know this there is the cooling-card that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment In the words we will consider two parts First what young men do Secondly the Medicine of God to heal young men of their default That that young men do is this They give over themselves to an inordinate carnal Joy This Joy is set out from the time of it the dayes of their youth From the cause of it their hearts chear them From the kinds of it they walk in the wayes of their hearts and after the sight of their eyes Secondly the Medicine with which Solomon would heal young men of this inordinate carrâ—…al Joy is this Know saith he that for all these things God will bring thee into Judgment that is it is a most divine and infallible truth that every one should know and acknowledg that whatsoever sins they commit in their youth without repentance they must undergo the dreadful Judgment of God because of them Thus as briefly as I can I have opened the words unto you Though I might insist on many doctrines yet not witstanding I will only handle these two The first shall be that which ariseth from the first part of the Text what young men do what their fault is For as I said it is an Ironnical concession not declaring what young men should do but what they do The doctrine is thus much That it is the sin of young men to rejoyce inordinately and carnally in the dayes of their youth to walk after their hearts and the sight of their eyes We read concerning the old world that they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage altogether sottish and sensual till the wrath of God came in the flood and swept them away Now lest any should suppose that this were the fault of old age only the Scripture sheweth that all flesh had corrupted their way before God Gen. 6.11 Isa 22.14 Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die It is thought by learned Divines that this speech was not so much the language of Age as of the youth in Israel Hence Solomon giveth a caveat to the young man Eccles 12.1 to bridle and restrain him from his jollity and carnal mirth Remember now thy Creatour in the dayes of thy youth while the evil day come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them And the Apostle Saint Paul 1 Tim. 2.22 instructeth Timothy to flie the lusts of youth that is in carnal pleasures and pastimes in voluptuousness and sensuallity and the like And Tit. 2.6 Exhort young men that they be sober minded that is that they leave this drunkenness of understanding in being overcome with sensual carnal objects and pleasures Job in the first Chapter of that book when the young people his Suns and Daughters met together to feast he was afraid lest they should be misguided in this kind therefore the holy man in a godly care and thoughtfulness for their welfare sacrificed to God to make attonement for their sin Let us a little consider the reasons of this Doctrine whence it is that young men should be so much misguided in their youth The first cause is natural corruption that they have drawn by propagation from their Parents A spiritual leprosie and maladie and disease which as it prevaileth for the most part against age by covetousness so it getteth ground of youth by sensuallity and voluptuousness This dams up the eare against reproose this hardens the heart against instruction and makes many young men the souldiers of Sathan in sin Again in the second place Men in their youth forget the day of their reckoning and Judgment they are not mindful of their latter end Deut. 32.22 Oh that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end This Precept is neglected both by youth and age but especially by those of younger yeares For they feele their bloud run warm in their veins and they are full of spirits and vigour therefore they suppose that the Grave and the house of darkness is far off from them Again in the third place Young men are not broken by afflictions the fallow ground is not poughed up by the pressures of afflictons which through the grace of God are great means to tame nature and to subdue the pride of it and to bring it to a right frame and temper Before I was afflicted faith David I went a stray And Ephraim faith of himself Jer. 31. I was as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoak thou chastisest me and I was chastised I was ashamed because I bore the reproach of my youth But young men are free from aches and pains and sickness and sorrow much more then old age and this is the reason why they are more licentious Lastly young men want true joy in God therefore they betake themselves to carnal joy For sure it is that a man cannot live without joy and contentment if he have it not from the Wells of salvation he will drink it out of watery and slimy places Now because men in their youth cannot take in the spiritual joy of that clear fountain therefore they drink in the muddy waters of carnall joy The use of this point is in the first place an Admonition to all young men to take notice of these maladies and spiritual diseases in themselves The first degree of our healing is to see that we are sick and till then Christ Jesus the Physitian of our souls hath no commission to do us good Let young men observe in themselves first their carnal joy Solomon here sheweth that they rejoyce inordinately This may appear to them first because they rejoyce not where they ought they solace not themselves in God in whom is the fountain of joy nor in Christ Jesus in whom is the spring of joy nor in the sacred Word where there is the Cistern of Joy Even as a bone when it is out of joynt out of its place it must needs be a disordered bone so the affections when they are misplaced are disordered and then our Joy and any other affection are misplaced when they are not set upon God and Christ Now if young men would deal uprightly with themselves they should perceive that for the most part in their jollity and merriment they never think of God or dream of the world to come Nay the serious apprehension of God Almighty would quench their joy and make it altogether put out Secondly the carnalness of the joy of young men appeareth because they rejoyce where they ought not in riot in drunkenness in surfeiting in voluptuousness many times in obscenity of words and phrases in making jeasts of the word of God in deriding their superiours behind their backs As Solomon faith of laughter thou art mad so we may say of this merriment it is
shall never again be known in the world or felt by his servants and he preventeth all those evill effects that it would work in the soul for eternity and removeth all the ill effects of it that it hath wrought on their bodies for the present time Death takes away a mans goods for the present Christ abolisheth that he giveth everlasting substance in heaven Death takes away friends Christ abolisheth that he sends us to heaven where we have more friends and better Death brings the body to rottenness and corruption it laieth it in the dust turns it to putrifaction Christ abolisheth that at the Resurrection it shall rise again in glory How that is done the Apostle tells us in the end of this chapter The body shall be laid in the dust a weak and feeble a mortal and natural body but it shall be clothed with immortality This mortal shall put on immortality this corruptible shall put on incorruption then shall be fulfilled that saying Death is swallowed up in victory But this is also limited it shall be destroyed to whom To those that use the remedy those that partake of Christ those that have put on him that is the Resurrection and the life Thus I have laid before your eyes briefly these four things that the Apostle leadeth us to treat of concerning death That it is That it is an enemy That it is the last enemy And that it shall be destroyed Now I desire to apply this and to make use of it First I shall be bold to play the Examiner to search each conscience a little Brethren let the word of God enter into your souls Ye hear that there is a death and that this death is a sore and bitter enemy and ye hear that to some sort of men it is the last enemy that ever they shall encounter with and be freed from all the hurt of it it shall be utterly destroyed Now do so much as discend every one into himself and inquire what care there hath been to prepare for death to make use of the remedy against death what time and paines hath been bestowed to seek to get that that is the only means to escape the Dart of this enemy and that that is the only cause to procure this enfranchisement to the soul from that that else will destroy all A man hath not fitted himself to encounter with his enemy when he looks after wealth and followeth the pleasures and contentments of this life these things will do no good they will be rather a burthen to the heart and vexe the soul and increase the mischief laying more sin upon the soul and giving death darts to pierce the soul with But when is a man fit for death and who may encounter with this enemy with safety I will tell ye That man that takes the greatest care to disarm death of his weapons to arm himself with defensive weapons against death If an enemy come upon a man with good weapons in his hand and find him altogether unweaponed it is hard for a naked unarmed man to deal with him it is hard for a man that never thought of it before to fight with one that is skilful at his weapons Death I told ye is an enemy and an enemy that is skilful in his weapons and the weapon of death it is our own sin Death bringeth nothing with it to hurt a man It findeth with us and in us that whereby to hurt us so many corruptions as are in thy heart so many weapons so many idle words so many bad deeds so many swords to pierce thy heart Death maketh use of those weapons it findeth in our selves and with them he destroyeth and killeth and brings us to perdition Now what have ye done beloved to disarme death what care have ye taken to break sin apieces that it may not be as a sword ready drawn for the hand of death when it cometh as Arrows in a Bow to shoot at you when Death layeth hold on you That man that hath took no care to overcome sin in the power of it and to get himself free from the guilt and punishment of it is unfit for death If death come upon him and find his offences unrepented of unpardoned unsubdued he will so order those offences that he will thrust them into his foul as so many poisoned Darts that will bring sorrow and anguish and vexation and destruction to all eternity Ye may see then whether ye have any fitness to meet with this Enemy whether ye be in case to fight that battel that of necessity ye must for Death as I told ye before is enevitable If ye have not Get alone between God and thy self and there call to mind the corruption of thy nature the sins of thy childhood of thy body of thy mind bring thy soul into his presence confess thy sins with an endeavour to break thy heart for them and to be sorry for them mightily crying to him in the mediation of that blessed Advocate Jesus Christ that died on the Cross to pardon and to wash thy soul in his bloud and to deliver thee from the pollution of thy sins Beg the Spirit of sanctification to bear down those sins and subdue thy corruptions Bestow time to perform these exercises daily carefully present thy self before God thus to renew thy repentance and faith in Christ to make thy peace with God Labour to purge away the filthiness of thy sin and then whensoever Death cometh thou shalt find in thy self sufficient against it thou hast disarmed it But if ye spend your time in pursuing profits and pleasures and follow the vanities of this life and either ye do not think of death or ye think of it no otherwise then a heathen man would have done to no purpose ye think of it to enjoy the world while ye live because ye know not how soon death will end the world and you if you play the Epicures in the thought of Death to annimate you to enjoy the outward benefits of this life to think of it to no purpose but only to talk and discourse now and then as occasion serveth then Death will find your souls laden with innumerable sins that repentance hath not discharged and undoubtedly it will bring eternal perdition Have ye thus disarmed Death But again a mans self must be armed or else he cannot incounter with his enemy What is our Armour against Death to keep off that blow The Apostle in one word sheweth us these Armours when he saith a Breast-plate of faith and love and the hope of salvation a Helmet If a man have got faith to rest on Christ alone for eternal happiness and his soul filled with the hope of glory and salvation through him and then with love to him and his servants for his sake These three vertues will secure a man against all the hurt that death can doe Faith Hope and Charity the Cardinal vertues that Christian religion requires
from Parents it comes not of their substance it is enough for them to be the fathers of the flesh God alone is the Father of spirits as the Apostle makes the antithesis Heb. 12.9 Secondly for the Image the soul is most like God saith Plato saith Aristotle it is of the nearest kin of the greatest consanguinity as I may say and the Lord himself signifies so much After our Image let us make man Then the soul of man is not stamped with a Roman Caesar but with Gods own Image and superscription and that First in respect of the substance being not only a spiritual intellectual incorporeal invisible essence but explaining by the plurality of Powers in the unity of Essence the plurality of Persons in the unity of the Deity Secondly being furnished with singular indowments as in the state of innocency with perfect wisdome and holiness and righteousness Yea still in the state of sin some generals are lest some broken fragments of the creation moral qualifications that may lead us by the hand to the knowledge of our Master Lastly in regard of the comanding power it hath over the body It is to the body as Moses was to Pharoah a God to the body it actuates it and moves and commands and restrains it whereby next and immediately under God we live and move and have our being Seeing then the soul is the immediate work and character of God himself so excellent for the Original and for the Image let nature conclude that the soul in-these regards is of greater value then the whole world Secondly in the Kingdome of grace the price of the soul is far above the dignity of the world and that in the grace of Redemption and the grace of renovation For first in the souls redemption the soul amounts so high as that the whole Creation is not able to discharge it It is not gotten for gold nor silver is not weighed for the price of it it is not valued with the gold of Ophir or the precious Onix It cost more to redeem the soul of sinful man the precious bloud of the eternal Son of God he could only redeem it that at the first created it Ye are bought with a price the precious blood of Christ Secondly in the grace of renovation nothing is able to cleanse it from sin but the Spirit of God The spirit alone must enlighten the understanding and rectisie the affections and purisie the will and sanctifie the conscience and seal up the Image of God in righteousness and true holiness And the soul thus renewed is as a Garden inclosed a spiritual Paradise where the God of heaven delights to dwell the Spouse of the Beloved and in the phrase of the Church As the Lilly among the thorns so is my love among the daughters Seeing it appears that the universal World is not able to redeem or being redeemed to renew or renewed to parallel the soul let grace subscribe to that which nature concludes that the soul is of greater value then the whole world Lastly for the passage of glory the contents of the whole Universe are not able to come neer the soul Saith S. Bernard well well it may be busie and took up with other things but it cannot be satiate and replenished with them And Democrates imagined that if there were millions of worlds it were all one in comparison of the soul for blessedness The world is transitory like the dew of the morning it fades as the grass and as the flower of the field whereas on the contrary the soul of man is the subject of immortality capable of an exceeding surpassing eternal weight of glory For if in the time of grace we behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord and are changed into the same Image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord. How resplendant shall the soul of the righteous be in the beatifical vision of Gods excellencies How wonderful shall that divine capacity be that shall be capable of God himself for a perpetual residence Insomuch that the most ancient of dayes shall give fulness to the Soul of knowledg and wisdom and his sacred Spirit that shall fill it with the fulness of God with contentation and the sacred Trinity shall be all in all to it Seeing then the Soul is capable and is the subject of the happiness and joyes of heaven and partner with the glorious Angels in the fruition of the chief good let the sentence of glory joyn to Grace and nature that the Soul is of greater value then the whole world Behold then O man out of the mouth of three witnesses for I may say in this case as Saint John saith in another There are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the holy Ghost Behold out of the mouth of three Witnesses the surpassing excellency and dignity of thy soul it is the breathing of God the Image of God he created it with his Word redeemed it with his Son and in whomsoever his grace abides he will crown it hereafter with his glorious presence What then remains but that we esteem our souls accordingly as God values them Let us not with the unhallowed voluptuous in these times make Lords of our bodies and slaves of our souls Let us not spend our dayes in providing for the lusts of the flesh Let us not in affectation of fair possessions of able servants of hopeful sons and good friends content our selves with bad souls A mans soul is himself saith Plato And O wretched wight saith Saint Austin how hast thou deserved so much ill of thy self as among all thy goods to be only thy self bad O remember the sublimity of thy precious soul thou knowest not what a precious pearle thou hast in thy body like the hidden treasure in the Gospel it is of greater worth than the whole field I say not as he did know that thou hast a God in thee yet know that in that better part of thy nature thou art like to God for he hath given thee a soul of his own breathing and stamped it with the impress of his own Image and created it capable of the fruition of his own presence in endless glory In the consideration whereof walk worthily of this precious divine inspiration Thy Soul is a spirit let thy thoughts be spiritual Thy soul is immortal let thy meditations be of immortality and renounce thy body and good name and gifts of the world for the gainig of thy soul for what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and to lose his own soul So much shall serve to be spoken of the first point the surpassing excellency and dignity of the soul it is vallued and prized here above the whole world Now the next is the possibility that a man may lose his own soul The mention whereof causeth me to remember that passage between Christ and his
spirits meaneth to keep us under his discipline suppose it be all our time and perhaps it shall be so yet all that is but the time of our minority and therefore if we have been content to submit to our earthly parents their discipline for a few dayes shall we not much more be in subjection to the Father of spirits to his chastisement though it be for our life-time for the disproportion is infinitely greater between the time of this life compared with the state of maturity and ripe age which the Saints shall come to hereafter and the time of our minority and child-hood compared with the state of full age and man-hood in this life for alas how short are our dayes they are spent even as a tale that is told But lastly that the Apostle might over-power the spirits of the godly and quiet their minds and make them compose themselves to a patient waiting upon God and a willing submission to whatsoever condition he shall bring them into Our earthly parents saith he according to their pleasure and many times in the strength of passion and with over-much unadvisedness and heat of bloud not so much respecting the weak condition of their children chastened us but he that is our heavenly Father the Father of spirits for our profit and what profit that we might be partakers of his holiness This is an Argument I conceive very sutable to the occasion of our meeting together at this time in regard of those whom more especially and neerly it concerneth the Parents of this deceased young Gentleman whom the Lord is pleased now deeply to afflict and to reach out to them a bitter Cup I shall endeavour therefore to speak somewhat in this Argument And though it concerns them in a more special manner yet it is a meditation that concerns us all to take knowledge of and such a one as if we belong to God and that the Lord hath a purpose to bring to heaven we shall have occasion in our time to make often use of Passing over therefore other things let us come to consider of this latter part of the verse and of the latter part of the comparison here framed by the Apostle in order to the strengthning of his main Argument whereby he urgeth his exhortation to the patient bearing of those Afflictions that God shall be pleased to exercise us withall Our earthly Parents for a few dayes chastened us after their own pleasure but He the Father of our spirits for our profit that he might make us a partaker of his holiness In the words themselves we have to consider these particulars And the main pillars of our discourse for the present letting passe the rest shall be these severals First we are to take knowledge of this point in the general viz. That God Almighty is graciously set to procure and further the good and profit of his people Secondly and more particularly That in all the afflictions and chastisments he bringeth upon his people his eye and aim is at their good Thirdly The great profit and benefit that God aimeth at and intendeth to his people in all his fatherly administrations especially of castigation is that be might make them partaker of his holiness I begin with the first and the more general point You see the Text importeth it plain enough that God Almighty is graciously set for to procure and promote and further the good and benefit and profit of his people of such as fear his name of such as he is pleased to receive for his own his heart I say is set upon them to do them good he is studious of their profit he hath a due respect to their benefit in all his dealings and administrations to them Next to his own glory which is dearest to him of all things else and good reason too for that is better then salvation and eternal happiness But I say next to his own glory and the glory of his beloved Son Jesus Christ the main thing that he aimeth at is that he might make his people happy with him and that they might be every way profited and advantaged both in soul and body and furthered to eternal happiness This will appear to us if we consider first The ordinances of God which he hath appointed in order to his peoples good Secondly if we consider his commandements and impositions And Thirdly if we consider all his various administrations toward them All which will clearly manifest to us that Gods aim in all is at the profit and benefit of his people I shall touch but upon some particulars and on them neither I shall but onely glance because I would keep my self within the compass of the time First consider the Lords ordinances that he hath provided for his people and calleth them out to give attendance upon they are all with respect to his peoples profit and an eye to that As for instance That great Ordinance which God hath set up in his Church namely that of preaching and dispensing of the sacred misteries of the Gospel it is with respect to his peoples profit To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in Christ That they might be brought into the fellowship of this mistery and be inriched with all the treasures of the Gospel And the Apostle saith that all Scripture which this ordinance of Preaching is to be conversant about that Scripture which we are to break abroad among you this way it is profitable Profitable for Doctrine for reproof for instruction for correction and it will make the man of God perfect So profitable as that it is able to perfect a man to make him wise to salvation and we need no more wisdom The like might I speak concerning the Sacrament of the Lords Supper It is instituted of God with an eye to his peoples benefit that they may come to be made partakers of that profitable flesh and bloud for so I may justly call it of the Lord Jesus It is not the bloud of Bulls and of Goats it is not the bloud of all the men in the world that is profitable for such purposes as the pacifying of the wrath of God the quenching of the flames of his displeasure the purging of the conscience from dead works of those we may say as David in another case what profit is there in my bloud But there is profit in the bloud of Christ and with respect to that this ordinance is provided in the Church that the people of God attending thereon according to his institution may come to be made partakers of the vertue and benefit thereof having the remission of their sins thereby sealed up to their consciences through faith in that bloud The like Instance might I give of Prayer and the rest of those holy ordinances
are required at our hands we may be sure that we have spiritual life in us we may build upon it that Christ dwelleth in our hearts by faith and that we live in him by grace 3. Our benefit by them is manifold in this life and the life to come In this life peace of conscience their soul shall dwell at ease 2. Good success in all we undertake what soever we do it shall prosper 3. The service of the creatures for all things work for the best to them that love God Lastly a comfortable pass out of this world we are sure our end shall be peace In the life to come the benefits are such as never eye hath seen nor ear hath heard nor ever entred into the heart of man God grant therefore our heart may enter into them quia Aristoteles non capit Eurispum Eurispus capiat Arist otalum because we cannot comprehend the joyes of heaven let them comprehend us You expect something to be spoken of our dear Sister deceased and much might be said and should by me in her praise but that one of her chiefest commendations was that she could not endure praise Laudes quia merebatur contempsit quia contempsit mag is merebatur becanse she deserved praise she desp ised it and because she despised it she the more deserved it Silent modesty in her was her crown in her life and modest silence of her was the charge at her death Her life was well known to most of this place and her death was every way answerable to her life all that visited her in her sickness might behold with sorrow a pittiful anatomy of frail mortality and yet with joy a perfect pattern of Christian patience and a heavenly conversation and though she were full of divine conceptions and she had a spring by her of the waters of life in the devotion of her dearest helper especially in the best things yet when I came to her she desired she might be partaker of some of my meditations they were her own words and when I prayed with her and for her she joyned not so much with me with her tongue as her affections and answered more in sighs and tears then in words often she complained of her tuff heart that would not yeeld to her dissolution and long long she thought it till she should come to appear before the God of Gods in Sion Her last words were sweet Father help me and she had her request for presently he helped her both by the zealous and most feeling prayers of her Husband and by the holy spirit assisting her in her own prayers with sighs and groans that cannot be expressed and immediately her sweet Father released her of her pangs and received her to himself on his own day On the Lords day morning before the morning watch I say before the morning watch she entered into her rest and began to keep her everlasting Sabbath in heaven where she reapeth what she sowed and seeth what shebelieved and enjoyeth what she hoped for and is now entred into those joyes which never entred fully into the heart of any living on earth nor shall into ours till we with her be made perfect and all of us come to Mount Sion and the heavenly Jerusalem and innumerable company of Angels and to the Congregation of the first-born whose names are written in heaven and to the spirits of just men and women made perfect Whither the God of peace bring us in our appointed time who brought again from the dead the great shepheard through the blood of the everlasting Covenant To whom with the holy Spirit c. FAITHS ECCHO OR THE SOULES AMEN SERMON XLVI REVEL 22.20 Amen Even so come Lord Jesus THese words they afford to us a comfortable and sweet argument to be conversant in From the sixt verse of this Chapter is set down to us the confirmation of the whole Prophesie and Book of the Revelation partly by the affirmation of God as likewise of Jesus Christ and of John himself that heard and saw all these things and likewise of the Church of God in verse 17. It is likewise confirmed by the promise of Blessing and Happiness pronounced upon them that shall do all these things and shall faithfully expect the accomplishment of them This Verse a part of which I have read to you is the Repetition in few words of all that matter that goeth before from verse 6. to it and hath in it First an attestation of our Lord and Saviour Christ in the former part of the Verse Behold I come quickly Secondly an acclamation of the Church in the latter part these words I have read to ye Amen even so come Lord Jesus In the attestation of Christ he promiseth he will come to his Church he will come shortly both for the accomplishment of all his promises and likewise for their safety and deliverance from all enemies and all miseries and molestations whatsoever To this the Church makes an acclamation and saith Amen even so come Lord Jesus In this acclamation of the Church to which we must now come we are to consider First the person of the Speaker whose words they be Secondly what is the matter or substance contained in them Ye shall see whose words they be if ye look back but to the 17. verse of this Chapter there ye shall find that first it is said the Spirit saith Come By the Spirit is not meant the third Person in Trinity the holy Ghost because he is not subject to these passions to these desires but he resteth himself in the execution and present disposing and dispensing of things according to his own will and pleasure Neither by Spirit here is meant any wicked spirit or Angel for they do with fear and horrour expect the same coming of our Lord and Saviour Christ because his coming shall be the accomplishment of their misery and eternal infelicity But by Spirit here is meant the spirit in all the Elect and holy people of God in whomsoever the Spirit of God is that Spirit doth say come and doth wish the accomplishment of all these most gracious promises For this is not the desire of the flesh or of nature but an earnest and vehement desire of the Spirit of God in the Elect that saith come Again secondly the same verse telleth us that the Bride saith come That is the Church of God in general the Catholick Church the whole Church of God being now hand-fasted to Christ and entred into a spiritual contract with him She desireth the consumation of the Marriage the solemniation of the Marriage which is already begun in the contract of it and not only every particular member of the Church in whom the Spirit of God is saith come but the Church of God in general the Bride saith come the whole Church saith come wishing and desiring the accomplishment of the Marriage which is already begun In the third place the same verse
up and down disconsolate with soft paces sad looks and sorrowful hearts all their children they are ready to call and christen Ichobods the glory is departed from Israel being affected like the Citizens of Jerusalem besieged by Sennacherib their hearts are like the trees of the wood moved with the wind But let such droopers know that herein they offend God and wrong themselves and let them gird up their loyns and tie up their spirits at the serious consideration that God in due time will raise them out of the dust maintain his own cause and confound his enemies The third sort of people are the Arguers or Disputers who being of a middle temper neither haughty nor stomackful neither low nor dejected and withal being good men embrace a middle course neither to fret nor dispute but calmly to reason out the matter with God himself Of this later sort was the Prophet Jeremiah who thus addresseth himself unto the Lord Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper wherefore are they happy that deal very treacherously The good man could not conceive Gods proceedings and although he kept to the conclusion Righteous are thou O Lord yet his heart was hot within him and he would fain be exchanging an argument with God that all was not right according to his humane capacity Job also was one of these Arguers in the agony of his passion Oh that one might plead for a man with God as a man pleadeth for his neighbour But let flesh and blood take heed of entring the lists by way of challenge with God himself If the synagogue of the Libertines and Cyrenians and Alexandrians and of them of Silicia and of Asia disputing with Stephen were not able to resist the wisdome and the spirit by which he spake much less can frail flesh hope to make good a bad cause by way of opposition against God the best and wisest answerer Remember the Apostles question Where is the disputer But if we should be so bold in humility to examine Gods proceedings let us take heed lest whilest we dispute with God Satan insensibly prompts us such reasons as are seemingly unanswerable in our apprehensions so that instead of being too hard for God which is impossible men become too hard for themselves raising such spirits which they cannot quell and starting such doubts which they cannot satisfie Wherefore let not our ignorance be counted Gods injustice let not the dimness of our eyes be esteemed the durtiness of his actions being all purity and cleanness in themselves Let us if beaten from our out-works make a safe retreat to this impregnable castle Jeremiah his conclusion Righteous art thou O Lord c. Come we now to the good Uses that the godly ought to make of a righteous mans perishing in his righteousness And first when he finds such a one in a swoun he ought with all speed to bring him a cordial and with the good Samaritane to pour Oil and Wine into his wounds endeavouring his recovery to his utmost power whilest there is any hope thereof I must confess it is only Gods prerogative according to the greatness of his power to preserve those that are appointed to die However it is also the boundant duty of all pious people in their several distances and degrees to improve their utmost for the preservation of dying innocency from the cruelty of such as would murder it But if it be impossible to save it from death so that it doth expire notwithstanding all their care to the contrary they must then turn lamenters at the funerals thereof And if the iniquity of the times will not safely afford them to be open they must be close Mourners at so sorrowful an accident O let the most cunning Chyrurgeons not begrutch their skill to unbowel the richest Merchants not think much of their choisest spices to embalm the most exquisite Joyner make the coffin most reverend Divine the Funeral Sermon the most accurate Marbler erect the Monument and most renowned Poet invent the Epitaph to be inscribed on the tomb of Perishing Righteousness Whilest all others well-wishers to goodness in their several places contribute to their sorrow at the solemn Obsequies thereof yea as in the case of Josiah his death let their be an Anniversary of Mourning kept in remembrance thereof However let them not mourn like men without hope but let them behave themselves at the interment of his righteousness as confident of the resurrection thereof which God in his due time shall raise out of the ashes It is sown in weakness it shall be raised in power it is sown in disgrace it shall be raised in glory Lastly the temporal perishing of the righteous man in this world minds us of the necessity of the day of Judgment and ought to edge and quicken our prayers that God would shortly accomplish the number of his elect consummate this miserable world put a period to the dark night of his proceedings that so that day that welcome day may begin to dawn which is tearmed by the Apostle The day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God Five things there are besides many others in the primitive part of Gods justice which are very hard for men to conceive First How the sin of Adam to which we did never personally consent can justly be imputed to us his posterity Secondly How infants who never committed actual sin are subject to death and which is more to damnation it self Thirdly How God can actually harden the hearts of some as he did Pharaohs and yet not be in the least degree accessary to sin and the author thereof Fourthly How the Americans can justly be condemned to whom the sound of the Gospel was never trumpetted forth and they by their invincible ignorance uncapable of Gods will in his word Lastly How God as it in the Text can suffer righteous men to perish in their righteousness and wicked men to flowrish in their iniquity In all these a thin vail may seem to hang before them so that we have not a full and free view of the reasons of Gods proceedings herein yet so as that under and thorow this vail we discover enough in modesty and sobriety to satisfie our selves though perchange unable to utter what in part we apprehend we cannot effectually remove all the scruples which the pious nor all the cavils which the profane man brings against us But at the day of judgment at the revelation of the righteous judgment of God this vail shall be turned back or rather totally taken away so that all shall plainly and perspicuously perceive the justice of Gods dealing in the cases aforesaid Not that then or there any new essential addition or accession shall accrue to Gods justice to mend or make up any former desault or defect therein