and heavenly wisdome unto those who depend upon them and converse with them they are lights to guide they are fires to warme they are cordials to comfort they are Counsellours to instruct such as are round about them what a choice mercy is a pious husband to his wife a godly father to his children a religious master to his servant and a gracious neighbour to his neighbours much spirituall advantage may be and is reaped by their prayers counsels experiences and examples how often have our dead hearts been quickned our doubts resolved our feares scattered our sorrows mitigated and our graces excited by conversing and discoursing with pious and holy men they carry about them very choice and precious liquor but it is contained in earthen vessels which must and will break the time will come when the godly Husband when the pious Master when the gracious Parent must tarry with us no longer when we shall have no more of their counsell to instruct us no more of their encouragements to provoke us no more of their prayers to help us those cisternes must be broken and let this consideration put us upon the securing of the fountaine that when those earthen vessels are snapt in peeces when those pipes through which God conveyed much sweetness and benefit to thy soule are taken away thou maiest have this to comfort thee that the fountaine that can never be drawn dry is still with thee if God be thine thou art well though others can no more be enjoyed in the land of the living God is a husband that cannot dye a father that cannot dye a shepheard that cannot dye a friend that cannot dye all other can do nothing without him he can do any thing without others he can comfort he can quicken he can support he can strengthen he can uphold us though we had not one friend in the world left us he is God alsufficient and can make up the losse of a husband to the wife of a father to the child of a pastor to his people Oh then make sure of God for your God you cannot so make sure of any creature friends or comforters as to keep and enjoy them alwaies they will be gone from you but you may make sure of God get God and you want nothing want God and you have nothing 3. Must the best dye then let us prepare for their death we seldome thinke of crosses till they come and then we are to seek for patience for to beare them what heare we little did I think that I should have seen this day that I should have been bereaved of my husband saith the wife little did I thinke that I should have lost so precious a father saith the child and why did you not think so Job lookt for adversity in the midst of prosperity for losses in the midst of enjoyments he lookt upon his children as mortall Iob 3.25 his goods as uncertaine he feared and fore-thought of those troubles which he met withall and hence it was he bore them with so much patience God hath not given us a lease of his childrens lives it is a mercy and a great one that he will trust us with the sight or presence of those his jewels Mal. 3.17 though but for a season wives look upon your precious husbands children look upon your gracious parents as bubbles that swim up and down in the water for a while but ere long will vanish 4. Must godly men dye let us improve them whilest we have them if we have but a book lent us which we account very profitable and know it may be call'd for at an houres warning we will make the best use we can of it whilest we have it our christian friends are but lent us how soon our heavenly Father may send for them we know not let us therefore make the best advantage that may be of their graces and vertues during their abode with us Chap. 3.16 the Prophet Malachy tels us they that feared the Lord spake often one to another God betrusts us with his deare servants that we might promote our spirituall warfare by their society and will call us to an account one day how we have thrived by such helps Let a Lawyer come to our houses we will aske him question after question about our temporall estate what have we no questions to propound in reference to our spirituall estate Surely then we are ignorant or insensible Hast thou a gracious husband Let no day passe over thy head without reaping some spirituall good by him Hast thou a gracious neighbour Improve his company for thy soules benefit How rich might Christians be in grace had they but skill and will to improve one another Now you may have the benefit of their prayers counsels gifts experiences but they can do nothing for you in the grave Our wofull negligence to improve our Christian friends makes God many times to deprive us of them we might have enjoyed them longer had we been carefull to make better use of them when servants rather play with then worke by the light it is time to put it out Let us therefore take the counsell of our Saviour Joh. 12.35 5. Let all holy and gracious persons be active for God whilest they live let slip no opportunity of doing God service we have received much from and shall we not do much for God God thinkes nothing too great for us let not us think any thing too great for God work we as hard as we can our wages will infinitely surpasse our worke Let no man be idle in his Masters Vineyard for our labour shall not be in vaine in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 when we cast our eyes upon our Wives Children Neighbours Servants or Friends thinke we may be taken from them ere long and let this provoke us to do our best to leave their soules full of grace though we may have little else to leave them 6. Must our best friends dye Will God gather up his Jewels and deck his own glorious palace with them Take we heed of murmuring or repining possesse vve our soules in patience blesse God that he hath trust us vvith them so long complaine not that he hath taken them avvay so soon they are deare to God as vvell as unto us and ought vve not to be content that God should enjoy them as vvell as vve When vve see Gods vvill fulfilled it is not for us sinfully to quarrell but quietly and patiently to submit Thus did Aaron Lev. 10.3 Thus did Eli 1 Sam 3.18 Thus did Job Chap. 1. Thus did David Psal 39.9 True vve are losers 14.28 but our godly friends are gainers love to our selves may make us mourne but love to them should make us rejoyce Ought vve not to be and are vve not glad vvhen our friends vvho have been full of paine enjoy svveet ease vvho have been in prison are set at liberty vvho have been encompassed and oppressed by cruell potent
gone gone never to be seen in this place nor in any of your houses or families againe do we love our neighbours and brethren let us mourne that they as well as we have lost at one clap a faithfull friend a faithfull counsellour a faithfull instructer a faithfull reprover a faithfull comforter in a word a faithfull Preacher Let every one of us mourne together and yet mourne apart let the wife mourn that she hath lost so pious a yoke-fellow let his children mourn that they have lost so carefull a father let the servants mourn that they have lost so religious a master let the people mourne that they have lost so painfull a Pastor and let us Ministers mourne that we have lost such a fellow-labourer one that did joyne with us and help us to oppose those grand enemies Sin Satan and the World True it is none have cause to mourne in reference to his present condition but rather to rejoyce he hath fought a good fight finished his course and kept the faith and now is wearing that crown of righteousness which hath been prepared for him Could he speake unto us he would say as Christ to the women who be wailed and lamented him Luk. 23.28 Weepe not for me but weepe for your selves Let us search our hearts and lives and find out the causes of this our losse why God hath given us such a cup of gall and wormwood for to drinke And is there not a cause Yes certainly Our unthankfulnesse our unfruitfulnesse our pride our worldliness our deadness our coldness our lukewarmness our hypocrisie our contempt and undervaluing of such a blessing have provoked God to deprive us of him The losse of our first love hath made God to scourge us with this loss a loss with a witness a loss to many at once a loss to the State a loss to the Church a loss to the Country a loss to his Parish a loss to his Neighbours a loss to his Yoke-fellow a loss to his Children a loss to his Brethren we have lost we know not what this loss may be more felt hereafter than it is for the present I wish you may never have cause to say where is the spirit of Elijah Where is he now whose zeale was wont to inflame our hearts whose forwardness for God was wont to put us forward whose teares were wont to set us on mourning whose spirituall fervour was wont to heate and warme us whose elevated heart in the waies of God hath helped to lift up our hearts in Gods waies the prevalency of whose prayers we were wont to feele in the encreasing and quickning of our graces whose powerfull Sermons were wont to leave most sweet and refreshing influences upon our soules Where is he Where is he God grant that the spirit of Elijah may be doubled upon his successour that you may not pine and languish away in such sad complaints I make no question were it in the power of prayers and teares of fasting and mourning to fetch him back againe you would not be long without him But now it is too late thankfulness fruitfulness and a close walking with God might have kept him still amongst you who cannot be recalled by any teares or supplications Thus having finished the first thing that Joash did after he came to see Elisha we come now to speake of the second effect or fruit of his visitation expressed in the honourable titles which he gave unto him First he cals him his Father from whence we may observe That honour and respect ought to be shewed from all sorts of men to the faithfull Messengers and Ministers of God Joash did no more than his duty the spirit of God would not have left it upon record for his commendation had it not been a thing that God liked and approved All Sexes whether men or women all relations whether Prince or people husband or wife or all degrees whether high or low rich or poore all conditions whether good or bad righteous or unrighteous learned or unlearned are bound to honour and respect the Messengers and Ministers of Christ there is an inward honour belongs unto them we are highly to esteeme of them to love them there is an outward honour belongs to them we are to honour them in our words by speaking well of them and respectfully to them we are to honour them in our gestures and carriages towards them the Babylonians were charged with this fault that they respected not the persons of the Priests Lam. 4.16 Mat. 13.57 It seemes then nothing was more common and ordinary than to shew respect and honour to the Prophets of God 1 Thes 5.11 1 Tim. 5.17 Reasons First God honours them and therefore men should not neglect to honour them it is ground enough for us to love a man because God loves him and to respect men because God respects them Christ would have us to be mercifull that we might be like unto our heavenly Father who is mercifull Mat. 5. So we must honour those whom God honours that we might expresse our conformity unto God What shall be done unto the man whom the King will honour saith Ahasuerus to Haman Est 6.6 Haman thought no honour too great for and none too great to honour such a man what shall then be done unto the men whom the King of Kings will honour Surely mortall men should not thinke much to honour those whom the immortall God thinkes not much to honour Now there is no faithfull Minister whom God doth not hath not will not highly honour 1 Sam. 2.30 they honour God and God will honour them Secondly Their Office is an honourable office their calling an honourable calling Heb. 5.4 to be a Steward to another man is a place of honour Yearely Stewards if I mistake not are Esquires by their places as Knights eldest Sons are by their birth To be Lord High Steward to a Prince is a place of greater honour Now all Gods Ministers are Stewards to that God who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords 1 Cor. 4.1 Againe the Office of an Embassadour who represents the person of the King is a place of great honour Ministers are Gods Embassadours they negotiate for God and they are employed to treat about a peace between God and man about a marriage between Christ and the soules of people 2 Cor. 5.20 Again they are said to be co-workers and fellow labourers with God himselfe in the salvation of sinners 1 Cor. 3 9. Thirdly Good men have been ready and carefull to honour the Messengers and Ministers of God such who have slighted them before their Conversion have much respect and reverence unto them after conversion Those who mockt at Peter and the Apostles when they were in the state of nature did very much honour them after they were wrought upon by Peters Sermon Acts 2.37 Cornelius a good man was ready to go beyond his bounds in shewing honour to Peter he was ready to give him too much
people together blessed them in the name of the Lord prayed earnestly with them and for them and entreated them to keep close to God to wait upon the publike Ordinances not to forsake as the manner of some is the publike Ministry to take heed of being carried away with the errours of the wicked and that they fell not from their stedfastnesse Oh let those and such like counsels of his be precious to you who heard them thinke much of them walke according to them let these words of your dying Pastor never be forgotten Be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you He was a successefull Preacher God went along with his Ministry he did not labour in vaine neither did he spend his strength in vaine he was a spirituall father to many children I must confess admiring and adoring God for the freenesse of his grace and the riches of his mercy that the first breathings of spirituall life which ever I felt were under his Ministry Others no question have been no lesse laborious in their Masters vineyard than this blessed servant of God but all nay few in these parts of late have been so fruitfull in begetting of children unto God It may be said of him as it was said of Octavius that when he came to Rome he found the walls made of common and ordinary stone but left them walls of marble When he came to Wilby he found a company of Atheists but hath left a company of Beleevers he found a company of Blasphemers but hath left a company blessing and glorifying of God he found a company of drunkards but hath left a company of sober men he found a company of prophane ones but hath let a company of holy ones he found them enemies unto God but hath left them Gods friends so that he could say to his people as once the Apostle to the Romans Chap. 6.16 17. But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin but ye have obeyed from the heart that forme of doctrine which was delivered unto you Being then made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness Now give me leave to press the subsequent words upon you his people by way of exhortation As you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity even so now yeeld your members servants to righteousnesse unto holinesse Againe as God used this blessed servant of his to be an instrument to encrease his kingdome and to bring soules home unto him so he made him an instrument to keep those whom he had converted from being drawn a way with the errour of the wicked How many Ministers may say of some of their most hopefull people as Paul of the Galatians that they are removed from those truths and ordinances which they once seemed to embrace that they are enemies to that Ministry which they once seemed to respect and honour some being turned Seekers some Quakers some Arminians some Antinomians some Antisabbatarians some Anabaptists and what not But God hath been pleased to keep his people from falling into the snares of seducing spirits the foxes and the wolves have not made a prey of them they turned not their backs upon his Ministry they forsooke not the publike ordinances and let it not O ye people of Wilby be said ye did run well who did drive you back that you should not obey the truth Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free and be not entangled with any of those soule-ruining snares wherein many are caught Lastly He was a zealous Preacher full of spirituall heat filled with a holy indignation against sin stirring and active for his God he did not the worke of his Master negligently but was willing to spend himselfe and to be spent in his Lords service Now as his life was holy so his death was sweet and comfortable He told me that he blessed God he was not afraid to dye God did not let loose that accuser of the brethren upon him but filled his heart with joy and peace unspeakable and glorious what cause faith he have we to triumph God is our glory God is our joy Being at one time full of paine and in his own apprehension too impatient he asked his neighbours whether they were not grieved at his impatience who saying nothing he spake thus unto them Truly I am not impatient for want of inward comfort for as I have not so little as to conceale it so I have so much that I am not able fully to expresse it He did earnestly long to be dissolved that he might be with Christ often crying out when will that houre come It is but one knock more and then this earthen pitcher shall be broken and I shall be with my God and see such glory which is unutterable When his neighbours standing by seeing him so willing and desirous to dye told him that God had no need of him in heaven but they had need of him on earth he replied True saith he God nath no need of me but I have need of him and he will glorifie me He would often speak with much admiration and affection of Gods goodness to him in dealing so graciously and favourably with him in the time of his sickness and professed that he thought that God laid him as softly in the grave as ever he laid any man Oh said he to the standers by Walke close with God he can do you a good turne when you come to dye Well gone he is God looks for improvement of losses as well as of enjoyments search out those sins which have made God to take him away from your heads be humbled for them cast them away that God may look down graciously upon you visit you in mercy send you a Pastor after his own heart and that a double portion of that spirit which was upon your never to be forgotten Father and instructer may rest upon his Successour FINIS