these two comprehensive duties Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ and are these to be got or exercised when got without labour When the poor Christian hath done his utmost to keep the Law how far short doth he fall of that exact Rule Now these deficiencies and obliquities call for repentance and is it easie for him to comply with this duty is it easie to rifle his conscience and search his own heart so impartially as if he forgot it was his own house he was searching and his own shame he was to discover yet this is a necessary antecedent to the act of repentance how can he correct the Errata's or faults of a book that never read nor examined it and to do it surely will cost some pains I confess this review the Christian is to make is more easily done when he doth it daily and examines his life if I may so say sheet by sheet as it is printed off in every particular days conversation but even this is a labour too heavy for a slothful heart to endure is it easie when the poor creature hath found out his many sins and failings upon this review to get his heart into a melting frame and sorrowful sense of his ingratitude and disingenuity to God in them so as to throw up those sweet morsels with more bitterness of spirit than they were swallowed down with pleasure In a word Is it easie for the poor Christian to get these Inmates out of doors which he hath so unadvisedly let in to clear his affections of that poyson with which these his sins have infected them Is it easie to recover the strength of his resolutions which his sins must needs have much loosned and weakned The second great duty of the Gospel is Faith and this is as hard as the other for indeed the difficulty of believing makes that of repenting so hard Is it easie to assent to the truth of these Mysteries of the Gospel which are contrary to the apprehensions of corrupt reason and beyond the comprehension of the Christians most elevated understanding Is it easie for one of a wounded spirit sunk and dejected as low as Hell under the heavy sense of his guilt to lift up an eye of faith to the promise and to conceive a hope that such a Wretch as he hath been may ever find grace and favour in the eyes of a just and holy God Verily it is a wonder little less than that of the Prophets in making Iron to swim it is easie for a stupid sinner indeed to dream of a pardon while Conscience is asleep but when this is once throughly awake only he that can still the waves and winds in a storm at Sea can pacifie this can give either power to believe or peace in believing Is it easie to repent and bring forth the meet fruits of it good works and not to make them the Idol of our trust not to relye on the first to procure our pardon here nor on the other to purchase our reward hereafafter but to rejoyce only in Christ Jesus as the sole entire object of our trust for both Secondly The curious Sculpture with which every Duty in Religion must be engraved to render it acceptable to God a miscarriage in any of which is like an hair on the writers pen enough to mar and blot his fairest copy for bonum ex integris First every duty in Religion to render it acceptable to God must spring from a supernatural principle It is not labour in the Lord except the labourer himself be in the Lord. Actio sequitur vitam a carnal man can do no other than a carnal action though the matter of it be spiritual A dead state can have no other but dead works a corrupt Tree cannot bring forth good fruit Mat. 7.12 Secondly the Christians work must be performed with an holy fervor Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently Psalm 119.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 valde vehementer The word is emphatical importing an exerting the utmost force of our Souls Zeal is the religious part of our affections the first-born and strength of a mans spirit and therefore God sets it apart for himself as his peculiar portion fervent in spirit serving the Lord without this he accounts himself slighted not served and accordingly deals with such cold servitours giving them as cold welcom as they do him service cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord negligently If we would repent we must be zealous and repent Rev. 2. v. 2. if hear the word we must be swift to hear if pray it must be an effectual fervent prayer or else it is but thuribulum sine prunis a censure without fire If we would give an alms we must draw out our soul as well as our purse to the hungry Now those imployments are counted most laborious to which most strength and force must be put and those which intend the powers of the soul more than such as strain the limbs of the body the Scholars labour in his study is more spending than the Plow-mans in the field What then is the Christians labour which exerts the zeal and heat of his spirit O how hard is it to kindle or kindled to keep this heavenly fire alive on a hearth so damp and cold as our heart is Thirdly the Christians work must be done from a right motive to a right end First a right motive from obedience to the will of God and that such as springs from the love of God he doth not Gods work that doth not obey him and he doth not obey him that doth not love him that only being true obedience which is hearty obedience Ye have obeyed him from the heart and that only hearty obedience which is loving for love hath the regency of the heart and it goes only whither love carrieth it O how hard is this where there is so much of the slave even in those that are children where Hagar so oft overtops Sarah's servile fear our filial affection Secondly it must be to a right end it is in vain to wind up the watch if it be not set to the right figure or to draw the Arrow though to the head if the Archers eye direct it not to the right mark Zeal winds up and draws forth the powers of the soul it makes the Christian act vigorously and forcibly but if sincerity which is the singleness of the souls eye be not present to direct it ultimately to the glory of God the labour is in vain the faster a man goes when out of his way the worse for the faster he goes the further he hath to come back he that is slothful in the Lords work doth displease him but he that makes a great bustle in Religion and by this his activity calls others eyes to behold his zeal yet secretly intends his own not Gods praise provokes him more because more hypocritical in what he doth hypocrisie
And again Oh taste and see how good the Lord is once I confess in the Paroxism of a sore Temptation he spake like one of the foolish world I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency Psalm 73.13 But will ye believe what a man saith when his head is hot and light in the fit of a Fever rather than when he is in his true and right temper No sooner was this fit off but he befools and be beasts himself and blesseth himself in his approaching happiness Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me unto Glory verse 24. And from this hope takes faster hold of God and his Holy ways But it is good for me to draw near to God ver 28. And surely one affirmative testimony of a Saint in vindication of God and Religion is of more weight than a thousand negative testimonies of the wicked world to the contrary who speak evil of what they understand not condemn Religion before they have tryed it and disgrace that service they were never in Whereas the godly man hath served both Masters and speaks from his own experience where most is to be got professing that he hath nothing to shew of his gettings in the service of sin but shame But in the Lords service present fruit unto Holiness and a hope of Eternal life afterward In a word needs there any more to make this appear a false slander than to observe how these very wretches upon a sick-bed when they apprehend themselves on the marches of death do Court Religion which in their jollity they Cart and Scourge with their reviling Tongues Oh how glad would they then be to creep into a Saints cloaths and go by his name how desirous to dye the Righteous mans death and to have an end like his Oh how afraid to look into another world or to think of going hence as they are Doth not all this speak that they themselves secretly think there is more reality in Religion and the Eternal consequences of it than they will in their Prosperity confess The truth is God hath their Conscience on his side but their Lusts have their Hearts and these are they which gag their Conscience that it may not speak what it would but at last Conscience is even with them and revengeth the violence offered to it upon them And for stoping its mouth a while opens it the wider at last both in accusing them for this their past wickedness and terrifying them with the fearful expectation of the Dismal Tempest of Fire and Brimstone ready now to pour down upon them Thus as the hardest Frosts when they break leave the deepest slugs behind them so doth the greatest Dedolency and insensibility in an Irreligious life leave sinners when Conscience recovers its sense and feeling sticking fast in the deepest horror and desperation Secondly This convicts the carnal world of gross folly in refusing the service of God where the reward of their labour is so sure and incomprehensibly great and for misplacing their pains and labour for that which is neither sure to be obtained nor much worth the having if it be gotten and so in both respects labour in vain First the sinner labours for what he is not sure to obtain The world hath not to this day been able to give a certain rule whereby the covetous Worldling can be sure after all his toyl and drudgery that he shall be rich nor the ambitious that he shall get up the hill of honour and not catch a fall in climbing it the world is too like a Lottery where men know not whether they shall draw a Prize or Blank Though all come with heads full of hopes and projects into the world yet most go out with hearts full of shame and sorrow for their disappointments But in Religion there is such a certain rule laid down in the good Word of God that whoever walks by it Peace is upon him say ye to the Righteous it shall be well with him Mark the Perfect man and behold the Vpright for the end of that man is Peace Psalm 37.37 They that wait on the Lord shall not be ashamed because not disappointed of their hope but some carnal men will tell you whatever the world is to others yet they can say their labour is not in vain This worldling who hath prospered in his way can shew you his filled bags and tell you how many hundreds a year he puts up as clear gain into his Purse The Voluptuous person will tell you stories of the many merry Meetings he hath been at Months and Years of Pleasure he hath enjoyed saying with the carnal Jews These are the rewards our Lovers have given us Hosea 2.12 How then say you that we labour upon such uncertainties In the second place therefore the prize that sinners get by all their Labour it is not so much worth as to save them from losing their Labour For First What they have got will ere long leave them Secondly It will deceive them Thirdly It will damn them First It will leave them It is not in the power of mans wit to devise a way how the Ambitious man should keep his honour long except his preferment could change his Nature and make him immortal he is alas still of the same clay with other men as he was before The Rainbow is a common watry Cloud no more durable than the rest though painted for a time with gayer colours That which hath been is named already and it is known that it is man Eccles 6.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lump of red earth that must return ere long to his first dust As impossible it is for the Covetous man to make his estate sure to him his Riches will make wings to themselves though he doth not as the Prodigal make wings for them fly away they will and that toward Heaven also to accuse him and be a witness against him at the last day If he should not see them flown from him while he lives yet to be sure when Death's Gun goes off these and all the sinners joys will flye away at once And how near a step it is to Death the very Heathens can tell you by their Hyroglyphick of an open eye for life and an eye shut for death intimating that death may come ictu oculi mans life may be closed up as soon as an eye can be shut And is it not folly and madness to bestow all a mans Labour to raise the hopes of his Felicity on such loose ground where his building may fall as soon as it is up this made Solomon hate all his labour under the Sun Eccles 2.17 Because when he had done all he must leave all Secondly What Carnal men labour for will deceive them Satan and the World are both very free of their Promises to their Vassals and Servants All these things will I give thee said he if thou wilt fall down and
say of this Gracious Lady what Nehemiah said of another Noble Person in his time She was a Faithful Woman and feared God above many Some are so prodigiously wicked that they seem to have wedded the Vices of many others But this good Lady may be said to have collected the Excellencies of many other Christians In her you might have seen these various Graces which grow to an eminency but severally in others met altogether in one knot I shall speak of a few First The fear of the Great God was very great in her wonderful tender she was of offending him She hath been often heard to say and that solemnly Oh I would not sin against my God She professed that she dreaded Hell most as a place where God was Blasphemed Oh pretious Saint to dread Hells sin more than Hells fire Secondly Her Zeal to the Worship of God was eminent First To the Publick this was evidenced many ways First By her Zeal to get able and faithful Ministers for those Livings she had in her dispose and by improving her utmost interest to procure the like for this Parish where she resided in its several vacancies And herein the Noble Patron did most kindly gratifie her with the choice deeply obliging not only her Honour but the whole Town thereby so that you in this place have lived in a Goshen of Gospel light for a long season and are able also to tell how comfortably she spake to those that taught the good Word of the Lord amongst you What countenance and real encouragement she gave them in the Lords Work without sparing her purse to do it Secondly By her constant attendance on the Publick Worship so long as the Lord vouchsafed her any health yea she did not only attend on it her self but was careful that her Family should do the same with her They that would not serve God with her were no Servants for her Thirdly She was no less devout in than constant at the Publick Worship She durst not trifle with Holy things which made one in this respect say of her That this Lady by her Solemn and Reverent Deportment in Divine Worship would make one believe that there is a God indeed As for the Sacrament of the Lords Supper which is so dismally neglected by many her desires were most Ardent to partake of it frequently saying as the Minister of the place informed me that she durst not neglect no not any one opportunity that was offered for the enjoying this Sacred Ordinance And oh how intent was she in Preparation for it the whole preceding week was taken up by her for that work in which she would always have a private Fast with her Family or a secret one in her Closet Was not this one that meant to go to Heaven in good earnest Secondly The Private Worship of God Let us follow her from the Church to her own House and we shall find that she brought her Religion and Devotion home with her and did not leave them in her Pue behind her till she returned to it again the next Sabbath Some can complement God Almighty before their Neighbours on the Sabbath but care not to acquaint with God at home all the week after But if ever any privite dwelling might be called a Chappel or little Sanctuary her house was such There you might find her and her Family twice every day upon their knees solemnly Worshipping the Great God there you might see them humbly sitting at his feet to hear his most Holy Word read unto them concluding constantly their Evening Service with Singing one of Davids Psalms What Strangers soever were present there was no putting by or adjoyning the Worship of God to a more convenient season On the Lords day you might hear the Sermons Preached in Publick repeated to the Family the Servants called to give an account before her or what they remembred the high Praises of God sounded forth by the whole Family together After Supper again you might hear the Servants in their room exercising themselves in the same Heavenly Duty of Singing Psalms And no sooner did the good Lady hear them strike up but away she would go to joyn with them in that duty Follow her up the stairs there you should be sure to find her twice every day shut up some hours in her Closet which was excellently furnished with Pious Books of Practical Divinity Here she redeemed much pretious time in reading the holy Scriptures and other good Books that might give her further light into them and help to put more heat into that light she had obtained Here she poured out her devout Soul with such fervours of Spirit in Prayer as could not be hid sometimes from those her Maidens whose occasions drew them at any time near her Closet dore and yet are we not at an end of this good Ladies Devotions for every night she would her self pray with her Maidens before she went to bed And now is it any wonder she grew so rich in Grace who drove so great and constant a Trade in the means of Grace and had so many ways to bring her in Spiritual gains Thirdly Her Love to God besides what already hath been said did many ways make it self evident to be of an high degree First The mournful complaints she would make that she could love God no more the reason of which indeed was because she loved him so much Therefore she thought she loved him so little because she knew she could never love him enough The truth is she had such raised apprehensions of Gods Glorious Excellency as caused her to think her highest affections unworthy of him None indeed that have such high apprehensions of the Divine greatness and goodness can love him little or think their love when most to be great Secondly The vehement desires and longings she had to be gone hence that she might be with Christ She was one of those very few Christians which stood in need of old Mr. Dods use of Exhortation which I have heard he would make to the Saints in his Preaching That they would he content and patient though they were not taken up to Heaven so soon as they desired This good man who was one of the most Heavenly Souls that this Age knew finding to do this was something difficult in his own Soul thought it was ordinary for others to do the like whereas God knows most Christians are of a lower form in Christs School prone rather to linger too much here than to be too hasty of going hence so that they need rather Spur than Bridle and Ministers have more reason to take hold of them with the strongest Arguments they can find to draw them out of the love of this world as the Angels did Lot out of Sodom than to make them willing to continue here But this Gracious Lady knew so much of Heaven as made her stay here tedious to her the earnest option of her Soul was Come Lord Jesus come
high she got in Grace and Godliness She hath not drawn up the Ladder after her take her course tread in her steps and by Gods blessing though thou mayst not come to her pitch here yet thou shalt have far more than now thou hast She did not grow thus rich in Grace with idleness and sloth but by Gods blessing on her diligence in the use of means She did not become so eminent by proudly thinking her self so to be but by Humility and Poverty of Spirit Many had been better if they had not thought themselves to be better than they were Fourthly A word to you that had the priviledge to live in her Family For Gods sake look to your selves happy you if the holy Example you had in her and extraordinary means of Grace you enjoyed under her roof have had a kindly and powerful effect in you if they have produced a serious resolution for an holy life But wo be to you that shall bring a prophane and wicked Spirit out of such a Pious Family think seriously how sad it will be to live so near Heaven in this world as there you did and at last to miss of Heaven in the other Fifthly To those that are priviledged with Noble Birth or Gentile Extraction learn from this Lady the best way in the world to make the Tribute of Honour which is your due surely and chearfully to be payed you take but the same course that this Gracious Lady and Noble Lord her Husband did and I dare promise you shall obtain it Labour to be good and to do good be not afraid or ashamed to be Religious own God in his Holy Ways and Holy Ones and then you shall be Honoured of all but by those that refuse to Honour God himself And who would accept of Honour at their hands who rob God of his you have the Word of God for this Them that honour me I will honour 1 Sam. 2.30 By Humility and the fear of the Lord are Riches and Honour and Life Prov. 22.4 A place of Scripture which God fulfilled remarkably in the deceased Lady It fareth with Gentlemens Honours as it doth with Tradesmens Wares which while they are made true and good their price keeps up in the Market but when they are made with little care and of bad stuff then it falls and they hardly go off Oh defile not your Honours by any debaucheries Dignitas in indigno est ornamentum in Luto saith Salvian What pity is it a Scarlet Cloak should be sopt in a swill tub The corruption of the best is the worst I do not clear those of sin who do not give him the Honour due to his Title and Place that is unworthy of them but methinks that those whom God hath left so high in dignity above others should consider that it is their duty and wisdom also to shun all that may lead their Inferiours into this Temptation How can he be free to complain of others denying him his Honour who by his own prophaneness and wickedness casts more dishonour on himself than any other can do To be dishonourable is worse than to be dishonoured as much as a sin is worse than an affliction The Good and Pious are sometimes dishonoured by those that are wicked even for that which is their highest Honour but it is sin and wickedness that makes a person dishonourable as also it doth a Nation Prov. 14.35 But sin is a reproach to any People FINIS An Epitaph on the Right Honourable and Religious the Lady Vere Wife to the most Noble and Valiant Lord Horatio Vere Baron of Tilbury who dyed Decemb. 25. 1671. in the 90 Year of her Age. BEneath this Marble Stone doth lye Wonder of Age and Piety So Old so Good 't was hard to say Which striving in her won the day Or had most power to bow her down Her Age or her Devotion Her Piety made the World confess Old Age no bar to fruitfulness Her Age again so wondrous great Prov'd Piety never out of Date Well may she then a wonder go When as to prove her to be so The two grand Topicks do agree Both Scripture and Antiquity Thus was she like none ever more That Widow of above Fourscore Who serving God both day and night At last of Jesus gat a sight Nay still like her in Temple she Her Saviour waits once more to see On Her sleeping Three days together before she dyed Deaths Brother Sleep her Senses ty'd Three days and then she waking dy'd Sleep was the Essay of Death's Cup Which first she sipt then drank all up Thus Swimmers first with foot explore The Gelid stream then venture o're Thus Martyr for a Tryal first Into the fire his Finger thrust To snip a Pattern of the flame Then clothes his Body with the same Thus Spies to Canaans Land are sent To view the Countries e're they went Sleep was the Mask in which she saw The Promis'd Land Incognita Which done she only wak't to tell By-standers that she lik't it well Then Reader if thou wonder'st at Her Three days Sleep remember that Three days to view the Triple-Heaven One day spent in each Court makes even But Reader when thou think'st upon Her Third days Resurrection If thou' rt amaz'd wonder no more Her Saviour did so before On her dying just on the day of Christ's Nativity Long time she sleeping lay but could not dye Until the day of Christs Nativity No wonder then She slept and slumbered It was because the Bridegroom tarried On Her Nobility Noble herself more Noble ' cause so near To the Thrice Noble and Victorious Vere That Belgick Lyon whose loud fame did roar Heard from the German to the British shoar His Trophies she was Joyntur'd in so say The Lawyers Wives shine by their Husbands Ray. See therefore now how by his side she stands Triumphing midst the Graves those Netherlands Rather in Heaven Those only we confess Are truly call'd Th' Vnited Provinces Charles Darby Rector of Kediton in Suffolk Vpon the Death of the Right Honourable Lady Mary Vere WHat Marble Heart can chuse but drop a Tear At the sad Funeral of the Lady Vere Whose Death 's a publick loss Our spring is dry That many an empty Cistern did supply God deckt her Heaven-born Soul with Gems Divine Of various lustre which did make her shine That all that stood about her saw the light She made it day even in the darkest night Her bounteous Hand and truly noble Heart Did noble Gifts to multitudes impart She was a flowing Spring a Mine of Treasure To serve her Lord and do good was her pleasure Pattern of Goodness and a Pillar too A few such losses might the World undo She gave her self to Christ with heart and might And was with him in Spirit day and night And when his Festival began on Earth But kept in Heaven with purer joy and mirth She longed to be there which made her sing Her Nunc Dimittis and her Soul
like himself who is an accursed Devil Speeding so well by this stratagem he hath used it ever since to keep sinners from returning to their first rightful Lord and Master as he had done to entice man at first from his service that is by slandering God and Religion He must be a hard Master that reaps where he doth not sow or suffers not his Servants to reap what they do sow Either he exacts more than he gives ability to do or he doth not reward the work they have done and so makes them labour in vain Both false slanders The first I must pass over as foreign to my subject But the second lies in my way and God knows though it be as untrue as he is true yet it finds too easie credence among Sinners who are glad to have any pretence to excuse them from the service of God which their own corrupt hearts do so much dislike This therefore hath been the old Plea which wicked men have made for their aversation to Religion Job 22.17 Which said unto God depart from us and what can the Almighty do for them Oh what Sots doth sin make men their Plea had been more plausible if they had said what can the Unmighty do for them but to call him Almighty and then ask what he can do shews they were sunk beneath reason Who indeed can exercise reason against God you see here this prejudice against Piety is as Antient as Jobs time who is judged to have lived about if not before Moses his Age. Yet was it not then Novel for Eliphas speaks ver 15. Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden indeed Luther said right Cain would kill Abel to the end of the world and so had they and will have vile and cheap thoughts of Religion It held I am sure in Malachi his time Ye have said it is vain to serve God Chap. 3. ver 14. And have we any reason to think that the same prejudice against Religion continues not amongst many ungodly ones in these last times wherein the world is grown as older so colder to Religion Old Age indeed is not wont to cure but rather increase diseases that are hereditary the prodigious prophaneness and filthiness of our present Age with the scorn that is cast upon all serious endeavours after Holiness is no good indication that it is ceased but the contrary that such as these have a most vile and base opinion of Religion how else were it possible they would dub themselves while wallowing in their brutish lusts for the wise and happy men and despise others as doting Fools that dare not venture their Souls in their company by running with them into the same excess and riot If they did not first think Religion an insignificant thing Piety a needless scrupulosity and all the Christians pains therein in vain and those to be in the right and go away with all the gains who will have nothing to do with Religion but live in an open defiance of it Now though what hath been said already of the glorious reward which will certainly crown the Christians labour be enough to wipe of this dirt from the face of Religion and leave it on their own that throw it yet I shall a little and ex abundanti speak to the vindication of it in this point And who though but a stripling would not venture to cope with such Goliahs or Gyants of the Earth that defie the Living God and his Hosts of Saints Is it not strange that those poor wretches should not take notice in whose hand the Pencil is by the illfavouredness of the Portraicture that here is drawn of God and Religion Who but the Devil himself would present him and his holy ways in such black lines and lineaments to their thoughts and is it not more strange that any of mankind should so far forget or go against those common notions of the Divine goodness which naturally are impressed upon their minds as to believe God to be such an one as the Devil his sworn Enemy tells them he is But most of all strange it is that those who have read or heard the Gospel where God not only more fully makes known the goodness and graciousness of his Nature but also opens the counsel of his Will and Mercy to poor sinners and brings life and immortality to light as the sure reward of those who at his gracious call receive Christ as their Lord and Saviour should after all this sing the same old note with ignorant Heathens 'T is in vain to serve God And sutable to such apprehensions of him lead Irreligious and Flagitious Lives having nothing but the word of a lying Devil to secure them from Eternal misery This is such an infatuation as the world cannot shew the like but who so blind as he whose eyes are put out with Gospel-light into this righteous judgment upon them for rebelling against light we must resolve this their folly For judgment I am come into this world that they which see not might see and that they which see might be made blind John 9.39 But to reason a little with this sort of men can you think that the God of Truth hath made so many Promises to his people to deceive them with a false hope will he be unrighteous to forget their labour of Love after he hath made himself a Debtor if not to them yet to his own faithfulness by making his Promise Can he that rewards even the wicked for any work in which he useth them let his own faithful servants lose their pains Nebuchadnezzar had the Land of Egypt given him for his service against Tyrus Ezek. 29.18.19 Cyrus had a great Empire for his expedition against Babylon though these meant nothing less than the serving and glorifying of God but aimed at the enlargement of their Dominions and satisfying their own ambition yet because they were instruments to accomplish his secret Decrees in fauour of his People he gave them a reward And did he reward them for his peoples sake and will he let these his own people sit down with loss who out of pure Conscience and Love to him do his work and fight his Battels against Flesh World and Devil It cannot be he doth indeed make them stay longer than the other for their reward but they are sure to speed better at last they like Ishmael are sent away presently with bread and bottle Temporal rewards they have their Consolation here but when their portion is spent then the Saint shall receive his reward an Inheritance incorruptible and Eternal Be patient saith the Apostle and establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draws nigh And when he cometh their reward comes with him Again Do you not cross the experiences of all the Saints do they not they all give God and his service a good word proclaiming him the best Master they ever served In keeping thy commands is great reward saith David