worse because whereas the carkase is consumed in the earth anoye's none their name liue's like carryon aboue ground vnburyed and stinks more and more strongly from one age to another and shall liue to rott through all generations to come for ever till they shal be againe raysed out of rottennes to liue and meete their living loathsome names before the Lords judgments seate who shall then and there put an end to both by throwing both into the bottomlesse pitt of endles perdition they being the men that must rise to fall to everlasting shame and contempt To particulate Cayne Saul Ahitophell Ahab Iudas or the rest of that beaad-role of branded persons whome the living and most glorious God hath marked for remarkeable infamy were not to much purpose and we haue had occasion to note them before it sufficeth to know that their glory is with shame and that all the reputation they haue had with men at the greatest hath but made their reproach greater with God Men haue heaped honourable titles of greatnes vpon them to dignify and renowne them which haue beene but the poore vapours of their ayery words breathed out either for feare or for flattery and haue vanished in the very vtterance and God hath laden them with heavy and most ignominious appellations which his mouth having spoken and his pen having written must remayne to cleaue for ever vnto that most vnworthy miserable memoriall which the world hath of them who knowe's them by no names or titles but only by those that are worse then none at all And touching both in this last difference it may be well and safely observed that the worse words the world hath given Gods saints the better and more glorious titles are given them of God himself and the more men haue renowned the other the more hath the Lord abhorred them and made them abhominable to all eyes and eares His owne son our saviour when in the dayes of his flesh he dwelt among vs had as bad yea and farre worse language given him then any that ever lived he that reades his life knowe's how oft he was abused and most basely vilyfied he was a Samaritane he was mad he had a divell c but the Lord God his father Ioh. 20.17 Phil. 2.9 and our father hath given him a name aboue all names and honor and glory aboue all principalityes and powers and so much the more gloriously exalted him by how much among men he was become the scorne and contempt of the people And in like manner doth he deale with Christians as he did with Christ according to the eminency of their piety for which the greater it is they suffer greater reproach he giue 's them more excellent glory even in the eyes of men as we might shew in many examples And this is our sixt and last Advantage And now beloved and longed for in the Lord what shall we say to these things here we haue had a short and summary survey of those singuler and celestiall advantages that the Lords people haue even at their worst of all vngodly men at their best I say a short and summary survey of them for if we should enlarge our selues in the discovery of them so farre as we might when should we haue done or where should we end or if we could manifest them as they are which mortality cannot doe there could be neither end nor measure of our discourse nay it might be truly sayd of these excellent things as the Evangelist speaketh of the rest of the acts and sayings of Christ which are vnwritten Ioh. 21.25 that the whole world would not contayne the bookes c that must contayne the full declaration of those infinite things wherein the true comfort of the saints doth consist for they are in truth vnvtterable nay indeede vnsearchable as the Apostle doth plainely signify when he saith he heard being wrapt into the third heaven things not to be vttered And if of the mysteryes and secrets of the gospell which elswhere he speaketh of much more may it be most truly sayd of the consolation benefit and reward of the faithfull and persecuted professors of the same that they are such as eye hath not seene 1 Cor. 2.9 eare hath not heard nor haue entred into the hart of man to apprehend the naturall man is meant in the former the spirituall may be vnderstood in the latter For grace is as vnable mixt with infirmity to comprehend heavenly things that are glorious as nature voyd of grace is to conceive aright and reach those that be holy and gracious Why then what shall we say to these heavenly things thus heaped vp together to make vs wholy happy if the Lord haue layd them vp in his booke should not we lay them vp in our bosomes blesse him abundantly who hath soe over abundantly blessed vs with these benedictions which are sent vs soe to sweeten the bitterest cup of our calamity that we might drinke the bottome of it with all cheerfullnes and rejoycing what sayd the good Prophet of God once in a case of this kinde Rejoyce O heaven and be joyfull O earth breake forth into prayses O yee mountaines for the Lord hath comforted his people and shewed mercy vpon his afflicted and even this may and ought all Gods people now to speake considering the pemisses in the particulers that we haue revealed How came the good Christians of the primitiue times when persecution was soe sore and extreame not only as was noted before to rejoyce but even to glory in tribulation Ro. 5.3 Heb. 10.34 Act. 5.40 41. to suffer with joy yea with much joy the spoyling of their goods to goe from the consistory with bloody shoulders yet glad harts rejoycing that were accounted worthy to vndergoe the worst for Christ And the Apostle who was so abundant aboue all the rest not only in the labours but in the suffrings of the gospell 2 Cor. 7.4 also telleth vs playnly Great is my rejoycing I am full of comfort I haue not only abundant joy but joy over-abundant in all my tribulations These are strange words yet true and such as he saith he hath already in posession and not only in some lighter afflictions but in his heavyest distresses even in all his tribulations To haue Great joy To be full of comfort yea To be over-full or to over-abounde is such a strayne of speech as never fell from man by any sence or reason of flesh and blood but only from the spirit of God and the power of his grace which had perswaded his soule of the sweetnes of this saving truth that we teach that a man at his worst should not only be full but overflow with comfort and joy which is more then any wicked man can say of his best for all the happines vnder heaven cannot fill much lesse over-fill the hart of man he cannot be satisfyed much lesse can he be glutted indeede or surfett intruth
that it was none of Pauls but that Luke as some thinke or Barnabas or Clement as others conceiue did pen it what holynes or happines is woonne when all this is done surely none The most that can come of the former is only this that we may call it the Epistle of Paul to the Hebrewes and put his name into our coppies as it is in all others except one as one observeth The least that can come of the latter is that we leaue out Pauls name and all names and call it as we finde it the Epistle to the Hebrewes which title or inscription being indifferent to either side we will rest in the same as it is without further contention or inquisition seing either Pauls or any other name noted before may be probabely put in and yet safely left out let vs take it without any at all and so proceed from the writer to the matter contayned in that which is written especially in that litle parcell which hath beene read and in the revealing wherof we intend by Gods grace to insist at this time And that we may the better come to comprehend what the will and mynd of the Lord is therein it shal be good to goe back a litle to looke vpon the generall state of the whole chapter and to take such a view of the same as may further vs in the particuler of these words And what is this chapter being well considered but a kinde of summary or abridgment of the olde Testament in that part therof especially which is historicall and contayneth the discovery of things done in matter of fact by those most famous worthyes of the Lord the eminency of whose faith and excellency of the fruits of the same haue here a most glorions remembrance being left vpon an everlasting record that cannot faile but must and shall remayne to the blessed memoriall of those just men Prov. the tryall of whose faith having beene more precious then gold 1 Pet. 1.7 shal be found vnto the Lords and their owne praise and honour and glory at the appearance of Iesus Christ Of which worthyes both men and women we haue here a particuler catalogue many of them being by name personally expressed from the beginning of the chapter to the 33. verse and others apparantly included though not named from thence to the end And in this catalogue it pleaseth the holy Ghost to keepe an excellent decorum in an orderly and methodicall distribution of the persons according to the times wherein they lived and the Chronologie of the world in the most famous Periods of the same vnder the olde Testament It beginneth with righteous Abell ver 4. who lived not long after the creation being the second from Adam and goeth on from him to Enoch the seaventh from Adam as Iude call's him ver 14. and from Enoch to Noah and soe finisheth the first famous period of the world from the Creation to the Flood and begin's the second from the flood to Abraham and the rest of those peerelesse Patriarchs who lived after the Flood and before the Law till Moses who overliving them all did finish the second famous period from the Flood to the giving of the Law and made entrance into the third from Moses the Law given to the time of the Iudges and soe from thence-forward to the change of the civill government of the Iewes from Iudges to Kings and vnder their Kings both during the time of their setled and peaceable state and also thence vnto those interrupted and miserable dayes where-in captivity prevayled both at the first in part to their disturbance once and againe for a time and at the last to the totall and finall downefall and overthrow of that nation as touching any visible face either of a civill or an ecclesiasticall estate Now in this Campe Royall of such as are here numbred named and made glorious by the notable fruits of their faith some haue renowned themselues as servants actively by doing others haue beene approoved as souldiers passively by suffering but Moses being the man meant in our text is truly interessed into either condition and hath made double declaration of his faith in both kindes of those things that are reported of him for we finde both what he did and what he endured and soe much of either as doth manifest him for one of the rarest mirrours among those many who are mustered and magnified here to haue sought the good fight of faith and that in all those occurrents that came to passe on his part either before Israell went out of Egypt or after for within one of these two computations of time all is comprehended which is recorded of him and for which he is here applauded by the holy Ghost The powerfull worke of faith appearing in him before the Israelites departure from vnder Pharaoh had a twofolde operation 1. While he was yet a Courtier and great in Court too being for soe long time the adopted and reputed son of Pharaohs daughter in which time faith wrought in his hart a gracious resolution to giue over that glorious condition 2. When he put this resolution into practise casting of the Court and forsaking Egypt for a season and afterwards returning by warrant from God and as the Lords Ambassadour to worke out the peoples freedome and these passages are particulated vnto vs in the 24.25.26 and 27. verses The further efficacy wherein his faith shyned after he had left Egypt altogether was gone thence with Gods people is evident in such relation as is made therof ver 28.29 Our text is a part of the former power of his faith while he was yet in Egypt wherein and that while he was yet a great Peere among these Pagans the Lord mightily and extraordinarily wrought in him jmmediately by himself without all ordinary meanes that man can jmagine this great grace of Faith which by a holy kinde of heavenly and divine violence enforced him to these 3. things which lye in these 3. verses 1. To relinquish and renounce his whole estate with all the honours and advantages annexed there vnto all which although he had long enjoyed them and they were many and great at present and might possibly haue beene much greater afterward through the hope of his further rising by meanes of the favour of Pharachs daughter yet faith make's no thing of these mighty things but he freely forsaketh all and willingly refuseth to be called or accounted her Son ver 24. 2. To chuse in stead of this rejected honour and royalty the miserable and most afflicted state of the people of God who were in the greatest slavery and vnder the most grevious tyranny that could be ver 25. 3. To judge and censure and that with a righteous judgment both his former practises of refusing and chusing to be lawfull and good and well pleasing to the Lord ver 26. And this third is the only thing where with we haue to doe yet before we enter
and there he comprehend's the worst things the world can yeeld worke together for the best the conclusion then come's in of it selfe And soe the first ground is cleare For the second thus 2. Conclusion Prooved That estate which doth soe harden mans hart that he becometh thereby least capable of mercy and most lyable to justice and soe furthereth his vtmost confusion and eternall overthrow must of necessity be the worst for a man that may bee But a wicked mans best estate doth thus Therefore even his best estate is miserable to him No man can with any colour question the first proposition and God giue 's vs sound confirmation of the second Pro. 1.32 where he saith ease stayeth the foolish and the prosperity of fooles destroyeth them here by the foole we must vnderstand the vngodly man and by prosperity all that which he judgeth most happy to himself in this life Now if nothing bring a wicked man sooner to destruction then that which he most affecteth and desireth surely the same is worst of all for him Againe that must neede 's be a mans worst estate which is most accursed of God to a man But a wicked mans best estate is most accursed of God vnto him Therefore his best estate cannot be but worst vnto him The first proposition is easy and evident of it self to be beleeved Deu. 28.17.18 The second is avouched by Moses where he curseth in the name of the Lord all the encrease and store and fruit of a wicked man whether of his body or beast or ground now if his encrease be accursed then the more he hath the more accursed he is and as either himselfe or any thing he hath aboundeth soe doth the curse of God abound with it if he grow from hundreths to thousands soe also doe his curses multiply from the Lord who hath cursed the blessings of every vngodly person Mal. 2.2 And it is to be marked as a most remarkeable curse that he is not cursed in the want of fruit Note or barrennes of his body beasts or ground for that would every common man account a curse indeede but he is accursed in the posession and prosperity and growth of these things and this is a more wofull by how much it is a more wonderfull curse that a man should haue soe much and be soe much the more vnhappy by having it So then if thus it be then is a wicked mans best estate worst for him because it is most accursed to him And thus these two conclusions stand vpon cleare and vnquestionable grounds and are jmpregnable truthes and being soe our mayne doctrine must needes issue from them both as naturally as water from a fountaine and that thus If no estate can be evill vnto a good man but even his worst is good vnto him and on the contrary if no estate can be good to a wicked man but even his best is evill to him why then it must needes come to passe that the worst estate of Gods childe is better then the best of any wicked man But both these haue beene abundantly prooved and therefore the truth we teach is fully confirmed for can any man soe much as once doubt at all whether the meanest good estate be to be preferred to the greatest that is evill or demurre whether he should chuse of the two if he were put to it a poore and perplexed condition which may helpe him to heaven or a prosperous and opulent estate which would hasten him to hell Ceartainely this question would soone be assoyled if it were put to any man had he but common sence to be determined for even naturall reason would giue quick resolution that the worst of that whereby a mā might be happy were to be chosen and preferred before the best of that which will procure a mans misery Why then the worst of the one being soe good and the best of the other soe bad we cannot but yeeld to our doctrine being overcome by vndeniable evidence both of example in him that hath tryed both estates by his owne experience and of reason approoving that which he vpon tryall had practised in refusing the best of the one to choose the worst of the other So that if we will beleeue either Moses who is the man that hath done it to evidence the truth of his faith or God who hath magnifyed Moses in that which he hath done to be truly faithfull our myndes must be throughly setled in the assured perswasion of what we haue soe plainely propounded and prooved soe plentifully and hold it fast vnto our owne harts as our duty to doe the like if the Lord shall cast any the like occasion vpon vs and call vs forth to try and declare our faith by being put to the practise of this truth to see whether we will soe esteeme the reproach of Christ and the persecution of the saints that we will giue over and abandon the riches of the earth and the pleasures of sin to embrace the bitternes of those that are beloved of God before the sweetest delicates of those who are abhorred of him A time may come when it may be our turne either to avouch this doctrine by our conformity therevnto or deny the Lord who hath avouched it to be his truth And cursed are they who stand convinced in conscience of any truth of God wherevnto they refuse to yeelde obedience We should doe well then to doe as the wise man saith all wise men doe to wit Pro. 10.14 lay vp knowledg even the knowledg of this particuler to bring it into practise that our good works suitable to it may make good this word of God which hath shewed it to vs and that therein every man may become a Moses to be thus faithfull before the Lord as he was in this thing And that we may be the better brought vnto it and haue our naughty harts the more happily provoked to the holy purpose of this heavenly practise let vs now proceede from the apparant proofe of the point to the powerfull application of the same vnto all such vnto whome it doth or may any way appertaine that is all sorts of men both good and bad saints and sinners something it hath to say vnto either of them severally a sunder and something to them both joyntly together There is very litle truth if any at all that God revealeth but it looke's every way and is of some jmportant consequence to all persons whatsoever if the sappe and juyce of it be pressed and wrung out as it ought to be Vse 1 Let vs then in the first place consider of what vse it is to Gods owne people Comfort to Gods children and what fruit of comfort his blessed and beloved ones doe receiue from the sacred truth which we haue sowen for nothing but heavenly joy sweete consolation can be reaped and carryed in to them from any thing which the Lord hath revealed from
devoure Herod in all his pompe magnificence and royallty the Angell of God guards Peter in restraint and bring 's him out miraculously and joyfully and this is left recorded of God to comfort vs inasmuch as nothing is more against nature then to be caged vp and kept in that we might know that our God can make that restraint more happy to his then another mans enlargement can be to him The byrd it is kept in a cage is safe and well provided for of all things meete to make him sing but the vulture and kyte often prey vpon those that fly in the open firmament of heaven Nay say it come to captivity Captivity which is a strayne of extraordinary restraint put case Gods childe be taken captiue and kept in slavery and that Gods enemy be the party in authority to detayne him there and to tyrannize over him in a strange land I make no question but the captivity of Gods people shal be found to be a condition more truly comfortable thē another mans eminency yea soveraignity though he were the King of that countrey wherein they are kept in bondage Daniell and Nebuchadnezzar shall decide it the one viz Daniell was the captive the other was the King let any man say who hath considered what is sayd of them both which of the two he would chuse to be Surely if the odd's had not beene extraordinary in the comparison and proportion of these estates Moses had made no good match in leaving to be a Courtier to become a Captive but he well knew that the meanest and most oppressed Israelite in Egypt was more happy then that mighty Monarch that kept them vnder Soveraignity in a Pagan is not comporable to slavery in a Christian Let God giue sentence by his revealed word and it wil be apparant to be a truth vndeniable and vndoubted A throne and a crowne cannot be so good to another as a cottage yea a dunghill to those that are the Lords Againe Persecution is not our persecution better then their pleasure and are not our very distresses beyond their delights I thinke the three children in the fiery fornace will soone satisfy vs for that Dan. 3. for they were in more comfortable plight in the midst of these feircest flames thē he was who cast them in and that the tyrant himself is forced to confesse also maketh decrees to confirme the same vnto others that out of his mouth all men may know the power and favour of the Lord to his owne in sweetening their extreamest bitternes and his wrath and vengeance against all vngodly ones in envenoming and poysoning their greatest sweetnes God hath many precious comforts for the persecuted but nothing but curses and plagues for persecutors The very infamy and reproach of such as suffer for the truth doth surpasse the honour and reputation of those that cast contempt vpon them for the Lord doth renowne the one and renounce the other Men fawne vpon mighty tyrants with glorious titles but God doth frowne vpon them as base and ignominious persons How many pages of his sacred booke are perfumed with the odour of their sweete names who haue beene disgraced for God and how many stories doe record the rotten and stincking memory of their oppressors the one goe for glorious martyrs the other for egregious and defamed malefactors And this made some who mockt the Apostles at the first Act. 2. when they had afterward better bethought themselues they left mocking and became disciples they gaue over reproaching and fell to professing the gospell and they had no reason thus to doe had they not knowne that it had beene more excellent to haue beene an infamous Christian then an honorable infidell But passing over all these and supposing the worst that can come Heb. 12.4 if the worst doe come to the worst if men must resist to blood and that Death must end all the foresayd afflictions of poverty jmprisonement captivity persecution infamy and whatsoever can be endured in this life Is not our Death better then their life yea God hath sayd it as it may appeare in that which he hath enforced from the mouth of a most wicked man to witnes it What say you to Balaams wish and that vpon his best thoughts when he had but the taste and seene as yet but the glympse of the happines and glory of Gods people even Balaam who came of purpose to curse and maligne them and therefore vnto him it may well be thought the life of Gods people was as bad as a death and worthy of his vtmost excecration yet noe sooner had God shyned a litle vpon him only with some litle light without all life of this truth but the man is more in loue with the death of the righteous then with his owne life and would gladly cease to liue as he did to dye as they doe his wish shewe's enough to make this good with advantage how earnestly doth he vtter it Num. 23 10. Let my soule dye the death of the Righteous let my last end be like vnto his and no man in common sence can wish any thing but that which either is indeede or in his apprehension for his owne welfare Moreover how many singuler respects are there wherein the death of Gods childe is to be preferred to the life of a wicked man Our death is precious Psa 116.15 Psa 15.4 Phi. 1.23 2 Pet. 2.10 1 Cor. 15. Their life is vile Our death desiderable Their life abhominable Thus in the last enemy which is death we overgoe the vngodly and are or ought to be soe farre from changing liues with them that we will not giue our death which is the worst that can befall vs in this world for their life which is the only darling they desire beyond all other to enjoy vpon the earth And soe we haue seene in all these particulers severally how the odd's is ours in all respects there 's more to be got by our greatest evills then by all their best good instance where you will it 's evident in every thing which can be named or conceited I will now speake but once more and that shal be of all and every of our evills summ'd vp together and gathered into a totall that as in the Items before soe now in them all at once it may appeare that the whole masse of our misery or the greatest measure therof that can be powred in pressed downe even till it run over vpon vs is more happy and much better then all the good things that can be cast vpon wicked persons yea though the whole world should empty all her fullnes and excellency to giue them the largest contentment that could be wished And we will giue you sufficient security for the truth herof in one that is beyond all exception to wit Iesus Christ who was a man of sorrowes a mirrour of miseryes in whome all kinde of calamity did combyne and settled it self
comfortable And the neerer we come the more will our joy arise and encrease vpon vs by the bright beames of that blessed and celestiall light that shyneth from heaven soe gloriously in every severall difference and advantage betweene their best and our worst estate For you must know that as the difference soe the advantage betweene our condition and theirs is exceeding great and beyond all dimension yet we will ay me guesse as we are able to vnfolde such as we shall finde most playne most plentifull to our propose in hād To come to them thē The first is this 1. Advantage 1. A childe of God is blessed in his worst estate and an vngodly man is accursed in his best Can there be a wyder difference or a worthyer advantage then this the difference betweene things blessed and cursed of God is the most that may be for God make's these two the vtmost extreames both of all naturall spirituall and eternall good and evill and the advantage is the same with the difference that is to say as much as can be vttered or expressed but let vs try the truth herof in this particuler wherof we speake And that we may soone doe for we haue a most sure word of our Lord and saviour Iesus Christ to secure our soules of the same Looke we into that part of his owne most excellent sermon which we finde Luke 6. Luk. 6. where he bringeth in both the righteous and the sinner and presenteth either of them vnto vs in their owne habite The godly at the worst ver 20.21.22.23 The vngodly at the best ver 24.25.26 The former viz. the faithfull are considered in their Poverty Hunger Sorrow and Contempt but they are blessed in them all no Poverty but blessed Blessed be yee poore ver 20. no Hunger but blessed Blessed be yee that hunger ver 21. no Sorrow but blessed Blessed be yee that mourne ver 21. no Contempt but blessed Blessed are yee when men revile you c. ver 22.23 And beloved are not they a blessed people and their state blessed every way whose very crosses yea curses as the world accounts them are blessed Can they wāt any thing to make them infinitely blessed whose very wāt of some blessings is soe blessed to them Had not he who is God to be blessed for ever preached this point Ro. 1.15 who could haue consented and set to his seale that it had beene true but himself was hungry and blessed poore sorrowfull contemptible and blessed in all these he spake what himself in our nature did feele and what his members partakers of his nature by grace should feele to wit that if the world and the divell will keepe them every way perplexed he will ever keepe them as God his father kept him happy and blessed If they must be poore and hungry greived and defamed it shal be Blessed hunger Blessed poverty Blessed reproach and Blessed greife doe the world and the divell what they can when they haue done their worst to Gods children the worst they can doe shal be well and happy to them The latter viz the profane they on the other side are set out to the vtmost the most is made of them that can be we haue them brought in ruffling in their Riches Saciety Iollity and Honour but they are wofull in all these no wealth but wofull woe be to you that are rich ver 24. no fullnes but wofull woe be to you that are full ver 25. no myrth but wofull woe be to you that laugh ver 25. no honour but wofull woe be to you when men applaud you ver 26. And are not they a wofull people to whome all wealth and welfare is wofull whose very comforts and blessings as the world accounts them are accursed Can they want any thing to make them infinitely miserable whose very mercyes are miseryes to them The Lord hath entayled an eternall woe to all those things wherein they place their welfare Their blessings and Gods curse cannot be severed they are simply inseparable and shall so deaue vnto each other for ever that as they can laue no joy in any happines appertayning to others soe they shall haue none in that which they posesse themselues but whensoever they read or heare any thing out of Gods booke touching any temporall benefit comming towards them it must be vnderstood with a vengeance adhaering to it so farre as their part goeth in it before they shall enjoy it Now what a mercy is it to haue every bitter thing sweetned every evill blessed And what a misery is it to haue every sweete thing poysoned every good thing accursed This is our first advantage and the odds standing vpon these tearmes of an evill state blessed and a good condition accursed every jdiot would soone determine which of the two to chuse Is not a good estate to be desired on any tearmes and a bad on none I thinke every man would be glad of a blessing vpon any condition entertayne a curse vpon none And now judg I pray you betweene saints and sinners which of both are in better case howsoever it stand with either of them in the best the one may haue and the worst that can befall the other and according to this apparant evidence giue vpright sentence whether the most vnhappy among the children of God be not in more happy case then the most happy among the children of this world And thus farre concerning our first advantage The second is this 2. Advantage 2. A child of God at his worst hath no true or reall evill vp pon him but only the appearance or outside of the same A wicked man at his best hath nothing but that which seemeth to be good and is jndeede evill And this advantage is most evident on either part and vndeniable in both For first for the childe of God he hath his part and interest in Christ who having taken part of all the evills incident to the elect hath by his owne suffering and enduring of them deprived them of their venyme and poyson pulled out their sting and abolished whatsoever was truly evill in them and sanctifyed them soe as that he alone did beare them as curses we at the most and the worst doe vndergoe them only as crosses vnto him they were as just punishments for vs vnto vs they are nothing but mercifull chastisemets they were due to him in our nature by law Pro. 3 1◠He. 12 1◠became part of the malediction thereof they come to vs only as tokēs of kindnes loue so saith the spirit of God once and againe Againe for the vngodly man he is miserably gul'd and cosned as concerning his condition having somethings which seeme to be good but being well sifted and searched into are found to be nothing but reall evills For why we know sin and rebellion did not only bring in plagues wants and miseryes but also it brought mischeife and rottennes and wretchednes
hath the better end or which is the happier state any man that hath but a mans soule jndued with reason will soone preferre safety to danger in themselues but whosoever hath a Christians soule seasoned with religion will preferre the former vpon any tearmes even the very worst and accept the latter vpon noe tearmes no not the best The fourth advantage followeth 4. Advantage 4. A childe of God at the worst he can be in in this world hath no true cause of feare And a wicked man at his best is in a state most fearefull The most afflicted condition of the faithfull is voyd of feare and the fayrest estate of a wicked man is full of feare Gods booke giue 's abundant testimony of both fully freeing the saint from feare and filling the sinners hart with litle else Let vs take notice of that which is revealed for the people of God in this particuler The Prophet Isaiah Isa 43.1.2.3 for tell 's marve lous misery vnto the Church vnder the names of fire and water both which doe resemble both great distresses and great abundance of them also you know they are merciles and outragious creatures that doe wholy burne and vtterly overturne all they prevaile vpon and like vnto them must the calamityes be that are likened to vs by them Now though the very naming of fire and water of floods and flames especially to this end to be metaphors of more heavy miseryes were enough to terrify and affright men and to cause feare to overflow all hope of any happines yet the Lord will in no wise haue his children afrayd but laye's it vpon them by expresse inhibition here as he also doth many a time elswhere Feare not O Iacob my servant and because this might seeme an exceeding strange injunction he giue 's them a stronge excellent reason for it For I am with thee the waters shall not drowne the fire shall not burne thee c. Behold when he tell 's them of things most fearefull he will not haue them feare at all And the Apostle is of the same mynde with the Prophet writing to the Church at Philippi and in those dayes the times were terrible tyranny and extreame persecution prevayled exceedingly vpon all such as could be found to professe Christianity and exhorting them in nothing to feare the adversayes for our is not originally expressed Phi. 1.28 Observe how generall the exhortation is both touching the adversaryes and the things to be feared in them in nothing feare the adversaryes let them be who they may be never so merciles feirce or inhumane let their rage be what it wil be never soe vile villanous dyrefull yea diabolicall yet when both are come to the most and worst that can be neither is worth fearing In like manner Iohn writting to the Church of Smyrna giue 's them the same comfortable counsell and encouragement against their persecutions now approaching saying Feare nothing that thou shalt suffer and yet he tell 's them that their tribulation shal be soe extreame and extraordinary as if the divell were broke loose among them and come from hell it self to make the earth a kinde of hell vnto them for in what sence their to rmentors are called Divells their torments may be called hell and yet he would not haue them feare at all though he tell them of that which would feare yea affright yea almost amaze any body to thinke that their enemyes are divells that is soe exceedingly surpassing and beyond all ordinary oppressors that none is bad enough to represent them but the divell himself These are the generall accquittances that the Lord hath given his servants to free them from all feares in all afflictions yea let them seeme never so fearefull or insernall they are not all of them noe not at the worst worth fearing in the least Thou drewest neere saith good Ieremiah in the day of my trouble Lam. 38.55.56.57 and saydst vnto me Feare not and that when I was in the low dungeon Though I walke in the valey of the shaddow of death that is in the most discomfortable state of death it self yet I will feare noe evill saith good David Ps 23.4 And in a word our Lord Iesus Christ gaue this for one among those many most gracious lessons he left behinde him Feare not them let the men be as many Mat. 10.28 as mighty as malicious as they may be that can kill the body be their manner of killing as tyrannous torturous yea barbarous and cruell as it can be as if he would say neither persecutors nor persecutions of any kinde are cause of any feare in the faithfull he who spake it as man well knew what he sayd as God and therefore we stand bound to obey him as Christ both God and man knowing right well that if any thing in mans power might haue beene just matter of feare to the faithfull he would not haue layd this jnjunction vpon them but being man and accquanited with humane frailety and being God having command over such corruptions as he knew would flow from the same he forbids all feare in all cases because no such feare in vs can consist with the freedome of his graces 1. Ioh. for as true loue so true faith casteth out feare and soe doth every saving grace which he hath given vs. But now on the other side the feare of the profane doth overflow him at his best in the fullest streame of his externall happines it breake 's in vpon him to the disturbance of his hart yea to the fearfull destroying of himself even when he feare 's nothing Pharaoh followed Israell with a resoved mynd to reposesse and re-enslaue them vnto him for ever he hath all the successe hart can wish the sea is holden vp for him by the same miraculous hand of the Almighty which kept it for his owne people to passe over why should he feare any ordinary danger of drowning who had an extraordinary meanes of preservation and now that he see 's God to seeme at least to favour him he is bolde and adventurous and feare 's not but he may follow them close but you know the fearefull issue of this feare-les attempt to wit his owne and his peoples helples overthrow in the middst of that sea wherein he supposed himself as safe as Gods saints were and besides the wofull perishing of his body the losse of his soule was most heavy of all Belshazzar Dan. 5. was were he would be you know when he had his princes his peeres his wiues and concubines about him to quaffe swill and carouse in the sacred vessells of Gods house how frolike joviall and merry that King was we may easily conceive and how farre he had put away all feare of any dismall accident from him we may also well jmagine Howbeit beholde when he suspected nay surmized nothing that might any way disaffect much lesse amaze him he hath such a suddayne and
with all temporall delights he that had the largest share in them of any mortall man that ever liued even Salomon tell 's vs they cannot giue full contentment againe the eye cannot be satisfyed with seeing Eccles 5.10 nor the eare with hearing c but here at our very worst we haue our measure of joy and solace pressed downe to the bottome filled vp to the brym and running over vpon vs from the Lord who telleth vs that these light and short troubles 2 Cor. 4.17 doe not only thus consist with our great rejoycing here present but they procure vnto vs in heaven an exceeding excessiue for soe the words doe sound in their true sence eternall waight of glory loe what words the Holy Ghost vseth to expresse these things to vs exceeding excessiue to giue vs to know that these being the greatest words which can shew any thing to vs the things intended in them are greater then all words can expresse And why then doe we droope or faint vnder any thing dearely beloved how ill doth sorrow or feare of this sort become a Saint 1 Thes 5.16 Phil. 4.13 who is not only commanded to rejoyce in the Lord evermore but hath reason givē him soe to doe in the things thus farre declared by vs. Questionlesse if we could settle our thoughts vpon these divine things they would produce very divine effects in our harts and put vs as it were into heaven before-hand in part and make vs much the more meete for the absolute posession of the perfections thereof in due time And this is the first vse of this most worthy point of truth wherein though we haue seemed long to insist yet know it is such good being here as Peter once sayd that we could even build tabernacles in the blessed comfort of the same as finding it to be much harder to get out then to goe on further in the discovery hereof wherein a faithfull man is after a sort transfigured and mounted aloft farre beyond all mortality misery and vexation of men or divells in this world which now thus raysed either he seeth not or if he doe he beholdeth them as farre vnder his feete with a Christian and holy contempt and himself hath his hart being setled on these things his seate on high with the Lord and his blessed and beloved ones vnto whome he seemeth to be translated in the sweete apprehensions of his soule while he is conversant in these sacred and supernaturall meditations and beholdeth the glorious face of God shyning vpon him and his owne hart soe dazeled with the heavenly lustre of this most blessed light that he cannot well tell for the time where he is whether in the body or noe his soule soaring aloft and finding such inconceivable contentment in these consolations But we must put an end to our discourse of these comforts and leaue the rest to that time when we shall come into actuall and full posession of endles life where we shall enjoy the infinite fullnes of those things whereof all that can be sayd of the best things that are here are but the beginnings and first fruits of that which we shall haue there Vse 2 And soe we come to a second vse of the this blessed truth which concerneth wicked men Terror to presecutors vnto whome we must change our note and sing another tune from the true consequence of the same for it soundeth as all heavenly truth doth heavily in their eares and was not more sweetely musicall to the saints then it is dolefully miserable to sinners We neede not say much to them the losse of all the aforesayd happines and faelicity of the faithfull is more then a litle inasmuch as we haue seene as we haue gone all a-long from one passage to another their misery vnhappines hath still beene entwisted oppositely to the joy of Gods chosen and entayled therevnto so that they are not only deprived of soe much joy as hath appeared to the faithfull in every particuler from point to point but are further assured of as many and as great mischeifs as our mercyes doe amount vnto every comfort to vs carrying with it a curse also vnto them Yet over and aboue all that we haue sayd there is somewhat more falling vpon them to their further terror from this truth and that is meant vnto the persecutors and tormentors of Gods people who doe full often affright and terrify those whome they haue in their power with big and bitter words with cruell and cursed speakings viz that this and that they will doe and they shall I that they shall well know that it is in their power to excercise their pleasure and to haue their will vpon them Iust as insolent and jmperious as Pilate knowest thou not that I haue power to bynde thee c and these tyrants will jmprison will torture will kill what will they not doe and what shall not Gods childe endure if either vile words or villanous deedes may put them into dread distraction yea desperation But wilt thou know Iam. 2.20 O thou vayne man and vile miscreant how jdlely all this is vttered to terrify him who can by vertue of the glorious light of this gracious truth tryumphantly retort all this vpon thy self to thyne owne terror and amazement of hart and tell thee to thy teeth that seing the worst of Gods childe is better then the best of any wicked man therefore all thou canst say or doe cannot make him halfe so miserable as thy self art who doest thus menace the members of Iesus Christ. When thou hast spett-out all thy mallice spued vp all the venyme spent and emptyed vpon them all the malignity and gall the divell ever engendered and encreased in thee yet even then thou hast not made him halfe soe vnhappy as thou now art in thy conceited happines and exemption from all these extreamityes And the poore distressed Martyr of the Lord Iesus may say in the tryumph of a true powerfull faith O Tyrant or Oppressor know that now in this agony in these anguishes I will not change states with thee my case is better then thine all thou canst doe cannot make me so bad as thy self my tortures are to he preferred to thy pleasures my racks chaynes scourges c cannot make me so miserable as thy palace prosperity case honour and power make's thee I am more joyous vnder all these great greivances then thou canst be in all thy greatest gloryes doc thou persecute I will joy doe thou afflict I will pray smite thou I will smile my God hath layd a sweete a soveraigne a healing yea a heavenly plaister to all these bitter sores which fully cure's them and comforts me namely that he hath taught me to learne that which now I haue learned to feele that my worst estate is better then thy best the sweetnes of which lesson make 's all evills casy to swallow and of quick and comfortable digestion even at