Canaan if you expect to follow him into the blessedness of Canaan You must go as he did if whither he did in the way of holy walking yea in the way of suffering if he will call you to follow him through mud and bloud take up your Cross and follow him you must suffer with him if you would be glorified with him Thus I have gone briefly over the first thing considerable in the time when Peter endeavoured that they should remember his holy instructions We have considered this time first as giving a Title unto Death it is here called a Decease an Exodus 2dly We must consider it as discovering the lot of Peter an eminent Apostle an excellent Servant of Jesus in the Ministry and yet here he tells you of his decease The Observation shall be by way of question in allusion to the words of Stephen Acts 7.52 Which of the Prophets have not your fathers persecuted My Doctrinal Question shall be this Which of the Prophets hath not death removed Prophets ordinary or extraordinary Prophets before and Prophets since Christ all slain by Death they are deceased says the Apostle after my decease But why is it thus Next to the will of God and the irrevocable statute of dying Take this fourfold account of the death of the Prophets 1. Consider them as Men. 2. As holy men 3. As sinful men 4. As Ministers of Jesus Christ as Prophets And upon all these accounts they must have their decease 1. As men they are liable to a decease their bodies are flesh and bloud we walk after the flesh saith Paul that is as to the outward-man and state of frailty mortality 2 Cor. 10.3 Even they as well as you must mend their Cottages of Mortality once a day at least to keep them wind-tight and water-tight to preserve them from an untimely dissolution these Lamps cannot burn and shine without your Oil they are earthen vessels as the Apostle calls them Peter here twice calls his body a tabernacle and that shortly to be laid off the word of Life is in the Mouths of your Prophets but the Characters of Death are on their foreheads Isidore of Pelusium his expression is very apt to this purpose Our dissolution saith he doth as it were run an equal pace with our framing or making in the womb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assoon as you light a Candle it is melting and declining Post genesin sequitur exodus Every man as born is a dying man even Adam in his innocency though he had a posse non mori a power not to die yet he had not a non posse mori in regard of the originals of his body and its matter he had a remote power of dying he had the principia resolutionis principles of dissolution though in regard of his excellent Constitution and original Righteousness but especially the ordination and Providence of God he was in innocency immortal but in our fallen-state as men born living we are mortal death is natural and necessary We must die not because we are sick but because we live morieris non quia aegrotas sed quia vivis 2. As they are holy men Prophets must die 1. They must be made perfectly holy and they long to be so but on this side the grave they cannot be so they have indeed the first-fruits of the spirit but yet the reliques of sin primitias spiritus reliquias vetustatis here they strive against sin and yet do but imperfectly conquer it in Heaven they are neither conquered by sin nor have they the company of sin therefore because they are holy men that they may be perfectly so and have the full crop after the first fruits they must die 2dly Because they are holy men therefore they must see God God will not always be without their company the least grace is too good to go to hell and to stay always upon earth Enoch walked with God and was translated of all the Patriarchs before the Flood he lived the best and the least holy Prophets must die that they may go to the perfect fruition of God 3. They must dye because they are sinful men Our Apostle Peter that here foretells his decease not more humbly than truly call'd himself a sinful man Depart from me O Lord I am a sinful man Sin makes all subject to the stroke though not to the sting of death God hates sin wheresoever he sees it Christ must dye if sin be but imputed and all must dye if sin be inherent Though death be not unto the Saints a curse for sin yet it is a consequent of sin and blessed be God that it shall be the cure of sin 4. They must dye because they are Prophets Ministers of Christ 1. God oft takes away Prophets and Ministers they have their decease to punish the unprofitableness and unthankfulness of their people that never knew how to prize and value them in the time of their enjoying them God puts out these lights because you play the wantons with them If you will be playing when you should be working by the light God sometimes righteously takes away the Candle and lets you go to bed in the dark without an enlightning Minister 2. As they are Prophets they must dye because they are oft as Prophets persecuted to death A godly Minister is set in the Forlorn Hope of the Army of Christs Saints wicked men oftentimes shorten their lives and would not willingly let these lights burn to the socket but would gladly blow them out before they are burnt out Though blessed be God we cannot say with Lorinus the Jesuit upon the Text who writes concerning the Popes That in all their successions from Peter to the year 1625 though he doth most falsely date the succession of the Popes from Peter there never yet was one Pope that lived twenty-four years and truly he may well say so many of them having hastned their deaths with poisons others with their Murders Sodomy Incest and other notorious Villanies not to be named by a Minister of Christ in the Pulpit Though blessed be God I say we cannot say that none of our Ministers have arrived to the age of 24 years in their Ministry yet we must say their Lives are commonly shorter than those of others even in regard of that Antichristian fury principally bent against them the edg whereof hath frequently cut the thread of their Lives Persecutors have made faithful Ministers the very Butts of their shot of Opposition The Thief hates and strikes at the Candle more than any thing The Wolf is most angry with the Shepherd that defends the Flock witness the rage of the Devil in all places and ages 3. They must die as Prophets Ministers because there is no other way so fit for wicked men themselves to praise and prize them as by their dying While godly Ministers Lived though they were the marks of all the Obloquie and oppression of wicked men yet when dead even the wicked
and in that upon the flesh and Blood of Christ They differ in their Apparel Saints put on the Lord Jesus his righteousness as imputed and his grace and holiness as imparted to them but the wicked are clothed only with the defiled and defective rags of their own righteousness and the deformities of the old man and corruption 2. When the Israelites departed from Egypt their Exodus or departure was e terra afflictionis as 't is call'd Gen. 41.52 from a troublesome and afflicting Country therefore Scripture frequently speaks concerning their afflictions in Egypt Exod. 3.7 their being bond-men in Egypt Deut. 6.21 concerning the murther of their Infants in Egypt concerning their iron furnace in Egypt Dent. 4.20 called an iron-furnace because much imployment of the Israelites was spent in the melting and mollifying of iron which doubtless was the sorest and hottest work and a little before they went away their bricks were doubled their burthens were increased in one word the Egyptian cruelties were extended to the very highest pitch of extremity And when the people of God go out of the world is not their Exodus their departure from an Egypt too in this regard It is a troublesome hating persecuting world that they depart from Mundus turbatur amatur the world is troubled and troublesome saith Austin yet too much lov'd and God makes the place of our distance from heaven an house of bondage and trouble lest we should make it the place of our delight 'T is better for Gods Israel that Egypt should be a house of bondage than hospitality and God will have his people afflicted in it that they may not be infected with it and say it is good for us to be here When the people of Israel were coming into Egypt how kindly did Pharaoh entertain them how welcome were they to the Egyptians but when they went out from thence how were they persecuted When the people of God are looking towards the world and seeming to comply with it then they shall be respected but when they will leave it in their deportment and practice then they are hated 'T is good that Egyptians should hate Israel that they may not hurt them When the world is most kind 't is most corrupting and when it smiles most it seduceth most Were it not for the bondage of Egypt we should too much delight in the Idols and Onyons of Egypt 3. When the Israelites departed out of Egypt they departed e terra proâ—â—ana out of a wicked idolatrous sinful Country therefore you so often read concerning the idols of the Egyptians the gods of the Egyptians Jer. 43.12 Jer. 46.25 and particularly you have mention made Josh 24.14 concerning the people of Israel their serving the gods of the Egyptians which doubtless they did too frequently when they were amongst them so you read concerning the whoredoms of Egypt Ezek. 23.8 And is not this as the world that we are leaving the Egppt from which we are departing when we are dying The whole world says the Apostle lies in wickedness like a Swine in the midst of the mire wallowing and tumbling immersed in all kind of lewdness and profaneness and it is called therefore this present evil World Gal. 1.4 And the truth is the people of God while here they abide are too ready in this Egypt to learn the Language and imitate the sinful practises of Egypt Water though never so pure running through a Brimstony or Allomy Myne will have something of the savour tang and tast of it And the people of God as frequently we see and should sadly observe although they are holy purified and cleansed yet running through the Myne of a sinful profane World have too great a tang and savour of its Impiety I doubt not but the people of Israel learned their Idolatry of worshipping the golden Calf of the Egyptians who worshipped such Idols Thus you see from whence the Exodus or departure of the Israelites was it was from Egypt that carries too great a resemblance to the World which the Saints leave when they die 2dly What was the way of the Israelites departing out of Egypt It was through a red-Sea a kind of living-death in appearance or sepulcher wherein they expected every moment to be swallowed up Pharaoh also pursuing of them And the people of God must pass to life sometimes through a red-Sea of Persecution and Bloud as this great Apostle Peter did according to the prediction that he had from Jesus Joh. 21.18 but always they must pass to life through death there is no going any other way till the fetters of the body be knockt off the Soul cannot get up to God Death must be the threshold of Life we must be absent from the body before we can be present with the Lord. This is as the way of sins merit so of Gods method He writes death upon all things and persons before he enlivens and raiseth them Nor is the passage of the Saints through the red-Sea of Death without a pursuing Pharaoh the Devil with his Army of Tentations who will ever disturb where he cannot destroy and pursue though he cannot prevail But blessed be Christ who not only disappoints but destroys the destroyer 3dly To what Countrey did they design to go when they departed out of Egypt 'T was to the Land of Canaan thither they were tending and marching And so likewise do the People of God when they leave this Egypt they go to a better Land of Canaan than that which is earthly a Heavenly Countrey an heavenly Canaan though shadowed out and typified by the earthly I shall open it to you in three particulars 1. The Land of Canaan was Terra Promissa it was a Promised Land therefore Neh. 9.15 it is there called the Land which God both promised and sware to give the Israelites Their only Title to it was by Promise God ow'd it to them no further than he had promised it to them And the heavenly Canaan to which the dying Saints do go is also a Land of Promise 1 John 2.25 This is the promise that he hath promised Eternal life A Promise is a middle thing between Purpose and Performance first there is the Purpose of God to save his People his eternal Decree then he promises it in the Gospel then performs it after Death and so great is the Love of God to a true Israelite an Israelite indeed that he will not stay till the day of performance comes but shews his Love in promising before the time of performance And hence you read of the promise of eternal Life 2 Tim. 1.1 Heb. 9.15 the promise of the eternal Inheritance and the Saints called the heirs of Promise and hereby God both honours his own faithfulness in his peoples trusting him for Heaven and tries his Saints sincerity who embrace Gods Promises before the Worlds Performances and the Riches of the people of God on this side Heaven lies in this great Promise of Heaven A Saint that
hath a Promise of Heaven is richer than he is that hath all the Performances of the World 2dly The Land of Canaan to which the people of Israel went was Terra Sancta it was the Holy Land and therefore it is called Gods holy habitation Exod. 15.12 and Hierusalem the beauty of the land of Canaan the type of Heaven is called the holy City Matt. 4.5 And therefore was Canaan an holy place because that Land God had separated from all Lands to afford the visible tokens of his gracious presence in it and to it and to settle his Worship and Sanctuary in it for Communion with himself and to have the Israelites that inhabited it a peculiar people and set a-part for his own Honour and Service But much more may the Heavenly Canaan to which the Saints go when dying be called a Terra Sancta a Holy Land 'T is separated and set a-part for the glory of a holy God for holy performances holy persons The God of Heaven is Holy Holy Holy All that live with him there are holy only holy Ones enter there Holy Angels Souls of just men made perfectly holy Nothing defiled or defiling can there be admitted no sin no Sinner no more of unholiness is there than of unhappiness sorrow and sin came and shall go together There as all tears shall be wiped away from the eyes so all sin perfectly washt away from the Soul there shall neither be sin in the Soul nor Sinner in the Company as compleat an Holiness as God will and we can desire 3. The Land of Canaan was terra desiderii so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psalm 106.24 a pleasant delightful Land described to be a Land of milk and honey and to have an affluence of all things desirable to sense as Corn Wine Balm Oil Fountains Pastures But what a faint resemblance do all these carry to the pleasures of the Heavenly Canaan Here are the true full and everlasting pleasures fulness of joy pleasures for evermore Eternal satisfaction without any satiety and glutting An Eternal fulness and yet an eternal freshness of delights All comforts are centred in God All sweetness and delights meet in him In him there 's infinitely more than the Soul can want or wish and he is in heaven perfectly enjoyed even to the utmost extent of the Souls capacity but yet the Oyl will be infinitely more plentiful than the Vessels are capacious which cannot hold all that oyl of joy that God can give out of himself The people of God in Heaven are said to enter into their Masters joy for their joy cannot fully enter into them there In Heaven there 's that we call enough a thing never to be had in this world there is in that Life mors desiderii the death of desire and perfect joy is nothing but the cessation of all our wishes Vse The Application of all this shall only be to counsel you To labour that your departure out of this world may be an happy Exodus or departure as a going from the Land of Egypt to a happy an heavenly Canaan And for the making this Counsel the more effectual I 'le present it to you in these four branches 1. Be sure you be Israelites otherwise there is no entring into Canaan when you depart hence Canaan was a Land of Promise but promised only to Israel and for your entrance into the heavenly Canaan there is no promise unless you be Israelites Nor is it enough for you to be carnal Israelites I mean only such in regard of outward priviledges and enjoyment of outward Ordinances Outward priviledges put lust to no pain The most eminent for priviledges are oft under the prevalency of corruptions But you must be as Christ speaks of Nathaneel truly and indeed Israelites Otherwise Publicans and Harlots enter into Heaven before a meerly nominal Israelite How woful is that Hell into which men fall by presuming of Heaven The Valley of Vision hath the heaviest burden The deeper a ship is laden even with Gold the deeper she sinks God is most dishonour'd by the sins of visible Professours by these the power of Godliness is oft most bitterly opposed He that was born after the flesh was the greatest persecutor of him that was born after the spirit The priviledges of grace without the grace of the priviledg give no admission into Glory True holiness only is the way to true happiness No grace but tried grace enters into Heaven Many of the children of the Kingdom shall be shut out of the Kingdom He is not an Israelite who is one outwardly but he is an Israelite who is one inwardly Rom. 2.28 The children of the flesh are not the children of God Rom. 9.8 Luk. 16.25 I read of a Son of Abraham in Hell The children of Israel have oft been the children of the Devil No promise of salvation is made more to the Member of a visible Church unless he have a changed heart than to an Heathen 2dly Take heed of turning in your hearts back again into Egypt many that went out of Egypt did not go into Canaan the Holy Ghost tells us how forward they were to return back into Egypt Numb 14.3 4. Turn not from your professions imbrace not the present world take heed of being backsliders better you had never gone out of Egypt than to turn back again into it You must hold it out unto the death if you would have a Crown of life it is not he that sets out first but he that holds out last that shall be crowned 3dly Take heed of unbelief distrust not the promises that God hath made of entring into his rest Unbelief was the killing mother murthering sin of the Israelites they could not enter in Heb. 3.15 because of unbelief no difficulties in the way give a dispensation to distrust the promise of bestowing the happiness of the end Unbelief is the sin that of all other discredits God rejects mercy offered hinders from Salvation puts a necessity of destruction upon you other sins make us obnoxious unto death but Unbelief makes us opposite unto life 4thly Think not of entring into Canaan without your Joshua your Jesus there is no getting to the heavenly Canaan but by him He must be improved in these two regards 1. As your Conquerour one that is to conquer all the enemies you are to meet withall in your entrance into Canaan he only can overcome Death Devil Guilt it is he who by death overcomes him that hath the power of death he overcomes him by price in satisfying the Justice of God by force in the destroying of his works by his Spirit in the Souls of his Saints And 2dly You must improve Jesus not only as your Conquerour but also as your Leader to follow him they followed Joshua into Canaan Jesus must be our Captain as well as Conquerour Follow him as your Example If he be not your Pattern he never procures your Pardon You must follow him in the way unto
themselves will give them a good Report You read of the Sepulchres of the Prophets that the Pharisees garnished when they were alive they persecuted them but after their deaths they garnished and adorned their Sepulchres And the truth is a dead Prophet is commonly the only praised Prophet by a wicked man when living he reproved and roared against a wicked mans sins out of the Pulpit then how did the wicked scorn him and scoff at him but when a faithful Minister is gone and the Sinner sees him quiet and hears him say nothing against his Impieties for fashion-sake at least he will give him the good word of the Age and Countrey When Sampsons Lion was alive and roared upon him Sampson rends and tears him but when the Lion was dead then Sampson takes Hony out of him and counts him a creature of sweetness so a dead Prophet shall be counted sweet when alive he was the bitterest and most unpleasing person in the World to a Sinner 4. They must die as they are Prophets because perhaps their own Friends have idoliz'd them and put them in the room of God who can though ordinarily he will not do his work without them God uses Tools not to help him but to make them helpful he will not have the Servant advanced above himself nor the man above the Master the way to be without Ministers is to think you cannot be without them the Sun needs not the Glow-worm to give it light nor doth God need the Minister God doth nothing with means but he can do the same without them there was Light before there was a Sun 5. As Prophets they must dye for they are to receive a Prophets reward a Crown of glory that fadeth not away as the Apostle expresses it 1 Pet. 5.4 2 Tim. 4.7 8 a Crown of righteousness This is their working-time it is not the time of their reward The righteous Judg will shortly pay them they labour in the Lord and therefore dye in the Lord and their work is not in vain in the Lord. My labour is with the Lord saith the Prophet They are a sweet savour unto God in them that perish Their labour for the Lord is to be recompenc'd by their enjoyment of the Lord. Come well done good and faithful Servant enter into thy Masters joy shall one day be the Euge the Recompencing-expression of Jesus Christ to his faithful Ministers They serve the best Master who gives them the best work the best wages and is the only Master that gives strength and though he gives it he rewards it after he hath given the strength and the heart to use it 6. As Prophets they die because God will often have them preach by their death whether violent or natural I admired Doctor Seaman more in a sick-Chamber and on a Death-bed than ever I did in the Pulpit how audibly did he read the Lecture of Patience when he had pains as he himself wrote as great as flesh and blood could bear even then I remember not that by any gesture or groan he exprest any dislike of Gods dealings God will break the Box of a godly Ministers body that so the fragrant Perfumes of his Ointments his Graces and Faith may breathe out when the Box is broken I add 7. They must die as Prophets and Ministers because often the labour of their Ministry shortens their days they spend their Oil in giving you light like Clouds they dissolve themselves by dropping upon their too-often barren Hearers Nothing wearies and weakens the body more than Study I have look'd upon other Callings as Recreations to the Calling of a studious Minister that labours in hunting before he brings you Venison A Knife is always better and often more worn by use and cutting than by lying still and rusting Doctor Whitaker that Learned and famous Servant of God in his Generation who for Learning Orthodox parts and Zeal was the terror of Rome and Ornament of England sometimes Master of St. John's in Cambridge of whom Bellarmine himself said having his picture hung up in his Study Though he was a Heretick yet he was a learned Heretick This blessed Whitaker was so painful a Student and sat up so late in Nights at Study that he said of himself when he felt his strength decaying and his sickness encreasing He would willingly part with all that Learning that ever he got by Candle-light upon the condition he could recover that strength and health that he had lost by Candle-light The Prophets shorten their time to bring you to Eternity The Application follows and it shall be by way of 1. Advice 2. Comfort 1. By way of Advice 1. If the Prophets have their decease Then they should labour while they may they should work apace they shall not do it long Peter knowing that the putting off his tabernacle did approach was the more vigorous in his Pastoral endeavours v. 14. 'T is most incongruous for a Minister to be sure that he cannot live and yet so lazy that he will not preach Let him take heed lest he be so guilty that he dares not die What a shame is it that some called Ministers have a greater plurality of Livings than they can promise to themselves of days to live in No preaching in the Grave unless Silence preach which I wish that of this Great Divine may do 2. Magistrates should labour to keep up and encourage a Succession of Learned and laborious Ministers so far should they be from persecuting opposing them and drying up their Oil of Maintenance that they should encourage and highly honour them not only for their works-sake already performed but that they may perform it still and not only give them a liberty to preach still but a liberal Maintenance for preaching A Magistrate as well as a Minister should endeavour that Sanctity should be transmitted to Posterity 3. People should improve their Ministers if they must have a decease You have but borrowed your Books therefore you had need read them the faster Walk while it is light let not your Minister go till he hath blessed you with some spiritual Blessing shorten not his Life with grief for your unprofitableness You tear your Books apace and wear out your Ministers for shame learn your Lessons 4. If Ministers have their decease May those that succeed them in place endeavour to succeed yea to exceed them in worth and ability May that expression of the Antient here take place Cum fortes ad proemia vocat debiles ad certamina roborat Cum istos suscipiendo remunerat hisce laborum vires quas remuneret subministrat When God Crowns some for working may he strengthen others for their work May we never be miserable in having Reeds in the room of Pillars And may you of this Congregation with Wisdom and unanimity make choice of such a person to succeed Doctor Seaman as may so fill and become his Pulpit that if possible you may be sensible of a change