thou wouldst be glad then to lick the very dust of their feet for the least sound comfort that ever dropt from their sanctified lips End 7. Christ by sicknesses doth further and promote the Salvation of his own people as the following particulars do more fully evince and the reason of this is because Jesus Christ doth every thing to his people as their Saviour and therefore there is a saving Power and Vertue works from Christ in and through all his dispensations towards them as whether a father feed or whip his childe he doth it with the heart of a father for the good of his childe so if Christ afflict his childe he doth it with the heart of a Saviour to save his childe and therefore all Gods people may say of their sickness as Paul in another case Phil. 1.19 I know that this shall turn to my salvation We have full proof of this 1 Cor. 11.32 When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord meaning by those sicknesses and weaknesses mentioned in vers 30 â— that we should not be condemned with the world nor go to hell with the world Hence Tertullian speaking of Gods fatherly love in correcting his people hath this pathetical passage O servum illum beatum cujus emendationi Dominus instat cui dignatur irasci de patientiâ cap. 11. O blessed is that servant for whose correction or amendment the Lord is so earnest with whom he vouchsafes to be so lovingly angry Beloved it is observable that God doth not distinguish his people from the wicked by making them Lords and Ladies or by filling them with the treasures of the earth these are not the effects of distinguishing grace for a wicked man may have his belly full of these things Whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasures And therefore Job tells us of those that provoke God that into their hands God brings abundantly of worldly things Job 12.6 he brings a whole Empire of the world into the hands of a Nero or a Turk But God distinguisheth his people from the world by making them holy and happy and therefore though the common mercie of God which brings riches and honours and health c. doth not so much abound to the godly yet the distinguishing grace of God which brings salvation Tit. 2.11 never fails and therefore when they have many things which hinder their estates and liberty and health yet nothing shall
diseased ver 6. Lord my servant lies at home sick of the Palsie grievously tormented Luke saith Cap. 7.2 He was sick ready to die The person thus visited was a servant in Matthew the Centurion is said to call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may be translated my child for the word is ambiguous signifying either a child or a servant but in Luke he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a servant yet it is said a servant who was dear to him and it seems by considering both together that he was a good faithful and obedient servant and therefore as dear to his Master as his child I shall take occasion from hence to call upon servants to do the Will of God in their Relation Servants labour in all faithfulness and diligence to honour your Masters keep up their Authority in your Souls and let your whole carriage savour of a heart that willingly chearfully and humbly yields up it self in obedient subjection thereunto 1 Pet. 2.18 Servants be subject to your Masters with all fear 1 Tim. 6.1 Let servants count their own Masters worthy of all honour 1. Consider the Family where thou livest is Jesus Christs he is the Great Master of every Family and he hath given Authority to the Master of the Family where thou dwellest to be his Vicegerent therein and to bear his Image and Authority and to rule in his stead therefore as thou art a Christian and so to honour Christ by believing in him and by rejoycing in him and by doing his Will so the honour thou owest to Jesus Christ as thou art a servant is to honour and serve and obey thy Master in him The Apostle requires the obedience of servants to their Masters for this very reason Col. 3.23 24. And whatsoever ye do do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men For ye serve the Lord Christ Servants believe that you are threshing for Christ and plowing for Christ and spinning for Christ this will make you do your service heartily when you consider that you are therein serving the Lord Christ and this will make you afraid of disobeying and despising your Masters when you consider that you do thereby as much as in you lies depose the Authority of Jesus Christ from ruling and governing in the Family 2. Consider that you do hereby adorn the Gospel of Christ This is the Apostles argument Tit. 2.10 That they may adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour in all things What Doctrine this is appears by the following words the Doctrine of the Grace of God which bringeth Salvation Oh how should this prevail with you to consider that when in conscience to God you are faithful diligent quiet and obedient servants you are a precious Ornament to the Gospel of Jesus Christ The Gospel is honoured not only by Ministers when they preach the Gospel and by Martyrs when they die for the Gospel but also by poor servants when they live in their service as those who are ruled by the Gospel therefore believe the Glory of Jesus Christ as it is revealed and appears in the Gospel and then own and honour the Face and Image and Authority of the same Christ as it shines in thy Master whom he hath placed to bear his Authority over thee 3. Consider that faithful servants are exceeding precious to Jesus Christ Thou thinkest it a sad case that thou must spend all thy daies to toil and drudge like a poor servant but consider the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.21 Art thou called being a servant care not for it never let that trouble thee that thou art a servant And the Apostle gives this reason for thy comfort vers 22. For he that is called in the Lord being a servant is the Lords free-man When many a gallant Lord and Lady is a servant to sin and a slave to the Devil and stands bound to suffer the wrath of God for ever thou that art but a poor godly servant and art bound to men yet thou art set free from Sin and Satan and Hell and hast a sure right to all the priviledges of Believers though thou art in this mean relation of a servant amongst men yet thou standest in all the glorious relations to Jesus Christ a poor servant and a King and Priest to God a poor servant and a Wife and Brother of Jesus Christ a poor servant and a glorious Heir of the Kingdom of Heaven I tell thee though thou art but a poor servant yet godliness will put such a grace upon thee as to make thee a glory to Christ a crown and joy to thy Minister a delight to Gods people a terrour to the greatest wicked man about thee and a very torment to the Devil of Hell Lastly consider that this is thy particular way wherein thou art called to please and honour God and to work out thy own salvation Psal 37.23 The steps of a good man be he never so poor are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way It was an high and holy saying of one That a poor Milkmaid walking in obedience to God in her calling doth bring more glory to God then heaven and earth There is no duty which thou art bound unto as a man or as a Christian which hinders thee in thy duty to God and man as thou art a servant for Gods commandments do not cross and interrupt one another and we cannot sin against Gods Will whilst we are doing his Will and true Grace will make thee a gracious servant as well as a gracious Christian the same faith and love which causes thee to believe in and to cleave unto Jesus Christ will cause thee to see and to love and to obey his will and authority in thy Master So that when thou art most faithful and diligent and obedient in thy service thou wilt finde most freedom and sweetness in Prayer in Sermons in singing Psalms and in feeding upon the Lords supper The Apostle requires all servants to be filled with this principle in their walking obediently to their Masters Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of inheritance Col. 3.24 teaching all servants to walk in their Callings so as those that know that this is their way to heaven Ah poor servants rejoyce in your work for heaven is your wages and let me tell you that you are never like to see a fairer way to heaven then you have now you are servants you will finde if ever you come to be husbands and wives and parents and rulers of families that it is harder to rule then to obey Now there are amongst many other excuses these three things which servants pretend to excuse their irreverence and disobedience to their Masters which I shall briefly answer and then proceed First the servant will plead that his Master is a poor man if he were as rich and great a man as some other Masters are then I would honour him but he is poor and I am come of as good
which are mentioned in the Text viz. his commanding diseases to go and come and do this By sicknesses I mean all those evils which are sent by Christ to disease the bodies of living men and women The author of diseases is Jesus Christ the formal nature of them is their diseasing the bodies of men depriving them of health strength ease c. and afflicting them with pain and grief c. the subjects of these sicknesses are the bodies of living men and women hereby they are distinguished from the wounds and troubles of the soul so far as they are onely spiritual but those bodily diseases which are the effects of the wounds and wastings of the soul are also comprehended herein they are hereby distinguished also from that corruption which corrupts the body after death and herein are implyed all manner of bodily diseases as wounds hurts sores breaking of bones c. I shall speak of these under this formal consideration as Jesus Christ is the cause and ruler and healer of them and so they come within the subject of Divinity and not of Medicine or Chyrurgery I now come to explain the exercise of Christs government of diseases in those three particulars mentioned in the Text. 1. Christ bids diseases go and they go Take the meaning of this 1. In general 2. In some particulars First in general these words Go and they go are words whereby God works what he speaks he immediately creates what he commands like those words at the creation Let there be light and there was light thus he spake and it was done Psal 33.9 and so the meaning is that it is the will and power of God which causeth all diseases to come upon us Hence David calls the peoples falling into the Pestilence a falling into the hand of God 2 Sam. 24.14 Let us fall into the hand of the Lord and in his own visitation he cryes out Psal 38.2 Thy hand presseth me sore And Psal 39.10 I am consumed by the blow of thy hand Beloved God hath a heavy hand he gives a great blow what is the greatest man in the world when God can strike him to hell at a blow So sicknesses are called Gods arrows Job 6.4 The arrows of the Almighty are within me Psal 38.2 Thy arrows stick fast in me God hath his Quiver full of these Arrows full of the Pestilence of Fevers and Dropsies and Consumptions and all manner of Diseases and he shoots these Arrows into our Families Friends and Children and none but himself can pull them out as the Keeper shoots his barbed Arrow into the Deer and he runs and leaps and lyes down but the Arrow sticks still so God shoots suppose a Consumption into the lungs of a man or the Gout into the limbs of a man and the poor man walks and eats and sleeps but the Arrow sticks still Friends pull and Physicians pull but he may say with David Thy arrows stick fast in me Thus beloved all diseases are subject to the will of God so as to go upon any man at his appointment Sinner if thou wilt not do the Will of God thy self God hath the Stone Gout Strangury and millions of Diseases more to do his will upon thee for as it 's observable that there is a passive obediential power in every creature to yeild to the will and power of God to be what he will as a stone to be turned into a childe of Abraham So there is an active obediential power in every creature whereby it is ready to be an instrument of Gods power to do what he will if he say to the earth Open thy mouth and swallow up such a company it presently opens and becomes a great grave to bury them all alive as in that dreadful judgement mentioned Numb 16. So if God say to the thunderbolt Smite such a person he is presently shattered in pieces and in the same cases the heavens seas winds fire and all creatures obey him so that if God set on a flie a spider an hair of the head against a man all the care and power in the world cannot save him So my Brethren if God command the Pestilence Fever small-Pox to go into such a City or such a Family or upon such a person they presently fasten upon them though all the world be against it More particularly in Gods bidding diseases go and they go there is implyed these five things First He commands whatsoever diseases he will to go and they go the Centurion hath his hundred of Souldiers and he sends whom he will and he goes so our Lord of hosts hath as many sicknesses as he himself will make at his command and whichsoever he appoints to go it presently goes Beloved many cry out of their diseases as the Church of her sorrows Lam. 1.12 Is there any sorrow like my sorrow is there any sickness like my sickness we are too apt to complain with the Israelites that the way of the Lord is not equal Ezek. 18.25 We are forward to judge the best of our selves and the worst of our afflictions but we must know that God doth in great justice and wisdom choose and single out what diseases he will visit us with he corrects with judgement Jer. 10.24 and therefore God checks the impatience of Job thus Job 40.8 Will thou disanul my judgement wilt thou make nothing of my judgement which in wisdom and counsel I exercise in all my visitations So that whatever disease comes upon us our hearts and wills should agree with the Will of God therein for the difference betwixt thy affliction and others is made by the Wisdom and Will of Christ he hath chosen and appointed this as the fittest disease for thee and it is a signe thou wilt be discontent with another affliction if thou quarrel with this therefore labour to be so filled with the Will of Christ in thy visitation as to conclude that this is the best sickness for thee and the fittest disease for thee and this is the good servant which Christ in wisdom hath sent to do him service upon thee and to bring him glory from thee 2. To whomsoever Christ bids diseases go they go as when the Centurion commands his servant to go it is implied that he appoints him whither to go So my Brethren as God doth pick and choose which arrows he will shoot so he doth not like the man in the Syrian Camp 1 Kings 22.34 draw his bow at a venture but in great wisdom marks and singles out the persons in whom he will strike these arrows See Psal 91.7 A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousands at thy right hand but it shall not come nigh unto thee whereby it appears that God directs and determines the Pestilence to whom it shall go and the same power he hath over all other diseases which are the instruments of his power to do his Will and this is clear for every instrument is over-ruled and limited by the
will and power of him who works with it so that although there be an equal aptness in the instrument to do one thing as well as another yet it is determined in its work according to the pleasure of him that guides it as if a man go with an ax into the wood to fell his trees there is an equal aptness in the ax to cut down one tree as well as another but it is at the pleasure and in the power of him that works with it to determine which tree shall stand and which shall fall So my Brethren sicknesses are the instruments of Gods power to do his will and are equally apt to disease one as well as another but they being all in his hands and over-ruled and guided by him they onely go and afflict those to whom he sends and appoints them God sends the Pestilence into a City now the hand of God carries it into what street or family or person he will It is observable that God makes great use of diseases to do his Will and to serve his designe in the ruine of his enemies and salvation of his people and therefore they must needs be ordered by God where they may work most for his glory as for example God sees how men of the earth as great worldlings are called Psal 10. ult fill a Nation or Country either with Errour and Heresie or with Atheism and Prophaness and these men lift up the horn on high Psal 75.5 crying Who is lord over us Psal 12.4 as if neither God nor man durst speak to them now it 's for Gods honour to shew himself above such and therefore he baffles Job with this argument That he can look on every one that is proud and abase him and that he can tread down the wicked in his place Oh you proud Nimords you mighty Hunters you are out of your place you must come lower God will have you under his feet shortly and will tread you down in your place See Job 40.11 12. Now as a proof of this power and glory of God he often sends a Fever or a Consumption or some other disease and then down falls the great Gallant groaning under the power and torture of his sickness and then look what a sight is here here are magnificent Buildings pleasant Gardens pamper'd Horses c. but the great Master lyes languishing in the midst of all and now the great talk of this mighty man is come to this Lo this is the man that made not God his strength but trusted in the abundance of his riches and strengthened himself in his wickedness Again sometimes God looks upon a beautiful person and sees him as it were turning his own Phansie into a Looking-glass wherein he is always looking and admiring and pleasing himself with his beauty Well saith God to a Consumption Go and wither yonder pretty flower and it goes and presently his beauty consumes away like a moth Or else saith God to the small-Pocks or some other disease Go and it goes and scorns and shames his beauty and now the wounds stink and are corrupt and the body is filled with a loathsome disease Psal 38.5 7. and there is burning instead of beauty as it is said in another case Isa 3.24 So sometimes a Minister hath but one or two malicious enemies in a Parish and God commands a disease to fetch away them and what welcome such have in eternity they are like to know best that have a minde to try it Sometimes a Minister hath a gracious man or woman in a Parish which are to him as that gracious couple Aquila and Priscilla were to Paul his helpers in the Lord Rom. 16.3 and when many a malitious Atheist lives it is the good will of God that they dye Sometimes parents have but one childe and God denies to lend them that Sometimes there is but one Life in a Living and a disease comes by the appointment of Christ and spares all the rest of the Family and takes away that but one good Abijah in a house and God calls away him Thus all diseases go to whomsoever they are sent and appointed by Jesus Christ Thirdly Whensoever Christ commands a disease to go it goes This is also plainly implied in the Centurions speech for if he have authority to bid his souldiers go it must be at his own pleasure when he will bid them go now it is clear that Jesus Christ hath this authority over all diseases both because he is a free agent and therefore works when he will upon his creatures and because every thing whose acting depends on the power and pleasure of another works onely then when it is his pleasure to work with it as an arrow onely flies then when the archer will shoot it so diseases which as you have heard are Gods arrows can onely hit us and hurt us when it is Gods will to shoot them into our bodies Beloved God is the Lord of our times the belief of which comforted David when his enemies were conspiring his death Psal 31.13 14 15. I trusted in the Lord I said Thou art my God my times are in thy hands not in my enemies hands It is sweet satisfaction to see clearly our times of life and peace and health and sickness in Gods hands we shall never be sick till our Father be willing to make us sick he fills our times with what changes he will It is observable that in Gods working towards Nations or Families or Persons he haâ—h in his determinate counsel appointed an unchangeable method of providence and in infinite wisdom hath set a sit nick of time for every dispensation so that the glory and beauty of the Providence is much seen in the season of it So in this case God hath set the times for the several changes in the life of man Job 7.1 Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth and in all diseases his wisdom and power and justice and mercy is glorified in the season of the Visitation Sometimes God smites a childe in the womb and the poor mother carries a dead corpse instead of a living childe And thus the body and soul are no sooner united but presently parted again and so multitudes flie from the womb into heaven and hell Some die in their full strength Job 21.23 We see many when they were most like to live they presently dye and like the strings of an instrument break when they are best in tune Sometimes when men stand upon the foot of pride Psal 36.11 they are suddenly taken in their pride Psal 59.11 and so fall suddenly from the top of pride to the bottom of hell See a fit instance of this Acts 12.21 22 23. Herod makes a popular Oration and the flattering multitude shout and cry It is the voice of God and not of man and the Lord suddenly smites him with a strange disease and there lyes the Royal Orator as it were in the same breath deified by men
find this to be the effect of Davids sickness Psal 38.3 4. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thy anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin For mine iniquities are gone over my head as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me Beloved people would not be so fond of their sins if they saw the diseases and dangers which they bring upon them as a man would not be greedy of the daintiest meat if he knew it were mixt with Rats-bane nor be proud of the finest cloaths if he knew they were infected with the Pestilence So if people saw the Plague Pocks Dropsie Fever and the Consumption in their pride and oaths and lyes and drunkenness and covetousness it would make them afraid of sin as well as of sickness and therefore look not upon sin as it appears in your honours profits and pleasures as it appears at an Ale-house May-pole or Maurice-dance or Cock-pit or Bear-bait or Stage-play for there thou canst not see sin for its pleasures but look upon thy self on a bed of languishing and there see thy sins standing in order before thee and then tell me what fruit thou hast in these things Look upon thy self as hanging over the lake of brimstone and then call thy drunken Companions about thee and bid them pour out their flagons and quaff off their cups and see whether all these can make thee merry when the flames of hell begin to catch and kindle in thy guilty soul call in thy lyes and injustice to bring thee thy treasures of wickedness and lay them under thy pillow and see whether they can bring thee ease when Death and Hell and the day of Judgment stand present before thee And my Brethren it is observeable that when we sin in our sickness we should see far more evil in it then as it is the meritorious cause of that disease as we should look further into a sickness then as it causeth present aches and pains in the body we should see that Death and Eternity which comes after so we should see more evil and danger in sin then as it brings such a disease for the evil of it is not spent in that therefore we should look upon it as provoking God to punish us with diseases and with death and hell which diseases are loosing us into The second End to convince us of the vanity of the creature now we are truly convinced of the vanity of the creature when we judge it to be empty of that good which must free a sinful man from misery and fill him with true happiness It must needs be a vanity when a man may be miserable with it and happy without it Now Christ appoints diseases as means to convince us of this vanity of the creature for as one saith wittily the world is the Devils Chess-board wherein a man can neither move forward nor backward but the Devil attaches him with some creature or other and indeed we are so full of the spirit of the world as it 's called 1 Cor. 2.12 which doth so fill our hearts with the world that God and Christ and Heaven and Salvation are nothing to us and therefore this sin is called a denying God that is above Job 31.24 25 28. and Agur tells us that when a man is full of the world he is apt to deny God and to say Who is the Lord Prov. 30.9 Oh what poor scornful thoughts a covetous proud secure worldling hath of God and Christ and Saints and Ordinances and Salvation Now this is one great use of sicknesses to convince a man of the vanity of the world and this is a most convincing argument for I dare challenge all the worldlings which the world it self can own to name me that earthly creature and tell me what I shall call it which can heal the wounds of a guilty conscience or can take out the sting of death or of which a man can truly say Here is a treasure which a lump of phlegm cannot take from me If thou canst not say this of the creature I grant thou mayst use it for thy good but be ruled by a friend never choose it for thy portion But more particularly we may hereby be convinced of the vanity of these five things First Of the vanity of our selves Sickness moved David to beg wisdom of God to know how frail he was Psal 39.4 and this made Job compare himself to a leaf and to the dry stubble and to a flower and shadow Job 13.25 and Cap. 14.2 and we read that this is the use of sickness to hide pride from man Job 33.17 that is to take it quite away to be seen no more and if we did look on every thing which we are usually proud of as it will prove on a sick bed or death-bed it would be an effectual means to abase us and to hide pride from us Beloved it is a most precious thing for a man to be fill'd with the knowledge and sense of his own emptiness and vanity The Kingdom of heaven is unchangeably entail'd upon all such Mat. 5.3 Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven Hereby a man is sweetly qualified for every duty Faith never acts with more integrity and strength then when it acts from the belief of a mans own emptiness for when self is most denied Christ is most acknowledged and believed then doth a man most heartily and strongly receive and rest upon Christ to justifie and to save him when he sees what a guilty condemned lost wretch he is in himself and when he sees what a weak helpless creature he is then doth he most trust to the infinite power of Jesus Christ and this also doth exceedingly endear his heart in love to God when he sees that God is so good and so full of grace and love and mercy as to chuse and call and pardon and save such a vile and loathsome creature as he then repentance is most inward and spiritual when a man with Job abhors himself and repents in dust and ashes Job 42.6 and this fills the heart with prayer for prayer begs of God what a man wants in himself therefore when a man sees himself poor and empty of all good and knows that he cannot be supplied from himself then doth he pray to be fill'd with the fulness of God Now I say sickness is a special means to convince a man of his emptiness and vanity for hereby a man is left bare and empty of all those creature-comforts which seemed to fill him before and now he sees that nothing will fill him but grace and glory and that there is nothing in him to make up this fulness Secondly To convince us of the vanity of great men Oh what is a Prince or a Noble-man or Gentleman when the Pox or the Fever or the Consumption will insult over him and scorn him and make nothing of him and there is nothing in him
Hence we finde that the godly in Scripture were full of the thoughts of death in the time of their sickness David prays on his sick bed that his visitation may be sanctified to this purpose Psal 39.4 Lord make me to know my end and this improvement made Heman of his sickness when the wounds of his soul caused wastings and diseases in his body Psal 88.3 4 5. For my soul is full of troubles and my life draws nigh unto the grave and this was good Hezekiah his frame in his sickness Isa 38.10 11 12. I said in the cutting off my days I shall go to the gates of the grave I am deprived of the residue of my years I said I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the earth Mine age is departed and is removed from me as a shepherds tent I have cut off like a weaver my life He will cut me off with pining sickness from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me So when Job was almost throtled with a disease for saith he Job 30.8 It bindeth me about as the collar of my coat He makes this gracious use of his Visitation vers 23. I know that thou wilt bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living So that by all we see that sickness is a special means to fill our hearts with the thoughts of death End 4. To fill the heart with the knowledge and sense of God Beloved our hearts are apt to be senseless of God as he appears in the ordinary course of his Providence and mercy therefore God often manifests himself in the crosses and changes of our life which makes us more apt to inquire into the cause of such alterations as when corn grows in its ordinary course first the blade then the ear then the full corn in the ear few observe the good Providence of God herein but when God by frost hail or blasting destroys the fruits of the field so that it neither yeilds bread to the eater nor seed to the sower hereby his hand is more remarkably seen and observed so whilst God continues men in health and ease and strength few are sensible of his goodness herein but when he fills their bodies with aches pains and diseases then his power and providence is more observed in such visitations Hence saith Job cap. 10.17 Thou renewest thy witnesses against me as Gods mercies are called his witnesses his doing good and giving rain and fruitful seasons Act. 14.17 so sicknesses and other judgements are fitly called Gods witnesses the use of which is to declare and testifie of God to us Oh saith the Pestilence He is a terrible God that sent me and saith the Fever He is a mighty God that sent me and saith the Consumption He is a just God that sent me If you will not receive the testimony of Gods Ministers and of his Mercies will you receive the testimony of your afflictions certainly every sickness if the conscience be awakened will testifie the same things of God and Christ which Ministers preach to you Consider further I pray you that there is a more special aptness in diseases to convince the heart of man then in divers other things which yet will leave us inexcusable as it is the use of outward mercies to commend the power and wisdom and care and goodness of God to ours heart and a man may improve every mercy so as out of it to fill his heart with God but there are snares and temptations in these to steal the heart from God and therefore men are apt to lose God and to forget him when they are most full of these mercies So in injuries form men we should see the hand of God From men which are thy hand O Lord saith David Psal 17.14 but we are usually so fill'd with anger and revenge towards men that we forget the hand of God But now in a sickness the name of God and the hand of God is more clearly known and seen so that there is no such provision for lust in a sickness as in the mercies here is no profit nor credit nor pleasure for lust to feed upon and here is no instrument to quarrel with will a man be angry with a Fever or be revenged on a Consumption No we must own the Power and Will of God who is the cause of the visitation End 5. Christ sends diseases to turn men from sin and the world unto himself Hence God complains of the want of this as a great disappointment Amos 4.10 I have sent among you the Pestilence to cause you turn to me yet have ye not returned unto to me saith the Lord and therefore it 's observable that in a sickness God doth blast that which makes the snare to hold our hearts from God as we know much of the life and strength of pride and covetousness and other lusts is in the profits and pleasures and preferments of the world now what are all these to a sick man his sickness doth as it were block up all provision from the flesh and now he may see that none but God and Jesus Christ can answer the necessity of his soul and therefore let me ask you What is the best thing which you would propound to a friend on a sick bed who is just upon his flight into eternity will you provide him a sumptuous feast or a rich suit of cloaths or offer him some place of preferment No no shew him a God and Christ to save his poor soul shew him a happiness which will make him blessed when he is turned out of all which sickness and death can take from him Moreover it appears that sickness is appointed by God as a means for our conversion because this and every affliction calls us to do that which the word calls us unto Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest him out of thy law This makes a man a blessed man when in his chastenings he is full of the teaching of the Law Hence we are commanded to hear the rod and who hath appointed it Micah 6.9 Beloved the rod speaks as well as strikes and we should hear the rod as well as feel the rod now what doth the rod speak I answer The rod speaks the minde and will of God who smites with it the rod and the word speak the same language therefore we should see our sickness full of Scripture Oh saith the Dropsie Turn to the God that sent me and saith the Ague Make your peace with God that sent me And this is the voice of every disease which comes upon us And therefore consider that God doth often so bless and sanctifie a sickness to us that it is a means to turn the heart to God and causeth us to bring forth the fruit of many other dispensations as for example God sends to allure us by his mercies Hos
and hell afraid of them but a sickness and death comes and they are driven away in their wickedness Prov. 14.32 whose end Job describes cap. 24.29 Drought and heat consume the snow-waters so doth the grave those that have sinned So also we see godly people who are the blessing of their Age of whom the world is not worthy Hebr. 11.38 the world deserves not the prayers and counsels and examples of such men yet these perish though few lay it to heart Isa 57.1 for in this case there is one event to all Eccles 9.2 for as they lie at the graves mouth we cannot see the difference betwixt a skull that sleeps in Jesus and a skull that is condemned to hell and therefore it 's true of these gracious ones as was said of the good Patriarch Gen. 47.29 Israel must die or as we read of David Acts 13.36 After he had served his own generation by the will of God he fell asleep All these things are from Jesus Christ who sends sicknesses and death at his pleasure and many such things are with him Lastly It informs us of the great mercy of God that we enjoy our health and lives so long when he hath so many diseases in his hands to deprive us of both Hence he is called the Preserver of men Job 7.20 It is the Lord who is our life and the length of our daies who preserves us and keeps us alive Consider the many deaths and dangers we are preserved from that thereby we may see and acknowledge the greatness of this mercy Our Bodies and Souls were no sooner united in the Womb but thousands of deaths were ready to part us again we were liable to all the dangers that our Mothers were in in whose lives our lives were bound up besides multitudes of evils might have kill'd us there and a miscarrying Womb might have loosed us into Eternity And if we look through the whole course of our Age what year or week or day can we name wherein some have not died Oh infinite mercy that keeps us alive in a world of devouring devils and bloody men what multitudes of diseases might have bred in our own bodies what sudden deaths by Falls Fire Water Thunderbolts c. There is never a beam in our houses or beast in our fields or bit of meat on our tables or stones in the streets but methinks it 's like a Pistol charg'd and cockt if God say the word to strike us dead in the place where ever we sit ride walk lie down there is from thence a fall into Eternity We may well wonder when we read of the three Childrens preservation in the Fiery Furnace Dan. 3. and of Daniels safety in the Lyons Den Dan. 6. and yet I tell you our daily and hourly deliverances are as great only they are not so rare for to name no more Devils can as easily kill us as the Fire or Lyons could them and we have no more power to resist or escape these Murderers then they had the merciless Flames or greedy Lyons but as God miraculously preserved them so doth he wonderfully preserve us even in a croud of deaths and dangers Vse 2. Of Reprehension Secondly This Doctrine reproves those who in time of sickness do either for themselves or friends seek to Witches or Wizards for cure Christ makes them sick and they will go to the Devil to make them well but if Christ command all diseases to go and come at his will it must needs be a damnable sin to forsake Christ and the Ordinances appointed by him for our health and to seek help from the Devil This was King Sauls sin though in another case who consulted the Witch of Endor when he was invaded by the Philistins 1 Sam. 28.7 Then did Ahaziah in his sickness send to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron 2 Kings 1.2 And this is the horrid wickedness of many ignorant Atheistical wretches who when they have lost their goods or are visited with sickness seek to Conjurers and Wizards such as they call wise men or wise women to help and relieve them This sin is often condemned in Scripture Lev. 19.31 Regard not them that have familiar spirits Observe do not regard them but look upon them as the basest people in the Country neither seek after Wizards See Isa 8.19 Lev. 26.6 Observe the evil and danger of this sin in these four particulars First This is a sin which brings a man under the heavy wrath and curse of God Lev. 20.6 The soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits and after wizards to go a whoring after them I will even set my face against that soul and will cut him off from among his people Observe for this sin God will set his face against thee all his power and wrath is set and bent against thee O how canst thou hold up thy face when the face of God is set against thee and whereas thou thinkest thou art planted in thy Country and planted in the Church of God and planted in thy Family God will cut thee off from among thy people Thus poor wretch thy disease is perhaps abated and thou rejoycest in thy ease and health but remember thou hast got the Devils blessing and Gods curse Secondly This is that filthy sin of whoredom See again Lev. 20.6 The soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits to go a whoring after them Do not you account this a beastly sin for people to go up and down a whoring Well though thou thinkest thou keepest thy self honest and wilt say I thank God no body can touch me in my honesty yet although all thy Neighbours judge thee to be honest the Lord judgeth thee to be a filthy Whore and Whoremonger for though perhaps thou hast not defiled thy body with a Whore yet thou hast defiled thy soul with the Devil Lev. 19.31 Regard not them that have familiar spirits to be defiled by them and thou mayst be assured that the Devil will not heal thy body except it be to kill thy soul and thou dost hereby joyn that person to the Devil which should be united to Christ thou dost yield thy self to the power and will of the Devil Hence those are the most ignorant sottish prophane or covetous people that seek to Witches Beloved we should do nothing but what we may comfortably go from the doing of it into the presence of God in any duty or to enjoy his presence into Eternity Now as a wife can have no delight to go from a whoremonger into the presence or society of her husband so how canst thou comfortably go from a Wizard to Prayer to a Sacrament or to a Sermon or from a Wizard into Eternity Thirdly This sin is the most abominable sin of Idolatry Lev. 11.31 Regard not â—hem that have familiar spirits I am the Lord your God Implying that they that seek to such do deny God to be the Lord and do disown him from
the Devil may bewitch you into sickness another by as bad a league will as it is termed bless you into health but though these seem to counter-work one another yet the Devils in both agree to devour your souls 3. It is enough to deter thee from ever seeking to such when they are branded with the names of Witches Wizards Conjurers c. When they are so reputed not onely by some malicious slanderers for Christ himself was slandered as one who had commerce with the Devil Matth. 12.24 but also by the voice of the country and by the sober wise charitable and godly Ministers and people who hear of their Clyents and of their practice Lastly this is a sufficient reason for all to abhor the thoughts of seeking to them because they use such means upon the use of which thou hast no Scripture-ground to believe or call upon God for a blessing as when they use inchanting words spells circles herbs salt stones c. which have no natural virtue to work such effects for these are but signes upon the use of which the Devil hath bound himself to his confederates to do what they trust him for For as Peter Martyr well observes the Devil is herein Gods Ape to imitate him and therefore as God hath made a covenant of grace with his people and hath ordained Sacramental signes and seals upon the faithful use of which he is present to believers to perform all that he hath promised in the Covenant So the Devil makes a covenant with Witches and appoints them to use certain signes and tokens upon the use of which he is present to do so far as he can and God permits all that they call upon him and trust to him for And thus you may see the nature evil and danger of this horrid wickedness of seeking in your sicknesses to Witches and Wizards for health that such as are guilty may repent and pray to God that the thoughts of their hearts may be forgiven them and that others who may be tempted to this sin may hear and fear and do no more any such wickedness Secondly This Doctrine reproves those who are full of murmuring and discontent when Christ visits them or their friends with sickness If Christ commands diseases to go there can be no reason to murmur if Christ doth it no body must finde fault yet most people are very apt to this sin in time of sickness for this is the property of a man that what ever is most in his heart when he is troubled it presently riseth and works up into his affections thoughts looks words and actions I shall illustrate this by a clear similitude Take two bottles of wine the one with sugar the other with dregs at the bottom now shake them and the sugar and dregs will rise and work up and the one fills the wine with a sweet and pleasant taste and the other will make it muddy and unpleasant both to taste and look upon so if a godly man and ungodly man be visited with sickness when the godly man is stirred and troubled his graces will presently work and the man will be full of faith love patience and prayer which makes his words and carriage exceeding sweet and savoury but when the wicked man is visited the dregs of sin presently rise and work up and his words and actions are then full of pride anger and discontent which make him sinful and unsavory so that I say a murmuring and discontented spirit usually prevails with men in sickness or other afflictions The Jews are often branded for this sin which was so notorious in them that the Scripture warns all people to take heed of murmuring for their sake 1 Cor. 10.10 Neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer Now to arm you against this sin I shall briefly 1. Shew you the Nature and Properties of it 2. The Causes 3. The sad Consequences of it For the first observe the nature of it in this description The sin of murmuring is an unruly disobedient and unquiet frame of spirit whereby the heart riseth against God so as to question and quarrel with him as if he were unholy cruel unjust and unmerciful in his proceedings against us As by the grace of contentation the heart doth quietly and obediently yeild to the Will of God so as to approve and praise all his dealings as holy just and fatherly to him so a discontented spirit doth resist God and judge of all his dispensations as if they were unworthy and injurious to him This sin is further known by these four filthy properties 1. It is a rebellious rising of the heart against God especially as he appears in that Providence which is the present occasion of his murmuring Hence murmurers are called rebels Numb 16.41 for now all the powers of a man are up in a tumult and insurrection against God the affections and thoughts rise up in a quarrel with him Oh what a fearful case is this that when a mans body is so weak that he cannot rise out of bed yet his corruptions are so strong that they rise in an uproar against the Will and Authority and Justice of God! 2. It is an unjust judging of God for whatever the murmurer pretends his quarrel is against God as the cause of his visitation Perhaps in thy sickness thy discontented spirit flies out towards thy husband wife children or servants which are about thee but they may say with Moses to the Israelites Exod. 16.8 What are we did we make thee sick are we the causes of thy aches and pains thy murmurings are not against us but against the Lord Nay sometimes the spirit riseth so high that it expresly complains of God as if the parties grieved would set themselves above him and call him to their bar and be the judges of God and his dispensations so did the Israelites Numb 14.3 Wherefore hath the Lord brought us into this land Oh horrid pride and insolencie they challenge God as if he had wronged and deceived them in bringing them from Egypt Such men practice what Jobs wife tempted him unto in his sickness Job 2.9 Curse God and dye they have cursed and blasphemous thoughts of God and his Providence it appears that men do thus judge God Psal 51.4 That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thoâ— judgest implying that God is judged and condemned by wicked men and therefore he is said to justifie and clear himself Oh thou proud worm thou conceited clay judge thy self and not God for he giveth not account of any of his matters and to be sure he will overcome when he is judged 3. A murmuring spirit makes his mercieâ— little and his afflictions great This cursed property is seen in the Israelites for although their deliverance from Egypt was such a Providence as God delights to be owned by Hence he is so often called The God that brought them
their curses to pass We read of a Mother that in a passion cursed her Son thus Get thee gone I would thou mightest never come again alive and the same day her Son went into the water and was drowned Another woman said in her anger to her Childe The Devil take thee and presently the poor childe was possessed with the Devil These and many more such dreadful examples should make all afraid of such or any other words of cursing Consider once more that every man should have his heart filled with love unto and earnest desires of the good of all men and should be always in a frame to offer up these desires in prayer to God Now how contrary to this is that devillish spirit which inclines thee to hate and to curse others The Apostle James sets out the great hypocrisie and wickedness of a man who with the same tongue will bless God and curse men James 3.9 10. Therewith bless we God even the Father and therewith curse we men which are made after the similitude of God Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing My brethren these things ought not so to be Lastly This Doctrine reproves those who hasten diseases and death to themselves by their own sins I may reason with such sinners in Solomons words Eccles 7.17 Be not over-much wicked neither be thou foolish why shouldst thou die before thy time It is not meant the time absolutely appointed by God for that cannot be prevented but it 's meant that time which in the course of nature they might have probably lived unto as a Lamp will burn till the Oyl be spent but it may be quencht or blown out sooner So in the course of nature many a man might have probably lived many a year but oftentimes either by a sudden blast of God or by some diseases which are bred by his own sins the lamp of his life is quickly blown out and some of such sins I shall here particularly reprove I might instance in that horrible sin of self-murder which ordinarily proceeds from pride unbelief revenge covetousness discontent or despair when men cannot despite God and man enough by their lives they will attempt to do it by their deaths and will venture with their own hands to cut the thred of their own lives and to loose themselves out of the troubles of earth into the torments of hell I might also mention the horrid sins of Treason Murder Witchcraft Theft c. which sins binde their bodies to the wrath and justice of men and their souls and bodies to the wrath and vengeance of God These sins bring men to be hanged like dogs because they could not be contented to live like men I shall instance in these five sins which do provoke God to visit men with diseases some of which do of their own nature bring men to untimely sickness and death 1. Persecution of Gods people This is a sin which doth not only bring everlasting damnation hereafter but usually it also brings some fearful judgments on the bodies and families of Persecutors here Hence we read Psalm 55.23 Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their daies It would take up far more room then I can here spare to instance in the fearful examples of Gods vengeance upon the very bodies of the cruel enemies of Gods Church and people whereby we might see that all the cruelty which the most barbarous persecutors have invented to torment the Christians with hath not been comparable to those torments wherewith God hath tortured their Enemies with fearful and strange diseases We read of that bloody Herod who murdered the Infants Matth. 2.16 that he was smitten by the hand of God with a most shameful and painful disease so that his body boiled and burnt with heat and his bowels were gnawn he was tormented with a ravenous and insatiable appetite after meat his privy parts were rotten and full of filthy vermine and after he had endured a while the horririble pangs of a lingring death he died in desperate madness and misery See Eusebius Ecclesiastic Histor Lib. 1. Cap. 8. Tertullian amongst other examples of the like kinde reports that one Claudius Herminianus in Cappadocia being enraged that his Wife was turned Christian to revenge himself did exercise much cruelty upon the precious Christians for which God did smite him with a fearful plague wherewith after a while he was tormented he dyed ad Scapulam cap. 3. Steven Gardiner a bloudy butcher in Queen Maries days hearing that Bishop Ridley and Master Latimer were burned at Oxford rejoyced greatly and being at dinner ate his meat merrily but whilst the meat was in his mouth the wrath of God came upon him so that he was taken from his board to bed where continuing fifteen days in intolerable anguish by reason he could not expel his urine his body being miserably inflamed within he was brought to a wretched end with his tongue all black and swoln hanging out of his blasphemous mouth I shall conclude this by warning all that either love their souls lives or posterity or country to take heed of wronging the precious people of God the truth is the Nation which persecutors are a curse unto and the souls of persecutors themselves are dearer to godly Christians then all their own private interest which persecution can take from them and therefore I say to all malicious enemies as Tertullian said to Scapula a Ruler in Carthage and a cruel enemy to Christians Parce tibi si non nobis parce Carthagini si non tibi Spare thy self if thou wilt not spare us spare Carthage if thou wilt not spare thy self So I say if ye will not spare the holy people of God spare your selves if ye will not spare your selves spare your families spare your poor children if you will not spare your families spare the precious nation spare London spare England for you swallow up all by swallowing up Gods people The second sin which I shall here reprove is unworthy receiving the Lords Supper God often punisheth this sin with bodily diseases Hence we read 1 Cor. 11.30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep Now that you may know the evil and danger of this sin I shall shew you what it is to eat and drink the Lords Supper unworthily A man eats and drinks the Lords Supper unworthily when he is without the gracious qualifications which make the heart fit and meet and agreeable to this blessed Ordinance The best way to understand this is to consider what is in the Ordinance and what is in the heart and then by comparing them together to see whether they do meet and agree as for example in the Lords Supper Jesus Christ crucified with all the blessings of the Gospel are shewed forth 1 Cor. 11.26 well and there is a Believer who by faith sees and discerns the Lords Body as it is set forth therein now such a heart and the
ordinance do meet the heart agrees and is suitable to the ordinance and so is fit and worthy to receive it but on the other hand here is a dead unbelieving sinner that hath no principle or faculty to discern Jesus Christ or to receive him as hereby offered therefore he comes unworthily he is not fit for his heart and the ordinance do not agree but he is like a blinde man before the most glorious shew Again here is spiritual food meat indeed and drink indeed to feed and satisfie a soul with grace and pardon and salvation Well and here is a poor soul hungring and thirsting after this very food Now such a man is fit and comes like a hungry man to a good and wholesome feast but here is another dead sinner that sees and feels his want of nothing and so is no more fit and meet for such an ordinance then a man that lyes dead in a Coffin is to eat the bread and wine which is dealt at his funeral nay further you may see the unworthiness of a wicked man in that his heart is against the Lords Supper as a man is very unfit for a feast when he loaths and his stomack doth rise against every dish on the table and against all the company So my Brethren a man is very unfit for the Lords Supper when his heart hates and riseth against Christ and against holiness against all godly Christians Sirs here is set before us that which condemns all sins and which requires the greatest strictness and holiness so that to be sure the man that hates Christ in a Minister or in a Christian cannot but hate him in the Lords Supper Well you see who are unworthy and who by this sin bring diseases and other judgements of God upon themselves in this life and also damnation on their bodies and souls in the life to come I might here also tell you that the godly themselves for want of the present exercise of grace suitable to this Ordinance may bring diseases and death upon themselves for as Christ with all his benefits is herein actually set forth so grace should actually come forth to meet him to take receive and enjoy him as when a feast is ready drest and disht up those that are fit guests must not onely have life and stomachs c. but they must also actually eat and drink The application is easie I shall therefore conclude this reproof in seriously warning all to take heed of unworthy receiving the Lords Supper would any man eat that which he knows would breed the Pestilence or the Fever or the Dropsie Why Christ tells you if you come unworthily you eat and drink judgement to your selves And certainly though the food be precious and wholesome and it is your duty to receive it worthily yet by unworthy receiving you do that which may bring the Plague Pox Fever c. upon you and without sound repentance will bring damnation upon your bodies and souls for ever The third sin to be here reproved is niggardliness this is a sin whereby men restrain from themselves the lawful use of the creature they have not hearts to take and use the creatures to those ends which God hath made them good for but basely defraud their own backs and bellies by grudging themselves the meat drink clothes recreations physick which nature requires and God allows The word speaks expresly against this sin Eccles 6.12 such men play the thieves in robbing God of the honour and themselves of the use of these mercies and they love their â— states better then themselves and by prâ—serving their riches they disease and destroâ— their own bodies 4. Drunkenness to which may be addâ— the sin of gluttony The former bring themselves to untimely sicknesses anâ— death by taking too little of Gods creâ—tures and these by taking too much consider the evil and danger of thiâ— sin of drunkenness in these five particulars 1. Drunkenness doth unman the drunkard and turns him into a very beast Hencâ— saith the Prophet Hos 4.11 Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart This is given as one reason of the peoples wickedness mentioned in this Chapter because they were so besotted with drunkenness and whoredom which sins took away all knowledge and wisdom from them Augustine saith Ebrietas est blandus daemon quam qui habet seipsum non habet Drunkenness is a flattering Devil which he that hath hath not himself Drunkenness is voluntaria insania wilful madness as Seneca speaks A Drunkard though at other times he may be learned yet now he can neither understand discourse see go ride nor do any business as becomes a reasonable man look on a drunkard and consider yonder goes one with the immortal soul and precious body of a man yonder staring eyes stammering tongue staggering limbs would if they were filled with the Spirit be precious instruments to honour God and become blessings to man but what a beastly creature is he made by this filthy sin 2. A drunkard is unfit for any employment he is good for nothing Who will venture his business with a drunken Servant or his life with a drunken Physician or his soul with a drunken Minister how many thousand of mens lives have been lost by drunken souldiers Whatever a mans estate be he may be cheated of all when he is drunk 3. A drunkard is unfit for all societies and that for divers reasons I shall mention but this one viz. a man cannot commit a secret to a drunkard who will chuse such a friend to whom a man can speak nothing but what he will have proclaimed in every Alehouse or Tavern in the Country Now what ever a man says to a drunkard no body knows but that the next time he is drunk he will tell all 4. Drunkenness betrays a man to all sin for a man at the best is full of the principles of Sin Now drunkenness is apt to set all a work and leaves a man incapable of many restraints which might be used to a sober person who knows what a man full of sin may do in his drunken mood when he hath neither grace nor reason nor counsel of others nor fear nor shame to restrain him and therefore what horrid sins are committed in drunkenness swearing cursing whoring fighting yea and murdering also Clitus was a dear and faithful friend to Alexander yet Alexander murders him when he was drunk though he was ready to kill himself for it when he was sober Augustine reports that a son of one in Hippo who was too much cockered by his Father came home drunk in which sin he would have ravished one of his Sisters slew his Father and wounded to death two of his other Sisters Lastly drunkenness shuts a man out of heaven and by untimely sicknesses and death hastens him to hell The Apostle assures us 1 Cor. 6.10 that no drunkards shall inherit the kingdom of God Oh what a fearful sin is this it hurries a
project to have himself honoured and Mordecai hanged vers 4 6. But in onâ— night God turned the scales by a Divinâ— touch upon the Kings heart and so Mordecai is brought to the honour and Hamaâ— to the gallows Oh what became of thiâ— great Courtiers thoughts when instead oâ— the honour which he expected he had thâ— halter which he deserved And thus wâ— finde that God hath gracious thoughts oâ— love and mercy to his people and the counsel of the Lord standeth for ever and the thoughts of his heart to all generations But men have thoughts of setting up themselves and throwing down the Church of God but they fade in their ways and their thoughts perish Lastly See your enemies in the hands of Christ What are they all when they may be sick or dead or damned before they can do thee any hurt Isa 51.12 I even I am he that comforteth thee Who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die and of the son of man which shall be made as grass We may learn here that a Christians fear of man proceeds from his ignorance of three things 1. Of God therefore saith God I even I am he that comforteth thee Sirs if there be more power and goodness and wisdom in him that comforts us then there is strength and subtilty and malice in them that trouble us what need we be afraid do but believe who comforts thee and thou needst not fear or care who troubles thee for God can take away the troubles of man but man cannot take away the comforts of God 2. Of themselves Therefore saith God Who art thou What thou who art my childe and hast me thy father to comfort thee and yet wilt thou be afraid of a man Oh what a poor-spirited creature art thou to be afraid of a man 3. Of the vanity of man Therefore saith God He is a man and can do no more then a man and he is a man that shall dye and wither as the grass Christians God and Sickness and Death and Hell are nearer your enemies then they are to you and I tell you do but believe Gods threatnings against them and you will see no reason to fear their threatnings against you Secondly live in a holy awe and fear of Jesus Christ Psal 33.8 Let all the earth fear the Lord let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him A man that is a tenant at will can tell you he is afraid of offending his Landlord for saith he I live under him I am at his mercie he can keep me in and turn me out of my living when he will Beloved if we knew the power of Christ as well as we do the power of a Landlord and were as much afraid of hell as we are of loosing our livings the same reason would prevail with us to be afraid of offending him for we live at his mercie and life and death is at his Will let me therefore warn you as God did the Israelites speaking to them of Jesus Christ Exod. 23.21 Beware of him and obey his voice provoke him not for if you continue in your sins he will not pardon your transgressions for my Name is in him Upon this ground we are required to fear him Psal 2.9 10 11. He will break his enemies with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potters vessel Therefore it is made the wisdom of Kings and Judges of the earth to serve the Lord with fear It is very observable that as Gods Attributes give being and life to a Christians graces so a Christians Graces bring glory to Gods Attributes as for example the Power and Truth of God causeth Faith and the Goodness of God causeth Love and the Greatness of God causeth Fear in the hearts of the godly So God hath a peculiar name of praise and glory from the graces of his people because of their faith and hope in him he is called the trust and confidence and hope of his people and because of their delight in him he is called the song and joy of his people and because of their awe and dread of him he is called the fear of his people the fear of Isaac Gen. 31.42 See Isa 8.13 Sanctifie the Lord of hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread We have a special instance of this in Job cap. 31. in which Chapter Job by many solemn protestations and serious imprecations asserts his innocencie in several duties as in chastity equity to his servants charity to the poor c. Now he clears himself that the reason of his integrity in these things was not because he was afraid of ever a man alive Hence saith he vers 34. Did I fear a great multitude or did the contempt of families terrifie me No no he had a great awe upon his heart vers 23. For destruction from God was terror to me and by reason of his greatness I could not endure How contrary to this is the secure temper of many who rage in malice against God and godliness and fill the land that bears thâ—â— with lyes oaths drunkenness whoredoms injustice Sabbath-breaking contempt of Ordinances c. yet they make no more of God and his Judgements then the very stones or dirt under their feet But oh what work will diseases and death make among these secure and senseless Atheists shortly methinks I hear the wrath of God roaring against them and the Lyon hath roared who will not fear Amos 3.8 Be perswaded then to stand in awe of God for which purpose lay up that Scripture Eccles 8.12 13. Though a sinner do evil an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God that fear before him But it shall not be well with the wicked neither shall he prolong his days which are as a shadow because he feareth not before God 3. Labour to make your peace with God you see what he can do against you he can disease or kill or damn you when he will therefore it 's your great wisdom and safety to have this God on your side and to be at peace with him The Scripture perswades to this duty with this argument Isa 27.4 5. Who would set the briars and thorns against me in battel I would go through them I would burâ— them together meaning if my enemies who are but as briars and thorns before me who am a consuming fire will fight it out against me I will burn them up quickly I will have them in hell presently but saith he vers 5. If they will by sincere faith and prayer take hold on my strength and make peace with me they shall make peace with me Now to prevail with you herein consider what this peace with God is it 's that blessed State whereby God in Christ is for the good and happiness and eternal salvation of Believers and whereby they are
recreations Lastly make Conscience of the duties of your relations so that you may refresh and revive and not disease and destroy one another our health and life doth much depend under God upon our relations You therefore that are parents do not spend your childrens bread in whoredom drunkenness idleness and revenge many parents finde their lusts more chargeable then their children It is very sad that children may cry out We might have had better education better trades better portions better health had not our merciless Parents loved their sins better then their children You that are children make not your parents lives miserable who have been a means of life to you be not such foolish children as to be the heaviness of your parents Prov. 10.1 Husbands Nourish and cherish your own flesh Eph. 5.29 Make not provision for your lusts with that which should make provision for your wives Wives do your Husbands good and not evil all the daies of your lives Prov. 31.12 labour to be their Comfort and Crown and not as rottenness in their bones So much for the Exhortation to all in general 2. Exhortation directed to people as they enjoy their health The duty which I shall exhort unto is to prepare for sickness and death In this Exhortation I shall use this method 1. I shall shew what this work of preparation is 2. I shall press this duty on several sorts of persons 3. Urge it with some Motives Lastly I shall give several Directions to direct us how to be prepared for sickness and death For the first This work of preparation is that whereby every sound believer is by the spirit of Jesus Christ setled in such a blessed state and frame that he is fitted for all that Christ shall do to him by sickness and death In this description observe three things 1. The principal efficient cause which makes this great preparation in us viz. the Spirit of Jesus Christ Hence Christ is called The Author and finisher of our faith Heb. 12.12 Where Jesus Christ begins a work of grace and salvation in a soul he never leaves it till he hath finished it and made it up for heaven therefore saith the Apostle Phil. 1.6 Being consident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it or finish it till the day of Jesus Christ that is till the day of death and of judgment so that this is the great work of Jesus Christ in every true believer to fit him and make him ready for sickness and death and the day of judgment 2. Here is the subject of this work or the person prepared viz. every true believer who is a vessel of mercy prepared for glory 3. Here is that wherein the nature of this work of preparation consists viz. in three things 1. He must be setled in the state of grace and salvation that is he must have a Scripture-right to God as he is the God of salvation by Jesus Christ and so a right to heaven and to all the blessings of the Covenant of Grace 2. He must be wrought into a gracious frame whereby he is bent to yield up himself in subjection and obedience to the will of God in sickness and in death Lastly Here is that which he must be prepared for viz. all that God shall do to him by sickness and death If God fill him with pain and misery he hath his graces of faith love patience humility and meekness to enable him to lie quietly and obediently and chearfully under the power and will of his heavenly Father If God call him by sickness into Eternity he is with Saint Paul ready to be offered and is made fit by grace to receive and enjoy the glory of heaven This gracious frame of heart is fully epxress'd Rom. 14.8 Whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we die we die unto the Lord that is we live to this end to please and do the will and to seek the glory of the Lord and we are ready to die to the will and glory of the Lord. So much for the Explication of this work of preparation Secondly I shall press this Exhortation upon these seven sorts of persons 1. I shall exhort little children so far as they are capable to know and practise this duty to prepare for sickness and death Now because this applicaâ—ion may seem strange consider that God himself thinks it not below him to be a Teacher of young children Psalm 148.12 13. Both young men and maidens old men and children let them praise the name of the Lord. And all parents are commanded to teach their children to know and do his will Deut. 6.6 7. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart and thou shalt teach them diligently or whâ—t and sharpen them upon thy children So Prov. 22.6 Train up a childe in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it Observe there is a way for young children to go to heaven and it is that wherein they should be found when they are old and all parents are bound to set them in that way and indeed children are sooner capable then most conceive to know something of God and Christ and Heaven and Hell Timothy knew the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from a sucking childe 2 Tim. 3.15 And this appears by the timely fruits of the Spirit that sometimes drop from their pretty sanctified mouths And certainly baptized children being Christs Disciples and admitted into his School the Church have a right to be taught in the way to salvation and Christ is a Prophet to them and his Ministers are Ministers to them as well as to others And really Ministers have often more comfort from catechized Boys and Girls then from many old ignorant Atheists who are worse then children in the understanding of the Scriptures And lastly it makes much for Gods glory to have his Name praised by the mouths of little children Psal 8.2 Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thy enemies that thou mightest still the enemy and avenger Observe God hath ordained that his praise in the mouths of little children shall be a strong and powerful means to stop the mouths of malicious subtil Atheists to still the enemy and avenger So we read Matth. 21.16 Out oâ— the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thoâ— perfected praise The praises that come to God by the blessed Angels and all the Saints in heaven and earth is perfected and made up by the praises of these young Saints Now considering these things and seeing sickness and death fetch away so many young children into Eternity I have chosen to direct one brief Exhortation to the young Boys and Girls among us Oh come therefore you sweet and pretty children and I will teach you the fear of the Lord be you prepared for sickness and death Heark sweet Children
between the two worlds a world of sin snares persecution poverty sickness and death on the one hand and a world of life and immortality and fulness of inconceivable joy and pleasure on the other hand Thus the Apostle seems to stand 2 Cor. 4.17 18. we stand looking from our afflictions on the things that are not seen So Rom 8.17 18. If we suffer with him we shall be glorified with him Well put these together put the persecution from wicked men and the Crown of Glory together put a moment of pain and misery on a sick bed and an eternity of joy in heaven together and thou must needs conclude with the Apostle vers 18. For I reckon saith he I have cast them both up and I finde that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Lastly look upon time and eternity together Oh what is time when a man looks into eternity it seems but a breath a twinkling of an eye a stroke of a pulse to a man that sees eternity before him Methinks a believer is like a man on a hill by the sea-side he sees a little spot of ground and the great Ocean lying beyond it so he sees a little spot of time and the great Ocean of eternity lying beyond it he sees the end of all things Oh saith he I am gone I am gone look how all the honours and riches and comforts of this life do vanish out of my sight and everlasting fire or everlasting glory will receive me presently Sirs this would make us live in a posture to dye if we did but see what a little while it is before we must sit with Christ in heaven or burn with Devils in hell Direct 4. Labour to fill up your time this is the way to fit you for eternity but you will say What is it to fill up our time Answ Time is filled by applying our time to that work which God hath given us our time for God hath given us time for our callings to labour and do all that we have to do time to worship God and do his will time for recreations meat drink sleep c. and by all these to honour God to be blessings to men and to seek salvation for our selves and by doing these things we fill our time as for example if a man should write down his days work not that I would impose upon the consciences of men So long I was slugging in bed so long I was glutting at meat so long filling my self with drink at such a time belching out oaths and then look upon this on a sick-bed here would be a black day to look upon such a day would make work in eternity So if a man spend a day in idleness as Seneca speaks of some idle persons that are busied between the comb and the looking-glass now if such a one were to write his days work he must leave a blank for such a day which would cause stinging reflections when he comes to know the loss of his precious time But if a godly man should write down Such an hour I spent in secret prayer and meditation such an hour in family-worship such a time in the works of my calling and such time in a sober use of recreations now if this were done in a right manner notwithstanding many invincible infirmities yet here is a day well filled and may cause sweet reflections when he sees his days ending in eternity Now that you may thus improve and fill up your time I shall briefly give you these five Directions 1. Labour to have your hearts filled with grace Beloved a mans time is full of that which his heart is full of the heart fills the tongue and fills the life and so fills the time Solomon tells us Prov. 10.20 The heart of the wicked is little worth when all that is in a mans heart is good for nothing neither good to honour God nor to save himself nor others then his time must needs be good for nothing it must needs be an empty sinful unprofitable time for such a man hath nothing to fill up his time with But on the contrary our Saviour tells us Matth. 12.35 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things The graces of Gods Spirit make a good treasure in the heart and all things that come from faith love humility meekness c. are good things and do much good and a mans time is happily filled that is full of prayer of holiness of godly conference c. which are all brought forth out of the good treasure of grace in the heart 2. Do nothing in time but what will pass in your account when your time is at an end Christ will one day say to thee Give an account of thy stewardship for thou mayst be no longer steward Luk. 16.2 Give an account of thy Health Life Parts Estate of Sabbaths Sermons Sacraments and all thy precious opportunities for thou must no longer use or enjoy these Now what a sad reckoning will here be if he hath one nothing with these that will pass in his account as if a great man intrust a servant to be his Steward and commit to him his money rents c. to disburse according to his Masters pleasure Now if when the Steward is called to give up his account he is able to reckon So much laid out for provision for the family so much for the education of the children so much to relieve the poor these things will pass in his account but if he reckons So much wasted in drunkenness so much converted to my own use c. the Master will never accept of this So my Brethren when God calls us to an account of our stewardship if a man can say Lord I spent my estate in the education of my children in feeding and maintaining my family in relieving the poor I spent my parts in making God and Christ known to others I spent my time to please and praise thee to profit others and save my self these things will pass in thy account and thou shalt be sure of thy reward and honour of a faithful servant when the time of my Stewardship is expired but if it appear that a man hath wasted his estate on his lusts and spent his time in his sins his account must needs be sad when he must have hell for his wages whatever ye do consider whether it will pass in your account and look upon every thing now as it will prove when you are to give an acount for it It is a remarkable expression Phil. 4.17 I desire fruit that may abound to your account many things which a believer doth with an upright heart seem but little now but they will rise and abound to his glory when he comes to give an account 3. Do nothing but what thou art willing to have thy self the very Nation wherein thou livest and thy
to die to the Lord Rom. 14.18 I tell you a man may with courage and resolution burn at a stake and men burn him to death because of his profession of the truth of Christ and yet this is but the height of hypocrisie and he may hereby dye to himself And though men may commend him for a Saint yet God may justly condemn him for an hypocrite but he that willingly yeilds himself to dye in obedience to God dyes in the Lord and to the Lord and graciously offers up his life as a sacrifice of a sweet savour to God in Christ Consider further thou dost hereby graciously finish all passive and active obedience thou now leavest thy Country and Estate and Father and Mother and Wife and Children to fulfill the will of God So also all that thou hast been doing by Prayer Meditation Sacraments Sabbaths c. thou willingly yeildest to have finisht by death thou art heartily willing that the old man of sin be put off by death for ever and that the new man of holiness be put on for ever Consider thou hast often pray'd to be filled with the likeness and presence of God which can never be till death Christ hath prayed that thou mayst be where he is that thou mayst see his glory Joh. 17.24 and this can never be till thou dyest therefore I say be willing to dye call upon the sad mourners about thee saying to them as Jacob to Joseph Gen. 46.30 Let me dye Dear yokefellow let me dye sweet children let me dye my pleasant Jonathans let me dye and turn thy face to God and say with Simeon Luk. 2.29 Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Lastly Commend thy soul to God this is an act of a Believer whereby he freely gives up himself to God and Christ as his right and due to glorifie and to enjoy him for ever in heaven Now by giving up thy soul to God thou givest up thy body too for the body will be sure to follow the soul if the soul go to hell the body must go thither too if the soul go to heaven the body must be glorified there too therefore see God as it were standing by thy bed-side saying to thee My son give me thy heart give me thy soul give it me from sin and self give it me from the world and devils give it me for I made it and bought it and I will save it Oh then give it up and commend it to God See the infinite and unchangeable love and mercy of God in Christ to thy soul and believe that with this love he will graciously and lovingly receive thy soul and see what God will do with thy soul in what fulness of holiness and joy and glory he will settle it for ever See that thy soul be such as thou mayst comfortably commend it unto God do not present to him a drunken ignorant proud covetous unbelieving soul but a believing loving holy humble soul See thy soul cloathed with Christs righteousness and aâ— such give it up to God to be blessed and glorified for ever in Heaven saying Father into thy hands I commit my spirit FINIS Pâ—al 52.7 Psa 39.11 â—sa 22.17 Psalm 10.18 Job 40.9 1 Cor. 10.22 Job 40.9 Psal 128.3 Jer. 9.21 Job 21.21 2 Kin. 4.40 Psal 94.12 Jam. 5.14 Psal 17.14 Psal 49.7 Job 9.17 Eph. 2.6 Col. 3.4 Luke 12.4 Jam. 5.11 Phil. 4.17 Heb. 10.31 Gal. 4.29 1 Tim. 4.16 Rev. 6.8 Job 23.14 Deut. 30.20 Psal 41.2 â—ct 8.22 â—eut 13. â—1 Job 33.13 Rom. 3.4 Exod. 16.3 17.3 Prov. 23.5 Isa 57.20 Lam 3.19 22. Numbers 12.14 Job 21.23 Prov. 25.15 Act. 23.12 Cor. 3.9 * Cyprian de mortalitate 1 Cor. 13.12 2 Cor. 5.1 Phil. 3.21 Gal. 3.13 1 Cor. 15.54 1 Cor. 15.43 Heb. 10.37 38. 2 Cor. 5.4 Prov. 27.1 Psa 33.11 2 Cor. 5.19 Jam. 1.22 2 Cor. 4.7 Heb. 3.13 Deut. 34.7 Prov. 12.4 Prov. 1.8 Psal 22.30 Eccl. 12.1 Psal 71.6 2 Tim. 3.15 Matth. 25. Vers 6. Vers 8. Phil. 1.9 10. Job 38.7 2 Tim. 1.18 Luk. 12.20 Psal 88.3 Acts 14.17 Prov. 3.24 Rom. 5.8 Eph. 5.2 Gal. 2.20 1 Joh. 3.23 2 Pet. 3.14 Heb. 11.4 Prov. 23.26
out of the land of Egypt and God chuseth this as a fit preface to the Ten Commandments as if it were a sufficient reason to all to worship and obey him Exod. 20.2 I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt c. yet how often did the discontented Jews upbraid God with that mercie Would to God we had died in the land of Egypt wherefore hast thou brought us out of the land of Egypt Thus many in sickness and pain forget the mercie of God in all the days of their health and life in a few hours sickness they forget a whole age of rich mercie Lastly discontent frets and disquiets a mans self Psal 37.1 and therefore it hurts them more then the affliction as if man have a cut or wound in his flesh this will disease and trouble him but if a fretting humour fall in the wound to vex and inflame it this is far more hurtful and dangerous then the wound it self so thy sickness must needs trouble thee but if under thy visitation thy heart abound with proud and peevish humours which makes thee fret against God this makes thy condition far more miserable then the disease it self would make it Secondly observe four Causes of Discontent 1. Ignorance of Gods dominion over his creatures this is clear by the parable of the labourers in the Vineyard Matth. 20. where our Saviour doth silence the labourers murmuring about their wages with this Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own vers 15. implying that if they had known and considered that it was his own they would have found no cause to quarrel So many murmure in their sickness to see worse sinners have their ease and health but they do not consider that their life health and bodies are Gods own and all diseases are his own and he sends them to whom he will and though others have more mercy yet they have no wrong do not you put your Oxen to labour and after that to the slaughter yet if any question you for using the poor cattel so cruelly you will not stick to tell them Friends we hurt nothing of yours may we not do what we will with our own Sirs God hath a greater right over you then you have over your cattel if he disease you and destroy you he hurts nothing of yours and therefore he may do what he will with his own 2. Discontent ariseth from mens expectation of settlement in the world for certainly they that trust to vanity shall be filled with vexation of spirit for disappointment always breeds discontent as the Husbandman that dungs and ploughs and sows his ground if his expectation of a crop be too great and he doth not consider how many thousand dangers may come between the Plough and the Sickle but reckon aforehand of so many measures for his family and so many to pay rent and so many for seed now if the crop fail at harvest here is a sad repining and discontent so if a mans expectation of the world is too high and having heaped up riches he begins to bless himself saying I have so much for a purchase and so much for portions for my children now if when he is just catching at them to use them they take themselves wings and flie away no marvel if they leave the owner murmuring at the Providence When the Israelites were so miraculously saved from Egypt they thought that deliverance had put a period to all their troubles and therefore every cross being a disappointment sets them on murmuring so they that promise themselves health and ease and plenty in the world when sickness and want comes they presently fret and complain whereas they that look and prepare for changes live in a more composed and quiet frame if mercie comes they are thankful and if affliction comes they are content The third Cause of discontent is Unbelief Hence the Israeliles murmure because they believed not the good report which Joshua and Caleb gave of the land of Canaan Numb 14.11 How long will it be ere they believe me for all the signes which I have shewed among them Sirs an unbelieving heart is always a discontented heart for an unbeliever hath nothing to still and quiet the heart with in his afflictions observe every cross takes away something which did feed and please the heart as health riches credit pleasures and friends c. now when these are lost a man doth as it were feel something go out of his heart but then faith fills and stills the heart by bringing into it God and Christ and heaven Why art thou disquieted O my soul trust still in God Psal 43.5 but now God and Christ and the promises and heaven are nothing to an unbeliever and so yeild him no peace and comfort therefore he must needs be like the troubled sea when the storms and winds of affliction blow upon him and he hath nothing to calm and comfort his soul Lastly discontent ariseth from mens being so very sensible of the evil of affliction and senceless of the evil of sin Mens bodies are tender and their senses quick and therefore even the biting of a flea the scratching of a Pin is presently felt and men are so tender of their reputation profits and delights that the least touch in these is a cross to them but their hearts are so hard and consciences feared that they can lye securely under all the curses of Gods book and have mountains of wrath abide on them and feel nothing and therefore afflictions lye so heavie because sin lyes so easie Whereas if a man knew what sin is and saw at night what wrath he had treasured up all the day he would rather wonder that he were out of hell then murmure that he were in trouble this did silence the Church when she remembred the wormwood and the gall because she knew that it was of the Lords mercies that she was not consumed therefore she pleads Lam. 3.39 Wherefore doth a living man complain A man that deserves death and hell cannot reasonably complain if he be alive as it is unreasonable for a Thief that deserves to be hanged to complain because he is whipt And then it is added a man for the punishment of his sin Why should a man complain of that which he hath brought upon himself Solomon speaks of this as very unequal Prov. 19.3 The foolishness of a man perverteth his way that is mans sin brings him into trouble and his heart fretteth against the Lord. Man is in all the fault and he would have God to bear all the blame In the next place observe four sad consequences of this Sin First murmuring debaseth a man by turning him into the likeness of the basest creature we have a remarkable Scripture for this in Psal 59. in the sixth verse David saith of his enemies They return at evening they make a noise like a dog and go round