further degree for all this And there be these two reasons for it The first is because the wicked not only sinne in soule but in body too the body hath beene the instrument of the soule in sinning and therefore it cannot serve the turne that the soule is punished and the body lie in the grave no but those that have joyned in sin must also joyne in Punishment Secondly howsoever the sinfull actions of the wicked are transcient and seem to die with them yet in respect of the contagion and evill effects these actions worke upon others and upon posteritie bp the ill example of their predecessors the actions I say of those wicked men continue to the day of Judgement Thus wee shall see the Iewes in Ierem. 44. revived the sinnes of their fathers Our fathers say they made cakes to the Queene of heaven and so will wee So the succeeding Kings of Israel that went on in the steps of Ieroboam who made Israel to sin they continued the sin of Ieroboam As long as men goe on in the steps and sins of their forefathers the sins of their forefathers live So that some mens sinnes by a continued imitation are perpetuated to the day of Judgment therefore their must be a judgment then that may fill up a measure proportionable to their sin This was that that Dives feared in Hell and that made him crie out as he did that one might goe and tell his bretheren upon earth that they might not come into that place Why would he have them tell his brethren was there such love to the kingdome of Christ in hell that Dives would have his brethren converted no such matter Was it love to the souls of his brethren that he would not have them damned no such matter neither What then Certainly it was nothing else but a sence of his own guilt he knew what evill example he had given and what a counseller he had been to his brethren and if they should go on in his steps and their children follow the same steps all this would but adde to his punishment and torment in the great day when soule and body shall be joyned together to make up the full measure of their torment For this reason I say it is therefore necessary that their should be a judgement after this life at the end of the world The second thing remaineth and that is why the holy Ghost expresseth Gods proceedings by way of reckoning or calling to an account What need the Lord reckon with men he may proceed by way of a Judge but he saith come give an account of thy Stewardship I answer There are four things implied in this all shewing the manner of Gods proceedings at the day of Judgment with his Stewards that it shall be like the proeedings of a Master with his servants in an account and reckoning The first is this that it shall be a proceeding in particulars God shall then proceed not by grosse sums and in the total ye have done evil in the general none will deal thus with an Accountant but he will run over the particulars and Account for pounds for pence for every thing Thus God will deal with all his Stewards when he bringeth them to a reckoning he will reckon on particulars for all things that he hath enabled them with for his service Those that are rich men first how they have gotten their estates whether they have built their houses as a moth as Job speaks that is raised their estates to the hurt of others as men do that raise themselves by usury and oppression and fraud and bribery and such like courses Secondly how they have kept their wealth whether with the injury of others with-holding the goods from the owners thereof from the poor for I call them in case of want the owners of their goods because God hath given them to his Stewards for their sakes therefore mark how Saint James expresseth it Go to now yee rich men weepe and houle why so your riches are corrupted and your garments moth eaten your gold and silver is cankered c. As if he should say you have been hoarding up your treasures you had rather be laying of it up then laying of it out and therefore because you have not laid out your estates for the service of your master rust is come upon your gola and the moth hath eaten into your garments ye have heaped treasure together for the last day Thirdly how they have spent what they have had whether on their lusts or no Ye ask and have not faith S. James because ye ask amiss to spend it on your lusts so ye lay out amiss ye spend it on your lusts When men for pride in apparel for excesse at their tables for vain buildings for sinfull upholding of wickednesse for unnecessary and injurious proceedings in law sutes or in what soever indirect course men lay out their estates it is a mis-spending of their Masters goods And as he that hath got his wealth unjustly and he that keepeth it unjustly shall give an account so he that layeth it out in a confused sinful profuse way shall be called to give a reckoning for that And not only for matter of a estate but besides for matter of place and authority Moses knew this well enough and therefore when he was to go out of the world he first cleares all reckonings with the people of Israel I have been a Ruler thus long let any man come and stand up and say I have done him wrong let every man come clear me this day before the Lord that I have walked all my life-time unblameably inoffensively promoting the glory of God and suppressing all the evill that I could with my might this was the account that Moses made with the people of Israel before he died that he might lift up his head with comfort in the day of the Lord. Thus it must be with you ye must give an account of your places And so for the state of your bodies The health thou hast had how hast thou spent thy strength and thy health Mark the speech of the Wise man to the young man Rejoyce faith he in the dayes of thy youth as if he should say Doe if thou wilt do if thou dare but know that for all these things thou must come to judgment Now thou hast a great deale of health a great deal of strength but hast thou been the better for Gods service hast thou imployed it fot Gods glory or no And so for the members of thy body thou must give an account for thy imployment of those instruments Thy tongue every idle word faith Christ that men shall speak they shall give an account of at the day of judgment If for every idle word what then for thy swearing and cursing and lying what for the abundance of filthy obscene and rotten communication that cometh out of thy mouth Thou must give an account for thy
Will not God be offended and displeased Shall I go on in this vanity Would I have the judgement of God find me in this company would I have it seize upon me in this imployment in this business in this action Fear lest God should strike thee in such an act lest Death should seize upon thee in such a place and let that make thee keep a constant watch against the shares that are in those places Fourthly keep good company Company you know is a good means to keep men awake Two are better then one and wo to him that is alone saith Solomon I say good company for there are a company that will infect you Keep not company with a froward person lest thou learn his frowardness So keep not company with drunken and swearing persons these are the Divels instruments to keep a man in carnal security No keep company with those that have a charge given them to exhort one another daily and to consider one another to provoke to love and good works Keep company with the Saints and make use of all opportunities to provoke others and to be provoked by others That is the fourth help Fifthly would you be kept from this sinful security then keep God alwayes in your sight It is a good way for a man that would keep himself awake to fix his eye upon some object Fix your eye upon this main object God Whether shall I depart from thy presence faith David This is that the Lord would have his people to consider to keep them from sin in Jer. 23.23 Am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not a God a far off Do not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord Can a man hide himself from God in any secret place Think in thy chamber in thy parlour in thy shop in thy house in thy friends house in the street in the Church in every place wheresoever thou art that there God is also If a man had but alwayes some one before him as a witness he would not venture upon many things that he now doth If a malefactour should see the Judge before him if the child had alwayes his fathers eye upon him or the servant had alwayes his Master sitting about him and above him though there are many that are unjust servants yet nevertheless he would serve him at least with eye-service Now set your selves in the eye of God that sees you in the dark hears you in your most secret whisperings knows every action of your life and every circumstance of those actions This will be a means to keep thee from security I will add but one more which is the sixt Consider thy latter end The night is now coming upon us If it were told any of us that this night thou shalt die as it was told the rich man in Luke 12. Thou fool this night shall they take away thy soul I think there is none that heareth me this day but he would certainly keep waking this night But it is not bodily waking we plead for but spiritual waking a waking from sin a waking to repentance And we tell you that Death is now at the door ready to seize upon you We speak not only to you that are aged that are at the brink of the grave but we speak also to you that are young Death may seize upon you and strike you this night be awakened now to repentance I remember what God said to the Church of Sardis Be watchful and strengthen the things that remain That Church was asleep as many of us are at this day God cometh to awaken you now as he did them that that little goodness you have left may be renewed and confirmed You that are quite out of the way of grace and go on in a course of sin sit now down and humble your souls get into a secret corner wherein you may consess those many provocations whereby you have provoked God all your dayes and resolve to amend if the Lord spare you Begin now delay it no longer it may be the last night the everlasting night to you take this warning now therefore be awakened to repentance This is that the Scripture calleth upon so much Eccless 11. Rejoyce O young man in the dayes of thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in thy youth and walk in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all this thou shalt come to Judgment As if he should say You that are in the middest of your delights that solace your selves in the middest of the abundance of the earth which you enjoy that sport your selves in the pleasures of this would know that there will come a Judgment day see therefore now what will best answer God then Since the end of all things is at hand saith the Apostle let us be sober and watch We know not how neer the end of the world is we know indeed it shall not be yet be cause Antichrist must be destroyed and the Jewes called before that day come but nevertheless certainly thy end is neer thy day thy particular death and that is the time of thy particular Judgment may be sudden It is appointed for all men once to die and after that cometh the Judgment That is the particular Judgment that cometh upon Death so I say this may be the night of thy death and the morning may be the day of thy particular doom Judg your selves now that you may not be Judged of the Lord It was the use that the Apostle made even to good men For this cause saith he many are sick and weak and many sleep that is they are dead what then If we would Judg our selves we should not be judged of the Lord. So say I to you judg your selves now bring your selves as prisoners before the Bar arraign your selves as malefactors before the Judg bring out the particular bills of inditement against your selves whereby you have provoked God yet there is mercy the day of grace and opportunity of repentance and turning unto God yet lasteth therefore do it now I might add many other helps to this purpose but these shall suffice at this present We have an example before our eyes enough to warne us of this Here is an example of Death which should teach us now to awaken our selves and not to live securely as men that dream of a long life for many years Here is a young man dead took away in the prime of his time in the beginning of his dayes his sickness though it held him not long yet it was somewhat violent How know you what a short time you have though you are now young or if you live longer what sickness you may have it may be you may be deprived of your reason and senses therefore now while health and reason and sense while these Warning Sermons are afforded take time and make use of time lest your security make good
therefore goe about it now Reckon with others also for works of mercy what thou hast been wanting in to thy brethren thou hast lived thus long in a plentifull estate what hast thou done wich thy estate Josephus reckons up three several tenths that were expected and exacted of the Jews Wouldest thou be less liberal now in the time of the Gospel then they were under the law Is God lesse merciful or hath he less interest in thy estate Thou hast so many thousands What hast thou done out of this to releeve the poor or to set up those in a course of traffique and trade that want a stock Beloved you cannot if you look about you want objects of mercy and means to further your reckoning at the day of the Lord. And if you would be faithful stewards to God say thus I have been thus much behind-hand in paying the due I owe to the poor to the Church c. I will pay it while I live and if that be not enough when I die I will pay it But I hasten That is the second thing Let every man reckon thus with his own heart The third thing is the daily exercise of repentance upon the sight of your former evils God now saith the Apostle calleth all men every where to repentance because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness Let this then stir us up to repentance God expects that men should judge themselves now Fourthly If you would stand at that great day of Judgement when there shall be such an exact reckoning Interest now your selves in Christ There is no way to escape the Judgement to come but by making peace with the Judge now There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus This was prefigured in the Mercy-seate that was to be compassed about with the wings of the Cherubins all covering the two tables of the Testament one Cherubin to look toward another shewing us thus much that there is no covering of our transgressions committed against the commandements of God the tables of the Testimony but by the great Mercy-seat the Lord Jesus Christ upon whome the Fathers of the times before Christ and Beleevers since look expecting the covering of the guilt of their sins from the wrath of God by no other means but by this propitiator or Mercy-seat that covereth the Arke of the Testimony Lastly it serveth also for instruction in another point that is To teach us to lead a holy conversation This use the Apostle Peter made of the Doctrin of the day of Judgement Seeing saith he that we locke for these things what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godlidesse Alas beloved little do you know whether this be the last Sermon that many of you may heare whether this be the last day wherein God will ever call upon you to repent and amend your lives There shall be a fearful dissolution and destruction of all things that you see There shall be a naked appearance made before the Judge at that day of reckoning let every man therefore say within himself How shall I stand at that time at that Judgement All our care should be that of the Apostle Pauls Whether we be absent from the body or present in the body we labour that we may be accepted of the Lord Whether we live a day longer or die this day before the morrow that we may be found acceptable before the Lord. And for this cause saith he in another place because there shall be a resurrection from the dead both of the just and unjust I exercise my self to have alwayes a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men Look to it in your places and in your hearts that you may have a good conscience void of offence toward God and men for the time shall come that nothing in the world shall stand you in stead but a good conscience and if then when the books are opened it be found that your reckonings are even and the accounts clear between you and your Master by obedience and repentance by works and by faith happy shall that servant be whome his Master at that day shall find so doing The last Use is a use of comfort to all the servants of God Let them quietly and cheerfully suffer that portion of miserie and affliction that the Lord dealeth out unto them Let them not grudge at the prosperity of ungodly men or at the variety of changes that themselves are exposed unto because there is a day of reckoning and account when all things shall be made even The Apostle Saint James exhorteth Christians to patience upon this very ground because the day of the Lord draweth nigh If therefore you see wicked men prosper and bring their enterprises to passe be not troubled at the matter A man doth not much envy an enemy that is now in prison though he have some good chear there though he have some friends that come and see him there because he knows he is but a Prisoner and he shall be brought out at the Assizes and then he shall be righted The world is the common Jayle whereinto Adam was cast after he had sinned and we are all prisoners in this prison-house the enemies of Gods glory and of his Church and people they cannot escape out of this prison here they are tied Gods chains are upon them and he will bring them to an account before his Judgement seate and that before all men and Angels With these things let us comfort and support our selves A word concerning the present occasion Yee have heard that all men are Gods Stewards yee have heard that God hath a time wherein he will call all his Stewards to an account the fore-runners of this great account shall be in this life and after death when God strikes men down by death it is that they may be brought into his presence and there receive the sentence either of absolution or condemnation as I shewed you before concerning the soul o man in that intelectual manner receiving the sentence It is appointed to all men once to die and after that the Judgement You have now a spectacle of mortality before you one of Gods stewards took away and called by death to give up his account Concerning whom it cannot be expected that I should say much or any thing at all specially by those that know both the condition of his living and of his dying For his living It was not in the Citie but for the most part it was from us in the Country For his dying He was here but a day or two before he was taken hence Hee came to the Citie in the extremity of his weaknesse and it took him with some violence as the nature of that disease the stone is There was much expression expected from him but it pleased God to make a sudden change more then we looked
of whatsoever else it be this is even the very reason of all because even those that professe themselves to be the people of God and to give God the glory of his attributes in all his works yet they lay not to heart the death of those that are before them Men durst not they could not passe away their time in such unprofitablenesse and unfruitfulnesse as they do if they did seriously consider and lay to heart the death of others before them Again secondly As it condemnes the general neglect that is amongst men of this duty so it serves to reprove that sinful laying to heart of the death of others that is too frequent and common in the world That is first when men with too much fondnesse and with too great excesse and distemper of affection look upon their dead friends as if God could never repair the losse nor make amends for that he hath done in taking of them away Rachel mourneth and will not be comforted David mourneth and will scarce be comforted Oh Absalom my son my son would God I had died for thee What is all this but to look on freinds rather as Gods then men as if all sufficiency were included in them only Men look on their freinds as Micah did upon his Idol when they had bereaved him of it they took away all his comfort and quiet You have taken away my Gods saith he and what have I more or as Laban that when his Idols were stoln away his heart was dead he could not stay in his house he could not enjoy himselfe wherefore have you stollen away my Gods saith he So I say men look on their dead freinds as they should look upon the Creatour and not as upon the creature they take their death to heart but not in a right manner This is the very reason why God many times makes your Christian freinds so unprofitable to you when they live because you idolize them you advance them above God This is the reason also why you are so unable to bear the losse of them when they die God beating you now with your own rod and making you feel the fruit and effect of your own folly This now is an ill taking to heart the death of freinds to mourn as men without hope Secondly there is a taking to heart and considering of the death of men but it is an unrighteous considering an unrighteous judging of the death of others If men see one die it may be a violent death then they conclude certainly there is some apparent token of Gods judgment on such a one If they see another die with some extremity of torment and vehement pains certainly there is some apparent evidence of Gods wrath upon this man If they see another in some great and violent tentation strugling against many tentations they conclude presently certainly such are in a worser case then others I may say to all these as Christ said once to those that told him of the eighteen men upon whom the Tower in Siloe fell think you that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem Or rather as Solomon saith All things come alike unto all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked to the clean and to the unclean to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath Learn to judge righteous judgment to judge wisely of the death of others take heed of condemning the generation of the just But rather in the last place Make this use of the death of every one Doth such a man die by an ordinary sicknesse having his understanding and memory continued to the end Doth such a man die in inward peace and comfort with cleare and evident apprehensions of Gods love so that he can with Simeon say Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace What use shouldest thou that livest make of this now Certainly let the sweetnesse of their death make thee in love with the goodnesse of their lives That is the only way to a happy death to a comfortable end indeed the leading of a fruitful and profitable life Again dost thou see the Children of God full of temptations full of fears and disquietnesse of spirit in their death Sometimes so overcome with the violence of the disease as that it may be they speak impertinently and idely it may be sinfully What use shouldest thou make of this now Certainly let the terribleness of the example of such a mans death let it be a terrour to thee and a means to stir thee up to more carefulnesse of making good use of thy time in this life Nabal dieth and his heart is in him as a stone If ever God quicken thee if ever God breath upon thy soule or enliven thee by the inward motions of his Spirit embrace those opportunities and seasons of grace lest God smite thee with an everlasting deadnesse Again hath God caused the light of his countenance to shine upon thy heart Doth he offer a gracious message of peace to thy soule Doth he speak peace at any time by the ministery of his Word Imbrace those offers yeeld to those conditions of peace lest thou be deprived of peace at the end Againe hath GOD given thee any strength over temptations Hast thou prevailed over the assaults of Sathan and other of thy enemies Hath he made thee a conquerour take heed how thou insnarest thy selfe againe how thou inthrallest thy self in yeelding to Sathans yoke lest he buffet thee by him in a worse manner at thy end Thus I say thou canst see nothing befal any of Gods servants in their death or in the manner of their death whether in be more pleasing or more sorrowful more calm and quiet or more tempestuous and full of trouble whether it be more comfortable or more lamentable but it may be useful unto thee If it be good it may be it shall be so with thee if it be bad it may be it shall be so with thee too The main businesse that a man hath to do is to make sure of himself in this life It was the question that Saint Austin made to those that told him of a violent death that seized upon one But how did he live saith he He made no matter how he went out but how he carried himself in the world And truly this is the great Question that every man should put to his soule I must out of the world how have I lived when I was in the world had GOD any glory by me had men any good by me have I furthered my account against the day of reckoning that I may give it up with joy it makes no matter how I go out of the world I am sure if my life have been serviceable to God and beneficial to men my departure shall be for gain and advantage it is
off of all holds and takes us off from all sensible and visible props and humane supports and makes us to see nothing in the creature to do us that good we look for to make us eternal happy therefore we were taught saith he not to trust in our selves if a man trust any he might trust himselfe first yea but we are dying and cannot enjoy our selves long therefore we trust in him that raiseth us up from the dead Thirdly another end that God aymeth at in holding his servants many times under the fear of death is that he may make them more watchful and holy in the course of their lives This our Saviour expresseth under two parables the one of the Virgins that were to watch for the coming of the Bridegroom they knew that he would come but they knew not when therefore they were alwayes to keep their watch with oyle in their lamps And the other of a Master that left Talents with his servants he told them that he would come but he told them not when that they might be sure to employ them to the best advantage And the Apostle Peter raiseth an exhortation to this purpose on this very ground Since saith he that all these things must be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godlinesse looking for and hastning to the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ We know that the Lord Jesus Christ will come but he hath concealed the particular time of his coming that we might alwayes keep our watch and be prepared for him whensoever he cometh Now this is necessary for all the servants of God for they are apt to be secure and to be carried away with worldly business and delights and to neglect that which concerns their eternal good and therefore God will affect them with the fear of death that they may be stirred up to more watchfulnesse and holinesse in a godly course of life Fourthly God doth it that by the fear of Death they may be better prepared for death that it may not come upon them as a stranger that they never thought on before that it may not come as an armed man upon them therefore is it that God will have thim not onely to have thoughts of it but fear of it fear you know is an affection that quickneth a man to action keeps him to a constant observing of God Jehosaphat when God did not onely bring a multitude of enemies upon him but also sent the report of them to him and that in such a manner as he might be affected with fear What did all this work in him The text saith Jehosaphat did seek the Lord with all his heart and proclaimed a fast in Judah and provided such other defence as was necessary he saw nothing but fear and danger in the creature We know not what to do with this great company that cometh against us this set him awork to seek the Lord with all his heart and to make other provision against them So the Lord will have his servants apprehend death as an Armed enemy coming upon them that they may be better prepared to receive it that they may get evidences of comfort and assurance of heaven and so may be fitted upon good grounds to entertain death with joy when it cometh And this the servants of God have need of because if there be not somewhat to quicken to this there are other things enough to pervert them from it and then when men are most weak and full of pain and wearinesse the divel takes advantage to cast them off from all comfort so that at the least we shall die uncomfortably if not miserably if they be not prepared beforehand to receive Death and have gotten assurance and evidence of a better condition afterward Thus you have the first thing that is Gods act and for what reasons he keepeth his servants in this bondage of the fear of death Again secondly another cause from without is from the malice of Sathan His main aim is to keep men from a Christian course altogether if that cannot be done his next work is to make men go on as uncomfortably in it as he can possible therefore he will present them with as many fears as may be and because that this is that that nature most abhorreth for it is the most natural desire of man to preserve his beeing I say because nature most abhorreth this this dissolution and destruction of it self therefore the striveth to affect them with the fear of death especially and above all other I say this is Sathans malice Saint Paul when he came to Macedonia that he might do the work of the Lord with lesse diligence and comfort saith he We had fears on every side horrors within and terrors without It was Sathans devise that the Apostle might do the work of the Lord with lesse strength and comfort to afflict them with as many fears and horrors as he could And he hath the same malice still and still getteth much advantage of men making men to go on with lesse comfort in a godly life adorning their profession of religion lesse with unchearful walking because they have been held under the fear of death These are the causes that are from without Secondly there are some causes from within from the servants of God themselves And these causes whence the fear of death ariseth are either natural or sinful First the natural causes of it are The apprehension of Death as a thing contrary to nature and according to the strength of mens apprehension so is there fear Now Death in this natural respect is fearful to every man whether we consider the object or the subject the thing or the person in whom it is we shall find a natural cause of this even in the servants of God First for the object look upon Death it self it hath all that in it which makes it a fit object of fear There be three things which makes a thing the object of fear which makes a thing affect the heart with fear First when it is considered as an ill Secondly when it is considered as an ill difficult and hard to be avoided Thirdly when it is considered as an ill to come For if it be not conceived a thing that is ill but good it is not feared but rather desired And then again if it be but a slight ill such as hath but a weak strength in it which a man may easily master it is not fearful but disdained And then thirdly if it be an ill that hath strength in it and can hardly be resisted and overcome if it be present it is not feared but grieved for It must be evil apprehended as future appreheneed as difficult and apprehended as ill if it be a thing that is to be feared Now all these things are in Death in the apprehension of Gods servants while they live First I say they apprehend
comforts are gone So if a man love honour and applause amongst men it ceaseth in the grave all honour there is laid in the dust contempt is cast upon Princes this is that that affecteth men exceedingly that they shall lose their honours and pleasures and acquaintance and business and all when they come to the grave and that because mens hearts are set too much upon these things That is the second reason There is a third thing which is a sinful cause of this fear of Death and that is the want of Assurance There be two things that a man not being assured of makes him fear Death and these may be in the children of God and as they are more in any one so the fear of death is more in them The first is when they are not assured of reconciliation with God that God is at peace with them pleased with them in Christ The want of this assurance makes death fearful for now they look upon Death as a Sergeant as a Jaylor either it is a Sergeant to take them off their present comforrs or as a Jaylor to hold them under those bonds and fetters that they would fain escape Now when a man looks upon Death either way it is terrible As a Sergeant so the rich man in the Gospel This night they shall fetch thy soul from thee they shall come to thee as a Sergeant to a Debtour to require a debt they shall require thy soul of thee Now we all know that a man that is in debt and either hath not to pay or is unwilling to part with that he hath such a man cannot indure the sight of a Sergeant above all men because he cometh to fetch that from him that he would not part with Or if he look upon Death as a Jaylor so Christ saith Agree with thy adversary quickly lest he deliver thee to the Judg and he give thee to the Jaylor and then he holdeth thee in prison from whence thou shalt not go out till thou hast paid the utmost farthing Now when a man looks on Death as a Jaylor that holdeth all in the grave till the great Judg of heaven and earth calleth for them at the generall day of Assizes that great day of appearance when all the world shall be gathered together and every prison shall give up their prisoners The sea and the grave shall give up their dead I say when a man standeth thus as unreconciled to God or at least as one that doth not apprehend this reconciliation is not perswaded of this that God is reconciled to him it is no marvel if Death be terrible to him Therefore in the sixth of the Revelation The Kings and Captains and the great and mighty men they cryed to the mountains to fall upon them and to hide them from the presence of the Lamb because the great day of wrath was come and who could stand So we see in 33. Isa 14. there is crying out concerning the coming of God the sinners in Sion the hypocrites are afraid what is their fear who shall dwell with everlasting burnings and who shall remain with cousuming fire when they shall see nothing but terrour and wrath in God fire and consumption when they see nothing but such terrible things then feare cometh upon them Now mark hypocrites stand all together unreconciled and therefore it is no marvel if they be afraid and the Saints of God so farre as they are defective in the assurance of Gods love so farre they conceive themselves in the state of Hypocrites and therefore they are so full of fears Again a second thing that they stand unresolved of is concerning the future estates of their souls and bodies after death they are not sure of this that there is a better condition afterwards this is that great question Whither go we I go now out of the body and whither then I go out of the world and whither then I am going out of the company of men and whither then shall I go to Angels and Saints or to divels shall I go to Heaven or to Hell shall I have a beeing or not in misery or in happiness They know not what shall become of them they are unresolved of this point of their own state to come whether they shall be in happiness or horrour after death and therefore Death is terrible You have the point opened I will answer an objection or two and then come to the use It may be objected It seemeth the servants of God are not kept under the fear of death all those that are in the state of grace have faith faith that spendeth these fears and therefore since they are in the state of beleevers how can they be held under the fear of death To this I answer briefly there is faith in all the children of God that are effectually called but we must know that Faith is considerable two wayes first as it is in conflict and secondly as it is out of conflict Now the Faith of Gods servants in conflict so sometime it is in conflict with fear and sadness of spirit Why art thou cast down oh my soul why art thou disquieted within me c. Sometime it is in conflict with reason and sense thus the people of Israel when they came into the Wilderness they looked for nothing but dying and destruction of nature for sense presented it to them therefore saith Moses which is the voice of faith Stand still and see the salvation of God c. Now in this conflict the success is doubtful sometime as it was between Amalek and Israel fighting together Amalek prevailed and Israel had the worst sometime Israel prevailed and Amalek had the worst so somtime Faith prevaileth against sense and those fears that arise from sense and sometime again carnal fears and Sense prevaileth against Faith now accordingly are those effects in the hearts of Gods children But secondly sometime Faith is out of conflict it now triumpheth in assurance it is come now to full assurance of Faith as it is called in the Scripture and then there is nothing so comfortable and desirable as death it self to the servants of God So we see David in the 23. Psal Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear none ill for thou Lord art with me And so the Apostle Saint Paul triumpheth over all things Nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ neither principalities nor powers nor life nor death nor things to come nothing shall do it the Apostles faith now was out of conflict it had got the field the day of Sense and now he looks on Death with comfort So that I say in that measure that Faith works in that measure fear of death ceaseth Secondly it may be objected But we see the servants of God are said to love the appearance of our Lord Iesus Christ and the Apostle Paul is said to
conscience hath so wrought on thee that it hath stung thee for such a sin thou yet approvest thy self in it and thou wilt go on in thy pride still in such and such sins stil thou wilt do so do but know this that stand thou never so much upon thy resolution Death will certainly come and if he find thee in such a sin against thy conscience thou hast reserved in thy self a sting for Death Secondly a man shall know if Death come with a sting by this trial that Solomon giveth us in Ec. 11.9 Rejoyce oh young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the dayes of thy youth and walk in the wayes of thy heart and sight of thine eyes but know that for all these things God will bring thee to judgment If thou live a voluptuous life Death will certainly come with a sting Dives he lived a voluptuous life had he not a sting for it So others in Scripture did not their plentiful tables and voluptuous courses bring a sting on them A voluptuous life makes a sting for Death When a poor wretch is a dying and shall begin to reflect back on his life what have I done how have I lived so much time I have spent or mispent in apparel in vanity in eating in drinking in swaggering What comfort is this to his soul how can he answer this before God this is the very thing that will sting him at such a day when he can read nothing in his life but barrenness and unfruitfulness nothing that hath honoured God in all his life Certainly my brethren if there be an Epicurious voluptuous life this life will provide a sting for Death Alas you will say Is it so then we may fear that Death will seize on us thus for we confess we have gone on in a voluptuous life gone on in sin that our conscience hath condemned us for how shall we do to pull out this sting I would to God you were thus affected that you were convicted what a fearful thing it will will be if sin remain But wouldest thou have the sting of death pulled out before death come I. How shall I disarme it that I may look death in the face with comfort I. shall give you some wayes and means remember them and practise them First get but a part in Christ and the sting of death is gone thanks be to God saith the Apostle here that hath given us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ It is he that in the Revelation is said to have the keyes of Hell and of death they are under his command and subjection he is victorious over them he hath vanquished them so that if a man have Christ he hath victory and power over Hell and Death I told you in the beginning that that which giveth a sting to Death is the guilt of sin It is so and it is a fearful sting Now that which takes away the guilt of sin is Christ If Christ be mine I have enough to answer the guilt of sin Therefore the Apostle saith Death cannot separate from the love of God in Christ What shall then Indeed nothing it is not the guilt of his sins Christ hath satisfied from them So that if thou wilt have the sting of death out get faith in Christ if thou be not hidden in the clefts of that Rock in the blood of Christ if Christ be not thy Justification and thy righteousness what hast thou to answer the Justice of God you must die and stand before God and how can you stand before God in your sins you cannot without Christ why do you not then study more for Christ Why do you not labour for faith in him It will be your wisdom to labour earnestly to make sure of him if you have him the sting of death is gone Death cannot hurt a person that hath Chriâ—… Get faith in Christ therefore that is the first Secondly 〈…〉 would not have Death terrible and fearful to you labour for sincerity 〈◊〉 â—â—ethren it is a marvellous thing and yet the truth uprightness and sincerity 〈…〉 is an enabling grace All the particular things that we account particulaâ—â—â—â—â—â—wise they have not an inabling vertue in them Some persons have a great dâ—â—â— of learning and wit and many friends much riches and the like yet there cometh an occasion sometimes that puzzleth all these there cometh an occasion sometimes that a mans learning is of no use and natural parts and wit cannot help and riches cannot inable him What time is that The time of death the heart of a man is put to it at such a time and now these shrink nothing can inable a man agaiâ—â— fear so much as sincerity and uprightness When the Prophet Isaiah told 〈◊〉 from God that he must die he flieth to this Lord remember how I have 〈◊〉 fore thee with an upright heart and done that which was good in thy sight When Death cometh to a wicked voluptuous person and telleth him I am here come for thee thou must appear before God what can this man say Lord I have lived before thee a voluptuous proud wretched life I was a scorner of thy Word a contenâ—…er and persecutor of thy people a swearer c. What though perhaps he can say Lord I have heard so many Sermons I have been so much in conference and the like will this inable a man against the fear of Death No nothing but this that he hath a sincere heart that his heart is unmixed that sin is not affected in his soul that there is no sin that he would live in no duty that he wonld not do Lord remember I have walked before thee uprightly I say nothing will inable a man more against fear then sincerity and nothing disgraceth perplexeth the soul in an exigent more then 〈◊〉 It is sincerity that takes away the sting of Death The Apostle in Râ—…m 14. saith he No man liveth to himself but if he live he liveth to the Lord and if he die he dieth to the Lord whether we live or die we are the Lords Here is the comfort we are the Lords saith he How proveth he that We live unto him That is the work of a sincere heart A true Christian liveth not to himself but to Christ Now if thy conscience give thee this testimony I have lived unto Christ then whether I live or die I am the Lords the Apostle concludeth it So right is that of Solomon Riches availeth not in the day of wrath but righteousness delivereth from death Thy righteousness and sincerity delivereth thee not from dying but from death It takes away the sting and power of Death Death shall not be death to thee it is only a passage to thee Therefore remember as to get a part in Christ so to get a perfect and sincere heart and then the sting of death is gone But a hypocritical divided heart a heart and a heart that will
not but this I am sure of that there have been too many unkind passages where the fault is your selves know But this is to be taken into consideration that God removeth them from ye as if ye were worthy of none If God send us these helps and Lampes that waste themselves to shine to us and to break and dispence to us the bread of life shall we not give them incouragement in their studies that they may go on quietly and peaceably A word is enough for that Howsoever some of ye would not suffer him to rest God hath taken him to his rest There is more might be said but I will not say too much For the other since I came from my house I had information at my first footing in the Parish they said she was as good a woman as lived At my first footing in the house they said she was a very good woman Those that have lived in the Parish they testifie that she was a woman most eminent for her piety and vertue Shall she want a memorial I asked of those that have known her of old they say she was a righteous woman for the righteousness of piety and a merciful woman for the righteonsness of mercy She had respect to both tables to her duty to God to her Neighbour For the mercy of charity she was good to the poor she was a lender to those that were in necessity and a giver too For the mercy of piety she was very compassionate to those that were in afflictions she sympathized with them visited them and comforted them For the mercy of peace in time of contention she laboured to set all strait she had a soft answer co pacifie wrath She was a merciful woman and God hath given her the reward hath took her to his rest She was a lover of peace he hath taken her to the place of peace She was one hat studied happiness and he hath taken her to a place of happiness He hath took her from these evils that we are reserved to and that we may fear That is the difference between a godly and an impenitent man Impenitent men if they be took away they are taken to further evill if they be left alive they are left to further evil Merciful men if they be took away they are taken away for the eschewing of evil and if they be left on the earth it is for the diverting of evil They divert them while they live and shun them when they die As they labour to honour God in their lives so God gratifieth them in their death he takes them to himself This consideration and occasion is a proof of the Text. As it is proved in all the Text let us disprove it in our selves that this word may never go in the course it lieth here but in a contrary course That righteous men perish and men do lay it to heart let it be said so and merciful men though they be took away yet there are those that take it into consideration I have done with the last part and with the occasion THE GOOD MANS EPITAPH OR THE HAPPINESSE OF Those that Die VVell SERMON IX REVBLAT 14.13 I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from hence forth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them THE Scripture will afford us many Texts for Funerals Me thinks there is none more fit nor more ordinarily preached on than two and they are both of them voices from heaven One was to Isaiah the Prophet He was commanded to crie The voyce said Cry And be said What shall I cry All flesh is grasse and all the goodness thereof is as the flower of the field You will say That is a fit Text indeed So is this here A voyce from heaven too But Saint John is not commanded to cry it as Isaiah was he is commanded to write it That that is written is for the more assurance It seemeth good to me faith Saint Luke in his preface to his Gospel Most excellent Theophilus to write to thee of these things in order that thou mightest know the certainty c. It did not please God for many generatious to teach his Church by writing The Fathers before the flood he did not teach by writing They lived long their memory served them instead of books and they had now and then some Divine revelations They needed no writing But after that the dayes of man grew short as they did in the time of Moses the man of God the dayes of our years are threescore years and ten then I say when the dayes of man came thus to be shortned it pleased God to teach his Church by writing And although the whole will of God all things necessary to solvation be written yet God did appoint some special things above all others to be written some passages of divide truths As that same history of the foil of Amalek in the wilderness Scribehoc ad monumentum saith God to Moses write this for a memorial in a book So God commandeth Isaiah to take to himself a great roul and to write in it with a mans pen. So to Exekiel Son of man write thee the name of the day even of this same day the king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem this same day And Saint John to go no further though he was commanded to write this whole Epistle and all the Visions he saw yet there is some special thing that God in a more special manner would have him to write And here is one Write this same voyce this 〈◊〉 that came down from heaven write it Though that writing addeth nothing to the Authority of the Word For the word of God is the same Word and is as well to be obeyed and as well to be beleeved when it is delivered by tradition as when it is by writing yet notwithstanding we are to blesse God that we have it written How many Divine truths have been turned into lies And how many divine Histories have been turned into fables when things have been delivered by tradition from hand to hand and from man to man Tradition was never so safe a preserver of Divine truths We are to thank God I say for the whole Scripture for every part of it for whatsoever is written is written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope But what comfortable thing is this that here Saint John is commanded to write Write what Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord so saith the spirit they rest from their labours and their works follow them In the which you have five things First you have a Proposition Dead men are blessed Blessed are the dead Now because this is not generally true therefore Secondly you have a Restriction all Dead men are not blessed But who are blessed then
too he is a man that liveth to himself This was the case of the second and third grounds they received the seed with joy that is when they were sensible of comfort they followed Christ but afterward when persecution arose for the Gospel they fell off and took offence Such as these live to themselves they seem to live to God but it is to themselves and therefore when self-respects fail they fall off too Secondly take another instance for the clearing of it Suppose that not only sensible advantages fail but sensible disadvantages come in the world A man is sensible that he shall disadvantage himself much if he go on in the wayes of obedience to God It may be if he make conscience of his wayes he must make restitution of his estate unjustly gotten He must deny himself in a greater measure of pleasures that he hath unlawfully pursued He must empty himself in works of mercy and piety of a great part of his estate for the good of others that God may be glorified by his substance He shall lose some worldly friends some esteem among men Here are sensible disadvantages to a man Now the Question is what he resolveth to do Here is the command of God and here is the thing whereupon the heart of man and his affections are set upon disadvantages in the world These come together Here is an occasion for a lust a sinful affection to express it self If that be laid in the ballance and shall prevaile above the other that rather then I will endure disadvantage in the world I will neglect the way of serving God this party liveth to himself whatsoever good he did before in matters of religion all was done to himself I say when these two come together as you know when two men walk together and one servant followeth them a man knoweth not whose servant he is till they part but then when they part a stranger may know whose servant he is he followeth his own Master and leaveth the other So when God and the world go together God and a mans own advantages go together when their is nothing commanded but standeth with his own advantages so long a mans deceitful heart may flatter and delude and misguide him he may go on in a false perswasion and in a strong conceit that he is in Christ in a blessed estate But when these two part that I shall not only not advantage my self but sensibly disadvantage my self in outward things Here now I say the the Question is what a man doth If I resolve to cleave to my outward advantages and leave God and leave the wayes of God I live to my self A man that liveth to God you shall see it is otherwise with him as for instance David when he might have had the kingdome of Israel somewhat sooner by sin he would not do it his heart smote him for cutting off the â—…appe of Sauls garment though he might have gained the kingdome of Israel by it he would not lay his hands on the Lords anointed And what was the reason of it because he would not advantage himself by disobedience to God he would rather want himself What was the reason that Daniel when he saw he was in an apparent hazard not only of the loss of honour but of his life and that for the performance but of one duty prayer and that but for a short time yet would not omit it no not for a short time though he might by that not only have saved his life but kept his honour in the Court he prayed to God even at that time when he was forbidden Why so because he lived to God and not to himself Had Daniel lived to and sought himself more then God he would have dispensed with this and saved both his life and honour though he had offended God in that particular of omission But this is the disposition of a heart that is faithful and upright with God it will not dishonour God for the greatest advantage that can come to it self it will not neglect a duty to God whatsoever loss it have in the world Thirdly Take another instance whereby we may see what we intend in this tryall Let the will of God and the bent of a mans own will come in competition together God will have me leave this I will hold it God will have me forsake this I will keep it It is a comfort a wordly benefit I lose my comfort if I part with it He that now liveth to himself he will please his own will and be disquieted and vexed against Gods will that crosseth his But he that liveth to God will be contenâ—… that God should cross him in his will because he would glorisie God in his own will in his soveraignty in his purity in his holiness and justice c. See it in the case of Abraham Abraham had a strong love to Isaac and good cause yet nevertheless though he could see a comfort to himself in this son when God telleth him thou must sacrifice thy son Isaac when he had the revealed will of God Abraham now resolveth to shew that he lived to God and not to himself therefore he would part with any comfort of his life for God when he required it So David If the Lord will saith he he can bring me back that I shall see the Tabernacle and the Arkâ—… if not If he say I have no pleasure iâ—… thee loe here I am let the Lord do with me as seemeth good in his owneyes When the case is this when the will of God crosseth thy will what now prevaileth Doth the desire of having thy own will prevail against the desire of submitting to Gods will Doth it raise murmuring and impatiency of spirit So far thou livest to thy self Therefore consider this Here is an occasion now for a lust and a sinful affection to shew it self either a man may advantage himself in an evil course or he cannot but disadvantage himself in a good course or when God crosseth a man in that he desireth and delights in in the world That is the first tryal whereby a man may know whether he liveth to himself Secondly another tryal will be this Consider if their be any part of the truth of God of his revealed will that for self-respects thou art willing to be ignorant of least the knowledge of it should make the do somewhat to thy own disadvantage in this thou livest to thy self See this to be true in all that live to themselves Balaam though he profest that for a house full of gold he would not go beyond the word of the Lord yet notwithstanding he was willing not to take notice of Gods will but to go on rather to curse Johanan in Jer. 42. professeth deeply that he would obey the will of the Lord but when he understood the will of the Lord when it crost his will then saith he to Jeremy It is not the Lord that hath bid
first I say is that the Saints and servants of God while they are on earth do continually expect and look for the Saviour of the world even the Lord Jesus Christ to come from heaven By the coming of Christ you must understand his second coming to judgement For there is a threefold coming of Christ A twofold coming in his Body and one by his Spirit The first was the coming of Christ in the flesh when he came to take our nature upon him and to be born of a Virgin The second is the coming of Christ by his Spirit so he cometh continually and daily in the hearts of men in the preaching of the Gospel in vertue and efficacy His last coming and his second coming in respect of his body is when he shall come to judgement Never look for the coming of Christ in his body upon earth in the sight of men till that great day come when the Lord Jesus shall come with thousands of his Angels in the glory of his Father Now then this being the meaning of it we will prove it And first that it is the continual expectation of all the Saints of God and the continual desire of their hearts their continual waiting is for the second coming of the Lord Christ As it was before the first coming of Christ in the flesh so it shall be before his second coming Before the first coming of Christ after the promise was made to Adam all the expectation and hope of the Fathers and Beleevers was this when the great Messias would come and therefore faith Jacob I have waited for thy salvation and David I have longed for thy salvation meaning Christ the Saviour of the world and the Church groweth to a kind of holy impatiency Oh that thou wouldest break the heavens and come down And immediatly upon the time of Christs coming there were alwayes holy men in those times that were stirred up with a continual expectation of it and therefore it was made a mark of a good man in those dayes It is said of Joseph of Arimathea and Simeon and of divers good women as of Anna and others that they waited for the consolation of Israel they continually waited and expected when the great comforter and Saviour of his people would come So shall the second coming of Christ be from the very time of his Ascension into heaven to the time now and to the time of his last coming to Judgement all the eyes of men will be towards him When I am lifted up faith our Saviour I will draw all men after me which though it be there particularly understood of his lifting up upon the Cross yet it is intended in general of his Ascension into heaven So that as after the promise was given of the Spirit The Disciples waited for the receiving of the gift of the holy Ghost So it is now and will be since the holy Ghost is already given there remaineth nothing to be looked for but Christ himself in his second coming to finish all these dayes of sin And that this is the disposition of all the servants of God appears by divers places of Scripture 2 Tim. 4.8 faith the Apostle there Hence forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto them also that love his appearing The Apostle here makes a description of all those that shall be saved and he faith they are such as love the appearing of Jesus Christ now that which a man loveth he desireth and looks and longs for And in Heb. 9.28 Christ died once for many and unto them that look for him shall he appeare the second time unto salvation Salvation is brought to whom to all those and only to those that look for the appearance of Christ Therefore it is said of all the Beleevers in Heb. 12. That they saw things that were invisible and that they had an eye to the recompense of reward and that they saw the promise a far off They looked still for those things that were to appear by Christ This I suppose is sufficiently confirmed by the Scripture let us therefore make some use of it Try now what comfort thou hast in the expectation of that great appearance of the Lord Jesus here spoken of This is the most infalible ground and undoubted evidence and testimony of the truth of grace now and assurance of glory hereafter if God have now stirred up thy heart in faith and holy affection to look for and to long and waite for the appearance of Jesus Christ Without this there is little love to Christ The Church in Cant. 1.2 sheweth her love to Christ Draw me saith she and we will run after thee And chap. 2.4 Stay me with flaggons comfort me with apples for I am sick of love and chap. 5. If you find him whome my soul loveth tell him I am sick of love If thou be of the disposition of the Church thou wilt out of love to Christ desire nothing so much as to enjoy the presence of Christ The Spirit and the Bride say come and let him that heareth say come the Spirit faith come and the Bride because she is stirred up in the same affection by the Spirit she faith come too Christ faith to his Church I come and the Church she faith again Come Here is the agreement between Christ and his Church and the same disposition is in all the members of Christ a waiting and longing and desiring for the coming of Christ There are many that pretend they wait and desire for the coming of Christ When a man is under any affliction or in any trouble then Oh that Christ would come and end these troubles You shall here a man that is abused and wronged by the oppressions and injuries of others and by the unrighteous dealings of wicked and ungodly men crying out Oh that Christ would come and put an end to these evil times Yea but if thou hast this desire of Christs coming that is in a man of a heavenly conversation It will appear in these three things First it will appear by the Ground of it What are the grounds of thy desire what are the motives that incourage thee to long for the coming of the Lord Jesus That which is the ground of faith is the ground of hope that is the promises Faith is the ground of things hoped for and the Word and Promise are the warrant of Faith Faith and Hope look both on this the free promise of God so it is said of Abraham that be beleeved above hope because be knew that be that promised was able to do it There is the first thing then Faith is the ground there is none but a true beleever that can indeed aright wait for and desire the coming of Christ But this will appeare more in the second thing and that is by the companion
of this expectation of Christs coming when it is right and as it should be in the soul of a Beleever The first companion of it is Patience If we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it faith the Apostle Rom. 8.25 If we have hope and expectation of Christ coming if it be right it will stay the heart and calm and quiet the spirit in the middest of all injuries and crosses and afflictions in the world it will make us to wait with patience He that beleeveth will not make hast When a man beleeveth that there is a time when Christ will put an end to all these things it is that which mortisieth and subdueth the rising of his spirit and discontentedness in afflictions it makes him possesse his soul in Patience There is a kind of impatient waiting of men in the middest of discontent and revilings and evil speakings and threatings of others and then Oh that Christ would come But when Faith works kindly in the soul of a man there is a calm composedness of heart a submission to God in the present tryal and yet nevertheless a rejoycing in hope of the coming of Christ and of that glory that shall be revealed That is the first thing there is Patience accompanying it The second thing that accompanieth it is Love No man can in truth and aright hope for and wait for the coming of Christ but he that loveth Christ and his coming Now this Love must be grounded on our taste of Gods love Not that we loved him but that be loved us first faith the Apostle no man loveth Christ but first he is loved of Christ no man loveth God but first he is loved of God and the taste and relish of Gods love in my soule works love to God again as from the heat that cometh from the Sun there is a reflection that boundeth back again to the Sun so Gods love in us reflects love to God again This Love will appear in the secret sighings of the heart All the creatures groan yea we also sigh in our selves faith the Apostle waiting for the adoption even the redemption of our bodies There is I say a secret sighing of heart and that not only in the time of trouble and affliction but in the time of comfort and prosperity when a man hath abundance of outward things about him yet then because his love is set upon Christ and the perfection and end of love is the fruition of the object loved therefore there is a sighing a holy discontent as it were a kind of yearning of the heart toward Christ When shall I come and appear before God faith David how long Lord how long faith the Church in the Revelation If a man love Christ and his coming only because it shall end those miseries and those troubles that are upon him in this life this is not so much love of Christ as love of a mans self of his own ease and peace and rest But the love of Christ is this when for the injoying of himself I long for the fruition of him whom my soul loveth and I account nothing amiable in comparison of Christ nothing delectable nothing comfortable nothing sweet to Christ this is it that putteth the soul out of taste and relish with any thing makes it sigh as it were under the enjoyments of all the comforts of this life and long for the appearance of Christ because then he shall he perfected in the perfect enjoyment of Christ himself This is that love of Christ that is accompanied with Faith in a Christian and hope and expectation of his coming Now then if thou wait for Christ in truth how cometh it that thou dost not love him thou caust not wait for him aright except thou love Christ himself and for himself And if thou love Christ it wil appear by thy care to walk in Christ to derive virtue from him in all holy actions to derive all heavenly wisdom all heavenly disposition of heart from him to please Christ in all thy waies to do that whereby thou maist approve thy self to God in Christ This is the disposition of a heart loving Christ and this is that loving of Christ for himself and in himself that giveth me assurance that I love the appearance of Christ That is the second companion of this waiting for Christ if it be right there is a love to Christ The third and last companion of a mans waiting for Christ is the continual affection of the heart those same ejaculations that intercourse that holy and heavenly communion which the soul hath with Christ here First in his ordinances having a holy communion with him in them waiting at the Posts of the door of wisdomes house to here what Christ who is wisdome it self will speak to us waiting if that he will come now in the ministry of his Word in his Spirit whom we hope to enjoy fully in glory Waiting for him likewise in the Sacraments to receive a further confirmation of our faith in him waiting for him also in prayer to receive further consolation and strength from him Thus Annah it is said that She was one that waited for the consolation of Israel and served God in the Temple in prayer day and night So where there is a waiting for Christ there will be a continual intercourse of the soul with Christ a heavenly and holy communion with him in duties Dost thou wait for Christs coming and yet run from Christs ordinances How can these stand together There is no man that can ever wait with comfor for Christs coming in glory but he that now waiteth upon Christ in his ordinances If thy delight be in holy duties in the worship of God and that in such religious performances thou waitest for a further conveyance of the Spirit of Christ into thee thou hast warrant to wait for and to expect with comfort the second coming of Christ Try your selves therefore by these things It is not every one that faith I would that the Lord Jesus would come or I would that these dayes were full and finished It is not every one that saith thus that rightly looks for or desires the coming of Christ But he that thereby becometh patient and stayes and composeth his heart in a calme and quiet temper in the middest of all crosses and troubles and afflictions that befal him and that upon this ground because Christ will come and put an end to my sin as well as to my sorrow therefore I will wait with patience till he come And again he that loveth Christ that sigheth for his coming and he that now delighteth in his ordinances this man only waiteth for the coming of Christ There is yet a third Tryal and that is the effects and fruits of our waiting for the coming of Christ And that is threefold to go no further then the Text. The first is a heavenly conversation The second is
avoids the corruptions that are in the world through lusts But this looking for the second coming of Christ This Argument John the Baptist used to press upon his hearers the Doctrin of repentance because the king dome of God was at hand This is that upon which Saint Peter groundeth his exhortatoin unto the people Acts 3.18 Repent saith he and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord Therefore repent and return unto God do away your sins because there will a time of refreshing come and you had need then to be found in another hue in another state then in your old rotten withered condition and sinful lusts This is the Argument that the Aposte used to the Athenians to bring them from Idolatry to serve the living God because God hath appointed a time to judg the world in righteousness by that man whom ho hath ordained Even for that reason because God hath appointed a time to judg the world in righteousness therefore they should turne from their Idols to serve the living God There is nothing that doth so unbottome the heart nothing so shakes and looseneth a mans hold of sin and unrighteousness as the consideration of Christs coming to Judgment What will it boot me will the soul reason to keep my sins when Christ will come to judg me for my sins What shall I get by going on in a course of sin when I can look for nothing then but a sentence of wrath to be denounced against me This then is that that doth settle a man in a holy conversation in that respect Nay fourthly this is that also which quickneth a man to the practise of all holy duties in his place both in his general and particular Calling It is the very argument which the Apostle Saint Peter useth to stir us up to holiness of conversation Seeing saith he that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for the coming of the day of God wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat As if he should have said Look now about the whole world and see what it is that now can comfort you if you be such as go on in a course of sin It may be you will say I fear not much for I have many friends Yea but all these shall die It may be thou hast store of lands but all that shall be burnt with fire It may be thou hast many pleasures but then there shall be nothing but Judgment The coming of the Lord that shall then put an end to all these and turn the course of things the expectation thereof is a special means to take us off from a course of sin and put us on to a course of obedience to make us walk in another kind of fashion while we are in the world Therefore the Apostle Saint Paul when he would â—…ir up Timothy to the work of the Ministry what is the Argument that he useth I charge thee before Christ who shall judg the quick and the dead As if he should say there shall be an appearing before the Lord and therefore if thou wilt give thy account up with joy at that day I charge thee to look to thy Ministry So may I say to every man in his place I charge thee that art a Master of a Family look to the business of thy family to the salvation of the souls of thy people I charge thee that art a father or a mother to look to the salvation of the souls of thy children I charge thee that art a Christian to look to the salvation of thy own soul And how is the charge I charge thee before the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judg the quick and the dead Because there shall come a time when both thou and they shall be present before Christ at his appearing therefore if thou wilt have comfort in them and in thy self and in Christ be careful to do the duty that concerns thy place Looking for the coming of the Lord Jesus So then you see in this respect also there is nothing so forcible an Argument to settle a man in a holy conversation in a heavenly course as this for a man alwayes to look for the second coming of Christ Lastly there is nothing fixeth a man so constantly in a holy course as this Our conversation faith the Apostle is alwayes in heaven We alwayes walk on earth as those that aspire to heaven because we alwayes look for the coming of Christ Wert thou carefnl to serve God yesterday do it to day also it may be Christ may come now and take thee away by death to day and there is no preparation for judgment afterward Little children saith Saint John now abide in him that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming What is it that giveth a man boldness and takes away shame from him at the coming of Christ What is the reason that a man hath not that spirit of fear and trembling upon him that shall be upon the hearts of all those that go on in sin when they shall cry to the mountains to fall upon them but this that he hath continued in a holy conversation and constantly walked before the Lord with an upright heart I have finished my course saith the Apostle I have fought a good fight I have kept the faith hence-forth is layd up for me a crown of righteousness which Christ the righteous Judg shall give to me and to all them that love his appearing Still the servants of God have incouraged themselves to persevere in a holy course from the expectation of the coming of Christ that will give them a reward for their constancy in his service It is the Argument that the holy Ghost useth to the Church of Philadelphia Rev. 3.11 Hold fast that thou hast and let no man take thy crown As if he should say There is a time coming when Crowns shall be given but to whome to those that hold out that persevere in a godly course Be thou faithful to the death and thou shalt receive a crown of glory This is that I say that will make a man go on will make him that is good in youth be good in age also because whensoever he dieth he shall receive his Crown This will make a man that he shall not begin in the spirit and end in the flesh this will make him that having put his hand to the plough he will not look back because he no further looks for comfort in the appearance of Christ then he hath had care to walk on constantly in a good course Thus you see the point proved to you that a Christian soul hath a main benefit by his looking for the second coming of Christ
and that this is it that makes him careful to mortifie his secret lusts that this is it that makes him careful to purge himself from worldly affections that this is it that makes him industrious to avoid evil courses that this is it that makes him diligent in good actions that this is it that makes him constant and to persevere to the end in all holy wayes and in avoiding of all evil because he looks for and waites for the coming of Christ Now then take this for a main tryal of your selves concerning the former point Whether you can with comfort looke for the coming of Christ or no There shall be abundance at that day that shall hang down their heads I saw saith Saint John the Divine the Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief Captaines and the mighty men and every bond-man and every free-man men of all sorts hide themselves in the dens and in the rock of the mountians and said to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand Would you therefore hold up your heads with comfort and with joy that when you hear a Funeral Sermon it might comfort you to think It will not be long before my time shall come before my time shall be would you in truth have freedome from the fear of death which Christ hath purchased for he tooke upon him the same nature because the children were partakers of flesh and blood that he might free them who for fear of death were hold in bondage all their life Would you have comfort in Christs coming to Judgment See how effectually this works in you Is it thus effectual that because you look for Christs coming therefore you prepare your selves therefore you purge out your lusts and corruptions because there shall be nothing then when the secrets of all bearts shall be manifest that shall be displeasing to him when he shall come Are you careful to let fall worldly affections because you have a comfortable apprenension of heavenly joyes Are you careful to turn your course from sin because you would not lie open to the judgement of condemnation Are you careful to do good to persevere in the practise of godliness because he that shall come will come and will not tarry If it be thus with you then you may with comfort think of that day then you may with chearfulness look upon the day of death the day of death then is better then the day in which thou wert borne It is better to thee then the day of thy marriage it is the day of that great Marriage that shall be made between Christ and thy soul to all eternity It is better then the day that thou obtainest thy freed one then the day that thou comest out of thy Apprentiship it is the day wherein thou art set free and brought unto the glorious liberty of the sons of God It is a day that is better then the day of the enjoyment of the greatest comforts of this life because it sets thee in the possession of pleasures that are at Gods right hand for evermore Take this consideration therefore to heart and that you may walk in a holy course the better and with more constancy keep the object alwayes close to your eye Think with your selves and say If we would walk as Saints in heaven we must live as Saints on earth But how shall we do this Be often thinking of the coming of Christ often put this question to your souls What if Christ should now come If he should come now I am in the Church am I hearing the Word with that affection that I ought to here it with If he should come now I am in my calling in my world business do I follow it with a heavenly disposition as I ought to do What if he should come now while I am feasting should he take me as one feasting with fear lest I should sin against God in my mirth What if he should come and take me asleep have I made my peace with God before I went to rest Work these considerations upon thy soul When the morning cometh think it may be Christ will come and take me away before evening how shall I walk this day that I may have comfort in the coming of Christ When the Evening is come think it may be I shall never see morning before the great day of the Resurrection what now shall I do that if I die in my sleep I may rest in the Lord and so may have comfort in his appearance Either this moment either this minute settle thy comfort and peace with Christ or it may be the next hour it will be too late And remember that if ever you will live a holy life if ever you will have a heavenly conversation on earth you must be much and seriously settled in this meditation slight it not pass it not in your thoughts as a matter of discourse but let it be a working meditation let it be effectual to produce somewhat in you that may warm and heat your hearts and to set on fire the whole soul and to purge out the dross of corruption that remains in you Thus you see what it is that the Apostle here undertakes for himself and for as many as walked as he did they had a heavenly Conversation and that which made them have a heavenly conversation was the looking for the coming of Christ This was the fruit of their looking for the coming of Christ it made them walk in a heavenly conversation on earth There is another fruit of this by their looking for Christ they shall find him to be a Lord and Jesus We look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Which word sheweth that all that Christ did for the purchase of our redemption he did it by price and by power He did it by price he satisfied his Fathers Justice and so he is a Saviour We wait saith the Apostle 1 Thes 1.10 for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come And by power to over Sathan so he is a Lord the Lord of might Thou shalt find at the day of Christs that he will both be Saviour and Lord to thee A Saviour to free thee from sin and condemnation A Lord to bestow upon the heaven and glory with the Saints This is another benefit of our looking for Christs coming in the manner before spoken of we shall find him then to be a Lord and Jesus one that will save us from our sins and one that hath power to bestow heaven upon us Wouldest thou then have this comfort at that day Let him be so here to thee in this life let him be thy Lord and commander of all thy
affections of the whole man yeeld obedience now to his will and thou shalt find him a Jesus then He is not a Jesus a Saviour except he be a Lord and Commander also But you see I cannot stand to insist upon this The occasion of our meeting at this time is to commit to the Earth the body of our Sister departed She hath now the termination and conclusion of all her waiting and expectation And after so long a waiting there remaineth a sleeping in the Grave awhile when the soul resteth in the hands of Christ and waiteth for that great day when body and soul shall be joyned together I perswade my self well of her that She was one of the number of those waiters that shall have joy at the coming of Christ I had not much knowledg af her only I observed in her sickness a good purpose and desire of new and better obedience and performing better service to Christ then she had done if God should have spared her longer And she expressed also a great desire of Christs second coming a desire that he would receive her to himself and that these dayes of sin might be finished Much she was in these desires and she had good warrant for it for she was careful as I am informed to set up the kingdome of Christ in her Family It is the duty of a good Wife to be a help to her Husband especially in matters of piety and the worship of God and therein her example should teach wives to strive herein She was alwayes stirring him up to prayer in his Family to a more careful sanctifying of the Lords day herein She was frequent She was much mortified to the world for some late years as it was observed in her daily course by those that knew her Thus she laboured to fit her self and her Family that she might have comfort in the great Day of the appearing of the Lord Jesus I speak upon information for your edification to stir you up to labour to fit your selves for Christ by purging out of sin in your hearts and lives Labour to fit your Families for Christ that when you and your servants and children shall appear before him you may look on them and look on Christ with comfort as men that before have prepared themselves for the coming of Christ and as those that then shall lift up their heads because the day of their redemption draweth nigh CHRISTS PRECEPT AND PROMISE OR SECURITY AGAINST DEATH SERMON XVII JOHN 8.51 Verily verily I say unto you if a man keep my saying he shall never see Death IT is not long men and brethren since Death rode in triumph thorow this City and did bear down all before him he locked up your houses pulled down your windows and made the wealthiest among you put upon them the semblance of Banckroutness by locking up their doors and turning their backs to their houses and running away so it plaid the Tyrant then there died thousands a week and the Grave that alwaies cryeth Give give was almost cloyed with carkasses Death served himself so fast that the Prison could scarse hold the Prisoners It might almost have been said then of this City as once it was of AEgypt There was scarse a house wherein some were not dead at least where there was not the fear of Death Now it hath pleased God to shew you more favour and men now die but by scores Death goeth his old pace and takes away a few secretly without observation But Death is amongst you still and still will be so long as sin is among you and therefore it will not be unseasonable upon this occasion for me to speak and you to hear somewhat that may arme you against this last and worst Enemy Death which though he make not such a stir in these times of less Mortality yet he will certainly take us all away one by one And who can tell but he may be amongst the number of the hundred or fewer hundreds that die now as no man could tell wether he should be amongst the number of the thousands then Since Death therefore is alwayes an enemy and alwayes fighteth against us though not alwayes with like fury and violence it is a part of wisdome in us alwayes to hear and to practise that which may secure us against the danger of death And that is taught in this Text. Verily verily I say unto you If a man keep my saying he shall never see death Wherein not to speak any thing of the Context I pray take notice who speaks the words The Author of truth the Death of Death he that can best tell by what means a man may shun the hurt of it he that hath vanquished it and overcome the uttermost of his assaults Our Lord Jesus Christ that hath slain death and brought life and immortality to light He giveth us this direction for the avoyding of the hurt of Death Then observe the manner of his speaking Verily verily I say unto you with an affirmation earnest and redoubled He never affirmed any thing unture therefore that which he speaks is an undoubted verity He never spake any thing rashly therefore that which he affirmed so earnestly is a weighty thing and of great consequence And lastly observe that which I only shall insist upon the matter of his direction here comprehended in a hypothetical proposition which hath as all such have two parts An Antecedent and a Consequent In the one he sheweth the Duty to be done as a necessary condition for the obtaining of that which is specified in the other The first hath the Duty The second the benefit that floweth from the Duty These two are knit together in a most necessary consequence If a man keep my word he shall never see death You see now the only and perfect remedy against the evil of Death that is to keep the saying and word of Christ If any would know by what means he may be secured against the terrible of all terrible things as one calleth Death here is a sure and certain rule for him and he need not doubt of it it cometh from the mouth of Christ let him keep his saying and then Death shall never do him harm I will first interpret these words unto you and then make them good by Scripture and Reason and then apply them and commit my self and you and all at last to the blessing of God First then when our Saviour Christ saith If a man we must conceive him to mean generally at least indefinitely If any man whatsoever for so it pleaseth him to in large his promise in the redoubling of the word that no man may have cause to say he is excluded except he exclude himself Keep my sayings Here first I must shew you what is meant by sayings and then what it is to keep those sayings The Saying or words of Christ is the doctrine of the Gospel the Covenant of Grace which by an excellency
for so witnesseth the Wise-man Prov. 28. If we confesse and leave our sins we shall have mercy So David saith Psal 32.3 4. I said I will confesse my sins and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin And Saint John telleth us in his 1. Epist 1.9 If we confesse our sins God is faithful and true to forgive us our sins So you see Confession as well as sorrow absolutely required to obtain remission A man must even Arraigne and as it were indite himself before God plead guilty acknowledg his trespass whatsoever it be and judge himself worthy to be destroyed for them or else he repents not though he weep out his eyes with mourning and lamentation The third thing requisite is a firm purpose of amendment of life Whosoever will have God to accept his teares and bend a favourable care to his humiliation and acknowledgement he must so acknowledge what evil he hath already done that he put on a stedfast purpose of doing so no more according to the direction that our Saviour Christ giveth to the man that he had healed Joh. 5. Goe thy way and sin no more and as Saint Paul speaks Let him that stole steal no more And therefore the Wise-man putteth on this part to the former in the before alledged place If we confesse our sins and leave them we shall find mercy There must be I say a settled purpose and a fixed flat determination in the soul of every man to cast off those transgressions that he hath confest and to return no more to commit them at least not to allow those sins that he hath acknowledged Lastly there must be added to the former three or else they will not availe neither an earnest supplication to God for mercy and forgiveness through the mediation of his wel-beloved Son Jesus Christ which was wont to be craving mercy without this mentioning of Christ before he was offered and revealed to the world But now it must be so done as we must specially and particularly prefer our thoughts and desires to him in begging mercy at his Fathers hands for his sake alone So David after the numbring of the people I have done exceeding foolishly but Lord blot out for give the sin of thy servant So God commandeth Hos 14.2 Take to you words and say to the Lord receive us graciously So did David when he renewed his repentance and so must all men do when they begin to repent Have mercy upon me according to the multitude of thy mercies and blot out my transgressions c. These are the parts of repentance And this is the first thing required at our hands as the condition of the Covenant of Grace without which we can never obtain life eternal And this repentance consisteth of sorrow for sin and acknowledgment of it to God with a firm purpose of amendment and earnest petition of pardon for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ And this is such a Doctrine as the Covenant of works the Law never taught to the sons of men Nay verily it will not admit it the Law scorns as it were to admit repentance for it excludeth sin Repentance implieth sin in all the degrees and kinds therefore it is far from accepting Repentance if thou hast once broke the Law repent or not repent amend or nor amend be sorry or not sorry thou shalt never be pardoned or forgiven It is a rough and stern School-master that will whip and scourge offending children though they crave pardon never so much It is a rough Creditour that will throttle the Debtour and cast him into Prison though he confess the debt and be never so importunate in asking favour and patience But the Covenant of Grace it is a sweet Doctrine a comfortable Doctrine Thou hast sinned oh man and broken the Law and fallen from the favour of God and all possibility of salvation in thy self but come be sorry for thy sin acknowledg it to thy Maker resolve to run on in it no longer cry to him for pardon of it he will graciously pardon thee This is a sweet Doctrine you see full of comfort and consolation yet it is a Doctrine that tendeth to the honour of the Justice of God as well as to the honour of his grace and love the Lord could not prescribe other conditions for receiving us to favour but that we should repent What Judg would so abuse mercy as having past the sentence of death upon a Malefactour will yet pardon him and save him from the halter if he be not sorry for his crime and come and intreat for mercy and favour and confess that he hath offended and promise never to do so again there is no mercy and pardon for such a one because mercy must not oppose Justice though it may somewhat as we may say mitigate Justice The bloud of Christ if it were shed ten thousand times over it could never corrupt the Justice of God it may satisfie it but not corrupt it now the Justice of God were corrupted if it should admit an impenitent and hard-hearted sinner to favour and bestow upon him remission of sins and life everlasting that would never leave it nor forsake it nor be sorry for it but still go on to offend God and trample under foot his authority this being coutrary to Justice in the very nature and essence of Justice it cannot possibly be effected no not by the shedding of the bloud of Christ the bloud of Christ is of that vallue that it satisfieth the Justice of God and causeth him upon the penitence and humiliation of a sinner to receive him to grace and favour You see now what is the first part of the Condition required on our side for the obtaining of life by Christ that is Repentance The next is Faith in Christ This we are taught every where If thou beleeve in the Lord Jesus Christ saith the Apostle to the trembling Jaylour thou shalt be saved And saith our Saviour this is the work of God that ye beleeve on him whom he hath sent This beleeving on Christ is I suppose nothing else bnt a staying and resting and depending and relying upon the merits and satisfaction of our blessed Saviour by the vertue and merit thereof to obtain remission of sins and eternal life and all good things promised in the New covenant at the hands of God He that goeth quite out of himself forgetteth all his own actions casteth behind him whatsoever seemed good in him and wholly claspeth on Christ and cleaveth to him staies on him resteth on him for the remission of sins and for the favour of God and for grace and salvation this man beleeveth in the Lord Jesus Christ and this man performs that duty which makes him one with Christ that causeth him to become a member of that mystical body whereof Christ is the head and that causeth him to be one with the Father and to be the child of
overcoming of all sin and by the vertue of Christ he shall prosper in this I beseech you therefore set your selves awork about this great business to get Repentance and Faith and New Obedience it is much more needful then sleep then meat then attire there is nothing in the world so requisite for thy welfare as these things Scrape thou riches together in the same quantity that Solomon did and ten thousands times more yet thou shalt see Death once within a hundred or half a hundred years Get wisdome yet thou shalt see Death after a few years Take pleasure with as much greediness as he did once when he forgat himself for a space yet thou shalt see death These things that the foolish world hunts after with so much earnestness of desire will not secure thee from the sight of the King of feares Death as Job calleth it But if thou once get Faith and Repentance and new obedience then thou hast obtained that that all the riches and honour and pleasures and learning or whatsoever seemeth desirable in the world will not help their possessors to What will you do brethren Grovel still on the earth and still be mad after back and belly Or will you now begin to think I must die I must shake hands with that dismal enemy pale-faced Death that is able to strike terrour into the strongest heart and amazement into the stoutest soul that is not well confirmed and if this Death find me destitute of true Repentance and Faith and New Obedience it will seize upon me and dragg me before the Judgement seat of God where I shall be Henced away with a malediction and curse and be forced to take my place with the Divel and his Angels in unquenchable flames Oh what shall I do then to secure my self from the great from the strong arme of death I will repent now I will begin Lord draw me help me that I may do it I will beleeve now Lord do thou work Faith that requirest it I will obey Lord inable me to preform such needful duties as thou commandest me Shall this be your practice when you come home Will you thus study to practise Repentance and Faith and Obedience and study to cry and call for it and use all your endeavour Or what will you do will you be as idle and careless as negligent and slothful in making after these graces as before Will you be as greedy of the transitory vanities of this life as in former times Oh abuse not the word of God If thou go out of the Church without a full purpose to apply thy self from hence forward either to begin or to proceed in the practise of the saying of Christ Cursed be thou in thy hearing cursed be that hour that thou hast spent and cursed be thy misbestowed labour thou dissembling hypocrite But if thou labour to practise this of Christ namely to keep his sayings the Doctrine of the Gospel to repent to beleeve and to obey blessed art thou in thy hearing and in thy doing and in thy obedience happy is the time and the place and all things that concur together to draw thee to so needful a work I pray Brethren set not your labour upon gold and silver and money and trash not upon the pleasures and delights and contentments of the world not on any other thing but mainly and principally above all things let your chief care be for Faith and Repentance and Obedience If you strive for these things earnestly and heartily and constantly as sure as the Lord is in heaven he will bestow them upon you and with them the benefit of benefits Freedome from Death And now I shall speak comfort to those few that are in the world that keep these sayings of Christ Let them be of good comfort if their capital enemy the King of fears and the King of Afflictions be held from a possiblity of doing them harm nothing can harme them He that Death cannot hurt paine cannot hurt poverty and disgrace cannot hurt nothing can hurt him You know if the King of an Army be reconciled to a place he will keep his Souldiers from spoyling and burning and destroying that place If Death be put out of power to do thee hurt and God be reconciled in Christ because thou keepest the saying of Christ nothing can hurt thee thou art the happiest man under the Sun Why should the poor sad afflicted grieved mourning lamenting Saints of God envie them that are rich and jolly and merry worldlings any of their pleasures and profits any of those things wherewith they like Idiots make themselves laugh at What hath not God given thee better things then he that thou shouldest murmure and whine and weep for want of them art thou still complaining for want of them Remember what Saint James faith Let the brother of low degree that is abased and dispised in the world rejoyce yea rejoyce with great boasting and glory in his Exaltation This is the exaltation of the Saints Christ writing his sayings in their hearts and inclining them through the operation of his Spirit and the powerful work of his Word to repent and beleeve hath freed them from the danger of Death and interessed them into eternal happiness and that blisse that no tongue can expresse nor no heart conceive This is thy happiness it is not to be rich or to be great for these cannot deliver the owner from the hurt of Death natural nor from the danger of Death eternal But to have Faith and Repentance and Obedience this is riches and exaltation for he that hath them shall not alone escape the Dungeon of eternal darkness but be advanced to the Palace of everlasting felicity The Saint is the happy man the penitent beleever and true practiser of Christian obedience he is the sole and only happy man under the Sun for whatsoever storme he suffereth in this present world he shall certainly escape Death and obtaine Glory Blesse God and bless thy self in God magnifie him rejoyce in him take comfort in thy lot and portion Death that devoureth Kings that destroyeth Emperours that conquers Captaines and men of valour shall not be able to approach thee for thy hurt for thou keepest the saying of the Lord Jesus Christ Rejoyce I say in this magnisie him that is the Authour of it and account thy self happy that thou hast receâ—…ed from him so excellent a gift as to be in some measure inabled to keep his saying Yea if it were so may some Christian heart object then I should esteem my self the happiest man alive â—… but alas where is this Repentance you describe where is this New Obedience in me that still still find my self captive and thral to passion to this and that and the other lust and divers corruptions Where is I say that Repentance when I find so much fin Where is that Faith when I find so much wavering and quaking so much aptness to distrust and almost
he takes care for them he visits and comforts and assists them in their dying he helps them with strength with memory in their understanding their senses c. 2. He takes much delight in their sweet holy calm deaths and resignations of their souls 3. He takes care of their very bodies too to lay them up sweetly to rest in Repositories or Dormitories as the Ancients were wont to call Church-yards and Graves 4. Lastly he entertains their souls immediately when they are breathed forth and places them In Sinu Abrahoe in Abrahams bosome wheresoever that is to possess present joy and quietness And no wonder that he doth all this because he hath bought them and redeemed them unto himself with so great a price as his Suns bloud and hath graced them with so many gifts and priviledges and hath made over unto them as Co-heirs with Christ so great and large benefits We may make this Use of it to serve for the establishment of us in our belief of him and our waiting on his providence If their Death be so pretious their sufferings also in any kind are dear unto him That word in the Text which is Death and which by the Seventy is ordinarily turned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet is taken in the Scripture sometimes for sickness or any affliction Exo. 10.17 For infection 2 King 4.40 For wounds Prov. 26.18 and sometimes in the Septuagint for the soul The very sicknesses and afflictions and dangers and wounds and griefs of his holy ones are dear unto God But especially their souls their lives their good and safety God writes a Ne perdas Touch not Destroy not as a notable caveat for the safety as of Kings most particularly so also of all that fear him and that trust in his mercy I have hastned over these points that I might come to the testimony that I am to give to our deceased Brother Master John Moulson which I may not omit nor to be particular in it having never such a subject of discourse before such an exemplary man I would not be bought to flatter a prophane and wicked great one but here Gods glory in this his Servant and the edification of you that are present require of me that I speak fully for he was Vir nec silendus nec dicendus sine cura He copied out in his life the old way of Christianity and writ so fair after those Primitives that few now can imitate his hand And truly as in a garden in which there are variety of flowers we know not where to pick so in those many commendable parts of his I know not which to choose to present unto you or in what method But you may take notice I. Of his moral parts where I commend four things 1. His Calmness and moderation of affection No passion was observed to be a tyrant in him they had an oequipoise 2. His sober taciturnity an imitable wisdome in this age of talk and pratling 3. His affable carriage and easiness of access by which like another Poplicola he gained reputation and the love of the neighbour-hood where ever he dwelt Some are so hairy and rough like Esau that they may be discerned by their handling and some so churlish as Nabal that a man cannot speak unto them Which sourness and clowdiness of spirit I wish were not a blemish to many that give their names unto religion He honoured it by his sweetness and affalibility 4. His grave deportment and carriage As nothing is more contemptible then a light youthly wanton old man so the gray head and wrinkled cheeks accompanied with sage gravity commands respect from the beholders as that old grave Bishop Paphnutius though he had lost an eye did from the Emperour Constantine Gravity dwelt in the face of this man and his very presence was such as would discountenance the rude and prophane But all these are but mean commendations in respect of the next II. His practice of holiness Where I will observe and commend unto you 1. His unoffensive youth of which they that can remember him since that time are confident to say of him as the Emperour said of Piso Hujus vita composita à pueritia His life was composed and settled even from his very child-hood and then began to sort himself with the gravest company chiesly with that learned and godly Master Christopher Harvy sometime incombent in this Church to whom he was dear He was observed to be so sober and modest in his youth that he was desired to accompany and attend an honourable Nobleman to Oxford where he was very watchful and careful of him and prayed twice a-day with him in his chamber So ready was he to bear the Lords yoak from his youth 2. His unmarried estate which was chast and modest He lived above fifty years unmarried and in that state expressed two vertues his wisdome not to be rash and his care to keep his vessel clean 3. His married estate course of hous-keeping 1. When it pleased God to dispose his heart to marriage he married in the Lord. 2. When God gave him Children he nurtured them and his Family in Gods fear 1. He prayed four times a-day 2. He read three chapters in the old Testament and three in the New every day 3. After dinner he called not for game for digestion but read a Chapter before he rose from table 4. He catechised his children and servants constantly according to some plain form 5. He usually rose early on the Lords day which time he gave to meditation and prayer and what he could remember of the Sermon he usally repeated to his people 4. His exemplary vertues in his whole course of life 1. His meekness and peaceableness of disposition A grace which in the sight of God is much set by and a notable testimony of inward holiness according as it runs Jam. 3.17 pure then peaceable He was not apt to quarrel in matters that concerned him not never being observed to bear a part in any faction a favourable interpreter of things not evident readier to reconcile then to make differences and choosing rather to part with his right then with peace as appeared in a suit known unto many here 2. Though he were meek in his own cause yet he was zealous in Gods He could not endure any thing repugnant to holy Scripture nor would he neglect either seasonably to admonish or reprove the faulty that were within the compass of his admonition or to whet on and exhort others to love and good works 3. Yet his Zeal did not miscarry being allayed and tempered with wisdome as the heart is by the brain and as the conceit is of the Primum mobile with the Chrystalline heaven neer it His wisdome appeared first in his disscreetness in his undertakings and all affairs an argument of which some take to be this That he was never troubled not so much as questioned in any Court concerning any fact Second in
his observing a fit season when and a fit decorum in speaking Third in his choyce of company and specially of such acquaintance as he would be neer with and intimate which were only such as might be able to afford him spiritual assistance in a time of need 4. His freeness from worldlyness and contentedness with his estate not as those in Horace Quocunque modo rem but he would not improve his estate by the raising it as haply he might have done and as others do upon his tenants He counted himself rich because he needed not all that he had but could have lived with less for he that can make a little to be his measure all else that he hath is his treasure which was the observation of a good Poet but a better and a more mortified Divine 5. His humility and even among the very temptations to pride It is an hard thing to be humble in an humble and low estate but much more difficult in the affluence of outward things You know his kindred and his relations yet as he manifested this grace in his whole carriage so in particular in not being puffed with his brothers and sisters greatness or the advancement of his children 6. His diligence in the use of the means of grace 1. He had a right conceit of Sermons most relishing such as were most wholesome and useful for edification 2. He took pains to hear He was often known in his younger time to go ten miles on foot in those times of greater scarcity 3. His behaviour in the Church in the time of prayer and in hearing was very observable for his reverend attendance and devotion 7. His answerable practise fitted and proportionable to his exterior profession 1. He was much in private prayer If you would have a tryal of sincerity follow a man home and to his closet and see what he doth within doors for there may be many respects that may set a man on work coram populo Secret prayer if it be constant cannot lodg long with hypocrisie in the same heart 2. He was often as they say in secret fasting by himself alone a Duty not ouly lamentably neglected in these lazie times of easie Christianity but ill spoken of too as a character of a Pharisie by such as are loath to be at the pains of subduing their bodies and yet are desirous to come off with the credit and reputation of religion 3. He was temperate in his dyer and in his habit sober and grave as counting wisdome and grace a better and trimmer dress then Lace or the fashion and so he was in his recreations though constantly chearful yet a man of little mirth or delight in any thing but spiritual 4. He was full of charity which appeared in these particulars 1. Alwayes upon the Lords day he had six poor at dinner to every one of which he gave a piece of beef away with them besides and at night he sent what was left to other poor Besides what he gave at his door and what he gave privately to the poor houshold of faith 2. His hospitality according to his rank was such as Peter Martyr reported of Martin Bucer whose table was ever open to any good people especially to Ministers whom he much respected 3. He sate up many nights for the comfort of the sick not thinking that work of mercy sufficiently performed by an How do you or a cold visit 4. He had a Sympathy with the condition of Christs Church abroad 5. In the last place let us view him in his last act his sickness and death which as the Text hath told us is pretious in the sight of the Lord. 1. He prepared himself to die not only being willing but desirous also to be set at liberty being often at S. Pauls Cupio dissolvi which they that were with him say was much in his mouth 2. He was very thankful for Gods assisting him with memory and understanding to the very last for the continuance of which he prayed and desired others that were about him to pray 3. He employed both his memory and speech for the comfort and counsel of such as visited him 4. He made a confession of his faith but chiefly in the matter of Justification by faith which an eminent Roman Prelate called a good supper doctrine and in the comfort of that point he resigned his soul to Christ and slept sweetly in the Lord. Thus as his life was holy his death was pretious He made no great noyse in the world nor raised greater expectations of himself then he could well mannage like many exhalations that rise out of dunghils as if they meant to reach the skie but presently fall down again and wet us But as a taper he gave light till he went out and now he is gone we will leave upon his Grave Memoria ejus in Benedictionibus and apply to him the words of the Text Pretiosa in oculis Jehovoe pretious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints THE DESIRE OF THE SAINTS AFTER IMMORTAL GLORY SERMON XXI 2 COR. 5.2 For in this we do groan carnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven WHen I read these words I am in a great doubt whether I should rather admire the excellency of the temper of these Saints or deplore the vileness of ours so celestial the one so terrestrial the other so noble the one so ignoble the other so magnanimous the one so abject the other These Saints they did duly consider that our life it is but a Pilgrimage that this whole world is but a Diversory or Inn to refresh us for a while that it is a warfare all things within us without us our enemies that this body is but a Tabernacle a Tent a Cottage an carthen vessel a Gourd the scabbard the prison of the soul more brittle than glass decaying mouldering of it self though it be preserved from eternal injuries of air or weather they saw the vanity the vacuity the emptiness of the things of this life their affections were alienated estranged and divorced from the world they had by watchings fastings grovelings on the ground tears and groans scoured off the drosse of their souls and made them polished statues of piety they had made up their accounts between God and themselves and had sued out their pardon for their defects and failings and had that seated in their consciences they did penetrate the clouds with the eye of faith and did see the immense good things laid up for them in heaven with which being ravished and impatient of cunctation and delay they desire to be vested in the possession of them though it were with the deposition of their honse of clay which they did bear about them Of these things they had not a bareconjecture but a certain knowledge For we know vers 1. that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved we have a building not made with hands eternal in
deal less then a man For what was he hark what David faith in his person I am a worm and no man the very off-scouring of men the out-cast of the people there was no glory in his first appearing But now his second appearing shall be in glory it shall be every way glorious First his Person glorious And then his Throne glorious he shall come and sit upon the throne of his glory And then his attendants glorious the Angels thousand thousands ministring to him ten thousand thousands standing before him and all glorious Again his administration of justice shall be glorious for if he got himself glory on Pharaoh when he drowned him in the Sea What glory will he get when he shall throw the Divel and wicked men into hell fire there is glory in his administration of justice Then glory in his Saints as the Apostle I Thes 1.10 faith that God shall be marvellous glorious in his Saints For when Christ that is our glory shall appear then we also shall appear with him in glory Here is the glorious Epiphany of Christ a glorious appearing But of whom The great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Some there are that would make these two to be two persons The great God say they that is God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ that is God the Son Thus the Arrians thus the Semi-Arrians and thus which I wonder at Erasmus and thus some others But first of all you never find in the New Testament of the Epiphany of God the Father that same glorious Epiphany is ever of the Son Then the Greek makes it plain me-thinks for had there been two persons the Apostle should have said thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there should have been two Articles but here is but one Article it is apparant to them that understand the Greek it is but one Person that same person is the mighty God the great God and the Saviour Jesus Christ The great God First Christ is God I need not stand to prove that now among you And that same incommunicable Name of Jehovah by which I find him called in Scripture and those incommunicable properties of the Divine Nature Immortality Immutability Immensity Omnipotency Omniscience which are all ascribed to Christ And then those names that are proper only to God as The Creator The Governour of the World And then the worship that is due to God alone is given to Christ in the Scriptures ipsius est solus est all these being given to him prove him to be God And lest you should think he is God now by participation of the Divine Essence in which sence the Angels are called Elohim Or as Majestrates are Gods by representation you shall find by what Epithites he is called God The true God 1. Ioh. The mighty God Isa 9.6 God blessed for ever Rom. 9.5 and here the great God And so he is great God great not in bodily bulk but great in Essence Great in Majesty great in power And this may first be a wondrous comfort to Gods children Doth thy heart condemn thee hark what S. John faith God is greater then our he art Again doth the Divel terrifie thee hark what our Lord faith No man shall be able to take them out of my hand He is able to keep us to the day of Salvation a great comfort to Gods people A great matter of terrour to wicked men that this Judge shall be the great God for who is able to stand before him when he is angry Do you remember when the band of Souldiers came to apprehend him in the Garden he said no more but Ego sum it is I faith he and presently they fell down to the ground they were beat down with the very breath of his mouth as a man is sometimes with the wind of a bullet or as the walls of Jericho with the found of the trumpets of Rams horns The very word Ego sum it was no more they fell all to the ground Now I may say with that Father what shall he do when he comes to Judge that was able to do thus when he was to be judged Quid regnatores patuerit c. what shall he do when he comes to reign that was able to do thus when he was to die But alas you will say if he be so great a God so glorious how shall such a poor wretch as I stand before him I confess my self a poor wretched and grievous sinner how shall I stand before him Oh mark here he that is called the great God he is called the Saviour Jesus Christ Here is the comfort he is a Saviour he came to work the work of Redemption He was made like us in all things sin excepted that he might be mereiful And it is wondrous comfortable that in that very nature he shall be our Judge in which he stood before the Judge at the judgement seat of Pilate God hath appointed a day faith Saint Paul in which he will judge the world in righteousness by whom by the man Jesus Christ Act. 17.31 O but what a comfort of comforts is that indeed I pray mark our Lords words John 5.27 God the Father faith he hath given all authority to his Son to judge Why Mark his reason because he is the Son of man He doth not say he hath given him power to judge because he is his Son but because he is the Son of man It made sweet Saint Bernard cry out O verum Patrem misericordia c. O true Father of mercies that wouldest have men judged by man he hath been a man and lived he knew no sin he knew temptation he knew what is was to be tempted he knows that we are tempted and he knows that we are but men he remembreth that we are but dust Thus I have gone over the words briefly There is a general Doctrine to be touched which I can but touch in a word it is this Every true Christian must so live as a man that waites and looks for this blessed hope at that glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ The holy men that lived before Christs first Epiphany his first coming here in the flesh they are described thus to be men that looked for that coming After his coming Anna the Prophetess the Scripture faith she spake of Christ to all that looked for redemption in Jerusalem Luke 2.36 and in verse 25. it is said that old Simeon a devout man and one that looked for the consolation of Israel And the like is said of Joseph of Aremathea he was a just man one that feared God and looked for the redemption of the people of God he looked for the kingdom of God There was looking then And the Children of God now in the New Testament they are all described by this looking for the second coming of Christ Gods children
Bayliff that arrests men at the suit of Death but many a one hath been made the prisoner of Death that was never arrested at the suit of Death yea know Abel was murthered in the field Eli broak his neck from the chair Absalom was snatched up in an Oke the disobedient Prophet was slain by a Lyon the disobedient Prince was trodden to death in a crowd Abimelech was slain by a peece of a milstone Pope Adrian was choaked with swallowing a flie Pelus slain with a fall of a tile Such is our life as a vapour as the sand of an hour-glass ever spending and ever running out as Gregory hath it in his Morals Look how many dayes a man adds to his life so many steps he takes to his death So Jeremie to Heliodorus we are ever dying for we every day change when I am writing this all the points of my pen spends a point of my life nay while we are hearing this Sermon we are passing on I will make a little Use of it and then I have done First make the Use the Apostle doth to them that build upon futurity and think they may do what they list you that think you will do to day and to morrow what you list Oh faith the Apostle what reason have you to build on to day and to morrow when ye know not what a day will bring forth We may not promise our selves life for to morrow much less may we do as the fool in the Gospel promise years when we cannot assure our selves of a moment of life if we might assure our selves of a moment of life in which it might be said it were impossible to die we might possibly be immortal and not die at all but as Ambrose faith corruptible is not so capable of incorruption but since it hath been subject to fall till it doth fall it is ever declining there is no building nor trusting to uncertain futurity we must not rest and trust on those things which are to come but only upon God and speak conditionally of them not absolutely refer the success and disposing of all things to come to the will and good pleasure of God remembring what our life is so make less accompt of our life and of our selves and all Secondly seeing our life is so vanishing let us ever prepare for death for sudden death because life is vanishing Thou knowest not in what hour thy master will come Therefore every hour we should so bestow our selves that our Master may find us at work For this two things are requisite First ever think of death death cannot be sudden to that man that ever thinks of it Secondly be careful to lead a godly life the goodness of the life consists not in the long continuance of it but in the well imploying of it it may be any mans case to live well it can be no mans to live long our comfort is though our life be momentary yet notwithstanding this very moment of time is enough to gain to us here-after eternity and how much better is a short time well spent for the purchasing of eternal happiness then a short time ill spent for the purchasing of eternal misery your life is momentary yet eternity depends on it if it be spent ill eternal misery if well we are eternally happy howsoever here we vanish as a vapour yet one day we shall become as fixed starrs in the right hand of Christ we shall shine as starrs for ever Thus I have shewed how the life of man is compared to a vapour that appears for a little while and then vanisheth away Beloved I pray let not this Sermon pass as a vapour let not all of it pass away in the found you here but fix it as a nail in a sure place in your understanding in your memory in your affections and remember how short and sudden every mans end and life is or may be O that my people were wise they would understand this they would consider their latter end We have a spectacle here before us that was a real comment upon this Text She did understand the Doctrine of it and was excellent in the practice of it A Gentlewoman that deserved a better Orator to commemorate the vertues that were in her and to give her praises due it had been a fitter work for your reverend and worthy Minister whose absence at this time I supply he could have spoken more fully of her then I can because he was acquainted longer with her then I was I account it a part of my unhappiness that I knew her so little a while and peradventure you will say it is a part of her unhappiness that this office is done by one that knew her so little a while It is true indeed I am not able to say much of her for my knowledge of her was but a few weeks or months by reason of our neighbour-hood in the Country but then I observed her to be one of the ornaments of her sex and every thing that came from her was graceful and comely the sweetness of nature and grace in my opinion concurred in her But I must deliver the most that I have to say from the report that I have from others yet from very good hands Solomon faith A good name is as a good oyntment poured forth like the precious Alablaster-box that Mary broke on the head of our Saviour the smell of it perfumed all the house I may say of her as the Apostle faith of Demetrius She was well reported of by all and I am perswaded she was reported well of the truth it self she had a name answerable to her vertues Solomon faith A prudent wife or a good wife is the gift of God she was a Theodosia that was her name The gift of God and a gift God bestowed to the comfort of him that had her She was constant both in the performance of publike duties and private in hearing Gods word not only on the Lords day but as occasion gave leave on the week-dayes and she was not only constant at good exercises abroad but which was the crown of her commendations she was so at home also she was constant in reading the Word I am credibly informed that she read over the Bible seven times in the seven years that she was married she constantly made use of that she heard I my self saw no less then two quires of paper writ out with her own hand collected partly out of other books out principally out of Sermons not noted at Church when she heard them but when she came home being in this like Mary that laied up the sayings of Christ in her heart her daily spending of her time was commendable and exemplary in the morning up to prayer with her family and then unto private prayer by her self from prayer to reading and then to work and then to prayer and to dinner and then to work this was her continual course of life without interruption She was
And this will cut sore and lie heavy on our conscience and therefore let us do it betimes Not only to prevent the Divel and his temptations but because you see how suddenly they may be taken away from us in a moment So Children should be admonished to learn to know the Lord God in the dayes of their youth how soon that evil day may come we know not that the wise man speaks of therefore betimes while ye have opportunity do it And for our own part let us learn this First when God crops such flowers that rise in the bud when he takes away such Children be thankful to God that he hath given us a longer time that he hath enlarged our dayes and prolonged our years that he hath given us such a great deal of space and opportunity to glorifie him here to do him service in the land of the living to get evidence of our Calling and election and to get assurance of our peace with him Let us praise God for the length of our dayes a blessing of God in it self and a blessing to us if we improve it Again every one remember if Children do die old men must die any man may die For it Death strike such as do but begin to live then we that have lived long it is time and reason to expect death and not to fear it I speak not this as if we should be slavishly afraid of death while we are so our lives are not comfortable What is the reason that we fear it inordinatly because we love our lives we love our bodies and the world inordinatly and not in and for God And then by the continual spectacles of mortality let us be acquainted with death A vizour and apparition to a Child scares him and he runs from it at the first but at last he grows throughly acquainted with it and fears it not so it is in regard of death many men will not endure to hear of death they will not endure to think of it they will not endure to hear a Funeral Sermon or to come to the hous of mourning to be put in mind of their latter end Death is a strange vizour to these men and women they are afraid of it and run from it but if we did oft think of it as oft as we think of sin in the cause of it And when we feel sorrow think here is a harbinger of death I feel pain in me ere long I must surrender to the stroak of Death And as oft as we see spectacles of mortality to read a lecture of Death And when we lay our selves down in our beds think of Death And upon all occasions come to the house of mourning and think of Death If the Serpents sting be plucked out a man may handle it he is shie at the first but after finding it cannot hurt him he fears it not So we have cause to thank God for death as well as for other things thus far because he hath changed the nature of it and made it a sweet passage to another life And then though God take Children or friends or goods or any thing in this world he will be our exceeding great reward he will be All in all to us here and hereafter THE RIGHTEOUS JUDGE OR THE RULE OF JUDGEMENT SERMON XXVIII JAM 2.12 So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the Law of Liberty VPon the like sad occasion I have already handled something out of these words The last thing that I came to was That in the day of Judgement God will call both the words and actions of men to account He will bring their words and their actions to judgement not only their works 2 Cor. 5.10 God will bring every work to judgement and so Eccles 12. He will bring every thing to judgement whether good or evill But besides that he will bring every word to judgement too even the very vain words of men of every idle word men shall give account Matt. 12.36 And the very rash and passionate speeches of men what they speak in passion and repent not of even those passionate speeches that they thought might have easily been passed by He that calls his Brother fool shall be in danger of hell fire Matth. 5.22 Then much more those evil speeches against God Jude 13 14. He shall come with thousands of his angels in judgement against all those that have spoken against him They have spoken against God they have reviled him he shall judge them for all their evil and cursed speakings against him saith the Apostle They in fury and madness fell to evil and cursed speaking and slighted God and despised him therefore he shall come in great glory with thousands of his Angels to make it appear that he is more glorious then they thought him to be and he will now stand for the vindicating of his honour and the manifesting of his glory in such a terrible appearance at that day Against all those that speak evil and against all their cursed speakings against him saith the Text evil speaking against God is cursed speaking Because it exposeth a man to a curse it leaves him under a curse that shall appear at that day to be just against him so we see God will bring both words and works to judgement at that day And the reasons are First because the Law of God binds men in their speeches as well as in their actions I say the Law that shall judge them doth now bind them in their very speeches as well as in their actions You have two commandements expresly taking notice of the words of men The third commandment of the words of men concerning God he that takes the name of Godin vain he will not hold him guiltless And then the ninth commandment of the words of men concerning men Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour Now God that hath made a Law to bind and to order men in the matter of speech certainly he will judge men by that Law You know that Kings and Princes and Parliaments and Kingdoms they make not Lawes in vain but they are the directions whereby the judges proceed in their course of judgment upon malefactours So I say Gods Law it is not in vain it is not a bare direction onely to us in point of obedience but also the express rule whereby Christ himself will proceed in matter of judgement Again secondly there is great reason that words as well as actions should be brought to judgement because God and men are injured by words as well as by actions First concerning God you read of some Psal 73. that set their mouths against God and against heaven Indeed they can do no more hurt to God then a man that shoots an Arrow at the Sun can hurt the Sun by shooting at him but in their intention they set themselves against God in as much as their tongues are set against
is with the eye in tears that cannot see a thing clearly so the mind cannot judge of things distinctly when the soul is disturbed Let not your hearts be troubled But that which our Saviour aims at here hath a particular respect to the affections of fear and grief when these are in the excess the mind is troubled when a man over-fears any thing or over-grieves any thing he is troubled and disquieted Let not your hearts be troubled that is grieve not for things more then they are to be grieved for and fear not things more then they are to be feared For all these will dis-joynt the soul as it were it will put the spirit to much pain and disquiet as a bone out of joynt Therefore by all means keep your hearts in a right state in that order that God hath set them Let not your hearts be troubled That that I will briefly note here shall be but thus much that Men are wondrous prone even the very best men to be disturbed in their passions and affeictions Our Saviour Christ speaks it here to his Disciples to those that he had taught before whom he had gone as an excellent example all his dayes yet these holy men these followers of Christ that had followed him through so many dangers and after so many teachings and instructings of them he had need to call upon them to stir them up to consider of their own estate that their hearts might not be troubled You may see the Malady in the Medicine Every prohibition in the word supposeth a corruption and an aptness in the natural heart and spirit of man to sin and transgress in that particular Therefore when Christ speaks to his Disciples and tells them they should not be troubled It shews that even the best men are subject to excess of passion and affection to be disturbed and troubled through immoderate fear or grief for that was the case of the Disciples Now briefly I will shew the grounds of it and come to the Application because I will hasten This trouble that is upon the spirits sometimes of the best men it ariseth Partly from Gods providence and hand upon them And partly from Satan And partly from themselves I will shew you the causes in these particalars and then apply it First it ariseth many times from the hand of God The Lord is said to be a Sun and a shield The Lord will be known to be a Sun and a shield to his people Now look as it is with the earth when the Sun withdraweth his light it is all dark and cold and dead So it is with the hearts of the best men when God withdraws the light of his countenance from the soul it is as the earth at midnight And as it is with Souldiers in the battel if their shields be taken from them they are exposed to every dart and danger every thing may annoy them and wound them So it is in the state of the soul if God withdraw himself from it and do not now support it as before and do not fence and strengthen it as at other times the fiery darts of Satan will pierce deep into the soul and the spirit will not be able to uphold it self against these assaults Now God withdraws himself sometimes from his servants and that in special wisdome In respect either of the time past present to come Sometimes God doth it in respect of the time past and so he doth it by way of correction First to correct his children for their former wantonness they have abused the expressions of love and now as a Father takes away the light from his child when he sees he makes no better use of it then to play with it So God sometime takes away the light of his countenance that is he casts clouds before himself he doth not manifest himself in that loving favour when his servants neglect that reverence and fear that he expects from them in the midst of his mercies Secondly this he doth sometimes as a correction of their negligence when God hath called on them from time to time and they have neglected calling on God he hath called upon them for duty and for the leaving of such particular evils and they have neglected it Now God withdraws himself to make them know what it is to do so And because they will not know what it is to hear his voyce when he calls he will make them feel it by his not hearing their voyce when they pray Sometimes he calls to them as he did to the Church in the Canticles Open to me my sister my Spouse my love c. The Church is negligent and careless I have put off my cloaths how shall I put them on I have washed my feet how shall I defile them Now he withdraws himself from the soul and what is the the end of it The keepers strike her and the watch-men take away her vail and now she is left to trouble and perplexity because Christ had absented himself whom she would not entertain when he offered himself Thus God doth to correct that that is past And farther God doth it sometimes to correct that carnal considence and security whereunto men are wondrous prone when they go on in a clear way with much comfort with wind and tide I said in my prosperity saith David I shall never be moved thou Lord hast made my mountain so strong but what followeth upon it saith he Lord thou hidest thy face and I was troubled now trouble came upon him trouble of Spirit because he rested too much in that outward mountain in that outward condition whereunto God had exalted him and he placed his hope too much on this and thought it should be alwaies thus now God turns his hand and then David is troubled and that is the first particular in the first cause But secondly God hath a further aim and that is for the time present and that is First to inform all his servants where there strength lies where all their good lies it lies not in themselves it lies not in any creature And therefore God will have them seek it in him and that they may do it he draws them to it by sence they shall be deprived of comfort in respect sometime of outward conveniences and in respect sometime of the light of his countenance shining upon their souls How do we know that the Moon shines on the earth by a borrowed light but because we see it is not alwayes alike in its light we see sometimes it hath a full light and sometimes it is enlightned but by the half and sometimes by some little part where we see this disproportion that it is not alwaies alike we know by this that the light of the Moon is borrowed from somewhat else from the Sun Now how do we know that the heart of man is fed and relieved and supported with comfort from without it self
man of a stammering tongue saith the Lord I will be with thy tongue He bids him quiet his heart in that perplexity and rest on him that made the tongue to be with his tongue And because there was another secret that troubled him the Lord knew his heart God saith go the man that sought thy life is dead as if he should say Moses though thou wilt not confess it I know what troubleth thee thou art afraid that the men that sought thy life are alive in Pharaohs Court and that therefore when thou comest thither thou shalt be executed No saith he they are dead he would have him rest on him and that would revive his heart that he should not be troubled and disquieted So you may see in other servants of God that this was alwaies the reason of any indirect course they took Jacob and Rebecca in that case why did Rebecca use that device in getting the blessing with Jacob Because she failed in her trust in God she saw how she was perplexed with the daughters of Heth Esaus wives and many troubles that way And Isaac was dim-sighted and had many weaknesses upon him she knew not how he might mistake and give the blessing to the other therefore she deviseth a way to get the blessing but she got many sorrows you know what a hard service it cost Jacob and how many evils it exposed him to and all was because through fear and disquiet of heart he cast not himself upon God in his way but they would find out wayes of their own It should teach us in all disquiet of spirit to look principally to the strengthening of our faith This is called a shield Eph. 6. when all the darts of temptation that fire the soul and perplex it many wayes are cast upon a man here is a shield to preserve and keep him safe Therefore let us ever have this for our use whose and found You shall find that even the servants of God have so far been in a comfortable estate as they have been in the exercise of their faith Take David for an example when Ziglag was burnt and his Wives and servants and goods and cattel were all carryed away and the Souldiers in the rage of their hearts and discontent began to think of stoning of him yet faith the Text Then David comforted himself in the Lord his God When there was no comfort in his Souldiers about him or in those that were neer him every thing was taken away at this time David comforts himself in the Lord his God So Job see how quiet his heart is and well satisfied when he rested on God in the greatest occasions and troubles his goods was carried away his sons were slain all added to Jobs misery but he comes to this The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the Lord when he can look above the creature to God and settle his heart upon this rock he finds comfort in it On the other side the servants of God are never out of trouble and disquiet when they neglect this as the Disciples in the tempest upon the Sea Math. 8. they cry out they are utterly undone Save Master saith Christ Oh ye of little faith The not exercising of their faith did so perplex and disquiet them as it did and if you look upon all the complaints of the lives of men for the loss of such friends and the decay of trading for the ill dealing of Customers for sickness c. Men are always complaining What is the reason Because they place too much hope and confidence in the creature they look not above these things with the eye of faith and hence comes that disturbance and disquiet if the outward means be taken from them they look not upon that God that hath all means and opportunities in his own hand You beleeve in God beleeve also in me They that would have their hearts quiet by beleeving in God should especially exercise faith in resting on Christ Beleeve in me saith Christ for the heart of man flies off from God Alas the Lord is holy and I am a sinful man he is righteous and I am sinful who shall come before this holy and righteous God Now when faith can look upon Christ and set him between God and me and look on God through him now the soul rests he looks on God as a Father through Christ his Son when the soul looks on Christ as my husband married to me as my head and I am united to him as a member as my Lord that hath taken me into his protection when the soul thus looks on Christ now it looks upon God in all his attributes wondrous glorious and comfortable to the soul This is the thing that I can but touch at this time There are two things considerable in it First there is no ground of reposing the soul upon God but by beleeving in Christ he is the Mediatour Therefore in John 8.24 saith Christ Except you beleeve that I am he whom the Father sent you shall die in your sins The Jews they did beleeve in God they were the children of Abraham and worshipped the God of their Fathers and beleeved in God but saith he except you beleeve in me that I am he that God hath sent as Mediatour you shall die in your sins And so in this Chapter I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh to the Father but by me there is no other way to the Father That as the high Priest under the law was in all things pertaining to God he was between God and the people So Christ our great high Priest is in all things that concern the glory of God and the salvation of man and the acceptance of a sinner in all things between God and us Here is the first thing Secondly it is worth our consideration how Christ comes to be thus he was willing to die a cursed a shameful and cruel death of the Cross and to be despised and abased and all this for man and yet Christ crucified is despised and scorned in the world therefore if ever you will have acceptance of God beleeve in me In me that am now going from you that am to be taken away by a cursed ignominious death Here is another truth then They that believe in Christ must believe in Christ abased and Crucified as well as in Christ in Glory That is a thing that flesh and blood despiseth indeed all the World speaks well of the profession of the Faith and believing in Christ when Christ is in triumph Conquering to conquer every man glories in Christians but when Christianity and profession is cryed down in the world when Christ is Crucified when all the World speaks ill of the wayes of Christ and of the obedience of Faith now to obey a crucified scorned despised Christ in the sight of the world to rest on him in the midst of his abasement this will comfort the
and greatly amaze us when out affection is placed and setled in a designed object in a person that we neerly love and now to take away that comfort and as it were to diverse the heart from the heart O this goes neer us this doth exceedingly trouble a person Fourthly the strength of a tryal may consist in the suddenness of it to enjoy a comfort and on a sudden to have it taken away as it were in a mans sleep such a thing that he did not dream of when he did not expect that such a thing would befal him if a man had heard something before hand he might have been better fitted for it When the Prophet saw the Cloud ascend out of the Sea being warned of abundance of rain he hastened to escape So if a person have fore-notice of such a cross that would fall upon him he might be somewhat armed and prepared he might in some measure be able to bear his tryal like a little Boat well mannaged may meet with lofty waves but when the affliction shall take a man at unawares when it takes us before we can gather our selves together before we can put out our selves in prayer for a man to go forth and come home and find a wife dead and for a Woman to go forth and come home and find her Husband dead for a tender Mother to kiss her child and lay it down to rest and the next turn to find her child dead this is a great tryal Fifthly the strength of a tryal is in the successiveness of a tryal the repetition of a tryal when Jobs messengers come with news of one affliction having scarse delivered their message and their errand but another comes when there is a course of tryal one after another Thou O Lord hast set me as a mark saith Job Why a mark why God had as it were singled him a man for sorrow and tryal one arrow had no sooner lighted on him but another comes and pierces him Now this doth deeply prove our patience and makes us sometime wonder that the Lord should give us no rest when one affliction shall succeed another without any Cordial when the handkerchiff shall no sooner wipe off one tear but presently another distills down Herein is a great strength of tryal the heart is wonderfully cast down Sixtly the strength of a tryal may consist in the strangeness of our obedience to it as when a matter is put upon us as a duty to be obeyed and hath some contradiction to the precept of God when a tryal doth cross the precept of obedience and jussle against the promise of God that a man can hardly obey God but he must make God a lyar Abraham could not have obeyed God in killing his Child but he must run against that other command forbidding murther he could not defer it but he must violate his faith Now this doth exceedindly distract the Soul with a great tryal the more contrary the tryal is to the precept of obedience the greater is the tryal and the more neer to the person But I proceed to the next question Why the Lord doth impose great tryals upon great Christians the reasons of it may be these First great grace will be obscure and will scarce shew it self unless there be great tryals and therefore S. Paul when he was lift up to the third heavens lest he should be exalted above measure there was given him a thorne in the flesh he is beaten down with temptation that the grace of God might the more appear God doth hereby prevent our fall and doth hold great grace in great conflicts that the soul might have little leisure to admire its own fulness Secondly great tryals for great Christians because who is more able to sustain grear tryals then great Christians God is wise in all his actions and as Paul speaks in another case there was milk for babes and meat for strong men so when he imposes any affliction he considers the person and so proportions the affliction he imposes the greatest burden upon the greatest Christian a little blast is enough for a tender oak but a well grounded one may endure the strongest winds a poor weak Christian a little tryal will cast him down but a well experienced Christian that hath inriched himself with the promises of God that hath hardned himself with the receit of singular comforts one that knoweth the life of faith that hath gotten singular patience he can endure a hard storm he can go through great tryals with great comfort He can say with Job though thou dost kill me yet will I trust in thee he will be able to go through many sad nights and great tryals his faith will make him conquer all I come to the second point and that is this that Faith will make a man acquit himself in great Tryals Though Abraham is put upon it in a great tryal in offering up his son yet by faith Abraham acquits himself and offers up his beloved son The meaning of the proposition is this that faith will inable a man to give back his dearest comfort again to God though Isaac lie in Abrahams bosome though Isaac lie at Abrahams heart yet Abrahams faith upon Gods call will take him thence and present him to that God who gave him Faith makes a man resign up willingly unto God his dearest comfort as Job did The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. Beloved remember this faith can take a mercy and be thankful and faith can part with a mercy and be content Paul he had learned how to abound and how to be in want and this lesson was the lesson of faith faith makes a Christian take from Christ what it injoyes like one of the blessed Martyrs his condition was if God gave him any mercy he was chearful if the Lord take away any mercy he fits down with contentment quieting his soul in patience if God give him any mercy he was not swoln with pride if God take away any mercy he was not cast down with sorrow Dost thou remember me O Lord saith faith Lord I am unworthy the least of all thy mercies and goodness Lord dost thou call for this blessing back again why here it is Lord do what thou pleasest like an honest debtor saith he if you can spare me a little I will thank you but if you will have it here it is as the blessing is a gift of Gods kindness so neither doth faith account of any mercy but a borrowed a lent good which God may require when he pleases There is a double acquitting of our selves one is a necessary acquitting and the other is a pious and Christian acquitting there is this difference between a godly man and another when God calls for any one of thy comforts it must be restored God is the Lord of life and whether we are willing or not when he calls the comfort and
we must part and in this respect a man who wants a lively faith may acquit himself in a tryal when he sees that floods of tears will not help him specially when he sees it is past recovery he resigns up a comfort when he can keep it no longer he will part with a blessing when he cannot avoid it But then there is a pious acquitting of our selves when God calls for a comfort back the hand of Faith presents the comfor to God again when God calls for Isaac Abraham presently resigns up his beloved Son again upon this ground God is the Lord who gave him and now the Lord calls for him back again I and the Lord shall have him thus Faith acquits the soul in great tryals and joyns with God against all our own contentments to set down with much patience in great losses to submit to Gods call and Gods appointment Now the reasons why Faith can acquit a man in great tryals may be these First Faith can exalt Gods will above all and submit our wills to Gods will remember this God is the Author of mercy when he will he gives us and when he pleaseth he takes it away again It is well to have abundance saith nature and sence we cannot be without it no saith Faith I will yeeld to Gods will it is good to enjoy this saith Sence it is better to part with it saith Faith when God calls for it Secondly Faith can give God the glory of all outward comforts this is a great occasion of stilling our souls to find out the right owner of our comforts if a man did once discern that by faith that God is the Author of all comfort and that all mercies come from God this would make us submit in the day of tryal this is certain God is the God of our bodies and of our souls and of our comforts who hath more right to a possession then the owner all our comforts are but Gods servants God is the great Land-Lord of heaven and earth the God of all our possessions what if he be pleased to gather a flower we are but tenants at will and whatsoever our outward estate is Faith over-looks all and submits all to God and receives it by Gods permission and doth as it were hear the Lord say I must do what I will with mine own Faith makes a man say nothing is mine own my Child is not mine own my Wife is not mine own it is Gods possession when God calls for it Faith resigns it up as Gods due faith renders unto God the things that are Gods Thirdly Faith can make the soul acquit it self in great tryals because faith finds no loss by obediencial submission for all our unwillingness to resign up and to part with any comfort it doth arise from infidelity or from the stubbornness that is in a person when a man haves and holds his comfort contrary to Gods will or else it doth arise from a conceit that some dammage will redound to our selves â—…parting with such a blessing but faith sees safety enough to yeeld up all into Gods hands who is the Father of mercy and God of all consolation Thus we see Abraham being put to it about his only son he gives up his child his Isaac and God bestows Isaac upon Abraham again nay a further degree of blessing confirmed with an oath In blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I will multiply thee and will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven This is ever true faith makes a man give back a blessing with this conclusion either God will continue the comfort to a person or else he will give him more or a better for it Fourthly a fourth reason why Faith can make a man acquit himself in great tryals because Faith can find all losses made up in God alone Faith can find God as a most ample and universal good Faith doth look upon God as a particular good and such a good that answers all again that abundantly makes up all losses There be many broken peeces of comfort that must concur to make up our outward good for our good here below is a compounded good the Wise is a part that makes up our good below and our children are a part that makes up our good below and our health and our riches and our friends many of these concur together to make up our good here below is a compounded good the Wife is a part that makes up our good below and our children are a part that makes up our good below and our health and our riches and our friends many of these concur together to make up our good below but God is all this in himself and much more whatsoever good whatsoever comforts are in a Child a Wife a Husband or in friends in riches in health all that is in God and much more to faith what is that thou seest in a Husband or in a Wife or in a Child that thou mayest not see in God What is that thou findest in a friend that thou mayest not find in God and what is there in riches that thou mayest not have much more in God the Husband can do thee no good without God who can do thee so much good as God the Husband can comfort thee who can comfort thee so much as God a friend may counsel thee and direct thee but he cannot deliver thee Faith sees more in God than in riches more in God then in all outward blessings bring all the outward comforts together they cannot make up a Christians comfort Faith is never satisfied with these things it is not a Child alone nor a Husband alone nor a Wife alone nor a friend alone that makes up a Christians comfort but God alone can do it whatsoever is in any outward comfort Faith find it much more in God God and his favour God and his gracious countenance these make up a Christians comfort this alone supports the Christian and in the want of all things Faith can comfort it self in the favour of God in the loss of all things Faith can find all again in the favour of God This is a fourth reason why Faith makes a man acquit himself in great Tryals A fifth reason why Faith makes a man acquit himself in great troubles because Faith knows upon what terms we possess all these outward comforts upon what small grounds we possess them upon moveable and changeable titles Faith looks upon all these things as upon things that he must part from we have here no abiding City our place and being here is but for a short time and remember this God never bestowed any comfort upon thee and me with an assurance of an immortal possession all the assurance that he hath given thee is nothing all the creature is but vanity it is of a shifting nature and therefore it is said of riches that they do take to themselves wings they skip away honour is soon
gone riches are soon gone the life of man is soon gone the life of man is but a breath a vapour which is presently consumed but a glass of a brittle substance all our comforts are of a changeable nature that whereon we set our affection is taken from us in a moment Thus I have opened these two points now give me leave to make some use I will spare to speak to you of the occasion of our meeting together for Funeral Sermons are not for the advantage of the dead but for the instruction of the living there are two Uses that I will make of those two propositions I know many more may be produced but I consider the time The first Use is this Since great tryals may befal great Christians then let us prepare for great tryals for as much as such kind and degrees of affliction and crosses may besal us There are two things that a man should alwaies provide for one is while we live to provide for Death the other is while we are in prosperity to provide for affliction for a change and for this consider two things First our outward condition is but a shadow it hath a natural aptness to change there is not a person that hears me this day but this may concern his outward condition Man is born unto trouble saith Job as the sparks fly upward as if trouble were his natural sphear wherein he is to move Thou canst not assure thy self of life no not a moment nor of any of these outward comforts neither canst thou promise thy self security in any state or condition though thou maist get assurance that God wil save thee yet thou canst never get assurance that God will never try thee we see that Death enters into many houses of this City at this time in one house one hath lost a Father another hath lost a Wife another hath lost a Husband another hath lost a Child another is in sorrow for the loss of a dear friend and therefore we should provide for a change because the next commission of Death may enter into our houses it is our sins that puts our lives upon these conditions our sins do alwayes leave something contrary to our comforts to alter and change our present condition Death takes away our life and plucks away our comfort and dis-inherits us of all these outward things how soon doth Death lay honour in the dust how soon is beauty ecclipsed by deformity our strength laid down by weakness our health overcome by sickness our life overtaken by Death all these may ecclipse our comforts these clouds may soon darken our sun one thing or other every moment is ready to put out our candle to darken our day to cease our life alas what is life but a shadow What is honour but a blast what are the things we do so much pride our selves in they are but as Jonahs Gourd which perisheth in a moment and many times the cause of our sorrow and affliction the loss of them a greater griefe then the want of them this staffe on which we lean will soon be broken a Ship may last for a while but she will sink at the last What is the Wife mans verdict of all things under the Sun he concludes they are all vanity that is not enough they are nothing but vanity that is not enough neither they are nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit things less then nothing then how little is it that we are to expect from them we should provide for a change not only our outward condition is thus changeable but our inward condition too our spiritual comfort is changeable though there is stability in the main yet a Christian meets with many intermissions Beloved if our condition were not changeable I would hold my tongue from exhorting you to provide for a change Secondly as our outward condition is cast upon many changes so when these changes do befal us when they come to strip us of our comfort verily they will put us to it Thou art mistaken thou thinkest thou canst bear a loss or a cross it is not so easie a matter to bear the loss of a Child or a Husband or a Wife or a Father or the loss of a dear friend it is not so easie a thing to bear the loss of an estate as thou thinkest thou shalt find it a hard matter to bear in worldly sorrow we may seem to take courage before affliction comes but when afflictions and trials fall upon us then we are put to it it is with us as with a Ship when the Sun doth shine and the Seas are calm and the Wind fair then she goes on pleasantly in her motion but in a storm all little enough to keep her steady in our easie dayes in our dayes of peace in our calm estate then we can hold up our heads well enough but in our losses and crosses we shall hardly bear up unless the Lord do mightily support us We may observe two sorts of persons in the world some are insensible persons who are like the Rock that nothing can break it who are so hardened that though God do scourge them yet they feel it not though God doth threaten them they fear not though Gods hand be already upon them they regard it not a condition not so much now to be checked as to be deplored To such persons it is all one whether God bless or whether God curse whether he speak by his Word or by his Rod it is all one to them they feel nothing nor fear nothing Secondly there is another sort of persons who are sensible persons sensible of Gods love and sensible of Gods anger they know that God is good and wife that he doth not strike off our comforts from us but upon some special cause Now to stay upon God and to yeeld to the Lord It is the Lord let him do what seems good unto him God doth not deprive me of such a comfort but he sees it best for me Beloved it were good to learn this lesson it will cost thee something in a neer trial to acquit thy self by faith to acquit God and to submit to his chastisement to kiss the rod to judg the sin to bend the soul to better the life this were an excellent lesson to learn in all our trials and afflictions Secondly if great trials may befall great Christiaus and faith is that which will make a man acquit himself in great trials then get faith use faith What faith is I have divers times discovered in this assembly whence it comes from heaven how we may attain it by the word and Prayer but to omit these I say get faith labour for this grace of faith if there were no other reason but this it is able to support us in our dayes of trial it is able to give us comfort in our greatest sorrow this were motive enough to make us labour to get faith the day of trial
being so common and we apt every moment to fall under some trial or other There be four vertues and special effects that faith works in the soul which will inable us to go through great trials and therefore we should labour to get this grace of faith into our souls First faith gets assurance Secondly breeds submittance Thirdly dependance and lastly conveyance First faith gets assurance it can eye God as our God though the storms be very great yet God can quiet it When a man though he sees his outward comfort dead yet Faith sees it in the hand of a living God Faith assures the soul God will put an end to the trial though there be a changeableness in the outward condition yet there is safety in God and setledness in God Though a man may look with a dull eye upon his loss yet if he can look upon God with the eye of faith as his God the absence of a poor creature cannot so much trouble him as the presence of a gracious and a glorious God can comfort and support him Secondly submittance is another effect of faith which faith works in the soul our outward condition is subject to many changes and many times we meet with them and we are hindered in our comforts and naturally we grow impatient and murmur and quarrel with Gods providence but now there is a vertue in faith it fashions the heart and the mind to the condition faith makes a man submit to God in all estates to make us stoop to our burthen it is the Lord saith Eli. 1 Sam. 3. let him do what seems good unto him and in the 39. Psal saith David I was dumb and opened not my mouth because the Lord did it Observe this unbelief makes a man dumb and faith made David dumb Zachary because he beleeved not the word that the Angel spake he was dumb and David because he beleeved the word of the Lord he was dumb unbelief procures dumbness as a judgment from God but faith makes a Christian dumb from complaining it quiets the soul in silence from murmuring against God it doth not make a person dumb as not to pray and to praise God but dumb in complaint Good is the word of the Lord saith Faith A third effect of Faith is dependance it will make a man trust God in frowning dayes though he kill me yet will I trust in him saith Faith we can never lose any outward comfort but Faith can find a better in God though an outward loss may come yet Faith can make it up in God in the want of an outward comfort it will trust God Lord what wait I for saith David truly my hope is in thee Though the Christian estate may be at some time moanful yet at no time it is hopeless A fourth effect that Faith works is conveyance it can convey something to inable the soul to bear it up in all trials as Faith is an active grace to inable the soul to the performance of duty so Faith is a passive grace to strengthen the soul to suffer and bear affliction To you saith the Apostle it is given not only to beleeve but also to suffer for his Name Faith will call in strength enough to bear affliction we see many times a poor Christian by the strength of faith is able to bear a great loss and undergo a great trial God is pleased to exercise a Christian with great affliction but Faith carries the soul along through all remember this Faith bears Gods trials with Gods strength there is a power in Faith which exceeds all outward crosses and losses Faith draws strength from the Promise for there is no cross nor affliction but Faith can find a support in the promise of deliverance Faith makes a man see the affliction as it were come out of the hand of the Lord out of the hand of Mercy Faith can convey comfort to the soul in affliction by making it see the chastisement delivered from the hand of a wise and loving Father that our chastisement is for our profit for our future advantage and that this is sent for our personal good if thou couldest get but a sensible denyal of thy self and by faith see all things measured out by the Lord this would make us with patience take from God what he imposes upon us Faith will make a man conquer himself it will silence all murmuring and make the Soul bear its cross with patience THE PRIVILEDGE OF THE FAITHFUL OR The Joint-Inheritance OF ALL BELIEVERS SERMON XXXIII 1 PET. 3.7 As Heirs together of the grace of life TO let pass all by-passages you have in this Text the priviledge of Women which is the very same with that of Men especially in relation to the greatest priviledge that belongeth to either of them The very priviledge it self as at the first view of the Text may appear to you affordeth a fit Theam for such an occasion as this is which is the solemnization of the Funeral of a Grave pious and prudent Matron who was indeed while she lived a Mother in Israel in the Church of God who in her life-time testified much love to the Saints of God and in that respect I may say deserved now she is taken away this respect of Gods Saints and Children which by you is now shewed to her in accompanying her to her bed of rest The forenamed words of my Text doth branch it self forth into two parts One setteth out the priviledge it self The other the partakers thereof The Priviledge therein you may observe two points First the kind of it Life Secondly the ground of it grace The partakers of this priviledge are set forth in a compounded Article Joynt-heirs Co-heirs heirs together having relation to Women The simple consideration of the Word shews the right they have to the forenamed priviledge they are heirs The compound shews the extent of it Co-heirs one with another Men and Women heirs together of the grace of life That yet you may a little more distinctly discern the scope of the Apostle in this Text in a word note the inference of it upon that which goeth before or the connection of it therewith Lift up therefore your eyes but a little higher to the words going before and you may observe the Apostle giving a direction to men to honour Women notwithstanding they are the weaker vessels Vessels they are therefore capable of that which God shall be pleased to infuse into them his grace they are weak vessels so are men also they are earthen vessels these are the weaker these comparatively may be said to be as glassie vessels and yet notwithstanding you have a common saying that a glass with good keeping may last as long as an earthen Pot but both brittle Now notwithstanding this Sex be brittle and the weaker yet to be honoured and that upon this ground because partakers with Men and as well as Men of the greatest priviledge the grace of life Were
gift that he doth give and the freeness of it For who can give life but the God of life that hath life in himself And then again to do this altogether upon meer grace upon his own good pleasure it is a divine property And this is it that doth encourage us to come unto God notwithstanding our unworthiness And in this respect in the second place we have here a Use of instruction to acquaint our selves with God with the freeness of his Grace to plead it unto God when we come unto him and notwithstanding our unworthiness and our wretchedness yet to press this Lord what thou dost thou dost for thy own sake out of thy meer grace this makes me bold to come unto thee Specially upon the consideration of that greatest evidence of Gods free grace and rich mercy in giving his Son to do whatsoever is requisite for the satisfaction of his Justice so that here Grace Justice do sweetly go together for the strengthening of our Faith Grace in regard of our unworthiness Justice in regard of our rebellion God doth what he doth for his own sake his own Son hath made full satisfaction to his Justice And finally this should the more enlarge the heart to God again a gift the freer it is the more worthy of praise it must needs be the more acceptable to him that receiveth it when he receiveth it from meer Grace and he that giveth it is thereby the more worthy of praise so that lay these two together life and the grace of life and then tell me what sufficient thanks can be given to him who out of his Grace doth bestow this life Thus from the priviledge in the second part thereof come we to the partakers of this priviledge And first of the simple consideration of it Heirs so that we come to a right unto that eternal life by inheritance as we are Heirs So do the Texts before-noted expresly set it forth We are justified by his grace that we should be heirs of eternal life Tit. 3.7 And Saint Paul giveth thanks to God for the Collossians that he had made them partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light And our Lord when he doth give us possession hereof inducts us thereunto with this inherit the Kingdom prepared for you Mat. 25.34 take it by inheritance here is your right Now we may not think that this ground of right to our eternal inheritance cometh by our natural generation for so we are heirs and children of wrath as the Apostle noteth in Eph. 2.3 It cannot come by nature for so it is Christs prerogative the true proper natural Son of God and thus as the Apostle faith God hath appointed him heir of all things Heb. 1.2 but it is by another grace whereby we are made children A double grace in this respect a grace of Adoption and a grace of Regeneration A grace of Adoption for God giveth to us the spirit of Adoption whereby we are moved to cry and call Abba Father and by this grace we are children and being children we are heirs Co-heirs not only one with another but as it is there noted heirs together with Christ Co-heirs with him by vertue of this grace of Adoption So likewise by the other grace of Regeneration we are qualified hereunto Saint Peter in his first Epistle chap. 1. verse 3. blesseth God Blessed be the God saith he and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again to an inheritance incorruptible c. We are begotten to this inheritance This might again be pressed as a further Argument against the fore-mentioned presumptious Doctrine of Merit that that cometh by Inheritance cometh not by Desert But I pass it over This doth afford to us matter of consolation for this Text is full of consolation every word of it against the baseness whereunto in this world the Saints seem to be subject that are scoffed that are despised howsoever they appear here in mortal mans eye yet notwithstanding in truth they are Heirs they have an Inheritance And as it doth administer to us matter of comfort and a ground of holy boasting and glorying in the Lord so it affordeth to us direction to carry our selves as becometh Heirs not to set our love too much upon this world not to dote upon it but to be lofty minded to have our heart and affection where our inheritance is namely in Heaven to wait with patience for it Be followers of those saith the Apostle that through saith and patience inherit the promise And likewise to make sure to our selves our inheritance look to our evidences Give all diligence saith the Apostle to make your calling and election sure Do but make your Calling sure that you are truly and effectually called then it solloweth by just and necessary consequence you were elected before the foundations of the world and shall be saved Many other Meditations do arise out of this right we have to that life which by Grace is conferred upon us Consider we the extent hereof Heirs together joynt-heirs so as all of all sorts have a right to the life of Saints I speak here of outward conditions whether they be great or mean rich or poor free or bond whatsoever they be they have all a right they are joynt-heirs they are heirs together As it is with us in some places there is a title of Gavil kind that giveth a joynt-right to all the Sons that a man hath and so for Daughters all Daughters are co-heirs so this tenour is as I may say Gavil kind all have a right thereunto no exception of any because God is no respecter of persons This my Brethren serveth as an admonition to those that are great or may seem to be higher than others here in this world if they be Saints let them not despise others who are Saints too they are Co-heirs with them they are fellow-brethren there is not an elder Brother among them Christ only is the Elder Brother There may some have a greater degree of glory there may some have greater evidences thereof in this world and greater assurance yet not withstanding they have all a right to the inheritance they are all Co-heirs And this again is another comfort to the meaner and weaker sort that howsoever there may be some difference in regard of outward condition here yet notwithstanding in the greatest priviledge there is no difference at all and therefore to conclude concerning these and other consolations ministred to you I will use the Apostles words Comfort your selves with these things 1 Thes 4.18 And particularly concerning the Female Sex because the Apostle here applyeth it to them and saith of them as well as of men that they are Heirs Co-heirs of the same inheritance this therefore is to be applyed to them for when the Apostle makes distinction of outward conditions in Gal. 3.28
specially when she was both husband and wife both master and mistris Death making a division between her dear Husband and her self she used to pray her self and those that heard her and have given testimony thereof admired her gifts that way Frequent she was as apeared in her often retiring her self to her Closet in her constant and secret devotion yea also she took occasion of much fasting specially when she heard of the troubles of the Church The cause of the Church much affected her either in matter of rejoycing or griefe she continued it till her dying-day and still her heart was upon the peace of the Church praying for it As thus she exercised her self in this holy manner so she did likewise wonderfully respect those that were the Ministers of God Amongst many others I have heard long ago that worthy Minister before mentioned from whom I have received most of what I have now related speak much of her and of her worthy Husband in this respect The feet of those that brought the glad-tydings of salvation were beautiful to her And as she was careful to testifie her respect to them so she her self gained no little recompence thereby for she was still asking them questions still desiring to have such and such doubts resolved by them As thus her piety was manifested so likewise was her Charity constantly every week giving relief to the Poor ready upon all occasions that she was moved to to open her hands and to open them wide and that again and again not wearied in doing good Sober and grave she was in her carriage and attire and therein a good example to the younger sort And thus she continued even to her dying day full of sweet meditations upon her death-bed my self partaked of some of them Being asked what evidences she had for her salvation she answered good whether she doubted not she replyed no though she were of a tender conscience yet she had laid such a foundation as her faith remained firm She sweetly ended her dayes with prayers of her own with desire of the prayers of Ministers still as they came to her for as she hearkned to and desired the benefit of their counsel when she lived so she desired the comfort of their prayers now in her death thus I say with a sound testimony of her faith and of her good estate she ended her dayes and we may be assured that she is in the Number of those that are Co-heirs of the grace of life I remember the Philosophers make mention of a word which contains in it a kind of collection or combination of all in one I may say of her that the graces and vertues and ornaments of others seemed to be gathered together and to meet in her And so her piety toward God resembleth her to the two pious Hanna's the one the Mother of Samuel the other the Daughter of Phanuel Her charity resembleth her to Dorcas her love to the Ministers of God to the Shunamite that provided a Chamber a Table and a Candlestick for Elisha In her relation to her Husband she shewed her self a true Daughter of Sarah In her relation to her children which she had a Bathsheba and Eunice To others a Priscilla the Wife of Aquila ready to instruct as occasion was offered And so my bretheren she hath shewed her self a follower of those that through faith and patience inherit the Promise It remaineth to us to set such examples before us and to be followers of them as they have been followers of others and as others have been followers of Christ that so walking in their steps we may also be in the number of such as have the comfort of this Text to be Co-heirs of the grace of life which that you may do c. PEACE IN DEATH OR THE QUIET END OF THE RIGHTEOUS SERMON XXXIV LUKE 2.29 Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy Word IN the Text it self to let pass other things you have First a Request and secondly a Reason upon which the Request is grounded Of each of these in order and first of the first The Request The sum whereof is That he may die Whereof is considerable First the disposition of the servants of God in respect of death viz. 1. A desire and longing after it 2. A care to be alwayes ready for it Secondly the warrant or guid of that desire according to thy Word Thirdly the nature and quality of the death of the Righteous a departure in peace Of each of these apart The point that ariseth from the first branch of the first general part viz. the desire and longing of the Saints for their day of death is this that The servants of God have in them a contented comfortable and willing expectation of death The rise of this Observation is obvious enough one spirit works in all Gods servants and brings forth like effects though not alwayes in the same measure that therefore which is true in Simeon which the very first view of the words import that the coming of Death was expected and desired by him is in some degree verified sooner or later in all that are the Lords Hereunto agrees that of Saint Paul I desire faith he to be dissolved c. And he averrs the same of all true beleevers viz. that they groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with their house which is from Heaven and that they are willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 c. The foundation of this desire is the knowledg and right understanding of the truth of that speech of Solomon to wit that the day of death is better then the day of a mans birth They have learned to know that the day of death to Gods servants is the day of freedome from all miseries and of entrance into eternal happiness The miseries of this life which even the best are subject unto are many Loss of goods loss of credit loss of friends aches pains diseases severs consumptions c. bondage under original corruption and the fruits thereof as unbelief pride of heart ignorance covetousness distrustfulness hatred lust c. the buffetings and temtations of Satan society with the wicked all these miseries even the Holiest and dearest servants of God are exercised with and divers of these do make them many times mourn exceedingly and to cry one while O wretched man that I am and to groan out another while Woe is me that I am constrained to live in Mesech and to have my habitation in the tents of Kedar of all these miseries Death is the end to Gods servants And so also it is an entrance into happiness for albeit their bodies rot in the Grave and be laid up in the Earth as in Gods store-house untill the last day yet the soul forthwith even in an instant comes into the presence of the ever-living God of Christ and of
that are such as I have now said think in your consciences what would you die if God should now stop your breath and ascite you by Death presently to appear before his Majesty being thus full of ignorance of security of presumption of unsanctified of vicious of malicious of covetous thoughts could you find in your hearts to say Lord now let us depart Sure we could not but Death must needs be to us as it is said to be to the wicked Rex terrorum the King of terrours if it should come upon us and find us in this case And yet what know we how soon how suddenly we may be overtaken some of us drop away daily some young some old some lie sick longer some lesser time and how soon it will be our turn we cannot tell Our hreath is in our nostrills we are all as grass If the breath of the Lord blow upon us we do suddenly wither as the slower of the field and return again to our first Earth Why will we not labour to be now ready sith it may be alwayes truly said We may now depart either while we are here or in our way home or in our beds or at our meat Who can truly say to himself I am sure I shall not die this hour It may be now thou wilt demand of me What shall I do that I may be ready To insist upon particulars would be too long onely therefore in a word The best preparation for death is a reformed life He that lives religiously cannot but die preparedly And it is a thousand to one if a wicked liver make a gracious end The Scripture makes mention of a double Death and so likewise of a twofold Resurrection the first Death is the death of the body which is the separation of it from the soul The second death is of the soul which is the separation of it from God The first Resurrection is the rising from the Death of sin to a new life the second is that which shall be of the body out of the Grave at the day of Judgment Now what faith the Scripture Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no power Wouldest thou then be freed from the second Death hell destruction when thou art dead Now that thou art yet alive labour to have a part in the first Resurrection Note what Saint Paul faith of the wanton widdow that she is dead whilst she lives So he that lives in the pleasures of sin and in the wayes of his own heart and after his own lust he is dead in soul though he be alive in body and if he seek not to come out of this grave eternal death shall be his portion Well then wouldest thou prepare for Death wouldest thou be able alwayes to say Lord now now I am ready labour to know God out of his Word that is eternal life Labour to feel Christ live and raign in thee by his Spirit labour to renounce every sin do not go on in any known sin against conscience renew thy repentance daily and still survey the state of thy soul that wickedness may not get dominion over thee Let Death come when it will though the Lord should so visit thee that thou shouldest drop down suddenly yet it shall not find thee unprepared thou hast a part in the first Resurrection there is no fear of the second Death But if thou wilt cherish thy heart in evil thou wilt go on in thy ignorance in thy careless worship of God in thy prophaning the Sabbath in thy whoredom oppression malice drunkenness excess voluptuousness thou makest ready for hell and it is not thy Lord save me or I cry God mercy c. that shall serve thy turn I will tell thee who thou art like unto even to a man appointed after a year or two to be burned and in the mean space must carry a stick daily to the heap so thou heapest up wrath against thy self and makest thy score so great that when Death comes thou shalt not know how to be prepared And thus have I finished the first general part of my Text touching the disposition of the godly in respect of Death I proceed now in a word to the second the ground rule or warrant of this desire and preparation for death according to the word as if Simeon had said this desire that I have now to end my dayes proceeds not from any carnal discontentment because I am now old and can take no great comfort in worldly things but the ground of it is thy word and Promise thou Lord hast revealed unto thy servant that I should not die before I had seen my Saviour This word is now fulfilled and the sweetness thereof hath given me that encouragement that I do even long to be dissolved and to be united unto thee Or again thus Oh Lord this care that I have had to provide thus for Death and to be alwayes in a readiness it hath not come from my self nature never taught it me but thy Word hath instructed me If I had not proceeded according to thy Word I should never have known how to have prepared my self to the time of dissolution This is the meaning of the words and so the Doctrine is plain viz. that Men ignorant in Gods word can never take comfort in death nor be truly prepared to undergo it This is plain if we consider the Exposition which I have already given of that part of Simeons speech It is a general Rule that of our Saviour Ye err not knowing the Scripture A man ignorant in the Scripture can never rightly perform any spiritual duty Hence was that of David Thy testimonies faith he are my delight and my counsellors If any matter came in hand that concerned his soul straight to the word of God went he to know thence how to do it as a man for his Lease or conveyance goeth to a Counsellor for direction So again he confesses that if Gods Law had not been his delight he should have perished in his afflictions And so no comfort no true quiet in any trouble much more at Death without the guidance and information of the Word The assurance that the sting of Death is plucked out that Gods wrath is appeased that sin is pardoned that Heaven gate is opened whence shall we fetch these but from the Scripture the directions for a holy life which is the best preparation for Death where shall we find them but in the Scripture Here then we see is a Caveat to all that have no will nor desire to be acquainted with the Scripture Divers think they should have done well enough though we had no such Book as we call the word of God To be a Scripture-man is a by-word a reproach a matter of disgrace and sooner will men listen to some idle Pamphlet then to a matter of Scripture Well beguile
not your souls with these vain conceits with your Popish and carnal imaginations I say and testifie from this place that that man or woman which careth not to be taught out of Gods book cannot die like a Christian Who can teach thee the way to die well but God And where doth God teach but in the Scripture If our thoughts of Death if our provision and preparation for Death be not warranted and guided by Gods word it is all in vain Lord faith Simeon my desire of dissolution is according to thy Word my care to be prepared hath been ordered by thy Word he cannot die with comfort that cannot make the like profession And this may serve for the next general part the ground of this desire and preparation for Death it is Gods word Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart according to thy Word The third and last part follows the nature and quality of the death of the Righteous A departure in peace or a peaceable dismission Here are two things first a dismission secondly a dismission accompauied with peace The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated Let thy servant depart may well be Englished thus let thy servant loose Lord free me enlarge me set me at liberty Hence we learn that The servants of God do by Death receive a final discarge from all manner of misery This is evident out of the force of the phrase here used Simeon knew that so long as he lived his soul was as it were imprisoned in his body and in it he was held in bondage under the remnants of Original corruption subject to the assaults and temptation of Satan in continual and daily possibility to trespass and sin against Cod beside other afflictions and grievances in the body and estate but he had withal this knowledge and understanding of the nature of Death that it was an enlargement to the soul and a freeing of it utterly and finally from all those and the like incumbrances The same may be gathered from the phrase used by Saint Raul I desire faith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be dissolved and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read the time of my departure the words shew that there coms a liberty by death to the souls of Gods servants The phrase that Saint Peter useth is worthy our observation for this purpose First he terms death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the laying down of a burden and by that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the laying down of a burden and by that means the soul is lightned and eased Secondly he terms it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a going out from a place and condition of hardship The second book of Moses which relates the dyparture of the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage hath the same name Exodus As for the point it self namely that the death of the Righteous is to them a discharge from all misery the Scripture bears witness to it Blessed said he are the dead which die in the Lord even so faith the spirit that they may rest from their labours As long as they live here they are diversly troubled when they die their labours are at an end and they are received into rest Saint John tels us that in his vision he saw the souls of them that were slain lye under the Alter Now the Alter in the time of the law was a place of resuge and safety and thence it appears that by death the servants of God are est-soons received into a place of holy security where there is no expectation of any further misery They are said to be received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into Abrahams bosome into the fellowship of the same happiness with Abraham the Father of all true believers The Doctrine in the first place makes against those of the Church of Rome which maintain a place of torment even for the servants of God after this life where they must be tryed for a time before they can enter into Rest and happiness This place they term Purgatory the torment here they hold to be unspeakable far surpassing any torment which the wit of man is able to devise But this place among others is sufficient to overthrow this dotage for how were death to the Righteous a dismission a loosing a freedom from misery if there followed after it a torment of far greater extremity then at any time before was ever tasted of So that the death of the servants of God being as I have proved it to be an enlargment from misery certainly the soul is not bound in any new Prison whence it must expect and wait and pray for a second dismission In the next place this Doctrine makes much for the comfort of Gods servants the face of Death to the wicked is very dreadful the day of it is to them the beginning of sorrows their souls are instantly arrested by the damned spirits and kept in everlasting chains of darkness but to those that are the servants of God it is otherwise I may by way of allusion to the phrase of my Text compare their day unto that which happened unto Joseph in which he was brought out of prison to be Ruler over all the land of Egypt So is their death unto them a day of Bailment out of prison a day in which all tears shall be wiped away In which they shall have beauty for ashes and the oyl of gladness for the spirit of heaviness and the long white robes of Christs Rightcousness by which they shall be presented blameless unto God That day shall be to them even as was the day of escape to the Jewes a feast and a good day in which they shall see God as he is and know him as they are known of him But happily thou maist say how shall I know that the day of Death is the day of dissolution and this kind of dismission A very necessary quaere indeed this is for every man almost is ready to challenge to himself a part of this happiness and it is a matter presumed upon by many which shall never enjoy it I will therefore give you one certain mark by which we may know assuredly that the day of our death shall be to us a day of enlargment and of final discharge from all both former and following miseries and that is this if in the time of our life here our being subject to corruption and sin hath seemed unto us the greatest burden and bondage They which have groaned and mourned under their own natural corruptions as it were under some heavy and tyrannous yoak or as the Israelites mourned under their Egyptian Task-masters to them only shall the day of death be a day of freedome If sin be not a burden to thee if thou dost not many times lament and even mourn to think how thou art carried captive unto evil if thou dost not with griese feel how thou art clogged with corruption
troublesome thoughts no perplexed motions shall we say that these were good men because they seem to go away in peace It is true indeed it is the common opinion Doth a man lye quietly hath he his memory to the end died he like a Lamb surely then he is gone to heaven but this is an absurd collection for First sometime this outward calmness is an ordinary consequent of some diseases as Consumptions and such like by which Nature being formerly weakned hath not power left to make resistance Secondly this outward calmness is no argument of a peaceable and quiet soul The Psalmist tells us of the wicked in whose death there are no bands Thirdly we must distinguish between security and peace betwixt carnal senssesness and true spiritual quietness Nabals death was quiet enough yet he were but a fool that would adventure his soul with Nabals I see many ignorant persons many of heathenish and brutish comversation very quiet in sickness without any fear of hell and judgment to come making no doubts casting no perils asking no questions complaining of no sins and so away they go without any more adoe What shall I say that these died in true peace God forbid No when I compare together their ignorant secure benummed hardned kind of life with their sensless and drowsie kind of death I must say that these are fearful signs these things argue that the Devil had quiet possession where he made so small a doe Thus then notwithstanding these Objections I will conclude that a peaceful death is the peculiar and individed priviledge of Gods servants However it be yet I know saith Solomon that it shall go well with those that fear the Lord but there is no peace to the wicked saith my God We may make Use of this first to be a trial betwixt our Religion and the Romish for from this Doctrine I avouch that Religion to be no true Religion because a Papist by the Rules of his own Religion can never die in peace This is a hard saying thou maist object or how can I make it good I answer by two reasons First every Papist is taught to beleeve under pain of Anathema and the great curse that whosoever dieth if he have not in this life attained to perfection and throughly purged himself from the remainders of sin by works of satisfaction his soul must after-death go into Purgatory and there continue untill he hath made a full satisfaction now the pain of Purgatory is held for the time to be as great as the pains of hell differing only in this that it is not perpetual Now I would fain know how can a man die comfortably and in peace and with a joyful heart when he thinks with himself that albeit perhaps after some years he shall go to heaven yet in the mean space his soul must go into such a place of unspeakable torment where if the matter be not well plyed by the prayers of them that are alive and by well seeing the Priests they may hap to lie for many years I say how can the Doctrine of Popery beget a peaceful death when it teacheth an expectation of such an hellish Purgatory Secondly every Papist as he is bound of a certain to beleeve a Purgatory so further must he beleeve that he cannot in this life be assured of salvation otherwise then by a kind of confused hope which may deceive him Now he which by the witness of his own conscience is sure that he hath deserved hell and cannot attain to any certainty of discharge what comfort can such an one have to die he knows that when he is dead he must come to his account before God but yet can have no assurance that the Lord will acquit him in Christ Jesus I wish that this may seriously be considered by us for the establishing of us in the truth of Religion I say again and testifie these reasons which I have alledged being weighed that a Rapist by his own doctrine can never expect that which Simeon did a departure hence in peace He knows he must to torment he is caught that he cannot know in this world that God will pardon him In the next place let us come neerer home to our selves that we must all die nothing more certaine Dust thou art and to dust thoushalt return God hath decreed it and it cannot be revoked if our end be not peaceable our estate after cannot be happy Let our care then be spent about this one point how one may attain to this to end our dayes in peace I doubt not but we will all be ready to say we hope so to do but this is nothing for when the wicked man dieth his expectation perisheth What becomes of the hope of the Hypocrite said Job when God takes away his soul But what course then shall we take that we may finish our course with joy I will tell thee in few words I touched it a little before the best means for a peaceable departure is a godly and religious life I have fought the good fight saith Saint Paul and he could comfortably from thence infer that therefore there was laid up for him a crown of righteousness It was Christs own inference I have glorified thee on earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do and therefore now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self The reason of it is first Gods promise blessed shall be the undefiled in the way Those that honour me I will honour said God Now this promise God will not break He that goeth this way though it be with much weakness with many falls with sundry imperfections with divers wandrings yet he cannot miss of the promised peace Secondly life eternal hath three degrees the first is in this life when a man repenteth and beleeveth and is purged from dead works to serve the living God The second is in death when the body goes to earth and the spirit returns to him that gave it The third is at the last judgment These three degrees hang together like three links the second followeth the first and the third the two former the last cannot be hoped for where the first is wanting for except ye repent ye shall all perish The first being obtained the last must needs ensue for he is faithful that hath promised So then wouldest thou have peace in death labour for grace in thy life wouldest thou end thy dayes happily make conscience to spend them holily A godlesse man that lives in sin may die senslesly or sullenly he cannot die peaceably Oh consider this all ye that forget God that spend your dayes in vanity and your years according to the lusts of your own heart that have hitherto hated to be reformed and will not be reclaimed from your former fashions but live yet still as you were wont to do Think a little with me of your last end which how neer
and yet there is none of his coming Wilt thou still retain thine integrity right Jobs Wife as she speaks to him wilt thou still retain thy trust to what purpose is it It is in vain to serve the Lord as those wicked ones speak in Malachy Now if Hope will come in and say notwithstanding all these things yet pass by bad report and good report be of Davids mind I will yet be more vile before the Lord that chose me before thee and thy fathers house and I will stand it out notwithstanding all the mockings of men Here is a manifest sign that there is Hope Thus you may seek to find this grace in your selves and you shall find it by many such kind of assaults as these which Faith meeteth withall Now as you are to find it so you are to fight against the hindrances of this Hope And the hindrances of a mans hope are sometimes slavish fear sometimes an impatient spirit and sometimes even Death it self and that is a tedious affront indeed that Hope meeteth withall First Fear a kind of passion and perturbation of the spirit of a man that makes his grief begin before his affliction comes upon him this same Fear hath a great deal of painfulness in it Where the fearful are they are shut our with the unfaithful and without shall be dogs with those that are subject to this fearfulness Now Hope cometh to a man and faith Though I sometime be afraid yet put I my trust in God and therefore I will not fear what man can do unto me I will not be danted with any kind of slavish terrour Hold out thou that faist thou hast faith and be not afraid of the Arrow that flies by day nor of the terrour by night Here is the hindrance of this hope taken away Then there is an impatient spirit that many times possesseth men An impatient spirit and a hopeful heart they are both as contrary as can be You shall have many a man so touchy that he cannot endure any delay he must have things come according to his own mind or he loseth his patience presently Oh but I will patiently wait for the Lord saith hope And here is the opposition that must be made for the maintenance of this hope against all kind of impatiency In patience possesse your souls The last hindrance is death The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death We have many enemies in this world our very life is a warfare but amongst all the fightings and combates we meet with in the world there is none comparable to this last single combate we must undergo with death it self this is a terrible assault that betideth the hopeful faithful man to know that notwithstanding all his faith and all his hope and all his love and all his patience what grace or vertue soever he hath else yet not withstanding he must go down to the grave make his bed in the darkness and lie down in the dust and when he hath fought all that he can yet not withstanding he must down he must yeeld he must take the foyl the fall in the body howsoever the soul escapeth Now here is a kind of dismaidment of hope But I will tell you how it is spoken of the faithful and so of the hopeful The faithful are said to endure as seeing him that is invisible how do they endure by the supply of hope for this hope is it that makes the faithful against all hindrances to fight it out so as that they would not be delivered as it is spoken in the Epistle to the Hebrews And shall death separate us from that we hope for No faith the hopeful man it shall not Yea so far he is from being unwilling to submit himself to this way as knowing it to be the way whereby he cometh to that he hopeth for as that he is very ready and greedy of death it is the way to that I hope for saith he therefore it is sweely spoken of an Ancient and you will acknowledge it to be a sweet sentence of that Father Saint Austin He that desireth to be dissolved according to that of the Apostle and to be with Christ Non patienter moritur He doth not die patiently See here is a faithful a hopeful man and yet doth not die patiently what would the Father say He liveth saith he patiently the very life he liveth putteth him to his patience when he cometh to die he dyeth pleasantly he goeth away with his hope and his hope is full of immortality And no more for that point The next thing I observe is concerning the Object of this hope and this is it that Christ is Object of the Christians hope We have hope in Christ Hear it in the general hear it in the speciall In the general 1. Tim. 1.1 Saint Paul he beginneth his Epistle with Christ our hope Col. 1.27 The riches of the mystery of Gods grace to the Gentiles is Christ in you the hope of glory Here is Christ our hope and Christ your hope in the general In the special hear it in Saint Paul hear it in the prophets and others Saint Paul to me to live is Christ to die is gain Christ is to me in life and death advantage living or dying I am Christs I have hoped in the Lord faith the Prophet David And God is my hope and hath been my help even from my youth This is the general song of the whole Church God is our hope and therefore the Prophet Jacob made an excellent Ejaculation in those blessings he gave his sons when he said Oh Lord I have waited for thy salvation Here was his waiting his hope for the salvation of God from the God of his salvation And so let him slay me if he will saith holy Job yet not withstanding I will still trust in him Thus the faithful have hope and their hope is in Christ No more of it for the enlargement of it It sheweth to us in the first place this Note that A Christians wings do mount him above all means What are his wings his hope Whither slyeth his hope It takes its flight up to heaven to God to the right hand of God to Christ there is his hope So then he that hath this hope being poor he flyeth not to riches for they make themselves wings and fly away from him Being weak he flyeth not to the arm of flesh for in man there is no hope nor no confidence to be put in Princes in the Ballance they are lighter then vanity it self faith the Psalmist Being sick he flyeth not to the Physitian he fleeth to these as the means not to rest in them to make it the main of his aim the scope of his hope he doth not fly thus to them but he goeth to God that commandeth all that worketh above all against all and without all
give him the honour of the greatest Worthy and noblest Conquerour that ever the World saw Cyrus and Alexander and Caesar were no way to be compared to him for they subdued but mortal enemies he immortal they bodily he ghostly they with great Armies and power of men but he alone they when they were alive and in their full strength and vigour but he at the hour of his death and afterwards I conclude therfore with Saint Jerome his insultation over Death and thanksgiving to the Lord of life O death thou didst bite and wert bitten thou didst devour and art now devoured by him whom for a time thou didst devour by his death thou art ssain by his death we live everlastingly thanks be rendred unto thee O Saviour who hast subdued so powerful an adversary and put him to death by thy death and passion The Ethiopians as Herodotus relateth made Sepulchres of glass for after they have dryed the corps they artificially paint it set it in a glazed Coffin that all that pass by may see the lineaments of the dead body but surely they deserve better of the dead and more benefit the living who draw the lineaments of their mind and represent their vertues and graces in a Mirrour of Art for I am not of their judgment among us who properly and deservedly are called Precisians because out of the purity of their precise zeal it a praecidunt they so neer pair the nails of Romish superstition that they make the fingers bleed who out of fear of praying forsooth for the dead or invocating them are shie of speaking any word of them or sending after them their deserved commendations for it is piety to honour God in his Saints it is justice suum cuique tribure to give every one his due it is charity to propose eminent examples of heavenly graces and vertues shining in the dead for the imitation of the living Such jewels ought not to be locked up in a Coffin as in a Casket but to be set out to the view of all and surely they deserve better of the dead who set a garland of deserved praises on their life then they who stick their Hearse full with flowers Tapers made of pure wax burn clearly and after they are blown out leave a sweet savour behind them so the servants of Christ who have caused their light so to shine before men that they may see their works and glorisie their Father which is in Heaven leave a good name like a sweet smell behind them and why may we not blow it abroad by our breath Deo Patri c. The rest concerning the life and death of the party is lost Vox Coeli OR THE DEADS HERAULD SERMON XLV APOC. 14.13 And I heard a voyce from Heaven saying unto me write blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth c. VBi Vulnus ibi manus From whence we took our Wound from thence we receive the Cure a voice from Heaven struck all the living dead saying All flesh is grass and the glory or goodliness of it is as the flower of the field The grass withereth c. But here a voice from Heaven maketh all whole again and representeth all the dead in the Lord living yea and flourishing too saying Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord. To give a touch at the Wound that the smart thereof may make the sense of the cure more delightful Omnis caro foenum omnis homo flos All flesh is grass and every man is a flower There is difference in grass some is longer and some is shorter so some men are longer lived some shorter some grass shooteth up with one leaf some with three some with five or more so some men have more in their Retinue some fewer some none at all Some grass withereth before it is cut as the grass on the house-top some is cut before it withereth as the grass of the field so some men decay before the Sythe of Death cuts them all other after Likewise there is a great difference among flowers 1. Some are for sight only not for the smell or any vertue in medicines as Tulips Emims and Crown Emperials 2. Some for sight and smell but of no use in Medicines as Sweet-williams the painted Lady and July-flowers generally 3. Some are both for sight and smell and of singular use in Medicines as Roses and Violets So some men are of better parts and greater use in the Church and Common-wealth others of less Some flowers grow in the field some in the garden so some mens lives and imployments are publike others private Some flowers are put in Posies some in Garlands some are cast into the Still so some men are better preferred them others and some live and die in obscurity Lastly some flowers presently lose their colour and scent as the Narcissus some keep them both long as the red Rose So some men continue longer in their bloom grace and favour others for a short time but all-fade and within a while are either gathered cut down or withered of themselves and die And for this reason it is as I conceived that we stick hearbs and flowers on the Hearse of the dead to signifie that as we commit earth to earth and ashes to ashes so we put grass to grass and flowers to flowers For omnis caro foenum All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field the grass withereth and the flower fadeth away But the comfort is in that which followeth But the word of the Lord endureth for ever and this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you Whereof this verse which I have read unto you for my Text is part Which Saint John inferreth as a conclusion or corrolary upon the conclusion of the Saints and Martyrs lives this conclusion is inferred upon two premises 1 The end of their labours 2 The reward of their work The Syllogisme may be thus formed All they who are come to an end of their labour and have received liberally for their work or are paid well for their pains are happy But all the dead that die in the Lord are come to an end of their labour for they rests rom their labours and receive liberally for their works follow them Ergo all the dead that die in the Lord are happy As in other Texts so in this we may borrow much light from the occasion of the speech which here was this Saint John having related in a vision a fearful persecution to falt in the latter times whereby the earth should be reaped and the Saints mowen like grass and true beleevers like grapes pressed in such sort that their blood should come out of the wine-press even to the horse bellies breaketh into an Epiphonema verse 12. here is the patience of the Saints that is here is matter for their patience and faith to work upon Here is
telleth us that as the Spirit and the Bride say come so he that heareth saith come that is not only the Church of God that is now present here upon the face of the earth but the successive parts of the Church in all future Ages they are all of the same mind having received the same Spirit they all say come Whosoever heareth this Prophesie whosoever heareth of these promises in any Age or Country of the World all they having the same spirit they must needs say come he that heareth saith come he that is acquainted with the promises that cometh to the knowledge of them and doth mingle them with the faith of his soul this man must needs say come to the accomplishment of them And lastly He that is a thirst saith come too that is whosoever hath tasted of the sweetness of Christ in any measure whatsoever and thereby hath wrought in him a vehement thirst after more this man will say come Whosoever hath such a sense of Christ in his promises as to taste of the sweetness of these never so little as he that hath tasted a drop of hony wisheth for more so he that hath tasted of the sweetness of Christ a drop of his grace and mercy this setteth upon his spirit a heavenly thirst he saith come he would have more he is never quiet till he have the promise accomplished to him These are the persons every particular member of the Church that hath the Spirit the whole Church in general not only the particular part of the Church now in the World or in any Age but the several parts of the Church in several Ages whosoever is a thirst that hath tasted of Christ must needs say come Even so come Lord Jesus These are the persons The second thing is the matter of this acclamation of the Church First the matter contained in it it is a vehement and earnest desire of the people of God after Christs most happy return in these words Amen even so come Lord Jesus The matter of it therefore is either infolded and implicite in the word Amen even so or unfolded and explicite in the latter words Come Lord Jesus It is infolded I say in the word Amen This word signifieth in the Scripture either the Author of the truth himself or else it is an affirmation of the truth In the Revelation thus saith the Amen the faithful and true witness here Christ himself is called Amen because he is the Author of all truth and verity the faithful and true witness Sometime this word is used and most frequently in Scripture for the affirmation of the truth either witnessing of the truth or wishing the truth For the witnessing of the truth as in all those vehement speeches of our Lord and Saviour Christ Amen Amen I say unto ye or verily verily I say unto ye this is a vehement asseveration and a witnessing to the truth which a man ought to believe or would have to be believed Or otherwise for a wishing and earnest desiring of the truth to be accomplished So in the conclusion of the Lords prayer and all our prayers we add this word Amen that is so be it or Let it be so we wish it with earnestness of affection and desire and with a confidence and faith of our hearts we hope and believe that this shall be so This is that we profess when we say Amen In this place this word is used both for affirmation and witnessing of the truth and likewise it is a vehement wish and desire of the accomplishment of these promises with an earnest and certain hope and expectation of faith that all these promises and good things shall be accomplished to the soul of a Christian Again the matter of this Acclamation is unfolded and explained in the latter words Come Lord Jesus Where there is both the Action and the person to be considered The Action Come Christ cometh to his Church many wayes He cometh in his Word He cometh in his Spirit He cometh in his mercies He cometh in his Judgments and Justice None of these are here meant But he cometh to his Church in person and appearance even in the appearance of his body and humane nature Thus Christ cometh two wayes to his Church in person First in his Incarnation he appeareth to the world in the similitude of sinful flesh he came in humility he came to suffer to die That is not here meant for that was past when as the Evangelist Saint John wrote this prophesie But the Second coming in person of our Lord and Saviour Christ is his coming in the flesh in glory in exaltation to judge the quick and the dead to shew himself a mighty God from heaven This is the coming which is here meant Christs second coming to Judgment in glory That is the Action The person is described by these two Titles Lord Jesus Wherein the Church desireth that he may come both as a Lord and as a Jesus That he may come as a Lord to vindicate the Church and revenge him upon his enemies to destroy the kingdome of darkness the kingdome of the Devil the kingdome of Antichrist which hath been a great argument in this book of the Revelation And not only come thus as a Lord but as a Jesus to save his Church to vouchsafe to her comfort and peace and joy that he would come to cloath her with immortality and glory which she cannot expect on earth in a mortal state This is the sum and substance of this Petition and request that the Lord would come in majesty and glory both as a Lord against the enemies of the Church to destroy them utterly and as a Saviour to bestow upon the Church even all saving mercies especially that great mercy of everlasting blessedness that is not mixed with sin and corruption that is not mixed with any infirmity and defect whatsoever This is the sum and substance of the Text which I have in few words shortly explained to ye Whence the point I observe wherein we will insist by the grace of God at this time is this That it is the nature and property of every true member of the Church of God earnestly and longingly to desire the second coming of Christ for the full redemption of his Church The Spirit saith Come and the Bride saith Come and whosoever heareth saith Come whosoever is a thirst saith Come therefore every godly man that hath the Spirit of God that is a part of this Bride that is partaker of those promises that hath a caste of Jesus Christ every one of these must necessarily say Come Even so Come Lord Jesus This is so proper to believers and to every one of them as they are all of them described by this property in Scripture 2 Tim. 4.8 The Crown which the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not only to me but to all them that love his appearing The Apostle he might have said to all saints
us as proportionable to our extraction God knoweth that the Angels are not Dust and therefore he may justly expect from them and require of them to serve him in altitudinibus in height of performance having a fourfold advantage above men by their very origination First the Angels are incorporeal who can act quicker then I can think My sluggish imagination cannot keep pace with their performances It was but a Poetick fiction that the Spanish gennets were conceived of the Wind. But it is a Theological truth Heb. 1.7 He maketh his Angels Spirits and his Ministers a flaming fire Whereas we poor men do drale and drag a cumbersome corps about us which much hindereth us in all our devotions Secondly Angels have no flesh and we have flesh this will some say interferreth with the former Oh no. Our Saviour had a body and that a real one but no flesh in this sence that is no relique and remnant of original corruption whereas we have both body and flesh too in the worst acception of the latter This Esquire of our body as I may call it is over officious in his dayly attendance so that whilst the Wind of Gods Spirit bloweth us one way the tide of our corruption hurrieth us another way a mischeif from which Angels are secured by their nature Thirdly Angels have no World to tempt them We live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the middle of Snares so bad that we should not look upon them but so common that we can hardly look beside them Fourthly and lastly Angels are free from any Devil effectually to tempt them should Satan indeavour he could not accomplish it The match cannot be lighted where there is no tinder to take fire Whereas such our corruption it is quickly enflamed with Satans temptations Angels having thus a fourfold advantage above men and seeing they Psal 103.20 Excell in strength whilst we poor mortals exceed in weakness God will expect from us service sutable to the mean matter we are made of and in his accounting with us will give us grains of allowance make favourable abatements and accept of proportionable defalcations remembring that we are but Dust Let me hear make a supposition not only seasable in it self but which de facto we see dayly performed suppose a man had two Sons the one grown to the full strength and stature of a man the other which usually happeneth by the same venter an infant which hath newly learned the method of going alone Suppose further that the Father at the same time commandeth them both to come to him and bring with them somewhat proportionable to their strength in obedience whereunto the man-son bringeth a Beam or Log on his shoulders The Child-son cometh also and what doth he bring with him It is very well if he bringeth himself for every step he stirreth he ventureth a stumbling if not a falling but what if also over and above himself he bringeth a straw or reed in his hand I appeal to you who are Parents of Children others being but incompetent judges of the case in hand to you I say who have paternal affection resident in your breasts and maternal legure in your bosomes whether you would not take it in as good part a reed of your Child-son as a Beam of your Man-sons bringing I trough you would Have earthly Fathers who are but parcel-pittiful such a Court of Chancery in their hearts and shall not God whose mercy is over all his works exceed us in all bowels of compassion God I say who may be said to have two forts of Sons Angels already arrived at their full strength and perfection In the laws of England the Kings eldest Son as Duke of Cornwel was presumed to be to all legal intents and purposes of full Age on the first day of his Nativity sure I am that Angels at the very instant of their creation were out of their non-age and in full maturity whilst men during their living in this life are still in their minority Until Ephes 4.13 we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledg of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ and therefore God will dispence with our dusty performance remembring that we are but Dust However none can without manifest usurpation entitle themselves to the least share in this Use of comfort if the connection of Davids words whereon they are founded be seriously considered Psal 103.13 14. Like as a Father pittieth his Children so the Lord pittieth them that fear him For be knoweth our frame he remembreth that we are dust See here God only reflecteth with favours on the dusty extraction of those that fear him and no others Therefore let no prophane person suck poyson out of the sweet flower of our comfortable use and dispose himself to leudness or at the best laziness in Gods service presuming that God knowing his Original of Dust will therefore accept of his as of but dusty performance Here let me distinguish betwixt dusty and Dung-hil serving of God Dusty serving of him is when men endeavours to the utmost strength of their weakness to serve him when they present him as Jacob did unknown Joseph Gen. 43.11 with the best and those God knowes but had fruit of our Land in our vessels doing all in sincerity which is Gospel perfection and the mean time confessing of groaning for and fighting against those many corruptions and more imperfections which cleave unto their most perfect performances This is Dusty serving of God Dung-hil serving of him is which proceedeth from persons Dead in Trespasses and sins Ephes 2.1 sending forth the same savour in the nostrills of the God of Heaven with Lazarus when he had been three dayes buried John the 11.39 And although such actions may appear spetious to the beholders yea and breath forth no bad sent at all to wicked men in the same condition one rotten corps is not offensive to an other yet as dead flies cause Eccles 10.1 Ointment of Apothecary to send forth an ill savour so Hypochricy appendant to such actions rendereth them noisom to that infinite being who is Emunclissiminaris most exact and critical in his smelling This is Dung-hill serving of God most odious unto him and therefore the Godly do detest and abhor it whilst they only grieve and bemoan at their dusty service of God which notwithstanding if qualified as formerly stated is acceptable in Jesus Christ Come we now to the Mark to which we all run and unto dust shalt thou return Whence we observe this Doctrine All humane art cannot preserve a corps from final returning to dust I say final although for a time it may repreive the same from being pulverized Far be it from me dispitefully to decoy the ingenious indeavours and they be but endeavours of any in Chyrurgery I will not add any to my ignorance in that mistery yet I say Art must cry craven in
wounded afresh with some gross act of sin this made David afraid yea to roar out and to make a noyse through the disquietness of his spirit Psal 38.8 Psal 55.2 and under that state of soul to begg earnestly to be spared that he might recover strength in Gods favour before he went hence and was no more Psal 39.13 or else when the Lord shall for divers ends and reasons surcharge the soul and conscience with the sins of youth for which perhaps men have not as became them been sufficiently humbled thus dealt he even with his servant Job writing bitter things against him Job 13.26 see also Job 16.4 But out of those cases it is proprium quarto medo onely the Saints love it all such love it and alwayes and no marvaile sith by this second coming and appearance of Christ in the day of the last Judement they receive very great and inestimable benefits such as are final Redemption of the Body from corruption Rom. 8.23 Freedom from the society of the wicked which here afflict the godly by their violation of Gods Law and Precepts Deliverance not onely from the raign and dominion but even from the inhabitation and being of sin which here they find as a clogg and a burthen too heavy for them and so long to be rid of it Rom. 7.24 and lastly the beatifical vision and perfect fruition of the ever-blessed and all-glorious Trinity in the Heavenly Hieru salem among the innumerable company of Angels being admitted to the general Assembly and Church of the first-borne which are enrolled and written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant in whose presence there is fulness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore And thus my brethren after my measure as I could upon so short notice of about a day though not so full after my desires as I would in so great so learned and serious an Auditory have I dispatched my discourse upon the Scripture your candour will I hope connive at the want of polishing and entertain it as it is according to the weight and importance off the matter of it And may the God of grace reap the Total glory Amen FINIS The coherence Devision of the words Prospos Every man in the world is Gods Steward Proved 1. By what every one receiveth from God 2. By what God expects from every one Psal 24 1. Men do not waste his goods 2. That they do not abuse them to ill ends Luke 19 27. James 4 3. 3 To do him Homage Acts 10 33. 4 To return him fruit Matt. 21.33 Vse Two things required of a Steward 1. Dispensation Rom 13 4. Rom 1 14.1 Tim 5 8. 2. Right ordering of his dispensations Luk. 12.42 1. Faithfully Heb. 3.5 Exod. 32.19 2. VVisely Rom. 3.7 1 Tim. 3.17 Gen 18.19 Propos 2. All Gods stewards must give an account Two dayes of reckoning 1. In this life By the VVord Gen 3.11 1 King 19. Matt 3. Acts 2. By the rod. Job 33.14 Mic 6.9 Job 33.19 1 Cor 11.30 Psal 31.5 2 After this life A necessitie of a day of judgement 1. In respect of God his decree Acts. 17.31 Isa 46.10 His honour Eccles 3.16 2. In respect of the Saints 2 Thes 1.5 For the manifestation of their innocency For the reward of their works Mal. 3.17.18 3. In respect of the wicked For the manifestation of Gods righteous proceeding against them Rom. 2.5 For the perfecting of their punishment Why God is said to call all men to an account 1. Because he will proceed in particular Job 27.18 Jam. 5.1.2 James 4.3 Mat. 16. Mat. 5 22. Mat. 15.19 2. Because he will proceed by me hod and order Psal 50. Psal 51. Rom. 7. A direction in the exercise of repentance 3. Because he will proceed by books Dan. 10. Rev. 20. John 12.48 Jer. 17.1 4. Because God will exact of every one according to what he hath been trusted with Luke 12.48 Vse 1. For confutation Atheists in the Church 2 Pet. 3. Vse 2. For instruction 2. Not to judge others Rom. 14.10 1 Cor. 4.5 2. To judge our selves here A two sold reckoning to be made here 1. Reckon with out selves Jer. 8.6 Lam. 3.39 Psal 4. 2. Reckon with others 2. Sam. 12.3 Acts 20.26 Iames. 5.3 3. To Exercise daily repentance Acts 17.31 4. To get an interest in Christ Rom 8.1 Exod. 25.21 5. To lead a holy conversation 1 Pet. 3.11 2 Cor. 5.9 Acts 26.15 16. Vse 3. For Comfort James 5. Heb. 9.27 The Coherence The meaning of the words The devision of the words Observat 1. The death of others is a just occasion of Mourning Gen. 23.2 Gen. 27.41 Gen. 50.10 2. Sam. 25.1 Zach. 12.10 John 11. Act. 20.38 Reas 1. Reas 2. Ier. 5.3 Vse Object Answ A twofold distempe In mens affections 1.2 1 These 4.13 Deut. 14. Observat 2. Death the end of all men Iob 3.14 Zach. 1.5 Reas 1. In regard of Gods decree Reas 2. In regard of the matter whereof men are made Iob 13 12. Reas 3. In regard every man in him hath the cause of death Object Heb 11.5 2 King 2.11 Answ Object Answer Rom. 8.28 Matt. 22. Vse 1. Make account of it for our selves The benefit of the particular application of death to a mans selfe 1. Sin will be made more odious Rom. 5.11 2. The truth and justice of God will bee the more acknowledged 3. Death will be the b 〈◊〉 prepared for Job 14.14.5 Three things wherein here is oâ—… a particular application of â—…h to a man 1. In matter of sinning Acts 5. 2. In redeeming of the time of life 1 Cor. 10.35 Heb. 3 13. Gal. 6.10 3. In the manner of our conversation Vse 1 In respect of the death of others 1. To moderate our mourning for the death of others 2. To improve he life of others Observat 3. It is the duty of the living to lay to heart the death of others Reas 1.1 God is glorified hy it Psal 28.5 Reas 2. Our selves are benefited by it 1. Thereby we come to see the certainty of death 2. Thereby we come to see the nature of death The proper worke of death 1. To separate the body from the soule 2. To separate a man from his estate 3. To separate a man from his friends Gen. 23. 2 Sam. 1. â—… 1 Cor. 7.19 3. Thereby we come tosee the end and cause of death 1 Kings 14.13 2 Chro. 34.18 Isa 57.1 Ezek. 9.4 5. Vse 1 For reproof of the generall neglect of this duty Vse 2. For reproof 1. Of the excess of sorrow for dead freinds Judg. 8.24 Gen 31.30 2. Of the rash censuring of the manner of others death Luke 13.4 Eccles 9.2 Vse 3. For Instruction Luke 2.29 Observat Gods children are subject to the fear of death The outward causes of the fear of death 1. God
Host of the house who is living there and is right owner and hath the whole estate No he only resteth there for a night after his weary journey but on the morrow God be with you then he is gone So a worldly man he may say here is my estate here is my stock all that I have is laid up here But a beleever saith I am now in my journey I am here no other then a pilgrim my home is in Heaven and while I am passing through this pilgrimage If I have a piece of meat in my hunger and a cup of drink in my thirst and clothes in my nakedness there is all that I care for Thirdly the last and the main Argument to prove that every true beleever must be as if not in all the things of this world is because if he be any otherwise in them hee will be so intangled that he shall not be fit for the service of God And this third Argument will be of the greatest force to a true beleever For the other two you will say if they be none of mine why do I meddle with them and if they be empty why likewise do I meddle with them But now thirdly if I meddle with them they will make me directly that I shall not be a Christian they will hinder me from the service of my God this will make a beleever of all things to look about him The Apostle saith directly that none that warreth intangleth himself that is thus Suppose a man have received press-money to go a souldier will he be so mad as to lay out his money upon a Farm in the Countrey when upon the command of his Captaine upon pain of death he must follow presently Beloved he that intangleth himself with the things of the world and of the flesh if his wife his pleasures his credit or any thing have taken up his heart or if sorrows and afflictions drink up his spirits and eat up his very soul when God calls this man now to come to prayer to come to the Church to hear his Word to fight against his lusts or to do any duty alas his head his heart and all are eaten up with his Farme with his oxen with his wife with his crosses and afflictions so that he is altogether unfit for any service that God hath called him to Therefore saith Saint John he that intangleth himself with these things below he cannot possibly have the love of the Father dwelling in him This shall suffice for the clearing of the point I have spent the more time in it because I would fain lay as good a foundation as I might that the Application may take the deeper impression in your hearts We that live in the Country when we come up by occasion into the City and here see all men so full of trouble every man so toyled in his work so full of business and so little time taken for any thing else me thinks that such a point as this to Brethren to beleevers should be of special use Now beloved this is the sum of that I have to say Be in all these things as if not Shall we all resolve as obedient children to carry this point home and examine indeed and in truth whether we be in these things as if not But alas what shall I say I remember a story of one Thomas Lennot a learned English-man who reading once in the fifth sixth and seventh Chapters of S. Mathews Gospel how our Saviour Christ faith You have heard how it hath been said of old you must do thus and thus but I say unto you you must love your enemies pray for them that curse you do good to them that hate you and persecute you and so he goeth on in injoyning such strange duties to flesh and bloud He breaks out Oh Jesus either this is not thy Gospel or we are not Christians Truly beloved I would to God a Minister might not have just cause to say so in this point that when he cometh and reads this of the Apostle It remains brethren that he that hath a wife be as if he had none he that useth the world as not abusing it and he that buyeth as if he possessed not c. And must it be thus if we mean to be Christians I would to God I say a man might not break out and say Oh Paul either thou art not the writer of this or we are no Christians We talk and prosess it in words that we purpose to do it but if we come to the deed and the truth it is clean contrary we are not at all moderate in the use of these things In matters of Heaven and in things that concern our everlasting welfare where God would have us take the kingdome of heaven with violence Where we should cry out as the Horse-leach his daughter Give give and never say it is enough We are even like children that go to school that care not how little they have for their money In hearing if the Sermon be but half an hour we think it enough and in prayer and in conference a little will serve the turn Like the Jesuit that when he thought he had a revelation he cryed out Satis Domine enough Lord I have revelation enough So we in matters of Religion Enough Lord. But turn us to wives to children to cloaths to honours to preferments to riches to ease to pleasures and the like there we are as the barren womb that never faith it is enough Brethren is it not thus But me thinks I should bring you some particular instances to convince you that it is thus and I would to the Lord I could throughly convince you of it that thus it is with you But to instance a little Suppose now a man comes and meets with a Citizen in his business and say to him How have you spent this day Truly he will say I am so full of business that I have not time so much as to eat my meat But I hope you have been at prayer in your family have you not Alas will he say I cannot get so much as a quarter of an hours time Do you call this as if not brethren Come to another that hath a wise all his care is for her oh my wife and children if I should die and leave them poor what should I do when I sleep I dream of them when I awake in the morning my thoughts are of them Is this to be as if you had no wife and children Another he is ever a complaining and mourning oh I have such crosses I am so full of affliction I have lost such and such friends and such and such an estate and though I go to Church and hear such and such comfortable doctrines one after another and all telling me of the all-sufficiency of God of the comforts and joyes of the Spirit of the good things that are laid up in Heaven yet like Rachel
they will never be comforted for their brother for their sister for their children c. What shall we say to these things Do you think the Lord speaks not as he meaneth or that the Apostle when he saith here absolutely and determinatly that thus and thus you must do if you be Christians if you be brethren Shall we do the contrary to all this and yet think that all will be well I know you may put it off many of you and alledge many things we have callings and we must follow our Callings if God brings me in imployment blame me not if I follow it And I know not how to live if I do not do thus and thus But be not deceived God is not mocked In a word therefore to put you on the tryal If thou findest in the middest of thy trading and merchandizing or whatsoever calling thon art of thy heart daily gathering towards heaven that thou canst say blessed be God for this and other commodities but Christ is my darling this is good And then in these things if thou hast a care to use them aright as well as to get them and to thank God for them and that thy project is how thou shalt do good with that thou hast that thou art alwayes saying with thy self Lord how shall I do good with so much as I have got by such a bargain God forbid I should say against thee though thou be full of business from morning to evening But alass there are many good people and godly that have hope that they serve God yet if they go home and examine themselves throughly their own consciences will tell them that in the things of this world they are not as if not but rather that they have been over-careful and too full of distractions in business And so for matter of joy if a man have a little pleasure or preferment given him his heart is so up that he knows not where he is he is so transported that he hath clean forgot himself This cannot stand this is not to be as if not and therefore I beseech you in the fear of God think of it Now if a man would know how he should come to have his heart in a good temper to be in these things as if not In one word let me tell you that rule of Saint Paul In all things be filled with the Spirit and then thou wilt not take thought much for other things if once you let your souls be filled with the things of a better life then wife and children and wealth and pleasures or any thing else will not draw away your heart Get a good hand-fast of Jesus Christ work out your salvation and that you may know that you are beleevers upon good grounds and that you have the graces of the Spirit of God in you indeed and in truth that you are new creatures And then often think of the rare things that are provided for you in another life What to have God to be your Father and Angels your keepers to be children to be the companions of Angels Weigh these things daily and then you will be as if not in all these outward and worldly things And untill thou dost this and thinkest withall of that I have formerly said that thou art ready to strike sayle I will never beleeve that thou wilt be as if not This is the second thing A word or two of the Third and so I have done And that is the Spur that the Apostle Saint Paul useth And it is necessary he should use such a spur for it is a very hard lesson If you would be as if you were not consider this The fassion of the world passeth away That is it signifieth I touched it before such a fashion as is on a stage All these things below they are but as the Acting of a Comedy as a Scaene it may be it is done in half an hour and though it make a fine shew yet in truth there is no substance in it There is one it is a fashion besides it passeth away So then in this spur there are two things I will but name the heads First That the things of the world all that I named before are but a shew without a substance Even as a Scaene or Comedy things that have a glorious glittering shew to the eye but if you look indeed and in truth upon them there is no such matter That is one thing that I note that our life is but as the acting of a part in a Comedy and so by consequence in all these outward things thy contentment in wife or children or credit or pleasures thou dost but act a glorious part it may be thou hast a goodly outside fine clothes rich apparel an outward representation of comfort but look thorow them and there is no such matter But the second thing which I rather would presse is that it is suddenly gone it passeth away saith the Apostle As a man hath but a little time to tarry in the world so all the things he enjoyeth in the world are wondrous inconstant That look as it is in a Play he that now acts the part of a King it may be next he may act the part of a Begger or as it is with some of your delicate fashions that while you are speaking of them the fashion is spoyled Even so the fashion of this world it will not continue That is the sum of that I desire you to take notice of that if you will not be perswaded by me or by the Spirit of God in his unworthy minister to use the things of this world morderately and carry your selves as you ought in crosses and afflictions yet know this that the fashion of these things will shortly be spoyled And if they be all so unconstant what a fool art thou to set thy heart upon them We may learne this wisdome from the foolery of our English Nation esteemed now the idlest people of the world for changing their fashion They will never make clothes twice of one fashion but one gown of this fashion and another of that and though he be never so good a Taylor that makes it yet he must make no more of the same fashion but the next Terme they will come to another Learn I say this wisdome from that foolery Now the Lord giveth thee comfort in thy wife set not thy heart too much upon her the next Term the fashion may change Now thou art rich let not thy heart dote upon thy riches it is but a fashion a shew it passeth away to morrow thou maist be a begger to day a man to morrow none But if thou wouldest keep the fashion get the fashion of grace get a right to heaven an interest in God and be content in Gods name to follow his fashion If the fashion that God will have thee be in be to be an humble dejected man be content with that fashion if anon