that are such as I have now said think in your consciences what would you die if God should now stop your breath and ascite you by Death presently to appear before his Majesty being thus full of ignorance of security of presumption of unsanctified of vicious of malicious of covetous thoughts could you find in your hearts to say Lord now let us depart Sure we could not but Death must needs be to us as it is said to be to the wicked Rex terrorum the King of terrours if it should come upon us and find us in this case And yet what know we how soon how suddenly we may be overtaken some of us drop away daily some young some old some lie sick longer some lesser time and how soon it will be our turn we cannot tell Our hreath is in our nostrills we are all as grass If the breath of the Lord blow upon us we do suddenly wither as the slower of the field and return again to our first Earth Why will we not labour to be now ready sith it may be alwayes truly said We may now depart either while we are here or in our way home or in our beds or at our meat Who can truly say to himself I am sure I shall not die this hour It may be now thou wilt demand of me What shall I do that I may be ready To insist upon particulars would be too long onely therefore in a word The best preparation for death is a reformed life He that lives religiously cannot but die preparedly And it is a thousand to one if a wicked liver make a gracious end The Scripture makes mention of a double Death and so likewise of a twofold Resurrection the first Death is the death of the body which is the separation of it from the soul The second death is of the soul which is the separation of it from God The first Resurrection is the rising from the Death of sin to a new life the second is that which shall be of the body out of the Grave at the day of Judgment Now what faith the Scripture Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no power Wouldest thou then be freed from the second Death hell destruction when thou art dead Now that thou art yet alive labour to have a part in the first Resurrection Note what Saint Paul faith of the wanton widdow that she is dead whilst she lives So he that lives in the pleasures of sin and in the wayes of his own heart and after his own lust he is dead in soul though he be alive in body and if he seek not to come out of this grave eternal death shall be his portion Well then wouldest thou prepare for Death wouldest thou be able alwayes to say Lord now now I am ready labour to know God out of his Word that is eternal life Labour to feel Christ live and raign in thee by his Spirit labour to renounce every sin do not go on in any known sin against conscience renew thy repentance daily and still survey the state of thy soul that wickedness may not get dominion over thee Let Death come when it will though the Lord should so visit thee that thou shouldest drop down suddenly yet it shall not find thee unprepared thou hast a part in the first Resurrection there is no fear of the second Death But if thou wilt cherish thy heart in evil thou wilt go on in thy ignorance in thy careless worship of God in thy prophaning the Sabbath in thy whoredom oppression malice drunkenness excess voluptuousness thou makest ready for hell and it is not thy Lord save me or I cry God mercy c. that shall serve thy turn I will tell thee who thou art like unto even to a man appointed after a year or two to be burned and in the mean space must carry a stick daily to the heap so thou heapest up wrath against thy self and makest thy score so great that when Death comes thou shalt not know how to be prepared And thus have I finished the first general part of my Text touching the disposition of the godly in respect of Death I proceed now in a word to the second the ground rule or warrant of this desire and preparation for death according to the word as if Simeon had said this desire that I have now to end my dayes proceeds not from any carnal discontentment because I am now old and can take no great comfort in worldly things but the ground of it is thy word and Promise thou Lord hast revealed unto thy servant that I should not die before I had seen my Saviour This word is now fulfilled and the sweetness thereof hath given me that encouragement that I do even long to be dissolved and to be united unto thee Or again thus Oh Lord this care that I have had to provide thus for Death and to be alwayes in a readiness it hath not come from my self nature never taught it me but thy Word hath instructed me If I had not proceeded according to thy Word I should never have known how to have prepared my self to the time of dissolution This is the meaning of the words and so the Doctrine is plain viz. that Men ignorant in Gods word can never take comfort in death nor be truly prepared to undergo it This is plain if we consider the Exposition which I have already given of that part of Simeons speech It is a general Rule that of our Saviour Ye err not knowing the Scripture A man ignorant in the Scripture can never rightly perform any spiritual duty Hence was that of David Thy testimonies faith he are my delight and my counsellors If any matter came in hand that concerned his soul straight to the word of God went he to know thence how to do it as a man for his Lease or conveyance goeth to a Counsellor for direction So again he confesses that if Gods Law had not been his delight he should have perished in his afflictions And so no comfort no true quiet in any trouble much more at Death without the guidance and information of the Word The assurance that the sting of Death is plucked out that Gods wrath is appeased that sin is pardoned that Heaven gate is opened whence shall we fetch these but from the Scripture the directions for a holy life which is the best preparation for Death where shall we find them but in the Scripture Here then we see is a Caveat to all that have no will nor desire to be acquainted with the Scripture Divers think they should have done well enough though we had no such Book as we call the word of God To be a Scripture-man is a by-word a reproach a matter of disgrace and sooner will men listen to some idle Pamphlet then to a matter of Scripture Well beguile
angry with the World they feel not the wrath of God therefore they conclude he is no God and as long as God holds off from punishing they hold off from praying His Judgments prove him a God when his Mercies cannot perswade the world so much Every man hastens to seek the Lord when he is angry his Justice terrifies us his Mercy hardens us his Goodness makes us to rebel his Anger teacheth us to pray we forget God when he is gracious and fly amain to him when he threatens Let us often think of the wrath of God and let the thought of it so far work upon us as to keep us in a constant awe and fear of God and let this fear drive us to God by prayer that fearing as we ought we may pray as we are commanded and praying we may prevent the wrath of God If our present sorrows do not move us God will send greater and when our sorrows are grown too great for us we shall have little heart or comfort to pray Let our fears then quicken our prayers and let our prayers be such as are able to avercome our fears so both wayes shall we be happy in that our fears have taught us to pray and our prayers have made us to fear no more Now is the time for us to pray before grief wax too strong for us for the time may come when we shall not be able to pray by reason of the sense and feeling of the wrath of God upon us Now our prayers in the time of health may be as Incense before the Lord as a sweet odour in the nostrils of God but if we neglect to offer up this Incense we must look for the Incense of Vengeance to fall down upon us Apoc. 8.5 If God take the Cenfer in his hand and fill it with the fire of his wrath then follows nothing but thundrings lightnings and terrible commotions in the Soul Vespasian Gonzaga gave for his Symbol three Flashes of Lightning the first did touch the second did burn the third did rend and tear in pieces The first affliction haply may lightly touch and affect us the second may scare us and stir up the fire of devotion in us but the third will prove so terrible as that it will tear asunder all our prayers so terrifie our spirits as that we shall not be able to pour out our complaints before the Lord or acquaint him w th our troubles The anger of God at the first may be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a little Cloud as big as a Mans hand but if we neglect it it may break out upon us with that fierceness violence as that it may interrupt our prayers and hinder the ascent of them to the Throne of Grace Therefore before the wrath of God break forth upon us let us seriously think of it and prevent it by our prayers Let a timely fear incite our prayers and quicken our devotion This holy fear will kindle an holy devotion in our hearts and as a watchful keeper of the heart shall suffer no thoughts to break forth but such as shall amount alost to Heaven As cold water makes the fire more fierce and vehement so does this fear make our prayers more earnest and servent And this is our first Observation The fear of Gods wrath drives us to our prayers and makes us the more importunate with God for mercy The second Conclusion now follows which ariseth from the Context after the prophet had given us a description of the wrath of God he pitcheth his next thoughts upon Death And this brings in our next Observation The wrath of God thought upon makes us to think of Death He that ruminates upon the wrath of God which he hath incurr'd by sin must needs think of Death the sad effect of sin When I remember how far I have provoked the anger of a just God by Sin I cannot choose but think of Death This was Jobs case who while he was under the wrath of God and felt not the comfort of the pardon of his Sins he did imagine there was no other way but death with him Job 7.21 Why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquities for now shall I sleep in the dust and thou shalt seek me in the morning but I shall not be As if he had said Deliver me O Lord from thy wrath and grant me the pardon of my sins otherwise I am but as a dead man before thee Solomon speaks of the wrath of a King Pro. 16.14 that it is as messengers of death Surely then the wrath of God may very well be a Messenger sent from God to put us in mind of Death If the Wrath of man be so fierce what is the wrath of God if the frown of a King strike a man dead what power is there in the looks of an angry God to bring us to nothing If the smoke of mans anger can do this what cannot the flame of Gods wrath do even consume us to very ashes Does the fear of Gods Wrath put us in mind of Death 1. This discovers our own guilt what a weight of sin lies upon our Souls otherwise what reason had we to tremble at the denunciation of Gods wrath against us if we were not conscious to our selves of a world of wickedness which harbours in our breasts Were we not privy to a masse of Corruption lurking within us the fear of death would never affright us A strong wind is able to shake and bend the strongest tree and the wrath of God will make the most godly man alive to quake and tremble Imagine the easiest death that is it cannot be but that Nature will have some struglings with it It is impossible to die such a death as shall have no pangs to attend upon it Thus it is even in the death of the greatest Saints there must needs be some strivings and wrestlings in the Conscience with the wrath of God The heart of no Christian is so far quieted and appeased at the hour of death as that all fear is banished out of it and a man hath not the least remembrance of sin and of the wrath of God due to sin lodging in his breast This holy fear is in the best of Gods children and proves as an excellent preparative for death He is best fitted for Death that meditates of tenof the wrath of God due to sin We see we have many occasions presented to us to put us in mind of Death we are never without some Watchword or other to beat the remembrance of Death into our thoughts David had Death ever in his eye Psal 119.109 My soul is continually in my hand like a Souldier he carried his life in his hand and was prepared for the next encounter and made ready for it In all the Judgments of God Death like the ashes which Moses sprinkled is scattered and cast over all our heads Death like
see his face no more It parteth those friends who were so united together in love as if they had but one soul in two bodies see it in the separation that was made by death between David and Jonathan that were so knit together in their love that he bewaileth him Woe is me for my brother Jonathan This is a necessary consideration for us that live that we may learn to know how to carry ourselves towards our wordly friends and how to moderate our selves in our enjoyment of these worldly comforts Look upon every worldly thing as a mortal as a dying comfort Look upon children and friends as dying comforts Look upon your estates as that that hath wings and will be gone Look upon your bodies that now you make so much of as a thing that must be parted from the soul by death and that ere long See what advice the Apostle giveth 1 Cor. 7.19 the time is short saith he therefore let those that marry be as if they married not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it A man abuseth the world when he useth it beyond the consideration of the shortnesse of enjoying these things when he looks upon these things as things that he shall enjoy alwayes But if we would use it aright look upon things as things that we shall enjoy but for a short time This body that seemeth now to have some beauty in it yet it must die be laid in the dust these friends that seem now to have some pleasure and delight in them yet I must die and be took from them this estate and wealth that now I set so much price upon I must die and death will part me and it So I say look upon every thing as separable from us Moderate your affections likewise to them Use them onely as comforts in the way as a traveller doth the pleasures of his Inn he stands not to build himself houses against every pleasant walk he looks upon he stands not to purchase lands and to lay them to every Inn he comes to lie at No he knows that he is now but in his passage in his way he knows that he is not at home that is the place he is going to and after a time he shall come thither So make account that you are not now at home it is death that must help you to your home Let this therefore take you off from all these things that are in the way It is a strange thing to see how Sathan besotteth and befooleth men They strive and labour to compasse many worldly things as if their happinesse stood in the enjoyment of them as if they should have their wealth and their comforts for ever What care is there amongst men to get wealth and many times lose their souls in getting the world Alas Death will part soul and body them and their wealth and all Do we not see this daily in the death of others before us such a one is dead where is his body now in the dust Where are his friends and his companions now Where is his wealth and his estate for which many flattered him and fawned upon him are they not all separated from him they have nothing now to do with him he cannot dispose of one penny of his estate now it is left he knows not to whom others now have the mannaging of it As now you can say this of others so there will a time come that other men will say the like of you I had such a friend but death hath parted him from me he had such an estate but death hath parted him and his estate Let us therefore make this use of the death of others to conclude with our selves that there will be a parting of all those outward things that now we are so apt to dote upon The third special thing considerable in the death of others that will be matter of profit and benefit to those that live and survive after them is the end and cause for which God sendeth Death abroad into the world with such a large commission that it goeth on with such liberty to every family to every place that it seizeth upon every person What 's the reason of it You shall see in the several deaths of men several causes There is judgement and mercy sometime a mixture of both and sometime but of one of these Sometimes we see an apparant judgement of God in the death of some A judgement of God upon themselves Thus the young Prophet that disobeyed the word of the Lord a Lyon met him in the way and slew him So those Corinths that did eat and drink unworthily in the Lords Supper though they were such as were saved after yet neverthelesse for this very cause saith the Apostle some of them were sick and weak and some slept they died they were judged of the Lord that they might not be condemned with the world When you see death seizing upon men as an act of divine judgement of divine displeasure let it make you more fearful of sinning against God lest you provoke against your selves the same warth in the very act of sin Sometimes again it is a judgement of God upon others Thus God takes away divers of his servants because the world is not worthy of them And as this is an act of judgement upon the world so it is an act of mercy to them God in mercy taking of them away from the evil to come and from the evil present A judgement of God to others that are udworthy of them A mercy to themselves that they are took away from their own evil from sin from temptations from all the effects and fruits of sin and taken away from the evil that is to come upon others An act I say of mercy to them So it was to the child of Jeroboam he should die and should not see the judgement that was to come upon his fathers house because there was found some good thing in him toward the Lord. So it was to Josiah He should be gathered to his fathers in peace and his eyes should not see all that evill which the Lord would bring upon Jerusalem and upon the inhabitants thereof An act of judgement to others Righteous and merciful men are taken away and no man layeth it to heart they consider not the causes wherefore God takes away those good men A Land a Kingdom a State a People a place is much weakned when those that are righteous and merciful men when those that stand in the gap and use their endeavours to prevent judgments are taken away The house will certainly fall when the Pillars are removed They are the people of God only that hold up a state that hold up the world Assoon as Noah is put into the Ark presently cometh the deluge upon the World Assoon as
ever Lot was got up to Zoar presently the Lord rained down fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah Assoon as ever the mourners are marked presently cometh the destroying Angel upon the rest Beloved when we see those that are mourners for the evils of the times and places where they live look away we should lay it to heart and consider it as a sign of Gods displeasure as a sign that he is a going and departing when he takes away his jewels as a sign that he is a coming to judge the world when he beginneth to separate to take to himself his own Certainly as soon as ever that number of the elect shall be accomplished when the company of those that God hath determined to eternal life shall be fulfilled when the sheep of Christ that are yet to be brought into his fold are gathered together when the fulnesse of the Gentiles is come in and the nation of the Jewes added then the world shall he burnt with fire and the day of Judgement shall come nothing shall hinder that general destruction that shall be the end of all things here below As it is with the general Judgement of the world so with particular Judgements upon Nations when God takes away his people when the Saints go out of Jerusalem to Pila then cometh the sword of the enemie upon Jerusalem when God drawes out his own people presently cometh judgement upon the rest It is good to observe Gods method and order that he takes in governing of the world at this day that in the death of the servants of God we may consider our own time that we may prepare for those evils that are a coming and for those greater judgments that are hastning Thus you see what use may be made of laying to heart the death of others God is much glorified thereby For all his attributes are seen in all his works and the glorifying of God is a declaring of God to be as glorious as he hath revealed himself to be in his attributes which is by shewing of them forth in his works When men can see the wisedome the justice the power the mercy the truth the soveraignty of God and all in the death of others then they glorifie God in taking to heart the death of others You see likewise what good cometh to a mans self by laying to heart the death of others He sees thereby the certainty of his own death He sees the nature of death and what the proper work of it is viz. to separate between him and all those outward comforts all those props and staies whereupon his heart rested too much on earth in the dayes of his vanity And lastly he sees the end and cause why God sendeth Death into the world sometime in judgement that men should take heed of sin sometimes in mercy in mercy to the men themselves and in mercy also to those that live that they seeing the servants of God lodged up before the tempest may learn to fear and to hide and secure themselves under Gods special providence who can either hide them amongst the living or the dead in the worst times Now let us conclude with some application to our selves In the first place it serveth for the just reproof of that great neglect that is in the world at this day that men lay not to heart the death of others I wish that this were only the sin of worldly men I know to a worldly man it is of all things the most unpleasant thought that can be to think of death he cannot indure to hear this they shall fetch thy soul from thee It is as unpleasant to him as it is to a Bankrupt to hear of a Sergeant coming to arrest him as unpleasant as it is to a Malefactor to hear of being brought before the Judge And that is the reason why men in the time of feasting cannot endure such discourses at their Tables as might put sad thoughts of death into them oh these are too melancholly thoughts Yea but in the mean time it is thy folly thy want of wisedome He that was guided by the spirit of wisedome and had now bought some wisdome at a deare rate by woeful experience of his former follies he now seeth that it was farre better to go to the house of mourning that is seriously to consider of that which men account the most ordinary cause of mourning that is the death of others and of themselves then to go to the house of feasting that is to sport a mans selfe in the pleasures of the world and to give liberty to a mans selfe to all manner of delights But I say I wish that this were their fault onely and that it may die with them But it is too much the fault of Gods own people Moses is fain to pray for Israel in the Wildernesse where they saw so many die before them that God would give them wisdom to number their dayes And Ministers have still the same cause to pray for the people and Christians to pray one for another that God would give them wisdome to lay to heart the death of other men Have you well considered of Death when you can only discourse that such a one that was profitable in his instruction is dead such a one by whom we have had good in conversing with is dead such a one that was young and likely to live many years longer is dead What of all this this is but idle and empty discourse What use makest thou of this to thy self dost thou gather from thence the certainty of thy own death Dost thou consider what death will do to thee when it cometh how that it will separate between thee and all things in the world as it hath done them Dost thou consider for what cause God sendeth Death abroad into the world Dost thou consider this with thy selfe as thou oughtest to do This is an act of wisdome This is that we call due consideration when the soul reflects upon it self it is their case now and it will be mine and mine in the same manner therefore it is good for me to set my accounts strait with God When thou accompaniest another to the grave dost thou conclude thus with thy self the very next time that any death is spoken of it may be mine or as Saint Peter speaks to Saphirah after the death of Annanias the feet of those that have buried thy husband are at the door and shall carry thee out also This is reason of all that worldly-mindednesse of all that earnestnesse and invention to gain the favour of men by indirect means this is the reason of all that immoderate care about our businesse with the neglect of our souls this is the reason of all that carnal security of all that forgetfulnesse of God and the account that shall be made at the day of Judgment this is the reason of the unfruitfulnesse of our lives of our unprofitable spending of our times or
God the glory of his mercy And so much for the first direction that is to acknowledge God in all the changes of life that befalleth thee Secondly look to sin as that deserving cause that draweth on all the afflictions of this life Consider thou hast fallen by thy sin into Gods displeasure therefore whatsoever affliction befalleth thee thy sin hath deserved that at the hands of God The Lord now dealt with the as a just God though not in the extermity of rigor yet neverthelesse there is a righteous proceeding in it as the Church confesseth Righteousnesse belongeth to thee O Lord though they were in great affliction yet God was righteous in it It is profitable to consider this nay and not only that thou sufferest righteously as the Theif on the Crosse said We suffer according to our deserts but thou sufferest not so much as thy sins deserve thy sins deserve greater things at the hands of God then yet he hath infflicted on thee We see that a commutation and change of punishment a less for a greater hath the place of a mercy upon a malefactor that deserveth greater when he deserveth to be executed and to die he is not only content to be burnt in the hand but the confesseth it to be a mercy of the Prince So it is with us whatsoever affliction God hath laid on thee thou maiest conclude I have deserved greater Therefore saith the Church Why is the living man sorrowful Man suffereth for his sin let us search and trie our wayes and turn again to the Lord. So let this be the main businesse of thy life in this case rather bethink thy self how to get the favour of God then to be eased of such a trouble Let a man look to sin in all this Lastly consider the gratious and comfortable fruit of Affliction that is born with patience For first patience lesseneth the judgment impatience increaseth it on a man The strugling child hath more stripes A man in a Fever the more he strugleâ—…h and striveth the more he increaseth his pain The more patiently a man yeeldeth himself to the hands of God the more by the mercy of God he findeth ease and mitigation of the affliction And this God promiseth Because thou hast kept the word of my patience I will deliver thee in the time of trouble God will take off the affliction when once he hath perfected Patience by affliction for you must know this that all that God aymeth at in all afflictions that he layeth on men is to perfect patience in them therefore the issue will be good There will for the presene be more ease to the heart and afterward a gracious issue and deliverance from trouble when thou art exercised by patience Secondly there are other afflictions of our life and that is not only in those cases wherein some positive evil as we account it naturally some affliction grievous to nature and sense are upon a man but mercies are delayed and hope deferred maketh the heart faint It is an affliction to a man to be kept and delayed in the expectation of that good he hath not if he seem to catch at it it is drawn from him further and further There are many men that have sent many a prayer to God yet the thing they ask is not granted to this day Many a man hath waited long and sought the Lord yet he hath not that his soul desireth How shall a man come to exercise patience in such a case as this In such a case when God delayeth know first that Gods delayes are not danyals though God delay the thing he may and will in time certainly grant it yea though he delay it a great while As we see in other servants of God we may see it in David in Job in Paul in the Canaanitish woman and in others The Vision is for an appointed time saith Habakkuk wait for it it will come and it will not tarry it will not lie God will be known a God of truth what he hath promised he will performe in due time only what doth he expect of thee to wait for the present Now this is an act of faith He that beleeveth will not make hast Glorifie God by beleeving put to thy seal that he is true Whatsoever God hath promised in the Word and thou hast a warrant to beleeve wait for it Secondly Gods delayes are not only not denials but improvements of Gods favour God increaseth and commendeth the excellencies of his mercies by delayes he recompenceth our expectation and waiting for them with putting in greater sweetness into those favours when they come I say God increaseth the comfort answerable to the delay as in the 61. Isa 7. God to comfort the distressed Church in the time of calamity for their affliction faith he they shall have double Double what Double comforts for their tryals Our light afflictions faith the Apostle that are but for a moment cause us a farr more excellent and sxrpassing weight of glory A weight of glory for light Afflictions an eternal weight of glory for momentary afflictions Here is the issue As our afflictions have abonnded so our consolations abound much more This is the course of God Thirdly know that Gods delayes are never long at the longest they are but for a short time what if he delay a year what if twenty thirty forty years what if the the life of a man this is no great delay Compare this time of thy waiting for mercy with the time to come of thy enjoying of mercy A small time of waiting on earth to an eternity of recompence in heaven Compare eternity with the time of thy suffering Alas how little what a small or no agreement is between them A moment to eternity If the life of a man should extend to a hundred years to a thousand yeares to which age never man yet lived yet that is but a point a moment to eternity A thousand years past and to come they are but as yester-day to God Take the eternity past in God himself that is without all beginning and the eternity to come that shall be without all end and put the life of man in the middest of these two and we will conclude it is as a point in the middest of a circumference it is but a moment nay not so much as a moment of time Stretch out the duty of Patience then hast thou waited a week wait a month a year seven years seventy years nay seventy Ages all the ages of the world if it were possible All these are but a moment to eternity And where is there a man that hath waited so long but God that his servants may not faint in their expectation either supports them with other comforts lest they should faint in their desire or else giveth them that which they desire before their hearts faint Know therefore that it is no such great matter for
a man to wait upon God it is but a short time and resolve in the time of thy waiting upon this that when thou art fittest for mercy it shall come and when it cometh it shall come with an abundant weight and sweetness such as shall countervail all thy expectation and waiting Thus I have told you how men should exercise patience by exercising their faith and how they should strengthen patience by hope and how they should perfect patience by selfe-denyal The reason why I took this Text for the present occasion is that there might be a concurrence between the rule and the example Here is the rule Let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and intire wanting nothing One reason among others was this because we know not what changes and tryals God hath reserved any of us to therefore we had need of patience Our Sister here is the example a pattern to others of those tryals of life whereto a Christan may be exposed even to extremity Howsoever it pleased God to give many other mercies to her yet nevertheless she had a continual exercise of patience in extream anguish of body in a vexing tormenting pain that a long time for many years together held her under such extremity of torture that a man on the rack or in any other extremity could hardly have greater torments then she sometime felt in the time of that extremity upon her God laid this affliction upon her to perfect her patience and that she might be a pattern of patience to you that you might study and pray for Patience and endeavour after it that when afflictions fall upon any of you you may not be found wanting and destitute of patience So much for this time A RESTRAINT OF EXORBITANT PASSION OR GROUNDS AGAINST Unseasonable Mourning SERMON V. 2 SAM 12.22 23. And he said while the child was yet alive I fasted and wept for I said who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the child may live But now he is dead wherefore should I fast can I bring him back again I shall go to him but he shall not return to me THese Words contain Davids answer to a question that was put to him in the Verse going before the Text by some of his servants The question was grounded upon their observation of his divers carriage when the child was sick and when the child was dead When the child was sick he fasted and wept and lay upon the ground and prayed When the child was dead he forbeareth weeping washeth himself calleth for bread c. And now they ask him the reason for they thought rather that he would have exprest a greater sorrow then he had done before as it may be discerned in the consultation among themselves every man was loth to tell David of the great losse that was beâ—…llen him that his child was dead When he heard of it and altereth his carriage and sheweth himself more chearful contrary to their expectation they plainly put the question to him What should be the reason of this The words I have read to ye 〈◊〉 an Answer to that question He telleth them the reason both of his fasting and weeping in the time of the sicknesse of the child and of his calling for meat and forbearing to weep now at the death of the child The reason of his former carriage he giveth in the 22. verse While the child was yet alive I fasted and wept for I said who knoweth whether the Lord may be gracious to me that the child may live The reason of the alteration of his carriage why he exprest himselfe in another manner upon the death of the child he giveth in the 23. verse But now he is dead wherefore should I fast 〈◊〉 shall return to him he shall not return to me In the former part the reason of his sad and mournful carriage during the time of the sicknesse of the child then saith he I did fast Yea have first the declaration of his action and behaviour and carriage at that time While the child was yet alive I fasted and wept And the reason of this action and carriage for I said Whoâ—… aâ—… tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live I shall be brief in speaking of this part only First for his carriage I fasted and wept These are â—…ut external actions fasting of it self is not a worship of God but as it helpeth and furtheâ—… another 〈◊〉 as it helpâ—…th a man in prayer as it fuâ—…eretâ—… the work of humination and declareth that For neither if we eat are we the better nor if we eat not are we the worse as the Apostle speaks And the kingdom of God consisteth not in meat and drink There is a fast inforced by necessity that which either is by sicknesse or want and is meerly civil and outward without any respect to God And there is a fast too which hath a pretence of respect to God which is not acceptable as that of the Pharisees that rested only in the external action There is a fast that is religious and accepted of God and that is that which is both a testimony of the inward humiliation of the soul as also a help and furtherance of it Such a fast was this that David speaks of here A fast that did arise from a sense of his unworthinesse of the creature and did expresse the sorrow of his heart for sin A Fast which he did set upon only for this end that he might be more free and more fit for prayer And so likewise for the mourning and weeping he speaks of It was not such a weeping as ariseth meerly from the temper of the body as in some that are more apt for tears are such as the tears of Esau to his father he lift up his voice and wept hast thou not one blessing more blesse me even me also oh my father But they were tears that did arise from a holy affection from a gracious disposition of heart from inward contrition and sorrow like the tears that Peter shed when he went out and wept bitterly They were tears that discovered the inward vehemency of his spirit in prayer like those tears of Jacob when he wrestled with the Angel the Prophet Hosea telleth how he wrestled he prayed and wept Such tears were these as did expresse the fervency of his spirit in prayer the earnestnesse of his desire in putting up this request he had now to God like those of Hezekiah I have heard thy prayers and seen thy tears saith God such tears as God putteth iâ—…to his bottle such tears as he takes special notice of There are no tears that are shed for sin our of an inward sorrow of heart that are shed in prayer to exprese a holy desire that proceed from an inward inflamed affection and fervency of spirit but they are very precious with God as far I say as
sins the ilness of thy nature and carriage rehearse thy wayes as much as thou canst condemn thy self before God mightily crie for pardon in the meditation of his Son and never leave sobbing and mourning till he hath given thee some answer that he is reconciled And then strive to get faith in Christ call to mind the perfection of his redemption the excellency of his person and merits that thou maist repose thy soul on him that thou maist say though my sins be as the Stars and exceed them yet the merit of my Saviour and his satisfaction to the justice of God it is full in him he is well pleased and reconciled I will stay on him Lord Chiist thou hast done and suffered enough to redeem me and Man-kind thou hast suffered for the propitiation of the world though my sins deserve a thousand damnations yet I trust upon thy mercy according to the Covenent made in thy Word Thus when a man laboureth to cast himself on Christ to lay the burthen of his salvation and to venter his soul on him now he hath beleeved this Breast-plate Death is not able to thrust through And then labour that this faith may work so strongly that it may breed Hope a constant and firm expectation grounded on the promises of the Word that thou shalt be saved and go to Heaven and be admitted into the presence of God when thou shalt be separated from this lower world He that is armed with this hope hath a Helmet Death shall never hurt his head it shall never be able to take away his comfort and peace He shall smile at the approach of death because it can do nothing but help him to his kingdome And then labour for Charity to inflame thee to him again that hath shewed himself so truly loving to men as to seek them when they were lost to redeem them when they were captives and to restore them from that unhappiness that they had cast themselves into Oh that I could love thee and thy people for thy sake thou diddest die for them shall not I be at a little cost and pains to help them out of misery Thus if ye labour to be furnished with these graces then you are armed against Death those will do you more good then if you had gotten millions of millons of gold and silver As you have understanding for the outward man as you have care to provide for that top reserve and comfort life while you are here so have a care for the future world and that boundless continuance of eternity If a man live miserable here death will end it if he be prepared for death he shall live happily for ever but if a man live happily as we account it and die miserably that misery is endless Ye mistake beloved ye account men happy that abound in wealth and honour that have great estates I say ye mistake in accounting men happy that enjoy the good things of this life that can live in prosperity to the last time of their age possessing what they have gotten If such a man be not prepared for death Death makes way for a greater unhappiness after death For the more sin he hath committed the more misery shall betide him his life being nothing but a continued chain of wickedness one link upon another till he settle upon a preparation for Death And in the last place here is a great deal of comfort to those that have laboured to prepare for death though to them Death is an enemy yet it is an enemy that is utterly destroyed The Philosopher said that Death is the terriblest of all terrible things so it is to nature because it doth that that no other evil can do it separateth from all comfort and carrieth us we know not whether Death is terrible to a man that is unarmed for death but to the poor Saints that have bestowed their time in humiliation and supplication and confession that have daily endeavoured to renew their faith and hope and repentance Death hath no manner of terribleness in the world if it be terrible to a Christian at the first it is onely because he hath forgot himself a little he doth not bethink how he is armed If God have fitted his servants for death he hath done most for them if they have not riches yet they are fit for death if they have not an estate amongst men it mattereth not a whit if they be fit for Death if they be miserable here in torments and sickness when others have health it is no matter all these increase their repentance makes them labour for Faith and Hope and Charity whereby they are armed against Death Nothing can save us from the hurt of Death but the Lord Jesus Christ put on by Faith and that furnished with Hope and Charity If God give a man other things and not these graces Death is not destroyed to him But if he deny him other things and give him these graces he doth enough for him Death is destroyed to him His body indeed falleth under the stroke of Death as other mens but his soul is not hurt Death layeth him a rotting as the common sort but the soul goeth to the possession of glory and remaineth with Christ When he is absent from the body he is present with the Lord. Nay when the last day shall come Death shall be utterly swallowed up then the poor and frail and weak body that sleepeth in corruption and mortality shall be raised in honour and in immortal beauty and glory a spiritual body free from all corporal weaknesses that accompany the natural body it shall be made most glorious blessed even as if it were a spirit all the weaknesses that accompany the natural being of the body shall be baken away and it shall enjoy as much perfection as a body can and therefore it is called spiritual Therefore I beseech you rejoyce in the Lord if your souls tell you that you are armed against this death THE WORLDS LOSSE AND THE RIGHTEOUS MANS GAINE SERMON VIII ISAIAH 57.1 And merciful men are taken away none considering that the Righteous is taken away from the evil to come WHen I first began this Verse I did never think that all things would have been so sutable to the finishing of it as now I find they are For there is no circumstance that can be required to make a correspondency between a former and a latter handling but is to be found in the two surveyes I took upon this Text. The occasion of handling it now is the same that was before I began it at a Funeral and now at another Funeral I shall end it The place of handling the same as it was before I began the former part of the Verse in this very street at the other end of it Now I shall finish it at this And the time it is the same and every way answerable to that it was before It was begun in a time of Mortality seared
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
in all causes and over all persons but over all causes too even Kings are subject to his regiment He bindeth Kings in chaines and Nobles in fetters of Iron Psal 149. The Kings of the earth saith Saint John and the rich and the great men and the great Captains and the mighty men they shall all hide themselves in the caves and rocks and mountains Revel 15. crying to the mountains and rocks to cover them from the face of the Judg and from the wrath of the Lamb because the day of desolation is come Nay God is not only over all the Kings of the earth but he is Potentate of heaven and hell too He hath a commanding power over all the Angels fear the Divels tremble when they come to stand before God In a word as Saint Paul saith all power is of God then of necessity followeth that God himself in his power is most absolute That is the second thing belonging to the office of a Judg as he must have knowledg to discerne so he must have power to execute Thirdly there must be Justice in the execution therefore the Grecians were wont to place justice between Libra and Leo to signifie indifferency in weighing causes and strictness in executing the sentence So the Egyptians signified as much by their Hierogliphical purtraicture of an Angel without hands wincking or without eyes such a one a Judg should be he should have no hands to receive bribes nor no eyes to respect persons the person of a Judg must not take the person of a friend A man must not personate a friend in justice but as Levi he must know neither father nor mother nor brother Justice amongst us is purtraicted holding a Ballance in one hand and a sword in another the Ballance sheweth the upright weighing of causes and the Sword sheweth the strictness of the execution of the sentence And if this Execution be wanting both the other are to no purpose It is to no purpose to know and to have power if their be not Justice But God is a true and just Judg Howsoever it be amongst the Judges of the earth yet unworthy is he of the place of a Judg and fitter to stand at the Barr then to sit on the Bench that suffereth himself to miscarry by friendship or love or bribes or sutes or favour or envie when either of these prevail they tie the tongues of men to plead for wrong causes Shall a Traytour presume on the Kings favour and Mordecai be out of the Kings grace But there shall be no such thing here God is the Judg of all the earth and shall not he do right Gen. 18. Doth God pervert judgment or doth the Almighty pervert Justice Job 8.3 When thou standest before the Judgment seat of God thou shalt neither be elevated with vain hopes nor dejected and cast down by sinister and wrong fears but assure thy self such as thy cause is such shall thy sentence be as Saint Bernard well a pure heart shall prevail more with God then a smooth word good consciences shall speed better then full purses for he is an upright and just Judg with whom no fair words nor friends shall prevail So I have done with the first thing The Judg. Secondly something of the Judgment and therein two things First that it shall be Secondly in what manner it shall be First that it shall be The text is plain God shall bring to Judgment There might many Texts besides this be alledged consonant and agreeable to this but it is superfluous Besides Texts of Scripture we have Types also to prefigure it and reasons also to prove and confirm it Two Types of the last Judgment our Saviour himself propoundeth Luk 17. One was the destruction upon Sodome the other the destruction that God brought upon the old world Look as Christ saith how it was with them of Sodome in the dayes of Lot they did eat they drank they bought they sold they planted they builded and look how it was with the men of the old world in the dayes of Noah eating and drinking and sporting and marrying until the very day that Noah entred into the Ark and the flood came and destroyed them all So it shall be at the last day when the Son of man shall come The Apostle Saint Peter speaking of the latter of these telleth us of mockers in those times that scoffed when they heard of the Judgment there hath been talk a great while of such things promised but when will it come Where is the promise of his coming There are scoffers in these dayes but such if there be any cannot but speak against their own consciences and knowledg they cannot be ignorant both of the Judgments that have been and shall be or if they be they are wilfully ignorant That God did once wash away the sins of the world with a Flood of water and that the time is coming that God will purge the sins of the world with a flood of fire the Rainbow in the clouds as it is a Monument of the one so it is a fore-runner of the other The two principal colours of the Rainbow are blew and red the blew and waterish colour of the Rainbow is an evidence of that Judgment that is past when God washed the sins of the world away by Water the fiery colour is a prediction of a Judgment that is to come when God shall purge the world by a Flood of fire But besides these Types there are divers reasons that may be given to assure us that we have reason to expect this day Those five Attributes of God afford five reasons to confirm it His Power his Wisdome his Truth his Justice his Mercy First his Power God will have it be thus for the manifestation of his Power A work of great power it will be indeed All must be brought before Gods judgment seate every one as the Text saith after It may seem strange peradventure incredible to here that all the men and women that ever lived in the world that so many multitudes and millions of thousands of all kindreds and nations should all be summoned to appear before one Judgement seat But as Saint Austin faith Consider who is the doer and then thou wilt not doubt It is true indeed with men such a thing as this is impossible but with God all things are possible Could God at the first draw all things out of nothing and cannot God as well bring together all again when they are turned to nothing Could he make that body of thine out of the dust of the earth and cannot he raise that body when it is turned to dust Could he unite that body to the soul in the time of the Creation and cannot he unite it at the time of the Resurrection Certainly there is nothing impossible too hard to the great and terrible voyce of God as Saint Chrysostome saith to that voyce of God that cleaveth the
rocks that breaks the brazen gates asunder that looseneth the bands of death Therefore unless thou question the power of God no doubt but he is able and can bring all of us to judgement He will do it for the manifestation of his power Secondly as for the manifestation of his power so for the manifestation of his wisdome It is a point of wisdome when one hath made a thing to bring it to the intended end for which he made it Beloved this is Gods intended end in making of us therefore he brought us hither into the world not that we should have alwayes a Being here but that after a certaine time we should be dissolved and put into an everlasting condition therefore Saint Peter speaking of the salvation of Gods elect he calleth it the end of their faith not only the end they aspire but that end that God hath assigned and appointed them to If God should faile of his end we might call his wisdome into question it might give us occasion to say that he undertook that which he was not able to accomplish so that insteed of shewing himself wife he should shew himself weake Therefore except we should call his wisdome into question doubtless he will call us one day to an Account Thirdly for the manifestation of his truth nothing gaineth God more honour then that he is faithful and true in whatsoever he hath promised Now this day of Judgement is the day wherein God hath promised to recompence the faith of the godly and hath threatned to punish the wickedness of the wicked he hath appointed a day for it faith the Scripture Acts 17.31 What though it be a great while since the promise was made for all this we must not think that God is slack as men account slackness the slacknesse of men is when they keep not their promise according to appointment we must not think God is so slack he alwayes keepeth his day that he hath set he never faileth of his promise but when the time is come he keeps touch he breaks not his day As it is said Ezod 22.41 After the four hundred and thirty years were expired that God spake to Abraham the very same day all the children of Israel went out of Egypt How many promises and threatnings after do we read of wherein he never failed of the performance of what he spake the least tittle therefore saith Saint Gregory we have seen so many of Gods promises already verified that we may be confident that those that are to come shall also be accompilshed surely he will not fail in this but as certainly as he hath promised it shall come to pass So that unless we shall deny the truth of God who the Scripture saith cannot it is impossible that he should lie we must of necessity beleeve that for the manifestation of his Truth there will be a day of Judgement Fourthly as for the manifestation of his Truth so of his Justice and Mercy I will put them together It is the property of Justice to render punishment to those that have done evil and of Mercy to recompence those that have done well Now therefore for the manifestation of his Justice and Mercy this day must come It is true here many times wicked men speed better then Gods people A man may sin a hundred times and yet God porlong his dayes and the children of God on the other side are persecuted and neglected so that here he giveth not retribution to every one according to his works Whereas it standeth with equity and justice that well-doers should be rewarded and evil-doers should be punished the stream runneth contrary wicked men speed well and good men ill Naboth cannot have a poor Vineyard but one rich Ahab or other is ready to get it away They â—…at my people as bread and they eat the bread of Gods people they eate the inheritance of the fatherless and devour widdows houses so that here all is turned topsie-turvey as if the world were a thing cruciated tearing it self If this world should last alwayes where were Gods justice And therefore for the manifestation of Gods justice and mercy there must be a day of retribution when for that portion of sorrow that the godly have had here they shall have a portion of happiness and joy and when for that cup of pleasure that the wicked have drank here they shall have put into their hands a cup of trembling and wrath If Dives enjoy his good things here let him look for a day when he shall be denied a drop of water It Lazarus have had his ill things here let him look when the day shall come that he shall be rewarded Except we will divest and strip God of all his Attributes deny his power his wisdome his truth his justice and mercy we cannot but confess that certainly there is a day to come when God will bring us to judgement That is for the first That the day of Judgement shall come In the next place we are to consider as that it shall be so in what manner and how it shall be Briefly the manner of this Judgment is set forth to us in the Scripture in five particulars First the Summons Secondly the Appearance Thirdly the Separation Fourthly the Triall Fifthly the Sentence First the Summons All shall be summoned to come before Gods Judgement seat and this Summons of theirs shall be by the voyce of Christ himself The dead in the grave shall hear the voyce of the son of man and they shall come forth c. Job 5.28 This voyce in Scripture is called the Trump of the Angel He shall send his Angels and they shall gather the Elect together from the four winds Mat. 24.31 The Trump shall blow and the dead shall arise 1 Cor. 15. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voyce of the Archangel with the Trump of GOD and the dead shall rise 1 Thes 4.16 At the giving of the Law there was the sound of a Trumpet so when God shall come to punish the breach of the Law the Angel shall blow the Trumpet Trumpets are commonly blown at a Battel or at a Feast at a Feast they sound joyfully when it is at a Battel they sound dreadfully both shall sound here at that day the sound of the Trumpet to the godly shall be as at a Feast but the sound of the Trumpet in the ears of the wicked shall be as a summons to battel If we will have the joyful sound of that voyce then we must welcome the voyce of Christ now God now speaks by men then by Angels Now the Trumpet of the Gospel soundeth then the Trumpet of Judgement shall sound we must learn o bedience to this and then we shall find a great deal of comfort in that there is a Surgite that we must hearken to now arise from sin Come unto me all yea that are weary and heavy laden
for so witnesseth the Wise-man Prov. 28. If we confesse and leave our sins we shall have mercy So David saith Psal 32.3 4. I said I will confesse my sins and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin And Saint John telleth us in his 1. Epist 1.9 If we confesse our sins God is faithful and true to forgive us our sins So you see Confession as well as sorrow absolutely required to obtain remission A man must even Arraigne and as it were indite himself before God plead guilty acknowledg his trespass whatsoever it be and judge himself worthy to be destroyed for them or else he repents not though he weep out his eyes with mourning and lamentation The third thing requisite is a firm purpose of amendment of life Whosoever will have God to accept his teares and bend a favourable care to his humiliation and acknowledgement he must so acknowledge what evil he hath already done that he put on a stedfast purpose of doing so no more according to the direction that our Saviour Christ giveth to the man that he had healed Joh. 5. Goe thy way and sin no more and as Saint Paul speaks Let him that stole steal no more And therefore the Wise-man putteth on this part to the former in the before alledged place If we confesse our sins and leave them we shall find mercy There must be I say a settled purpose and a fixed flat determination in the soul of every man to cast off those transgressions that he hath confest and to return no more to commit them at least not to allow those sins that he hath acknowledged Lastly there must be added to the former three or else they will not availe neither an earnest supplication to God for mercy and forgiveness through the mediation of his wel-beloved Son Jesus Christ which was wont to be craving mercy without this mentioning of Christ before he was offered and revealed to the world But now it must be so done as we must specially and particularly prefer our thoughts and desires to him in begging mercy at his Fathers hands for his sake alone So David after the numbring of the people I have done exceeding foolishly but Lord blot out for give the sin of thy servant So God commandeth Hos 14.2 Take to you words and say to the Lord receive us graciously So did David when he renewed his repentance and so must all men do when they begin to repent Have mercy upon me according to the multitude of thy mercies and blot out my transgressions c. These are the parts of repentance And this is the first thing required at our hands as the condition of the Covenant of Grace without which we can never obtain life eternal And this repentance consisteth of sorrow for sin and acknowledgment of it to God with a firm purpose of amendment and earnest petition of pardon for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ And this is such a Doctrine as the Covenant of works the Law never taught to the sons of men Nay verily it will not admit it the Law scorns as it were to admit repentance for it excludeth sin Repentance implieth sin in all the degrees and kinds therefore it is far from accepting Repentance if thou hast once broke the Law repent or not repent amend or nor amend be sorry or not sorry thou shalt never be pardoned or forgiven It is a rough and stern School-master that will whip and scourge offending children though they crave pardon never so much It is a rough Creditour that will throttle the Debtour and cast him into Prison though he confess the debt and be never so importunate in asking favour and patience But the Covenant of Grace it is a sweet Doctrine a comfortable Doctrine Thou hast sinned oh man and broken the Law and fallen from the favour of God and all possibility of salvation in thy self but come be sorry for thy sin acknowledg it to thy Maker resolve to run on in it no longer cry to him for pardon of it he will graciously pardon thee This is a sweet Doctrine you see full of comfort and consolation yet it is a Doctrine that tendeth to the honour of the Justice of God as well as to the honour of his grace and love the Lord could not prescribe other conditions for receiving us to favour but that we should repent What Judg would so abuse mercy as having past the sentence of death upon a Malefactour will yet pardon him and save him from the halter if he be not sorry for his crime and come and intreat for mercy and favour and confess that he hath offended and promise never to do so again there is no mercy and pardon for such a one because mercy must not oppose Justice though it may somewhat as we may say mitigate Justice The bloud of Christ if it were shed ten thousand times over it could never corrupt the Justice of God it may satisfie it but not corrupt it now the Justice of God were corrupted if it should admit an impenitent and hard-hearted sinner to favour and bestow upon him remission of sins and life everlasting that would never leave it nor forsake it nor be sorry for it but still go on to offend God and trample under foot his authority this being coutrary to Justice in the very nature and essence of Justice it cannot possibly be effected no not by the shedding of the bloud of Christ the bloud of Christ is of that vallue that it satisfieth the Justice of God and causeth him upon the penitence and humiliation of a sinner to receive him to grace and favour You see now what is the first part of the Condition required on our side for the obtaining of life by Christ that is Repentance The next is Faith in Christ This we are taught every where If thou beleeve in the Lord Jesus Christ saith the Apostle to the trembling Jaylour thou shalt be saved And saith our Saviour this is the work of God that ye beleeve on him whom he hath sent This beleeving on Christ is I suppose nothing else bnt a staying and resting and depending and relying upon the merits and satisfaction of our blessed Saviour by the vertue and merit thereof to obtain remission of sins and eternal life and all good things promised in the New covenant at the hands of God He that goeth quite out of himself forgetteth all his own actions casteth behind him whatsoever seemed good in him and wholly claspeth on Christ and cleaveth to him staies on him resteth on him for the remission of sins and for the favour of God and for grace and salvation this man beleeveth in the Lord Jesus Christ and this man performs that duty which makes him one with Christ that causeth him to become a member of that mystical body whereof Christ is the head and that causeth him to be one with the Father and to be the child 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
because he will not have his creature worn out with a tedious misery and transitory vanity a vanity of misery that is in this vain miserable life of mortality I have done with the fourth A fifth thing that followeth in the Text that I may hast on we have Hope we have Hope in Christ we have Hope in Christ in this life our hope in this life is not upon the things of this life for if it were in this life only it were miserable Our life is a misery There is the fifth And this is a certain truth and it will plainly appear to us in many passages if we will believe either the Spirit of God or the experience of the godly I shall not need to stand to proveit You will ask me how it will be raised from this place Thus We are of all men the most miserable because that we are mentioned amongst the number of those that are the more miserable it implieth that all the rest are miserable more or less the very comparison that is used doth manifestly declare unto us that there is a measure of misery to every man living so then there is misery 2. It appeareth out of the Text because here and else-where you shall have man and misery made terms convertible Man is named Enoch and Enoch is misery Man and misery so joyned together that there is no pulling them asunder till death parts them for then there is no more misery 3. Because that misery here our being miserable in this life is mentioned even with the very best things of this life the very best things that are in this life and of this life so long as they look to this life I say they are stiled miserable but the best things even Christ himself our Hope it self say what you can here is Hope and here is Christ in the Text and yet not withstanding here is misery too Now then we reason thus that if the best things in this life be miserable then the rest are no better then so that the best are no better it is plain because let us have what we would have in all the World yet so long as we are here it is misery If this be so then we must come to the conclusion we have made and that is Jacobs conclusion Gen. 47.9 Few and evil have the dayes of the years of my life been it is Jobs conclusion too Mans life is full of misery It is Davids in the Psalms Mans life is full of labour and sorrow it is soon cut off and we fly away our dayes come to an end as a tale that is told they pass away as a shadow and the beauty the best of them withereth as grass It is Solomons he was the Preacher and here is his Text all is vain and vanity Vanity of vanities all is vanity one thing and other every thing under the Sun our life it self our selves so long as we are here we are under the Sun he calleth all vanity And faith the Apostle This I say Brethren the time of our life is short And what is our life saith Saint James But a vapour that appeareth for a little while and then vanisheth away it is a vapour that vanisheth a meoter of misery What shall we say of this now to speak it in few words home to our selves somewhat may concern our selves and somewhat as we respect and reflect upon others In regard of our selves it may have this double Vse First to wean us from the World Secondly to win us to the Lord. 1. To wean us from the World The World considered in it self is so full of misery that there is nothing to be delighted in there is so much bitterness that I warrant it will wean any Child from it that is not a worldling for he indeed is at his own breasts with his own Mother But consider the World as it is in it self and there is nothing in it but true bitterness and false sweetness certain pain and uncertain pleasure tedious labour and timerors rest nothing in the World but vanity and misery for saith Saint John Love not the World he that makes himself the friend of God makes himself an enemy to the World O you lovers of the World saith Saint Austin I wonder at you O foolish men who hath bewitched you for what wrestle why do you strive and contend so much what thing is there in the World that is worthy your labour there is saith he nothing in the World but that which is foolish and frothy and frayl and false and vain and full of danger full of disaster suffer your selves therefore to be weaned from the World And yet notwithstanding all that we can say we know there are some persons that will not be taken off from the Worlds breasts they have a better opinion of it than so Let such enjoy their own errour till they run to ruin and till their own overthrow take them off Yet not withstanding we know that which an Ancient hath that to whom God is once sweet the World must needs be bitter 2. On the other side the knowledge of this serveth to win us to the Lord that as the one draweth us off so the other may drive us on When I consider the mercies of the Lord and the goodness of God in the land of the living when I consider how infinite he is in his love I am ravished in spirit I am taken up in the mind and taken off in the flesh I have set my heart and affections on Heaven and on heavenly things And now when I think on the Lord there is my hope and there is my help and there where my help is there is my love and there is my life and there is my Lord there is Christ at the right hand of God He is the life of them that beleeve he is the resurrection from the dead he is the right hand where there is pleasure for evermore for there shall be no more pain no more death for the first things are past away saith Saint John in the Revelation and all things are become new Oh he that did but know the joyes that are reserved for such as are received to the Lord would soon be taken up from all conceits of the things of this life Think you but of that great convocation house of Heaven that high Court of Parliament that great place of Majesty and honour where all the spirits of just men made perfect are where all the Saints departed live where there are all the blessed Patriarchs godly Prophets the glorious Apostles the blessed Kings and the godly fellowship of Martyrs and Confessors where there are the holy Angels and Arch Angels Thrones and Dominions Seraphims and Cherubins in those glorious Orbs Where there is God the blessed Trinity the King of Glory whose Glory is more then can be seen be said conceived to be where the joy of the Saints is such as eye
the world that desireth not that every Saint should be gathered in and the whole body of Christ perfected in the whole members of it before Christ come to judgment None must be neglected every beleever must frame his will to the will of God God hath revealed that the number must be gathered in and when it is so Christ will come and gather all together under his wing Now the Saints of God think not much that the number should be gathered in they are well contented with it So likewise God hath revealed his will that though he be exceeding patient to wicked men yet he is not forgetful of his promise God will be contented though he be provoked every day infinitely by the highest sins of the world patiently to endure all this and to offer conditions of peace and mercy even to the worst to shew himself rich in mercy and so full of goodness that he makes offer even of goodness to the worst Now the Saints of God here frame their will to Gods and are content still to wait because God still putteth forth his patience and still offereth Conditions of mercy and peace to those that are wicked and out of the way whereby some are converted and others convinced and prepared for the work of Gods justice So this question need not trouble men or hold them off from a chearful and fruitfull expectation of Christ though he come not in our age as he hath not in others before The use of the Point is this First if this be the property of the godly to wait and earnestly to expect the coming of Christ then we may observe the general ungodliness of the World by the general want of this expectation And if ye say but who is there that doth not expect the second coming of Christ and who doth not beleeve that he shall come to judge the quick and the dead I answer notwithstanding that every man confesse this Article of faith with his mouth yet every man beleeveth it not with his heart for every man frameth not himself according to the faith of it Very few are those faithful servants that wait and prepare for their Masters coming Christ when he cometh he shall scarce find faith on the earth What a number of Men and Women are there though they hear these things and they are beaten upon them upon many occasions and they are in their judgments convinced that it must be so yet notwithstanding the faith of their hearts apprehend it not they do not beleeve it they do not listen and frame to it We like Caleb tell them of the good Land and the fat of the Land and the fruit of the Land and the fulness of the Land of Canaan but generally men like the unthankful Israelites murmure and repine and rebel and scarce hear us or if they do they do not beleeve it For if men did beleeve it it could not be that men should live like Saduces as they do that neither beleeve the soul nor immortality neither that there are spirits nor Devils nor resurrection nor nothing the lives and conversations of men plainly bewray that they beleeve not this Doctrine though they can profess with the mouth that Jesus Christ shall come again to judge the quick and the dead but like the Cardinal of whom we read that profest he would not give his part in Paris for his part in Paradise so men live as if they would not give their part here on earth for a Childs part in Heaven Like that wicked Pope that we read of when he was about to die now saith he I shall know that which I never beleeved whether there be a Heaven or Hell an immoatality of the soul or no. So men live as if they never meant to know those things or beleeve them till they come to the tryal and experience of them And besides what a number of men and women are there that can profess these things with their mouth but they cast themselves into a fast sleep in sin and security and sleep on both sides Gods Messengers and Ministers cannot awake them but as though their souls were to sleep everlastingly so they sleep on in their lusts and sins and will not be awakened And my brethren who doth not observe that it is not the fashion of men even of those that profess themselves Christians to say come Lord Jesus till they be on their death-beds and till they be scarce able to speak or breath out a word they never say come Lord Jesus till they know not what to do with themselves till they can enjoy their lusts and the World and their sins no longer they cannot tell how to bequeath themselves longer to the service of sin and unrighteousness till then they never call after the Lord Jesus to come to them and when they do it is not out of love and affection to Christ but out of self-love to help them out of the hands of death that is too strong for them and to fetch them out of that misery they are too weak to sustain Therefore they call Lord Jesus but as I said it is far from the love of him in their hearts for were these men to live over their lives again and to be restored to health again it would be the last breath of their lives still to call the Lord Jesus My brethren where these things are and we find them too general every man that looks into his own heart may find himself in some measure touched therein certainly it cannot be that this same lively desire of a Christian can be there and these persons can have little comfort in themselves they have few arguments to prove themselves Elect of God having the Spirit of God or to be those that hear the promises with faith or those that thirst after Christ there is no argument in them that they are Christs because they long not and desire after him But therefore in the second place since this desire is so rare let us try our selves a little even those that profess better things and hope well that they are indeed the Spouse of Christ Let us try and search our selves whether this expectation be with us or no that we may find comfort in our estate and in our union and conjunction with Christ For tryal of this Point first we must know that a necessary attendant and companion of this expectation of Christ and waiting for him is sighing and longing and a vehement desire after him It is no slight no superficial desire but an inward vehement desire a sighing and panting after Christ as those that see the need of him And therefore as the Wise man saith hope deferred paines the heart the godly desires of the soul bring pains to the soul for want of Christ in the absence of Christ And as the Apostle expresseth it in Rom. the 8. We sigh in our selves saith he wayting for the redemption of our bodies We sigh in
parts the main matter whereof things were made and shall that be the destruction of that whereof it is made Yes saith the Apostle All things were made by water too and yet they were destroyed by water and why not then by fire But God deserreth the promise of his coming What of that He putteth it not quite off though he deferre yet it is not long with God for there is no time long to him that is eternal and in that he deserreth it is that some men may be brought to salvation and others made inexcusable Thus the Apostle takes off all objections of the Atheists of the world and sheweth that there shall be a day of Judgment Secondly it serveth for instruction If there shall be such a Judgment to come if God will have such a time of rekconing with all his Stewards in the world Then it teacheth us first not to busie our selves in judging one another why because there shall a time come of Gods Judgment Who art thou saith the Apostle that judgest thy brother we shall all stand before the Judgment seate of Christ As if he should say What a bold part what a presumptuous part is this that thou shouldest judg thy brother Dost thou not know that there is one that shall judge him and thee is it fit that he that is a prisoner at the Barre should come and leap up into the place of the Judg and sit in his seat Ye are all fellow prisoners together and ye must all stand before the Judgment fear of Christ So in another place the same Apostle when he would take men off from judging saith he Judg nothing before the time Why for the Lord will come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darknesse and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts and then shall every man have praise of God As if he should say Thou art not able to judg aright it may be that man that thou dispraisest at that day may find praise with God Secondly Turn the Judgment on thy own heart be more in Judging of thy self that thou mayest not be Judged of the Lord. Will God call thee to a reckoning then begin to call thy self to a reckoning first How shall that be done There is a double reckoning that every man must undergoe that will avoid this reckoning with God First he must reckon with his own heart Secondly with others First with his own heart Every man must take all the advantages opportunities that God hath given to reckon with himselfe Doth God awaken thy conscience by the preaching of his word Descend into thy own heart It is that that the Lord looks for that a man should say What have I done Doth God smite thee with some afflictions if with losses reckon with thy self how thou hast gained thy wealth If with disgraces reckon with thy selfe about thy pride and ambition and vanitie of thy heart If God smite thy body with sicknesse reckon with thy self about the imployment of thy health and the well usage of the times and seasons of grace Every evening call thy self to an account What have I done this day where have I been In what company how have I carried my self there what good have Idone what good have I received In the matters of thy calling reckon with thy self with what heart thou hast followed it with what care to conforme thy selfe to Gods word the rule of righteousnesse If thou hast been in pleasures whether they were lawful and if they were whether they were lawfully used Thus must every man reckon with his own heart as the Church in Lament 3.39 Wherefore is the living man sorrowful Man suffereth for his sinâ—… let us search our wayes and turne again to the Lord. There are many that 〈◊〉 to out-face God and men in their sins but know this who-ever thou art that if thou forbear to reckon with thy own heart God will assuredly reckon with thee thou must reckon here or hereafter with thy self or with God therefore saith David Psal 4 Commune with your own hearts upon your beds that is be sure to take time from your sleep rather then to neglect this businesse of reckoning with your own hearts Secondly Reckon with others too Let that man that is in authority a Magistrate so carry himself in his imployments that he may reckon with the people and give an account to them if need be as Samuel did Whose oxe have I taken or whose asse have I taken or whom have I defrauded whom have I oppressed or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith The Lord saith he is a witnesse that ye have not found any thing in my hand And not only so but that they may be able to witnesse that they have been great instruments of Gods glory and of the good of others Let Ministers reckon with the people committed to their charge as Paul did when he took his leave of the Ephesians and was to go up to Jerusalem I take you to record this day saith he that I am pure from the blood of all men for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God and I have kept back nothing that was profitable unto you but have shewed you and tought you publikely and from house to house And because I know that after my departure there will somewhat remain to be done for Grievous wolves will enter in not sparing the flock therefore I will be carefull that there be a succession of faithfull Ministers afther me and therefore I give carge to the rest that follow that they take heed to themselves and to the stook over which the holy Ghost hath made them overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own bloud Let Masters reckon with their Familes their servants and children whether they have done their duty as faithful Masters not only in furthering the service of God but also in furthering of them by instruction and example to all good Let those that are in a way of traffique learn to reckon with those that they deal withal If thou hast wronged any by unjust gain thou must reckon with him by restitution there is nothing that thou hast gotten unjustly for which thou dost not reckon now but as Saint James saith at that day shall eat they flesh as it were fire Therefore Zacheus when salvation was brought to his house If I have done uujustly and wronged any I restore it Doubtless there are many men that cloath themselves in Sattin and Velvet and abound in all variety and bravery that would now be houseless and moneyless and apparelless it may be if they should make restitution of their unjust gain Well do it as ye love your own souls you shall reckon as you are Gods Stewards with him how you have come by every penny that you have in the world and
therefore goe about it now Reckon with others also for works of mercy what thou hast been wanting in to thy brethren thou hast lived thus long in a plentifull estate what hast thou done wich thy estate Josephus reckons up three several tenths that were expected and exacted of the Jews Wouldest thou be less liberal now in the time of the Gospel then they were under the law Is God lesse merciful or hath he less interest in thy estate Thou hast so many thousands What hast thou done out of this to releeve the poor or to set up those in a course of traffique and trade that want a stock Beloved you cannot if you look about you want objects of mercy and means to further your reckoning at the day of the Lord. And if you would be faithful stewards to God say thus I have been thus much behind-hand in paying the due I owe to the poor to the Church c. I will pay it while I live and if that be not enough when I die I will pay it But I hasten That is the second thing Let every man reckon thus with his own heart The third thing is the daily exercise of repentance upon the sight of your former evils God now saith the Apostle calleth all men every where to repentance because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness Let this then stir us up to repentance God expects that men should judge themselves now Fourthly If you would stand at that great day of Judgement when there shall be such an exact reckoning Interest now your selves in Christ There is no way to escape the Judgement to come but by making peace with the Judge now There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus This was prefigured in the Mercy-seate that was to be compassed about with the wings of the Cherubins all covering the two tables of the Testament one Cherubin to look toward another shewing us thus much that there is no covering of our transgressions committed against the commandements of God the tables of the Testimony but by the great Mercy-seat the Lord Jesus Christ upon whome the Fathers of the times before Christ and Beleevers since look expecting the covering of the guilt of their sins from the wrath of God by no other means but by this propitiator or Mercy-seat that covereth the Arke of the Testimony Lastly it serveth also for instruction in another point that is To teach us to lead a holy conversation This use the Apostle Peter made of the Doctrin of the day of Judgement Seeing saith he that we locke for these things what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godlidesse Alas beloved little do you know whether this be the last Sermon that many of you may heare whether this be the last day wherein God will ever call upon you to repent and amend your lives There shall be a fearful dissolution and destruction of all things that you see There shall be a naked appearance made before the Judge at that day of reckoning let every man therefore say within himself How shall I stand at that time at that Judgement All our care should be that of the Apostle Pauls Whether we be absent from the body or present in the body we labour that we may be accepted of the Lord Whether we live a day longer or die this day before the morrow that we may be found acceptable before the Lord. And for this cause saith he in another place because there shall be a resurrection from the dead both of the just and unjust I exercise my self to have alwayes a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men Look to it in your places and in your hearts that you may have a good conscience void of offence toward God and men for the time shall come that nothing in the world shall stand you in stead but a good conscience and if then when the books are opened it be found that your reckonings are even and the accounts clear between you and your Master by obedience and repentance by works and by faith happy shall that servant be whome his Master at that day shall find so doing The last Use is a use of comfort to all the servants of God Let them quietly and cheerfully suffer that portion of miserie and affliction that the Lord dealeth out unto them Let them not grudge at the prosperity of ungodly men or at the variety of changes that themselves are exposed unto because there is a day of reckoning and account when all things shall be made even The Apostle Saint James exhorteth Christians to patience upon this very ground because the day of the Lord draweth nigh If therefore you see wicked men prosper and bring their enterprises to passe be not troubled at the matter A man doth not much envy an enemy that is now in prison though he have some good chear there though he have some friends that come and see him there because he knows he is but a Prisoner and he shall be brought out at the Assizes and then he shall be righted The world is the common Jayle whereinto Adam was cast after he had sinned and we are all prisoners in this prison-house the enemies of Gods glory and of his Church and people they cannot escape out of this prison here they are tied Gods chains are upon them and he will bring them to an account before his Judgement seate and that before all men and Angels With these things let us comfort and support our selves A word concerning the present occasion Yee have heard that all men are Gods Stewards yee have heard that God hath a time wherein he will call all his Stewards to an account the fore-runners of this great account shall be in this life and after death when God strikes men down by death it is that they may be brought into his presence and there receive the sentence either of absolution or condemnation as I shewed you before concerning the soul o man in that intelectual manner receiving the sentence It is appointed to all men once to die and after that the Judgement You have now a spectacle of mortality before you one of Gods stewards took away and called by death to give up his account Concerning whom it cannot be expected that I should say much or any thing at all specially by those that know both the condition of his living and of his dying For his living It was not in the Citie but for the most part it was from us in the Country For his dying He was here but a day or two before he was taken hence Hee came to the Citie in the extremity of his weaknesse and it took him with some violence as the nature of that disease the stone is There was much expression expected from him but it pleased God to make a sudden change more then we looked
be scoff and jear and deride the wayes of God time shall come that even these wicked men shall be convinced they shall see their envy against the godly and hatred against the wayes of God they shall see their foolery and they shall at last repent when repentance shall do them no good repent when they are even turned into hell when they hear that sentence Depart from me you cursed Therefore now seeing these things will befall the rebellious that do not walk according to this rule according to this Canon which I have characterised a godly man by this should be a good incouragement to godly men so much the more to walk constantly and to be true to their own way And if they do live amongst wicked men to be rather gainers by them to grow the better rather then to receive infection and corruption from them They say that Lillies and Roses or such like things if they be planted by Garlick or Onions or such like unsavoury things they do increase in sweeness the Rose and the Lillie are sweeter so it should be when godly men are planted and hemmed about with wicked men the vileness and odiousness of their wicked wayes may make them to loath wickedness the more and to love godliness and to bless God that hath kept them that they have not run to the same excess of ryot with them Instead of all other Application which I thought to have added as for example and for instance to shew us the true Analogie of a Christian that we may discern who is a right Christian and who is not we must not discern it by our fancies but by those Characters God hath set And a just apology in the second place for those that are branded with nick-names If this be the description of true piety and of a true Christian to have the heart and soul breathing after God and seeking night and day after him and setting themselves wholly to walk in the way of uprightness with sincerity before God then certainly they are unjustly branded whose consciences do aime at these things and the consciences of other men may tell them that they do so and they see no other And so for conviction of those men that are in the Bosome of the Church they may see if they be not according to this stamp if they either fail of it that there is none of these lineaments to be found in them nothing toward God and his name no understanding no affection no endeavours working that way and so for the rest if they utterly fail of this they utterly come short and are not worthy the name of Christians but much more if they do deride and oppose and contemne the mind and the wayes of God which God hath chalked out to us for our rule and direction that is a high degree of fayling and coming short and therefore they may be convinced that they cannot be right I doubt when the Books shall be opened and every one judged according to the book of God which shall be laid for the tryal of our lives if our lives be not according to that whatsoever our words be and howsoever we carry it it will not beare us out then And it might have been a Use also of Examination let every one of us examin our selves and what our estate is according to this rule and what degree of this we have attained to And then for comfort for those that are such according to this rule whether it be in the perfection or in the affection If they have not the perfection yet if there affections stand and run this way and that they can truly and ingeniously say that they are such in sincerity there is a great deal of comfort for them And for Exhortation out of the several branches of the duty which I cannot meddle with And out of the several Motives that I propounded out of the words of the Text. But I say instead of all these this present Sister of ours whose Funeral we now solemnize I might setch an Argument as a Motive to all these several duties from her example To return now therefore to the present occasion I will speak something concerning Her in honour of whose Funeral solemnities we are at this time met together that gave us the occasion I shall according to my custome dispatch it briefly When any children of God die the last offices of Love are performed to them by three several sorts or ranks The Angels they convey their souls into the bosome of their father Abraham into the blisse of eternity The Bearers attended with the Mourners they carry their bodies to the bosome of their mother earth to rest in tranquility The Preachers as it were a middle between God and them they commend their name to the minds of their friends the hearers to live in their memories My part at the present is to do this and I shall do it not so much to trumpet out her commendation as to take a hint of something for your instruction which may be useful But I must intreat you to remember that you do not use to lace or adorn your mournings and therefore you have little reason to expect any eloquent adorning any Festival ornament in such a Funeral argument My language must be black and pathetical sutable to our sad occasion it must not be pleasing to the fancy in the fresh flowers of Rhetorick my language I say must be in black but in black laid upon a ground of truth which shall not blush for blame speaking any thing besides what I do really conceive As I dare not do you so much wrong as to paint or guild a rotten post so I am willing to do her so much right as to set a rich Pearl in Gold To pass other circumstances as that she was descended of an honest and worthy Family and of good quality that She had a full and hopeful issue desending from her self and such like circumstances which I leave for Oratours as unfit for a Divine to meddle withal All that I shall say concerning Her shall be out of the Text in which you may behold a true picture of her in all the lineaments of her and out of it you may be able to draw and take a good pattern for your selves The Byas of her spirit was toward God and toward his Name whose lively Image she bare graven in her memory living in her desires and beyond all pictures moving also in her endeavours to seek after God The very quintescence of her spirit was carried this way and that intimately sincerely universally and constantly With her soul she desired him in the night and with her spirit she sought him in the morning the light of the morning and the evening star as sometime the Star did the Wise men conducted her to the Sun of righteousness In mercies she was not wanton but thankful and fruitful In judgements as in a fatherly way of correction She had a deep
share wherein being exercised with many years weakness as those that knew her knew very well but yet in such fatherly dealings she shewed her patience her perseverance her prosiciency and being a Mourner for the stobbornness of the wicked she was a gainer likewise by them too and all because she looked up to God who sees and weighs all our paths In which I have briefly recollected upon the matter the sum of the whole things contained in the text so that so long as this Text is in the Bible and so long as the Bible is in the Church and so long as any thing though unworthy of this Sermon remaines in your memories she cannot want either a sweet memorial of her vertues in the book of God or a stately Monument in the Church and in your hearts too Happily some may scoffe and some may doubt as though this commendation flew too high or out of sight To whom I shall briefly answer both For the former It is reported of two great Tragedians learned and famous in their time Sophocles and Euripides Euripides presented upon the Scaene all naughty women and Sophocles presented all vertuous women and the ordinary observation of the wits of the times was as men are apt to be vainly witted in these things they thought that Euripides that presented them bad presented women as they were and Sophocles that presented them good presented them as they should be If I had nothing else to say to the scoffs of any but only this I suppose it will be sufficient I do beleeve fully that I have presented her as she was but howsoever you can take no hurt if you do but consider that it is spoken as what you should be I am sure and I know I have presented what you should be And for any that shall doubt yet that it may seem to high I would desire them only to consider this I describe in the Text the very temper and character of one that is truly godly such as I conceive her to have been and the truth is there is none that is truly godly but in some degree or measure must attain and do attain to participate in a conformity with this Character and therefore I have neither done you as I conceive any wrong and yet done her right too And to draw to an end She hath left this honour behind her that she lived beloved and died desired And who is there here almost that suffereth not a loss in her Her Husband hath lost a loving wife that honoured him highly Her children have lost a loving Mother that loved them tenderly that tendered them duly Her servants have lost a loving Mistress that governed them gently and was every way beneficial to them Her Brothers and Sisters have lost a loving Sister that answered them in their loves sweetly Her Neighbours have lost a loving neighbour full of courtesie to the rich full of charity to the poor And my self have lost I hope there is none here so weak to suspect that I blast the living to blazon the praise of the dead or that I do rob or strip the living to cloath the dead with their spoyles but I think I may truly say I have lost as truly and cordially a loving friend as any she hath left behind though I esteem many her Peeres and I cannot complain of any But to end all Her gain in Christ countervaileth and sweetneth all our losses She was a disciple of Love she loved her Lord and loved all his Saints and servants and therefore I doubt not that she was a beloved disciple and resteth in the bosome of her Love where not to disquiet her happiness and detain your patience any longer I shall leave her in that blessed place and commend you to the blessing of God THE EXPECTATION OF CHRISTS COMING OR A MOTIVE To a Holy Conversation SERMON XVI PHIL. 3.20 21. For our Conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself IN the seventh verse of this Chapter the blessed Apostle Saint Paul exhorteth the Philippians to be followers together of him and to mark them which walk so as they had him for an ensample And that he might the better direct them in the duty the imitation of his ensample he sheweth that there is a great difference between others that pretended themselves to be the Apostles of Christ and indeed were not and himself Many saith he walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you weeping that they are the enemies of the Cross of Christ whose end is destruction whose God is their belly and whose glory is their shame who mind earthly things These ensamples he would have them to avoid follow not such but be ye followers of us for our conversation is in heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ c. and follow those which walk so as ye have us for an ensample This is the example he would have them imitate In the words you have these things considerable First What the conversation of these men was whom the Apostle would have the Philipians to follow Their conversation was a heavenly conversation Our conversation is in heaven Secondly the reason or incouragement that they had to this imitation to walk so heavenly while they were on earth because from thence we look for a Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Thirdly the benefit by that Saviour whom they look for from heaven He shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like to his glorious body Fourthly the means by which this great work shall be effected According to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself For the first to touch it only in a word there is from that these two Observations clearly arising First That there is a heavenly conversation of the Saints on earth Secondly That while they are on earth they are now stated in heaven Our conversation is in heaven He saith not only it shall be in heaven though there it shall be perfected but it is now in heaven in regard of our present state and possession Concerning the first that the Saints on earth have a heavenly conversation You must know that the word here Politeuma translated conversation signifieth such a course of life and of traffique as is in Cities and Corporations where many are knit and united together in one common society in one common freedome Our conversation is in heaven that is we have a kind of heavenly traffique a heavenly trade while we are upon earth There are divers things wherein there is an agreement between the carriages and conditions of men in Cities and Societies here on earth and this of the Saints of God that have their conversations in heaven I will