Canaan if you expect to follow him into the blessedness of Canaan You must go as he did if whither he did in the way of holy walking yea in the way of suffering if he will call you to follow him through mud and bloud take up your Cross and follow him you must suffer with him if you would be glorified with him Thus I have gone briefly over the first thing considerable in the time when Peter endeavoured that they should remember his holy instructions We have considered this time first as giving a Title unto Death it is here called a Decease an Exodus 2dly We must consider it as discovering the lot of Peter an eminent Apostle an excellent Servant of Jesus in the Ministry and yet here he tells you of his decease The Observation shall be by way of question in allusion to the words of Stephen Acts 7.52 Which of the Prophets have not your fathers persecuted My Doctrinal Question shall be this Which of the Prophets hath not death removed Prophets ordinary or extraordinary Prophets before and Prophets since Christ all slain by Death they are deceased says the Apostle after my decease But why is it thus Next to the will of God and the irrevocable statute of dying Take this fourfold account of the death of the Prophets 1. Consider them as Men. 2. As holy men 3. As sinful men 4. As Ministers of Jesus Christ as Prophets And upon all these accounts they must have their decease 1. As men they are liable to a decease their bodies are flesh and bloud we walk after the flesh saith Paul that is as to the outward-man and state of frailty mortality 2 Cor. 10.3 Even they as well as you must mend their Cottages of Mortality once a day at least to keep them wind-tight and water-tight to preserve them from an untimely dissolution these Lamps cannot burn and shine without your Oil they are earthen vessels as the Apostle calls them Peter here twice calls his body a tabernacle and that shortly to be laid off the word of Life is in the Mouths of your Prophets but the Characters of Death are on their foreheads Isidore of Pelusium his expression is very apt to this purpose Our dissolution saith he doth as it were run an equal pace with our framing or making in the womb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assoon as you light a Candle it is melting and declining Post genesin sequitur exodus Every man as born is a dying man even Adam in his innocency though he had a posse non mori a power not to die yet he had not a non posse mori in regard of the originals of his body and its matter he had a remote power of dying he had the principia resolutionis principles of dissolution though in regard of his excellent Constitution and original Righteousness but especially the ordination and Providence of God he was in innocency immortal but in our fallen-state as men born living we are mortal death is natural and necessary We must die not because we are sick but because we live morieris non quia aegrotas sed quia vivis 2. As they are holy men Prophets must die 1. They must be made perfectly holy and they long to be so but on this side the grave they cannot be so they have indeed the first-fruits of the spirit but yet the reliques of sin primitias spiritus reliquias vetustatis here they strive against sin and yet do but imperfectly conquer it in Heaven they are neither conquered by sin nor have they the company of sin therefore because they are holy men that they may be perfectly so and have the full crop after the first fruits they must die 2dly Because they are holy men therefore they must see God God will not always be without their company the least grace is too good to go to hell and to stay always upon earth Enoch walked with God and was translated of all the Patriarchs before the Flood he lived the best and the least holy Prophets must die that they may go to the perfect fruition of God 3. They must dye because they are sinful men Our Apostle Peter that here foretells his decease not more humbly than truly call'd himself a sinful man Depart from me O Lord I am a sinful man Sin makes all subject to the stroke though not to the sting of death God hates sin wheresoever he sees it Christ must dye if sin be but imputed and all must dye if sin be inherent Though death be not unto the Saints a curse for sin yet it is a consequent of sin and blessed be God that it shall be the cure of sin 4. They must dye because they are Prophets Ministers of Christ 1. God oft takes away Prophets and Ministers they have their decease to punish the unprofitableness and unthankfulness of their people that never knew how to prize and value them in the time of their enjoying them God puts out these lights because you play the wantons with them If you will be playing when you should be working by the light God sometimes righteously takes away the Candle and lets you go to bed in the dark without an enlightning Minister 2. As they are Prophets they must dye because they are oft as Prophets persecuted to death A godly Minister is set in the Forlorn Hope of the Army of Christs Saints wicked men oftentimes shorten their lives and would not willingly let these lights burn to the socket but would gladly blow them out before they are burnt out Though blessed be God we cannot say with Lorinus the Jesuit upon the Text who writes concerning the Popes That in all their successions from Peter to the year 1625 though he doth most falsely date the succession of the Popes from Peter there never yet was one Pope that lived twenty-four years and truly he may well say so many of them having hastned their deaths with poisons others with their Murders Sodomy Incest and other notorious Villanies not to be named by a Minister of Christ in the Pulpit Though blessed be God I say we cannot say that none of our Ministers have arrived to the age of 24 years in their Ministry yet we must say their Lives are commonly shorter than those of others even in regard of that Antichristian fury principally bent against them the edg whereof hath frequently cut the thread of their Lives Persecutors have made faithful Ministers the very Butts of their shot of Opposition The Thief hates and strikes at the Candle more than any thing The Wolf is most angry with the Shepherd that defends the Flock witness the rage of the Devil in all places and ages 3. They must die as Prophets Ministers because there is no other way so fit for wicked men themselves to praise and prize them as by their dying While godly Ministers Lived though they were the marks of all the Obloquie and oppression of wicked men yet when dead even the wicked
to faithful men saith Paul to Timothy 2 Tim. 2.2 Upon which words Reverend Calvin well notes Here the Apostle shews Quantum sit solicitus de propaganda sana doctrina ad posteros His sollicitousness to propagate sound Doctrine to Posterity and that the Servant of Christ must not only quamdiu vivit while he lives labour to preserve the purity of Doctrine sed quam longissime ejus cura studiam se extendere poterit as far as ever his care and study should be able to extend The like some Learned men have observed upon 1 Tim. 6.14 Keep this Commandment without spot and unrebukable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ No faithful Servant of Christ is willing that the fruit of his Endowments or Employments should die with him but that they may live when he is dead for the furthering your Salvation that Instructions may abide with you to inform you Exhortations to quicken you Examples if holy to be imitated by you his sufferings for the Truth to strengthen and confirm you in the Truth thereby sealed And this is their Duty First That thereby they may keep up the name of God and promote his glory in the World This we should desire may be done after our death yea by it It was excellent Counsel of Luther Disce mori ut vivat Christi gloria Learn to die that the glory of Christ may live If Christ may increase by or after our decrease our very diminution should be our Option whatever makes Christ great should please us The end of living or dying is Gods glory if living or dying we are the Lords our living and dying should be to the Lord we should serve our generation that the generations after us may serve him 2. Hereby the Servants of God best provide for their own names 'T is this that makes our names to be a sweet Perfume to Posterity and gives them as much of Eternity as in this World they are capable of obtaining The rotting of the name is a wicked mans Curse and the preservation of our memories by doing good is both a Duty and a Blessing As an useless unserviceable person is dead while he lives so service is that that makes us live when we are dead and makes the places where we lived like the Civet-box when the Civet is taken out of it to savour of our holy Endeavours when we our selves are gone from and out of them 3. Thirdly Love to Souls makes this a Duty Regard to these must be lengthened beyond the length of our lives A Servant of Christ must do good to as many as he can 'T is both his duty and disposition Paul tells us the design of all his condescensions was that he might gain the more 1 Cor. 9.19 No godly man needs or wishes to make a Monopoly of Heaven Every Saint loves Company to Glory he loves to be saved surely but not solitarily 'T is this that should be the great motive to writing to benefit others after our decease The Pen hath as one speaks the greatest Auditories and the advantage of levening Posterity with Holiness and it hath given the deepest wounds to Antichrist and been the best Antidote against Heresies 'T is a holy Covetousness to crave the saving of many both while we live and after death Besides this is a kind of countermining of Satan who after the death of able Instruments labours most to pervert the Truth and to subvert Souls After my departure saith Paul Acts 20.29 grievous Wolves shall enter in among you not sparing the flock 4. Fourthly The best in their life-time have done too little for the good of Souls How small is the number of those we have brought to Heaven compared with those that for ought we know we have undone for ever by our sinful Examples and other encouragements to sin There may be several that shall be saved who have occasioned the damnation of others by their sinful and scandalous carriages The colder the Winter hath been the hotter say some the Summer is like to be so the more benummed and frozen our endeavours for saving of Souls have been formerly the hotter should our Divine Zeal be afterwards to save them Never did a bad man do more against Christ than Paul did before his Conversion but never did a good man do more for him than Paul did afterwards I would to God saith he that all that hear me were such as I am As much as in me is Rom. 1.15 I will preach the Gospel I will gladly spend and be spent 2 Cor. 12.15 The grace of God was exceeding abundant in that faith and love 1 Tim. 1.14 which answered the former to his infidelity the latter to his persecution 5. Fifthly The reward that godly men and Prophets expect is Everlasting It shall last longer than their longest usefulness can do their Crown shall never fade away Why then should their helpfulness to Souls be short upon earth since their happiness in Heaven shall be perpetual And 't is the opinion of some That the Saints in Heaven have an addition made to their happiness there by the Conversion of every Soul that is converted by their means after their departure 6. Lastly In some regards they may do good to Souls after their decease with less disadvantage than they could while living upon earth for while here they lived their bodily presence and speech was weak and contemptible their outward man their constant familiar Converse with a people made them the more neglected But these hinderances after death are removed people then being ready to entertain more honourable thoughts of them than when they lived Every advantage for doing good should be embraced The higher thoughts any have of us the higher thoughts we should labour that thereby they may have of Christ Paul his bodily presence was despicable but how greatly have his labours benefited Posterity 1. For the Use of this Point 1. Heinous is the impiety of those who so live that they do more hurt to Souls after their death than ever they did while they lived whose practical immoralities and heretical opinions being transmitted to posterity prove its bane and poyson I might instance in Arrius Pelagius Socinus Arminius and other Innovators who by their Writings have perverted more since they left the world than ever they did by their tongues while they were in it and what rebuke I give to Heterodox Writings is as due to those Heterodox by some so called Practices of impiety wherewith men are destructive to those who follow their Examples in after-ages Our practices while we live should be so holy and exemplary that when we dye we may not be asham'd to say we desire that after our decease these things may be remembred Who ever heard of any impure Sensualist or any infamous for immoralities to be so senslesly impudent as to say Let posterity have these things always in remembrance for by the same reason that they desire to hide their impieties
and in that upon the flesh and Blood of Christ They differ in their Apparel Saints put on the Lord Jesus his righteousness as imputed and his grace and holiness as imparted to them but the wicked are clothed only with the defiled and defective rags of their own righteousness and the deformities of the old man and corruption 2. When the Israelites departed from Egypt their Exodus or departure was e terra afflictionis as 't is call'd Gen. 41.52 from a troublesome and afflicting Country therefore Scripture frequently speaks concerning their afflictions in Egypt Exod. 3.7 their being bond-men in Egypt Deut. 6.21 concerning the murther of their Infants in Egypt concerning their iron furnace in Egypt Dent. 4.20 called an iron-furnace because much imployment of the Israelites was spent in the melting and mollifying of iron which doubtless was the sorest and hottest work and a little before they went away their bricks were doubled their burthens were increased in one word the Egyptian cruelties were extended to the very highest pitch of extremity And when the people of God go out of the world is not their Exodus their departure from an Egypt too in this regard It is a troublesome hating persecuting world that they depart from Mundus turbatur amatur the world is troubled and troublesome saith Austin yet too much lov'd and God makes the place of our distance from heaven an house of bondage and trouble lest we should make it the place of our delight 'T is better for Gods Israel that Egypt should be a house of bondage than hospitality and God will have his people afflicted in it that they may not be infected with it and say it is good for us to be here When the people of Israel were coming into Egypt how kindly did Pharaoh entertain them how welcome were they to the Egyptians but when they went out from thence how were they persecuted When the people of God are looking towards the world and seeming to comply with it then they shall be respected but when they will leave it in their deportment and practice then they are hated 'T is good that Egyptians should hate Israel that they may not hurt them When the world is most kind 't is most corrupting and when it smiles most it seduceth most Were it not for the bondage of Egypt we should too much delight in the Idols and Onyons of Egypt 3. When the Israelites departed out of Egypt they departed e terra proâ—â—ana out of a wicked idolatrous sinful Country therefore you so often read concerning the idols of the Egyptians the gods of the Egyptians Jer. 43.12 Jer. 46.25 and particularly you have mention made Josh 24.14 concerning the people of Israel their serving the gods of the Egyptians which doubtless they did too frequently when they were amongst them so you read concerning the whoredoms of Egypt Ezek. 23.8 And is not this as the world that we are leaving the Egppt from which we are departing when we are dying The whole world says the Apostle lies in wickedness like a Swine in the midst of the mire wallowing and tumbling immersed in all kind of lewdness and profaneness and it is called therefore this present evil World Gal. 1.4 And the truth is the people of God while here they abide are too ready in this Egypt to learn the Language and imitate the sinful practises of Egypt Water though never so pure running through a Brimstony or Allomy Myne will have something of the savour tang and tast of it And the people of God as frequently we see and should sadly observe although they are holy purified and cleansed yet running through the Myne of a sinful profane World have too great a tang and savour of its Impiety I doubt not but the people of Israel learned their Idolatry of worshipping the golden Calf of the Egyptians who worshipped such Idols Thus you see from whence the Exodus or departure of the Israelites was it was from Egypt that carries too great a resemblance to the World which the Saints leave when they die 2dly What was the way of the Israelites departing out of Egypt It was through a red-Sea a kind of living-death in appearance or sepulcher wherein they expected every moment to be swallowed up Pharaoh also pursuing of them And the people of God must pass to life sometimes through a red-Sea of Persecution and Bloud as this great Apostle Peter did according to the prediction that he had from Jesus Joh. 21.18 but always they must pass to life through death there is no going any other way till the fetters of the body be knockt off the Soul cannot get up to God Death must be the threshold of Life we must be absent from the body before we can be present with the Lord. This is as the way of sins merit so of Gods method He writes death upon all things and persons before he enlivens and raiseth them Nor is the passage of the Saints through the red-Sea of Death without a pursuing Pharaoh the Devil with his Army of Tentations who will ever disturb where he cannot destroy and pursue though he cannot prevail But blessed be Christ who not only disappoints but destroys the destroyer 3dly To what Countrey did they design to go when they departed out of Egypt 'T was to the Land of Canaan thither they were tending and marching And so likewise do the People of God when they leave this Egypt they go to a better Land of Canaan than that which is earthly a Heavenly Countrey an heavenly Canaan though shadowed out and typified by the earthly I shall open it to you in three particulars 1. The Land of Canaan was Terra Promissa it was a Promised Land therefore Neh. 9.15 it is there called the Land which God both promised and sware to give the Israelites Their only Title to it was by Promise God ow'd it to them no further than he had promised it to them And the heavenly Canaan to which the dying Saints do go is also a Land of Promise 1 John 2.25 This is the promise that he hath promised Eternal life A Promise is a middle thing between Purpose and Performance first there is the Purpose of God to save his People his eternal Decree then he promises it in the Gospel then performs it after Death and so great is the Love of God to a true Israelite an Israelite indeed that he will not stay till the day of performance comes but shews his Love in promising before the time of performance And hence you read of the promise of eternal Life 2 Tim. 1.1 Heb. 9.15 the promise of the eternal Inheritance and the Saints called the heirs of Promise and hereby God both honours his own faithfulness in his peoples trusting him for Heaven and tries his Saints sincerity who embrace Gods Promises before the Worlds Performances and the Riches of the people of God on this side Heaven lies in this great Promise of Heaven A Saint that
themselves will give them a good Report You read of the Sepulchres of the Prophets that the Pharisees garnished when they were alive they persecuted them but after their deaths they garnished and adorned their Sepulchres And the truth is a dead Prophet is commonly the only praised Prophet by a wicked man when living he reproved and roared against a wicked mans sins out of the Pulpit then how did the wicked scorn him and scoff at him but when a faithful Minister is gone and the Sinner sees him quiet and hears him say nothing against his Impieties for fashion-sake at least he will give him the good word of the Age and Countrey When Sampsons Lion was alive and roared upon him Sampson rends and tears him but when the Lion was dead then Sampson takes Hony out of him and counts him a creature of sweetness so a dead Prophet shall be counted sweet when alive he was the bitterest and most unpleasing person in the World to a Sinner 4. They must die as they are Prophets because perhaps their own Friends have idoliz'd them and put them in the room of God who can though ordinarily he will not do his work without them God uses Tools not to help him but to make them helpful he will not have the Servant advanced above himself nor the man above the Master the way to be without Ministers is to think you cannot be without them the Sun needs not the Glow-worm to give it light nor doth God need the Minister God doth nothing with means but he can do the same without them there was Light before there was a Sun 5. As Prophets they must dye for they are to receive a Prophets reward a Crown of glory that fadeth not away as the Apostle expresses it 1 Pet. 5.4 2 Tim. 4.7 8 a Crown of righteousness This is their working-time it is not the time of their reward The righteous Judg will shortly pay them they labour in the Lord and therefore dye in the Lord and their work is not in vain in the Lord. My labour is with the Lord saith the Prophet They are a sweet savour unto God in them that perish Their labour for the Lord is to be recompenc'd by their enjoyment of the Lord. Come well done good and faithful Servant enter into thy Masters joy shall one day be the Euge the Recompencing-expression of Jesus Christ to his faithful Ministers They serve the best Master who gives them the best work the best wages and is the only Master that gives strength and though he gives it he rewards it after he hath given the strength and the heart to use it 6. As Prophets they die because God will often have them preach by their death whether violent or natural I admired Doctor Seaman more in a sick-Chamber and on a Death-bed than ever I did in the Pulpit how audibly did he read the Lecture of Patience when he had pains as he himself wrote as great as flesh and blood could bear even then I remember not that by any gesture or groan he exprest any dislike of Gods dealings God will break the Box of a godly Ministers body that so the fragrant Perfumes of his Ointments his Graces and Faith may breathe out when the Box is broken I add 7. They must die as Prophets and Ministers because often the labour of their Ministry shortens their days they spend their Oil in giving you light like Clouds they dissolve themselves by dropping upon their too-often barren Hearers Nothing wearies and weakens the body more than Study I have look'd upon other Callings as Recreations to the Calling of a studious Minister that labours in hunting before he brings you Venison A Knife is always better and often more worn by use and cutting than by lying still and rusting Doctor Whitaker that Learned and famous Servant of God in his Generation who for Learning Orthodox parts and Zeal was the terror of Rome and Ornament of England sometimes Master of St. John's in Cambridge of whom Bellarmine himself said having his picture hung up in his Study Though he was a Heretick yet he was a learned Heretick This blessed Whitaker was so painful a Student and sat up so late in Nights at Study that he said of himself when he felt his strength decaying and his sickness encreasing He would willingly part with all that Learning that ever he got by Candle-light upon the condition he could recover that strength and health that he had lost by Candle-light The Prophets shorten their time to bring you to Eternity The Application follows and it shall be by way of 1. Advice 2. Comfort 1. By way of Advice 1. If the Prophets have their decease Then they should labour while they may they should work apace they shall not do it long Peter knowing that the putting off his tabernacle did approach was the more vigorous in his Pastoral endeavours v. 14. 'T is most incongruous for a Minister to be sure that he cannot live and yet so lazy that he will not preach Let him take heed lest he be so guilty that he dares not die What a shame is it that some called Ministers have a greater plurality of Livings than they can promise to themselves of days to live in No preaching in the Grave unless Silence preach which I wish that of this Great Divine may do 2. Magistrates should labour to keep up and encourage a Succession of Learned and laborious Ministers so far should they be from persecuting opposing them and drying up their Oil of Maintenance that they should encourage and highly honour them not only for their works-sake already performed but that they may perform it still and not only give them a liberty to preach still but a liberal Maintenance for preaching A Magistrate as well as a Minister should endeavour that Sanctity should be transmitted to Posterity 3. People should improve their Ministers if they must have a decease You have but borrowed your Books therefore you had need read them the faster Walk while it is light let not your Minister go till he hath blessed you with some spiritual Blessing shorten not his Life with grief for your unprofitableness You tear your Books apace and wear out your Ministers for shame learn your Lessons 4. If Ministers have their decease May those that succeed them in place endeavour to succeed yea to exceed them in worth and ability May that expression of the Antient here take place Cum fortes ad proemia vocat debiles ad certamina roborat Cum istos suscipiendo remunerat hisce laborum vires quas remuneret subministrat When God Crowns some for working may he strengthen others for their work May we never be miserable in having Reeds in the room of Pillars And may you of this Congregation with Wisdom and unanimity make choice of such a person to succeed Doctor Seaman as may so fill and become his Pulpit that if possible you may be sensible of a change
rather than a loss by Doctor Seaman's decease 5. Must Ministers die Pray for them to him that hath the power of Life and Death It was Paul's great Prayer to be pray'd for 'T was through Prayer that he trusted to be given to them Phil. 2.2 'T will be your deserved trouble when your faithful Ministers die that you while they lived pray'd no more for and profited no more by them and these two have a common Conjunction Prayer is the mean to get Ministers when we want them and to keep them when we have them 6. Must Ministers die Maintain them while they stay The unkind World storms them do not you starve them or hinder them from Studying by your neglecting to supply them I neither speak nor have cause to speak in this kind for my self but for my Brethrens-sake I cannot be silent Make that Proverb cease London loves a Cheap Gospel The best of Ministers walk in the flesh acknowledg this as your priviledg but such as points to your Duty If they die let not your penuriousness be the disease of which they die Consider they will not long be chargeable 7. Lastly Must the best of Ministers dye Be willing to follow them The sweetest Flowers wither soonest God takes away the best of his Servants his Enochs often hastily why do we love so much then to linger behind We should like the world the less while we stay and the lesâ— to stay in it because holy men and Ministers so speedily forsake it We delight not in a room without furniture nor in an house that hath only naked walls Sanctity is the best furniture of souls and Saints of places both for use and ornament why do we then love so much to stay when they are taken down And of all others we Ministers methinks should be most willing to follow our Brethren and dear Companions in the Ministry by long acquaintance frequent and indearing visits sweet innocent chearfulness fraternal counfels learned debates prayer yea promises and re-promises of prayer of late so nearly linkt and intimately twisted to and with us Sometimes methinks when I recall them I cannot the memories of the great Gouge and Gataker the holy and delightful Whitaker the prudent Calamy that man of Prayer Ash and of Tears Nalton that sweet name and man of affection Love whose great love to me was match'd with nothing more than my fidelity to him and I would kiss even the feet though else I perfectly despise the tongue of Calumny would they be which yet they never durst be the bearers to me of the least proof to the contrary also of learned Cranford true-hearted Taylor victorious Vines laborious and upright Jackson richly adorned Drake who knew every thing better than his own rare accomplishments Marshal that Master in the art of preaching Burroughs another great ornament of the Pulpit judicious and painful Caryl that great Pattern of industry and sanctity Doctor Wilkinson and now lastly the profound Doctor Seaman When I say I recall the memories of these now blessed Worthies I am ready to say Lord why do I long no more to get among them and yet what are these to Jesus Christ for drawing out my affection and longings for Heaven in whom are centred all the excellencies of these and of all those millions of Saints that have been from the beginning of the world that now are or ever shall be and compared to him are no more than the faint and feeble flame of the smallest Candle to the Sun when shining forth in greatest glory and without whom Heaven it self with all its other furniture of Saints and Angels deckt with the most shining Attire of all their possible perfections would be but as a sheet of Cyphers without a figure and could entertain us only with pleasures in the notion and delights of meer Imagination 2. I shall shut up this Point concerning the decease of godly Ministers with but naming a second Use by way of Relief and Refreshment For 1. Though the Prophets of God do die yet the God of those Prophets never dies He is the living God and only hath immortality Though the Streams be dried up the Fountain hath a constant fulness out of which the faithful may draw all supplies of Grace and Comfort by a due improvement of the Promises and keeping up Communion with God who obligeth us indeed to the participation of the Ministry when we may enjoy it yet never tied himself from exhibiting to his people even in the driest Wilderness the sweetest and fountainous delights of special grace and goodness 2. Though the Propets die yet the Souls of the Prophets die not Their decease is the Exodus or departure of their Souls to God with whom they rest for ever after their short labours in this troublesome World The Jewel is laid up in a better state than when it was in the torn feeble Casket of their Bodies 3. Though the Prophets die yet in a sense the sons of the Prophets die not There shall be successively a Ministry and Ministers to the end of the World Christ hath promised to be with them and therefore certainly they shall be even to that period His Ordinances shall continue till the Lord come and therefore there shall be dispensers of them He will have an House always and therefore Stewards ever in it Let the Devil and Antichrist rage and puff never so furiously they shall never extinguish the light of the Ministry Could they have accomplisht that design it had been done above a thousand years ago 4. Though the Prophets die yet their memory dies not The fragrancy of their names like a precious Ointment breathes forth even after yea by the breaking the brittle boxes of their bodies Their heavenly Instructions or Writings or Examples at least live when they are dead And thus this eminent Servant of Christ dies not 5. Though the Prophets die yet their Prophesies do not die Though they pass away as a wind yet their words neither are but wind nor pass away as such Their word whereby they convert Souls dies not as to the effect thereof Grace in the Soul Their threatning words for sin die not The Prophets do they live for ever Zech. 1.5 But my words and my statutes which I commanded by my Servants the Prophets did they not take hold of your fathers The Word of God even in this sense may be said not to be bound namely to the abode of the Prophets upon Earth Threatned Sinners shall know by feeling the Truth threatned that they have had a Prophet among them 3. In the third and last place we considered these words After my decease as intending the season designed by Peter for benefiting the Church and that was after his decease And from this my third and last Observatian is It is the Duty of the servants of God especially Ministers to endeavour that they may savingly benefit others even after their deaths The things that thou hast heard of me commit