heart and soule of every true beleever lying on his death bed or on the Gridiron or in the dungeon or on the gibbet or on the faggot did not the Spirit seale this truth aboveall other at such times to his servants were not then their hope full of immortality they could never have welcomed death embraced the flames sung in their torments and triumphed over death even when they were in the jawes of it When Iob was in the depth of all his miserie the Spirit spake in his heart I know that my Redeemer liveth and that hee shall stand in the latter day upon the earth and though after my skinne wormes destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my selfe and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my reines bee consumed within mee Likewise when Saint Paul was now readie to bee offered and the time of his departure was at hand the Spirit spake in him I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is layd up for mee a crowne of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous judge shall give mee at that day and not to mee onely but to them also that love his appearing Likewise when Gerardus was giving up the ghost the Spirit spake in him O Death where is thy sting Mors non est stimulus sed jubilus And though Robert Glover the Martyr all the night before his Martyrdome prayed for strength and courage but could feele none yet when he came to the sight of the stake he was mightily replenished with Gods holy comfort and heavenly joyes and clapping his hands to Austin the Spirit the Comforter himselfe spake in him Hee is come hee is come You have heard where the spirit saith so give eare now to a voyce from heaven declaring why the spirit saith so for they rest from their labours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth as well paine as paines broyles as toyles as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke so paine and paines in English are of kinne for labour is paine to the body and paine is labour to the Spirit and therefore what wee say to bee punished and tormented with a disease the Latine say laborare morbo and the throngs and throes which women endure in Child-bearing wee call their labouring Here then the dead have a double immortalitie granted them 1 From the labours of their calling 2 From the troubles of their condition freedome from paine and paines taking What then may some object doe the dead sleepe out all their time from the breathing out their last gaspe to the blowing the last trumpe as they suffer nothing so doe they nothing but are like Consul Bibulus who held onely a roome and filled up a blancke in the Roman fasti Nam 〈◊〉 factum consule nil memini or like mare mortuum without any motion or operation at all that cannot be the soule is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a most perfect Act or as Tullie renders the word a continuall motion as the word is taâ—…en in that old proverbiall verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it can no more bee and not worke then the winde can bee and not blow the fire and not burne a diamond and not sparkle the sunne and not shine therefore it is not sayd here simply that they rest from all kinde of motion or working but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but from toylesome labours soretravells and againe from their owne labours or workes not the Lords They keepe an everlasting Sabbath in not doing of their owne workes but Gods they rest from sinfull and painefull travells but not from the workes of a sanctified rest for they rest not day and night saying holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was which is and is to come The rest of the soule is not a ceasing from all motion or opperation that cannot stand with the nature of a spirit but a setling it selfe with delight upon an all-satisfying and never satiating object such was the rest the sweet singer of Israel called his soule unto returne unto thy rest O my soule for the Lord hath dealt bâ—…untifully with thee Bodies rest in their proper places but spirits in their proper object in the contemplation fruition admiration and adoration whereof consisteth their everlasting content This object is God whom they contemplate in their mind enjoy in their will adore in both and this is their continuall worke and their worke is their life and their life is their happinesse which the Divines fitly expresse in one word glorification which must be taken both actually and passively for they glorifie God and God glorifieth them God glorifieth them by casting the full light of his countenance upon them and they glorifie him by reflecting some light backe againe and casting their crownes before him saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created They rest from their labours This Text of holy Scripture containeth in it the waters of Siloah not so much to refresh those that are tyred with their former labours having borne the heate of the whole day as to lave out the false fire of Purgatorie for blessednesse cannot stand with miserie nor rest with trouble nor reward with punishment but all that dye in the Lord are blessed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is à tempore mortis from the time of their death as venerable Beda and other expound the words and so blessed are they that they rest from all paine and paines and so rest that their workes follow them that is as I shall declare hereafter the reward of their workes If this lave not out the Romish fire which scareth the living more then the dead and purgeth their purses and not their soule wee may draw store of water to quench it out of divers other Texts of holy Scripture as namely First If the tree fall towards the South or towards the North in the place where the tree falleth there it shall bee Which Text Olympiodorus thus illustrateth in whatsoever place therefore whether of light or of darknesse whether in the worke of wickednesse or of vertue a man is taken at his death in that degree and ranke doth he remaine either in light with the just and Christ the King of all or in darknesse with the wicked and prince of the world To little purpose therefore is all that is or can be done for the dead after they have taken their farewell of us after wee are gone from hence there remaines no place for repentance or penance no effect or benefit of satisfaction here life is either lost or obtained but if thou O Demetrian saith Saint Cyprian even at the very end and setting of thy temporall life dost pray
at her death Her life was well knowne to most of this place and her death was every way answerable to her life all that visited her in her sicknesse might behold with sorrow a pittifull anatomie of fraile mortalitie and yet with joy a perfect patterne of Christian patience and a heavenly conversation and though shee were full of divine conceptions and shee had a spring by her of the waters of life in the devotion of her dearest helper especially in the best things yet when I came to her shee desired shee might be partaker of some of my meditations they were her owne words and when I prayed with her and for her shee joyned not so much with me with her tongue as her affections and answered more in sighes and teares then in words often shee complained of her tuffe heart that would not yeeld to her dissolution and long long sheethought it till shee should come to appeare before the God of Gods in Sion Her last words were sweet Father helpe me and shee had her request for presently hee helped her both by the zealous and most feeling prayers of her Husband and by the holy spirit assisting her in her owne prayers with sighes and groanes that cannot be expressed and immediatly her swâ—…et Father released her of her pangs and received her to himselfe on his owne day On the Lords day morning before the morning watch I say before the morning watch shee entered into her rest and began to keepe her evarlasting Sabbath in heaven where shee reapeth what she sowed and seeth what shee beleeved and enjoyeth what she hoped for and is now entered into those joyes which never entered fully into the heart of any living on earth nor shall into ours till wee with her be made perfect and all of us come to Mount Sion and the heavenly Ierusalem and innumerable company of Angels and to the Congregation of the first-borne whose names are written in heaven and to the spirits of just men and women made perfect Whether the God of peace bring us in our appointed time who brought againe from the dead the great sheepheard through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant To whom with the holy Spirit c. FINIS FAITHS ECCHO OR THE SOVLES AMEN ISAY 64. 1. Oh that thou wouldest rent the Heavens that thou wouldest come downe IER 11. 5. So bee it O Lord. Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. FAITHS ECCHO OR THE SOVLES AMEN SERMON XLVII REVELA 22. 19. Amen Even so come Lord Iesus THese words they afford to us a comfortable and sweet argument to bee conversant in From the sixt verse of this Chapter is set down to us the confirmation of the whole Prophesie and booke of the Revelation partly by the affirmation of God as likewise of Jesus Christ and of Iohn himselfe that heard and saw all these things and likewise of the Church of God in the 17. verse it is likewise confirmed by the promise of blessing and happinesse pronounced upon them that shall doe all these things and shall faithfully expect the accomplishment of them This verse a part of which I have read to you is the repetition in few words of all that matter that goeth before from the 6. verse to it and hath in it First an attestation of our Lord and Saviour Christ in the former part of the verse Behold I come quickly Secondly an acclamation of the Church in the latter part these words I have read to ye Amen even so come Lord Iesus In the attestation of Christ hee promiseth hee will come to his Church hee will come shortly both for the accomplishment of all his promises and likewise for their safety and deliverance from all enemies and all miseries and molestations whatsoever To this the Church makes an acclamation and saith Amen even so come Lord Iesus In this acclamation of the Church to which wee must now come we are to consider First the person of the speaker whose words they bee Secondly what is the matter or substance contained in them Yee shall see whose words they bee if ye looke backe but to the 17. verse of this Chapter there ye shall finde that first it is sayd the Spirit sayth come By the Spirit is not meant the third Person in Trinitie the holy Ghost because hee is not subject to these passions to these desires but hee resteth himselfe in the execution and present disposing and dispensing of things according to his owne will and pleasure Neither by Spirit here is meant any wicked spirit or Angell for they doe with feare and horrour expect the same comming of our Lord and Saviour Christ because his comming shall bee the accomplishment of their miserie and eternall infelicitie But by Spirit here is meant the spirit in all the Elect and holy people of God in whomsoever the Spirit of God is that Spirit doth say come and doth wish the accomplishment of all these most gracious promises For this is not the desire of the flesh or of nature but an earnest and vehement desire of the Spirit of God in the Elect that saith come Againe secondly the same verse telleth us that the Bride sayth come That is the Church of God in generall the Catholike Church the whole Church of God being now hand-fasted to Christ and entred into a spirituall contract with him Shee desireth the consumation of the Marriage the solemniation of the Marriage which is alreadie begun in the contract of it and not onely every particular member of the Church in whom the Spirit of God is saith come but the Church of God in generall the Bride sayth come the whole Church saith come wishing and desiring the accomplishment of the Marriage which is already begun In the third place the same verse telleth us that as the Spirit and the Bâ—…ide say come so hee that heareth saith come that is not onely 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 minde having received the same Spirit they all say come Whosoever heareth this Prophesie whosoever heareth of these promises in any Age or Countrey of the World all they having the same spirit they must needes say come hee that heareth sayth come hee that is acquainted with the promises that commeth to the knowledge of them and doth mingle them with the faith of his soule this man must needs say come to the accomplishment of them And lastly Hee that is a thirst sayth come too that is whosoever hath tasted of the sweetnesse of Christ in any measure whatsoever and therby hath wrought in him a vehement thirst after more this man will say come Whosoever hath such a sence of Christ in his promises as to taste of the sweetnesse of these never so little as hee that hath tasted a droppe of honey wisheth for more so hee that hath tasted of the sweetnesse of Christ a
I saith hee and presently they fell downe to the ground they were beat downe with the very breath of his mouth as a man is sometimes with the wind of a bullet or as the walls of Iericho with the sound of the trumpets of Rammes-hoâ—…es The very word Ego sum it was no more they fell all to the ground Now I may say with that Father what shall hee doe when hee comes to judge that was able to doe thus when he was to be judged Quid regnatâ—…res patuerit c. what shall he doe when he comes to reigne that was able to doe thus when he was to die But alas you will say if hee be so great a God so glorious how shall such a poore wretch as I stand before him I confesse my selfe a poore wretched and grievous sinner how shall I stand before him Oh marke here hee that is called the great God hee is called the Saviour Iesus Christ. Here is the comfort hee is a Saviour hee came to worke the worke of Redemption Hee was made like us in all things sinne excepted that he might be mercifull And it is wondrous comfortable that in that very nature hee shall be our Judge in which hee stood before the Judge at the judgement seate of Pilate God hath appointed a day saith Saint Paul in which hee will judge the world in righteousnesse by whom by the man Iesus Christ Act. 17. 31. O but what a comfort of comforts is that indeed I pray marke our Lords words Iohn 5. 27. God the Father saith hee hath given all authoritie to his Sonne to judge Why Marke his reason because hee is the Sonne of man He doth not say he hath given him power to judge because hee is his Sonne but because hee is the Sonne of man It made sweet Saint Bernard crie out O verum Pâ—…trem misericordiae c. O true Father of mercies that wouldest have men judged by man he hath beene a man and lived he knew no sin he knew temptation he knew what it was to be tempted hee knowes that we are tempted and hee knowes that wee are but men hee remembreth that wee are but dust Thus I have gone over the words briefly There is a generall Doctrine to bee touched which I can but touch in a word it is this Everie true Christian must so live as a man that waites and lookes for this blessed hope at that glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ. The holy men that lived before Christs first Epiphanie his first comming here in the flesh they are described thus to be men that looked for that comming After his comming Anna the Prophetesse the Scripture saith shee spake of Christ to all that looked for redemption in Ierusalem Luke 2. 36. and in verse 25. it is said that â—…ld Simeon a devout man and one that looked for the consolation of Israel And the like is said of Ioseph of Aremathea hee was a just man one that feared God and looked for the redemption of the people of God he looked for the kingdome 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 comming of Christ. Gods children are still looking for this second comming Let me give you but a place or two of Scripture The Apostle saith Phil. 3. 20. Our conversation is in heaven from whence wee looke for the Saviour Saith S. Iude verse 21. Keepe your selves in the love of God as men that looke for the mercie of God at that great day to eternall life Gird up your loynes saith our blessed Lord and let your lights bee burning in your hands that you may be as men that looke for the comming of the Bridegroome Indeed beloved if wee looke into the lives of men I cannot tell whether I shall say they looke for his comming or no this blessed hope Wilt thou prophane the sanctified day of rest wilt thou blaspheme the great and glorious name of God wilt thou want only abuse the creatures of God in drunkennesse wilt thou lie and steale and whore and yet tell mee thou lookest for that blessed hope surely thou dost not If quoth the Apostle we doe looke for these things in the place named before 2 Pet. 2. 14. Then let us doe our diligence that wee may bee found of him in peace If thou doe not thy diligence that when he comes thou mayest bee found in peace never tell me thou lookest for him There was never time yet for us to lie and wallow in sinne to thinke nothing that wee doe dishonest there was never time for these things since time was Surely there is no time for it now All the dayes since Christ are called the last dayes all of them are the last dayes since that day of the first Epiphanie but there is a day that will be the last of all those last dayes And me-thinkes it will not be long before that last day of all come me-thinkes I see the day broke already it is breake of day alreadie Therefore brethren if you doe indeed looke for the comming of Christ for this blessed hope at his appearing bee diligent that you may bee found of him without spot in holinesse I have done with the Text. I come now to the occasion at this time You have brought hither a dead body of a very good neighbour of ours and whom I acknowledge I ever found a kind and a loving friend You have brought it here to be laid up in the Grave in hope of a blessed and joyfull resurrection I need not speake much of his life here an ancient inhabitant When it pleased God to call mee first to this place 26. yeares since I found him then in the chiefe office of the Church and divers times since he hath been in it and I have seldome knowne any more painfull and more industrious and more honest in those places then he was Wee have all knowne him a man humble in his conversation just of his word true in his promises mercifull in his dealing charitable to the poore readie to every good worke His life was such a life as the Apostle would have ours to be a life sober and just and pious in this present evill world Hee lived and lead a life pious in regard of God just in regard of men sober in regard of himselfe I can say no lesse of him and I will say no more of him I know you desire to heare of his death and it hath much afflicted my soule to heare what unjust aspertions have beene upon the manner of it There was a sudden stroake indeed of Gods hand and it was in my house and seeing that it so pleased God I am glad that it was in my presence and sight that I might give the better testimonie of it The suddennesse of the stroake made him liable to some misconstruction and hath
but a glasse of a brittle substance all our comforts are of a changeable nature that whereon wee set our affection is taken from us in a moment Thus I have opened these two points now give mee leave to make some use I will spare to speake to you of the occasion of our meeting together for Funerall 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 tryalls may befall great Christians then let us prepare for great tryalls for as much as such kind and degrees of affliction and crosses may befall us There are two things that a man should alwayes provide for one is while wee live to provide for Death the other is while we are in prosperitie to provide for affliction for a change and for this consider two things First our outward condition is but a shadow it hath a naturall aptnesse to change there is not a person that heares mee this day but this may concerne his outward condition Man is borne unto trouble saith Iob as the sparkes flie upward as if trouble were his naturall spheare wherein he is to move Thou canst not assure thy selfe of life no not a moment nor of any of these outward comforts neither canst thou promise thy selfe securitie in any state or condition though thou maist get assurance that God will save thee yet thou canst never get assurance that God will never trie thee wee see that Death enters into many houses of this Citie 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 losse of a deare friend and therefore wee should provide for a change because the next commission of Death may enter into our houses it is our sinnes that puts our lives upon these conditions our sinnes doe 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 soone doth Death lay honour in the dust how soone is beautie ecclipsed by deformitie our strength laid down by weaknesse our health overcome by sicknesse our life overtaken by Death all these may ecclipse our comforts these cloudes may soone darken our sunne 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 doe so much pride our selves in they are but as Ionahs Gourd which perisheth in a moment and many times the cause of our sorrow and affliction the losse of them a greater griefe then the want of them this staffe on which we leane will soone bee broken a Ship may last for a while but shee will sinke at the last What is the Wise mans verdict of all things under the Sunne hee 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 lesse then nothing then how little is it that wee are to expect from them we should provide for a change not onely our outward condition is thus changeable but our inward condition too our spirituall comfor is changeable though there is stability in the maine yet a Christian meetes 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 our outward condition is cast upon many changes so when these changes doe befall us when they come to strippe us of our comfort verely they will put us to it Thou art mistaken thou thinkest thou canst beare a losse or a crosse it is not so easie a matter to beare the losse of a Childe or a Husband or a Wife or a Father or the losse of a deare friend it is not so easie a thing to beare the losse of an estate as thou thinkest thou shalt find it a hard matter to beare in worldly sorrow wee may seeme to take courage before affliction comes but when affliction and tryalls fall upon us then we are put to it it is with us as with a Shippe when the Sunne doth shine and the Seas are calme and the Wind faire then shee goes on pleasantly in her motion but in a storme all little enough to keepe her steady in our easie dayes in our dayes of peace in our calme estate then wee can hold up our heads well enough but in our losses and crosses wee shall hardly beare up unlesse the Lord doe mightily support us Wee may observe two sorts of persons in the world some are insensible persons who are like the Rocke that nothing can breake it who are so hardened that though God doe scourge them yet they feele it not though God doth threaten them they feare 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 blesse or whether God curse whether hee speake by his Word or by his Rodde it is all one to them they feele nothing nor feare 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 wise that hee doth not strike off our comforts from us but upon some speciall cause Now to stay upon God and to yeeld to the Lord It is the Lord let him doe what seemes good unto him God doth not deprive me of such a comfort but hee sees it best for me Beloved it were good to learne this lesson it will cost thee something in a neere tryall to acquit thy selfe by faith to acquit God and to submit to his chastisement to kisse the rodde to judge the sinne to bend the soule to better the life this were an excellent lesson to learne in all our tryalls and afflictions Secondly if great tryalls may befall great Christians and faith is that which will make a man acquit himselfe in great tryals then get faith use faith What faith is I have divers times discovered in this assembly whence it comes from heaven how we may attaine 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 tryall 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 tryall being so common and we apt every moment to fall under some tryall or other There be foure
which may furnish us abundantly with meditations in this kind It was a custome in former times for men to make their sepulchres in their gardens to mind them of death in the midst of the pleasures of this life This present worke may not unfitly be tearmed a Garden wherein whosoever takes a dayly walke may gather in the severall beds thereof those wholsome flowers and hearbs which being distilled by serious meditation will prove water of life to a fainting spirit in some hee shall finde instruction in some incitation in others consolation in all profit Here thou shalt finde that Lethall gourd sprung up by Adam his transgression that makes all his posterity cry out There is death in the Pot. There thou mayst gather hearbs of grace as a counter-poyson against the malignity of death in a third there is the spirituall Heliotroâ—…ium opening with joy to the Sunne of righteousnesse the hope of a blessed resurrection Doe the glittering shewes of outward things make thee begin to over-fancie them heere thou shalt finde how little they will availe in death the consideration whereof will make them like that precious stone which being put into the mouth of a dead man loseth it's vertue are thou over-burthened with afflictions here thou art supported in the expectation of a farre more exceeding weight of glory art thou ready to faint under thy labours here thou shalt finde a time of rest and of reaping doth the time seeme over-long that thy patience begins to flag heere thou hast a promise of thy Saviours speedy comming In a word be thy estate and condition what it will be heere thou mayst have both directions to guide thee and comforts to support thee in thy journey on earth till thou arrive at thy Countrey in Heaven Certainely there is no man can sleight and undervalue so deserving a Worke but hee shall discover himselfe either to be ignorant or idle or ill affected especially when so judicious and learned men have thought it a fit concomitant for their severall labours which they have added for the accomplishment of it Therfore take it in good worth improve it for the good of thy soule that being armed and prepared for death when it shall approach thou mayst have no more to doe but to die and mayst end thy dayes in a stedfast assurance That thy sinnes shall be blotted out when the time of refreshing shall come from the presence of the LORD Thine in him who is the Resurrection and the life H. W. THE TABLE THe Stewards Summons Page 1. TEXT LVKE 16. 2. Give an account of thy Stewardship for thou mayst be no longer Steward The praise of Mourning Page 29. ECCLESIASTES 7. 2. It is better to goe to the house of Mourning then to the house of Feasting for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart Deliverance from the King of feares Page 55. HEBREVVES 2. 14. 15. 14 For asmuch then as the Children are partakers of flesh and bloud hee also himselfe likewise tooke part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Divell 15 And deliver them who through the feare of death were all their life time subject to bondage The perfection of Patience Page 79. IAMES 1. 4. But let patience have her perfect worke that you may bee perfect and intire wanting nothing A Restraint of exorbitant passion Page 101. 2 SAM 12. 22. 23. 22 And he said while the Child was yet alive I fasted and wept for I said who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the Child may live 23 But now he is dead wherefore should I fast Can I bring him back againe I shall goe to him but he shall not returne to me The sting of Death Page 121. 1 COR. 15. 56. The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law The destruction of the Destroyer Page 135. 1 COR. 15. 16. The last enemie that shall be destroyed is death The Worlds losse and the righteous mans gaine Page 151. ESAY 57. 1. And mercifull men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evill to come The good mans Epitaph Page 177. REVEL 14. 13. I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their workes doe follow them The Christians Center Page 193. ROM 14. 7. 8. 7 For none of us liveth to himselfe and no man dyeth to himselfe 8 For whether we live we live to the Lord and whether wee die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords The improvement of Time Page 213. 1 COR. 7. 29. 30. 31. 29 But this I say Brethren the time is short it remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none 30 And they that weepe as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as if they rejoyced not and they that buy asthough they possessed not 31 And they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away Securitie surprized Page 235. 1 THESSAL 5. 3. For when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction commeth upon them as travaile upon a woman with child and they shall not escape A Christians victory or conquest over deaths Enmitie Page 263. 1 COR. 15. 26. The last Enemie that shall be destroyed is death The great Tribunall Gods scrutinie of Mans secrets Page 283. ECCLESIAST 12. 14. For God will bring every worke into judgement with every secret thâ—…ng whether it be good or whether it be evill A Triall of Sinceritie Page 299. ESAY 26. 8. 9. 8 Yea in the way of thy judgements O Lord have wee waited for thee the desire of our soule is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee 9. With my soule have I desired thee in the night yea with my Spirit within me will I seeke thee early for when thy judgements are in the earth the Inhabitants of the world will learne righteousnesse The expectation of Christs comming Page 321. PHIL. 3. 20. 21. 20. For our conversation is in Heaven from whence we looke for the Saviour the Lord Iesuâ—… Christ. 21. Who shall Change our vile body that it may bee fashioned like unto his glâ—…rious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himselfe Christs Precept and Promise or security against death Page 345. IOHN 8. 51. Verily verily I say unto you if a man keepe my saying he shall never see death The Young-mans liberty and limits Page 367. ECCLESIAST 11. 9. Rejoyce O young-man in thy youth and let thy heart cheare thee in the dayes of thy youth and walke in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into
judgement Abrahams Purchase Page 385. GEN. 23. 4. I am a stranger and sojourner among you give me a Possession of a burying place with you that I may bury my dead out of my sight Gods esteeme of the death of his Saints Page 401. PSAL. 116. 15. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints The desire of the Saints after immortall glory Page 415. 2 COR. 5. 2. For in this wee groane earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from Heaven The carelesse Merchant Page 437. MAT. 16. 26. What is a man profited if he shall gaine the whole world and lose his soule Christs second Advent Page 449. Behold I come shortly and my reward is with me to give every man according to his workes The Saints longing for the great Epiphanie Page 467. TITVS 2. 13. Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ. Lifes Apparition and Mans Dissolution Page 481. IAMES 4. 14. For what is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little while and then vanisheth away Saiâ—… Pauls Trumpet Page 499. ROM 13. 11. And that knowing the time that now it is higâ—… time to awake out of sleepe Tâ—… 〈◊〉 manâ—… resting place Page 51â—… GEN. 15. 1. After these things the word of the Lord came to Abraham 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abraham I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward The righteous Iudge Page 335. IAM 2. 12. So speake yee and so doe as they that shall be judged by the law of libertie Sinnes stipend and Gods munificence Page 555. ROM 6. 23. For the wages of sinne is death but the gift of God is eternall life through Iesus Christ our Lord. The profit of afflictions Page 571. HEB. 12. 10. For they verily for a few dayes chastened us after their owne pleasure but hee for our profit that we might be partakers of his holinesse Spirituall Hearts-ease Page 591. IOHN 14. 1. 2. 3. 1 Let not your hearts be troubled beleeve in God beleeve also in me 2 In my Fathers house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you I goe to prepare a place for you 3 And if I goe to prepare a place for you I will come againe and receive you unto my selfe that where I am there you may be also Faiths Triumph over the greatest trialls Page 611. HEB. 11. 17. By faith Abraham when he was tryed offered up his sonne Isaack and hee that had received the promise offered up his onely begotten Sonne The Priviledge of the Faithfull Page 627. I PET. 3. 7. As heires together of the grace of life Peace in Death Page 643. LVKE 2. 29. Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word The vitall Fountaine Page 693. IOHN 11. 25 26. 25. Iesus said unto her I am the resurrection and the life he that beleeveth in me though he were dead yet shall he live 26 And whosoever liveth and beleeveth in me shall never die Death in Birth Page 713. GEN. 35. 19. And Rachel died The death of Sinne and life of grace Page 727. ROM 6. 11. Likewise reckon ye also your selves to bee deadunto sin bâ—…t alive unto God through Iesus Christ our Lord. Hopes Anchor-Hold 751. I COP 15. 19. If in this life onely we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable The Platforme of Charitie Page 769. GAL. 6. 10. As we have therefore opportunity let us doe good to all especially to them that are of the housâ—…ould of faith Death prevented Page 799. IOB 14. 14. All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait till my change shall come Iter novissimum or Man his last Progresse Page 817. FCCLESIAST 12. 5. Man goeth to his long home and the mourners goe about the streetes Tempus putationis or the ripe Almond gathered Page 835. GEN. 15. 15. And thou shalt goe to thy Fathers in peace thou shalt be buried in a good old age Io Paean or Christs Triumph over death Page 847. I COR. 15. 55. O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Fato Fatum The King of Feares frighted Page 859. HOS 13. 14. O Death I will be thy plagues Vox Coeli The Deads Herauld Page 869. 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. Victoris Brabaeum or The Conquerors Prize Page 881. APOC. 14. 13. So saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their workes follow them Faith's Eccho or the Soules AMEN REVEL 22. 19. AMEN Even so come Lord Iesus The end of the TABLE The ERRATA PAge 825. line 15. read not posse p. 826. l. 30. r. summe p. 841. l. 4. r. â—…ror p. 839 put out the promise of p. 842. l. 29. r. Gibiline in marg r. hominis ultimam resurrectionem p. 843. l. 14. r. the Goats p. 846. in Marg. r. Poâ—…id p. 150. l. 34. r. â—…raines p. 853. l. 33. r. Anacreon p. 860. in marg r. â—…s venenati p. 870. l. 4. r. Emines p. 874. l. 44. r. nullas p. 879. l. 24. r. Lapide p. 885 l. 15. r. immunitie p. 886. l. 10. r. actually p. 887. l. 18. r. Hell p. 889. l. 13. r. can be in Marg. r. qui assignat singulos domicilio infra regno 〈◊〉 p. 891. l. 12. r. import no leâ—…e p. 892. l. 22. r. faithfull p. 894. l. 14. r. Eurypum Eurypuâ—… THE STEVVARDS SUMMONS OR THE DAY OF ACCOVNT MAT. 25. 19. After a long time the Lord of those servants commeth and reckoneth with them ROM 14. 12. So then every one of us shall give account of himselfe to God LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabb 1639. THE STEWARDS SVMMONS SERMON I. LVKE 16. 2. Give an account of thy Stewardship for thou maist bee no longer Steward IN the Chapter going before our blessed Lord and Saviour had preached the Doctrine of the free grace of God in the remission of sinne and receiving of repenting and returning sinners in the parable of an indulgent Fathers receiving of a prodigall Sonne The Pharisees were a people that hardned their owne hearts and scoffed at every thing that Christ delivered therefore now in this Chapter hee commeth to summon and warne them to appeare before God the great Master of the world to give an account of their stewardship that by the consideration of Gods proceeding in the day of judgement they might know the better how to prize the remission of sinnes in the day of grace This hee doth by presenting to them a Parable of a certaine rich man that had a steward who was accused unto him that hee had wasted his goods calleth him to an account and to the end that the Pharisees might not thinke that it was a matter to be jeasted withall and that such considerations as these were to
bones with strong paines What 's the reason of this but that man may come to this conclusion with himselfe that hee may bring his owne heart to a reckoning for his former cariage This is that the Apostle saith for this cause many are weake and sickly among you and many sleepe some were taken with sicknesse upon others there was a consuming weaknesse and others were strucken with death what is the end that God propounds in all this For this reason that wee should judge our selves for if wee judge our selves wee shall not be judged of the Lord but when wee are judged wee are chastned of the Lord that wee should not bee condemned of the world As if hee should say God now calleth you to a reckoning in this life to the end you may prevent that heavy and grievous one that comes after this life Againe when outward afflictions prevaile not God hath spirituall afflictions to awaken mâ—…n Thus David when hee was in a deepe sleepe of securitie God awakned him with a spirituall judgement see his speech in the 32. Psal. When I kept close my sinnes my bones were consumed and I roared for the disquietnesse of my soule what followed God by this meanes brought him to confession I will confesse my transgressions to the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquitie of my sinne Thus God in this life calleth men to a reckoning sometimes by â—…he preaching of the Word sometimes by judgements upon the outward man or by terrours upon the soule But if all this prevaile not to make a man reckon with himselfe in this life then God hath another reckoning after this life where every man must give an account and cannot avoid it and there hee must abide the sentence of the Iudge that would not prevent it before That there is such a Iudgement to come it appeareth By the equitite necessitie of it In respect of God the Saints the wicked Frst I say in respect of God there is a necessitie of it That his Decree may bee fulfilled and executed Hee hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousnesse And his counsell shall stand and hee will doe all his pleasure Secondly it is necessarie that Gods honour may be vindicated Now things seeme to goe in some confusion and disorder in the world Good men the children of God are not alwayes best in the place of judgement I have seene saith Solomon an evill under the Sunne that in the place of judgement wickednesse was there and in the place of righteousnesse that iniquitie was there this observation Solomon makes therefore I said God will bring to judgement every thing both good and evill for there is a time for every worke and every purpose God hath a time to doe that great worke that he hath now purposed What is that worke that is to bring every worke to judgement whether it bee good or evill I say if wee consider this it is necessary that there should come a judgement that shall set all right againe It is necessarie likewise in respect of the Saints The very tribulations of the Saints in 2 Thes. 1. 5. are called Indigma an evident demonstration or a manifest token of the righteous judgement of God There is a necessitie of it in respect of them in two regards First that their innocencie that is traduced here may bee manifest They undergoe many disgraces and hard censures amongst men the world accounts them proud hipocrites singular foolish vaine-glorious and I know not what now saith Iob my witnesse is in heaven and saith Saint Paul I care not to bee judged of you or of mans judgement hee that judgeth me is the Lord. The Word in the Greeke is mans day as if hee should say Men have their day here but God hath a greater day after the Lord will judge in another manner and upon other grounds then men doe Secondly it is necessary also that their workes may be rewarded When we speake of reward wee meane not the reward of merit wee meane the reward of grace called a reward because God is tied to it by his promise The servants of God though they serve him with all care they have not the fatte of the earth as sometimes the Ishmaels of the world have they doe not abound with outward things as many others doe nay sometimes they are in the worst condition and that makes Gods wayes the more despised as if God were not able to maintaine his servants in the world in his wayes and worke God therefore hath a time when his servants shall have full measure heaped up pressed downe shaken together and running over When God shall make up his jewels as hee saith in Malac. 3. then shall yee discerne betweene the righteous and the wicked betweene him that serveth God and him that serveth him not Marke yee shall discerne God will make it appeare to the whole world in the day when hee makes up his jewels that notwithstanding his servants are despised and lie here under divers pressures yet that they are a people whom he delights in and accounteth as his treasures Thirdly it is necessarie in respect of the wicked too that is First that Gods righteousnesse may fully be manifested Secondly that their unrighteousnesse may fully bee punished First I say that Gods righteousnesse may fully bee manifested therefore the day of Iudgement in Rom. 2. 5. is called a day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God As if hee should say As God will manifest his wrath against the vessels of wrath so hee will make it appeare to the world that hee proceedeth in a right manner and by a right rule in judging For wee must know that howsoever God cannot bee unjust and howsoever that the ungodly men in this life contend with their owne consciences such is the hardnesse of their hearts and abundance of corruption that they would faine justifie themselves amongst men and againe howsoever it bee true that the soule when it is departed out of the body is under Gods particular judgement by an intelectuall elevation of it that it may receive the sentence of the Iudge by an illumination and by such a spirituall and contemplative discourse and observation and understanding of Gods actions as that by reflection upon it selfe it may know it selfe to bee accursed or acquitted and accordingly is entred into the possession either of happinesse or miserie Yet all this is secret in the world till the day of Gods tribunall come wherein secret things shal be made manifest and things that have been done in darknesse shall appeare before men and Angels Secondly As Gods justice must be cleared and fully manifested so the wicked and unrighteous must bee fully punished They are not fully punished when they are under the sense of Gods wrath in this life or when the soule is judged at death there must bee yet a 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 therfore it cannot serve the turne that the soule is punished and the body lie in the graue no but those that have joyned in sin must also joyne in punishment Secondly howsoever the sinfull actions of the wicked are transcient and seeme to die with them yet in respect of the contagion and evill effects these actions worke upon others and upon posteritie by the ill example of their predecessors the actions I say of those wicked men continue to the day of Iudgement Thus wee shall see the Iewes in Ierem. 4â—… reuived the sinnes of their fathers Our fathers say they made cakes to the Queen of heaven and so willwee 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 go 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 Iudgement therefore there must be a judgement then that may fill up a measure proportionable to their sinne This was that that Dives feared in Hell and that made him crie out as hee did that one might goe and tell his brethren upon earth that they might not come into that place Why would hee 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 soules of his brethren that hee would not have them damned no such matter neither What then Certainly it was nothing else but a sense of his owne guilt hee knew what evill example hee had giuen and what a counseller hee had beene to his brethren and if they should goe 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 bee joyned together to make up the full measure of their torment For this reason I say it is therefore necessary that there should bee 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 Iudge but he saith come give an account of thy stewardship I answer There are foure things implied in this all shewing the manner of Gods proceedings at the day of judgement with his stewards that it shall bee like the proceedings of a Master with his seruants in an account and reckoning The first is this that it shall bee a proceeding in particulars God shall then proceed not by grosse sums and in the totall yee have done evill in the generall none will deale thus with an Accountant but he will run over the particulars and Account for pounds for pence for every thing Thus God will deale with all his stewards when hee bringeth them to a reckoning hee will reckon on particulars for all things that hee 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 Iob speakes that is raised their estates to the hurt of others as men doe that raise themselves by Vsurie and oppression and fraud and bribery and such like courses Secondly how they have kept their wealth whether with the injurie of others with-holding the goods from the owners therof from the poore 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 marke how Saint Iames expresseth it Goe to now yeerich men weepe and howle why so your riches are corrupted and your garments moth-eaten your gold and silver is cankered c. As if hee should say you have beene hoarding up your treasures you had rather bee laying of it up then laying of it out and therefore because you have not layed out your estates for the service of your master rust is come upon your gold and the moth hath eaten into your garments yee have heaped treasure together for the last day Thirdly how they have spent what they have had whether on their lusts or no Yee aske and have not saith Saint Iames because yee aske amisse to spend it on your lusts so yee lay out amisse yee spend it on your lusts When men for pride in apparell for excesse at their tables for vaine buildings for sinfull upholding of wickednesse for unnecessary and injurious proceedings in law sutes or in whatsoever indirect course men lay out their estates it is a mis-spending of their Masters goods And as hee that hath got his wealth unjustly and hee that keepeth it unjustly shall give an account so hee that layeth it out in a confused sinfull profuse way shall be called to give areckoning for that And not only for matter of estate but besides for matter of place and authoritie Moses knew this well enough and therefore when hee was to goe out of the world hee first cleares all reckonings with the people of Israel I have beene a Ruler thus long let any man come and stand up and say I have done him wrong let every man come and cleare 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 hee â—…ed that hee might lift up his head with comfort in the day of the Lord. Thus it must bee with you yee 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 Marke the speech of the Wise man to the young man Rejoyce saith hee in the dayes of thy youth as if hee should say Doe if thou wilt doe if thou dare but know that for all these things thou must come to judgement Now thou hast a great deale of health a great deale of strength but hast thou beene the better for Gods service hast thou imployed it for 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 saith Christ that men shall speake they shall give an account of at the day of judgement 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 commeth out of thy mouth Thou must give an account for thy tongue And so for
the mouth of all ungodly men shall be stopped at the day of the Lord they shall have nothing to say for themselves why justice should not proceed against them Here will God say I find so much given to usurie so much gotten by usurie so much spent in vaine so much kept injuriously from the furtherance of Gods worship and planting the gospell where it was wanting so much kept from benefitting the Church and Common-wealth in publike in private so much from helping the poore here I find it how comes it here was it not written with thy owne hand was it not thy selfe that made this impression upon thy conscience by thy owne guilt What wilt thou say for thy selfe hath any one accused thee wrongfully hath any one wrote it by mistake No all is done with thy owne hand and you cannot deny your owne hand writing when it is brought to your face Hath any one had the keeping of this booke of thy conscience hast thou not alwayes had it in thy owne possession what canst thou alledge for thy selfe I know beloved and it is true that there are many other waies whereby ungodly men shall be accused at the last day God himselfe shall accuse thee and bee a swift witnesse against thee the Saints shall accuse thee wicked men shall accuse thee the divels shall accuse thee but the maine proceeding and that that shall cleare Gods justice and stop the mouthes of all ungodly men is this that the accusation is by their owne hand-writing their owne booke shall accuse them that they have wasted their Lords goods and mis-spent them The fourth and last thing wherein this proceeding at the last day shall be like a reckoning is this That there shall an account be made in measure and proportion to the trust committed to men The Master when hee reckoneth with his servant he calleth him to account not for some lesser summes or for some one or two things but for all that he hath intrusted him with and if one servant have more then another his account shall be greater then anothers according to the greatnesse of that that is committed to him so shall the largenesse of his reckoning be to whom much is given of them much is expected and to whom little little is expected but of every one something is expected because every one is a Steward The reckoning I say it shall bee according to the difference of gifts and endowments wherewith wee are intrusted When the Master in the Gospell called his servants to an account for the Talents wee see he that had ten Talents made account for ten and he that had five for five and he that had one was called to an account but for one every one for so much as hee had received Hee that hath received bodily abilities of health and strength shall account for that Hee that hath had wealth and an estate in the world shall make an account further for that Hee that hath had all these and authoritie and place wherein he had power to doe right and to glorifie God amongst men he must make an account for so much the more Alas beloved if men consider that the more wealth they heape up and the more places of authority and preferments they have in the world their accounts shall bee greater at the day of the Lord certainly it would make them more sober and walke more humbly and watchfully it would make them so much the more industrious to improve their talents to the best advantage of their Lord that intrusted them with them So much for the opening of the point I will conclude briefly with a few usesof it Yee see Beloved not onely that all are Gods stewards but that all Gods stewards shall be brought to a reckoning brought to it in this life and in another Yee see why it is called a reckoning why God will proceed with men in this manner The first Vse then shall be for confutation of those Atheists that put farâ—…e from them the feare of the day of Iudgement Is it possible that there should be a generation in the world that should doubt of the Iudgement to come Nay shall wee goe further and come neerer not onely in the world but in the Church that there should be such as doubt of that time and day By that that is done daily it appeares that there be many at this day in the Church that doubt of a Iudgement day First doe but trie mens courses What sinnes doe they most feare and most avoide by that yee shall know what Iudgement they feare and what they feare not They feare only such sinnes as in the course of justice men and their lawes take hold of such as are only a breach of the second table Men will not be injurious to men lest men proceed in mans justice against them But how commeth it to passe that there is so little regard of God of reverence of his name of setting up his worship in their houses and in their hearts Certainly you doe not thinke that God will be as exact in his judgement in matters that concerne his own honour immediately as any man will be in cases that are brought before him Againe doe not men feare those outward actions which expose them to the censure of men on earth and unto punishment here But in the meane time they feare not evill affections and the motions of sinne in their owne hearts A man would not bee tooke with open theft yet neverthelesse hee useth fraud when men cannot discerne it A man would not be tooke with murther yet neverthelesse he is full of malice and envie and repining Why is this but because men acknowledge not a judgement to come They feare not the judgement of God wherein he will bring the breaches of the first Table to an account as well as those of the second and the secret thoughts and sinnes of the heart to a reckoning as well as outward actions Such mockers there were in the time of Saint Peter against whom he speakes in his second Epistle and third chapter Wee will a little observe the method of the Apostle that we may see how he discovereth them Say the mockers there shall bee no Iudgement There shall saith the Apostle How can that bee Have not all things continued as they were since the beginning of the Creation for so many thousand yeares And why should we thinke that there should come any alteration after more then before Yee are deceived saith he all things have not continued alike the world was drowned by water But if they doe continue it is by the word of God and that Word that gave a beeing to them that Word will put an end to them God can as easily by his word destroy all things as by his Word hee made all things But some will say by what instrument will he destroy the world By fire How can that be for that is one of the maine
parts the maine matter whereof things were made and shall that be the destruction of that whereof it is made Yes saith the Apostle All things were made by water too and yet they were destroyed by water and why not then by fire But God deferreth the promise of his comming What of that He putteth it not quite off though he deferre yet it is not long with God for there is no time long to him that is eternall and in that he deferreth it is that some men may be brought to salvation and others made inexcusable Thus the Apostle takes off all objections of the Atheists of the world and sheweth that there shall be a day of Iudgement Secondly it serveth for instruction If there shall be such a Iudgement to come if God will have such a time of reckoning with all his stewards in the world Then it teacheth us first not to busie our selves in judging one another why because there shall a time come of Gods Iudgement Who art thou saith the Apostle that judgest thy brother wee shall all stand before the judgement seate of Christ. Asif he should say What a bold part what a presumptuous part is this that thou shouldst judge thy brother Dost thou not know that there is one that shall judge him and thee is it fit that he that is a prisoner at the Barre should come and leape up into the place of the Iudge and sit in his seat Yee are all fellow prisoners together and yee must all stand before the judgement seat of Christ. So in another place the same Apostle when hee would take men off from judging saith hee Iudge nothing before the time Why for the Lord will come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darknesse and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts and then shall every man have praise of God As if hee should say Thou art not able to judge aright it may bee that man that thou dispraisest at that day may find praise with God Secondly Turne the judgement on thy owne heart bee more in judging of thy selfe that thou mayest not bee judged of the Lord. Will God call thee to a reckoning then begin to call thy selfe to a reckoning first How shall that bee done There is a double reckoning that every man must undergoe that will avoid this reckoning with God First hee must reckon with his owne heart Secondly with others First with his owne heart Every man must take all the advantages and opportunities that God hath given to reckon with himselfe Doth God awaken thy conscience by the preaching of his word Descend into thy owne heart It is that that the Lord lookes for that a man should say What have I done Doth God smite thee with someafflictions if with losses reckon with thy selfe how thou hast gained thy wealth If with disgraces reckon with thy selfe about thy pride and ambition and vanitie of thy heart If God smite thy body with sicknesse reckon with thy selfe about the imployment of thy health and the well usage of the times and seasons of grace Every evening call thy selfe to an account What have I done this day where have I beene In what company how have I carried my selfe there what good have I done what good have I received In the matters of thy calling reckon with thy selfe with what heart thou hast followed it with what care to conforme thy selfe to Gods word the rule of righteousnesse If thou hast been in pleasures whether they were lawfull and if they were whether they were lawfully used Thus must every man reckon with his owne heart as the Church in Lament 3. 39. Wherefore is the living man sorrowfull Man suffereth for his sinne let us search our wayes and turne againe to the Lord. There are many that thinke to out-face God and men in their sinnes but know this who-ever thou art that if thou forbeare to reckon with thy owne heart God will assuredly reckon with thee thou must reckon here or hereafter with thy selfe or with God therefore saith David Psal. 4. Commune with your owne hearts upon your beds that is bee sure to take time from your sleepe rather then to neglect this businesse of reckoning with your owne hearts Secondly Reckon with others too Let that man that is in authoritie a Magistrate so carry himselfe in his imployments that he may reckon with the people and give an account to them if need be as Samuel did Whose oxe have I taken or whose asse have I taken or whom have I defrauded whom have I oppressed or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith The Lord saith hee is a witnesse that yee have not found any thing in my hand And not only so but that they may bee able to witnesse that they have beene great instruments of Gods glory and of the good of others Let Ministers reckon with the people committed to their charge as Paul did when hee tooke his leave of the Ephesians and was to goe up to Ierusalem I take you to record this day saith he that I am pure from the bloud of all men for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsell of God and I have kept backe nothing that was profitable unto you but have shewed you and taught you publikely and from house to house And because I know that after my departure there will somewhat remaine to be done for Grievous wolves will enter in not sparing the flocke therefore I will be carefull that there be a succession of faithfull Ministers after me and therefore I give charge to the rest that follow that they take heed to themselves and to the flocke over which the holy Ghost hath made them overseers to feed the Church of God which hee hath purchased with his owne bloud Let Masters reckon with their Families their servants and children whether they have done their dutie as faithfull Masters not only in furthering the service of God but also in furthering of them by instruction and example to all good Let those that are in a way of traffique learne to reckon with those that they deale withall If thou hast wronged any by unjust gaine thou must reckon with him by restitution there is nothing that thou hast gotten unjustly for which thou dost not reckon now but as Saint Iames saith at that day shall eat thy flesh as it were fire Therefore Zacheus when salvation was brought to his house If I have done unjustly and wronged any I restore it Doubtlesse there are many men that cloathe themselves in Sattin and Velvet and abound in all varietie and bravery that would now be houselesse and monilesse and apparellesse it may bee if they should make restitution of their unjust gaine Well doe it as yee love your owne soules you shall reckon as you are Gods stewards with him how you have come by every penny that you have in
the world and therefore goe about it now Reckon with others also for workes of mercie what thou hast beene wanting in to thy brethâ—…en thou hast lived thus long in a plentifull estate what hast thou done with thy estate Iesephus reckons up three severall tenths that were expected and exacted of the Iewes Wouldest thou bee lesse liberall now in the time of the Gospell then they were under the Law Is God lesse mercifull or hath he lesse interest in thy estate Thou hast so many thousands What hast thou done out of this to releeve the poore or to set up those in a course of traffique and trade that want a stocke Beloved you cannot if you looke about you want objects of mercy and meanes to further your reckoning at the day of the Lord. And if you would bee faithfull stewards to God say thus I have beene thus much behind-hand in paying the due I owe to the poore to the Church c. I will pay it while I live and if that bee not enough when I die I will pay it But I hasten That is the second thing Let every man reckon thus with his owne 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 hee hath appointed a day in which hee will judge the world in righteousnesse Let this then stirre us up to repentance God expects that men should judge themselves now Fourthly If you would stand at that great day of Iudgement when there shall bee 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 Iudge now There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus This was prefigured in the Mercie-seate that was to bee compassed about with the wings of the Cherubins all covering the two tables of the Testament one Cherubin to looke toward another shewing us thus much that there is no covering of ovr transgressions committed against the commandements of God the tables of the Testimonie but by the great Mercie-seate the Lord Iesus Christ upon whom the Fathers of the times before Christ and Beleevers since looke expecting the covering of the guilt of their sinnes from the wrath of God by no other meanes but by this propitiatorie or Mercie-seate that covereth the Arke of the Testimonie 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 Doctrine of the day of Iudgement Seeing saith he that wee looke for these things what manner of persons ought wee to bee in all holy conversation and godlinesse Alas beloved little doe 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 fearfull dissolution and destruction of all things that you see There shall be a naked appearance made before the Iudge at that day of reckoning let every man therefore say within himselfe How shall I stand at that time at that Iudgement All our care should bee that of the Apostle Pauls Whether wee be absent from the body or present in the body wee labour that wee may bee accepted of the Lord Whether wee live a day longer or die this day before the morrow that wee may bee found acceptable before the Lord. And for this cause saith hee in another place because there shall bee a resurrection from the dead both of the just and unjust I exercise my selfe to have alwayes a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men Looke 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 bookes are opened it be found that your reckonings are even and the accounts cleare betweene you and your Master by obedience and repentance by workes and by faith happie shall that servant bee whom his Master at that day shall find so doing The last Vse is a use of comfort to all the servants of God Let them quietly and cheerefully 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 varietie of changes that themselves are exposed unto because there is a day of reckoning and account when all things shall bee made even The Apostle Saint Iames 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 bee not troubled at the matter A man doth not much envie an enemie that is now in prison though hee have some good cheare there though hee have some friends that come and see him there because hee knowes hee is but a prisoner and hee shall be brought out at the Assizes and then hee shall bee righted The world is the common jayle whereinto Adam was cast after hee had sinned and wee 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 chaines are upon them and he will bring them to an account before his Iudgement 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 hee will call all his stewards to an account the fore-runners of this great account shall bee in this life and after death when God strikes men downe by death it is that they may bee brought into his presence and there receive the sentence either of absolution oâ—… condemnation as I shewed you before concerning the soule of man in that intelectuall manner receiving the sentence It is appointed to all men once to die and after that the Iudgement You have now a spectacle of mortalitie before you one of Gods stewards tooke away and called by death to give up his account Concerning whom it cannot bee expected that I should say much orany 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 Countrey For his dying Hee was here but a day or two before hee was taken hence Hee came to the Citie in the extremitie of his weaknesse and it tooke 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
of men or whether men affect it in themselves but they account this a matter of praise a vertue praise-worthy to see nothing dolefull nothing worthy of mourning in the death of any one We see it is quite contrarie to the very course of the Scripture But it will be objected We are bid to mortifie our earthly affections and if we must mortifie our affections we must mortifie all our affections that of sorrow as well as anger and the like I answer briefly The Scripture indeed biddeth us mortifie our affections but it doth not bid us take away our affections it biddeth us only mortifie and purge out the corruption of our affections Now there is a twofold corruption and distemper in the affections of men The first is when they are misplaced and set upon wrong objects so we mourne for that we should rejoyce in or wee rejoyce in that we should mourne for Secondly when they are either excessive or defective either we over-doe or wee doe not either not at all or not in that proportion and measure that we should Thus when we over-grieve for worldly crosses and too little for sinne too much for the losse of earthly friends and too little for the losse of Gods favour and spirituall wants this is a distemper of the affections in the defect the heart growes earthly and fixed upon the creature and is drawne away and estranged from God Then there is the excesse that the Apostle speakes of when he exhorts them not to mourne as men without hope whether he spake there of the Gentiles as some thinke that cut their heads and made themselves bald in the day of their mourning an affected kind of outward shew they had to mourne which the Lord forbad the people of Israel to doe or whether as indeed it is because they did not restraine inwardly and bridle the exorbitant excesse of their affection wee should not mourne as the Gentiles but as men of hope mourne as men that can see the changes that God makes in the earth and in your Families and can see how neere God commeth to you and what use God would have you make of every particular tryall and affliction mourne so farre as you see your owne guilt in not making use of the opportunities you have had in enjoying your friends and so farre as you see any evidence of displeasure from God so farre we should mourne but not as men without hope But I briefly passe this intending not to insist upon it only by occasion because Solomon makes the place where any die the house of mourning Wee come now to the proofe of the point why going to the house of mourning taking these occasions to affect our hearts is better then to goe to the house of feasting then to take occasions of delighting our selves in outward things What 's the reason It is double First This is the end of all men What is the end of all men The house of mourning That which he meaneth by the house of mourning here is that which he calleth the end of all men that which putteth an end to all men and to their actions upon earth and that is Death So that the maine point that in this place the wise man intendeth is but thus much I will deliver it in the very words of the Text we need not varie from them at all Death is the End of all men Death is that which every man must expect to be the end of his life and of his actions It is the common the last condition of all men upon earth I will give you but two places of Scripture that include all men in Death One in Iob third from the fourteenth verse to the 20. verse of that Chapter Iob sheweth there how Death is the End of all men he beginneth with the Kings and Counsellers of the Earth with Princes and great warriours and descendeth afterward to prisoners and meane persons to labourers to servants to small and great all saith he lie downe in the dust and goe to the place of silence The other place is in Zachar. 1. 5. Your fathers where are they and the Prophets doe they live for ever That is looke to all your forefathers that have beene in all times before you whether they be those Fathers that you glory in Abraham Isaac and Iacob and the rest or those Fathers that disobeyed the word of Prophesie which indeed is the principall thing here intended all these Ancient persons they are dead or as S. Peter speakes of those that were disobedient in the dayes of Noah they are in prison they are in the grave yea and the Prophets too that preached to you they are dead the generations before you both of Prophets and people are all dead You see then that Death is the common condition of all men Kings and Subjects Prophets and people this is the last thing that shall be said of them all they are dead And it must be so First in regard of Gods decree It is that that God hath appointed and determined concerning all men that they must die there is a statute for it in heaven that can never be reverst It is appointed to all men once to die Heb. 9. 17. Secondly in regard of that matter whereof all men are made of earth Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne Your remembrances saith Iob are like unto ashes and your bodies to bodyes of clay How easie is it for the wind to blow away ashes for a potter to breake in pieces a vessell of clay so easie it is to put an end to the memories and bodies of men they are but ashes and clay Thirdly in regard that every man hath in him that that is the cause of Death sinne It is that that is as poison in the spirits and as rottennesse in the bones Sinne brought in Death and Death seizes upon all men it consumeth all men from the very beginning by degrees Shew me a man without sinne without it either in the committing of it or without it in the guilt of it you may then shew a man that shall not die while all men are under sinne they are under Death Even our blessed Saviour Iesus Christ himselfe though he did not sinne actually yet because hee stood guiltie of our sins Death seized upon him So then Looke to Gods decree that is All men shall die Looke to the matter whereof every man is made that is a decaying dying substance And looke to the cause of death in all men that is sinne If any man can either escape Gods decree or bring a man that is not made of such a mouldring matter or produce and shew a man that hath no sinne in him then you may shew a man that shall not die but till then this conclusion remaineth that the wise man setteth downe this is the end of all men that they shall die But here
is called in the Scripture and then there is nothing so comfortable and desirable as death it selfe to the servants of God So wee see David in the 23. Psal. Though I walke through the valley of the shadow of death I will feare none ill for thou Lord art with mee And so the Apostle Saint Paul triumpheth over all things Nothing shall separate 〈◊〉 from the love of God in Christ neither principalities nor powers nor life nor death nor things to come nothing shall doe it the Apostles faith now was out of conflict it had got the field the day of Sense and now he lookes on Death with comfort So that I say in that measure that Faith workes in that measure feare 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 desire to bee dissolved and to bee with Christ How can these stand with the feare of death under which Gods servants are held To this I answer briefly Gods servants must be considered in their desires two wayes First in their generall desires Secondly in a particular state wherein they are In their generall course their desire is most for the appearing of Christ they most desire to be with him as best for them but take them in some particular state wherein they are lesse provided and lesse fitted and prepared then they may be at a stand in their desires they may have the feare of death in them As a wife her generall desire is for nothing so much as for the presence of her husband yet she may be under some particular unfitnesse there may be something or other in the way that she would not have him come in at that instant though her desire be for nothing so much as for his company So it may be the case of the servants of God they may say sometimes Lord spare mee a little before I goe hence to strengthen my faith to perfect my repentance and holinesse to doe some particular worke and the like David considered this that there was something that he might doe that he had not done and that he would faine doe before he went and so Hezekiah and the rest of the servants of God The point is cleare I come to the Application It shall be a word of exhortation to cut of otheruses and that is this To stirre up the servants of God that if they be disposed to distempers under which they are held that they are afraid to die that therefore they labour by all good meanes to shake off the feare of death Why Consider and note well those two things that are in the Text. The first is this that it is an uncomfortable state to be held under the feare of Death you see it is called a Bondage here and that is enough to show the uncomfortablenesse of it he saith by the feare of death they were held in Bondage all their life long Now the feare of Death is a bondage principally in these two respects first because it is with them as it is with a Bond-slave A Bond-slave is afraid to looke on him that hath the command of him he apprehendeth him as no friend therfore he doth not love to looke on him so it is in this case when a man lookes upon Death as a thing that is no friend to him he cannot abide to looke on him every thought of Death is a presenting of death to him and it is a miserable bondage when a man cannot present Death to himselfe without feare Secondly there is this in it that makes it a bondage it holdeth downe the spirit of a man A bond-slave you know is bound with fetters and chaines in his captivitie so that he hath neither freedome of spirit nor freedome of action So it is with a man that is held under the feare of Death he cannot doe what he would he cannot rejoyce in God he cannot delight in the apprehension of glory to come he cannot entertaine a thought of parting with things present with that securitie and comfort of heart that he should doe and all because this feare as the fetters bindeth his hands and his feet and keepeth him in bondage This is the first thing the feare of death to be held under it it is an uncomfortable state Secondly as it is uncomfortable so it is possible that the servants of God may be free from these feares under which they are held We see the text sheweth it Christ came for this end that having destroyed him that hath the power of death that is the divell hee might deliver those that for feare of death were held under bondage Did Christ come for this end then it is possible to bee had for certainly Christ would not lose his end he came for this was his end not onely to deliver them from eternall death but also from the feare of temporall death It is possible therefore The servants of God have found it and therefore you shall see them brought in insulting and triumphing and glorying over Death Oh death where is thy sting oh Grave where is thy victory thankes be to God that hath given us victory through Christ our Lord When they looked upon Death through Christ they looked on it without this feare the sting and power is tooke out the very nature of it is changed and it is made now every way beneficiall I say it is possible for we are regenerate and begotten againe to a lively hope to an inheritance immortall and undefiled and in what measure the hope of heaven is in the heart of man in that measure the feare of death falleth in that heart now it is possible that we may attaine this fulnesse of hope and therefore it is possible that we may be freed quite from the feare of Death This may suffice by way of motive A word or two by way of direction If this be possible to be had how shall the servants of God get it you see some of Gods servants are held under the feare of death and that all their life long how shall we be freed from this feare I should now orderly take up the particulars laid downe as causes and shew that by these it is cured as for instance Doth God doe this for this end that he may humble a man then the more humble thou art the lesse thou shalt be in the feare of Death for God layeth these feares upon men to humble them therefore labour for perfect humiliation and thou shalt perfectly ridde these feares out of thy heart as we see plainly the servants of God the more humble they have growne the lesse carefull they have beene of life and the lesse fearefull of Death And so those servants of God that have beene brought to deny themselves and to renounce all their worldly expectation and advancements they have alwayes beene ready to
crazie body or a full well-fed body is a hindrance to the soule because of that tie that is betweene the body and the soule and the spirit so there is a simpathy the soule is affected some what in this sense But it is not so then the soule shall bee loosed from the body and so freer for spirituall actions then now it is The soules under the Altar they crie How long Lord holy and just wilt thou not revenge our bloud upon them that are upon the earth The soules of Gods servants you see then are glorified when they are out of the body and therefore shall glorifie God more perfectly and enjoy God more freely and fully then now while their soules are in these mortall bodies And at that very instant when the soule of Gods servant is carried out of the body to heaven it more perfectly injoyeth Christ and is more sensible and more fit to answer the love of Christ to him then ever when it was in the body So then here is a cessation of baser actions and imployments to give place to more noble and heavenly and excellent actions wherein the soule shall bee employed in heaven There is then no losse of actions neither Againe there is no losse of company This is a thing that troubleth men husband and wife to part friends to part But we lose no company by death howsoever we lose the company of men that we cannot assure our selves are friends indeed for of all the friends we speake of in the maine point when they come to be tryed there are few to be found to be friends But then we goe to them whose love is perfect that you may be sure of and have the truth of their love Againe how little comfort nay how little have you company with those friends you desire Is not much part of our life spent without any fight of our friends is not halfe of it spent in sleep in the night and the other halfe in businesse and pleasure Alas how little time have we to enjoy our friends we rest on But then we shall perfectly enjoy them when there shall be no need of sleepe when there shall be perfection of love and freedome from distraction and imployment when the servants of God shall fully and freely and sweetly and comfortably enjoy one the other Abraham and Isaac and Iacob and the meanest of the Saints shall meet in the expression of love in such a perfection as we cannot speake of And this is certaine you shall goe to many Who can tell the dust of Iacob Now you have some one or two or three or a few men or women that you account friends and dote much upon but then you shall have ennumerable company a world of friends of men and women multitudes they cannot be numbred they are as the starres of heaven for number I say there is no losse of company by this meanes Againe you shall lose no pleasures by death it may be you shall lose some few sensuall bruitish pleasures a few mixed corrupt pleasures pleasures that have the mixture of sorrow and feare in them that imbitters them to the soule of a man but it shall not be so then you shall be freed from imperfect pleasures and have perfect ones at Gods right hand for evermore pure pleasures Againe you lose no necessary convenience neither the rich man loseth no riches by death he loseth his money doth he lose his riches therefore No The Angels are rich but they have no money the Saints are rich they want nothing but they have no money It may be thou losest a child thou shalt find a Father it may be thou losest a weake friend that loveth not long or it may be not so truly as thou thinkest he doth and thou findest friends that are many and perfect and pure in their love that love with a perfect heart And what then are all those losses when you enjoy that which shall make the soule happy for ever Thus I say you should rectifie your opinions concerning Death looke upon it aright have true apprehensions of it Get an intrest in Christ and looke on death through him get faith and then all these things that I haue spoken shall be your advantage so the Apostle concludeth Christ is to us in life and in death advantage If we live he is gaine to us in life and if we die he is advantage to us in death And death is reckoned amongst the speciall favours and priviledges Christ hath given to his Church All are yours what all life and death things present and things to come all are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods So we see that Death is amongst the priviledges that Christ hath given his Church therefore rectifie your opinions concerning Death make good that I spake before and you shall find this good that I now speake And for the last the unacquaintance with Death let not that trouble you none come from the dead to tell you what is done there but looke on the servants of God before and when they die and you shall find enough how they apprehended Death when they have looked on it in the glasse of the Gospell Looke upon them before death Iacob being to close up his dayes with blessing of his children Lord saith hee I have waited for thy salvation Hee looked upon Death through Christ the Saviour of the world that he should bee saved by him and though it be true that there is a further meaning for the Tribes in those words of Iacob yet this was proper to Iacob himselfe hee looked upon Death now approching as that that he was delivered from and set into that freedome purchased by Christ. So old Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seene thy salvation Iacob accounted it his salvation old Simeon a departure from a worse place to a better from worse company and comforts to a better A change for the better still and a departing in peace Againe secondly looke on the servants of God in death see what they have said too Iosiah a man that was upright in heart he went to the grave in peace he was gathered to his fathers in peace that he should not see the evill that should come upon his people here is all it was but a peaceable taking of him away from a more troubelous condition if he had lived longer Beloved he died in warre yet it is said he was gathered in peace he had inward peace with God though he failed in that particular action And the Apostle in the 2 Cor. 5. 4. This is our desire that wee may bee clothed upon not that we would be unclothed but clothed upon that mortalitie may bee swallowed up of life A strange speech he counteth death life to him he counteth the death of this life to be the death of mortalitie by laying aside this earthly tabernacle as he saith in
thee in thy body hee might have afflicted thee in thy soule and a wounded spirit who can beare Hee hath afflicted thee in some one member of thy body he could have cast body and soule into Hell There is not a tryall upon thee but God could have made it heavier let that make thee therefore to submit with a more meeke heart and willing spirit to God as a mercifull God as the Church in the Lamentations It is the Lords mercy that wee are not consumed the Church was in great affliction when the Babilonians came upon them and they were driven from the house of God and their owne houses but yet it was Gods mercy that they were not consumed So the Prophet Ieremy telleth Baruch in the captivity Seekest thou great things for thy selfe thou shalt have thy life for a prey Baruch was wondrously disquieted he complained that the Lord had added griefe to his sorrow What griefe was that that Hee must goe to Egypt and after to Babylon Well saith the Prophet thy case is not so heavy as thou seemest to make it thou shalt have thy life for a prey in all places wheresoever thou goest God might have taken away life and all but thy life thou shalt have for a prey Therefore be content with so much So I say to thee when great afflictions come upon thee they might have beene greater therefore consider that that thou maiest give God the glory of his mercy And so much for the first direction that is to acknowledge God in all the changes of life that befalleth thee Secondly looke to sinne as that deserving cause that draweth on all the afflictions of this life Consider thou hast fallen by thy sinne into Gods displeasure therefore whatsoever affliction befalleth thee thy sinne hath deserved that at the hands of God The Lord now dealeth with thee as a just God though not in the extremity of rigour yet neverthelesse there is a righteous proceeding in it as the Church confesseth Righteousnesse belongeth to thee O Lord though they were in great affliction yet God was righteous in it It is profitable to consider this nay and not only that thou sufferest righteously as the Theefe on the Crosse said Wee suffer according to our deserts but thou sufferest not so much as thy sinnes deserve thy sinnes deserve greater things at the hands of God then yet he hath infflicted on thee Wee see that a commutation and change of punishment a lesse for a greater hath the place of a mercy upon a malefactor that deserveth greater when he deserveth to be executed and to die he is not only content to be burnt in the hand but he confesseth it to be a mercy of the Prince So it is with us whatsoever affliction God hath layed on thee thou maist conclude I have deserved greater Therefore saith the Church Why is the living man sorrowfull Man suffereth for his sinne let us search and trie our wayes and turne againe to the Lord. So let this be the maine businesse of thy life in this case rather bethinke thy selfe how to get the favour of God then to be eased of such a trouble Let a man looke to sin in all this Lastly consider the gracious and comfortable fruit of Affliction that is born with patience For first patience lesseneth the judgement impatience increaseth it on a man The strugling child hath more stripes A man in a Fever the more he strugleth and striveth the more he increaseth his paine The more patiently a man yeeldeth himselfe to the hands of God the more by the mercy of God he findeth ease and mittigation of the affliction And this God promiseth Because thou hast kept the word of my patience I will deliver thee in the time of trouble God will take off the affliction when once he hath perfected Patience by affliction for you must know this that all that God aymeth at in all afflictions that hee layeth on men is to perfect patience in them therefore the issue will be good There will for the present be more ease to the heart and afterward a gracious issue and deliverance from trouble when thou art exercised by patience Secondly there are otherafflictions of our life and that is not onely in those cases wherein some positive evell as wee account it naturally some affliction grievous to nature and sense are upon a man but mercies are delayed and hope deferred makes the heart faint It is an affliction to a man to be kept and delayed in the expectation of that good he hath not if he seeme to catch at it it is drawne from him further and further There are many men that have sent many a prayer to God yet the thing they aske is not granted to this day Many a man hath waited long and sought the Lord yet he hath not that his soule desireth How shall a man come to exercise Patience in such a case as this In such a case when God delayeth know first that Gods delayes are not denyals though God delay the thing hee may and wil in time certainly grant it yea though he delay it a great while As we see in other servants of God we may see it in David in Iob in Paul in the Canaanitish woman and in others The Vision is for an appointed time saith Habakkuk waite for it it will come and it will not tarrie it will not lie God will bee knowne a God of truth what he hath promised he will performe in due time only what doth he expect of thee to waite for the present Now this is an act of faith Hee that beleeveth will not make hast Glorifie God by beleeving put to thy seale that hee is true Whatsoever God hath promised in the Word and thou hast a warrant to beleeve waite for it Secondly Gods delayes are not onely not denyals but improvements of Gods favour God increaseth and commendeth the excellencies of his mercies by delayes hee recompenceth our expectation and waiting for them with putting in greater sweetnesse into those favours when they come I say God increaseth the comfort answerable to the delay as in the 61. Isa. 7. God to comfort the distressed Church in the time of calamitie for their affliction saith he they shall have double Double what Double comforts for their tryals Our light afflictions saith the Apostle that are but for a moment cause us a farre more excellent and surpassing weight of glory A weight of glory for light Afflictions an eternall weight of glory for momentany afflictions Here is the issue As our afflictions have abounded so our consolations abound much more This is the course of God Thirdly know that Gods delayes are never long at the longest they are but for a short time what if he delay a yeare what if twenty thirty fourty yeares what if the life of a man this is no great delay Compare this time of thy waiting for mercie with the
is that which is both a testimony of the inward humiliation of the soule as also a helpe and furtherance of it Such a fast was this that David speakes of here A Fast that did arise from a sense of his unworthinesse of the creature and did expresse the sorrow of his heart for sinne A Fast which he did set upon only for this end that he might be more free and more fit for prayer And so likewise for the mourning and weeping he speakes of It was not such a weeping as ariseth meerely from the temper of the body as in some that are more apt for teares Nor a weeping that did arise from the distemper of the mind such as those curst froward passionate vexing fretting teares are such as the teares of Esau to his father hee lift up his voyce and wept hast thou not one blessing more blesse mee even me also oh my father But they were teares that did arise from a holy affection from a gracious disposition of heart from inward contrition and sorrow like the teares that Peter shed when hee went out and wept bitterly They were teares that discovered the inward vehemency of his spirit in prayer like those teares of Iacob when he wrestled with the Angell the Prophet Hosea telleth how he wrestled hee prayed and wept Such teares were these as did expresse the fervencie of his spirit in prayer the earnestnesse of his desire in putting up this request he had now to God like those of Hezekiah I have heard thy prayer and seene thy teares saith God such teares as God putteth into his bottle such teares as hee takes speciall notice of There are no teares that are shed for sinne out of an inward sorrow of heart that are shed in prayer to expresse a holy desire that proceed from an inward inflamed affection and fervency of spirit but they are very precious with God as farre I say as they declare the inward truth of the heart and the inward sense of our wants and the weight of the petitions we put up to God Such were these teares here I fasted and wept I will not stand upon this The reason of this action why he fasted and wept I did it for this end for saith he I said who knoweth whether the Lord will bee gracious to mee that the childe may live A man may wonder if he read the former part of the chapter whence this perswasion and hope should come into the heart of David that there should be a possibility of having the life of this child by his prayer whereas the Lord had said before by Nathan to him that the child should die Nathan had told him in expresse tearmes that the child should die yet he putteth up his prayer for it and said Who knoweth whether the Lord will bee gracious to me that the child may live We must know therefore that God sometime even in those sentences that seeme absolute implies and intends a condition David had respect to such a course as God ordinarily tooke hee knew well that God at other times had threatned things yet neverthelesse upon the repentance and prayers and teares upon the humiliation and contrition of the hearts of his servants he hath beene pleased to alter the sentence to suspend nay it may be wholly to take away and change the Execution Thus it hath beene It was so in the case of Hezekiah The Lord sentas expresse a message by Isaiah the Prophet to Hezekiah as he did by Nathan to David Set thy house in order for thou shalt die and not live Yet neverthelesse Hezekiah turneth his face to the wall hee wept and laid open his request before the Lord Remember now oh Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart c. Yee see the Lord presently sendeth the Prophet to tell him that he had added fifteene yeares to his life and yet the message was carried in expresse words and in as peremptory termes as a man would have thought it had beene absolute and no condition intended The like in the case of Niniveh Ionah commeth to Niniveh and began to enter the City a dayes journey and hee cried and said Yet fortie dayes and Nineveh shall be destroyed Here was the time limited the Judgement declared and no condition exprest yet the King of Nineveh humbleth himselfe and the people they fast and pray and goe in sackcloth c. and the Lord was pleased to alter this sentence But some will say these Examples were after Davids time What were these to him upon what ground did hee take this course had he any promise or example before time of any such thing as this that did give him incouragement to fast and pray in hope that though God had said the child should die yet it should live Certainly David had examples before time of the like nature when God had threatned judgements and they did not know whether the issue would prove or no as they desired yet they sought God As in the case of Saul When the Lord sent an expressemessage by Samuel that the kingdome should be taken from him and given to another because he had not dealt faithfully in the execution of Gods command concerning Amaleck yet saith thetext Samuel mourned for Saul still Insomuch as the Lord questioneth him How long wilt thou mourne for Saul seeing I have rejected him from raigning over Israel Yet Samuel continued in seeking God as if hee should say Who knoweth what the Lord will doe But more expresly David had examples before his time not onely of seeking the Lord but of a gracious successe and answer that those had that sought him As in the case of the Israelites when there was a discontent amongst the people because of the ill report that the Spies put upon the good land the people began now to murmur against God Well saith the Lord to Moses let me alone and I will destroy this people at once Moses setteth himselfe to seeke the Lord and prayeth and presseth the Lord with many arguments for his owne glory for his peoples sake for his Covenants sake and many other wayes to spare them What was the issue of it He was heard the Lord told him that hee had heard his prayer and granted his request though hee would fill the earth with his glory and all the world should know what a jealous God he was another way yet in this particular hee had granted his request they should not be cut off at this time So that David had good experience that though judgement hath beene threatned before yet neverthelesse courses have beene taken that the sentence hath beene altered without a change of Gods purpose at all For God ever intended it to be understood with a condition if they returned not to him he would goe on if they returned to him he would not goe on So the purpose of God
while wee are here though wee doe see the face of God in the Mirrour or glasse of the Gospell yet because wee are absent from him as he is objectum Beatificans Because here the teares are not all wiped from our eyes and we have not yet a full rest from our labours nor a full reward for our services Therefore our Bessednesse here it is nothing to speake of in comparison of that Blessednesse which we shall have hereafter when the soule is separated from the body and is with the Lord. Therefore saith the Apostle I desire to be dissolved and to bee with Christ and this quoth hee it is melius it is better Better Yea it is multo melius it is much better Yea it is multo magis melius you must beare with Saint Pauls incongruitie of speech it is much more better to bee with him If our hope were only in this life of all men beleevers the children of God were most miserable But the hope of our immortall life is the life of this mortall There was some little glimpse of this light even amongst the Gentiles such as did beleeve the immortalitie of the soule One of the heathen Poets could say No man is blessed till death Cressus the Lybian a man happy in his great achievements asked Solon Pray quoth he tell mee what man dost thou thinke happie Hee named one to him Tellus a man that was dead But quoth he whom else dost thou thinke happy Hee named two brethren more that did a worke of pietie to their Mother it were too long to tell you the particular storie and they were dead I thinke them happy quoth he Cressus began to bee angrie that hee himselfe should not be thought a happy man Am not I happy Oh quoth he I take thee for a great king but I account thee not happy before death Cressus grew to miserie and then he cried out Oh Solon Solon c. Here we have a word a voyce from heaven and the Word confirmed by the Spirit and we have testimonies of Scripture and we have some little glimpse of this light from the Gentiles yet notwithstanding flesh and bloud will not be perswaded of this that dead men should be happy that there is a happinesse in death There are many things they have against it First say they Death is an enemie It is very true Death is an enemie the Apostle calleth it so The last enemie that shall be destroyed is Death And say they it is a terrible enemie It is very true and of all terrible things the most terrible yea and nature abhorreth it exceedingly See it in any creature that liveth Marke if every creature would not use legges wings hoofes hornes tuskes beakes or whatsoever thing it is wherewith God and nature hath armed it to preserve life Solomon saith it but he saith it in the person of a carnall man as he doth many things by Metaphors in his booke of Ecclesiastes That a living dogge is better then a dead lyon Sathan is a lyar and the father of lies but yet notwithstanding that word of his was a truth Skin for skin yea all that a man hath will hee give for his life Vita dum super est benè est said Moecenas when he lay grievously sicke of the Gout So long as life remaines it is well enough You have one man that liveth in extreame povertie eateth no bread but the bread of affliction yet hee would live You have another man that carrieth about him a diseased body the arrowes of God sticking fast in him and the venome of them drinking up his spirits by some sicknesse yet he would live You have another man that hath a rotten name that stinkes while he liveth yet he would live still Yea and not only wicked men doe make many base shifts to live they have their portion in this life no wonder therefore they doe it but even Gods best children that looke for a better life then this when this is ended are not willing to part with this life if they could keepe it Doe you not remember how David pleaded for life Oh let me live that I may praise thy Name oh spare mee a little before I goe hence and bee no more Hezekiah turneth his face to the wall and wept oh shall the grave give thankes unto thee or shall the dead celebrate thy praise No Vivens it is the living it is the living that must praise thee as I doe this day I know indeed that sometime you shall find some of Gods children wishing for death Iob My soule hath chosen strangling and death rather then my life Lord I pray thee saith Moses kill mee out of hand and let mee not see my wretchednesse Elijah when hee fled from Iezabel for his life Lord quoth he take away my life for I am not better then my fathers Hee was not willing that Iezabel should take away his life but he would have God to take it away You know Ionah his pettish moode that he was in when hee would deeds thinke to know what was better for him then God himselfe doth Lord take I beseech thee my life from mee for it is better for me to die then to live These men of God they were sonnes of men they had their passions as other men have and passion was never good judge betweene life and death I know againe that there is a question made by Iob Wherefore is light given to a man that is in miserie and life to the bitter in soule Such a man I confesse that hath bitternesse of soule he may happily seeke for death as for treasures and be glad when hee hath found the grave But let God be but pleased a little to allay that bitternesse let him but lap up that bitter pill in sugar a little and then he will like life well enough Why doe we all this while goe from my Text Surely there be so many voyces upon earth against it that if there were not a voyce from heaven to say Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord we should scarce beleeve it But then if the dead be blessed why doe wee not die that wee may be blessed There is such a like Question of Scipio in that same booke of Tullies Somnium Scipionis Scipio asked his Father when his father had told him of those glories that the soule enjoyed in immortalitie Why saith he doe I tarry thus long upon the earth why doe not I hasten to die The schollers of Eugesius when they heard their Master dispute of the immortalitie of the soule went and laid violent hands upon themselves that they might go to that immortalitie And so Cato Vticensis after he read Platoes books of the Immortalitie of the Soule made away himselfe Many such examples there have beene And I find often-times in your bills many that have laid violent hands upon themselves some that cut their owne throats and
the oath of Alleageance some for attempting to blow up Parliament houses Such as these are not Martyrs It is not the punishment it is the cause that makes the Martyr Our blessed Lord himselfe that never did evill was crucified betweene two evill doers there was an equall punishment there was not an equall cause It must be the cause that wee must looke to if wee looke to be blessed But I cannot stand upon that Here is the first interpretation To die in the Lord is for the Lord. But there is a second and that is more large Die in the Lord that is die in the faith of the Lord. Salute Andronicus and Iunius my fellow prisoners which were in the Lord before mee saith S. Paul that is that were Beleevers that were in the faith before mee And to let passe many other places if there bee no resurrection of the dead saith the Apostle then wee that are asleepe in Christ c. If wee beleeve that Iesus died then those that sleepe in Iesus shall hee bring with him c. And againe Hee shall descend from heaven with a shout and they that are dead in Christ shall rise first Now what is it to die in Christ in a large sense I will tell you Hee that would die in Christ first hee must die in obedience There are many workes of obedience that wee are to doe Our last and greatest act of obedience is to resigne up this same spirit of ours willingly chearfully into the hands of God that gave it If wee have not attained to that strength that some have done that is to live patiently and die willingly yet wee should labour to attaine to thus much strength to live willingly and to die patiently So as Christ may bee magnified in my body saith the Apostle I passe not it makes no matter let it either bee by life or by death When wee have done the worke that God hath set us to doe wee must be gone and thus must every one say with himselfe Lord if I have done all the worke thou hast appointed mee to doe call me away at thy pleasure Here is the first In obedience Secondly Die in repentance I remember what Possidonius said of Saint Augustine a little before his death that it was necessarie that men when they died they should not goe out of the world absque digna competenti resipiscentiâ without a fit competent repentance Hee himselfe did so for he caused the penitentiall Psalmes to be written and they were before him as hee lay upon his bed and hee was continually reading those penetentiall Psalmes and meditating upon them with many teares he died even in the very act of contrition I doe love to see a man chearefull upon his death-bed but I doe more love to see a man penitent There is a day indeed when God will wipe away all teares from our eyes When that commeth then he will wipe away these teares of repentance too these teares of godly sorrow But the Lord grant he may find mee with teaees in mine eyes Thirdly Die in faith Indeed if ever Faith had a worke to doe it hath then a worke to doe when all other comforts in the world faile us and friends goe from us then faith to lay hold on the promises I know that my Redeemer liveth and that I shall rise againe at the last day and bee covered with my skin and shall see God with these same eyes Thus faith And then fourthly Die with Invocation calling upon the name of God Thus have all the Saints of God done continually commending of their soules to God in prayers Saint Paul would have us commend our soules to God in well-doing And it is a necessary thing every morning wee rise and every night wee goe to bed but especially when wee see some harbingers of death sent unto us then to have nothing to doe but with our blessed Lord Father into thy hands I commend my spirit And with Saint Steven Lord Iesus receive my spirit And next to this let me put in also Mercie Charitie Die forgiving one another Thus our Lord taught us to doe when he cried out Father forgive them for they know not what they doe And Saint Steven taught us to doe so too Lord lay not this sinne to their charge And then lastly for I cannot stand upon these things there must be a death in Peace Peace with God Peace with our owne consciences and Peace with all the world And now the man that dieth thus dieth with willingnesse Dieth in repentance dieth in faith dieth with invocation dieth in charitie dieth in peace this man dieth in the Lord and such a one is blessed They that would thus die in him must live in him A man cannot bee said to die in London that never lived in London A man cannot be said to die in the Lord that never lived in the Lord. If thou dost not live in obedience in faith in repentance in invocation in charitie in peace thou canst not die in these A man must first live the life of the righteous before he can die the death of the righteous And then againe if a man would die thus Hee must bee well acquainted with death grow familiar with him by meditation Many things more I might have said to this purpose but I am loth to transgresse the houre I have done with that Give me only leave now to speake in a few words unto the present occasion You have brought here beloved the body of your wellloved neighbour Mistris S. H. late the Wife of your late reverend Pastour Doctor R. H. to be layed up together with her Husband in hope of a blessed and glorious resurrection It is long since that I did in this place performe this service at the buriall of his former Wife a woman of whom I may not speake for though I hold my peace the very stone here in the wall will say enough of her and you that know her cannot but assure the truth of it I am intreated to performe now the like duty to the second Wife And I was easily intreated to doe it for that name of brother and sister that was usually betweene us for many yeares continued may very well challenge of me any dutie I am able to performe I am straitned in time and I cannot speake what I would and I doe perceive alreadie by this that I have spoken that if I should speake much more my passion would not give me leave Let me tell you one thing amongst many others it is a thing extraordinary and it is for imitation The Vertuous woman in the last of the Proverbs is commended for many things Amongst others this is one Shee doeth her husband good and not evill all the dayes of her life And marke it I pray you It is not all the dayes of his life and yet peradventure some woman might bee thought a good
these two may stand together in a due subordination one to another a mans love to himselfe and love to God to love God more then himselfe and so to seeke all good in God and in the way leading to him Secondly take man as he standeth in competition and opposite to God in matter of will and desire In this case a man must not loue and seeke himselfe but God When a man seekes good to himselfe in a way displeasing to God herein he must not seeke himselfe for he must live to God and not to himselfe when his thoughts and desires and affections are carried for himselfe principally this is against the rule this is not the state of a Christian of a beleever thus to seeke himselfe in any thing contrary to God or in any thing above him Thus you have the opening of it And it shall appeare to be a truth by these reasons For a man to live to himselfe that is to doe the actions of life with respect to himselfe not to others and to God It is First a dishonour to God Secondly injurious to Christ. Thirdly dangerous and hurtfull to a mans selfe First I say it is dishonourable to God It is the greatest dishonour the creature can doe to the Creatour to exalt himselfe to make himselfe his end in the actions hee doth It is to make a mans selfe a God and to make God an Idoll For what is that incommunicable glory that God will not give to another but this to make himselfe his end It is a glory proper only to God Hee made all things for himselfe Prov. 16. 4. Marke how these two agree well together that that that is the efficient cause should be the finall cause too that as God is the maker so hee should be the end of all things and as that that giveth beeing to the creature it is out of it selfe so likewise that that should quicken and act the creature should bee out of it selfe When a man therefore propounds himselfe as his end he is said in that to make himselfe God Those false Apostles Phil. 3. 20. it is said of them that they made their belly their god because this they propounded as their end how they might advantage themselves in the world how they might feed and delight themselves and exalt themselves and serve not God This is to bring God below a mans selfe making God an Idoll and himselfe God I say therefore it is the highest dishonour that the creature can doe to God Secondly it is the greatest injurie that he can doe to Christ to live to himselfe Christ may say truly and more properly and fitly to us then Saint Paul could say to Philemon Thou owest thy selfe to mee Wee owe our selves to him by all rights especially by that great right of purchase hee bought us to himselfe he redeemed us to himselfe You are bought with a price saith the Apostle therefore glorifie God in your spirits and bodies for they are Gods They are his and not your owne because he bought them bought them when you were slaves and had inthralled your selves therefore you owe yourselves to him hee hath purchased you to himselfe In the old Law the rule was that if a man had bought another either out of captivitie or the like he was to demand all the worke and service that this man could doe all his time and strength belonged unto him that bought him for he was his money therefore he might exact of him the uttermost hee could doe for his service for he bought him Much more Christ that hath bought us from a worse slaverie from a slavery under the power of darknesse and bought us with the greatest price even with the effusion of his owne bloud Hee hath redeemed us saith Saint Peter not with silver and gold but with his owne precious bloud a price farre above that if a man should give all his wealth Now when Christ hath bought us for himselfe wee are become not his money but his bloud therefore all that we have and are is due to him because we are his If we have any good in the world in things present if there be any good to the soule in things to come all is by Christ therefore all must be unto him I a man have a servant if he be either bound to him suppose an Apprentise or if he be hyred to him suppose a workman or Artificer if hee live by him and have maintenance from him every man expects that his time be to his Master and his worke for his Masters advantage If a day-labourer come at night and demand pay the Master will aske him what worke hee did suppose the man should tell him he had beene building himselfe a cottage or mending his owne apparell or had beene doing such and such worke for himselfe but what hast thou done for mee saith the Master Dost thou thinke to live by me and not worke to me Doe we thinke to live by Christ and not serve Christ This is the very end why hee hath delivered us from the hands of our enemies that wee might serve him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our life Marke it wee must serve him for he hath delivered us that is we must doe him service doe his worke not some peece of the day and the worke of another another part of the day doe somewhat with respect to God and somewhat with respect to our selves but we must serve him all the dayes of our life The whole time of the hyreling is for his Masters service and the wholetime of a Christian for the service of Christ for hee hath bought us with the price of his owne bloud Then it is an injury to the Lord Christ because he hath ransommed us at such a price for himselfe if we doe things to our selves and not to him Thirdly as it is a dishonour to God and injurious to Christ that men should live to themselues so it is dangerous to a mans felfe And that will appeare by comparing what wee lose by it with what we gaine by it Compare our losse and our gaine together and wee shall see then that wee doe our selves the greatest mischiefe when we seeke our selves most Consider first what wee lose by it Our happinesse What is the happinese of the creature but the injoying of God We lose our end and perfection What is the blessednesse of the creature but to obtaine his end What is the end of the creature but the glory of the Creatour Then the creature commeth to perfection and blessednesse and happinesse when it is most emptie of himselfe when he most perfectly and with due affection seekes God Therefore in seeking our selves we lose our happinesse Saint Paul so conceived of their blessednesse they let fall themselves in the highest point of selfe-love when they stood in competition with God or opposition against God Moses desired that his name might bee blotted
hee wrote from immoderate sorrow for them that were departed this life revealeth to them certaine comfortable truths concerning the Resurrection from the dead telling them that death it selfe is but as a sleepe whence they shall be raised at the last day by the voyce of the Archangell c. In the beginning of this Chapter hee prevents an objection that some might make For having fallen upon the discourse of the Resurrection hee well knew the curiositie of mans nature that leaves those things that are most profitable to enquire after such things that God hath hid and therfore some men might say Since there shall be such a time and such a change when will those times and seasons be When shall that great day of the Resurrection come when all shall bee brought together Of the times and seasons brethren saith the Apostle yee have no need that I write unto you verse 1. As if hee should say this is no needfull no necessarie thing for you to enquire into or for mee to tell you rather let us fall upon those things that are necessarie and usefull for neither you nor I can tell the particular time when that shall be yet know this that very suddenly such a time shall come and that when the world least thinkes of it The suddennesse hereof he setteth downe by a twofold comparison First by the comming of a thiefe in the night Your selves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so commeth as a theefe in the nighâ—… verse 2. Secondly by the travaile that commeth upon a woman with child When they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction commeth upon them as travaile upon a woman with child and they shall not escape This latter is that I have made choyce of at this time for my Text. A little for the explanation of the words When they shall say peace and safety The Apostle intendeth noâ—… to condemne either the speaking of peace to the children of peace or their rejoycing in that peace they have But that which he condemneth is that they cry peace to themselves whom God denounceth warre against Men that goe on in a course of sinning and in securitie and yet will perswade themselves that all shall be well with them in the end these are the men upon whom Death shall come thus suddenly and upon whom the Judgement day shall come thus unexpected When they shall say peace and safety that is when they are living in their sinnes walking on in their rebellions against God and shall yet be flattering themselves that it shall bee well with them notwithstanding this then shall Judgement come upon them then sudden destruction commeth By destruction here he meaneth not the destruction of the body or the soule the destruction of their beeing For the Soule even after the death of the body shall have a beeing and the body also shall be restored againe to its beeing and parts in the resurrection from the dead It were happy for wicked and ungodly men if there should be such a destruction of their beeing as that they should cease to bee any more for then this body the members whereof have beene the servants of sinne should not be tormented in Hell and then this Soule of theirs that hath set all the body on worke in the service of sinne it should not be sensible of that anguish that shall cause gnashing of teeth It were well I say for them if there should be such a destruction it is that which if they might have their desire they would wish above all things in the world But it will not bee such a destruction it shall bee worse with them It shall only be the destruction of their joy and comfort of all their contentments of all those things wherein they solaced and flattered themselves upon earth all these things shall bee destroyed Their riches that fed their lusts shall be destroyed and their company that incouraged them in sinne shall bee destroyed and all things wherein they have delighted themselves here upon earth shall be destroyed the whole earth shall bee burnt with fire before them And beside this that same chearefulnesse of spirrit and that free disposition whereby they incouraged themselves in the wayes of their pride or whatsoever else it was that made them seeme some body on earth all this shall cease and faile them and forsake them There shall be no mirth no wisedome no courage no friends no wealth no houses no apparell nothing to pride and delight themselves in there shall be an utter destruction of all these things Then shall destruction come upon them As paine upon a woman with child This sheweth the manner the kind of their destruction that shall come upon them It shall be first a sudden destruction it shall not give them warning either of the time or place as it falleth out with a woman with child her travell may come upon her in the street at the table when shee is talking c. So shall destruction come suddenly upon them they shall have no more warning then these generall warnings that they have in the preaching of the Word Secondly it shall bee a painfull destruction full of miserie and sorrow as travaile on a woman with a child And then thirdly It shall bee an inevitable destruction such a destruction as they shall never avoide All their wit friends power strength wealth or whatsoever else they have cannot put off the stroke of Judgement that shall come upon them as all the devices a woman hath cannot make her escape her travaile when it commeth So then the meaning of the words are as if the Apostle should have said When wicked and ungodly men in a course of sinne shall crie peace to themselves and flatter themselves in their rebellious courses then shall a sudden a painfull an inevitable destruction of all their comfort of all their props and hopes and helpes fall upon them In the words you have a twofold description First of the state and condition of the men of the world when Christ shall come to Iudgement Hee shall find all the world at rest As the Angell that stood among the myrtle trees spake in the 1 Zachar. 11. Wee have walked to and fro through the earth and behold all the earth sitteth still and is at rest Hee shall find all the men of the world in peace every man applauding himselfe in some vaine conceit in some hope and confidence or other They shall cry peace Secondly here is the consequent that followeth upon the vaine flatterie of themselves Then shall destruction come upon them And that destruction is farther described and amplified by a comparison taken from a woman with childe to declare the suddainnesse the painfulnesse the unavoidablenesse of it Thus you have the opening of the words Let us now come to the points of instruction that may be raised hence First here you may see and he that runnes may read
Chap. 6. 14 15. They heale the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly saying peace peace when there is no peace Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination Nay they were not ashamed neither could they blush therefore they shall fall among men that fall at the time that I visit them they shall bee cast downe saith the Lord. Marke The Prophets cry peace It had beene well done of the Prophets to cry peace to those Israelites that in truth were at peace with God but they cry peace to them to whom there was no peace What then Did the people reforme did this make those that before were rebellious against God come in and accept of the conditions of peace and forsake their sinnes and turne to God No such matter nay though their sinnes were reproved by Ieremiah and other faithfull Prophets yet they were not ashamed when they had committed abomination and they could not blush they stood it out they remained in their impenitency Well what of this Therefore saith the Lord they shall fall amongst them that fall in that day at that time they shall be destroyed they shall bee cast downe they shall cease to be a people at least they shall cease to be men prevailing above other people In the first of Zephaniah vers 12. yee have the Lord saying there that he will visit Ierusalem with lights and search it with candles What to doe to find out the men that are frozen on their dregges that are settled on their lees that say in their heart the Lord will not doe good neither will hee doe evill Why will the Lord visit Ierusalem with lights to find out these men Hee meeteth with the conceit that such men as these have they thinke as the Atheists in Iob that God is circled in the clouds and seeth not the things below or as those in this Prophesie of Zephanie that said The Lord sees not neither doth hee regard Why doth he not so Because hee wants light Well then saith the Lord I will bring candles to see with and visit Ierusalem with lights and whosoever hee spies out amongst all the sinners in Israel hee will be sure to meet with those that say The Lord sees not that are settled on their dregges that secure themselves under false perswasions they shall not escape his wrath Gods greatest quarrell is against those men that flatter themselves as if God did not take notice of their sinnes hee will surely punish those it is for their sakes why hee will bring candles to search Ierusalem with It was so with Babylon in Isa. 47. 8. 9. The Lord observeth her boasting I am saith shee a Queene I sit as a Lady I shall neither see losse of children nor widowhood Marke now what God saith Heare now this thou that art given to pleasures and dwellest carelesly both these shall come upon thee losse of children and widowhood all thy props and all thy staies shall bee taken from thee yea and that in one day in a moment when thou least thinkest of it suddenly thou shalt be husbandlesse and childlesse Nay it is that which the Lord speakes of Romish Babylon in the 18 Revel 7. Shee had heard of the pride and boasting of old Babylon and shee would faine be like it I sit as a Queene saith shee too and am no widow and shall see no sorrow shee stands upon her outward pompe and glory as worldly-minded men doe specialally when they come to greatnesse and eminencie Well what will the Lord doe Therefore verse 8. shall her plagues come in one day death and mourning and famine and shee shall bee utterly burnt with fire for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her Thou saist I sit as a Lady I shall see no change Well saith the Lord it shall be indeed a famous Church for something even for such judgements as shall fall upon it aboveall other places there shall bee famine and death and burning Yea and it shall be done when all outward meanes that should bring this to passe seeme to faile and when Babylon shall seeme to advance her selfe like a Queene above all other Churches when there is nothing but strength and might on her side then shall God doe it for strong is the Lord that judgeth her Hee bringeth in this strong is the Lord to answer an objection It shall bee done for the Church even then when the advers partie thriveth most then when it may be seene to be Gods owne worke then when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 off from selfe-confidence then when men have noâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eyes on but God then will God doe this for his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith plainly that Babylon shall be burnt with fire and at 〈◊〉 a time when it appeares that it cannot be done except hee put his strength to the worke Thus yee see the securitie of a People or Nation or Kingdome it is an infallible signe of judgement falling upon it And it must be so and there is great reason for it If we either consider the causes of security whence it commeth or the concommitants that accompany it or the fruits and events of it it must be that great judgements must be fall men and places when they are under this carnall securitie First looke to the causes Whence is it that men that are not at peace with God yet flatter themselves that they shall doe well It proceedeth from that unbeliefe and infidelity that is in the hearts of men therefore they flatter themselves and pride themselves in things that will not hold them up in the end I say infidelity is the cause that men are so secure Did men beleeve the word of God that every threatning that goeth out of the mouth of God against any particular sinne should certainly fall upon the head of the sinner durst they goe on in a course of sinning against God Durst they adde drunkennesse to thirst one wickednesse to another No certainly In that measure a man hath faith in that measure he feareth God and his judgements that hee hath threatned See it in Noah Heb. 11. By faith Noah being warned of God moved with feare prepared an Arke Hee beleeved that God was faithfull that had threatned a judgement upon the world he beleeved the word of God that commanded him to provide an Arke for the safetie of him and his house and therefore hee feared the Deluge to come and prepared an Arke So likewise Iosiah when he read the booke of the Law and saw what was threatned against the sinnes of the people his heart melted within him and why because hee beleeved that this was the word of God he beleeved that God would be as true as his Word therefore his heart melted within him at the sight of those sinnes wherein the people had continued so long a time Nay it is made a description of a beleever in Isa. 61. That he is one that trembleth at Gods word On the other side what
instances of this in the word of God But I hasten You see the reason Let us now come to make some use of it that we may not be prevented Wee have told you that it is true of States and Kingdomes of particular persons of every man that when in a course of sinne and impenitencie they cry peace to themselves then judgement and destruction is comming upon them It serveth therefore to informe us what to thinke of our selves of the estate of this Land wherein wee live of these times wherein we are fallen What can we expect when we consider to what a height of sinne wee are come how impenitent men are how obstinate and hard-hearted and stiff-necked against the voyce of God in the Gospell and the meanes of Grace but destruction to come upon us If we looke upon the sinnes of men wee may perceive even a generall ripenesse for judgement When the sinnes of the Amorites were full Judgement came upon them How neere the sinnes of this Land are come to that fulnesse wee know not wee have cause to feare Wee see in other Countreys the shaking of the sword upon us it hath not yet awakened us to feare God At home wee have had the voyce of the Prophets the Ministers crying unto us from day to day to returne lest destruction come upon us it hath not brought us to returne from our sinnes Wee have seene the mercies of God upon particular persons and families it hath not awakened men to walke conscionably in their places Wee see no reformation there is rather an increase of sinne And what can we expect there wants but one sinne and when that is come sudden destruction commeth What is that Securitie And have wee not cause to bewaile the generall securitie that is amongst us May not the Angell of the Lord returne that answer as hee did in the first of Zephany All the world is at rest Goe into the streets the houses the shops of men every man is at rest no man is troubled about his estate nor affected with Gods displeasure either against himselfe or the Land wee live in See is not the Land as secure as they of Laish or worse They were secure because they did not heare of the danger of the purpose of the Danites against them therefore their securitie was not altogether so culpable and blame-worthy But I will tell you what securitie ours is nay the holy Ghost hath told us to our hands Prov. 23. 34. That judgement there that is threatned against a man that goeth on in sinne seemes to bee a judgement executed upon us at this time Thou shalt be as a man that lies downe in the middest of the sea or as hee that lies upon the top of a must They have striken mee shalt thou say and I was not sicke they have beaten mee and I felt it not when I awake I will seeke it yet againe Our security I say is like that of a man in the middest of the sea and yet asleepe as a man upon the top of a mast and yet asleepe Nay men not only in danger but such as have the stroke upon them They have striken mee and I was not sicke they have wounded me and I felt it not Is it not thus with us in these dead and secure times that wee live in And shall wee say that wee are not asleepe Hath not the Lord sent the destroying Angell amongst us that hath smitten thousands in our streets and yet we have not felt it Shall we say we are not in danger Wee are as a man that sleepeth on the top of a mast at Sea Nay as a man in the middest of the waves in a dead sleep like such as are drunke and yet wee feele nothing Truly we have little cause to be secure we have little cause to flatter our selves with vaine conceits of peace and continuance of prosperity if wee looke well about us Where is any man that takes occasion by what he heares abroad or sees at home to enter into the reformation of his owne house of his owne heart It may be some men will say It is an unjust tax that you put upon us wee are not so secure as you speake of You shall scarse come to any mans table but they will bee talking of the judgements abroad You shall scarse meet a man in the streets but hee will leave other occasions and tell you how ill it goes with the Churches beyond the Seas You shall scarse meet with one in the field but all the time is tooke up with discourse of the evils at home or troubles abroad And is this a signe of security Alas beloved this is to bee asleepe in the middest of the waves Every man is in the middest of danger and yet is secure How shall that appeare I will make it appeare by demonstrations and signes that may convince you before the Lord that wee adde this to the rest of our sinnes that in the middest of our sinnes and impenitency we are secure and therefore that destruction is comming upon us What are the signes whereby wee may bee convinced of securitie I will give you a few that by those you may see whether the Land the Citie your families your selves and all be not asleepe and at rest this day The first signe shall be this When men profit not by the judgements of God Certainly it is an evident signe of a deepe â—…eepe in sinne when neither the afflictions that are upon others or upon our selves doe any good upon us Looke how God hath smitten others Hath that awakned us You will say that it is a secure child that seeth his brother beaten for the same fault before his eyes and yet goeth on in it you will say that that is a secure malefactour that seeth such a person executed before his face and yet goeth on in the same fellony and theft And must we not say that we are a secure generation when we can see our brethren in other Countreys how they have suffered and yet goe on in the very same sinnes that wee our selves thinke the hand of God is upon them for We can talke of their sinnes of their unrighteousnesse and injustice wee can talke of their neglect of the Lords day and other holy duties and for these wee judge them smitten of God How is it then that we are such our selves how is it that wee goe on in unrighteousnesse in prophaning the Lords day in neglecting the house of God and our owne families Have they found such sweetnesse in these sinnes that wee walke on in the same Is it a pleasant and comfortable thing to be driven from Gods house and from our owne houses to be a reproach to all the world If we thinke that the hand of God is upon them for these sinnes how is it that wee are not awakened I remember Daniel in the fifth Chapter of his prophesie taxeth Belshazzar for this though thou knowest saith
he 〈◊〉 the hand of God was upon thy father for this and this yet thou hast done the like and hast not humbled thy heart So may I say You have knowne what God hath done to your brethren in other countries yet you doe still the same your selves for the which they have beene punished Is not this security Looke likewise upon our selves and wee shall see a generall neglect of those judgements of God that have beene upon our selves How hath God smitten this Land this Citie especially with the Pestilence and may we not say wee have beene smitten and yet have not felt it is not this securitie and a dead sleep God threatneth those in Ier. 31. 9. That escaped the pestilence that they should fall by the sword by the hand of Nebuchadnezar Why so because they did not reforme and amend by the pestilence What cause have we then to feare lest wee fall into the hands of the sword of some Nebuchadnezar or other when the pestilence hath done no more good among us when it hath not awakened and reformed us Looke upon your selves upon your houses upon your dealings your company your conversations see if there be any reformation since there was such a mortall calamitie as drove you from the Citie and frighted you from your owne houses and from the house of God Well these are fearfull prefages that when former Judgements prevaile not worser are a comming I have smittenthem saith God in the fourth of Amos with cleannesse of teeth and yet they have not returned unto me What then I have smitten them with blasting and mildew and yet they have not returned unto mee What then I have smitten them with the pestilence after the manner of Egypt and yet they have not returned unto mee What then Therefore I will come against them and because I will doe this prepare to meet thy God Oh Israel As if hee should say I have now stood out and tried you at one or two weapons and found you obstinate and rebellious I have stroke at you with the sword of Famine I have shot at you the Arrowes of pestilence I have smitten you with other judgements You should now meet me if not I have more weapons yet I will come and bid the battell against you and it shall appeare who is the stronger you or I And since you will stand out against me notwithstanding the Judgements executed upon others and afflictions upon your selves see if you can stand out against my last stroke you have escaped some lesser sicknesses upon your owne bodies you have escaped the Pestilence already but you shall find it a hard taske when God biddeth battell to escape his last stroke if you will not now be reconciled and come in and seeke his face This is the first demonstration whereby it appeares that we are sinfully secure which is a fore-runner of Judgement because we are not awakened by the judgements of God upon our selves and others Secondly another signe is this The contempt of Gods ordinances the slighting of the Prophets This is an evident demonstration that wee are under this carnall security I now speake of Marke how the Lord describeth a people whom he meaneth to destroy Zach. 7. 11 12. They refused to hearken and pulled away the shoulder and stopped their eares that they should not heare Yea they made their hearts as an Adamant stone lest they should heare the Law and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former Prophets therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts A great wrath what is that Therefore vers 13. it is come to passe that as Heecryed and they would not heare so they cryed and I would not heare saith the Lord of hosts Well beloved little doe you know what time and wayes God hath to make you cry and roare in the anguish of your hearts because of Judgements and afflictions when you will not now heare God that striveth with you and cries unto you with the voyce of his Spirit in his Prophets from day to day When men will not heare God speaking to them in his Word it is alwayes a fore-runner of judgement In the sixth of Amos the Lord challengeth his people and telleth them that hee had used many meanes for their reclaiming but nothing would doe them good well now saith he heare the rod and him that hath appointed it As if hee should say there is no more dealing with you with the Word but I must come with the rod with judgement Is it not thus with us at this day May not the Lord say of us as hee did of the people in Ieremies time You have forsaken my law which I set before you and have not obeyed my voyce neither walked therein but have walked after the imaginations of your owne heart And then what followes Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts Behold I will feed this people with wormewood and give them water of gall to drinke and I will send a sword after them till I have consumed them Doe not many cry out as they in Ier. 23. 33. What is the burthen of the Lord Where is it that the Ministers have not beene threatning judgement and telling you that God is comming out to bee avenged upon a sinfull nation have they not beene crying thus this seven ten twentie yeares Where is that burthen of the Lord Well you shall find what it is when the day of the Lord commeth a day of blacknesse and terrour it hasteneth and this very security is an evident signe thereof even as in the dayes of Noah that preacher of righteousnesse and in the dayes of Lot that vexed his soule with the uncleane conversation of the Sodomites they would not beleeve their words but they seemed unto them as if they mocked and then came the judgement of the Lord upon them If this bee not the estate of this Land at this day what meanes the complaints the heavinesse of the spirits of the Prophets What meanes their teares and cries and prayers because of the obstinacie and hard-heartednesse of people that will not be drawne from their sinnes by any meanes This is a second evidence or signe when all this crying and calling will not awaken that we are in a deepe sleepe of security Thirdly another evidence is the vaine hopes of this Land It is a signe of carnall security and that we are all in a dead sleepe when we have such idle dreames out of idle fancies and vaine confidence that delude and deceive men What doe men rest on to secure and perswade themselves of imunitie from wrath and impunitie Certainly this that we have the ordinances of God amongst us Oh the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord. Alas had not the people of Israel the Arke and yet the Philistims tooke the Arke and slew the sonns of Eli. Had they not the Temple and yet the Lord in
in a carnall and sinfull security wee see then so many of us at least that are children of the light and of the day what cause we have to be awakened and to doe that for others which they will not doe for themselves to bee more earnest in prayer more frequent in humbling our soules for our owne sinnes and theirs that God may lay aside and cast away his judgements and displeasure that either are feared or lie upon us It is not a fearfull thing that when the Lyon roareth the beasts of the Forrests tremble Yet the God of heaven roareth against the world at this day and the proud hearts of men doe not tremble before him Shall the beasts of the Forrests bee afraid of the Lyon more then the poore wormes of the earth of the mighty God of heaven and earth But this is the horrible Atheisme and infidelity that is in the hearts of men that they beleeve not Gods power and justice nor his threatnings I beseech you let every man be exhorted to stirre up his soule to this businesse to awaken himselfe in his owne particular person Consider that there are others that are awake that may bring you sorrow enough bee you awakened to prevent those miseries Sathan is awake to tempt you Bee sober and watchfull saith Saint Peter for your adversary the divill goeth about seeking whom hee may devoure Sathan is busie and watching to make you his prey watch you therefore that you enter not into tentation Your owne Corruptions are alwayes awake The concupisence and depraved disposition of the soule it is awake still to further every evill motion to draw you aside by its tentations Therefore saith the Apostle I beseech you abstaine as pilgrims and strangers from fleshly lusts that warre against the soule Doe as men in warre when they know that they have a waking enemie against them they will be sure to keepe their Watch. Beloved you cannot but know that your corruptions are awake you may perceive it in your sleepes and dreames take heed that you bee not found in a spirituall sleepe that corruption prevaile not over you Besides these the enemies of the Church are awake Heretiques are awake every where to bring men from the faith to pervert the faith of many oh be awake to prevent those Besides others are awaken to ransack houses to destroy Cities oh be awake that you may bee at peace with the Lord of Hosts the God of Armies that hath all power in his hand to keepe you safe Againe secondly consider the evill of this security you are in of this disposition of heart when you cry peace peace to your selves in the middest of Gods displeasure It is an evill disease a spirituall lethargie That disease we know in the body it takes a man with sleepe and so he dieth Oh how many are in this spirituall lethargie in this deepe sleepe of sinne at this day the Lord awaken them It is the more dangerous because it is a senslesse disease A disease that takes the senses from the soule and diseases we know that take away the senses are dangerous for it is not only a signe that nature is overcome by the disease but besides it draweth men from seeking for cure Thus it is with the spirituall lethargie it shewes not only that sinne hath prevailed in the heart that it hath overcome grace and thereupon you have yeelded unto it to your pride and covetousnesse and vanity as those that are subdued under a disease but it hindreth you from seeking the meanes to escape out of it Thou saist saith Christ to the Church of Laodicea that thou art rich and needest nothing and that was the reason shee sought not to Christ. It is our condition we have knowledge enough therefore we care not for the ordinances of God Wee have faith enough and therefore wee care not for increasing it though none of us say thus with our tongues yet most of us beleeve thus with our hearts As David saith of the ungodly man the wickednesse of the wicked saith in my heart So may I say the neglecting of the ordinances the carelesnesse of men in the use of the meanes of salvation saith in my heart that there is abundance of securitie that they are in a spirituall lethargie that leadeth to death As it is an evill disease so it causeth much evill It is that which driveth away the Spirit of God It is the counsell of the Apostle Grieve not the Spirit quench not the Spirit When wee neglect the motions of the Spirit the Spirit withdraweth it selfe Doth not your owne experience tell you this Consider a little what motions you have had how God by the checks of your consciences sometime by secret incitements as it were a spurre upon your hearts hath moved you to dutie and to leave your sinnes How have these moved you you have had purposes it may be to performe these duties to walke in the wayes of God to please him in all things the neglect of these purposes hath driven away the Spirit it may be God now leaveth you to finall hardnesse Againe it letteth in Sathan When the uncleane spirit is driven out hee goeth about seeking rest and finding none at last hee returneth from whence hee went and findeth the house swept and garnished and he entreth in and bringeth seven spirits more worse then himselfe Alas how many men are there that for a fitt in some particulars have altered their course and have thought to become new men yet rushing upon former occasions and temptations to sinne they have growne secure and carelesse and now Sathan hath gotten stronger hold of them with seven spirits worse Nay this is that that drives away Christ and the comfortable influence of his Spirit in the heart The Church in Cant. 5. was asleepe was in a spirituall slumber and Christ goeth away Shee seekes him whom her soule loved but shee could not find him I speake now to those that were awake and are now asleepe their hearts it may be are awake but they walke not with that watchfulnesse and humility of spirit before the Lord as they ought therefore now they are heavy and destitute of the comforts of the Spirit Well they may thanke themselves Christ hath hid himselfe to teach them to be more watchfull And to conclude This is the cause of positive Judgements You know what came upon the old world and upon Sodome and Gomorrah for their securitie And likewise of future Judgements it is that which casteth men from heaven to hell That servant that saith in his heart my Master deferreth his comming and therefore hee eates and drinkes with the drunken what is the issue of it Hee shall have his portion given him with hypocrites where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Mat. 24. Here is enough I suppose to awaken you Whensoever the heart of man is held downe with secure
a man had but alwayes some one before him as a witnesse he would not venture upon many things that hee 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 neverthelesse hee would serve him at least with eye-service Now set your selves in the eye of God that sees you in the darke heares you in your most secret whisperings knowes every action of your life and every circumstance of those Actions This will be a meanes to keepe thee from security I will adde but one more which is the sixth Consider thy latter end The night is now comming 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 foole this night shall they take away thy soule I thinke there is none that heareth me this day but hee would certainly keepe waking this night But it is not bodily waking we plead for but spirituall waking a waking from sinne a waking to repentance And we tell you that Death is now at the dore ready to seize upon you Wee speake not only to you that are aged that are at the brinke of the grave but we speake 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 Bee watchfull and strengthen the things that remaine That Church was asleepe as many of us are at this day God commeth to awaken you now as he did them that that little goodnesse you have left may bee renewed and confirmed You that are quite out of the way of grace and goe on in a course of sinne fit now downe and humble your soules get into a secret corner wherein you may confesse 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 Eccles. 11. Rejoyce O young man in the dayes of thy youth and let thy heart cheare thee in thy youth and walke in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all this thou shalt come to Iudgement 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 world know that there will come a Judgement day see therefore now what will best answer God then Since the end of all things is at hand saith the Apostle let us bee sober and watch Wee know not how neere the end of the world is wee know indeed it shall not bee yet because Antichrist must bee destroyed and the Jewes called before that day come but neverthelesse certainly thy end is neere thy day thy particular death and that is the time of thy particular judgement may be sudden It is appointed for all men once to die and after that commeth the judgement That is the particular Judgement that commeth upon Death so I say this may be the night of thy death and the morning may be the day of thy particular doome Iudge your selves now that you may not bee judged of the Lord It was the use that the Apostle made even to good men For this cause saith he many are sicke and weake and many sleepe that is they are dead what then If wee would judge our selves wee should not bee judged of the Lord. So say I to you judge your selves now bring your selves as prisoners before the Barre arraigne your selves as malefactours before the Judge bring out the particular bills of inditement against your selves whereby you have provoked God yet there is mercie the day of grace and opportunity of repentance and turning unto God yet lasteth therefore doe it now I might adde many other helpes to this purpose but these shall suffice at this present Wee 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 liue securely as men that dreame of a long life for many yeares Here is a young man dead tooke away in the prime of his time in the beginning of his dayes his sicknesse 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 sicknesse 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 securitie make good this Text upon you When they shall say Peace Peace then sudden destruction commeth upon them as travaile upon a woman with child and they shall not escape FINIS A CHRISTIANS VICTORIE OR CONQVEST OVER DEATHS ENMITIE ROM 8. 37. Wee are more then conquerours through him that loved us HOSEA 13. 14. I will ransome them from the power of the Grave I will redeeme them from death O Death I will bee thy plagues O Grave I will bee thy destruction LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. A CHRISTIANS VICTORIE OR CONQVEST OVER DEATHS ENMITIE SERMON XIII 1 COR. 15. 26. The last enemie that shall be destroyed is Death IT could bee no Paradox to declare that every man hath more enemies in the world then friends both wicked and godly There is no question of it But it is true also that so long as a mans wayes please God hee can make his enemies his friends Of all the enemies men have the spirituall are the worst for they are common continuall enemies Common enemies I call them because they are every mans enemies Others though they bee enemies to some they are friends to others these to all Continuall because their warre is never at an end Other enemies we may have truce with now and then pauses and breathing times leasure given us when we have done one skirmish to make ready for another from these there is no intermission nor rest not for a moment wheresoever or whatsoever we are about it may be said to us as Dalilah said to Sampson Up Sampson thy enemies are upon thee The three principall of these yeeknow are commonly reckoned up to be The Divell the World and the Flesh. But the Apostle telleth us of a fourth which hee calleth our Last enemie the enemie which shall last of all assault us the other will leave assaulting us when we are in this world this when we are leaving the world mustereth up his forces against
must understand his second comming to judgement For there is a threefold comming of Christ. A twofold comming in his Bodie and one by his Spirit The first was the comming of Christ in the flesh when hee came to take our nature upon him and to be borne of a Virgin The second is the comming of Christ by his Spirit so hee commeth continually and dayly in the hearts of men in the preaching of the Gospell in vertue and efficacie His last comming and his second comming in respect of his body is when hee shall come to judgement Never looke for the comming of Christ in his body upon earth in the sight of men till that great day come when the Lord Iesus 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 continuall expectation of all the Saints of God and the continuall desire of their hearts their continuall waiting is for the second comming of the Lord Christ. As it was before the first comming of Christ in the flesh so it shall be before his second comming Before the first comming 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 saith Iacob 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 impatiencie Oh that thou wouldest breake the heavens and come downe And immediatly upon the time of Christs comming there were alwayes holy men in those times that were stirred up with a continuall expectation of it and therefore it was made a marke of a good man in those dayes It is said of Ioseph 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 comming of Christ be from the very time of his Ascension into heaven to the time now and to the time of his last comming to Judgement all the eyes of men will be towards him When I am lifted up saith our Saviour I will draw all men after me which though it bee there particularly understood of his lifting up upon the Crosse yet it is intended in generall 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 bee since the holy Ghost is already given there remaineth nothing to be looked for but Christ himselfe in his second comming to finish all these dayes of sinne And that this is the disposition of all the servants of God appeares by divers places of Scripture 2 Tim. 4. 8. saith the Apostle there Henceforth there is laid up for mee a crowne of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Iudge shall give me at that day and not to mee only but unto them also that love his appearing The Apostle here makes a description of all those that shall bee saved and hee saith they are such as love the appearing of Iesus Christ now that which a man loveth he desireth and lookes and longs for And in Heb. 9. 28. Christ died once for many and unto them that looke for him shall hee appeare the second time unto salvation Salvation is brought to whom to all those and onely to those that looke for the appearance of Christ. Therefore it is said of all the Beleevers in Heb. 11. That they saw things that were invisible and that they had an eye to the recompence of reward and that they saw the promise a farre off They looked still for those things that were to appeare 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 infallible 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 looke 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 mee saith shee and we will runne after thee And chapt 2. 4. Stay me with flaggons comfort me with apples for I am sicke of love and chap. 5. If you find him whom my soule loveth tell him I am sicke 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 saith come and the Bride because she is stirred up in the same affection by the Spirit shee saith come too Christ saith to his Church I come and the Church shee saith againe Come Here is the agreement betweene Christ and his Church and the same disposition is in all the members of Christ a waiting and longing and desiring for the comming of Christ. There are many that pretend they waite and desire for the comming 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 heare 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 evill times Yea but if thou hast this desire of Christs comming that is in a man of a heavenly conversation It will appeare in these three things First it will appeare by the Ground of it What are the grounds of thy desire what are the motives that incourage thee to long for the comming 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 looke both on this the free promise of God so it is said of Abraham that hee beleeved above hope because he knew that he that promised was able to doe it There is the first thing then Faith is the ground there is none but a true beleever that can indeed aright waite for and desire the comming of Christ. But this will appeare more in the second thing and that is by the companions of this expectation of Christs comming when it is right and as it should be in the soule of a Beleever The first companion of it is Patience If we hope for that wee see not then doe we
this is it that makes him industrious to avoide evill 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 avoyding of all evill because he lookes for and waites for the comming of Christ. Now then take this for a maine tryall of your selves concerning the former point Whether can you with comfort looke for the comming of Christ or no There shall bee abundance at that day that shall hang downe their heads I saw saith Saint Iohn the Divine the Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chiefe Captaines and the mighty men and every bond-man and every free-man men of all sorts hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountaines and said to the mountaines and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lambe for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall bee able to stand Would you therefore hold up your heads with comfort and with joy that when you heare a Funerall Sermon it might comfort you to thinke It will not be long before my time shall come before my time shall bee would you in truth have freedome from the feare of death which Christ hath purchased for hee tooke upon him the same nature because the children were partakers of flesh and blood that hee might free them who for feare of death were held in bondage all their life Would you have comfort in Christs comming to Judgement See how effectually this workes in you Is it thus effectuall that because you looke for Christs comming therefore you prepare your selves therefore you purge out your lusts and corruptions because there shall bee nothing then when the secrets of all hearts shall bee manifest that shall bee displeasing to him when hee shall come Are you carefull to let fall worldly affections because you have a comfortable apprehension of heavenly joyes Are you carefull to turne your course from sinne because you would not lye open to the judgement of condemnation Are you carefull to doe good to persevere in the practise of godlinesse because hee that shall come will come and will not tarry If it bee thus with you then you may with comfort thinke of that day then you may with cheerefulnesse looke 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 mariage it is the day of that great Mariage that shall bee made betweene Christ and thy soule to all eternitie It is better then the day that thou obtainest thy freedome then the day that thou commest out of thy Apprentiship it is the day wherein thou ait set free and brought into the glorious liberty of the sonnes 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 walke in a holy course the better and with more constancie keepe the object alwayes close to your eye Thinke with your selves and say If wee would walke as Saints in heaven wee must live as Saints on earth But how shall wee doe this Be often thinking of the comming of Christ often put this question to your soules What if Christ should now come If hee should come now I am in the Church am I hearing the Word with that affection that I ought to heare it with If hee should come now I am in my calling in my worldly businesse doe I follow it with a heavenly disposition as I ought to doe What if hee should come now while I am feasting should he take mee as one feasting with feare lest I should sinne against God in my mirth What if hee should come and take mee asleepe have I made my peace with God before I went to rest Worke these considerations upon thy soule When the morning commeth thinke it may be Christ will come and take mee away before evening how shall I walke this day that I may have comfort in the comming of Christ When the Evening is come thinke It may be I shall never see morning before the great day of the Resurrection what now shall I doe that if I die in my sleepe 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 bee the next houre 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 passe it not in your thoughts as a matter of discourse but let it bee a working meditation let it bee effectuall to produce somewhat in you that may warme and heat your hearts and to set on fire the whole soule and to purge out the drosse of corruption that remaines in you Thus you see what it is that the Apostle here undertakes for himselfe and for as many as walked as hee did they had a heavenly Conversation and that which made them have a heavenly conversation was the looking for the comming of Christ. This was the fruit of their looking for the comming of Christ it made them walke in a heavenly conversation on earth There is another fruit of this by their looking for Christ they shall find him to bee a Lord and Jesus Wee looke for the Saviour the Lord Iesus Which word sheweth that all that Christ did for the purchase of our redemption hee did it by price and by power Hee did it by price hee satisfied his Fathers Justice and so hee is a Saviour Wee waite saith the Apostle 1 Thes. 1. 10. for his Son from heaven whom hee raised from the dead even Iesus which delivered us from the wrath to come And by power too over Sathan so hee is a Lord the Lord of might Thou shalt find at the day of Christ that hee will both bee Saviour and Lord to thee A Saviour to free thee from sinne and condemnation A Lord to bestow upon thee heaven and glory with the Saints This is another benefit of our looking for Christs comming in the manner before spoken of wee shall find him then to be a Lord and Jesus one that will save us from our sinnes and one that hath power to bestow heaven upon us Wouldest thou then have this comfort at that day Let him bee so here to thee in this life let him be thy Lord and commander of all thy affections of the wholeman yeeld obedience now to his will and thou shalt find him a Jesus then Hee is not a Jesus a Saviour except
hee 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 Shee hath now the termination and conclusion of all her wayting and expectation And after so long a wayting there remaineth a sleeping in the Grave a while when the soule resteth in the hands of Christ and waiteth for that great day when body and soule shall be joyned together I perswade my selfe well of her that Shee was one of the number of those wayters that shall have joy at the comming of Christ I had not much knowledge of her only I observed in her sicknesse a good purpose and desire of new and better obedience and performing better service to Christ then shee had done if God should have spared her longer And shee expressed also a great desire of Christs second comming a desire that hee would receive her to himselfe and that these dayes of sinne might bee finished Much she was in these desires and she had good warrant for it for shee was carefull as I am informed to set up the kingdome of Christ in her Family It is the dutie of a good Wife to be a helpe to her Husband especially in matters of piety and the worship of God and therein her example should teach wives to strive herein Shee was alwayes stirring him up to prayer in his Familie to a more carefull sanctifying of the Lords day herein Shee was frequent Shee was much mortified to the world for some late yeares as it was observed in her daily course by those that knew her Thus she laboured to fit her selfe and her Familie that shee might have comfort in the great Day of the appearing of the Lord Jesus I speake upon information for your edification to stirre you up to labour to fit your selves for Christ by purging out of sinne in your hearts and lives Labour to fit your Families for Christ that when you and your servants and children shall appeare before him you may looke on them and looke on Christ with comfort as men that before have prepared themselves for the comming of Christ and as those that then shall lift up their heads because the day of their redemption draweth nigh FINIS CHRISTS PRECEPT AND PROMISE OR SECVRITIE AGAINST DEATH LVKE 9. 44. Let these sayings sinke downe into your eares PRO. 23. 14. The law of the wise is a fountaine of life to depart from the snares of death LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. CHRISTS PRECEPT AND PROMISE OR SECVRITIE AGAINST DEATH SERMON XVII JOHN 8. 51. Verily verily I say unto you if a man keepe my saying hee shall never see death IT is not long men and brethren since Death rode in triumph thorow this Citie and did beare downe all before him hee locked up your houses pulled downe your windowes and made the wealthiest among you put upon them the semblance of Banckroutnesse by locking up their dores and turning their backes to their houses and running away so it played the Tyrant then there died thousands a-weeke and the Grave that alwayes cryeth Give give was almost cloyed with carkasses Death served himselfe so fast that the Prison could scarse hold the Prisoners It might almost have beene said then of this Citie as once it was of Egypt There was scarse a house wherein some were not dead at least where there was not the feare 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 sinne is among you and therefore it will not bee unseasonable upon this occasion for mee to speake and you to heare somewhat that may arme you against this last and and worst Enemy Death which though hee make not such a stirre in these times of lesse Mortalitie yet hee will certainly take us all away one by one And who can tell but hee may be amongst the number of the hundred or fewer hundreds that die now as no man could tell whether hee should be amongst the number of the thousands then Since Death therefore is alwayes an enemie and alwayes fighteth against us though not alwayes with like furie and violence it is a part of wisedome in us alwayes to heare 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 keepe my saying hee shall never see death Wherein not to speake any thing of the Context I pray take notice who speakes the words The Authour of truth the Death of Death hee that can best tell by what meanes a man may shun the hurt of it hee that hath vanquished it and overcome the uttermost of his assaults Our Lord Iesus Christ that hath slaine death and brought life and immortality to light Hee 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 Hee never affirmed any thing untrue therefore that which hee speakes is an undoubted verity Hee never spake any thing rashly therefore that which hee 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 hypotheticall proposition which hath as all such have two parts An Antecedent and a Consequent In the one hee sheweth the Dutie to bee done as a necessary condition for the obtaining of that which is specified in the other The first hath the Dutie The second the benefit that floweth from the Dutie These two are knit together in a most necessary consequence If a man keepe my word hee shall never see death You see now the only and perfect remedie against the evill of Death that is to keepe the saying and word of Christ. If any would know by what meanes he may bee secured against the terrible of all terrible things as one calleth Death here is a sure and certaine rule for him and hee need not doubt of it it commeth from the mouth of Christ let him keepe his saying and then Death shall never doe him harme I will first interpret these words unto you and then make them good by Scripture and Reason and then apply them and commit my selfe and you and all at last to the blessing of God First then when our Saviour Christ saith If a man wee must conceive him to meane generally at least indefinitely If any man whatsoever for so it pleaseth him to inlarge his promise in the redoubling of the word that no man may have cause to say hee is excluded except hee exclude himselfe Keepe my sayings Here first I must shew you what is meant by sayings and
so freeth men from the latter as they never come neere it and so freeth them from the former as they never dread to be under the power of the latter And the first Death of the outward man which is the separration of the Body from the Soule it is no Death if it separate not both from God which it can never doe if a man keepe the sayings of Christ therefore though his body that keepeth the sayings of Christ bee tooke from his soule yet he seeth not death so as to have any hurt by it hee feeleth no ill by it nay it is good to him for it is a passage from miserie to rest and felicitie Thus yee have these words as faithfully interpreted to you as I know how And now I will make proofe of this Doctrine thus explicated namely that thus to keepe Christs sayings to know and follow the Doctrine of the Gospell is the only sure way to escape the danger and hurt of Death Saint Peter acknowledgeth as much when he said to the Lord Jesus Christ that hee had the words of eternall life then he that keepeth them is certainly safe against the hurt of Death So the Angell speakes to the Apostles whom the Pharisees had imprisoned when he brought them forth of Prison he biddeth them speake to the people the words of this life since Christs Doctrine is the word of life it must needs follow that the keeping thereof is a per a perfect Antidote against the poyson of Death And Saint Peter when he gave an account to the rest of the Apostles and the brethren of Iudea of his going to the Gentiles he saith that an Angel appointed Cornelius to send for him that he might speake words to him whereby himselfe and his family should be saved and those words which cause a man to be saved you know will give him freedome enough from Death Thus I have proved the point by expresse Texts and there are two reasons of it The first is delivered by the Apostle Saint Iohn in his first Epistle and second Chapter where hee saith let that abide in you which you have heard from the beginning that is the Doctrine of the Gospell which Christ taught his sayings if that remaine in you you also shall continue in the Sonne and in the Father Hee that hath fellowship with the Sonne and with the Father can never see Death for God is the fountaine of life therefore those that are one with him and continue in him cannot see Death no more then he can be overwhelmed with darknesse that is where the Sunne shineth fully no more then the body can bee dead as long as it hath communion with the soule so those in whom the word of Christ remaineth and stayeth they are assured that they shall remaine with the Father and the Sonne and therefore being united to that that is life God the Father and the Sonne it is impossible that ever they should be hurt by the first or ever at all taste of the last Death Againe the Word of Christ freeth him in who it remaineth from the power and hurt of finne bringing to him remission of sinnes and sanctification And being free from sinne the cause of Death it is easie to conjecture that hee shall bee freeed from Death itselfe Let a mans Debt be satisfied and let the favour of the Prince be obtained and a Pardon granted the Prison shall never hold him long he shall not be brought to the place of Execution but when his guives are knocked off he is set at libertie so when we have obtained power against sinne by the powerfull worke of the Spirit of God which alwayes at the same time doth bend the heart of man to rest on Christ for salvation and heartily to indevour to walke before him in holinesse and righteousnesse when I say wee are thus freed from the power and guilt of sinne it is impossible that Death should lay hold upon us as his prisoner to carry us to the dungeon of Hell and to hold us under the wrath of God and that fiery indignation of his that causeth Hell to bee Hell Therefore certainly the words of Christ are an undoubted truth and we must rest upon them without all distrust and wavering that hee that keepeth his saying shall never see death and that the knowledge and beleeving and obeying the Doctrine of the Gospell is the only sure way to escape the hurt and ill of Death it selfe Let us now make some Application of this Doctrine to our soules First to stirre us up to a right hearty thankfulnesse unto Almighty God that is pleased to cast our times and dayes into that age and those places where the Doctrine of the Gospell this Saying of our blessed Saviour is so clearely and plainly and evidently laid open to you and frequently and earnestly prest upon your soules where the Lord commeth to declare unto you the way to life where he scoreth you out a path that will bring you quite out of the clutches and danger of Death this is the happinesse of our present Age and place where wee live and this whole kingdome too The grace and mercie and favour of our loving God hath so disposed of us that wee doe not live in times of Paganisme and darknesse where there was no newes of Christ that wee live not in places of Popish darknesse where the Doctrine of the Gospell is so mixed and darkned with tricks and devises of their owne that they cannot see Christ clearely It is our happinesse I say that wee doe not live in those places and times where either Paganisme or Poperie with their darknesse covered Christ from us and caused us that we could not clearely see or heare him and so not keepe his sayings But now grace is offered light is tendred to us wee may be saved wee may escape the danger of damnation if the fault be not solely and wholly in our carelesnesse and wilfulnesse and neglect and abuse of the meanes that God hath afforded us The heathen men that have not heard of Christ cannot possibly attaine to life as farre as we can Judge by the Scripture And it is very difficult for the Papists that heare so darkely and are told of the Doctrine of the Gospell with so many sophistications to come to be saved But for us that have the Doctrine of the Gospell so plainly and carefully taught us and revealed unto us wee may be saved and may easily see the way to obtaine salvation So we goe beyond them in happinesse Oh blessed be the name of the Ever-living God that beside the peace and plenty and other temporall benefits wherewith hee hath crowned this unworthy Nation of ours hee hath added this blessing of blessings this King of favours to give us so cleare a revelation of the Doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ alone Blessed bee his name and let your hearts say Amen to this thanksgiving and let it
tender unto him as a treasure which hee will not carelesly lose or suffer men or divels to take away by force or treachery Their Death is pretious Iakar the word of the Text is in pretio fuit magni estimatum est God sets them at an high and deare rate The Septuagint renders it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Noune by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pretiosus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 probatus and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multi pretii God honours and accounts well and hath high thoughts of the sufferings of his See how the word is translated in other Texts 1. Honourable Esa. 43. 4. Jakarta Thou wert pretious in my sight thou hast beene honourable 2. Much set by 2 Sam. 18. 30. His name was much set by 3. Deare Ier. 31. 20. An filius Jakkir pretiosus mihi Ephraim Is Ephraim my Deare sonne 4. Splendid cleare or glorious Iob 31. 26. Si vidi lunam Jaker pretiosam abeuntem The Moone walking in brightnesse Put all these expressions together and then wee have the strength of Davids word The death of the Saints is pretious that is 1. Honourable 2. Much set by 3. Deare 4. Splendid and glorious in the sight of the Lord. God is so tender of his people that 1. Hee will not have them take wrong hee orders their death he takes care for them he visits and comforts and assists them in their dying he helpes them with strength with memory in their understanding their senses c. 2. Hee takes much delight in their sweet holy calme deaths and resignations of their soules 3. Hee takes care of their very bodyes 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 entertaines their soules immediatly when they are breathed forth and places them In Sinu Abrahae in Abrahams bosome wheresoever that is to possesse present joy and quietnesse And no wonder that hee doth all this because hee hath bought them and redeemed them unto himselfe with so great a price as his Sonnes bloud and hath graced them with so many gifts and priviledges and hath made over unto them as coheires with Christ so great and large benefits Wee may make this Use of it to serve for the establishment of us in our beliefe of him and our wayting on his providence If their Death be so pretious their sufferings also in any kind are deare 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 sicknesse or any affliction Exo. 10. 17. For infection 2 King 4. 40. For wounds Prov. 26. 18. and sometimes in the Septuagint for the soule The very sicknesses and afflictions and dangers and wounds and griefes of his holy ones are deare unto God But especially their soules their lives their good and safety God writes a Ne perdas Touch not Destroy not as a notable caueat for the safetie as of Kings most particularly so also of all that feare him and that trust in his mercy I have hastened over these points that I might come to the testimonie that I am to give to our deceased Brother Master Iohn 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 mee that I speake fully for hee was Vir nec silendus nec dicendus sine cura Hee copyed out in his life the old way of Christianitie and writ so faire 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 morall parts where I commend foure things 1. His calmenesse and moderation of affection No passion was observed to be a tyrant in him they had an aequipoise 2. His sober taciturnity an imitable wisedome in this age of talke and pratling 3. His affable cariage and easinesse of accesse by which like an other Poplicola hee gained reputation and the loue of the neighbourhood where euer 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 speake unto them Which sourenesse and clowdinesse of spirit I wish were not a blemish to many that give their names unto religion He honoured it by his sweetnesse and affability 4. His grave deportment and cariage As nothing is more contemptible then a light youthly wanton old man so the gray-head and wrinkled cheekes 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 meane commendations in respect of the next II. His practice of holinesse 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 himselfe with the gravest company chiefly with that learned and godly Master Christopher Harvy sometime incumbent in this Church to whom he was deare Hee was observed to be so sober and modest in his youth that hee was desired to accompany and attend an honourable Nobleman to Oxford where hee was very watchfull and carefull of him and prayed twice a-day with him in his chamber So ready was he to beare the Lords yoke from his youth 2. His unmaried estate which was chaste and modest Hee lived aboue fifty yeares unmarried and in that state expressed two vertues his wisedome not bee rash and his care to keepe his vessell cleane 3. His married estate and course of house-keeping 1. When it pleased God to dispose his heart to mariage he married in the Lord. 2. When God gave him Children hee nurtured them and his Familie in Gods feare 1. He prayed foure times a-day 2. Hee 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. Hee catechised his children and servants constantly according to some plaine forme 5. Hee usually rose early on the Lords day which time he gave to meditation and prayer and what he could remember
living after their owne lusts saying Where is the promise of his comming You preach so much that Christ Jesus is comming to Judgement and to call every one of us to account for our wayes our words and actions but where is the promise of his comming for all things continue alike from the beginning of the Creation Miserable men that would be perswaded that the day of Judgement should never come because it was deferred but such jesting and mocking and scoffing at this great and terrible day heretofore used and indeed now practised in the whole progenie of unbeleevers it may be an argument to us that it shall not be deferred for so saith Saint Paul 1 Thes. 5. 3. when they shall say peace peace and safetie then destruction shall come on them as travell on a woman with child and they shall not escape But Saint Peter answers these scoffers that asked Where is the promise of his comming hee gives them two answers The one in verse 8. the other verse 9. In the eighth verse he saith Christ deferres not long to come to judgement for saith he one day with the Lord is as a thousand yeares c. alluding to Psal. 90. 4. A thousand yeares in thy sight are but as yesterday since they passe as a watch in the night As if he should say were it possible for a man to live a thousand yeares yet those thousand yeares in respect of God assoone as they are past they are as one day in respect of men nay they are but as a watch of the night that is but as three houres The old Jewes they divided the night into foure Watches and appointed to each Watch three houres as may appeare by comparing of these places of Scripture together Mat. 14. 24. Num. 14. 25. Luke 12. 38. So then the words beare this exposition that a thousand yeares in respect of God are but as one day nay but as a Watch of the night that is but as three houres It doth plainly shew to us that Saint Peter meant not to speake distinctly of a thousand yeares but of a long time so that his meaning is innumerable yeares in respect of God are but as one day Saint Peter might as well have said 2000. or 3000. or 10000. thousand yeares in respect of God are but as one day Thus you have his first answer to those scoffers that said Where is the promise of his comming His second answer is in the ninth verse where the Apostle saith The Lord is not slacke concerning his promise Where is the promise of his comming Why saith the Apostle The Lord is not slacke as we account slacknesse For we account them slacke that goe slowly about a worke but God is not so to bee accounted slacke but saith the Apostle Hee is patient towards us and would have none perish but come to repentance Then the slacknesse of Christs comming is his patience because he would give us time to repent and have us prepared before hee come O then beloved let us not make a mocke as others doe of this patience but while we have time let us take time that when he comes we may be worthy of him Thus you have the first heresie confuted The second was quite contrarie to this set abroach by certaine false teachers who taught the Thessalonians that the day of Judgement was so neere that it should happen in their age Where by the way you may take notice of the exceeding great subtiltie of the Divell that labours by all meanes possible to bring men to one of these extreames Either that the day of Judgement shall never come or it shall come in such a limited time and age And indeed it is ranked among the opinions of some that held that the day of judgement should be just 6000. yeares after the Creation 2000. before the Law 2000. under the Law and 2000. under the Gospell But Saint Paul answers these false teachers among the Thessalonians and all of the like opinion therefore to arme them against their assaults he bids them for a certainetie beleeve it 2 Thessal 2. that the day of judgement was not at hand And hee gives the reason verse 3. For saith he that day shall not come except there be a departing first and that man of sinne the sonne of perdition bee revealed But how is it that the Apostle tells the Thessalonians that the day of Judgement was not at hand seeing it is plaine in the places before recited that the end of the world was at hand and that now was the last times and Heb. 9. 26. Christ appeared in the end of the world It was in the end of the world that Christ appeared to sacrifice himselfe for our sinnes how is it then that he tells the Thessalonians here that the day of the Lord is not at hand Master Calvin saith the answer is easie for saith he in respect of God it was at hand but as for us we must be continually waiting for it But Master Beza and Rollock give another Exposition which I take to be more naturall to the place for say they in all those places where it seemes to be avouched that the day of the Lord is at hand they understand the word in the Originall to signifie generally a time drawing neere As to say the day of Judgement may be this day as well as to morrow and to morrow as well as this day and many dayes hence as well as now But in that place where he saith it is not at hand they understand the word precisely to be meant of a precise time so the Apostle speakes truly the day of Judgement is not at hand so as that any man can say it shall bee this day or this moneth or this houre or this yeare or this age This is no more but the doctrine of Christ Of that day and houre no man knoweth no not the Angels in heaven no not Christ himselfe as man but the Father only So you see it is plaine and evident that the day of Judgement is at hand but in what precise limits of time or age it shall happen it is uncertaine Our Saviour Christ tells his Apostles Act. 1. 7. It is not for you to know the times and seasons that the Father hath put into his own hands It is not for you to know these times Then beloved why should we have an eare to heare where God hath not a tongue to speake Let it suffice us to know that it is at hand which if wee make good use of it will make us warie and watchfull and vigilant over all our wayes that we say not with the evill servant Our Master deferres his comming let us eate and drinke and beat our fellow servants but betake our selves to the good servants dutie to watch Watch we therefore wee know not the day and houre when the Sonne of man commeth But when he commeth and findes us doing well dealing
faithfully and living holily happy nay thrice happie shall we be we shall bee sure to partake of the blessing of those upon mount Gerrazim we need not feare the curse of those upon Mount Eball Wee need not bee afraid of the Thundering and lightning on Sinai nor the fire and tempest nor smoake of the furnace nor of the sound of the Trumpet for all our joy shall be in Sion But when he comes if he find us living wickedly dealing unfaithfully cursed nay thrice cursed we be we are sure to partake of mourning for joy of ashes for beautie of a rent for a girdle whatsoever becomes of our garments assuredly our hearts shall be rent in sunder Watch wee therefore wee know not the day and houre when the Sonne of man will come In the second place that the children of God may bee armed and prepared for his comming hee hath set downe in his Word certaine signes which being effected and come to passe they may easily judge that then the day of redemption draweth nigh Now these signes are of three sorts Some are in respect of us a long time before he comes to judgement A second sort are immediatly before his comming The third in his comming The signes that prognosticate his comming long before are these First of all the preaching of the Gospell to the whole world which is set downe by Christ Mat. 24. 14. The Gospell of the kingdome shall bee preached to the whole world for a testimonie to all Nations then shall the end bee Which words of our Saviour Christ we are not so to understand as that the Gospell should be preached to the whole world at any one time for that never was nor I thinke never will be but if we so understand it that the Gospell shall be preached to all Nations successively and at severall times then if wee consider the times since the Apostles wee shall find that the sound of the Gospell hath gone out to all the Nations of the world as it was spoken by the Prophet so that this first signe is already past the end cannot be farre The second signe is the revealing of Antichrist saith the Apostle 2 Thessal 2. 3. That day shall not come except there bee a departing and that man of sinne the sonne of perdition which is Antichrist bee revealed Concerning this signe in the yeare of our Lord 602. after Christ S. Gregorie seemeth to avouch that whosoever taketh the name of universall Bishop and Pastor of the Church that was Antichrist Five yeares after Boniface succeeding him by Phocas the Emperour had the title of Universall Bishop of the Church and ever since all their successours have taken that name so that it is evident that at Rome hath beene and now is the Antichrist so that the second signe being fulfilled the end cannot be farre The third is the generall departure of the most from the Faith There hath beene a generall departure in former times when Arrius spread his heresies almost all the whole world became an Arian and for the space of 500 yeares together from the time of Boniface the world was so infected with Popish heresies that the faith of Christ could scarsely be discerned they were as a handfull of wheate to a great deale of chaffe so that this signe it is already fulfilled in part but there shall alway be a falling away and a departing from the faith till Christ come to judgement The fourth signe stands in exceeding great corruption in the manners of men And the Apostle makes this a signe of Christs last comming to judgement 2 Tim. 3. This know that in the last dayes perillous times shall come men shall be lovers of themselves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unholy without naturall affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good traitours headie high-minded lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God The Apostle makes this a signe and marke that shall bee in the last dayes Beloved if ever this were fulfilled it is fulfilled in these dayes of ours for there is a generall corruption in the manners of men It is very hard to find those that in all truth and sinceritie labour to discharge a good conscience towards God and men And Christ hath said himselfe that when hee comes to judgement hee shall scarse find faith on earth such a generall corruption there shall bee in the manners of men so that this fourth signe being already past the end cannot be farre The fift signe is exceeding great persecution and affliction of the Church and the Saints of God This hath beene fulfilled in former times You know there were ten fearfull persecutions in the Primitive Church And so it is fulfilled even in these dayes of ours for the Whore of Babylon that spotted beast shee laboureth to make her selfe drunke with the bloud of Gods Saints There are but few yeares nay moneths or weeks wherein some of the bloud of Gods Saints is not sacrificed to appease the wrath of the Persecutors Then if in these dayes this signe be fulfilled the end cannot be farre The sixt is a generall securitie so that men will not be moved neither with the preaching of the word of God nor yet with judgements from heaven they have such exceeding dulnesse and deadnesse of heart that neither of these will move them For the former you know God hath sent many judgements amongst us we have had fire and famine and pestilence and invasion of forreine enemies inundation of waters thunder and lightning from heaven but all these will not worke upon our hearts The Lord he hath scourged us oft but yet we set light by his corrections we harden our hearts against all his judgements our hearts will not be softned and molified what effect hath all these wrought where is our humiliation our repentance and reformation And for the preaching of the word of God alas that can get no entrance at all mens hearts are so crustie and so hardened that the seed of Gods word it lies uncovered it takes no roote at all in the heart it workes no reformation at all so that if ever this signe were fulfilled it is in these dayes It shall be saith Christ speaking of the generall securitie that shall bee when hee comes to judgement as in the dayes of Noah and of Lot they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage till the fire came from heaven and burned them and the water over-flowed the world so that this sixt signe being past the end cannot be farre The seventh and last signe of Christs comming to Judgement is the calling of the Jewes which the Apostle Rom. 11. 25. calls the fulfilling of the Gentiles When God hath the number of his Elect among the Gentiles then the Jewes shall bee called againe but of the time and the manner and number the word of God doth not reveale it so that it is
likely this signe is yet to come all the rest are fulfilled and therefore the end cannot be farre The second sort of signes are such as are immediatly before Christs comming to Judgement and that is the darknesse of the Sunne Moone and Starres The Sunne shall bee darkned the Moone shall lose her light the Starres shall fall from heaven the very powers of heaven shall bee shaken the foundations of the heavens shall tremble Alas what shall the little shrubbes in the Wildernesse doe when the tall Cedars of heaven shall bee shaken What shall poore sinfull man doe when the Angels shall be afraid The last signe shall be in Christs comming to Judgement Mat. 24. 29. it is called the signe of the Sonne of man Then shall appeare the signe of the Sonne of man and then all the tribes of the earth shall mourne What this signe of the Sonne of man is Divines doe varie Some hold it is the signe of the Crosse which all eyes shall behold even they that pierced him as Iohn saith Revel 1. Some others which I rather assent unto take it to be the glorious beames of Christs Majestie immedeiatly before his personall appearance to enlighten the world being darkned by reason of the want of the light of the Sunne and Moone So you see what these signes shall be The signes that prognosticate Christs comming Those that shall be fulfilled long before they are all effected but one as you heard Therefore it stands us all upon as wise Virgins to prepare oyle in our lampes that when our Bridegroome Christ shall come we may be ready to enter into eternall joy So we come from the signes that prognosticate the judgement to the Judgement it selfe Concerning the Judgement it selfe You must know that after death there are two judgements There is a particular and there is a generall Judgement The particular Judgement is immediatly as soone as ever the breath is gone out of the body As soone as ever the soule is gone out of the body it is conducted by the Angels before the Tribunall seat of God and there receives the particular sentence either of joy or torment according as it lived in the body in this life We need not speake of this we have example for the proofe of it in Scripture of Dives and Lazarus the one whereof being dead was presently carried to joy the other presently to torment The other is a generall judgement so called because it shall be of all men in generall that ever lived and breathed upon the face of the earth men women and children all shall be presented before the Tribunall seat of Christ all must hold up their hands at the Barre of his judgement all must give an account of all their words thoughts and actions all must receive the sentence either of Come yee blessed or goe yee cursed After which sentence once pronounced there shall never question bee made of the end of the joy of the one or of the ease of the torments of the other But here ariseth a question you know the world consists but of two sorts of persons beleevers and unbeleevers For the beleever it is evident and plaine Ioh. 5. 24. Hee is passed alreadie from death to life he hath everlasting life already he shall not come into judgement And for the unbeleever it is as plaine Ioh. 3. 18. that he is already condemned even already both are judged already both the beleever and unbeleever the beleever is saved already the unbeleever is damned already what need therefore a generall a second Judgement To this I answer that there is a very great need of it both in respect of the justice and of the mercie of God whose propertie it is alway to reward the godly and to punish the wicked which seeing he doth not to the full in this life it must needes bee that a day will come that he will fully doe it You know the course of the Lord as David speakes good men have bands in their death and wicked men are Iustie and strong good men are in evill condition and wicked men in prosperitie Diogenes the Cinnick seeing Harpalus a theefe long in prosperitie he was bold to say that wicked Harpalus his living long in prosperitie it was an argument to Diogenes that God had cast off his care of the world that he respected not mens affaires And indeed the prosperitie of the wicked hath brought the Saints of God to a stand Davids foot slipped almost in seeing the prosperitie of the wicked It made Iob to say Iob 24. 12. Men groane out of the Citie by reason of oppression and the soules of the slaine crie out and yet God chargeth them not with folly This made Ieremiah to expostulate his cause with the Lord Ierem. 12. Let mee talke with thee of thy judgements Why doth the wicked prosper and they that transgresse thy commandements This makes the godly take up that passionate complaint Psal. 73. 11. How doth God know it is there any knowledge in the most high Certainly we have cleansed our hearts in vaine in vaine wee have washed our hands in innocencie in vaine we labour to live godly lives Why Every day wee are chastened for the Lord corrects us every morning And these have the wealth of the world they have the world at will Wee in Christianitie know this to be true Dives hath the world at will while poore Lazarus is shut out of dores hungrie and thirstie cold and naked full of necessitie every way This being so the day must needes come that the one shall have fulnesse of glory and the other of miserie But to answer those places before cited To the former Ioh. 5. where it is said The beleever is passed already from death to life hee hath everlasting life alreadie It is true hee is passed already from death to life by faith he hath it already and by hope he shall not come into judgement that is of condemnation so we must understand it but there is a judgement of absolution that is to bee executed and so when the Lord Jesus Christ shall descend from heaven with the sound of a Trumpet and the voyce of the Archangell then the dead in Christ shall rise first and bee caught up in the cloudes to meet Christ and then they shall be set at his right hand and heare that heavenly sentence Come yee blessed of my Father inherite the kingdome prepared for you before the beginning of the world You see the answer to that that beleevers shall not come into judgement that is not the judgement of condemnation but of absolution at the last day Now for the other place where it is said Ioh. 3. 18. the unbeleever is condemned alreadie It is true he is condemned already and that three wayes First of all hee is condemned already in the counsell of God Secondly he is condemned already in the word of God
is a great increase of their torments the very conceit and thought that they shall never end it is a great increase and aggravation of the torment You know there is no griefe and sorrow or miserie in this life but time will either deminish it or take it quite away either the tormented or the tormentor will die but in hell there you have them tormented day and night for ever and ever neither the tormented or the tormentor die but they live to endlesse woe O! saith a godly Father in his meditations if a wicked sinner in hell did know that he were to continue there no more thousands of yeares then there are sands upon the Sea-shore or no more millions of Ages then there are piles of grasse upon the ground yet this would be some comfort that at last they should have an end but this word never it breakes the heart that after they have continued there so many thousand yeares and millions of ages they are as farre from the end of their torment as at the first Secondly we might note here againe the extremitie and strictnesse of those torments the straitnesse of them there is no mercy shewed Take him and bind him hand and foot and cast him into utter darknesse And againe the gate is shut after the sinner is once cast into hell there is no getting out againe the gate is shut The straitnesse of these torments may bee exceedingly layd downe to us in the Parable of the rich glutton who in hell roaring in everlasting flames lift up his eyes and saw Abraham a-farre off and Lazarus in his bosome hee desired Abraham to send Lazarus but to dippe the toppe of his finger in water to coole his tongue a small request hee askes not to bee delivered from his torments or for a flaggon of water but for a droppe yet to see the strictnesse of those torments it was denied him Dives had before the world at will what his heart could desire but Lazarus comes to his gate full of soares and hungrie yet hee refused to refresh him with crummes from his table see the just judgement of God against the mercilesse wretch Dives refused to give a crumme when he asked he is denied one drop So that as Saint Iames speakes Iam. 2. there shall be judgement mercilesse to them that yeeld no mercie Beloved all you that have the wealth of the world remember this example when the poore distressed members of Christ come to your gates shutte not up the bowels of compassion open your hands and your hearts to relieve them for as I said before there shall bee judgement mercilesse to those that shew no mercie But I come to the last thing that I will but only name that is the reward of the godly that everlasting eternall felicitie in heaven The time will not suffer mee to speake largely and particularly of the reward of the godly which is a great incouragement and comfortable to the servants of God I will only speake in generall The Prophets when they speake of the Kingdome of Christ they set it out by good things there is no need of their good things Nation shall not rise against Nation they shall breake their speares into mattocks The wolfe shall dwell with the lambe and the Leopard with the Kidde They shall eate of the tree of life and the hidden Manna there They shall bee made pillers in the Temple of God There they shall be cloathed with long whiterobes Which places take us by the hand and bring us to some conceit of those joyes How then doth it stand every one upon now while wee have time to labour to have interest in those joyes Thrice happy is that man or woman that comes to enjoy those joyes It is spoken of Christ that hee the joyes of heaven being set before him hee susteined the crosse Saint Paul accounted all but dung that hee might winne Christ and come to those joyes And Ignatius saith that breaking of bones fire and gallowes quartering of limbes come what will so I may come to those joyes I would wee had all the like zeale after those joyes Our coldnesse in seeking those joyes come from a base esteeme of them for if wee did esteeme them wee would labour exceedingly after them Many things for use might be inferred hence As first here is comfort and incouragement to all the Saints of God the servants of Christ that take paines to live a godly life However here they indure afflictions and mockings and reproaches and scoffes of the world yet Christ hath a great reward for them Let them rejoyce great shall their reward be Give me a man then that hath buckled with the sinnes of the times that hath studied the advancement of Religion give mee such a one as hath incouraged those that are feeble that hath provided for the Lords Prophets that hath reformed the abuses of the Lords day as Nehemiah what will inflame his zeale more then this that Christ his Saviour sees it and regards it and will reward him And lest hee should faint before the reward come he saith he will come shortly This comforted Elias in the Wildernesse and Ieremiah in the Dungeon and Iob on the Dunghill so that they were more then conquerours through Christ. Secondly is it so that Christ will come to Judgement and hath his reward with him here is terrour to all the wicked workers of iniquitie Behold saith Malachie Mal. 4. 1. The day of the Lord commeth it shall burne as an oven and all the wicked and ungodly of the earth shall bee as stubble and straw and fuell for the furnace of Gods wrath What a wofull and heavie day will this be to all the wicked and ungodly Me thinkes they might conceive the terrour and they shall crie out at the last day when hee shall come to reward them is not this he whose lawes wee have contemned whose sides wee have pierced whom wee have nayled to the Crosse whose Ministers wee haue reviled whose servants wee have reproached And this shall strike great terrour to the hearts of all wicked men when Christ shall pronounce against them Goe yee cursed Whither to the divell and his place of torments Then they shall crie to the mountaines to fall on them Oh that some wilde beast would follow them and teare them in peeces but it will be too late their part and portion is in that Lake that burnes with fire and brimstone Lastly this should stirre every one up to fit himselfe to prepare for this judgement And let us continually therefore lift up our hearts to heaven and as the Apostle speakes waite for the appearing of Christ to Judgement Then all teares shall bee wiped from our eyes there shall bee no more sorrow and mourning there we shall sit with the Saints and sing with the Angels Halelujah halelujah all praise and honour and glorie and might and dominion and majestie bee to him that is upon
owne soule Secondly consider when a man sleepes and slumbers in sinne how unfit he is for any Christian dutie and exercise for the maine parts of Godlinesse and Christianitie How unfit is a sleepie man for the actions of life and of his calling and how unfit and unable and indisposed is a man that slepes in sinne to the actions of spirituall life There be some maine parts and branches of our generall Calling to which this sleepe makes us unable The first of them is the exercise of godlinesse the maine thing in the profession of a Christian to exercise himselfe in godlinesse how unfit is a sleepie Christian for this who sees a man that is asleepe that workes in his Calling that can doe any good in it So how can a Christian exercise himselfe in the actions of his generall Calling when he sleepes in his praying in his hearing in his reading if these duties be done coldly what are they worth Actions that are done in a mans sleepe they come to nothing so a man that sleepes in sinne let him doe never so many good actions they are of no value A second maine branch of our Christian Calling is the spirituall combate to fight against our corruptions Now alas how unfit is a sleepie man either to expect or to repell an enemie when he is asleepe hee lies open to all disadvantage Sisera himselfe a strong and noble Captaine was so weake that a silly woman Iael slew him when he was asleepe therefore we know this part of our Christian calling cannot hold as long as wee sleepe in sinne Thirdly another part and maine branch of Christianitie is to expect our Masters returne to waite for the comming of our Lord that we may enjoy that sweet blessednesse that he hath promised and made us expect and waite for now how unfit is a sleepie man to waite for his Masters comming to set things in order Thus we see in these particular maine duties of Christianitie they cannot be performed by men that are asleep therfore we had need to wake our selves if we will either honour God or profit our selves if will be fit to doe service to God or to his Church wee must keepe our selves awake especially in the maine duties of Christianitie Thirdly consider while we sleepe and are secure the enemie never sleepes he is then most watchfull against us We may sleep and thinke we doe well enough to take our ease but Satan sleepes not we have a watchfull enemie to deale with And then he hath some advantage by our sleeping in Mat. 13. in that Parable The enemie sowes tares while men slept hee comes into the field of the heart where the word of God the good seed is sowne and what doth he doe there he sowes a croppe of thornes and they make the heart of a Christian like the field of Solomons sluggard Prov. 24. I passed by the field of the sluggard and it was all thornes c. Thus is the heart that is neglected of a man that is sleepie and secure in sinne When doe robbers and theeves assault the house In the dead time of the night when they may take men at advantage in their first sleepe then they come and breake into the house Shall theeves and burglaries watch at midnight to breake the house and cut mens throates and wilt not thou watch to save thy selfe Further consider as the enemie never sleepes so Gods mercy never sleepes Gods mercie is ever watching over us to doe us good and it watcheth to keepe us watchfull for what should all the mercies of God doe to us but keepe us watchfull Our God that we serve is not as Baal the God of Idolaters perhaps hee is asleepe and must be awaked or hee is chasing his adversaries No no the strength that keepes Israel slumbers not nor sleepes Therefore let not Israel slumber nor sleepe because God watcheth over his children let them watch with him and keepe themselves neere to him Fiftly if this will not move thee then consider as Gods mercie sleepes not so Gods judgements sleepe not That man that sleepes in sinne let him know that Gods judgements sleepe not As Balaam when he was out of the way the Angell watcheth him and catcheth him in this corner and in that corner he could goe into no corner but the Angell with his drawne sword was ready to meet him and to slay him And the Apostle saith of those that were led away by false teachers Their damnation sleepeth not Gods judgements are alway waking thou maist sleepe on both sides in sinne but Gods justice sleepeth not And thou that art the Lords if thou sleepe know that correction and chastisement sleepeth not and they will awake thee thou wert better to awake by slighter meanes To conclude all consider that all of us there is no man upon the earth but we are all going to meet the mortall slâ—…epe of death and if we shall when that meets us have our owne consciences tell us that we have also a spirituall sleepe within us that we carrie a spirituall sleepe to meet that mortall sleepe what a miserable and mournfull state will that be when the heart of a man or woman that is comming to die shall say and speake aloude and witnesse against his Master O thou hast beene a sluggish and sleepie Christian thou hast had good meanes but thou hast not kept thy watch thou wouldest sleepe doe what the exhortations of the Word could thou wouldest be a drowsie Christian Hence it comes to passe that so many when on their death-bed they come to grapple with that mortall sleepe and then conscience proclaimes against them then they crie Oh that I had but one day but one houre more that I might waken and strengthen the things that are readie to die and that it might be better with me then it is But alas now their short day is past and one perpetuall night to come and now it is too late as it proves many times Therefore let not time goe but know that that mournfull day must come upon us we must meet that mortall sleepe Let us labour to shake off spirituall sleepe drowsinesse of spirit and make our peace in the meane time that conscience may witnesse with us and for us at the day of death and judgement Let us labour to be watchfull and desire to be readie for the Lord and to have our accounts readie for him This shall suffice for the words Now for our occasion because this is my first occasion of this kind I must enter with a preface and that is this that as I have ever beene in the course of my ministerie so I shall bee very sparing in the praise of the dead because I know that these exercises are appointed for the instructing of the living and the consolation of those that survive and not for the praise and commemoration of the dead Besides I know and see by daily
my Gospell Rom. 2. 16. not onely that looke what he hath spoken of the judgement shall proove true but that in the judgement there shall be a proceeding proportionable and agreeable to what hee hath spoken in that word that he calls his Gospell Therefore take heede how you slight this Word it is a dangerous thing Saith Solomon Pro. 13. 13. he that despiseth the Commandement shall perish Hee that despiseth the Commandement when God hath revealed his will in matter of dutie for the direction of life for that he calls the Commandement there now if a man come to despise this he shall certainely perish saith Solomon When doth a man despise the Commandement You know to despise is when a man accounts a thing of no force that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 despise not prophesying The word is account it not a thing of nothing account it not a slight matter Now you know a man accounts a thing as a thing of nothing when he undervalues it when he gives it lesse acknowledgment then it is worthy of As if a man come to buy a Jewell or a Pearle in the Market and offer a sleight and small matter for it hee had as good bid nothing the undervaluing of a commoditie is as the accounting of it worth nothing In spirituall things when a man accounts the Law of God below it selfe that is when hee makes it not the chiefe direction of his life then hee accounts it as a thing of nothing and despiseth the Law For either the Law is somewhat by Gods appointment or not at all if it be somewhat by Gods appointment then it must have that place that God hath appointed it or else wee give it not any esteeme according to the appointment of God but according to our owne Fancy I say if wee give the Law esteeme according to Gods appointment and by vertue of his Word then wee will give it the esteeme that God hath put upon it that is that it shall rule us in all our actions and that it shall be our supreame rule and guide that a man shall account nothing else as the sufficient direction of his life but the Law Now when men come to this that they will preferre their owne opinions before the Law when they will preferre the opinion of other men before the Text of Scripture when they preferre the customes of the world before the rule of the Word This is now to dispise the Law to make it as a thing of nothing As you see it plaine it is ordinary in Scripture thus to tax men as when they would account the traditions of men above the word In vaine they worship me saith God they become vanitie themselves for accounting the Law vaine So when they preferred the customes of their forefathers equall with the Law they despised the Law this mixture this joyning of other things with it it is that that the Scripture calls the despising of the Law Therefore it is a dangerous thing to despise the Law Is it not dangerous to despise the Judge the Law shall bee your Judge that is the rule whereby the Judge shall proceede You know it is the aggravation of the fault of a Malefactor that he not onely transgresseth and sinneth against the Lawes of the Kingdome but that he hath despised the Law if hee have beene heard to speake any speeches to the contempt of the Law this is a great aggravation of his sinne how much more shall it bee in the day of the Lord Mens Lawes are imperfect and therefore are revoked many times and repealed and reversed but this Law of God is a perfect Law and therefore it shall never bee reversed it shall never be revoked nor altred Now for a man to sleight and neglect this in any point or degree it is a high contempt against God himselfe That as a man might say of the Iewes when Christ came amongst them hee offered himselfe to bee their King but being they would not take him for their King who if they had taken him so would have beene their Saviour therefore the time shall come that he will be their Judge and not their Saviour So I say concerning the Law the Law now published in the preaching of the Word those that will not now take it to be their counsellor shall finde it then to bee their condemner If this be a harsh saying as they speake of the command of Christ Ioh. 6. This is a hard saying who can beare it If the Commandement of Christ concerning obedience seeme harsh then how harsh a saying shall that be depart yee cursed into everlasting fire If it bee so hard a thing to stand to the command of the Law how hard a thing will it bee to stand under the penaltie and censure of the Law Therefore I say let men take heede they shall finde that even that very faith commanded that they have sleighted it shall proove heavie they sleighted it in obedience it shall proove heavie in the judgement and punishment Secondly it may serve for admonition and so to teach us how to carry our selves If the Law of God be the rule whereby hee will judge us First then looke to the law for direction looke to the precept to the command of God for the directing of our lives I know not how but I am sure by the malice of Sathan it is come into the world into the Church that some men upon pretence of giving the doctrine of justification by grace and by the merits of Christ the full vertue of it would put men off from all obedience as if therefore wee were not to be under the direction of the Law because wee are freed from the Law by Christ. They distinguish not betweene the penaltie of the Law and the command of the Law the same Christ that hath freed us from the punishment of the Law as many as are in him by faith hath subjected us to the command of the Law and that in his owne person and not onely so but in his owne precept Therefore he became an expounder of the Law Matth. 5. and shewes that the Law is spirituall that it is a thing that binds the conscience and would have all men looke to the direction of the Law And the Apostle Saint Paul then whom no man ever spake more fully of justification by Faith yet the same Apostle would not have the Law as it is a direction of life abolished but would have men so much the more new as by new arguments and incouragements they are set upon the duties of obedience But I say such is the malice of Sathan as to draw men upon such grounds as these are not rightly understood by them to I know not what course of libertiâ—…sme and though they pretend a course of obedience to the Law yet they will not doe it as to the Law Whereas it is evident that the Law is appointed as a curbe to our
corruption to cure and purge out that And therefore it is formen to be wiser then God to ground their actions upon another principle and ground then God grounds them Indeede the servants of God doe not the actions of obedience simply because of the Law written in the Scriptures but they have the Law written in their hearts too so the Spirit of God is a Spirit that guides them according to the Law and disposeth them to those actions that are sutable to the Law yet he never excludes or puts them from the Law from subjection to the Law in point of obedience I say therefore errours creepe in amongst men to dreame of a libertie from obedience when the Scripture speaks of a libertie from the Law but in other sences not in matter of dutie Secondly let men looke to the Law for tryall too Gal. 6. 3 4. If a man thinke he is something when he is nothing he deceiveth him selfe but let every man try himselfe and prove his owne worke Let him proove his owne worke by what shall he prove it Why by the Law By the Law here we meane the whole Word of God the Law of workes and of Faith I say let him proove his workes by this Law by the written Word of God Therefore if a man would now know how it shall goe with him at the day of judgement let him begin to judge himselfe by this rule before hand Let him reason thus eyther I shall stand as condemned or acquitted if as condemned it is by the Law therefore marke so farre as I goe on in any sinne against any knowne truth of God so farre I stand in the estate of a condemned person Therefore consider beloved you doe exceedingly wrong your selves because you doe not looke thus upon your actions you looke not upon them as upon things that are transgressions against the Law that shall judge you and that therefore if the Law of God condemne such actions now then thou standest as a condemned person by vertue of that Law Alas durst men goe on without repentance in any course of sinne if they tooke themselves as condemned men in truth by vertue of the Law There is not any word that thou speakest but as soone as it is spoken thou standest in the estate of a condemned man and if thou interest not thy selfe in Christ and come not in certainly the Law will passe upon it Therefore seriously consider of this that there is no evill or particular sinne that you goe on in but if the Law condemne it Christ will condemne it too at the day of judgement Therefore you must before hand condemne your selves that you may not be condemned of the Lord 1 Cor. 11. 32. Iudge your selves and you shall not be judged of the Lord. But yet this remaynes a truth still that hee that doth not condemne himselfe that doth not take off his sinnes by unfeigned repentance he stands a condemned person before the Lord because he stands condemned in the Law Therefore I beseech you beloved pleade not any priviledge in Christ I speake this the rather because men use the Gospell to their owne destruction I say plead not priviledge by Christ if you goe on in the allowance of any sinne Shall we continue in sinne that grace may abound God forbid saith the Apostle So I say when a man will come and plead I believe and I hope to be saved by Faith yet neverthelesse it may be thou art a swearer a vaine spender of thy time it may be thou art a neglecter of the duties of the worship of God and of thy duties towards men c. thou art a man in some constant course in some way of sinne or other I say this shewes thee to stand as a condemned man and in the state of a condemned man I say not that such a man shall infallibly bee damned because God may give him repentance that hee may come out of the snare of the divell but wee say hee stands for the present in the state of a condemned person and he is condemned by the Law and remaynes so till this be reversed by repentance till hee have sued out his pardon by interresting himselfe in Christ. Therefore consider this seriously that there is not that sinne in thought that thou committest not any act of sinne whatsoever but because of that sinne thou art condemned in Law therefore thou standest in the state of a condemned person for that sinne therefore there must bee somewhat done now to take off this I say a man may have a pardon and yet if he sue it not out it is of no force or use to him so letno man talke hee is a justified person by Christ but thou must sue out this pardon Therefore wee are taught upon daily suing to renew our daily prayers for the pardon of sinne There must be a daily suing out of the pardon and that upon this ground so there must be a daily condemning of thy selfe and of sinne in thy selfe Alas what shall become of a world of men and women I speake not of those that are without wee leave them they are condemned in the sight of all the world but wee speake of those that are now in the Church of those that goe some what forward in the profession of Religion and hope and are perswaded that they are in a good case and yet have little care to set things right betweene God and themselves but though such and such actions be condemned by the Law yet they hope that there is a generall mercy that will pardon it though they never sue out their pardon I say the Law shall passe on thee till thou doe that that concernes thee to be released from the rigour and sentence of the Law he that confesseth and forsakes his sinnes shall finde mercy Prov. 28. 13. This must be done and so in other particulars the Scripture is large in these things that somewhat must be done by us to sue out this pardon that though there be an act of pardon in God a free act yet there must somewhat bee done by us to sue out this pardon for our selves or else wee stand in the state of condemned persons But these things I leave to your meditations and so I fall upon the next point which I will briefly touch and that is no more but thus that since there shall be a proceeding in the day of judgement by the Law wherein mens actions and words shall bee brought to account therefore The consideration of the day of judgement should be an effectuall insentive provocation to stinmen to a holy and conscionable walking in this life So speake and so doe as those that shall be judged by such a Law Since the Apostle makes this use of it to direct us both in our speeches and actions I say we may learne hence that the consideration of the judgement to come wherein Christ will proceede according to the Law it
free gift of God And in Rom. 8. hee saith that the sufferings of this life is not worthy of the glory that shall bee revealed all our sufferings all our workes they are not worthy of the glory of God we cannot properly merit them This was the constant Doctrine of the primitive Church that a good life when wee are justified and an eternall life when wee are glorified they all grant that all that is good in us is the gift of God that eternall life is not a retribution to our workes but the free gift of God When God crownes our merits hee crownes nothing else but his owne free gift these and many other sentences wee finde among the ancient Fathers plainely convincing our adversaries that in this point they swerve not onely from Scripture but from all sound antiquitie Secondly then to come to our selves this should humble us in respect of our owne deservings doe all the good thou canst take heede it doe not puffe thee up thinke not to merit heaven Alas thou canst not doe it for what is it to the Almightie as it is sayd in Job that thou art righteous Thy well doing extends not to him thou canst doe him no good therefore thou canst looke for nothing at his hands since thou canst doe him no good but all that thou doest in his service it is not for his but for thy good yet he commands thee and thou art bound to doe it but all thou canst doe is no more then thou art bound to doe Therefore when thou hast done all that thou canst acknowledge thy selfe to bee an unprofitable servant and thou hast done no more then thy duty If thou hast many good workes yet thou hast more sinne and the least sinne of thine in the rigour of justice will deprive thee of thy interest in God Therefore thy appeale must bee to the throne of grace and thy onely plea must bee that of the Publican every one of us God be mercifull to me a sinner when wee have done all wee can it must be mercie and not any merit of ours that must bring us to heaven Thirdly here is comfort for the children of God in that this inestimable treasure of eternall life is not committed to our keeping but God hath it in his keeping It is his gift it is not committed to the rotten box of our merits then wee could have no certaintie of it the devill would easily pick the Locke yea without picking he would shake in peeces the crazie joynts of the best worke wee doe he would steale it from us and take it away and deprive us of this excellent benefit but the Lord hath dealt better for us hee hath kept it in his owne hands hee hath layd it up in the Cabinet of his owne mercy and love that never failes for with everlasting mercie hee hath compassion on us Esay 54. hee loves us with an everlasting love It is his mercie that wee are not consumed because his compassions faile not and whom hee loves he loves to the end It is layd up in the mercy of God hee will have it his gift least we should keepe it and it should be lost hee hath reserved it in his owne hands Therefore in temptations when they drive us to doubt of our attaining of eternall life let us cast our eye upon the keeper of it it is the Lord he is warie to discerne and faithfull to bestow it therefore let us comfort our selves and say every one of us as Saint Paul 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have trusted and I am perswaded that hee is able to keepe that which I have committed to him against that day Lastly seeing eternall life is the free gift of God it must make us thankefull to him for it which wee should never doe if we deserved it doth a master thanke his servant for doing his dutie So if wee did thinke heaven were our due we should never be thankfull for it Pride is a great enemy to thankefulnesse therefore the way is to humble our selves and to consider that wee deserve no good thing at Gods hands then wee will take this great benefit at Gods hands most thankefully Especially when wee consider it is all that God requires of us as he saith Psal. 50. Call upon me in the day of trouble I will heare thee and deliver thee and what shalt thou doe Thou shalt glorifie me Glorifying God and being thankefull to him is all the tribute wee are to pay to this our royall Lord and shall we deny him this It is a small benefit that is not worth thankes We set eternall life at too low a rate if wee forget to bee thankefull There was never a precious Iewell afforded so cheape as eternall life for our thankefulnesse If wee did know what it were to want it we would give ten thousand worlds rather then be without it Therefore as Naamans servants sayd to him concerning his washing in Iordan If the Prophet had commanded thee a greater thing wouldest thou not have done it So if God had commanded us a great matter for eternall life wee should have done it how much more when he saith take it and be thankfull be but thankefull Thus I have described to you this twofold seruice the wages of sinne that is death temporall eternall The service of righteousnesse the wages and reward of that eternall life which is not wages but the gift of God So that I may now say to you as Moses did to Israel Deut. 30. 19. Behold I have set before you life and death cursing and blessing Therefore choose not cursing chuse not sinne nor the wages thereof it is death but choose life that you and your seede may live If wee follow sinne the wages will be death if wee apply our selves to righteousnesse in the service of God our reward shall be eternall life not that wee deserve it but that it is the pleasure of our heavenly Father to bestow it upon us For the wages of sinne is death and the gift of God is eternall life through Iesus Christ our Lord. FINIS THE PROFIT OF AFFLICTIONS OR GODS AYME IN HIS CORRECTIONS PSAL. 119. 71. It is good for me that I have beene afflicted that I might learne thy Statutes ISA. 27. 9. By this therefore shall the iniquitie of Iacob be purged and this is all the fruite to take away his sinne LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. THE PROFIT OF AFFLICTIONS OR GODS AYME IN HIS CORRECTIONS SERMON XXX HEB. 12. 10. For they verely for a few dayes chastened us after their owne pleasure but Hee for our profit that we might bee partakers of his holinesse THere are two things among many others eminently in Jesus Christ which declare him to be an all-sufficient Saviour of his people and these the Scripture frequently setteth forth unto us in a most sweet conjunction Righteousnesse and strength So the Prophet Surely shall one
survivers and attendants upon this sad occasion but in these administrations hee intendeth his peoples profit as wee may see in the case of Iob the Lord takes away all his children but saith the Apostle yee have heard of the patience of Iob and have seene the end of the Lord hee was no looser in the conclusion but God returned at length all into his bosome againe nay double In a word for this very purpose it is even for their profit for alas it is not Gods owne benefit hee seekes after but his peoples in all his administrations that they live that they doe that they suffer that they dye their death is in order to their gaine as the Apostle saith to me to live is Christ and to die is gaine To make some application of this and so to proceede First let us here take occasion as many as are the called of God according to his purpose and implanted in this glorious relation of children to a father let us learne to advance his name and according to his name let his prayse be in all the Congregations of the Saints Truely as Moses sayd once their Rocke is not as our Rocke So may wee say other fathers are not as this Father our Father is set for the good and profit of his children The divell is a father so our Saviour speakes you are of your father the divell hee hath children and he studieth nothing so much as that they may live all their daies in pleasure striving to leade his followers altogether in pleasant paths But alas hee hath no ayme at their profit it is their losse hee seekes and therefore at last hee makes them pay full deare for all their pleasure and content But now God hee is a wise Father and in all his dispensations to his children though they seeme for the present unpleasant hee hath an ayme at their profit Let this be for his prayse Secondly let us labour to beleeve this that God in all his dealings and administrations towards us hath an eye to our profit How hard soever the condition be that he putteth us into if he take from us the desire of our eyes the delight of our hearts our liberties our estates our children yet be perswaded of this that God doth it for my good and benefit And thirdly labour to reape the fruit and benefit that God aymeth at and intendeth and would have us receive from all his administrations When we are called together to give attendance upon the preaching of the Word then thinke what am I come hither for is it not for my profit would God have me trifle out my time surely the Lord would never have singled out a day of seven for himselfe but that hee might likewise make his people partaker of spirituall advantages and heavenly benefits and therefore I lose a day and never heare well except I heare to profit And thus what I say of this Ordinance I might likewise speake of the rest before named And so for this present occasion the Lord now you see is pleased to call us to the house of mourning Was it thinke yee the purpose of God that wee should meet together here in a customarie complimentall manner to doe things in a common garpe only to eate together and drinke together No the Lord calleth us to a house of mourning for our profit that we might consider the end of all men and that wee that are living might lay the thing to heart And for you that are in present distresse in regard of this particular affliction reckon upon this that God hath done this for your profit labour yee therefore to reape the fruit of it bee not so much poring upon the affliction and altogether complaining of the bitternesse of the cup but follow on after the profit and benefit that God intendeth you thereby And let every one labour to improve all administrations of God to this purpose that as he in them all intendeth our good so let us pursue after the benefit Secondly let it instruct us further concerning our dutie even to walke worthy of such a God as many of us as are in relation to him as children to a Father and servants to a Master How should this first of all winne us over to such a Father to such a Master and to make it our highest ambition to be the people of such a God the children of sucha Father that is devoted to the profit and advantage of his children and servants This is the gracious goodnesse of God he takes pleasure in the prosperitie of his servants their profit is his pleasure Let us therefore walke worthy of such a Father of such a Master And seeing he intendeth our profit and that wee cannot profit him let us labour to walke in all well-pleasing Wee cannot profit him let us labour to please him Lastly here is a word of instruction for Ministers wee should in this case as those that are intrusted with the sacred ordinances of God labour to put on the minde of God so the Apostle we have saith he the mind of Christ. Wee in the course of our Ministerie as God aymeth at his peoples profit so should wee not ayme at our owne praise and at our profiting by them but that we might profit their soules O blessed Preaching when people profit by our preaching when they are by that increased in knowledge in love in faith in every grace Such a Preacher was Saint Paul I please all men saith he 1 Cor. 10. ult but how not seeking mine owne profit but the profit of many that they may bee saved Oh labour to preach profitably that our people may thrive under our ministerie This is that which God aymeth at and this is that which we should ayme at too And thus I have done with the first and more generall proposition arising from the words of Text. I come now to the second and more particular thing that we are to consider hence and that is that As God graciously setteth himselfe to procure his peoples profit in all his administrations so this is that hee aymeth at in all the afflictions and chastisements he exerciseth them withall It is no pleasure for him to be lashing and whipping his people to hold them under such sharpe discipline it is for the profit of his children so the Text expresseth it but he for our profit Which first of all implieth that Afflictions and chastisements are a meanes conducing to the profit of those that undergoe them A point plaine in the Text and the Scripture abundant in the proofe of it and the experience of the Saints in a plentifull manner confirming it It is good for mee saith David that I have beene afflicted And Ioseph giveth this honourable testimonie of God The Lord saith he hath caused mee to be fruitfull in the land of my affliction and thereupon giveth his child a name suteable Afflictions and chastisements they
become profitable as the furnace to the gold to purge out the drosse to make a separation betweene the pure mettall and the ore Profitable as physicke to the body to purge out the malignant humours Profitable as sope to the cloth to fetch out the staines to take out the greasie spottes it is the Scripture expresion their hearts are as fatte as grease to make them white Profitable as the Thunder to the Ayre to purge it to make it more commodious to breathe in Profitable as the wind to the water to make it the purer by its ventillation Profitable as the pruning knife to the tree to make it more fruitfull These and the like metaphors we have and by them wee are to conceive of the good and benefit that comes to us by Gods castigation and fatherly exercising of his people with his discipline and rod of Affliction But what are these blessed fruits what is the profit accruing to the soule of the people of God by this meanes I can but name part of them Besides that which is exprest in the Text that we might bee partaker of his holinesse there are these gracious effects of afflictions Weaning from the world a bringing us into more acquaintance with God Manasseth when hee was in affliction hee besought the Lord his God and humbled himselfe greatly before the God of his Fathers and prayed unto him and then saith the Text he knew that the Lord hee was God God by this meanes makes us know our selves the vanitie of the creature the sinfulnesse of sinne the sweetnesse of the Word the excellency that is in the promises makes us more compassionate to others keepeth us from hell and many other fruites there are of afflictions But to passe this A second thing implied in the Doctrine is this that as afflictions are meanes conducing to our profit so God in exercising his people with them mainly intendeth it The Lord saith Moses led thee through that great and terrible wildernesse wherein were fiery Serpents and Scorpions and drought where there was no water suffered thee to hunger brought thee into hard straites but what was Gods ayme in this that hee might humble thee and that hee might prove thee to doe thee good at the later end By this saith the Prophet speaking of the afflictions of the Church shall the iniquitie of Iacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sinne This I say is that which God intendeth by the afflictions of his people and this is that which the servants of God by faith have beene able to apprehend and to interpret the Lords meaning in all his sharpe dispensations towards them As the Prophet Habakkuk having made a terrible description of the Babylonish rod hee concludes in the twelfth verse of his first Chapter Art not thou from everlasting O Lord my God Wee shall not die O Lord thou hast ordained them for Iudgement and O mighty God thou hast established them for correction This is that likewise which the Saints of God have looked for and expected that while the windes of afflictions have beene blowing some ship or other should come home richly fraighted So David when that storme of cursing came from the mouth of Shimei Oh saith David let him alone let him curse it may be that the Lord will looke on mine affliction and that the Lord will requite good for his cursing this day So when Rabshaketh came up against Ierusalem Let him alone saith Hezekiah answer him not a word it may be the Lord will heare the words of Rabshaketh whom his Master hath sent to reproach the living God and will reprove the words which the Lord hath heard It may be the Lord will open his eare upon this rage and blasphemie and consider his people and doe them good The Saints of God I say have expected good and benefit from Gods afflicting of them For the use of this and so to draw to a conclusion In the first place Seeing this is Gods intent in all his administrations to his people especially in his castigations of them and reaching out unto them such sharpe and bitter potions It may serve to checke and controule all those hard thoughts that wee are apt to suffer to lodge within us concerning Gods dealing with us in the time of our distresses Apt we are to speak foolishly and unadvisedly concerning God and to misconster his administrations This hath beene the frailtie of Gods dearest servants in their affliction I shall one day said David perish by the hand of Saul Woe is mee saith Isaiah for I am undone because I am a man of uncleane lips The Lord saith the Church hath broken my teeth with gravell stones and covered me with ashes he hath removed my soule farre off from peace and I said my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. The Lord hath forsaken me saith Zion and my Lord hath forgotten mee Iob though for a good while hee carried himselfe very fairely and demeaned himselfe very warily toward God yet when he began to be wet to the skinne then he speakes foolishly and unadvisedly falleth to the cursing of his day not to the cursing of his God as Sathan thought he would but of his day though that was too much and ill beseeming so holy a man The Saints I say are apt to mistake themselves this way and to overshoote themselves in this case We should therefore humble our selves before the Lord for this distemper of soule and labour to keepe downe such unquiet thoughts and hard disputings that are apt to rise within us against God and his dispensations And consider that whatsoever our thoughts are yet the Lord knoweth his owne thoughts concerning us as he himselfe speakes in Ier. 29. howsoever saith he you may thinke that I intend to cut you off for ever yet I know my thoughts that I thinke towards you even thoughts of peace and not of evill to give you an expected end Againe secondly it may serve to comfort the godly concerning all the meanes and instruments of their sufferings whether they be men or divels Wicked men and divels whom God useth as a Rod to chastise his people their malice is great and their rage violent and they march on with much furie against the godly they intend their utter ruine and devastation and purpose nothing lesse But O Assyrian saith God the rodde of mine anger and the staffe in their hand is mine indignation howbeit hee meaneth not so neither doth his heart thinke so but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off But saith the Lord whatsoever his meaning is I know what my intentions are hee is but the rodde in mine hand and I will give such strokes with it as my people may beare and such as may bee for their profit This I say should comfort us concerning all the instruments of our suffering whatsoever they be The Phisitian
these things shew that thou art Gods servant and that by Death the Lord will draw thee to a place of rest If these thoughts which I have now named bee strangers to thy heart and thou dost not love to trouble thy selfe to studie about Death it is an evill signe The servants of God are not wont to be so secure in matters of this qualitie And thus much for the first particular in the first generall part the desire in the godly of death the second is their care for it the point thence is that It is the care of Gods servants to bee alwayes so prepared for death as at what instant soever the Lord shall send it they may bee comfortably ready to entertaine it So much may easily be gathered out of Simeons words here Nunc dimittis Now let thy servant depart He did not as it were take a day over in which and against which to be provided as though he should have said Lord now will I settle my selfe to make provision for my last end but even now Lord at this very instant if thou wilt Death hath beene my ordinary meditation and if thou wilt now call me home to thee I am ready to depart As in the former point I shewed you how Saint Pauls longing agreed with Simeons Oh let thy servant depart saith Simeon I desire to bee dissolved saith Paul So here I will shew you that there was the same care in respect of Death in Saint Paul as in Simeon Now if thou wilt saith Simeon I am now ready to bee offered saith Saint Paul And else-where I die daily I am ever thinking upon death and daily making provision for my end This was holy Iobs mind All the dayes of my appointed time will I waite till my change come there was a continuall expectation So teach us to number our dayes prayeth Moses that wee may apply our hearts to wisedome And what wisedome did hee wish hee might apply his heart unto but this a holy care to make provision for another world seeing in this there was no continuance The same in effect the Authour to the Hebrewes professeth touching himselfe and those that were like to him that they had here no continuing Citie but did seeke one to come Wee know saith he here is no abiding wee dwell in tents which must remove in houses of clay which will be broken therefore wee desire to bee ever ready for that place which is of more perpetuitie And so much may bee gathered from that which is upon record concerning Ioseph of Arimathea he did not onely make ready his Tombe in his life-time but in his garden his place of solace and delight and how could so good a man so often thinke on death without labouring and caring to be ever provided for the same and therefore our Saviour Christ compares his faithfull servants unto those which daily wait for their Masters comming Now the reason which so much prevailes with the godly in this particular and which ought to be of sufficient force with every one is first the certaintie and uncertaintie of death Morte nihil certius As sure as Death is an ordinary Proverbe What man is hee that liveth and shall not see death saith the Psalmist That all must die it is Heavens decree and cannot be revoked The thing it selfe we see is most certaine yet for some circumstances most uncertaine for first Tempus est incertum No man knowes when he shall die in the night or in the day in Winter or in Summer in youth or in his latter age Secondly Locus est incertus None know where they shall die whether at home or abroad in his bed or in the field who knowes but that he may die in the Church of God even while he is asleepe at the Word Thirdly Mortis genus est incertum No man can determine how hee shall die whether suddenly or by a lingring sicknesse whether violently or by a naturall course These things the servants of God know full well and seriously weigh the same and that makes them to make conscience of continuall preparation that whensoever or wheresoever or howsoever they die they may with comfort commend their soules into the hand of God as into the hand of a faithfull Creatour Secondly they know the miserie of being taken by Death unprepared put case a man should die as Ishbosheth lying upon his bed at noone or as Iobs children while they are feasting or that a man like the rich man in the Gospell should have his breath taken from him at the very instant having made no provision for another world what hope can there be that such a one should be saved They know thirdly that the time of sicknesse is the most unfit time for this businesse of preparation the senses are then so taken up with the paine of sicknesse that a man cannot thinke seriously upon ought else and besides it is not in our owne power to turne to God when we will ordinarily God forgets those in sicknesse that forget him in health And it is commonly seene that that preparation for Death that begins but in sicknesse is as languishing and faint as is the partie from whom it comes And although Vera poenitentia bee nunquam sera yet sera poenitentia est rarò vera Though I say true repentance bee never to late yet late repentance is seldome true when men leave their sinnes because they can continue to practise them no longer what thankes have they or what can that repentance be These things worke with Gods servants to studie to be ever ready for the Lord not to delay preparation but to seeke continually to be provided My Exhortation hence shall begin with that speech of Moses Oh that men would be wise to understand this and that they would consider their later end I would there were a heart in us to entertaine this doctrine in our best thoughts I remember the Complaint of old that men had made a Covenant with Death and were at agreement with Hell Death indeed will make truce with no man but here is the meaning Evill men perswade themselves that they are in no danger of hell or of the grave Death will not come yet thinketh the oldest man and when it comes I hope I shall doe well enough thinketh the most godlesse man Thus men couzen themselves with their owne fancies and so Death steales upon them at unawares and becomes Gods Sergeant to arrest them and to carry them away to eternall condemnation Who amongst us is able to say truly and upon good ground as Simeon Now Lord if thou wilt now command Death to seize upon mee welcome shall it be unto me I am even now ready to receive it How many are there that are extraordinary ignorant in the meanes how to escape the sting of Death How many extreamly secure that never in their lives yet thought earnestly
upon this how they may die with comfort and end their dayes in peace How many prophane ones that set light by Death being apt to say like those Epicures Edamus c. Let us eate and drinke for to morrow wee shall die How many that doe put all to a desperate adventure God made us and hee must save us and wee shall doe as well as please God and there is an end How many are there whose hearts albeit they be in the house of God and in his presence are notwithstanding fraughted with malice with envie with worldlinesse with disdaine with secret scorning repining at the Word which they heare with wearisomenesse with spirituall sleepinesse and securitie You that are such as I have now said thinke in your consciences what would you die if God should now stop your breath and ascyte you by Death presently to appeare before his Majestie being thus full of ignorance of securitie 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 wee 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 wee how soone how suddenly wee may be overtaken some of us drop away daily some young some old some lie sicke longer some lesser time and how soone it will be our turne wee cannot tell Our breath is in our nostrills wee are all as grasse If the breath of the Lord blow upon us we doe suddenly wither as the flower of the field and returne agaâ—…e 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 himselfe I am sure I shall not die this houre It may be now thou wilt demand of me What shall I doe that I may be ready To insist upon particulrs would be too long onely therefore in a word The best preparation for death is are formed 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 soule The second death is of the soule which is the separation of it from God The first Resurrection is the rising from the Death of sinne to a new life the second is that which shall be of the body out of the Grave at the day of Judgement Now what saith the Scripture Blessed and holy is hee that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no power Wouldest thou then bee freed from the second Death hell and destruction when thou art dead Now that thou art yet alive labour to have a part in the first Resurrection Note what Saint Paul saith of the wanton widow that shee is dead whilst shee lives So he that lives in the pleasures of sinne and in the wayes of his owne heart and after his owne lust hee is dead in soule though hee be alive in body and if hee seeke not to come out of this grave eternall 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 our of his Word that is eternall life Labour to feele Christ live and reigne in thee by his Spirit labour to renounce every sinne doe not goe on in any knowne sinne against conscience renew thy repentance daily and still survey the state of thy soule that wickednesse may not get dominion over thee Let Death come when it will though the Lord should so visit thee that thou shouldest drop downe suddenly yet it shall not find thee unprepared thou hast a part in the first Resurrection there is no feare of the second Death But if thou wilt cherish thy heart in evil thou wilt goe on in thy ignorance in thy carelesse worship of God in thy prophaning the Sabbath in thy whoredome oppression malice drunkennesse excesse voluptuousnesse thou makest ready for hell and it is not thy Lord save me or I cry God mercy c. that shall serve thy turne I will tell thee who thou art like unto even to a man appointed after a yeare or two to be burned and in the meane space must carry a sticke daily to the heape so thou heapest up wrath against thy selfe 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 generall 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 thy word as if Simeon had said this desire that I have now to end my dayes proceeds not from any carnall 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 seene my Saviour This word is now fulfilled and the sweetnesse thereof hath given mee that encouragement that I doe even long to bee dissolved and to be united unto thee Or againe thus Oh Lord this care that I have had to provide thus for Death and to be alwayes in a readinesse it hath not come from my selfe nature never taught it mee but thy Word hath instructed mee If I had not proceeded according to thy Word I should never have knowne how to have prepared my selfe 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 bee truly prepared to undergoe it This is plaine if we consider the Exposition which I have already given of that part of Simeons speech It is a generall Rule that of our Saviour Yee erre not knowing the Scripture A man ignorant in the Scripture can never rightly performe any spirituall dutie Hence was that of David Thy testimonies saith he are my delight and my counsellours If any matter came in hand that concerned his soule straight to the word of God went hee to know thence how to doe it as a man for his Lease or conveyance goeth to a Counsellour for direction So againe he confesses that if Gods Law had not beene his delight hee 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
to you beloved of your children as our blessed Saviour sayd of his Disciples touching themselves they are of more valew than sparrowes yet the Lord feeds them together with the young Ravens that crie how much more will hee give supply to those creatures that are stamped with his owne Image Neither is it onely a reward and blessing upon the rich that they are fruitfull but it is even a reward and blessing to the poore that they have children for it is specified in Psal. 107. 41. that God will make them a family like a flocke of sheepe and comfortable it is that they shall have a family like a flocke of sheepe because this may well be intended they shall prosper and thrive with a little maintenance as sheepe will grow fat albeit the leas are but very short Secondly it serves to direct all that desire this blessing of increase that they may know of whom to seeke it it is God that must make thee fruitfull like Rachel it is hee that makes the barren to dwell with the familie and to hee a joyfull mother of Children There are five speciall keyes that God reserves in his owne power The first is the key of the Raine the Lord shall open his good treasure and the Heavens to give Raine to the land Deut. 28. 12. Secondly the key of food thou openest thy hand and fillest all things living with thy plenty Psal. 104. 28. Thirdly the key of the graue hee bringeth downe to the grave and raiseth up againe 1 Sam. 2. 6. Fourthly the key of the heart it is sayd Acts 16. 14. the Lord opened the heart of Lydia Fiftly and lastly the key of the wombe God remembred Rachel and opened her wombe Gen. 30. Abraham therefore being childlesse he makes his moane to God Isaack prayed to God for his Wife because shee was barren Hanna Samuels mother poured out her soule to God in hearty prayer when shee had no child As also Zacharie and Elizabeth the Parents of Iohn Baptist. This is the true course first to God and then to the meanes Rachel was in a passion and shee cried to her Husband give mee Children or else I die but nothing of all this prevailed till shee sought it of the Lord and then shee was fruitfull that is the first Secondly it is recorded of her that she was not onely fruitfull but that with this fruitfulnesse of hers there came an increase of Gods people shee built up a great part of Israel and what else were the Isralites but Gods peculiar people A right christian indeed is called a true Isralite and the elect are termed by Saint Paul Gal. 6. 16. the Israel of God So then hence you may inferre that The desire of having Children must ayme at the increase and inlargement of Gods Church This is a blessing indeed when the wife by her off-spring builds up Israel not Babel Bethel Gods house not Bethaven the house of iniquitie This was the desire of holy people of old when they prayed that their children might bee as Corner-stones couched into the walls of the Temple meaning thereby that they might grow into the Temple of the Lord to bee a habitation of God by his Spirit Blessed is the man sayth the Psalmist that hath his quiver full of them it is of such children that are as the arrowes of a strong man Whence it followes that they must have more in them then nature for arrowes are not arrowes by growth but by Art so they must bee such children the knottinesse of whose nature is refined and reformed and made smooth by grace Ishmael the sonne of the bond-woman had twelve sonnes and all Princes in their Nations but what did all these titles of dignitie doe them good as long as they were out of the promise Questionlesse Hanna's drift in desiring a sonne of God was that out of her might come one by whom Gods glory might bee advanced among men therefore shee vowed him to the Lord all the dayes of his life The Angell told Zacharie that he should have joy and gladnesse at the birth of his sonne why Because he should bee great in the sight of the Lord and filled with the holy Ghost and turne many to the Lord Luk. 1. 50. Hee that begets a foole that is an ungodly irreligious sonne for that is one of Solomons fooles he gets himselfe sorrow and the father of such a one shall have no joy but hee shall be his very calamitie and his meere vexation It is a rule set downe in Scripture that whatsoever is done should bee done to the glory of God therefore our desire of having children must aime at this that out of our loynes may come such by whom Gods glory may bee promoted and the number of the godly increased in the world Thirdly shee is recorded to have yeelded in all willingnesse and readinesse to the desire of her Husband When Iacob was warned by an Angell from God to returne from Laban to the Land where he was borne he made his wives acquainted with the matter and discovered to them his whole intent and purpose they forth-with gave him this yeelding and respective answer Whatsoever God hath said unto thee that doe Gen. 31. 11. The like is to be seene in Sara shee was no hindrance to Abraham in his removall from his owne Countrey to Canaan no nor at such time when she was ignorant whether he went she was no hindrance to him in the speedie circumcising of his sonne No nor shee did not goe about to hinder him in the very sacrificing of his sonne Out of all doubt if shee had beene a clogge to him in any of these respects the Spirit of God would never have concealed it because the wrestling with her unwillingnesse and gain-saying had beene a strong evidence of Abrahams faith that the Scripture is very carefull to set out to the full for his credit and our instruction There are two Women storied in the Scripture above others as examples of Gods judgements upon the untowardnesse of Wives not joyning with and incouraging their Husbands in good doing The one is Lots Wife whose love no question was a great delay to Lot in his departure from Sodome that when shee should have gone on with her Husband in hast to the place which was appointed for their refuge without looking backe shee drew behind still lingring after her wonted home but what was the issue shee was turned into a Pillar of salt The other was Michal the wife of David when shee looked out and saw David dance before the Arke shee despised him in her heart and was so farre from approving his zeale that when hee returned shee entertained him with a frumpe saying to him What a foole was the King of Israel this day but what was the issue of it a punishment was inflicted on her for her fault that shee had no child all the dayes of her life 2 Sam. 6. 23.
taken from our union with Christ We are planted into Christ sayth the Apostle Rom. 6. 4. 5. 6. By being planted with Christ there growes a similitude betweene Christ and us Wee are baptized and buried by baptisme sayth the Apostle into his death and wee are raised and quickned sayth hee by the resurrection of Christ that like as it was with Christ â—…o it is with us Hee was dead and raysed so wee are first dead to sinne and then alive to God Secondly it must be so from the nature of contraries for these two things are contrarie one to another there is an immediate opposition betweene them so as there must bee a removing of the one if there bee a possession of the other and there must bee first a removing of the one before the other can be in the soule As you see in sicknesse and in health there must first bee a removing of sicknesse before the bodie bee in a right state of health And as in life and death this is the order they are brought first from death to life and then one necessarily followes the other as life necessarily followes upon the removall of death and health upon the removall of sicknesse Thirdly it must bee so or else if both these were not and in this order wrought what difficultie were there in the life of a Christian what singular thing were there in a Christian above any man in the world Every man in the World doth outward actions if there were not such a change as from death to life there were no difference at all where were the difficultie The Scripture sayth The way is narrow and straight that leades to life and few there bee that finde it what narrownesse or straightnesse were there in the way to life if there were no more but thus that a man might settle upon some actions of Religion and so bee effectually changed If this were all what great matter were there in Religion what need Agrippa stand out in the mid-way what need hee be but halfe perswaded to bee a Christian hee might easily be perswaded to be a Christian if he might hold his Heathenisme and be a Christian too What need Faelix tremble to heare Paul dispute of righteousnesse and judgement to come if hee might be unrighteous and a Christian too What need the young man be sorrie when Christ bade him sell all and follow him if he might hold all hee had and be worldly affected and be a Christian too what need any of the labours of a Christian to what use were a power of godlines spoken of in Scripture What powerfull matter were there in Religion if a man might hold his sinnes and yet bee a Christian and a beleever and be in Christ too a drunkard and yet bee saved a prophaner of the Sabbath and yet bee in Christ what great matter were there it were nothing to bee a Christian nay who would not bee one What need Saint Paul expose himselfe to such watchings and fastings and sufferings if hee might have gone on in the way of the World and yet bee in Christ too No beleved it is another-gates matter to bee a Christian then for a man to hold his old customes and waies and courses and yet hope to bee saved too Let no man deceive himselfe â—…th this the matter of Christianitie it is a laborious worke Religion is a very serious thing A man that indeed will bee Religious hee must follow Christs rule first deny himselfe and take up his Crosse and follow him what need a man deny himselfe if hee might hold his sinnes and yet follow Christ Well know this the ground is cleare there must bee a turning from sin as well as a turning to God if a man have union with Christ. Now to conclude with a word of application First if it bee so It serves to convince us this day in the presence of God the multitude of us now before the Lord to heare the Word and professe our union with Christ and yet there is no such matter If wee were united with Christ there would bee living to God by vertue of that union with Christ. It is living to God in the course of our life that gives us comfort of our union with Christ. Deceive not your selves wee may say of many as the Lord sayth of Sardis Thou hast a name to live but art dead There are abundance that have a name to live but are dead A man would wonder at it that wee should say to a Congregation of so many people that there were few alive among them all that the most whose eyes are now upon the Minister and whose eares are open to the Word yet they are but dead they are not alive though they walke and though they speake and doe the actions of a naturall life they live naturally but are dead spiritually they have a name to live but are dead The Lord tells Ieremie Ierem. 5. That there was such want of good men in Ierusalem that hee might goe up and downe the Streets of Ierusalem and not finde a man A man would wonder that the Lord should use such an expression Hee might have said hee should not finde a good man a just man a godly man but not finde a man sayth hee as if hee were not worthie the name of a man in the Streets of Ierusalem that was not appliable and conformable to Gods will That a man should goe in the Streets of London and not finde a man that hee should goe into Moore-fields on the Sabbath day and see a multitude of dead Ghosts walking there that hee should goe in the Streets and see a multitude of dead persons sitting at their doores that hee should goe up and down to the houses of men and see a multitude of dead creatures talke of worldly things on the Lords day a man would wonder hee should finde so many dead men eating and drinking and talking and walking and yet dead still The Text makes it cleare here If wee bee not dead unto sinne wee are not alive to God there is no being alive to God except a man be first dead to sin Shall wee come to the tryall Beloved there wee shall finde among the many of you that heare the Word many are dead in sinne What meanes the prophanation of the Sabbath what meanes the great neglect of Familie-duties Come to your houses there bee not the prayers of living men there there bee not the meditations and conferences of men that are spiritually alive in your Families and shall wee thinke you are alive Come to men in their shops and dealings and see them dead in their worldlinesse and covetousnesse and shall we say they are alive to God Alas beloved goe to the particulars of mens lives you shall heare them speak the words of dead men spiritually dead in swearing and cursing and reviling and blaspheming and bitternesse and yet shall wee say that they are alive Looke upon
that may be meant but that which is unrighteously kept is unrighteous Mammon to you if you procured it never so justly unlesse you doe rightly dispose of it and if you be desirous to doe right in disposing of your mammon of your wealth doe it now That when you want that power and those times you may enjoy the comfortable fruit of the well-redeeming of the time of your life to receive you into everlasting habitations In the 25. verse of the 16. Luke it is the challenge of Abraham to Dives Sonne remember that thou in thy life-time haddest thy goods for so the word signifieth thou haddest thy opportunities of life and of goods too but now thou hast neither life nor goods left thee to doe good with and therefore hee is blessed and thou art tormented It was the folly of those five Virgins They tooke not the opportunitie of life for that is the thing meant there but they posted over all to the last and hoped that all might bee effected in a trice or minute of their life which would haue held them employment enough all the dayes of their lives And therefore they came short of heaven the gates were shut against them as you see when the Bridegroome came If any man imagine because it is said Blessed are they that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their workes follow them That therefore it matters not so long as a man doth good at his death though hee have neglected the wayes of goodnesse all his life Let them know that by works there is not meant the actions of men but the fruites of their actions Their workes follow them not the workes they have deferred untill death but the fruites of those workes they did while they were living and received not the benefit of them untill death Their workes follow them that is the fruits of their workes It is more good and pleasant by farre to have the actions goe before and the fruites and comfortable effects to succeed and follow after But if any man yet suppose that hee may make that up in his Will which he hath neglected all his life long and though hee have lived miserably covetously and unprofitably all the dayes of his life yet his thoughts may tell him that by the Charitable Bequests of his last Testament as bequeathing largely to the Church and Common-wealth and to all sorts of people hee may at the last make fit compensation and satisfaction for neglect of former duties Let no man deceive himselfe with such a bad resolution for first it argues a signe of infidelitie that a man will not trust God for feare he should want in his life-time what is the reason else that he deferres the doing good in health unlesse it be for feare of wanting himselfe such distrust hee hath in the providence of God Besides the same God which bids thee doe good when thou hast opportunitie and while thou enjoyest the advantage of life hee expects it now And it may bee truly said of many that neglect those times of doing good while they lived and have now supplied that defect in their death by the large benevolence of their Wills Their will is good but their deed is â—…ught So much for the first point I proceed unto the second that is thou must not only take the time of thy life but also the opportunitie of thy meanes and thy estate while there is yet a price in thine hand while thou hast opportunitie and enjoyest wealth to doe good with redeeme the advantages and opportunities by employing them in that way for which thou didst receive them The time may come wherein you may desire to doe good but cannot wanting at estate and opportunities whereby to doe it Marke what Solomon saith Wilt thou trust in a thing of nothing for Riches have wings as an Eagle and flie away toward heaven It is the vanitie of men that they still forbeare and stay while their estates increase pretending that then they shall bee better able to doe good and extend themselves more largely or that they may keepe their wealth and waite for a better opportunitie But why wilt thou trust in a thing of nothing Thou seest a fowle in her flight and now it may be thou perceivest it but instantly it vanisheth out of thy sight Why riches have wings saith Solomon Thou hast them now in thy possession and retainest them fast in hold but presently they are departed they flie as an Eagle out of thy sight And the same wise man when he exhorteth men to cast their bread upon the waters Hee gives them this reason Thou knowest not what evills thou knowest not what judgements and calamities God intends to bring upon that Nation where thou livest upon the Citie upon the Familie where thou dwellest upon thy person or estate Thou knowest not what evils God will bring upon the earth And so likewise charge rich men in this world that they hee not high-minded and that they trust not in uncertaine riches but in the living God that they bee readie to distribute and to communicate and to doe good workes What is it that hinders men from distributing and communicating Because they trust in uncertaine Riches For if they would now learne not to trust in uncertaine Riches but account them uncertaine as they are and put confidence in the living God who can provide for them when those outward meanes which they so much rely on faile their expectations they would then be more liberall and bountifull and readie to doe good and to communicate So then here is the meaning of the point Take the opportunities of life That is first take the time of life while you may doe good and then take the meanes the wealth and estate which is the time of your meanes For this observe Iobs case hee goes on discoursing of this very point he was now a man stript of all hee had but the other day the Richest man in the East the Sâ—…ans and Caldeans had carried away his goods his cattell and his children and all things were taken from him Yet there was onething that administred comfort in the day of his adversitie and his affliction And it was this saith he If I have made the eyes of the poore to faile or if I eate my morsels alone or if I have not relieved the fatherlesse c. If I have not done thus and thus then let the Lords fiercest judgement fall upon mee But herein consists my comfort my conscience beares mee witnesse that when I had wealth and estate and enjoyed the goods of this life I did good I was father to the fatherlesse a foot to the lame and eyes to the blind I did all the good that lay within the compasse of my power to doe when I had meanes to doe it I say little doe you know beloved whatsoever thou art whatsoever estate thou hast though thou
be as a naile fastned in a sure place and thinkest thou shalt never bee moved from this condition Thou knowest not how soone God may turne his hand upon thee when thou maist bee as Iob was on the dunghill deprived of all comforts What will be thy consolation then that when thou hadst wealth thou didst good with it It will adde to thy affliction that thou hadst great possessions and didst neither glorifie God nor doe good to men So much for the opening of the point I come to apply it First then it serves for the reproofe of many to whom God hath given the price in their hands But they want hearts to embrace the opportunities of doing good They pretend to doe good and have a mind inclining to good But they have no heart to take the opportunities and advantages of times and meanes which God hath bestowed on them for the same purpose they want hearts to embrace those Remember what Solomon saith Say not to thy neighbour goe and come againe to morrow if it bee now in thine hands to give him The Lord will not only have a man not denie to doe good but besides that hee would not have him delay to doe good put him not from thee till to morrow if his helpe remaine in thine hands to day yea though thou have a purpose to doe it to morrow if it be in thy power to day doe it and deferre it not till to morrow But what shall we say to those who doe not only delay their purposes but by protracting lose their purposes There is nothing more ordinarie then in some cases for men not only to purpose truly but to promise heartily to God that they will performe these and these acts of mercy if God will dâ—…iver them from such feares and dangers as they at such times are incompast with A man that endures extremitie of weather in a tempestuous Sea if happily hee may attaine the land in safetie a man that is diseased with sicknesse if now he may recover his health againe or one that suffers imprisonment if he may procure his libertie or a man that is in feare of the losse of his estate by the meanes of some unhappy casualtie if now hee may escape that losse hee will bestow a great deale on God and on the servants of God nay hee promises and vowes unto God in his extremitie But how many of those promises as well as those other purposes come to nothing they have libertie they receive health they enjoy safetie and have the full fruition of all their desires but alas how short come their vowes of peformance not one of many of them but turnes God away without his bargaine Remember how the Lord taxeth the people of Israel In the day of their distresse and the Lord reckons up divers and sundrie troubles they were in then they spake good words to God they would cleave to him and promised to doe thus and thus But thus saith the Text They flattered the Lord with their lippes and were false in the Covenant with God Is not it so beloved with many of us Oh that your hearts might smite you this day before the Lord for many purposes and promises that you have made of doing this or that for the glorifying of God and the discharge of your dutie One man hath promised restitution of unjust gaine another to become more liberall and bountifull towards others And the Lord hath waited weeke after weeke moneth after moneth and yeare after yeare and yet neverthelesse you continue the same men either unsensible or carelesse to accomplish your promise to God or rendring unto him his due That is the first Use. Secondly let it stirre up every one of us to a care of his dutie of embracing opportunities And when wee perswade you to take opportunities wee would draw you a degree higher not only to take them but to seeke them for how shall a man obtaine the advantage of taking opportunities if he first seeke them not and therefore we perswade you to that Wee see Abraham sitting in the dore of his Tent that hee might observe opportunities of doing good hee stayed not till the men knocked at his doore for reliefe but tooke notice of their passing by that he might call them Wee see a good old man in Iudges 19. As hee perceives a stranger passing the streetes first takes occasion to question his wants and forbeares not till the man complaine so willing was hee to administer to his necessities and to embrace a fit opportunitie of doing him good Wee see David expressing his thankfulnesse to God and to Ionathan Hee enquires if there were any of the house of Saul that hâ—… might shew him kindnesse for Ionathans sake So should we doe Is there any of the houshold of Faith as the Text saith and as the Scripture calls them unto whom I may shew kindnesse for the Lords sake Hee hath beene better to us then Ionathan was to David and yet wee are much more backward to Retribution and expressions of thankfulnesse then David was to Ionathan But the Scriptures are plentifull in this wee need not stand on it I say this is a dutie that every one should discharge this taske not to stay and forbeare till the reports of mens wants are brought to them but to bee circumspect and seeke for all occasions that may deserve the extent of their goodnesse If you live in a Parish wherein happily there remaines not many poore yet you live in a Citie there are many there if there bee not many in the Citie you live in a Country in a Kingdome doubtles where there are many if there bee none there yet thou hast further meanes to extend thy charitie Thou livest in a Church is there any member of the Church in all the World dispersed in Bohemia in the Palatinate in any place of the earth where the poore abide enquire after them that you may know their wants and relieve their necessities I come now to the second from the determination of time to the declaration of dutie while wee have time Let us doe good I told you what this goodnesse is in the intent of the Apostle in this place Doing good is a releeving those that are in necessity for that is the Apostles meaning as we may see in the context and coherence of these words with the former So then the maine Point is no more but this It is the dutie of Gods servants as to make advantages of their times so to employ themselves in releeving of others Take it more briefly It is a doing good to releive others that is the dutie of Gods servants and it well becomes them to be employed in this work while we have time on earth and meanes to doe it to employ our selves in doing good and releiving others And there is familiar appearance of this in Scripture and by reasons also By Scripture it is commanded in precept and
of a hireling The Almond tree groweth not upon the head of any without dew from heaven here it grew and bloomed in a seasonable time If life be a blessing long life is a greater blessing especially if it be crowned with a happy death for the last Act maketh our life a Comedie or a Tragedie and as the evening proves the day so a mans estate at his death and after over-rules the verdict of his life Dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet and so I fall into the road of my Text and begin to treate of the peaceable end of those who die in the faith and lie in the bosome of Abraham Goe to thy fathers in peace There is a great difference about the interpretation of this phrase Ibis ad patres and the reason of the difference is the difficultie which insueth upon every interpretation For if we referre these words to the body of Abraham and the buriall thereof in the Sepulchres of his Fathers this Exposition complieth not with the truth of the storie for none but Sarah lay in this cave Abrahams Fathers were else-where bestowed If we referre them to the soule of Abraham and illustrate them with this glosse Thou shalt goe in thy soule to the glerious troupe of thy Ancestours a question then will grow what that place is whether his Fathers went before him is it Heaven but some of Abrahams Fathers were Idolatours and we have no warrant to place any Idolatour there Is it Hell thither no man goes in peace neither did ever yet any Jew or Christian so rubbe his forehead or rather arme it with brasse as to affirme that the soule of Abraham in whom all generations of the earth were blessed was in Hell shall wee then send him to the Rabbins Limbus or the Popish Purgatorie or the auncient Fathers occulta receptacula hidden receptacles or unknowne places wherein Tertullian conceiveth that the soules of the faithfull departed resemble those among the Romans who stood for offices and the day of the election while the voyces were in calculation expected in a white gowne whether they were chosen or not Saint Austine also is very expresse for these hidden Cells from the death of a man till the last resurrection the soules are bestowed in hidden receptacles as every soule is worthy either rest or paine To dispell this mist which hath caused many to misse their way first by the light of the Scripture I will cleare the Point in question and then interpret the phrase First then for the soules of the faithfulls flight after shee is free from this clog of flesh I answer that it is straight to Heaven to the assembly of the first borne there and the spirits of just men made perfect for of Enoch who was translated that he might walke with God and of Elias who was carried up into Heaven in a fierie Chariot there is little doubt can bee made and lesse of Abraham to whose bosome in Heaven Lazarus was carried and least of all on the Theife to whom Christ promised on the Crosse this day thou shalt bee with mee in Paradise Why should Saint Paul so earnestly desire to bee dissolved and to bee with Christ if after his dissolution till the day of judgement hee should not come neare him nor see his face Why should all godly Christians bee so willing to bee absent from the bodie that they might bee present with the Lord if after they were absent from the bodie they should not come into the Lords presence who dare question that which the Apostle so expresly and so confidently delivers wee know that if the house of our earthly tabernacle bee dissolved wee have an eternall in the Heavens As for the phrase thou shalt go to thy Fathers it is but an elegant circumlocution of the period of our life a quaver upon the close thereof for the meaning is thou shalt dye or go the way of all flesh Quo pius â—…neas quo dives Tullus Ancus whether all thy Fathers went before thee good and bad rich and poore for Deaths sickle like the Italian Captaines sword which could not distinguish betweene a Guelf and Gibelive slaies all and makes a prey of all The righteous soule must for a time be divorced from the body as well as the foule of the wicked and in the graves the Wormes claime kindred of the elect as well as of the reprobate the consideration whereof put the Preacher into a passion how doth the righteous man dye as well as the wicked as it is said of Abraham that hee is gathered to his Fathers so it is sayd also of Ishmael and may bee of the wickedest man that breathes And herein the language of Canaan and the language of Ashdod doe not much differ for what the Romans meane by that their phrase abijt ad plures hee is gone to the many The Hebrewes in a sanctified phrase expresse by abijt ad patres hee is gone to his Fathers or gathered to his people where of some interpreters give this acute reason It cannot bee sayd of us here whilest wee live that wee are gathered to our owne people in a spirituall sense because here good and bad are gathered together Elect and Reprobate so journe together all are as it were joynt Comminers upon the earth the Citie of God and the Citie of the World sayle in the same shippe to the Haven of death The Draw-net of the Gospell catcheth sweet and stinking fish in Gods field Tares grow with Wheat in his floare there is much Chaffe with good graine But after death God taketh his Fanne in his hand and purgeth his Floare After wee depart hence God placeth and sorteth his Children by themselves and the Children of the World and the wicked are by themselves and so every man is exactly gathered to his owne people every starre is set in his owne constellation every graine is put in his owne heape every person and family is joyned to his owne tribe wee all passe by the same gate of death but presently after wee are out of it some take the right hand and are ranked with sheepe others the left hand and are ranked among his goates We are all like Plate worne out of fashion and wee must all bee altered and therefore of necessitie must bee melted that is dissolved by death but after wee have runne in the fire of the judgement of God of that which was pure mettall God will make Vessells of honour but of the drossie and alcumie stuffe that is the prophane or impure person or hypocrite vessells of dishonour and these shall shine like the sunne in the Firmament those shall gloe like coales in the fire of hell for ever more By this it should seeme may some object that the righteous have no prerogative in death above the wicked but onely after death and consequently that God promised Abraham no blessing in these words thou shalt goe to thy fathers it
saith the spirit Or because this asseveration concerning the condition of the Saints departed is propositia necessaria as the Schooles speake we will cloath the members of the division with tearmes apodicticall and in this verse observe 1. A conclusion sientificall whereof the parts are 1. The subject indefinite mortui the dead 2. The attribute absolute beati blessed 3. The cause propter quam the Lord or dying in the Lord. 2. The proofe demonstrative and that two-fold 1. A priori 1. By a heavenly oracle I heard a voyce c. 2. A divine testimonie So saith the spirit 2. A posteriori by arguments drawne 1. From their cessation from their worke They rest from their labours 2. Their remuneration for their workes Their workes follow them Where the matter is pretious a decision of the least quantitie is a great losse and therefore as the spie of nature observeth the Iewellers will not rubbe out a small clowde or specke in an orient Rubie because the lessening the substance will more disadvantage them then the fetching out of the spot advance them in the sale Neither will the Alcumists lose a drop of quintessence nor the Apothecaries a graine of Bezar nor an exact Commentatour upon holy Scriptures any syllables of a voyce from heaven the eccho whereof is more melodious to the soule then any consort of most tuneable voyces upon earth can be In which regard I hold it fit to relinquish my former divisions and insist upon each word of this verse as a Bee sitteth upon each particular flower that wee may not lose any drop of doctrine sweeter then the honey and the honey combe any leafe of the tree of life any dust of the gold of Ophir 1. I there were three men in holy Scriptures tearmed Iedidiah that is Beloved of God Solomon Daniel and Saint Iohn the Evangelist and to all these God made knowne the secrets of his Kingdome by speciall revelation and their prophecies are for the most part of a mysticall interpretation This Revelation was given to Iohn when hee was in the spirit upon the Lords day and if wee religiously observe the Lords day and then bee in the spirit as hee was giving our selves wholly to the contemplation of Divine mysteries wee shall also heare voyces from heaven in our soules and consciences Heard with what eares could Saint Iohn heare this voyce sith hee was in a spirituall rapture which usually shutteth up all the doores of the senses I answer that as spirits have tongues to speake withall whereof wee reade 1 Cor. 13. 1. Though I speake with the tongues of men and Angels so they have eares to heare one another that is a spirituall facultie answerable to our bodily sense of hearing The Apostle sayth of himselfe that hee was in the spirit and as he was in the spirit so he saw in the spirit and heard inthe spirit and spake in the spirit and moved in the spirit and did all those things which are recorded in this Booke When Saint Paul was wrapd up into the third Heaven and heard there words that cannot be uttered and saw things which cannot bee represented with the eye hee truely and really apprehended those objects yet not with carnall but spirituall sences where with Saint Iohn heard this voice A voyce from Heaven The Pythagoreans taught that the Calestiall spheares by the regular motions produced harmonious sounds and the Psalmist teacheth us that the Heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy worke and that there is no speech nor language where there voyce is not heard but that was the voyce of Heaven it selfe demonstrately proving and after a sort proclaiming the Majestie of the Creatour But this is vox de coelo a voyce from Heaven pronounced by God himselfe or formed by an Angell so Gasper Melo expresly teacheth us Saint Iohn heard a voyce not sounding outwardly but inwardly framed by that Angell who revealed unto him the whole Apocalypse Saint Iohn here heard a voyce from Heaven commanding him to Write and Sain Austin heard a voyce from Heaven commanding him to Read Tolle lege and most requesite it is that where Heaven speakes the earth should heare and where God writes that man should reade There never yet came any voice from Heaven which it did not much import and concerne the earth to heare The first voice that came from Heaven was heard on Mount Sinai and it was to confirme the Law to bee of divine authoritie and establish our faith in God the Creatour A second voice from Heaven we heare â—…o in Saint Peter on the holy Mount when the Apostles were there with Christ and it was to confirme the Gospell and to establish our faith in Christ the Redeemer A third voice or sound was heard from Heaven in the upper roome where Christs Apostles were assembled in the day of Pentecost and it was to confirme out faith in the holy Ghost the Comforter A fourth voice that came from Heaven was heard by Saint Peter in a vision and it was to confirme our faith in the Catholike Church and the Communion of Saints and the incorporating both Iewes and Gentileâ—… in one mysticall bodie Lastly a voice was heard from Heaven by Saint Iohn in this place to establish our faith in the last Article of the Creed concerning the happinesse of the dead and the glorious estate of the Tryumphant Church and the life of the World to come If wee desire to bee informed concerning the affaires of the Abissens or those of China Sumatra or Iapan wee conferre with those that are of the same Countrey or have travelled into those parts and for the like reason if wee desire to bee instructed concerning the state and condition of the Citizens of the Heavenly Ierusalem their infinite number their excellent order their singular priviledges their everlasting joyes their feasts their robes their palmes their thrones their crownes wee must enquire of them who either are inhabitants there or have brought us newes from thence nothing but a voice from Heaven can enforce our assent to these heavenly mysteries Now as all words of Kings are of great authoritie but especially their Edicts and Proclamations so all voices from Heaven are highly to bee regarded and religiously obeyed but especially Decrees and Statutes which are commanded by the authoritie of the high Court of Heaven to bee written for perpetuitie such as this is in my Text I heard a voyce from Heaven saying Write with a Pen of Diamond in letters never to bee obliterated write it so that it may bee read of men in all succeeding Ages even to the last man that shall stand upon the earth Here I cannot sufficiently admire the boldnesse of Cardinall Bellarmine who to disparage the necessitie of holy Scripture and cry up unwritten traditions which are the best evidence hee can produce for his new Trent Creed blusheth not to publish it to the World in
or that reversion when any thing commeth betweene our hope wee grieve for it any thing that commeth or falleth out to further our hope wee rejoyce in it And thus it will bee likewise in this expectation of Christ if it bee true whatsoever it is that may further our hope and further Christ his comming that wee desire and pray for that wee rejoyce in that wee promote and put on with all our power and strength and because a powerfull ministrie of the Word promoteth the kingdome of Christ and fetcheth in the company that shall bee saved and hasteneth his comming therefore wee will withall our power and strength hold up the ministrie of the Word of GOD that Scepter of Jesus Christ for the gathering in of people to God for the perfecting of the number of the Elect that so Christ may come and finish our salvations And whatsoever it is that may hasten this his comming and appearing we are glad to see it in the meanes of it when the Word is preached when the Sacraments are administred when people are gathered to God when grace appeareth in the hearts and lives of men when wee see the power of godlinesse manifest it selfe any where when wee see godly men incouraged and entertained when wee see the feare of God to prevaile in Families and the like we rejoyce at this Why so because this increaseth and confirmeth our hope it gathereth in the number that must be accomplished before our finall deliverance And contrarily when we see things to impaire and hinder the comming of the kingdome of Christ that hinders the salvations of men when we see the Church of God left without able teachers and in stead of them to come in unprofitable and unsufficient ignorant men when we see the free passage of the Gospell hindered many excellent lights shut under a bushell and their light hid from the people of God and the Gospell from the Church of God when we see faction prevaile and both Civill and Ecclesiasticall government despised when Heresies are countenanced and the people of God discouraged and disheartened when we see the state of the Church of God abroad that many sad blowes are given by the enemies and the sword of the enemie is sharpe upon the Church when we see these things these dazle our hopes they come betweene us and the kingdome and second comming of Christ the hastening of it therefore there must be griefe for it Thus it will be We pray for every thing that may hasten it and pray against every thing that stands betweene and hinders the conversion of men and the glory of God and the proceedings of Christs kingdome thus I say it will be with us But where is the man that takes these things to heart who setteth himselfe on these holy and conscionable courses If this be so it appeareth manifestly that this expectation though it be every where exprest is hard to be found any where there be very few that beleeve our report few there be that set themselves to sift and examine the soundnes of their expectation and desire after Christ yet where it is not these attendants it is not sound and sincere In a word to stirre us up to this as the Church and the Spirit and the Bride and he that is athirst here saith Come to stirrâ—… up I say our desires to this we will use a Motive or two Doe wee not see by all this discourse a plaine difference betweene godly men and unbeleevers A godly man that hath the Spirit of God in him sayth come A wicked man hath no such spirit in him with his tongue hee may say come sometime when hee is forced but hee hath not the spirit to say come Here is the difference in their present estate but afterward the difference is greater when the evill servant will not wayâ—…e for his Masters comming but sits with the drunken and Libertines hee shall bee made a spectacle of his Masters surie The Lord of that servant will come in a day when hee looketh not for him and at an houre when hee is not aware and will cut him in sunder and will appoint him his portion with unbeleevers Ther 's then another difference Againe consider though the comming of our Lord Christ bee certaine yet the particular time to our knowledge is uncertaine but though the particular time bee uncertaine yet it is hastening it is not farre off In the time of the Apostle there was but an houre sayth Saint Iohn now is the last houre if it were the last houre in the Apostles time certainely it is the last minute now the very last minute of an houre now And I beseech you let us consider the promise that is made to persons that expect the comming of Christ Blessed is that servant whom his Master when hee commeth shall finde so doing how doing watching and preparing for and expecting of his Masters comming Blessed is the servant that his Master shall finde so doing hee speakes there in the singular number there are not many that hee shall finde so doing therefore hee speakes of one that is blessed one of many that shall bee found so doing Blessed are they that watch and keepe their garments cleane that purge themselves as hee is pure that labour to bee holy as hec is holy blessed is hee that doth so If it were not for these promises how were it able for Christians to get over the rubbes and hinderances that lye in the way of this expectation how were it possible for a Christian to leape over the brunt of reproaches the execution of sentences and persecutions that the Saints of God goe under onely because they have an eye upon this White the expectation of the comming of Christ. The faithfull Martyrs in this Kingdome and in other Countreys what did drive theem to embrace the flames and the cruellest death and torments that Persecutors could devise but onely this was in their eye this bore them out against all the threatenings and sufferings of the World this was that that did give them encouragement and comfort above all discouragements And to conlude above all let us encourage our selves by the fruit and recompence of all this expectation what is that the Apostle Saint Iohn sayth that when this hope shall come into our hand when our faith shall meete with fruition then we shall see Christ so as to bee like him here is such a sight of Christ as never the eye of flesh saw nor can see to see Christ and to bee like him to see him as hee is here is such a sight as would ravish us if wee knew what it was and wee cannot know while wee are on earth eye hath not seene that which wee shall see in Christ but when wee shall enjoy this expectation wee shall see him as hee is and see him so as to bee like him Father sayth hee Iohn 17. 24. I will that where I am they may bee that they may see
we be not profited by them But I say brethren this is that which God hath respect unto in all his provisions for his people in the Institution of all his ordinances their profit and benefit and when he findeth any ordinance that is not for the benefit of his people though they bee of his owne institution yet hee takes them away therefore the Apostle speaking concerning the Mosaycall Rites and institutions of the Ceremoniall Law he calleth them unprofitable and beggerly rudiments and so God himselfe counted of them and for their unprofitablenesse there was a gracious disanulment of them But especially and above all this will be most apparant if we cast our eyes upon the Lord Jesus who is indeede the substance of our preaching and of our receiving the Sacrament and of all the ordinances of God and of all his promises it is with respect to our profit that the Lord hath beene pleased to ordaine him both in respect of his person and the constitution of that and in respect of his offices and all his fatherly administrations concerning him a gracious respect hee hath had in all to the profit of his Church as might appeare in the severall particulars A body hast thou prepared for mee saith hee in the Psalme why That Christ might be the more profitable to his people sitted thereby to converse with and to communicate himselfe unto them The Word was made flesh and therefore made flesh that he might dwell among us that there might bee a meete cohabitation with him And as this was the respect God had in his incarnation so it was in all his humiliation What was the reason that hee was acquainted with sorrowes and griefes and miseries both from God and men but that hee might be the more for our profit that wee might have a mercifull High Priest that he might the better know from experience the way to commiserate and compassionate his people in their distresse Yea in his death in his resurrection in his ascention in his preferment at Gods right hand in all these administrations of God the Father concerning his Sonne hee had a gracious respect to the good and profit and benefit of his people Againe secondly consider all the appointments of God his injunctions and commands to his people hee doth in all ayme at their profit as it is in Deut. All these things I command thee for thy good The Lord requireth nothing at his peoples hands but it is for their profit He calleth upon us to believe it is that wee might have the profit of his word and promises Hee calleth upon us to repent and to leave our sinfull wayes if thine eye offend thee plucke it out if thy hand offend thee cut it off for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that thy whole body should bee cast into hell he hath an ayme at our profit wee thinke hard of it as wee are naturally apt to doe through a deepe affection wee beare to our base lusts that God should come so neare to us and deale so strictly with us as to command us to plucke out our eyes and cut off our hands that is to part with our dearest corruptions Alas my brethren if God saw that it were good for us that it were for our profit to keepe our lusts he would not take away one of them from us but we should have them as I may say with all his heart but hee knoweth that as they are not for his glory so they are not for our profit he seeth that there is not any good to be gotten by our retayning of them therefore it is I say that he is so strict in his impositions that hee so often calleth upon his people to repent and to cast away their sinnes Thirdly and lastly consider all the administrations of God to his people and wee shall see that in them all hee hath a respect to their profit As for instance he is pleased to suffer sinne and corruption to remaine in his servants all the while they are in this life he could wholly take it away and free them from it even in this world But he knowes that it is for their profit to suffer these Inmates these Cananites to remaine that they may be as prickes in their eyes and thornes in their sides to make them the more weary of the world and the more desirous of heaven He is pleased many times to suffer his people to have sinne not onely tirannizing and usurping but prevayling against them but it is that thereby they may attaine to a greater degree of humiliation He suffereth them sometimes to fall for this very purpose that he might exalt them Hee is pleased to permit the Divell to buffet them and to use them very hardly were it not for their profit hee would tye him up in Hell and give him no such leave as this but as he sayd to Saint Paul least they should be exalted above measure the messenger of Sathan is sent to buffet them Yea the Lords withholding of his spirituall comforts his deserting of his people the hyding of his face from them the withdrawing of those sweet and gracious manifestations of himselfe unto them it is all with respect to their profit that they may be taught the more to prize the comforts of his spirit and to walke more worthy of them when they doe enjoy them He is pleased sometime to suspend his answering of their prayers and to hold them long in the expectation of the returne of their requests it is for their profit that they may bee thereby stirred up to ply the Throne of grace with more frequent and earnest praiers that so the greater their adventure is as I may say the greater their returne may be It being in this case with them as it is with Merchants the greater adventure they send forth and the longer their ship is out the greater and more advantageous is the returne Many times againe hee is pleased not onely to suspend his answer to their prayers but to deny the granting of his peoples request in the very kinde they sue for But even in this too hee hath respect to their profit hee heareth them as one well sayd according to their profit thou gh not according to their wills so he dealt with Moses concerning his request of entring into the Land of Canaan Againe the Lord is pleased to keepe his people many times in a low condition and in meane estate to put them into bare commons and hard pastures while others are grazing in full meddowes it is with respect to their profit to teach them the more to depend upon him to enable them the better to live by Faith Againe for this purpose hee takes from his servants deare blessings the Wife from the Husband the Children from the Parents as wee see verified this day in this place concerning our friends here the mournefull
Judgement The one An expectation with desire and with an earnest longing the expectation of the faithfull of a Lord of a gracious Redeemer nay of a loving Husband Therefore every faithfull soule cannot but waite upon him As a faithfull servant that hath done his worke longeth for his Masters comming home that hee may give an account of his faithfulnesse and may bee acceptable ◅o his Master for his faithfull service that hee hath done in his absence that hee may expect his Masters remuneration But there is annother expectation of Christ to come that is not with desire but with horrour and dread and feare out of guiltinesse of conscience This is the expectation of a Malefactor in the Jayle he wayteth and lookes for the comming of the Judge to passe sentence on him and so to bee dragged to execution thus wicked men expect Christ thus wicked Angells expect him But the expectation of the godly is an expectation with love and desire an expectatiō not of a severe Judge but of a loving husband of a faithfull Master that hath promised a recompense to the service of beleevers even the least and lowest if it bee the gift of a cup of cold water in his name Therefore ye must take knowledge of the expectation here meant This I say is proper to beleevers Let us see the truth of the Doctrine in the Reason of it why every faithfull soule must needs long and desire the second comming of Christ. First because it is a part of Christs gracious promise which the faith of the soule leaneth on The proper object of faith is the promise of the Gospell this yee may see in the Text Christ had promised to come Amen even so here is the reason of this desire because his promise goeth before it The faithfull soule apprehendeth every other inferiour promise and every lesse promise much more this maine promise the very knot of all the very complement of all faith must needs expect and claspe fast hold upon this promise and give assent and acclamation to it as in the word Amen even so come as thou hast sayd and promised Many promises to this purpose hath our Lord and Saviour Christ pronounced for the stirring up of our faith and affection as namely that in the 14 of Saint Iohns Gospell toward the beginning where hee comforteth his Disciples in his absence If I goe I will come againe And so in Acts 1. 11. As yee see him ascend with your bodily eyes in his Person and flesh so yee shall see him descend But wee need not goe far for promises for immediately before the words and two verses besides in this Chapter the 7. and 12. Behold I come shortly This is the property of every godly man having the promise of the comming to leane upon it and to desire the accomplishment of the promise In the old Testament they had the promise of the first comming of Christ that they earnestly desired as Iacob Gen. 49. Lord I have wayted for thy salvation and Abraham saw Christs day afarre off and rejoyced And in the New Testament wee read of Anna and Zacharias and Elizabeth and the faithfull that waited for the consolation of Israel they waited for the accomplishment of this promise the comming of Christ in the flesh his first comming Shall they waite and earnestly desire the first comming of the Sonne of God in humilitie and humanitie and basenesse and shall not we earnestly expect his second comming in glory to manifest not only his glory but our glory shall not wee expect that comming of his wherein we shall be married to himselfe and whereby we shall be tooke up to himselfe Thus yee see the promise of Christ is one ground yea and a principall ground of this expectation of the faithfull The second Reason is drawne from the Union and conjunction betweene Christ and the faithfull soule That is in the Text too the Bride saith Come Now there is a neere union and conjunction in this same conjunction of Mariage amongst men wherein the love must needs be imperfect and but a-drop of that Ocean and wherein the love of the parties must needs be finfull yet notwithstanding wee see how vehement it is In the absence of one another the one longeth and pineth after the other and one partie enjoyeth not himselfe without the other Much more ought it to be so here in this heavenly contract betweene Christ and his faithfull Spouse should not here the Spouse bee sicke of love as the Spouse professeth of her selfe in the second of Canticles This vehement desire must needs arise out of the neerenesse and undevidednesse of that conjunction that is betweene Christ and a Christian There is little love where there is little desire of the thing beloved when it is absent Why doth the member of the Bodie desire immediate conjunction with the head but because it knows that the separation from the head is the death of the member So it is in this neere conjunction betweene Christ the head and his members the Church they must needs desire immediate and inseparable conjunction with the head because the separation from the head must be the death of the members That is the second Reason The third Reason of the Point is this because the Saints of God they know that the accomplishment of the full happinesse of the Church of God and likewise of themselves that are members of the Church it consisteth in this in Christ his second comming againe to judgement therefore they doe earnestly desire it and affect it and say Amen even so Come because I say they know this is the comming that perfects the Church of God perfects their glory in the state of happinesse which the Church and every member thereof doth expect they know that that is the time which shall be the Revelation of the sonnes of God who are here obscure and shall be till that day come They know well that all the graces and perfections that the child of God can attaine to in this imperfection all is but the first fruits all is but a tast and therefore they cannot possibly but lift up their heads and raise up their hearts to the expectation of that day wherein these first fruits shall bee perfected with full measure shaken together and running over whereas there shall be an absolute freedome from all sinne and from all the appurtenances of it an absolute perfection not of grace only but of glory which is the highest grace They shall be one with the head this is that which makes them looke for it Heb. 9. 28. the place I named before it is said Christ shall appeare to save them that waite for him Hee shall bring a full horne of salvation he shall perfect the salvation of the Saints till that day there is no perfection in the salvation of the Saints No though they goe to heaven yet before that day there is no perfect salvation because their bodyes are not joyned to
their soules This is a third Reason even the expectation of the full accomplishment of all the promises The Lord hath dealt with us as he dealt with his own Israel in their wildernesse he gave them a taste of the fruit of the good land he caused the searchers to carry some clusters and bunches of the fruit to the Israelites in the Wildernesse that they tasting of it might hie themselues to that rich and goodly and fat countrey so the Lord giveth us some drops of grace and onely giveth us a taste of that happinesse that wee waite for that we may hie our selves so much the faster through this wildernesse to enjoy it This therefore is a strong reason wherefore the people of God must needs say Come Even so Amen let it be so because I say they know till Christ come the second time they must not expect the accomplishment of their hope and the perfection of their happinesse The fourth and last Reason of this Point may be this because we are taught by our Lord and Saviour Christ to pray Thy kingdome come That is not only that the kingdome of grace may come into our hearts while we are here but that the kingdome of glory may hasten upon us and we are sure that this Petition shall never be granted to us till Christ his returne againe to judgement till he come to accomplish this maine promise of all for then only Christ commeth as our Lord and Iesus Then he commeth as a Lord and makes an end of all the warres of the Church then he shall throw downe all enemies before him treading Sathan and all his instruments under his feet then he shall manifest to the world that he hath the Keyes of hell and of deâ—…th then he shall destroy the kingdome of Antichrist that must be abolished by the brightnesse of his comming And then and not till then he shall come as a Saviour to performe perfect salvation for his Church to deliver his Church not only from condemnation but from the molestation of sinne not only from tyrannie and oppression of enemies but even from all the presence of enemies that at that day a separation being made it may be said to the Saints of God as Moses said to the Israelites when they were afraid of the Egyptians stand still feare nothing the enemies that your eyes have seenâ—… to day yee shall never see them more they shall be so farre from oppressing the Church that they shall never molest the Church not so much as by their presence then hee shall dispose the kingdome to his members as the Father hath disposed the kingdome to him These are strong and effectuall reasons to prove this point to us that the members of the Church true beleevers cannot possibly but waite and expect and vehemently desire the comming of Christ the second time for the salvation of his Body the finall salvation of his people Here one objection may be made by the way and so wee will descend to the Use and Application of it Here it may be said But why doe the people of God thus expect and waite for the comming of Christ in all the Ages of the New Testament for the space of 1600. yeares and yet hee commeth not What reason have they to be commanded to expect and wish and waite for the comming of Christ when he commeth not in so long a time Have not all beene frustrate of their expectation And may not we as well as they that lived in the Ages before us for wee see no appearance of his comming no more then was many hundred yeares since To this we answer That the patient abiding and waiting of the just never miscarrieth the Saints of God never lost nor shall lose for their expecting and waiting for Christs second comming to Judgement The Saints of God in former ages 1600. yeares agoe waited for Christ comming but were they losers by it though he came not This expectation of his comming it kept them in the exercise of their faith of their hope of their patience of their watchfulnesse it kept all their graces a working therefore they were no losers by it though they had not the accomplishment of the maine promise in expecting the promise they were savers and no losers because all their graces were kept in exercise Besides this in the second place the very expectation of Christ in the Ages of the New testament though he came not it is fruitfull and usefull to draw up the hearts and mindes of the godly to heavenly thoughts and to a heavenly conversation and so in the very first Ages of the New Testament the Apostle tells us that this is the use of their expectation Phil. 3. 19. Our conversation iâ—… in heaven from whence wee looke for a Saviour they looked for a Saviour then when he was but newly ascended was it fruitlesse because he came not of 1600. yeares after No but Our conversation is therefore in heaven because we waite for his comming In all ages since this expectation hath beene a meanes to raise the heavy mold of earth the heart of man to heaven and heavenly-mindednesse therefore this expectation doth not faile because it is of use to helpe them to the full fruition of it in the time of it Besides the Saints of God never murmure because Christ commeth not they never murmure as those that shall lose their hopes and expectation because they are taught to frame their mindes and wills to the will of God and of Jesus Christ their head Now the will of God is that wee should still waite though Christ come not because hereby the Lord doth glorifie himselfe in the gathering in together the number of the faithfull The number of the Saints must be gathered in and none must be neglected Now is there any Saint of God and beleever in the world that desireth not that every Saint should be gathered in and the whole body of Christ perfected in the whole members of it before Christ come to judgement None must be neglected and every beleever must frame his will to the will of God God hath revealed that the number must be gathered in and when it is so Christ will come and gather all together under his wing Now the Saints of God thinke not much that the number should be gathered in they are well contented with it So likewise God hath revealed his will that though hee be exceeding patient to wicked men yet he is not forgetfull of his promise God will bee contented though he be provoked every day infinitely by the highest sinnes of the world patiently to endure all this and to offer conditions of peace and mercy even to the worst to shew himselfe rich in mercie and so full of goodnesse that he makes offer even of goodnesse to the worst Now the Saints of God here frame their will to Gods and are content still to waite because God still putteth forth his patience and still offereth Conditions of