work without this help 't is heavy indeed yea too heavy for him to stand under but Gods helping hand put to it makes this heavy work light The Ship which when lying on ground all the Teams in the Country could not draw off how easily is it set a float when the Tide comes in Thus the Heart which the Christian by no pains and industry of his own can raise out of its dullness and indisposition to Duty Oh how soon is it elevated and inspirited when God flows in with his secret Aspirations and Exuscitations of his Blessed Spirit and Grace he who confessed that he could do nothing of himself not so much as think a good thought tells us also he is able to do all things through Christ who strengthneth him now this help from the Lord is promised but it comes not till the Christians hand is put to the work let him be up and doing and then God will not fail to be with him 'T is cheap travelling we say for a Child in his Fathers company to be sure God will pay the charge the Christian is at in his whole journey to Heaven it is easie working while God holds our hand yea puts strength into it Art thou to pray his Spirit will lift with thee for so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies art thou tempted whilst thou art fighting in the Valley below Christs hands are lift up in Heaven above for thy Victory I have prayed that thy Faith fail not yea he doth not only pray above for thee but will be in the Field with thee and in thee by the secret succours of his Spirit My Grace is sufficient for thee which is not meant of Grace Inherent in us that indeed is unsufficient of it self but the auxiliary Grace which he sends in to assist and excite that in a time of need Thirdly Though Christianity be a labour and many troubles and perils attend it yet 't is not alike to all every Christian hath not Hemans Faith Jobs Patience or Pauls Courage neither shall all have Hemans Disertions Jobs Losses nor Pauls Persecutions the stoutest Souldiers are put upon the hottest service the heaviest burden upon the strongest back he knows every Saints ability and so he rates them he will not suffer any to be tempted above that they are able When the Israelites came first out of Egypt he knew they were raw Souldiers and therefore led them about that they might not be put to fight before he had hardned and heartned them more to bear such a work While Christ was upon Earth he interposed his own body between his weak Disciples and the fury of the wicked world but when he went to Heaven then he ventured them into the storm but careful first to re-inforce them with power from above before he let them take the Field Acts 1.4 Being assembled together with them commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father Fourthly The merciful indulgence which the Lord gives them as to their failings hard work indeed God calls them to but the harder the work is the more his pity is expressed towards them in pardoning those invincible infirmities which notwithstanding their faithful endeavour will be found in their doing it It was hard for the Apostles to keep their eyes wakeful in the dead of the night Christ considereth this and Apologizeth for them even while he chides them the Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak It is hard when Afflictions are strong and long not to fall into some indecencies of speech and behaviour we have heard of Jobs Impatience as well as Patience yet the Lord was graciously pleased to to take his part against his accusing Friends ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right as my servant Job hath Job 42.7 It is hard to act Faith when sense and reason are non-plust the Lord therefore is pleased to overlook the weaknesses of his Childrens faith which in such deep plunges they bewray so they strive against them and be humbled for them in magnis tentasse aliquid non parvum in great and difficult enterprizes an essay and endeavour is not little Peter shewed great Faith in venturing to go upon the Sea but discovered infirmity when he began to sink therefore Christ pitieth and succoureth his weakness Davids strait was in a manner as great at Land as Peters was at Sea When at Gath amongst his Enemies whose Champion he had slain much fear and unbelief he borrowed in this his strait yet some secret actings of Faith were mingled with these his fears as appeared by the Prayer he then lift up to God and even this Prayer attended with so many distrustful fears found acceptance with God which made the good man bring this forth as an encouragement for others This poor man cryed and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his Troubles Psalm 34.6 A poor man indeed he was at this time not only in his outward state but his inward poor and low in the actings of his Faith O what encouragement is here to come into the service of God hard work thou mayst meet with but not an hard Master do but thou thy best and God will forgive thy worst Beware of wickedness in not doing what thou canst and God will not reject thee for thy weakness Like as a Father pitieth his Children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him Psalm 103.13 I come now to the Second Part of the Text which presents us with the reward that attends the Christians labour it is not in vain in the Lord they shall not be put off with their labour for their pains no there is a reward laid up in Heaven which will abundantly compensate all the pain and pains they were put to on Earth but we must not understand this as if the Christian received no gain or advantage in this life from the service of God while he is labouring in it Godliness hath the promise of this life as well as the other There are promises of which payment is made here and though these be inferiour to what the Christian shall receive hereafter yet be they so pretious as prove Religion even in this life no hospes asymbolus No guest that lodgeth on free cost but such as pays well and that in present Coin for its entertainment It affords Bread to the eater as well as Seed to the sower there is fruit unto Holiness which the Christian may now feed on to his comfort as well as an hope of Eternal life to be received at the end of this The very vales which the Christian hath given him while at his work afford him enough for his present expence to maintain him in a port becoming his high hopes for afterwards First His conscionable labour in the Lords work will gain him more ability and holy skill to do his work still better by exercising of himself daily unto Godliness he becomes more ready and prepared for every good work by daily combating with his corruptions and resisting temptations he learns more easily to overcome his Enemy And if in worldly trades
is But where may some say dwell these Men I am now directing my speech unto I wish they did not swarm every where and made not the greatest number in most of our Towns and Congregations I shall point at a few First He that conceits himself a Christian and nourisheth in him an hope of Salvation even whilst his life is prophane he no doubt thinks it too easie to be a Christian when a man shall think Christ will own him as his meerly for his Christian name and not reject him for his Heathenish Practices thinks that his heart is good though his life be wicked whereas his life could not be wicked if his heart was not so for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh when men shall think they are Gods Servants though they be the Devils Labourers that God is their Friend when they declare themselves every day his Enemies In a word to think they shall leap at death è coeno in coelum out of Delilahs lap into Abrahams bosom is not this to make it an easie thing to be a Christian and no hard matter to be saved and where is any one who hath not first been convinced from some work of the Spirit so bad that is not yet thus kind to himself yea have they not commonly the strongest Faith who have the weakest Grounds for it they build up Sion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity yet will they lean upon the Lord and say is not the Lord amongst us none evil can come upon us Who knocks more boldly at Heaven Gate to be let in than they whom Christ will reject as workers of iniquity O what a delusion is this Caligula never made himself more ridiculous than when he would be honoured as a God while he lived more like a Devil Before you would have others take you for Christians for Gods sake prove your selves men and not beasts as you do by your bruitish lives Talk not of your hopes of Salvation so long as the marks of Damnation are seen upon your flagitious lives If the way to Heaven were thus easie I promise you the Saints in all Ages have been much over-seen to take so great pains in mortifying their lusts in denying to satisfie their sensual appetite ad quid perditio haec to what purpose did they make so much waste of their sweat in their zealous serving God and of their tears that they could serve him no better if they might have gone to Heaven as these men hope to do That Fryar was far more sound in his judgment in this Point who Preaching at Rome one Lent when some Cardinals and many other great ones were present began his Sermon thus abruptly and Ironically Saint Peter was a Fool Saint Paul was a Fool and all the Primitive Christians were Fools for they thought the way to Heaven was by Prayers and Tears Watchings and Fastings severities of Mortification and denying the pomp and glory of this World Whereas you here in Rome spend your time in Balls and Masks live in Pomp and Pride Lust and Luxury and yet count your selves good Christians and hope to be saved but at last you will prove the Fools and they will be found to have been the Wise men Did ever any man arrive at London by going from it every sin is a step from God and the more we sin the further we depart from God Doth not he then take a wise course to come at last to the full enjoyment of God in Heaven who by a lend wicked life runs as far from him as his legs can carry him Secondly They who think they are good Christians and fair enough for Heaven though they have no more then a Negative Holiness the best that can be said of them is they are not so bad as the worst they do not take so much pains for Hell as others but none for Heaven they labour not so much in the Devils work but work not at all for God like those in the Gospel they stand idle all the day long and yet hope for a peny at night though they never entred into Christs Vineyard they are so far from labouring in the work of the Lord that they will not touch his work with one of their fingers Do not these think it very easie to be Christians as if God was bound to save them but they not bound to serve them Is not Heaven called a reward and what reward can be expected where no work is done if some that work shall be denyed all reward because they did not labour at it and some seek that shall not be able to enter because they do not strive then miserable must thy condition be who fallest short of those who themselves fall short of Heaven Thirdly Formalists and slothful Christians and how many are these who will not be Atheists to live without all Religion but resolve not to be Zealots They are more then key-cold but are afraid to be too hot in their work they are not idle but cannot be perswaded to be diligent they love such a temper in Religion for their Souls as they do a Climate for their Bodies to live in it must be a very temperate one afraid to exceed only in Piety and Holiness in which alone there can be no excess Oh what a delusion is this he that will chuse another temper for his Religion than God hath commanded had need provide another Heaven for himself than God hath prepared for that is given to the zealous Labourer not the lazie Loiterer The violent are they which take this Kingdom by force a man may be sure of Hell with a little pains but Heaven will certainly be lost without our labour and diligence and the reason is because every man is born in a state of sin and damnation and so needs no more than to fit still in that state to bring inevitable destruction upon him to Hell he will come soon enough though he gallop not so fast as others in riot and excess But alas we are born afar off from God and Heaven much labour is required to get into the way that leads to life Eternal and when we are in it many a weary step to take abundance of work to dispatch sins to mortifie temptations to resist afflictions to endure impaired Graces to repair weak to strengthen and to persevere in all this labour till death it self takes us off This we must do or else as Saint Paul said of their abiding in the Ship we cannot be saved It is with the Christians Spiritual Life in this respect as with his natural his body hath within it self that which is sufficient to cause the death of it but not to maintain its life This provision is without as a man he will dye though he make no use of knife or halter to dispatch himself not taking food or not using physick will do it alone Thus the Christian hath enough within him to procure his Spiritual death and
ready she was to be dejected from an over deep sence of her unworthiness will find reason to believe that this Man of God gave this Testimony of her to her as a Cordial to revive her Humble Spirit and therefore brings it in with And this to your comfort I add But I am too troublesom I fear to your Honour my hearty Prayers are that as you have begun so you may go on in living your Mothers Holy Life and that then yon may in a good Old Age dye her happy death with much Peace and Honour And that so long as you shall have a Posterity live on Earth your good Mother may never be Dead but may from Generation to Generation have those descending from her that will keep her Name and Pretious Example alive by a due Veneration of the one and Pious imitation of the other Madam I am your Honours most Humble Servant W. GVRNALL Evenham March 13. 1671. ERRATA PAge 51. Line 25. read Bewrayed pag. 87 l. 2O r. on p. 97. l. 22. r. sloughs p. 110 l. 11. r. Sin 1 Cor. 15.58 For as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. WHAT Luther said of Justification by Faith that may we concerning the Resurrection of the dead Articulus est Ecclesiae stantis aut cadentis it is an Article with which the Church standeth or falleth Yet so foul an errour had taken the head of some Members in the Church of Corinth as to deny this grand Truth which S t Paul calls in another place one of the principles of the Doctrine of Christ how say some among you there is no Resurrection of the dead v. 12. And is it not strange that such who professed to believe the Resurrection of Christ should deny their own but much more that any in the Church of Corinth especially in those early days should have such a darkness found upon their minds who stood so near the rising Sun and that while S t Paul himself was yet alive who had planted this Church by this we see though Truth is errours elder yet errour is not much Truths younger Though the Gospel-Church was purest in the Primitive times yet it soon began to corrupt in its Members Not unapt therefore was his saying who compared in this respect the gathering of Churches to the gathering of Apples which when first gathered may appear all fair and sound but then within a while some amongst them begin to speak and others to discover their rottinness No doubt this Church of Corinth and so others gathered by the rest of the Apostles appeared in their Members very sound in the faith and fair in their lives at their first embraceing of the Gospel yet some we see did thus soon discover corruption in both Now to recover the tainted and especially to preserve the sound from this dangerous infection the Apostle sets himself to defend this Article of our Faith well knowing that this was a blow made at the root of Christianity which must needs fall to the ground if this cannot be maintained and he doth it with such invincible arguments that if any Heretick shall now deny it the reason cannot be deficiency in the proof here given but rather a criminous conscience in himself which makes him on his own defence deny a Resurrection for fear of the Judgment which attends it Now the Apostle having done this and withal shewn the glorious array in which the Saints shall arise out of their beds of dust he then v. 55. sings his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or triumphant song over Death and out-braves this King of Terrours to his face that is wont to keep the hearts of poor Mortals in the miserable bondage of a slavish fear O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory As if he had said Death do now thy worst we fear thee not thou mayest indeed get us into thy hands but thou canst not long keep us in thy power fall we shall into the Grave but we fall to rise again and when we arise out of our Graves then shalt thou Death fall into thy Grave never to arise again Then v. 57. he sings with an holy ravishment of joy the praises of God and Christ our Redeemer by whose atchievement this glorious victory over death is won The sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ This indeed is our David who cut off the head of this Goliah with his own sword killed Death by falling dead upon it he unstung this Serpent by receiving its sting into his own blesed body He overcame this great Conquerour by submitting himself for a time to be conquered by it when Christ lost his life then his whole Army of Saints won the day Death now to them is no death that which was their punishment as Sinners is now their priviledge as Saints That which stood amongst the threatnings of the Law and was the most formidable of them all hath now changed its place and is got amongst the promises of the Gospel All things are yours or Life or Death 1 Cor. 3.21 So pretious an oyl doth our Apostle extract from this slain Scorpion so sweet an honey comb doth he find in this dead Lyons breast and gives it into the hand of the Saints to go eating of it to their unspeakable joy and comfort but is this victory over Death only matter of joy and comfort unto Believers Oh no Blessed art thou O Land when thy Princes eat for strength and not for drunkenness and blessed art thou O Emanuels Land when thy Saints feed on the priviledges and promises of the Gospel not to make them drunk with Pride nor to lay them asleepin Sloth but to rèfresh them to run the Race set before them and the Joy of the Lord becomes their strength the Apostle therefore goes on to improve and close up his discourse on this subject with an Exhortation to Duty Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast always abounding in the work of the Lord that is be stedfast in the faith of the Gospel and especially in the belief of this particular Article of our Christian faith the Resurrection of the dead and then live up unto this belief walk and work as for God while you live as believing you shall when dead rise again Now my Text hath the nature of a powerful Argument to inforce this Exhortation upon them for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. In which words these two things are observable First the Nature and Quality of the service or work of God it is a Labour the Apostle changeth the the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Work which he had used in the Exhortation immediately preceding into this of Labour and that not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies any ordinary labour but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
which imports the hardest of labour Negotium quod nos caedit quasi vires frangit saith an Etymoligist and this we may conceive to pre-occupate an Objection of such that could be willing to do some work but afraid of meeting with too much labour Secondly Here is the reward that sweetens this labour and may make the Christian more easily submit unto it For as much as ye know your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. In which first here is the certainty of the reward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knowing or ye know your labour is not in vain It is not an uncertain surmise taken up by a self-flattering hope from some easie ground of a weak fortassis or may be but ye know it upon infallible grounds ye doubt no more of the being of another World where God will reward his faithful labourers then ye do of the being of this which you see with your bodily eyes and live at present in Here you know it though here you do not receive it Secondly the transcendency of this reward 't is a great reward as well as sure For there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this Phrase an elegant figure in Rhetorick wherein more is meant than is spoken the words sound low but the sense is high You shall not lose your labour that is you shall be infinite gainers by it you shall receive a reward greater than now you can conceive Thus in our own Language we are wont to speak when we would make one willing to do a work we set them about we 'll say to him you shall not repent doing of it you shall not be a loser or work for nothing in which we intend more than we express that it shall redound to his great advantage Thus here under this expression your labour is not in vain is intended no less than Heaven that exceeding great and eternal weight of glory which no tongue of men or Angels can express how great it is First of the first the nature or quality of the Christians work his work is a labour and so will every one find it that means to be faithful in doing of it Man is born to labour and the Christian is not born again to be idle God sends not his servants into the World as a Play-house but Work-house and such a work it is which he appoints them as is not an idle mans business that may be done sitting at his ease on the chair of sloth but requires his greatest pains and diligence therefore Christianity is in Scripture compared to the most toylsom imployments is it a labour to run a race which strains all parts of a mans body what is it then to run this spiritual race which is every step of the way up-hill and straineth not legs and lungs as the other doth but faith and patience which is a harder exercise Is the Husbandmans work laborious to plow up his stiff ground and with many a weary step to go sowing his heavy land especially in a wet season what then is the Christians labour who is to plow on the Rock to break up an heart by nature harder than stone and whose whole life is a wet seed-time he living in a Valley of tears Is the Souldiers work laborious and hazardous who must be content to lye hard and fair hard and which is more prepare for hard blows and knocks yea wounds and death it self then the Christians cannot be easie who must deny himself and take up his Cross and follow Christ and that cheerfully amidst all his losses and crosses For this Captain non amat gementem Militem loves not a Souldier that followeth him groaning and grumbling But for the further clearing and amplifying this point it will not be amiss to descend to some particulars to discover what it is that makes the Christians work so laborious and difficult and in the next place why God hath charged Religion with so much labour and so many difficulties First of the first The vast circumference of his duty the more strings an Instrument hath the more art is required to handle it well the larger the Field is the more labour it will cost him that is to Till it in a word the greater the Servants charge is and the more business which lies upon his hánds the more care is needful to tend it and where the care must be great the labour cannot be little because care is it self one of the greatest labours O how great then is the Christians labour whose care and duty has no less compass than the commandment of God which is of such vast comprehension that the Psalmist who saw an end of all perfections could see no end of it Psalm 119.96 I have seen an end of all perfections but thy commandment is exceeding broad The Commandment here includes both Law and Gospel and the Christians duty extends to yea diffuseth it self over both First the Law Moral this is bound upon the Christian in point of duty to make it his rule as strictly as it was upon innocent Adam himself though not upon such strait conditions and dismal consequences The Christian is bound to it upon peril of contracting sin though not of incurring death and damnation the Christian hath no more liberty to transgress the Law than Adam had though he hath a promise of pardon upon repentance when he hath sinned which Adam had not how indeed can we imagine that Christ who was made a curse for sin would come to be a cloak to sin now is it an easie work for the Christian to keep his heart in a sincere compliance with and respect to this Law in his daily walking a Law which is so large as reacheth from Heaven to Earth commanding us to keep a conscience void of offence to God and Man a Law so pure and precise that forbids all sin omissions of good as well as commissions of evil that indites him for a Murderer that doth not feed his Brother yea his Enemy as well as he that stabs him to the heart him that doth not pray to God as well as him that doth curse him the barren Heath without good fruit as well as the Dunghil-life of the profane sinner filled with the stinking weeds of gross crimes that condemneth sudden passions as well as deliberate sins that bindeth the soul to its good behaviour as well as the hands Is it an easie thing to hate every false way to be ready to every good work to have respect to every Command which yet he must have that will not be put to shame Psal 119.6 willing in all things to live honestly Yet this he must do that will keep a good conscience Heb. 13.18 is not here enough to fill the Christians head with care and his heart continually with an holy fear and trembling But this is not all his work for secondly the Evangelical Law is also bound upon the Christian the sum of which the Apostle gives us in
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
being to sin what putrifaction is to diseases the more of this in a disease the more dangerous it makes it the more of that in a sin the more abominable it makes it nay further though the aim be not false yet if that which God allows to be our inferiour end be made our ultimate it depraves the action if I aim at the comfort and relief of a poor mans necessity in my alms which I may and ought yet if this be the highest I look and my eye passeth not through this to the glorifying of God it becomes unacceptable a man may lose the prize by shooting short as well as wide of the mark now how hard to keep our eye fixed on this ultimate end truly even as hard as to keep our eye fixt on a single object through an Optick Glass held by a trembling hand Fourthly Every Duty must be timed aright the Christians life is full of duties and those very various now he is called to exercise himself in one then in another now to pray anon to meditate now to be in his Closet then to be in his Shop about his worldly calling now to private then to publick now to reprove then to encourage or comfort his Brother As one that hath a Shop full of divers Tools all necessary for his Calling but this for that purpose and that for this in it now if he should cut with his Axe when he should smooth with his Plain he would soon spoil his work that which is at one time a Duty would if done at another be a Sin Diligence in our worldly Calling on the week day is the work of the Lord but the same on the Lords day would be Satans no doubt as many a fair Child hath been lost by an untimely Birth so many a good Work spoiled by an unseasonable performance and to discern time and judgment for our actions requireth both wisdom and care and these labour and pains Thirdly The difficulty the Christian finds to order his Conversation so that his care for one part of his work may not hinder him in another Now the reason of this difficulty is the seeming contrariety of some duties to others Seeming I say not real indeed it is in Satans service only not in Gods that there is a real contrariety of work Errors have their opposites he that maintains one cannot if he understands himself hold some others so in Practical Lusts some are at such a feud that when one is in the Throne the other is kept under but all Truths agree lovingly together being all but one Faith and so do the Graces of a Christian being all the effect of one and the same Holy Spirit they do no more hinder one another in acting than the several wheels in a well made Clock do one anothers motions or the various members of the body one the others Operations and Functions yet I say there is a seeming contrariety And as it requires Art and care to touch the several strings of an Instrument that have different Sounds so as from all may result one harmonious sound so much more holy skill and care in a Christian to exercise these many various Graces and perform so many divers Duties in such a sweet concurrence and fellowship that from all there may result an uniform Holiness in the course of his life The Christian must be Zealous but leave room for Discretion or else like a Ship that hath all Sail and no Ballast he 'll grow top heavy he must fear to sin and yet hope in the Mercy of God when he hath sinned and repents of it 't is his duty to draw near to the Throne of Grace with an Holy boldness but it is his duty even then to preserve an Holy awe and reverence he must be sensible of the hand of God when afflicted or else he is not a Man but then he must bear it patiently or else he is not a Christian he must be meek and lowly in his carriage to all even the meanest yet must keep an high courage and noble resolution not to be turned out of the path of Duty for the frowns of the greatest he must love his Brother but hate the sin he commits how many such riddles are there in Religion Now is it an easie work for the Christian to drive his Charriot in so narrow a path without justling one duty against another to hold a fair and friendly correspondence with all these duties and not set one at variance with the other Fourthly The great opposition the Christian meets with in doing the Lords work makes his labour still greater Other men can work in their Shops quietly and few or none will molest them much less throw stones at them but the Christian he 's hindred from all hands First The flesh within controuls him lusting against every good motion and holy action which the Spirit of God stirs him up unto so that he is forced to dispute his way before he can come at his work much ado to answer what the flesh objects against every duty he is to perform Would he pray then the flesh begs time and will be putting it off for a more convenient season some other business it starts first to be done would he give an Alms the flesh asks him whether he meaneth to be a beggar and give that to others which himself may want before he dyes would he reprove a sinning Brother then why will he be a busie body in other mens matters and lose a Friend in doing a thankless office would he bear witness to the Name and Gospel of Christ then pity thy self is its counsel no duty but it either keeps from it or disturbs in it so that he needs a Sword as well as a Trowel to lay every stone in his Spiritual building Secondly A body of flesh hangs heavy upon him the body was at the first and shall again be at last in Heaven a wing but now alas 't is a weight to mans Soul and that an heavy one it should indeed be the Souls servant but now the Soul is fain to tend and wait upon that to provide Food to keep and Physick to restore its Health yet when all is done it proves no over meet help to the Soul if it be strong and healthy then like a pamper'd Beast it grows crank and wanton ready to throw its rider which made Saint Paul keep down his body yet if the Soul discipline it but a little too severely then 't is feeble and tyred Thirdly The World this makes no small opposition First The things of the world the Christians worldly calling is ready to filtch the time which should be spent in the Christians general Martha is in the Kitching when she should be in the Chappel the enjoyments of the world how ensnaring are they sensual delights so sweet Wine that when the cup is at our lips we cannot drink little and so heady and intoxicating that we cannot bear much when troubles come
this be accounted a sufficient reward to an Apprentice for serving out his time to learn the mystery of his Calling Oh what a reward is it by the daily practice of Godliness to learn more fully the Mystery of it This I am sure holy David set down for great gains I have remembred thy name O Lord in the night and have kept thy Law this I had because I kept thy Precepts Psal 119.55 And again I understand more than the Ancients because I kept thy Precepts ver 100. He did not grudge his own pains nor envy others ease so long as he might get more Heavenly Wisdom by it Secondly The Christians conscionable labour interesseth him in the special Providence of God for him while he is at work for God God will take care of him and what can he want that hath God for his Provider what or whom need he fear that hath God for his Protector For though all the Saints have a right in Promises yet none have a pleasant aptitude to apply the comfort of any one Promise while they are idle and negligent no this is the portion of the laborious Christian that walks in the actual exercise of his Grace No good thing shall he want that walks uprightly When God engageth to Abraham his Almightiness it is to him as walking before him not as sitting in the chair of sloth Thirdly The Christians labour is rewarded here with inward peace of Conscience and serenity of Mind Great peace have they that keep thy Law and nothing shall offend them Psalm 119.166 Peace be on them that walk by this rule as on the Israel of God Gal. 6. These are they in whose bosoms this Bird of Paradise sings her sweet Notes and her sweetest in foulest weather when sickness comes and death approacheth Now he that hath the testimony of his Conscience for having been a faithful Labourer in the Lords work will be able to make a comfortable reflection upon his past life For mens expectations of what is coming to them at death depends upon what their past lives have been Life is the time of sowing and death of reaping as they have sown so only can they expect to reap Life is a time for working and death for receiving the reward sutable to the work Hence it is when death is approaching Conscience if not seared and past all feeling is then carried back to review what the man hath been doing for whom he hath been labouring and therefore must needs bring in heavy tidings to the sinner of his approaching misery then it rips up all the stitches of that false peace which the ungodly wretch had been bolstred up with and tells him that now the Righteous Judge is at hand to pay him the dismal wages due to him for all the wicked works he hath done which makes the thoughts of death a terror to him But the Sincere Christian who hath laboured faithfully in the Lords work he then hath a pleasant Prospect to behold when he looks back upon his conscionable walking and can thence make his humble appeal to God and desire him to remember how he hath walked before him in Truth and with a Perfect Heart Oh what joy is this to his poor heart that his Conscience bears him witness he hath endeavoured to walk before God with godly simplicity and not in guile and can cast himself upon the Mercy of God in Christ and breathe out his Soul with a joyful expectation of being received into the Kingdom of Glory This premised I address my self to speak of the Christians reward in the other world this being principally if not solely in the Text where it is set forth two ways First By its certainty For as much as ye know Secondly By its transcendency Your labour is not in vain in the Lord. In which words you may remember I told you there is more intended than exprest First of the first The certainty of the Saints reward intimated by this Phrase ye know that is ye know it for a certain indubitable truth ye make no doubt of this thus is the Saints future Happiness spoke of with the greatest assurance and certainty We know that if our earthly house of his Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens 1 Cor. 5.1 We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him The Saints know this so well that they dare venture the loss of all they are worth here for the reward they expect there Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods knowing in your selves that ye have in Heaven a more enduring substance Heb. 10.34 yea they have refused their temporal life when offered to the prejudice of their eternal Heb. 11.35 Not accepting Deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection If any should ask how do they know so assuredly there is this reward I would ask such how they know the Sun to be when they see it shine if they say by seeing of it they may know that the Saint sees an Heaven as certainly by an eye of Faith as they can do the Sun by an eye of Sense Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen The very light of nature whereby the Heathens knew a God did let with it into their minds some knowledge of another world and of a double state therein of happiness to the good and misery to the wicked being not able otherwise to reconcile the unevenness of Providence in this world with the righteous nature of God but alas what was this lesser light which God left in man to rule him in the night of Heathenish darkness to the certainty of the Saints knowledge which comes in by the light of Faith first the Christians Faith is grounded on the testimony of God himself in his word Humane Faith is indeed the weakest and most uncertain kind of knowledge because mans testimony on which it relys is so fallible but Divine Faith the most certain because the testimony of God on which its weight bears is infallible One who cannot deceive because he is truth it self nor be deceived because he is wisdom it self So that though Faith be not Reason yet to believe what God saith is true there is the highest reason 2 ly As the testimony on which the Saints Faith relies is the infallible Word of God so his very Faith which relies on this Word of God is no other than the work of God the same Spirit who is the Author of that is the efficient of this for the Christian believes not from the power of his own will but the power of God mightily working his heart up to this supernatural act Hence we are said to be saved through Faith and that not of our selves it
is present not one imaginary point of time wherein he can be more or shall be less happy to all Eternity Fourthly It is a consistent and fixed state free from all changes and vicissitudes which in this life he is subject to here alas the Christian is sometimes well and sometimes sick now in Prosperity then in Adversity Rich and Poor in the same day In momento vertitur mare ubi luserunt navigia sorbentur In a moment a storm arising where the Ship even now danced it is wrackt He is like one that Travels in an April day whose Cloak is wet with the Rain and dryed again by the Sun and then wet again neither do these changes only befal the Saints outward state but his inward also both in point of Grace and Comfort Now his Heart is up and lively in the performance of a duty anon so dead and down as if he were not the same man Now the Christians Coat is on ready to attend and follow his Master anon it is off and he on his bed of sloth So in point of Comfort one while the Spouse hath her Beloved in her arms and is ravished with his company another while she is setting up her Si quis and enquiring if any can tell her tydings of him hora longa brevis mora The Christian waits long for the Comforter and when he comes he doth but look in and then withdraws again so that the joy which he hath at present is much interrupted from the fear of losing it for nemo fruitur solicito bono how much there is of fear so little is then of enjoyment in what we have Indeed what ever the Saints refreshings are here 't is but like a Travellers entertainment in an Inn the thoughts that he must to Horse again in the morning doth lessen the pleasure he takes in it But in Heaven the journey is at an end the Saint is at home his labour is gone and his rest is come he is in a Kingdom that cannot be moved Fifthly It is an Eternal state this is more than the former the property that crowns all the rest There are some in this life and those none of the best who meet with no changes and that for a long time who enjoy a continued Summers day their Sun of Prosperity goes not in and out but shines with a constant beam no black cloud of any great Affliction interposing to hide their joy from them but at last death chops in upon them and spoils all their mirth in a moment they go down to the pit and with them all their thoughts perish What joy remains to him that is in misery to remember the years of pleasure he hath had A past felicity is a present misery and to remember the pleasure we had doubles the sorrow we have This made Saint Bernard interpret that place of the Psalmist with long life will I satisfie him of Heaven because he thought nothing was long that had an end This indeed is the Emphasis of Heavens joy those Blessed Souls shall never sin never weep more they shall not only be with the Lord but ever with the Lord. This is the accent which is set on the Elogies given to Heaven in Scripture 'T is an Inheritance and that an incorruptible one that fadeth not away It is a Crown of Glory and that a weighty one yea an exceeding great and eternal weight of Glory When once it is on the Saints head it can never fall or be snatched off it is a Feast but such an one that hath a sitting down to it but no rising up from it The second way I propounded for seting forth the Saints reward was to compare the Saints work and labour with the reward For though the reward be great yet if the labour bear any considerable proportion to it so much of its greatness is taken away But the Christians labour here bears no proportion at all with his reward hereafter and therefore the Apostle saith It is not worthy to be compared with the Glory that shall be revealed His labour is finite but his reward infinite and there is no proportion between finite and infinite There is but little proportion you will say betwixt a drop of water and the Sea yet there is some because though vastly greater yet not infinitely greater but betwixt these finite and infinite there is none at all The Christians reward is infinite First Intensive God himself is his reward as well as his rewarder who is infinite in all his Divine Perfections And what proportion between a poor nothing Creature and his nothing Service to the having this infinitely Glorious God his portion So far are these from bearing any proportion to God that compared with him they are denyed to be I am and there is none besides me saith God or to have any excellency he is the Holy one the only wise God Mans wisdom is no wisdom his holiness no holiness compared to God Secondly It is infinite extensivè or in duration Their reward is an everlasting life but their work and labour for the Lord how short how soon is it dispatched If there be no proportion between Time and Eternity then none between the Christians labour which is performed in so little a point of time and the reward which endures for ever and ever The Christian is a few hours in the Field at his work and then called into an everlasting rest in his Fathers house He carries a light cross a little way on his back which death at the furthest takes off and then an Eternal Crown of Glory is set on his Head It aggravated King Lysimachus his sorrow that he had lost so great a Kingdom for so little a matter as a draught of water How will it ravish the Saints Heart to receive so great a reward at the end of so short a labour Jonathan wondered that a little Honey should cost him so dear as death I did saith he but taste a little Honey with the end of the Rod that was in mine hand and lo I must dye How much more admiringly may the Saint say 't is but a little and that sorry service that I have done for my God on Earth and lo I must live yea live with God yea with God everlastingly in Glory Well may the Apostle say That Christ shall come to be admired in all them that believe 2 Thes 2.10 How can it but make them admire to see so infinite a Glory the reward of so poor a labour Object But why should not the Christians Holy labour and Faithful service bear the same proportion to his reward in Heaven as the wicked mans sin doth to his punishment in Hell this deserves that why not that this though the wicked mans sin be as little a time in committing as the Saints Holy service is in performing yet there is an infinite evil in his sin that is objective because committed against an infinite God And why should there not
worship me But alas when the promised Feast comes to be served in it proves as we say nothing between two dishes They spend their Money for that which is not Bread they labour for that which doth not profit yea 't is worse than nothing For Bread they have Stones for Fish Scorpions given them instead of content they have vexation and a sting in their Conscience Hence the wicked are said to work a deceitful work Prov. 11.18 Deceitful because it deceiveth the worker would not he be deceived who labours hard all day in hope of a good reward at night from his Master but is then paid with nothing but a good Cudgel upon his bones This is the reward which Sinners have even in this life many a blow and stripe laid upon him by his Conscience which others do not see but he feels he expects a Paradise but finds a Purgatory and not only so but sometimes God testifying openly against him in his Judgments No doubt Gehazi pleased himself with his Plot whereby he might get in one day more than he was like to do in many years service of his Master Oh how brave should he be when his new Cloaths were on his back but alas he did not think of that other Garment of Leprosie which God would bestow on him a Garment not like others to cover his shame but to discover and proclaim his sin a Garment that should last him to wear and his Children from Generation to Generation Thirdly That which the Sinner labours for will not only leave and deceive but also everlastingly damn him they do not only labour for vanity but they labour in the fire for it Habak 2. Hell fire I am sure will be the end of their labour what the Apostle saith of one sort of Sinners They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition is as true of the rest He that will have Pleasures or he that will have Honour an Heart set violently on any thing here below that makes it his Treasure to enjoy and therefore his chief Labour to obtain this man must needs fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts which without Gods merciful hand snatching him out of their Clutches are sure to drown them in Eternal Perdition Was Shimei unwise who by going out of his Precincts to recover his run-away Servants lost his own life How much more folly and madness is it by hunting after the run-away Vanities of the Creature that are but thy servants to lose the life of thy Soul Cur ea quae ad usum diuturna esse non possunt ad supplicium diuturna deposces Why wilt thou oh man make that which is but temporary in the use eternal is thy punishment Who would crave the sweetest morsel in the world which after the short Pleasure in swallowing of it down would cause intollerable gripes in his Bowels for but a month and wilt thou devour that which thou must be digesting in Hell with Torments as endless as easless Secondly Of Exhortation to all that are at present in the service of Sin to be perswaded to change your Master Oh come now into the Lords service that at death you may enter into your Lords joy enter into his Vineyard now that you may have your penny at night amongst his Faithful Labourers labour for God in this world that you may rest with God from your labours in the other It is said of Caesar that when he had brought his Army so near Rome that they might see it before them he bad his Souldiers look upon it wishly saying What think you is not yonder brave City worth Fighting for I have been speaking of another guess place Let me desire you to look once again up to the Heavenly Jerusalem the City and Chamber of the great King where is laid up this goodly reward spoken to is it not worth the labouring for and going to though every step of the way were to be trod on points of Swords Is it not a blessed thing to behold God face to face to be ever with the Lord to bathe thy self in those Pleasures that are at his right hand to drink the wine of the Kingdom in the Kingdom of Heaven it self Wilt thou lose it as Lysimachus did his worldly Kingdom by staying to drink a draught of puddle water the muddy pleasures of Sin for a season long thou canst not stay here Doth it not behove thee to make sure of an house above to receive thee when thou art turned out of thy Earthly Tabernacle here and if it doth must thou not become his Servant do his work or never look for his reward And if thou wilt do it when mean'st thou to set about it if not now Heaven is won or lost here now and ever now or never When death takes thee off the stage think not to have leave to return that thou mayst act thy part better Times loss is the most irrecoverable thou mayst lose thy Ring and find it again thy House may be burnt and built again but if time be lost that never can be recovered Death is a change that puts into an unchangeable state the Saint into a state of Bliss the Sinner into a state of Misery Heaven the reward of Gods Labourers and Hell the wages of wicked Workers and Loiterers Oh think and think again before it be too late what rapping there will be at Heaven Gate what calling and crying to be let in yea even by those who now when it stands open may and will not and therefore then shall have no other answer than that of our Saviour I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity let him pay you that set you on work Sinners you think that at present you have the odds and advantage of the Saints they are Macerating themselves with Fasting while you are pampering your selves with Feasting they are Mourning for their Sins while you are Pleasurably committing yours they are Afflicted and you are at Ease you get the World and they lose it But then the Tables will be turned they will recover all their losses here and thou lose all thy gain their sorrows will take leave of them never to trouble them more but thy joys will be at end and thy sorrows come in the room of them In a word they shall be comforted and you tormented 2. To the Saints Walk in the view of this your reward and make an holy improvement of it in your lives That which is the end of our Faith viz. Salvation should be propounded as the end of all our actings and have an influence into our whole course Finis principium est omnium operationum it should have the nature of a Direction what to do and of a Motive to inforce and invigorate us in all we do As the Bird is guided by its Train and the Ship by its Rudder
so the Christian should by his end First Therefore let this Glorious Reward thou seest before thee keep thee from accepting of the rewards of sin let them love the reward of iniquity that look not for a reward of Righteousness Abraham would not have it said the King of Sodom made him rich who had God for his exceeding great reward Moses who had respect unto the recompence of the reward despised the pleasures of sin for a season It dishonoreth the Prince when his Courtier accepts a Pension from a strange much more from an enemy Prince When we yield to any sin we do what Satan tempted Christ unto even worship and pay an homage to him I know no Argument to repel the Enemy more forcible nor more honourable than this I will not disgrace my Masters service the hopes I have from him to borrow a reward from his Enemy Some Nations are wont to sight in their richest Cloaths and Jewels to make them more valiant by considering how great their loss would be by falling into their Enemies hands Certainly Satan would not so easily foil thee Christian if thou didst wear the rich Bracelets of the Promises and by Faith put on that robe of Glory with which thou shalt ere long be clothed How would a glorified Saint scorn a motion to sin Visio beatifica impotentes facit Angelos sanctos ad peccandum What they sin the Sun might sooner be pull'd out of its Orb than they out of their Obedience What they leave the Fatness and Sweetness they are satiated with for any thing that is to be got by a base sinner Such a thought never did nor can enter into their Holy Heart And we should be more like them in our detestation of all sin had we more raised apprehensions of the greatness of the Heavenly reward and stronger hopes for our coming to it Secondly Let it make thee stedfast and unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord. This is the improvement which our Apostle makes in this place of this very Point there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Religion much pressed by the Apostle upon Believers to walk as becomes the Gospel as becomes Saints to walk worthy of God worthy of our Holy Vocation Now this becomingness lies much in the sutableness of our present actings to the heighth of our future hopes When we endeavour that the properties of our actions may correspond and bear a resemblance to the reward expected by us As the impression on the Wax answereth to the Sculpture of the Seal or as the Port and Garb of a great Heir is to the vast Inheritance he shall have Now the Text for I go no further presents us with Two Properties of the Saints reward Certainty and Immensity And accordingly presses this double Duty Stedfastness or unmoveableness and abounding always in the work of the Lord as bearing a resemblance unto it First Therefore labour to be stedfast in thy profession of the Faith holding fast saith the Apostle the Faithful Word Titus 1.9 How unsutable to a Faithful Word is a Faithless Heart A wavering weak Faith to a sure Word 2 Pet. 1.19 A Sceptical judgment to a Doctrine that is indubitable and without controversie 1 Tim. 3.16 How unbecoming is it to be off and on hot and cold unstable and unconstant in an holy course when thou lookest for a Kingdom that cannot be shaken Secondly Let it make thee abounding in the work of the Lord. How unsutable is it to pinch God in thy service who is so magnificent in his reward How unbecoming to think any measure enough in thy duty when the reward promised is without all measure Nay do not only abound but be always abounding in the Lords work who will make thee always happy Alas what is our always in abounding here to the always of his rewarding hereafter the always of our service extendeth but to the end of a short life but the always of the reward to an endless Eternity Were there no reward at all hoped for yet we ought yea the Saint would for his new Nature inclines him thereunto serve his God We see even our Children do love and obey us their Parents though some of us have no Portion or Inheritance to leave them But it superadds a further Argument to a Rich mans Child to make him more abundantly dutiful and diligent to consider what a great estate his Father hath of all which he will make him Heir though he might not if he pleased have setled any thing on him at all Thus when a Saint considers that God who might have made a Law binding him to Obedience without making a Promise to reward the same It must needs much affect his heart to see God in his condescending Grace and immense Bounty thus to sweeten and facilitate his Obedience with a promise of no less reward than of the Heavenly Inheritance Think oh Christian how little the greatest service thou canst now do thy God will in a dying hour appear to thine own thoughts I have observed that the best of Saints whose eminency in Grace and serviceableness in their Generations others admired have yet themselves upon a sick and dying bed complained of their barrenness and unprofitableness Not bragged of their zeal but bewailed their coldness not applauded themselves for what they had done but mournfully confessed what they had left undone the sense of their deficiencies quite hiding from their eyes the sight of their eminent diligence As that famous Light in our British Church and laborious Servant of Christ Bishop Vsher on his dying bed thus Prayed Oh God forgive my sins of Omission Who yet was admired of all that knew him for his laborious diligence in the Pulpit and out of it also And one reason I humbly conceive why the best of Saints at such an hour are more than ever sensible of their deficiencies is because they then standing nearest to Eternity have higher and wider apprehensions of the Majesty of God and the immense Glory of Heaven which apprehensions must needs cause them to see the vility and nothingness of their own sanctity and all their services and consequently fill them with an holy blushing and shame that they have done so little for God who hath laid up so much for them that they have no more glorified him on Earth who hope so soon to be glorified with him in Heaven And if the highest measures of the most fruitful Saints which have done God more service than an hundred such as thy self shrink into nothing in their own eye at such a time and leave them full of shame and sorrow for their unsutable actings to their high and glorious hopes how much more will it afflict thee with unspeakable grief and sorrow in the like hour if thou hast a dram of Sincerity in thine Heart to remember thy more palpable negligence and barrenness Oh what then wilt thou say of thy past life which is so thin sown with Holy
not even as others which have no hope nor mourn so as to refuse to be comforted to take our own loss so to heart as not to rejoyce in their gain Is this thy kindness to thy Friends wouldst thou have them labour and never rest work and never receive their reward They could not have had these here but they have them where they are gone Oh be not unkind to them by being over-kind to your selves If ye loved me ye would rejoice saith our Saviour to his Disciples because I said I go to the Father Joh. 16.28 As if he had said to them you are indeed my Disciples too selvish You think what you shall lose if I depart hence but you do not consider what I should lose by my staying here You see the poor condition I live in here on Earth and know the Royalty and Glory I am going to be possessed of in Heaven and are you unwilling I should be advanced to my Throne there and that after I shall have finished the work of your Redemption here Truly you are unkind and shew but little love in this to me your dear Lord and Saviour Nor do we express much love to our deceased Friends of whose happy change we have no reason to doubt if their incomparable advantage doth not make us more rejoyce for them than our loss make us mourn for our selves If we be as they were sincere and faithful Christians our loss is but short ere long we shall recover it by being taken up to them they are not lost but gone a little before whither the rest of their Brethren ere long shall be called And while we are left here behind we have a God to live upon who cannot dye who will not leave us and whose presence is sufficient to compensate I trow the absence not of one but all our Friends Would Elkanah be thought better to his barren Wife than ten Sons May not God then look his Children when bereaved of any Creature Comforts should count the having him better yea infinitely better than them all Let therefore every Saint in this and all other bereavements solace himself with this of David Psalm 18.46 The Lord liveth and blessed be my rock and let the God of my Salvation be exalted It is expected I know that I should now speak something of that Noble and without offence I hope I may say Elect Lady the Solemnization of whose Funeral occasioned this our sorrowful meeting which should I not do without doubt I should send you all away very much dissatisfyed But far be it from me that I should by my silence put her light now she is dead under a Bushel which shined before all your eyes so radiently while she was alive even as a great Candle on an high Candlestick It was said of John Baptist all men counted John that he was a Prophet indeed And I am perswaded that all who knew her esteemed the Lady Vere a Christian indeed Truly if we may not think so of her we shall be at a great loss to find such Characters by which we may judge any at all to be so I shall begin to speak of her where she her self began to be her Birth I mean and Parentage from which she had her Extraction And this was High and Ancient on both sides For by her Mothers side she sprang from the chief of the Throg-mortons Family and by the Fathers side was extracted of the Ancient Family of the Tracies at Todington in Gloucester-shire She was the youngest of Fifteen Children born on the Eighteenth day of May Anno 1581. being the 23. of Queen Elizabeth Her Mother dyed three days after she was Born and her Father when she was but eight years old Thus soon was she an Orphan but indeed they only are Orphans who have no Father in Heaven When her Father and her Mother thus forsook her the Lord took her up The many Experiences she had all along her life of Gods most tender care over her occasioned her to chuse this for her Motto which is found written by her in the front of most of her Books in her Closet God will Provide She took much delight in speaking of one of her Ancestors as one of the greatest Honours to her Family William Tracy of Toddington Esquire mentioned by Mr. Fox in his Martyrology who in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth for the sound Profession of his Faith made by him in his last Will and Testament was after his Decease condemned to have his body taken out of the ground and burnt which Sentence accordingly was executed She was twice Married to Mr. William Hobby her first Husband at Nineteen Years of Age by whom she had two Sons which were Religiously Educated by her the happy fruit of this her care she reaped at their Pious Deaths for they both went young to Heaven the Younger dyed in the Fourteenth Year of his Age the Elder in his Three and Twentieth much admired for his Parts and loved for his Piety Her second Husband was Sir Horace Vere afterward Baron of Tilbury so Noble and Excellent a Person that I must not name him without some Honourable Reflection one whose Coat Armour made more Renowned than his Coat of Arms and his Personal Atchievements in the field ennobled more than the High Blood he borrowed from his Ancestors But his Piety gave him the highest Character of all by the other he got a great Name like unto the great Men that are in the Earth but by this he obtained a good Name And even Tacitus the Roman Historian prefers a praise from Goodness before that which is obtained by Greatness And therefore speaking of a Noble Roman saith he was inter claros potiùs quà m inter bonos censendus This Noble Lord was one who could wrestle with God as well as fight with Men and may be thought to have got his Victories upon his knees in his Closet before he drew his Sword in the Field And when he had overcome his Enemies he could overcome himself also being one of the humblest Souls in whom so much true worth lodged that I have heard of His good Lady would say she honoured him for his Valour but most for the Grace of God which shined in him Thus she did coruscare radiis Mariti shined by the Rays of her Husbands Excellencies but not only with these for she had radient Beams of her own by which she cast like Honour upon him as she received from him So happily was this Noble Couple suited us in the high Extraction of both their Births so also in the rest of their accomplishments that they mutually illustrated each the others Honour But passing by all her secular Prerogatives we shall now present her to you in some of her spiritual Excellencies These indeed give the intrinsick value to a person He that would take the true height of of a man must not measure him with the vantage-ground he stands on I may