we rise and every night we go to bed but especially when we see some harbingers of death sent unto us then to have nothing to do but with our blessed Lord Father into thy hands I commend my spirit And with Saint Steven Lord Jesus receive my spirit And next to this let me put in also Mercy Charity Die forgiving one another Thus our Lord taught us to do when he cried out Father forgive them for they know not what they do And Saint Steven taught us to do so too Lord lay not this sin to their charge And then lastly for I cannot stand upon these things there must be a death in Peace Peace with God Peace with our own consciences and Peace with all the world And now the man that dieth thus dieth with willingness dieth in repentance dieth in faith dieth with invocation dieth in charity dieth in peace this man dieth in the Lord and such a one is blessed They that would thus die in him must live in him A man cannot be said to die in London that never lived in London A man cannot be said to die in the Lord that never lived in the Lord. If thou dost not live in obedience in faith in repentence in invocation in charity in peace thou canst not die in these A man must first live the life of the righteous before he can die the death of the righteous And then again if a man would die thus He must be well acquainted with death grow familiar with him by meditation Many things more I might have said to this purpose but I am loath to transgress the hour I have done with that Give me only leave now to speak in a few words unto the present occasion You have brought here beloved the body of your well-beloved neighbour Mistris S.H. late the Wife of your late reverent Pastour Doctor R.H. to be laid up together with her Husband in hope of a blessed and glorious resurrection It is long since that I did in this Place perform this service at the buriall of his former Wife a woman of whom I may not speak for though I hold my peace the very stone here in the wall will say enough of her and you that know her cannot but assure the truth of it I am intreated to perform now the like duty to the second Wise And I was easily intreated to do it for that name of brother and sister that was usually between us for many years continued may very well challenge of me any duty I am able to perform I am straitned in time and I cannot speak what I would and I do perceive already by this that I have spoken that if I should speak much more my passion would not give me leave Let me tell you one thing amongst many others it is a thing extraordinary and it is for imitation The Vertuous woman in the last of the Proverbs is commended for many things Amongst others this is one She doth her husband good and not evil all the dayes of her life And mark it I pray you It is not all the dayes of his life and yet peradventure some woman might be thought a good woman that doth that but she may perhaps outlive her Husband A vertuoks woman will do him good and not evil all the dayes of her life And for this amongst many other things I do commend this vertuous Gentlewoman I may almost say with the words there in the end of that Chapter Many daughters have done excollently but thou surmountest them all So I may say many women peradventure have done excellently in this kind but I do not know of any one that ever hath done the like to her Husband I pray you hear it Her Husband had a brother that lived in Portugal at the time of his death who was there married he had there three children at least two sons and a daughter This vertuous good Woman would give her self no rest till she had these children out of Portugal she got the two sons hither And what was her care here is another exceslency of hers her chief care was for their souls What did she or rather what did she not to win those children from Popery in which they have been brought up and to bring them to the true service of God She obtained it she got it When she had done that won them to our religion she had not done all one of these had a desire to exercise some Merchandise by Sea She furnished him to the Sea she furnshed him with money for his adventures The other she bound Apprentise here in the City to an honest trade and she hath given them a liberall childes portion I may say so A childs portion that they may thank God and I hope they will have the grace to do it that they had I do not say such a Aunt in law but such a Mother Here was not all She sent for the Mother too she was but sister-in-law to her Husband she sent for the mother she sent for the Daughter they were here She clothed them she fed them some moneths and if she could have won them to our religion she would have maintained the Mother while she had lived she would have brought up the Daughter as her own child But that could not be done it was a work beyond her strength You see here a vertuous Woman that did good to her Husband not all the dayes of his life but all the dayes of her life To the very last day of her life she never did cease to do good to her Husband in his kindred and I think I may say that she was more careful of his kindred then of her own But this is not all This kindness you will say was shewed to her Husbands kindred Hear a little more therefore She knew that there were many Ministers that had a great charge of children and peradventure would be very glad to have some of their children taken off of their hands She hath given to the putting out of five Ministers children to bind them Apprentices fifty pounds She knew that there were some poor persons of the Palatinate here which stood in necessity She hath given to the reliese of them twenty pounds She knew that there were many poor souls that lay in Turkish slavery She hath given for the redeeming of them twenty pounds Nay yet more She considered that her Husband was sometime a poor scholler in the University of Cambridge And she considered too that there are many Ministers Widowes that lived well while their husband lived that are fain to crave reliefe the greater is the shame of some men when they are dead She hath therefore given five hundred pounds to purchase lands and with this land to maintaine partly two Schollers in the University from their first coming thither till they be Masters of Art And then with the residue to maintaine four Widows that have been the Wives of honest preaching Ministers
gift that he doth give and the freeness of it For who can give life but the God of life that hath life in himself And then again to do this altogether upon meer grace upon his own good pleasure it is a divine property And this is it that doth encourage us to come unto God notwithstanding our unworthiness And in this respect in the second place we have here a Use of instruction to acquaint our selves with God with the freeness of his Grace to plead it unto God when we come unto him and notwithstanding our unworthiness and our wretchedness yet to press this Lord what thou dost thou dost for thy own sake out of thy meer grace this makes me bold to come unto thee Specially upon the consideration of that greatest evidence of Gods free grace and rich mercy in giving his Son to do whatsoever is requisite for the satisfaction of his Justice so that here Grace Justice do sweetly go together for the strengthening of our Faith Grace in regard of our unworthiness Justice in regard of our rebellion God doth what he doth for his own sake his own Son hath made full satisfaction to his Justice And finally this should the more enlarge the heart to God again a gift the freer it is the more worthy of praise it must needs be the more acceptable to him that receiveth it when he receiveth it from meer Grace and he that giveth it is thereby the more worthy of praise so that lay these two together life and the grace of life and then tell me what sufficient thanks can be given to him who out of his Grace doth bestow this life Thus from the priviledge in the second part thereof come we to the partakers of this priviledge And first of the simple consideration of it Heirs so that we come to a right unto that eternal life by inheritance as we are Heirs So do the Texts before-noted expresly set it forth We are justified by his grace that we should be heirs of eternal life Tit. 3.7 And Saint Paul giveth thanks to God for the Collossians that he had made them partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light And our Lord when he doth give us possession hereof inducts us thereunto with this inherit the Kingdom prepared for you Mat. 25.34 take it by inheritance here is your right Now we may not think that this ground of right to our eternal inheritance cometh by our natural generation for so we are heirs and children of wrath as the Apostle noteth in Eph. 2.3 It cannot come by nature for so it is Christs prerogative the true proper natural Son of God and thus as the Apostle faith God hath appointed him heir of all things Heb. 1.2 but it is by another grace whereby we are made children A double grace in this respect a grace of Adoption and a grace of Regeneration A grace of Adoption for God giveth to us the spirit of Adoption whereby we are moved to cry and call Abba Father and by this grace we are children and being children we are heirs Co-heirs not only one with another but as it is there noted heirs together with Christ Co-heirs with him by vertue of this grace of Adoption So likewise by the other grace of Regeneration we are qualified hereunto Saint Peter in his first Epistle chap. 1. verse 3. blesseth God Blessed be the God saith he and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again to an inheritance incorruptible c. We are begotten to this inheritance This might again be pressed as a further Argument against the fore-mentioned presumptious Doctrine of Merit that that cometh by Inheritance cometh not by Desert But I pass it over This doth afford to us matter of consolation for this Text is full of consolation every word of it against the baseness whereunto in this world the Saints seem to be subject that are scoffed that are despised howsoever they appear here in mortal mans eye yet notwithstanding in truth they are Heirs they have an Inheritance And as it doth administer to us matter of comfort and a ground of holy boasting and glorying in the Lord so it affordeth to us direction to carry our selves as becometh Heirs not to set our love too much upon this world not to dote upon it but to be lofty minded to have our heart and affection where our inheritance is namely in Heaven to wait with patience for it Be followers of those saith the Apostle that through saith and patience inherit the promise And likewise to make sure to our selves our inheritance look to our evidences Give all diligence saith the Apostle to make your calling and election sure Do but make your Calling sure that you are truly and effectually called then it solloweth by just and necessary consequence you were elected before the foundations of the world and shall be saved Many other Meditations do arise out of this right we have to that life which by Grace is conferred upon us Consider we the extent hereof Heirs together joynt-heirs so as all of all sorts have a right to the life of Saints I speak here of outward conditions whether they be great or mean rich or poor free or bond whatsoever they be they have all a right they are joynt-heirs they are heirs together As it is with us in some places there is a title of Gavil kind that giveth a joynt-right to all the Sons that a man hath and so for Daughters all Daughters are co-heirs so this tenour is as I may say Gavil kind all have a right thereunto no exception of any because God is no respecter of persons This my Brethren serveth as an admonition to those that are great or may seem to be higher than others here in this world if they be Saints let them not despise others who are Saints too they are Co-heirs with them they are fellow-brethren there is not an elder Brother among them Christ only is the Elder Brother There may some have a greater degree of glory there may some have greater evidences thereof in this world and greater assurance yet not withstanding they have all a right to the inheritance they are all Co-heirs And this again is another comfort to the meaner and weaker sort that howsoever there may be some difference in regard of outward condition here yet notwithstanding in the greatest priviledge there is no difference at all and therefore to conclude concerning these and other consolations ministred to you I will use the Apostles words Comfort your selves with these things 1 Thes 4.18 And particularly concerning the Female Sex because the Apostle here applyeth it to them and saith of them as well as of men that they are Heirs Co-heirs of the same inheritance this therefore is to be applyed to them for when the Apostle makes distinction of outward conditions in Gal. 3.28
if it be possible to sever them the world hath more miss of mercyful men then of righteous men every man should mourn for their departure and miss them though piety and righteousness may go unmourned for But these were come to that stupidity that they had no sight nor sense of their own good being a mercyful man it is likely there were many naked that he had clothed many starved souls that he had sed there were parched bowels that he had simpathyzed with he used to mourn with those that mourn to lament with those that lament Many Interpreters would have it spoken that Isaiah said this of himself in regard of the persecution that he suffered he was taken away by the Saw but whether it were of one merciful man or of all a man would think that mercyful men should not go out of the world without mourners there are Orphans and Widows that will mourn for mercyful men that have been relieved by them Yet this stupidity so benumned them in their own senses they were so frozen that they had no simpathy at all neither respect to piety or mercy Righteous men were taken away and they looked not on that side merciful men were taken away and they looked not on that side neither So it is an aggravation of their stupidity Secondly another reason why he varieth the word Righteous men first and merciful men after is this To shew how much God honoureth the works of mercy Though it be a glorious title A righteous man yet the Spirit of God will not let him go without another title A mercyful man Righteousness is best known to God but mercifulness to men Mercifulness is an evidence of piety and godliness Mercy is that grace that honoureth God most and God honoureth it most All the high Elogies that are given to piety in the Scripture are specially stated on mercy God honoureth it with large and ample promises Blessed are the mercyful for they shall obtain mercy It hath not the least beatitude set to it as Basil of Seuleucia well observeth God honoureth it likewise with an approbation When I was hungry ye fed me when I was thirsty ye gave me drink and with a publike approbation at the last day in the presence of Angels and men it is mercy that God then magnifieth Come ye blessed when I was hungry ye fed me c. God honoureth it likewise with an excellent memorial he alwayes mentioneth it with honour see it in Cornelius see it in Job see it in other Saints they were noted for mercifulness in the Scripture here in this place the spirit of God because the righteous man shall not go without an Epitaph he makes on this righteous man a memorial Merciful men are taken away That is the second reason that they might understand how farre God honoureth the works of Charity and mercy Thirdly that the Prophet might instruct them and us now who are to be reputed and accounted true righteous men Those that God accounteth so And those are merciful men These two righteousness and mercy they meet in God so they must in every Christian They are the two wayes of God saith David all his wayes are mercy and righteousness They are the two wayes that Christ takes in the world the first way at his first coming a coming of mercy to call men to mercy the second at his second coming a coming of judgement to judge the quick and the dead So they are two wayes of God so saith Saint Bernard They are the two feet of God by which he walketh through the world God visiteth men upon one of these two feet either in mercy or righteousness as they are the feet upon which God walketh to us so they must be the two feet that we walk on toward God Righteousness that is one by which we tread the way of the first Table in works of piety to God and mercy is the other by which we tread the way of the second Table in mercy towards men So that as the two Tables kiss each other they are infolded one in another the love we owe to our brethren it hangs and depends on our love to God the love that we shew to God is to be testified by our love to our brethren So these two are to embrace one another we must not sever them that God severeth not according to this others will judge of us that we are truly righteons according to this scantling we take of our selves Deceive not your selves if their be not works of Charity and mercy slatter not your selves with an oppinion of righteousness it is an empty name where mercy is not So the Apostle makes the argument He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen So likewise here is it possible that there should be righteousness toward God when there is not mercy toward men It is the first of those pious instructions that I will commend to this place Ostentation of righteousness there is a great deal in the world men desire to be accounted godly men because they can be reserved to themselves They can get pretences of piety and zealous they will seem to be for works of the first Table Did God give only one Table No but we shall be tried by the works of the second Table When I was hungry yee fed me not when I was thirsty ye gave me no drink Why do we make boast of piety to God that men cannot judge of For there is one little grain of hypocrisie that spoileth all We may act mercy to men but we cannot act piety piety will shew it self here Here is the touch-stone to give proof of the piety in our hearts if it bud out in mercy the righteous man is mereiful in every kind Where there is piety there will not be reviling and disgracing and quarrelling and contention it is impossible that piety in the heart should be contentious that pure and untainted liquor should pass through a filthy kennel if there be grace in the heart it will shew it self in the hand in the lip in the words in the actions in all It is but a touch that I give you I know you easily ghess where I am I come not to put you in mind of what you know or rather to put you in mind I am not conscious to your courses but I will tell ye what the world faith It is a great deal of wrong done to this parish and this place if there be not much contention in it and it is not upon this occasion that I heard it for before now I never knew any one in the parish but as the Apostle faith of the good works of one of these Churches It is spoken of in all the world so the strife of this place is spoken of in all the City Here is the fruit whereby you must examine you selves mercy to men If we be not those that nourish brotherly love
perpetuity it must be a constant assection grounded and established in the heart The Ayre you know is light and yet we call it not a lightsome body because it is lighted by the presence of another and when that light body is removed it is dark you may say it is dark for the Ayre is dark in the night when the Sun is absent as it is light when the Sun is present those we call lightsome bodyes whose light is originated and rooted in themselves So it is in this case such are not godly persons that may have some injections of godly thoughts and godly affections cast into them and be in them for a spurt and for a brunt and for a little flash like a flash of lightning in the Ayre and gone away again presently but it must be rooted and grounded in a man so as that it will continue continue so as that the exercise of graces and duties toward God should be frequent and quotidian as it is here in the Text The desire of our soul is to thee in the evening and our spirit shall seek thee early in the morning Morning and evening frequently daily to have commerce and communion with God to walk with him to set our selves in his presence and to approve our selves to him to make it our constant trade to do so to be Gods dayes-men to work by the day with him and withal to be constant to hold out for perpetuity Only time can discover truth and truth is the daughter of time to us God knoweth it before but we can never know but by the holding out but by the perpetuity I acknowledg there is a great difference between that which the Scripture calleth temporary faith and that which it calleth saving faith there is I say a great difference they do not only differ in this that the one holdeth out and the other doth not hold out but they differ in their vital principles by vertue of which one holdeth out because it hath a more noble nature in it and the other because it is a slighter timbered thing it doth not hold out because the one is a real and true and substantial beauty of grace the other but a superficial and painted beauty substantial beauty that is founded upon nature upon our complexion whether it rain or shine it will hold out in both but painted beauty one fears a little wet will alter the painting another lest a little heat should do it A painted beauty will not hold but true will hold And they that do love true love long as our Proverb saith I am certain it is so here they who do once love God truly love God for ever I will dispatch the rest in a word There be some special duties besides these generals which make the general character of a Christian I say there are some special duties that do concern him according to the speciallity of times Now there is a double time and so a double posture of a Christian in which accordingly he hath several suits of graces to put on and to exercise There is a double dealing of God which is the foundation of it God dealeth sometime in a way of mercy and favor toward his servants and God dealeth sometime in a way of Judgment and wrath and displeasure and he doth so though not as an angry Judg but as a father that is angry even with his own servants Now accordingly as this general temper and frame of spirit should be at all times so it should shew and discover it self in those several times In the time when God sheweth favour then the servant of God is to serve God so much the more chearfully and so much the more fruitfully to run the wayes of Gods commandements because God inlargeth his way and giveth him free scope and more opportunities and advantages for it and to improve those favours for the advancement of his glory that gave them But the particular thing that is especially exprest here though that be intimated too and it is noted as a character here of a wicked spirit that they will do wickedly in the land of uprightness that is in the land where God dealeth very gently and gratiously and uprightly with them every way and squarely that they can no way complain it is a wicked spirit that doth so But that which is specially meant here in the way of thy judgments will we wait for thee is that Gods servants will not only not start if their temper be right from God when he smiles upon them but they will love him when he frowneth they will even then stoop and kiss the rodd they will then obey him Gods children will acknowledg him to be their Father and Lord and submit to him even when he is angry Here is a vast difference between the godly and the wicked as I shall a little touch by and by As the Father speaks even to this very purpose when sweet oyntment is chased it smells the more sweet it delivereth the persume the more excellent but in a dunghill in a filthy place stir it and the more you stir the more it stinks Wicked spirits when God doth but chafe them manifest the filth and corruption that is within them as a man may know money as he saith when it falleth down whether it be silver or brass it will then betray it self so here their language their speech will betray them then and declare what they are The divel thought that Job had been of such a temper that he would have curst God to his face if he would lay his hand upon him and touch him but it was far otherwise because he was of a better mettal and stamp therefore he blessed God in the middest of judgment as he had done formerly in the middest of his mercies And this is that a Christian should do labour to be fruitful in thankfulness and chearfulness of spirit when God sheweth favour and giveâ—… any ease and mercy to him and labour likewise to be faithful and constant to him even when his judgments are a broad But there be divers particulars in that I will but meerly mentich them There be these sour things as so many sleps and degrees of the duty of a Christian in the times of Judgment whether they be impendant or incombent whether they be publick or private that concern the Church or particular persons First of all the duty of a Christian in the times of Judgment if he be of a right temper is Perseverance to hold out not to be beaten off for a little storm or shock but to keep on his pace to keep on his way Travellers that go to sea meerly to be sick a little or in sport if there arise but a black cloud they presently give over their voyage is at an end they come not to venture shocks and storms and danger they come for pleasure but the Merchant that is bound upon a voyage
the outward man which is the separation of the Body from the Soul it is no Death if it separate not both from God which it can never do if a man keep the sayings of Christ therefore though his body that keepeth the sayings of Christ be took from his soul yet he seeth not death so as to have any hurt by it he feeleth no ill by it nay it is good to him for it is a passage from misery to rest and felicity Thus ye have these words as faithfully interpreted to you as I know how And now I will make proof of this Doctrine thus explicated namely that thus to keep Christs sayings to know and follow the Doctrine of the Gospel is the only sure way to escape the danger and hurt of Death Saint Peter acknowledgeth as much when he said to the Lord Jesus Christ that he had the words of Eternal life then he that keepeth them is certainly safe against the hurt of Death So the Angel speaks to the Apostles whom the Pharisees had imprisoned when he brought them forth of Prison he biddeth them speak to the people the words of this life since Christs Doctrine is the word of life it must needs follow that the keeping thereof is a perfect Antidote against the poyson of Death And Saint Peter when he gave an account to the rest of the Apostles and the brethren of Judea of his going to the Gentiles he saith that an Angel appointed Cornelius to send for him that he might speak words to him whereby himself and his family should be saved and those words which cause a man to be saved you know will give him freedome enough from Death Thus I have proved the point by expresse Texts and there are two reasons of it The first is delivered by the Apostle Saint John in the first Epistle and second Chapter where he faith let that abide in you which you have heard from the beginning that is the Doctrine of the Gospel which Christ taught his sayings if that remain in you you also shall continue in the Son and in the Father He that hath fellowship with the Son and with the Father can never see Death for God is the fountain of life therefore those that are one with him and continue in him cannot see Death no more then he can be overwhelmed with darkness that is where the Sun shineth fully no more then the body can be dead as long as it hath communion with the soul so those in whom the word of Christ remaineth and stayeth they are assured that they shall remain with the Father and the Son and therefore being united to that that is life God the Father and the Son it is impossible that ever they should be hurt by the first or ever at all taste of the last Death Again the Word of Christ freeth him in whom it remaineth from the power and hurt of sin bringing to him remission of sins and sanctification And being free from sin the cause of Death it is easie to conjecture that he shall be freed from Death it self Let a mans Debt be satisfied and let the favour of the Prince be obtained and a Pardon granted the Prison shall never hold him long he shall not be brought to the place of Execution but when his guives are knocked off he is set at liberty so when we have obtained power against sin by the powerful work of the Spirit of God which alwayes at the same time doth bend the heart of man to rest on Christ for salvation and heartily to indevour to walk before him in holiness and righteousness when I say we are thus freed from the power and guilt of sin it is impossible that Death should lay hold upon us as his prisoner to carry us to the dungeon of Hell and to hold us under the wrath of God and that fiery indignation of his that causeth Hell to be Hell Therefore certainly the words of Christ are an undoubted truth and we must rest upon them without all distrust and wavering that he that keepeth his sayings shall never see death and that the knowledge and beleeving and obeying the Doctrine of the Gospel is the only sure way to escape the hurt and ill of Death it self Let us make some Application of this Doctrine to our souls First to stir us up to a right hearty thankfulness unto Almighty God that is pleased to cast our times and dayes into that age and those places where the Doctrine of the Gospel this Saying of our blessed Saviour is so clearly and plainly and evidently laid open to you and frequently and earnestly prest upon your souls where the Lord cometh to declare unto you the way to life where he scoreth you out a path that will bring you quite out of the clutches and danger of Death this is the happiness of our present Age and place where we live and this whole kingdom too The grace and mercy and favour of our loving God hath so disposed of us that we do not live in times of Paganisme and darkness where there was no news of Christ that we live not in places of Popish darkness where the Doctrine of the Gospel is so mixed and darkned with tricks and devices of their own that they cannot see Christ clearly It is our happiness I say that we do not live in those places and times where either Paganisme or Popery with their darkness covered Christ from us and caused us that we could not clearly see or hear him and so not keep his sayings But now grace is offered light is tendered to us we may be saved we may escape the danger of damnation if the fault be not solely and wholly in our carelesness and wilfulness and neglect and abuse of the means that God hath afforded us The heathen men that have not heard of Christ cannot possibly attain to life as far as we can judge by the Scripture And it is very difficult for the Papists that hear so darkly and are told of the Doctrine of the Gospel with so many sophistications to come to be saved But for us that have the Doctrine of the Gospel so plainly and carefully taught us and revealed unto us we may be saved and may easily see the way to obtain salvation So we go beyond them in happiness Oh blessed be the name of the Ever-living God that beside the peace and plenty and other temporal benefits wherewith he hath crowned this unworthy Nation of ours he hath added this blessing of blessings this King of favours to give us so clear a revelation of the Doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ alone Blessed be his name and let your hearts say Amen to this thanksgiving and let it be one part of your endeavour this day to give solemne praise every man apart and his Family apart for this unspeakable mercy of his in making you live in the dayes of Light and in the bright Sun-shâ—…ne of
world when he is covered with the rich hangings of natures wardrobe in his mothers womb then man tumbles in sin as the word in the original signifieth He is sinful in his birth in his life in his thoughts his words and actions and shall he that is thus spotted and stained and polluted stand before the pure Judge of heaven and earth without trembling surely no The mighty the Kings of the earth the Captaines high and low of what condition soever as many as have not made their garments white in the bloud of the slaughtered Lambe Christ they shall tremble and flie to hide themselves and cry to the mountains to cover them before the face of this glorious Judge We come now to the last thing and that is the end of Christs coming to Judgment The end of Christs coming you know is to give a reward And this reward shall be both to the wicked and to the godly for he shall give the reward according to every mans work First I will speak of the reward of the wicked And after conclude with the reward of the godly The reward of the wicked shall be endless woe and perpetual misery in hell There was never any man that descended into that fiery lake and returned thence to tell us what torments are provided for the wicked in Hell but yet as by one drop of the Sea water you may conceive of the saltness of the rest and as a man may ghesse at the stature of a Giant by the length of his foot even so we may have some conceit of those endless and easeless and remediless torments prepared for the wicked in hell by a taste of the miseries we have in this life Great may the grief of a mans heart be even in this life as great as mortality is able to bear Can we read of the mourning of Joseph of Hannah of Job of Jeremy of Jerusalem and not be moved our hearts are hard Can we read of the hideous torments invented by Tyrants Caldrons of boyling oyl roasting upon spits tumbling down Mountains in barrels of nails rending of joynts with horses can we read of these merciless torments and not be moved our hearts are harder then a milstone Alas beloved these are nothing but shadows but counterfeit to those torments that are prepared for the wicked in Hell For though the bowels of hell labour to empty the bowels of judgtment yet she hath an immeasurable portion for her children now living nay for those that are unborn a patrimony of blackness of brimstone of the wrath of God of wailing and gnashing of teeth Certainly death shall take them away but they shall never die they shall consume for ever and yet shall not be consumed they shall be in fire unquenchable and yet see no light You may read of the wine of giddiness Psal 60.3 of a strange kind of Worm Isa ult of fire and brimstone Ezek 38.22 of the Wine-press of Gods wrath Revel 14.10 All these and if worse then these can be are prepared as so many torments for the wicked workers of iniquity Their cup is the deadliest that ever was drunk even of Gods wrath wherewith they shall be filled for ever their worm is that that continually gnaws upon the conscience they shall be tormented in fire and brimstone before the Lambe and his Angels Not such as that of Sodom and Gomorrah for then there were hope that they might be converted at the last into heaps of Ashes or pools of Pitch but such fire and brimstone that as a bottomless Mine gives them neither rest night nor day the smoak of it ascending for ever and is appointed for a time times till time shall be no more Their torment in such a measure as neither eye hath seen nor ear heard nor heart of man hath conceived But beloved all this is but general if the time would suffer we could shew the torments of the damned in particular as First the eternity of those torments in that they shall never end and I verily perswade my self that this is a great increase of their torments the very conceit and thought that they shall never end it is a great increase and aggravation of the torment You know there is no grief and sorrow or misery in this life but time will either deminish it or take it quite away either the tormented or the tormentor will die but in hell there you have them tormented day and night for ever and ever neither the tormented or the tormentor die but they live to endlesse woe O! saith a godly Father in his meditations if a wicked sinner in Hell did know that he were to continue there no more thousands of years then there are sands upon the Sea-shore or no more millions of Ages then there are piles of grasse upon the ground yet this would he some comfort that at last they should have an end but this word never it breâ—… the heart that after they have continued there so many thousand years and millions of ages they are as far from the end of their torment as at the first Secondly we might note 〈…〉 in the extremity and strictness of those torments the straitness of them there is no mercy shewed Take him and bind him hand and foot and cast him into utter darkness And again the gate is shut after the sinner is once cast into Hell there is no getting out again the gate is shut The straitness of these torments may be exceedingly laid down to us in the Parable of the rich Glutton who in hell roaring in everlasting flames lift up his eyes and saw Abraham a far off and Lazarus in his bosom he desired Abraham to send Lazarus but to dip the top of his finger in water to cool his tongue a small request he asks not to be delivered from his torments or for a flaggon of water but for a drop yet to see the strictness of those torments it was denied him Dives had before the world at will what his heart could desire but Lazarus comes to his gate full of soars and hungry yet he refused to refresh him with crums from his table see the just judgement of God against the merciless wretch Dives refused to give a crum when he asked he is denied one drop So that as Saint James speaks Jam. 2. there shall be judgement merciless to them that yeeld no mercy Beloved all you that have the wealth of the world remember this example when the poor distressed members of Christ come to your gates shut not up the bowels of compassion open your hands and your hearts to relieve them for as I said before there shall be judgement merciless to those that shew no mercy But I come to the last thing that I will but only name that is the reward of the godly that everlasting eternal felicity in heaven The time will not suffer me to speak largely and particularly of the reward of the
and greatly amaze us when out affection is placed and setled in a designed object in a person that we neerly love and now to take away that comfort and as it were to diverse the heart from the heart O this goes neer us this doth exceedingly trouble a person Fourthly the strength of a tryal may consist in the suddenness of it to enjoy a comfort and on a sudden to have it taken away as it were in a mans sleep such a thing that he did not dream of when he did not expect that such a thing would befal him if a man had heard something before hand he might have been better fitted for it When the Prophet saw the Cloud ascend out of the Sea being warned of abundance of rain he hastened to escape So if a person have fore-notice of such a cross that would fall upon him he might be somewhat armed and prepared he might in some measure be able to bear his tryal like a little Boat well mannaged may meet with lofty waves but when the affliction shall take a man at unawares when it takes us before we can gather our selves together before we can put out our selves in prayer for a man to go forth and come home and find a wife dead and for a Woman to go forth and come home and find her Husband dead for a tender Mother to kiss her child and lay it down to rest and the next turn to find her child dead this is a great tryal Fifthly the strength of a tryal is in the successiveness of a tryal the repetition of a tryal when Jobs messengers come with news of one affliction having scarse delivered their message and their errand but another comes when there is a course of tryal one after another Thou O Lord hast set me as a mark saith Job Why a mark why God had as it were singled him a man for sorrow and tryal one arrow had no sooner lighted on him but another comes and pierces him Now this doth deeply prove our patience and makes us sometime wonder that the Lord should give us no rest when one affliction shall succeed another without any Cordial when the handkerchiff shall no sooner wipe off one tear but presently another distills down Herein is a great strength of tryal the heart is wonderfully cast down Sixtly the strength of a tryal may consist in the strangeness of our obedience to it as when a matter is put upon us as a duty to be obeyed and hath some contradiction to the precept of God when a tryal doth cross the precept of obedience and jussle against the promise of God that a man can hardly obey God but he must make God a lyar Abraham could not have obeyed God in killing his Child but he must run against that other command forbidding murther he could not defer it but he must violate his faith Now this doth exceedindly distract the Soul with a great tryal the more contrary the tryal is to the precept of obedience the greater is the tryal and the more neer to the person But I proceed to the next question Why the Lord doth impose great tryals upon great Christians the reasons of it may be these First great grace will be obscure and will scarce shew it self unless there be great tryals and therefore S. Paul when he was lift up to the third heavens lest he should be exalted above measure there was given him a thorne in the flesh he is beaten down with temptation that the grace of God might the more appear God doth hereby prevent our fall and doth hold great grace in great conflicts that the soul might have little leisure to admire its own fulness Secondly great tryals for great Christians because who is more able to sustain grear tryals then great Christians God is wise in all his actions and as Paul speaks in another case there was milk for babes and meat for strong men so when he imposes any affliction he considers the person and so proportions the affliction he imposes the greatest burden upon the greatest Christian a little blast is enough for a tender oak but a well grounded one may endure the strongest winds a poor weak Christian a little tryal will cast him down but a well experienced Christian that hath inriched himself with the promises of God that hath hardned himself with the receit of singular comforts one that knoweth the life of faith that hath gotten singular patience he can endure a hard storm he can go through great tryals with great comfort He can say with Job though thou dost kill me yet will I trust in thee he will be able to go through many sad nights and great tryals his faith will make him conquer all I come to the second point and that is this that Faith will make a man acquit himself in great Tryals Though Abraham is put upon it in a great tryal in offering up his son yet by faith Abraham acquits himself and offers up his beloved son The meaning of the proposition is this that faith will inable a man to give back his dearest comfort again to God though Isaac lie in Abrahams bosome though Isaac lie at Abrahams heart yet Abrahams faith upon Gods call will take him thence and present him to that God who gave him Faith makes a man resign up willingly unto God his dearest comfort as Job did The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. Beloved remember this faith can take a mercy and be thankful and faith can part with a mercy and be content Paul he had learned how to abound and how to be in want and this lesson was the lesson of faith faith makes a Christian take from Christ what it injoyes like one of the blessed Martyrs his condition was if God gave him any mercy he was chearful if the Lord take away any mercy he fits down with contentment quieting his soul in patience if God give him any mercy he was not swoln with pride if God take away any mercy he was not cast down with sorrow Dost thou remember me O Lord saith faith Lord I am unworthy the least of all thy mercies and goodness Lord dost thou call for this blessing back again why here it is Lord do what thou pleasest like an honest debtor saith he if you can spare me a little I will thank you but if you will have it here it is as the blessing is a gift of Gods kindness so neither doth faith account of any mercy but a borrowed a lent good which God may require when he pleases There is a double acquitting of our selves one is a necessary acquitting and the other is a pious and Christian acquitting there is this difference between a godly man and another when God calls for any one of thy comforts it must be restored God is the Lord of life and whether we are willing or not when he calls the comfort and
the Clergy that dejected sinners may with safety lodge their grievances in their breasts let me desire them That as the Lawyer and the Physician are true to their Profession so they would be faithful in their Ministery that poor souls may fly to them with confidence for comfort in their sad conflicts for sin and with sin This makes so many Christians to carry their sin with them to their graves rather than they will disclose it because they dare not repose any trust in those that ought to be as true to them as there own hearts If we find a man truly penitent for his sins let us cover them with the vail of Charity and onely declare his repentance to the world that God may be glorified and good Christians on Earth as the Angels in Heaven rejoyce in the conversion of a sinner I have much to speak but am willing to contract my self as knowing you are fully satisfied in that faithful Testimony I have already given you Be not so uncharitable as to think I might be mistaken in this good Gentleman I was often with him and had frequent converse with him and the freedom to speak and I found him alwayes in the same humble frame and temper of spirit and I must profess this I have not often received more satisfaction from any man in respect of the fruit and comfort of my endeavours than from him I met with an humble and tractable spirit willing to hear of the wrath of God due to sinners and careful and solicitous how he might avoid it truly sensible of the weight of his sins much dejected with the thought of them and so far the sense of his sins had humbled him as that I may say Malice it self could not judge worse of him than he did of himself And that which made me believe the truth of his humiliation for sin was this That I found no presumptious thoughts arising in his heart of Gods mercy but when I sought to cheer him with the hope of Gods mercy to penitent sinners he told me He was not yet humbled enough to partake of it I was much satisfied in this answer as knowing the deeper the foundation is laid the surer is the building the more humble we are the firmer will our confidence be in Christ And from that time I strove to comfort him with the precious Promises of the Gospel and told him he might upon the word of Christ challenge an interest in them Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Such as are truly penitent and onely such might claim a special Title to the Promises of Christ This did revive his fainting spirit and the thought of Gods mercy in Christ did as much cheer him as ever the sense of sin had dejected him Then he began to feel the comfort of Gods love glowing in his breast soon after he felt the heat of it and his affections were so enflamed with the love of God as that his thoughts were restless till he enjoyed him whom his Soul loved and this made him to count every minute too long to be parted from Christ his Saviour Therefore being now fit for heaven and weary of the world and desirous to enjoy God in a better place the last words I heard him utter were these Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly Christ cannot come too soon for that heart that is ready to receive him The Lord makes us fit for his coming and we shall be happy whensoever he comes And now after all this that I have spoken you will say I have said nothing for the honour of this good Knight I have not buried him like himself I have strew'd no flowers of Commendation upon his Herse befitting his quality and Degree and the House he came from I confess all this As he desired all vain pomp and oftentation should be laid aside at his funerals For what have I done said he that I should deserve it so have I declined all pomp and vanity of words in the Pulpit which is no place to shew our quaint and lofty strains of Oratory but our zeal to Gods glory and the edification of his people I came not so far to sawn and flatter but to testifie my pious respects to the memory of the Dead and my unfeigned affection to the Souls of the Living But what Is not this that he dyed a good Christian that he loathed his former Vanities that he was truly humbled for his sins and rested upon the Mercy of God in Christ for the free pardon of them If you value not these things pardon me if I think there is nothing to be valued in you but vanity and what the value of that will be you will know at the hour of Death God grant you may know it sooner and then you are happy when you will find that piety in the heart is more to be accounted of then all the wealth and honour in the world I think I have said enough to honour this Noble Knight at his Funerals that he dyed a true Child of God and left a goodly Inheritnance on Earth to be possessed of a better in Heaven There have I a good ground to believe he rests in peace and joy and there I hope we shall all meet at the last And thus in an holy intention to Gods glory a zealous desire of your good and an honourable respect to my Friend I have now run through the duty of this day not aiming God knows my heart at the least applause from you nor yet valuing the censure of malevolent spirits who shake off all Charity to the Dead and to the Living I have endeavoured to approve my self faithful to God in speaking nothing but the Truth faithful to my self in the discharge of a good Conscience and faithful to my Friend in publishing the truth of his Conversion to the world Thus have I sought to honour God to right your worthy Neighbour and in so doing I hope I have not wronged my self And now it is my earnest prayer to God for you not that I may injure the Dead but in love to your Souls that all of you may have the grace to live better than he did And this I wish again from my heart hoping the best of him and fearing the worst of some of you that ye may obtain the like Faith and Repentance to die no worse than he did His Soul now rests in Bliss and joy do ye that survive labour to enter into that rest which remains for the people of God in the glorious Mansions of God the Father Now bestir your selves and do your best for heaven while ye have time and opportunity work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling shew all diligence by Faith Repentance and Obedience the old and sure tract and road to Heaven to make your calling and election sure live holily that ye may die comfortably Learn to number
the best Ermine It is nothing to be born a Gentleman it is all in all to live and die a good Christian This was the sweet expression of this your honourable Neighbour feeling a want of Grace in his heart wherewith he desired to be satisfied Oh says he to me one drop of grace in the heart is more worth than all the wealth and honour in the world I shall not commend to you the goodness of his Nature the sweetness of his Disposition because he bewailed it as a Snare and an occasion of sin to him A mans good Nature leads him many times into sin and the loving temper of his spirit temps him and puts him forward to sin Where Grace does not command there a good disposition is soon marr'd and drawn aside This likewise was matter of grief to him that his frail Nature was soon wrought upon and carried aside to that which his own heart soon after told him was sinful and displeasing to God What need I tell you that he was an affable friendly and obliging Gentleman winning and gaining upon all that came near him He that look'd but upon his Face might have seen goodness and courtesie looking out of his Eyes And what 's all this when he did acknowledge with tears that this pleasantness of his countenance was suddenly clouded with a violent and over-ruling storm of passion which carried him beyond himself But it is strange to see what a command grace hath over the Soul which speaks to these unruly passions as Christ did to the boisterous billows of the Sea Peace be still Mar. 4.39 as easily as the Nurse charms the crying Infant in the Cradle As prevalent as these passions were in the time of his health they were so allayed by God in his sickness as that all his friends about him did rejoyce to see the patience and calmness of his Spirit all the while the hand of God was upon him And that I may give you a clear proof of the mortified Spirit and happy change which God wrought in his Soul When I took the boldness to mind him of a late difference between himself and the Reverend Pastor of this place he burst out with tears and laid this charge upon me That I would right him so far as to acquaint him that he did heartily desire him in particular to forgive him and all other good Christians that he had wrong'd in the heat of his passion either rich or poor Judge ye now what could I have spoken more for his honour than I have done in this discovery of his frailty and his happy conquest of it Therefore I thought good to make this publication of it to the world that ye may know ye never honour you selves more than when ye glorifie God by shaming of your selves when we are most vile in our own eyes we are most honourable in the repute of God and good men But all this that I have spoken is nothing to that which is yet behind Therefore go along with me a little further and I shall in brief relate unto you such comfortable passages as fell from him in the time of his sickness and then leave him to your Christian Charity to judge how well he acted the latter part of his life and with what earnestness of spirit he strove to gain the love and favour of God in Christ At my first coming to him I found him deeply toucht with a serious apprehension of the former errours of his life how far he had provoked a good God by the many sins which his Conscience then charged him with Then dâ—d he break forth into 〈◊〉 free and voluntary confession of all his sins and exprest with many tears his loathing and detestation of them I was glad to see those Limbecks of his eyes distilling and dropping down in such a plentiful manner to find his heart thus smitten and bruis ed with the remembrance of his sins and prest him to a greater measure of sorrow as knowing such clouds of grief would make way for the beams of joy and comfort to shine in his Soul The truth is I have not come near a man that hath reckoned up his fins wiâ—h greater abhorrency and detestation than he did I askt him whether if God should be pleased to grant him a further respite in this world he would become a new man and take off his heart from his former vanities He answered I would not for the gain of the whole world live such a life as I have done and I desire next to Gods glory to live for this very end that I might testifiâ— the truth of my repentance to the world I askt him whether his heart did witness the truth of all this Oh sayes he my heart is deceitful and treacherous but if I know my own heart all that I speak is in truth and sincerity I should be the most cursed Hypocrite alive if I should either dissemble with God or man at such a time as this Oh remember to deal faithfully with your own hearts if you speak otherwise than ye find it to be in your own breasts you turn Imposters to your selves and deludes your own Souls not us It is the integrity of the heart which God looks at if there be no rottenness there there is a good foundation of joy and comfort laid in the Soul 1 Job 3.21 Beloved if our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards God And now from the example of this good Knight let me press this one thing upon you That when ye find your hearts opprest with the weight of your sins ye would give them a speedy vent and seek to ease your hearts of so mighty a clog by a serious confession of them He that smothers sin in his breast will in the end be choaked with the noisome scent of it What is a man the better for hiding and locking up his sin in his bosome Let me advise you to open a vein in your own hearts and let out the corrupt blood that lies there The longer we hide sin in our bosoms the more it festers and what man will not do his best to get rid of a bruise before it rots and putrisies Confession is a soveraign Remedy to procure the pardon of our sins Prov. 28.13 Who so confesseth and for saketh his sins shall have mercy He is most likely to find mercy that is most ready to acknowledge that he deserves none We see what David gain'd by an humble confession of his sins He no sooner cried Peccavi 2 Sam. 12.13 I have sinned against the Lord then the Prophet return'd him a comfortable answer from the Lord The Lord also hath put away thy sin thou shalt not die Quantum valent tres syllabae Peccavi How prevalent are three syllables pronounced by a penitent heart I have sinn'd to move the God of mercy to mercy And here I hope I shall seasonably cast in a word of advice to my Brethren of