it is not enough for a man to do good to others though he could to all if he remain an enemy to himself Like Shel-fishes which breed pearls for others to wear but are sick of them themselves lik a Mercury Statue which shews the way to others but stands still it self like a whetstone which sharpeneth the knife but is blunt it self If thou be wise saith Solomon be wise for thy self Many men are like Plutarchs Lamiae which had eyes for abroad but were blinde at home like Bees that gather good honey but are smothered themselves But our dear Brother had an eye inward was wise to the interests of his own soul Like the Cynamon tree which lets not out all its sap into leaves and fruit which will fall off but keeps the principal of its fragrancy for the bark which stays on like a tree planted by the water side which though it let out much sap to the remoter boughs yet is specially careful of the root that that be not left dry And in truth what profit would it be to a man if he could help and heal all the sick men of the world and be incureably sick himself If he could get all the men on the earth all the Angels in heaven to be his friends and have still God for his enemy If he could save others and then lose his own soul to be like the ship Act. 27. broken to peeces it self though it helped others to the shore Like those that built the Ark for Noah and were drowned themselves Herein therfore he shewed himself truly a wise man that he took care of his own soul Some men are like Achitophel very careful to set their houses in order but then cast away their souls But our dear Brother though he had by the variety of his imployments the cares of Martha upon him was yet specially mindful of Maries unum necessarium the care of his own salvation And he did not take up his Religion with the times that he might magis uti Deo quam frui make gain godliness as the Samaritans who would be Jews when the Jews prospered and enemies to them when they suffered but he was as is said of Mnason Act. 21.16 an old Disciple a Professor of Religion in the worst times when piety was nick-named preciseness and he that departed from evil made himself a prey Isa 59.15 Temporibusque malis ausus es esse bonus did dare to be good in bad times Religion sometimes is like oyl gets highest and the faeces and amurca are at the bottom when the horn of the righteous is exalted Psal 75.10 Sometimes it is like gold in the Mine lies deep and depressed like the sap of a tree in winter fain to shrink under ground There are many Summer Christians will be religious in the sun shine our dear Brother was a winter Christian kept his religion in the storm and as then he was so he continued a steady Christian a ship well ballanced with sound knowledge and rooted sincerity and love of the truth not carried about with every wind of doctrine It is said of Christ he is yesterday and to day the same Heb. 13.8 Christians should therein imitate him and having tried all things hold last the good and with purpose of heart cleave to God God hath beautified several of his servants with several Graces we read of Jobs patience Moses his meekness Abrahams faith Maries love Davids devotion Solomons wisdom Apollo his eloquence our dear Brother was eminent in many likewise in meekness and mildness of soul he was a man of an amiable and calm temper yet sweetly quickned with zeal for Gods glory He was a great lover of an able Minister and of the Ordinances of Christ so dispensed an eminent grace in these times when poor Ministers and Ordinances it is well they go together they are good company suffer together from many whom we cannot wonder at for being so much enemies to others who are so little friends to their own souls he that undervalues his own life may easily despise another mans But by the way it were well if the despisers of Ordinances would consider that little children who play the wantons with their meat are likely not long after to know what difference there is between a smarting rod and a wholsom dinner We may have Ordinances taken away from us too soon let not us take them away from our selves We have viewed him in his private capacity as a Christian if we consider him in his publick as a Magistrate we shall finde how great a loss the Town and Country had of him in this regard as his friends and the Church of God in the other Some men are like Vines very good for fruit but you cannot make a beam or a pin of them to hang any vessells thereon Ezek. 15.3 to such things Magistrates are compared Isa 22.23 24. But our Brother was like the Wallnut tree good both for fruit and for timber His fitness for Magistracy appeared in this that being not an aged man he was twice called to the Majoralty of this Town and once to serve for the same more publickly Tully derided Heraclidâ—s Temnites that he lived to old age and never attained those honors in his Country which others usually did arrive at it could not be said so of him he was of so dexterous a spirit that one may say of him as Livy did of Cato Natum adid unum diceres quodcunque ageret And this is the more considerable in that he was not originally brought up to services of a publick nature It is noted for the honor of Alphenus Varus that having been bred in a shop at a private trade he proved so learned and eminent a Lawyer that he wrote collectanea juris some of which are entred into the pandect and was afterwards Consul of the City And we read in humane stories of Agathocles Justinus Primislaus Pinctus and others who by their wisdom and abilities were raised from Trades and Farms to great Governments Our dear Brothers publick imployments were not the fruits of his own ambition but of the free love of other men who for his wisdom fidelity and fitness called him thereunto And truly a very fit man he was for them an able man fearing God loving truth hating covetousness Exod. 18.21 He had a publick spirit very ready to en tertain and promote every thing which tended to the general good Some men are like the Prophets Vine Hos 10.1 bring fruit onely to themselves and are empty to all the world besides But he was one who could deny himself and his private interest to serve the publick as natural bodies will forsake their own proper motions to prevent a publick breach upon the universe Pompey being disswaded from an expedition hazardous to himself but useful to the publick returned this answer to his friends Necesse est ut eam non ut vivam It is necessary for me to go it is not necessary for me to live And truly besides his Wisdom Zeal for God Dexterity to set forward good works he had one excellent Character for Magistracy he was a man of a milde and meek spirit I call this an excellent temper for Magistracy If it were not so the Lord would not have chosen Moses the meekest man on earth Numb 12.3 nor David who was as a weaned childe to be the Ruler of Israel Psal 131.1 2. Magistrates will meet with many things to provoke passion difficulties in business multitudes of imployment cros sand mutinous distempers in ill-disposed people prophanations and dishonors done to the name of God which exceedingly stirred Moses himself Exod. 32.19 therefore they had need have milde and composed spirits patience is the effect of power Numb 14.17 â—8 Thus he lived in his private capacity a dear Husband a tender Father a faithful friend a sincere Christian Thus he lived in his publick capacity a wise zealous self-denying publick-hearted meek-spirited Magistrate And now as he said oportet imperatorem stantem mori And another Episcopum concionantem that it was honourable for a Commander to die in his Arms and a Bishop in his Pulpit So the Lord ordered the death of our dear Brother with this circumstance of honor in it that he died a Magistrate in his Office Aaron was stripped of his Sacerdotal Ornaments on the mount where he was called to die Num. 20.25 26. And this our Brother did put off his Robe to put on his Shrowd his Magistracy yeelded to his mortality His death was sudden in it self so was old Elies a good man but it is not sudden to a Beleever whose holy life fits him or it for sanctity is a better preparation unto death then sickness It is all one if a man come to heaven whether it be by a Journey or by a Rapture as Paul was caught up thither 2 Cor. 12.3 4. Well he is with Christ which is best of all though we be without him the care of his friends must be by moderation of sorrow to testifie their assured hope of his happiness And the care of the Town must be to testifie their love unto him with chusing a wise holy faithful zealous man to succeed him who may carry on those good works which he had the happiness to begin but not to finish by reason of a greater happiness We leave him with our Apostles Motto upon him To him to Live was Christ and therefore to Dye was Gain FINIS
Or lastly whether we speak of Life eternal the life of Glory this our life is hid with Christ in God and when Christ who is our life shall appear we shall also appear with him in glory Col. 3.3 4 Of these two especially the Life of Grace and the Life of Glory Christ is the efficient cause per modum pretii as a Meritorious Procurer of it laying down no less a price then his own life to purchase ours For we are bought with a price 1 Cor 6.20 and by vertue of that price we are quickened together with him Gomar to 3. disp 15 Parker de descens lib. 3. sect 49. Ephes 2.5 2. Per modum Principii by his Holy Spirit fashioning us to his Life and likeness for being a Second Adam he is unto us a quickening Spirit 1 Cor. 15.45 and having life in himself doth derive it upon whom he will Joh. 5.21 26. As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me shall live by me Joh. 6.57 Secondly Christ is the matter of our Life As meat is the matter on which life feedeth Aug. Tract 26 in Joan. Euseb cont Marcel cap. 12. and by which it is preserved so Christ is the spiritual Manna the bread which came down from Heaven of which they who eat shall live Joh. 6.51 The Sacrifices after they were offered for expiations were many times eaten for the comfort and reviving of those that offerâ—d them Christ therefore who was our Passover having offered himself as a propitiation to take away our sin by the Sacrifice of himself was thereupon pleased to institute his Last Supper and therein to set forth himself as that spiritual food whereby the life of Grace in his people is nourished and preserved Thirdly Christ is the very form of spiritual life in a Beleever in which respect he is said to live in us and to be formed and fashioned in us as the childe is shaped in the womb of the Mother Gal. 4.19 and this both as forma essentialis the very soul that actuateth a beleever he is a quickening Spirit If Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is life because of righteousness Rom. 8.10 and as forma exemplaris the Idea model and pattern of our life for he hath given us an example that we should follow his steps 1 Pet. 2.21 Fourthly Qui esse vult sibi non tibi nihil esse incipit inter omnia Bern. in contr Serm. 20. Christ is the end and scope at which our whole life is to aim and to be directed it must be wholly consecrated unto him nothing in all our concernments must be so dear unto us as Christ whether we live we must live to him or whether we dye we must dye to him because for this end he both died and rose again that he might be the Lord both of the dead and of the livings Rom. 14.7 8 9. therefore as by bringing forth much fruit we do glorifie the Father Job 15.8 so also do we thereby honour the Son out of whose fulness we receive grace for grace for he that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father Joh. 5.23 This seems here principally intended To me to live is Christ My life time studies imployments are wholly taken up in the things of Christ that he may have honour and service by me Wicked men live to themselves to them to live is lust and vanity they follow their own wils they walk in the imagination of their own hearts they rule themselves by no counsel but their own carnal and corrupt wisdom as it is said of Jeroboham that he set up a worship which he had devised of his own heart 1 Reg. 12.33 and the the people professed to Jeremy that they would do whatsoever should go forth out of their own mouth Jer. 44.17 They direct all they do to themselves looking after onely their own gain ease pleasure credit advantage fasting eating drinking to themselves and assembling themselves for corn and wine Zach. 7.6 Hos 7.14 They withdraw themselves from that subjection and subordination wherein God hath placed them and do in effect say as Pharaoh Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice Ex. 5.2 Now â—is is a very strange folly because our salvation and the glory of Christ are twisted together as the coherence of the 19. and 20. verses of this Chapter doth demonstrate When we neglect his glory we forfeit our own salvation and when we seek our own salvation he esteemeth himself glorified thereby As when a great stone doth fall from an Arch the little ones that were bound and knit in by it do fall for company so when men do neglect the great end of living to the honor of Christ they do greatly endanger all their own subordinate ends thereby What is it then for Christ to be our life or for a man truly to say To me to live is Christ It is First In our hearts to acknowledge him for our Lord unto whom we owe our time and strength our fear and honour Isa 8.11 Mal. 1.6 Secondly in our lives to do every service with good will and in singleness of heart as unto him Eph. 6.5 6 7. to do it by a warrant from his word I will hear what God the Lord will say Ps 85.8 Proving what is the good and perfect and acceptable will of God Rom. 12.2 and what it is which Christ would have us to do Act. 9.6 To set him always before us and to do every thing as in his presence and with a desire to approve our hearts in well doing unto him Ps 16.8 for as he behaved himself towards his Father doing always those things that pleased him Joh. 8.25 6.38 so are we to behave our selves towards him who as he hath made us the Sons of his Father by Adoption Joh. 20.17 so is he himself our Father by Regeneration and calleth us in one respect his Brethren and in another his Children Heb. 2.11 12 13. To do every thing unto his glory as vessels fitted for our Masters use and prepared unto every good work 2 Tim. 2.21 To value our life not cheifly for it self but for the service which therein we are to do unto our Lord I count not my life saith the Apostle dear unto my self so that I may finish my course with joy and the Ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus Act. 20.24 And herein likewise we imitate his example who in conformity to the command of his Father did himself lay down his own life for his sheep and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross a servile an ignominious Vid. Lips de Cruce cap. 12. Casaub in Baron exercit 16 c. 77. a cursed death Joh. 10.11 15 18. Phil. 2.8 This it is for a man to say To me to live is Christ my thoughts studies aims purposes imployments do all fix and terminate upon
all this Gain is from Death at a distance while we are out of its possession Is there any Gain from such an enemy while we are under his power Yes even here there may be gain was not the fire an enemy to the three Children were not the Lions enemies to Daniel yet they were rebuked When a mans ways please the Lord he maketh his enemies at peace with him Prov. 16.7 Laban pursued Jacob in great anger Esau meets him as we may suppose with hostile purposes but the Lord by his powerful providence over-ruled their hearts that they could not hurt him Saul Davids Father-in-law persecutes him and Achish the King of Gath from whence Goliah came whom David had not long before slain and who could not but for that reason be hated at that place gives him entertainment God can make Moab a covert for his out-casts as he was unto the Father and Mother of David Isa 16.4 1 Sam. 22.3 4. Though Death be an enemy the Lord can weaken it disarm it pull out the sting of it and make us at peace with it But you will say All this is rather harm suspended then gain obtained Is there any more proper and gennine gain to be found in an Enemy such an Enemy having us under his power and possession surely yes We finde the Egyptians bitter Enemies to Israel furnishing them with Jewels of silver Jewels of gold and Raiments Exod. 3.21 22. Was not the Whale that swallowed Jonah an enemy a very type of our enemy here as our Saviour tells us Matth. 12.39 40. Yet by it was Jonah carried safe to land he regained life by that which devoured him he had been drowned in the Sea if the fish had not found out the Shore for him Were not the waters of the Red Sea and of Jordan enemies to those that should go into the midst of them yet through these did Israel gain liberty out of bondage victory over Pharoah and his host and possession of Canaan their promised Rest. Take it in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here men are absent from the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 as Jonah is said to have fled from his presence cast out into a Sea of cares troubles fears and sorrows Death as the Whale devours us and lands us at a better shore leads us from the thraldom of Satan from the temptation and sufferings and fiery Serpents which we meet with in the wilderness of this world and brings us into our Heavenly Rest So then even under the notion of an enemy here is gain from death As a Lamprey is esteemed delicate meat when the sting of the back is taken out as the waters of Marah were made sweet by the tree which was cast into it so death being by the cross of Christ purged of its venome and bitterness is become useful and gainful unto us Secondly Let us view Death on the better side for it is as a plaited picture on the one side it looks like a grim and angry enemy as destructive to nature on the other side it hath a more calm and friendly aspect as reconciled unto us by Christ It is as a Servant sent from a Father to call his Son home as a Nurse which taketh the Childe in her arms to carry it to the Mother it is a depositary entrusted with the custody of the body and shal give an exact accompt thereof unto Christ He by his holy body hath sanctified the grave made it a bed to sleep in We find Angels at either end of Christs grave Joh. 20.12 They keep the Saints not onely in their ways but in their graves The Jaylor who before did beat Paul and scourge him and thrust him into the inner prison being converted treated him after another manner washed his stripes brought him into his house and set meat before him Act 16.33 34. Such a change there is in death before the spirit of bondage represented it with a chain and scourge it kept the soul down under the fear and dread of it But now unto a beleever by Christ it is so far altered that it is become part of his dowry and portion numbred up by the Apostle amongst those good things which with Christ are graciously bestowed upon us 1 Cor. 3.22 We will consider the Gain we have by this Friend first privatively then positively Privately It freeth us from all other evil and toilsom labours which we were by the curse pronounced against Adam subject unto It is a kinde of Canaan a Rest a Sabbath unto beleevers write saith the Lord from heaven to his Apostle Blessed are they that dye in the Lord for they rest from their labors Rev. 14.13 they enter into peace they rest in their beds Isa 57.2 1. They rest from the toilsom captivity and tyranny of sin a burden under which they complain as too heavy for them to bear There is no rest in my bones because of my sins mine iniquities are grown over mine head as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me Psal 38.3.4 6 7 8. the Apostle calleth it a weight and an encompassing sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. Petâ—i Fabri Agonistic l. 2. c. 3. Methedius apud Epiphan haeres 64. a fat and heavy body wholly indisposeth for an Athletick imployment This body of lust being destroyed they are made perfect Heb 12.23 As Ivy which hath gotten its roots into â—ll the joynts of a wall can never he quâ—â—e killed till the wall it self be demolished so sin and corruption being deeply seated in the whole nature of man is never quite slain and subdued till the whole frame be taken down and dissolved 2. Greg. Tholos Syntagma juris l. 31. cap. 20. Bestias Asiaticae pressurae Tertul. de resurrect carnis cap. 48. They rest from the buffets and temptations of Satan it was a sore conflict for the Apostle to fight with Beasts at Ephesus whether they were truly or Metaphorically such beastly men 1 Cor. 15.32 but this combate was nothing to the messenger of Satan to the roarings of that Lion how rampant and outragious he will be against the servants of God when the Lord is pleased to leng then his chain and to give him liberty what dismal fears what hellish impressions what fiery darts what black and horrid suggestions he will amaze the souls of poor sinners withal the examples and experiences of many of Gods afflicted people can abundantly testifie insomuch that their soul chuseth strangling as Job speaks Job 7.15 Now being by death translated into Abrahams bosom they are far removed out of Satans reach he was thrown down from heaven and can never shoot up any darts or come near any of Gods servants there to affright or annoy them 3. They rest from the cares sorrows snares toils temptations of the world the examples of sinners do not endanger them the sight of their filthy conversation doth no longer afflict them the fear of their cruelties and persecutions doth no more trouble them