up in Armes against this materiall world and to rend himself from this faecaelent matter and out of the greatness of his Spirit and nobleness of his disposition to be altogether ambitious of the presence of God and of these constant and unchangeable good things This is the duty of Christians and are not they Strangers Are not they strangers that have double Impost and double customes and the greatest taxations laid upon them is not this peculiar unto the Saints in this life have they not afflictions laid upon them in the greatest measure must they not through many afflictions enter into the kingdome of heaven Have they not tears and that in abundance for their meat and for their drink Have they not enemies from within and enemies from without Must they not be conformable to their head Christ their elder brother as he had his double portion in this life of afflictions and punishments so must they have as he was sanctified by afflictions so must they also The gold is not pure unless it be tryed nor the water sweet if it have not a currant nor the vessel bright unless it be scoured nor the Saints fit for heaven unless they be prepared by afflictions what man was there that ever set himself seriously either to reform himself or others that found not great opposition from himself and from others and are not these strangers Are not they strangers that are ad placitum Principis to stay in the Land or to be gone according as he shall manifest his royall pleasure by his Proclamation and are not we here in the world upon these termes how soon all of us or any of us shall be dismissed who knows who dares promise to himself the late evening or secure himself of the least atome or moment of time he that dreamed waking of long continuance had scarce liberty to dream sleeping for that night they took away his soul and he himself was branded to succeeding generations with the name of a fool and are not we strangers Did not the Saints of God whose judgements were most refined those that had the honour to approach most near unto God himself alwayes so repute themselves Doth not the holy Patriarch that wrestled with God and hath principality over him Did not he acknowledge that few and evil were the dayes of his pilgrimage Did not he that was a man after Gods own heart that had a special promise that his house should continue for ever Yet did not he acknowledg that he was a stranger as well as his fathers were is it not his earnest prayer unto God I am a stranger upon earth hide not thy Commandements from me as if he had said I am a Traveller upon earth I am speeding to Jerusalem which is above I am to passe through this dark calignous world thy Word is a light to my feet a lanthorn to my steps the rule the square the cannon of all rectitude hide not this light from me lest I run out of the way or linger in the way or stumble or fall in the way I am a stranger upon earth c. What should I instance in particulars are they not summed up to my hand by the Apostle Heb. 11.13 All these Patriarks Prophets Saints all of them did acknowledg themselves to be strangers Examples have in them an universality of Doctrine and instruction especially the examples of the Saints because Praxis Sanctorum is Interpres pracceptorum the practice of the Saints is the best interpretation of the precept Examples have in them a directive force because those that are best disposed in mind and body are a rule for the rest Examples have an incentive force to give life spirits vigour transmitting by a kind of Metem Psychosis the soul the spirits the resolutions the affections of the pattern to him that reads it extorting deep sighs and tears and groans and other alterations at their pleasure And if any Examples have this force have not these much more Other examples have the testimony of men these have the testimony of God himself he is not ashamed a wonderful condiscention of the one and the supream elevation of the other to be called their God the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob the Father of the faithful and the God of the beleevers There are examples whereof men boast but God is ashamed of them corrupt examples of wicked the imperfect examples of heathen men of these God is ashamed but of these God is not shamed and shall we be ashamed of them We are then strangers Let me instill into your ears the voyce of that was heard in the Temple before the ruin of it Migremus hinc Let us go from hence Let me say unto you with our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us go from hence let us truss up our fardels and on with our sandals and promote our way to heaven Let us depose and lay down all burthens and impediments and make our selves expedite and fit for our journey we are in an Inne let us look about us and leave nothing behind but carry all with us or send it before us we have but an instant of our abode here let us imploy it to the best advantage It is the greatest loss it is the most shameful loss it is the most irrecoverable loss that may be to lose this instant upon which eternity depends eternity of misery or eternity of felicity let us follow our Saviour let us seek his face let us ascend with him let us not rest here Sleep may overtake us a false Prophet may deceive us the snare may intangle us the Armie of the enemy may fall upon us let us be above all these Let us seek those things that are above What where Sun and Moon are nothing less Where then where God is where Christ who is our house our temple our habitation that we may be cloathed with him this is the desire of all the Saints and this leads me to the second point That the Saints desire a true and proper house In this we groan earnestly c. What is meant by this house whether the Joyes of heaven or a Glorisied body is hard to determine by the context I incline to Calvins opinion that both are meant as making up that compleat house which the Saints desire the one as the introition the other as the consummation of their bliss and into both these houses I shall labour to introduce your spirits and affections The first house is the Joyes of heaven a kingdome else-where for the amplitude for the abundant sufficiency for the honour royalty of them yet because many in kingdomes see not the face of the King and of those that see his face few are of his house and family and of those that are of his Court few are familiar with him or converse with him and of those that converse with him few are his sons his heirs Therefore this kingdome is an house wherein all
present calamities of a mans life For crosses of any kind in name state freinds or families or in whatsoever a man hath or goeth about they may all be reduced to this one head when a man cometh from a state of health to a state of sickness from a state of comfort to a state of sorrow from acquaintance and society to be as a Pelican in the wilderness as David speaks destitute of all freinds and helps from inward rejoycing in his heart in the assurance of Gods love to spiritual disertions wherein he seemeth to be as in a cloud under the frowns of God When a man is in this case how shall he exercise Patience how shall he come to it Briesly the way for a man to get patience in such cases as these is this First to consider that there is no change in my life there is no condition whatsoever that I am cast into but it is ordered by God Set thy soul awork now to give God his glory in that change of thy life First give God the glory of his absolute Soveraignty and Dominion Secondly give him the glory of his wisdome Thirdly give him the glory of his mercy in those changes of thy life that seem most grievous to thee First I say give him the glory of his absolute soveraignty Acknowledge him an absolute in-dependant Lord that doth what he will among the creatures His will is the rule of all his actions upon the creatures here below and uncontroul'd unquestionable It is high arrogancy and presumption and pride of spirit for the creature to contest with his Creator concerning his actions on earth Let every man reason thus I must give God the glory of his Soveraignty and acknowledge that he hath power and right to rule all the families of the earth and why not mine as well as another Why not my person as well as anothers Why not to order all the changes of my life as well as another mans That which Benhadad spake proudly to Ahab thy silver and thy gold thy wives and thy children and thy house and thy Citie are mine That may God speak truely and by right All that thon hast and all that thou art is mine therefore give him that glory that Job did in the change of his life The Lord hath given the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. The Lord that gave hath right to take what he will There is nothing that will keep the creature in his due place but the consideration of Gods absolute soveraignty This consideration was that that meekned the spirit of Eli when that heavy message was brought to him that there should come such misery upon his house that whosoever heard it both his eares should tingle well saith he It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good It is the Lord and it becometh not servants to stand and contend with their Lord. So David when the Priests offered him their service to go along with him to the field from Absolom If saith he I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me back to Jerusalem and his tabernacle but if he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do to me as seemeth good unto him Here was that that humbled the spirit of David when he considered that he was under the hands of an absolute Lord let the Lord do with me what seemeth him good Secondly as thou must give him the glory of his soveraignty so of his wisdome Know that God ordereth all his wayes with wisdome and counsel he knoweth what is good for his children Ye are content when ye are sick that the Physitian should diet ye because ye account him wise and one that hath skill in that course If God diet thee for the purging out of some corruption and for the curing of some spiritual disease in thy soul submit to God in this case be willing to resigne thy self up to be ordered by him A man that hath a Gangreen or such a dangerous disease in his body submitteth to the Surgeon in his course though it be to the cutting and sawing off a limb though it be never so painful and the losse be never so great yet he is for the saving of his life willing to have that taken away God is a wise God that knoweth what estate is best for thee not onely when tryals are better than comforts but what one kind of tryall is better then another it may be it is better to exercise one with poverty another with disgrace another with spiritual trouble another with restraint of liberty which particular tryall is necessary to cure that disease and which this that is in my soul the heavenly Physitian will bring that upon thee as a spirituall prescription and a heavenly course that he takes in insinite wisdome to cure thee Lastly give him in all this the glory of his mercy What hast thou lost but thou maiest have lost a great deal more What dost thou suffer but thou maiest have suffered a great deal more As Alcibiades when he was told that one had stollen half his plate I have cause faith he rather to be thankeful that he took no more then to be troubled that he took so much I am sure it is true of God in this case what hath God took from thee some part of thy estate some friend some comfort of thy life some one or other particular comfort could he not have done more He afflicteth thee in thy body he might have afflicted thee in thy soul and a wounded spirit who can bear He hath afflicted thee in some one member of thy body he could have cast body and soul into Hell There is not a tryall upon thee but God could have made it heavier let that make thee therefore to submit with a more meek heart and willing spirit to God as a merciful God as the Church in the Lamentations It is the Lords mercy that we are not consumed the Church was in great affliction when the Babilonians came upon them and they were driven from the house of God and their own houses but yet it was Gods mercy that they were not consumed So the Prophet Jeremy telleth Baruch in the captivity Seekest thou great things for thy selfe thou shalt have thy life for a prey Baruch was wondrously disquieted he complained that the Lord had added grief to his sorrow What grief was that that He must go to Egypt and after to Babylon Well saith the Prophet thy case is not so heavy as thou seemest to make it thou shalt have thy life for a prey in all places wheresoever thou goest God might have taken away life and all but thy life thou shalt have for a prey Therefore be content with so much So I say to thee when great afflictions comes upon thee they might have been greater therefore consider that that thou maiest give
Death Every sin vertually is the sting of death there is an aptitude in every Sin but in the event that sin proveth the sting of death that is untouched uncontrouled Not every sin in the event proveth the sting of death but that sin that liveth in us or rather that sin that we live in that ruleth in us that we affect and love this is the Sin that putteth a sting into death That very sin that thou lovest and likest so much and pleadest for that sin will make death terrible Secondly Sin may be considered as it is galled and vexed and mortified in the Soul When a man setteth upon the root of Sin and the way of Sin and falleth a crucifying the body of Sin and the members of it I say howsoever there be divers motions and stirrings of Sin in the soul yet if these be disavowed disaffected and mortified if there be a crucifying vertue pass over them if they come not within the judgment to approve them or within the affections to embrace and like them if they come not to be a mans trade and way and walk but fall within the improbation of the judgment to disavow them and the misliking of the affections to sorrow for them These shall not be the sting of death whatsoever the motions are But these untouched unmortified sins these are the sting of death Now these are the sting of death in a double respect First in respect of the guilt Secondly in respect of the corruption First they are a sting in respect of guilt Every Sin remaining unsatisfied for remaineth with his guilt and when Sin is not satisfied for there is the sting of death When the sinner hath nothing to oppose to the justice of God for the sin he hath committed if the Sin be in the book of God uncrossed be a debt there not blotted out by the blood of Christ if Christ have not satisfied for it if the sinner have not part in him as we shall hear anon then Sin is the sting of death And then secondly they are a sting in respect of the corruption and filthiness of Sins unmortified Those filthy sinful motions those depraving qualities in thy soul that thou likest and practifest in thy conversation they give thee up into the hand of Death to execute his Sting upon thee And therefore you that applaud your selves in sin and will go on in Sin do so But know this when thou comest to the full strength of thy Sin let it be what it will when Death cometh it findeth the strongest weapon it hath in thy sin the very power of thy sin armeth Death against thy soul No man is more obnoxious and open to the sharpest dart of Death then that man that will go on in Sin So you see what Sin is spoken of that is the sting of death that Sin is the sting of Death that a man loveth and doteth on The third Question is in what respect Sin is the sting of Death First by way of Eminencie because that then the sting of Sin beginneth most sensibly to work in a man Not but that Sin hath a sting before Death but then the deluded sinner feels his sin there be divers times that Sin can sting a person before that but then howsoever the sinner hath deluded himselfe and the word of God and the world he can delude them no more Death then most ordinarily sixeth his sting in the soul and makes the sinner feel the smart of his sin There be three times wherein Sin can sting a man Before death At death After death Before Death God sometimes letteth loose the conscience of a man even of the most resolved sinner of him that bears himselfe up alost in his own eyes in scrone and contempt of the ministry of the Word sometime I say God singleth out such a person and rippeth up all his heart strikes his Arrows into his very soul and stings his conscience so irresistably that he knoweth not which way to turne form the wrath that boyleth in his soul And it is one thing to deal with the Minister and another to deal with God When God strikes his Arrows of vengeance into the soul of a sinner then such a one is stung indeed this God doth sometimes before death Nay sometimes God stingeth the consciences of his own children for sin David cries out he roared for the disquietness of his spirit his bones were broken he was sore vexed Lord how long faith he If there be such deep disquiet by reason of this sting in the consciences of good persons tell me then what is the disquiet that springeth from sin in a Cain a Judas when it meets with a dispairing disposition Thus you see Sin hath this time to sting and therefore think not that Sin will never sting till death sometimes Sin stingeth a man before death Another time is at death When Death cometh and arresteth a sinner in an Action from God seizeth on a person that is under the power of Sin on one that is in his sins unrouched howsoever he behaved himself in his life-time yet then the very name of Death breaks his heart it apaleth him and then it stings such a Person It is appointed beloved for all of us once to die Death will one day arrest every man but when Death appeareth before a man that hath not a part in Christ that is under the power of his sins when it cometh to a Belshazar it makes his very joynts to smite one against another it is a sting to him amidst all those sweet morsels his sins which he so much affected and so earnestly pursued it is a very poyson to him nothing is a poyson now to us but sin only but then at the time of death sin is a poyson indeed Lastly Sin can sting not only before and at but after death Bothat the day of Judgment and after At the day of judgement Is not the concience of a sinner think you stinged and his spirit deeply affected by reason of the great wrath of God that is to be poured out when he shall cry to the mountains to cover him when he shall call to those insensible creatures that are not able to lend him that courtesie to crush him to nothing Make this our one cause think of it it will be our case as It is appointed for us all to die so we must all come to judgement And after the Judgement when the sentence go you cursed is past the sting of Sin ceaseth not no the worm for ever gnaweth in Hell It were a happiness for a sinner if he might only hear the sentence if this worm might not still gnaw his conscience but then this is his burthen Sin shall sting him for ever This is the first respect in which sin is called the sting of death because then Sin stingeth more eminently and sensibly Secondly it is called the sting of death in
to the rest of our sins that in the middest of our sins and impenitency we are secure and therefore that destruction is coming upon us What are the signs whereby we may be convinced of security I will give you a few that by those you may see whether the Land the City your families your selves and all be not asleep and at rest this day The first sign shall be this When men profit not by the judgements of God Certainly it is an evident sign of a deep sleep in sin when neither the afflictions that are upon others or upon our selves do any good upon us Look how God hath smitten others Hath that awakned us You will say that it is a secure child that seeth his brother beaten for the same fault before his eyes and yet goeth on in it you will say that that is a secure malefactor that seeth such a person executed before his face and yet goeth on in the same fellony and thest And must we not say that we are a secure generation when we can see our brethren in other Countries how they have suffered and yet go on in the very same fins that we our selves think the hand of God is upon them for We can talk of their sins of their unrighteousness and in justice we can talk of their neglect of the Lords day and other holy duties and for these we judge them smitten of God How is it then that we are such our selves how is it that we go on in unrighteousness in prophaning the Lords day in neglecting the house of God and our own families have they found such sweetness in these sins that we walk on in the same Is it a pleasant and comfortable thing to be driven from Gods house and from our own houses to be a reproach to all the world If we think that the hand of God is upon them for these sins how is it that we are not awaked I remember Daniel in the fifth Chapter of his Prophesie taxeth Belshazzar for this though thou knowest saith he how the hand of God was upon thy father for this and this yet thou hast done the like and hast not humbled thy heart So may I say You have kown what God hath done to your brethren in other Countries yet you do still the same your selves for the which they have been punished Is not this security Look likewise upon our selves and we shall see a general neglect of those judgements of God that have been upon our selves How hath God smitten this Land this Citie eipecially with the Pestilence and may we not say we have been smitten and yet have not felt it is not this security and a dead sleep God threatneth those in Jer. 31.9 That escaped the pestilence that they should fall by the sword by the hand of Nebuchadnezar Why so because they did not reforme and amend by the pestilence What cause have we then to fear lest we fall into the hands of the sword of some Nebuchadnezar or other when the pestilence hath done no more good amongst us when it hath not awakened reformed us Look upon our selves upon your houses upon your dealings your company your conversations see if there be any reformation since there was such a mortal calamity as drove you from the Citie and frighted you from your own houses and from the house of God Well these are fearful presages that when former Judgements prevail not worser are a coming I have smitten them saith God in the fourth of Amos with cleanness of teeth and yet they have not returned unto me What then I have smitten them with blasting and mildew and yet they have not returned unto me What then I have smitten them with the pestilence after the manner of Egypt and yet they have not returned unto me What then Therefore I will come against them and because I will do this prepare to meet thy God Oh Israel As if he should say I have now stood out and tryed you at one or two weapons and found you obstinate and rebellious I have stroke at you with the sword of Famin I have shot at you the Arrows of pestilence I have smitten you with other judgements You should now meet me if not I have more weapons yet I will come and bid the battel against you and it shall appear who is the stronger you or I And since you will stand out against me notwithstanding the Judgements executed upon others and afflictions upon your selves see if you can stand out against my last stroke you have escaped some lesser sicknesses upon your own bodies you have escaped the Pestilence already but you shall find it a hard taske when God biddeth battel to escape his last stroke if you will not now be reconciled and come in and seek his face This is the first demonstration whereby it appears that we are sinfully secure which is a fore-runner of Judgement because we are not awakened by the Judgements of God upon our selves and others Secondly another sign is this The contempt of Gods ordinances the slighting of the Prophets This is an evident demonstration that we are under this carnal security I now speake of Mark how the Lord describeth a people whom he meaneth to destroy Zach. 7.11 12. They refused to hearken and pulled away the shoulder and stopped their ears that they should not hear Yea they made their hearts as an Adamant stone lest they should hear the Law and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former Prophets therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts A great wrath what is that Therefore vers 13. it is come to passe that as He cryed and they would not hear so they cryed and I would not here saith the Lord of Hosts Well beloved little do you know what time and wayes God hath to make you cry and roar in the anguish of your hearts because of Judgements and afflictions when you will not now hear God that striveth with you and cries unto you with the voyce of his Spirit in his Prophets from day to day When men will not hear God speaking to them in his Word it is alwayes a fore-runner of judgement In the sixth of Amos the Lord challengeth his people and telleth them that he had used many means for their reclaiming but nothing would do them good well now saith he hear the rod and him that hath appointed it As if he should say there is no more dealing with you with the Word but I must come with the rod with judgement Is it not thus with us at this day May not the Lord say of us as he did of the people in Jeremies time You have forsaken my law which I set before you and have not obeyed my voyce neither walked therein but have walked after the imaginations of your own heart And then what follows Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts Behold I will
whose trade and imployment of life it is every cloud and wind doth not make him to return back again to shoare and to give over but he goeth them through so it is in this case one that is not indeed and in earnest travelling toward heaven he will be easily off upon a little storm arising if God do but frown if there be but a wrinckle in his brow all his pleasure in religion is gone for it was some other things he aymed at it was but for pleasure he came in here but a godly Christian who is bound for heaven whose voyage is set for heaven and his course and the bent of his soul lyeth that way that like a Ship with full Sail is carried toward heaven storms will not beat him off but he will persevere Secondly there is a necessary use as there should be perseverance so that there should be a kind of excellency and precellency of all holy duties which I mentioned in the general before which a man should exercise so much the more industriously and painfully in storms and difficulties All sweet odours are refreshing to the head at any time but when there is a stinking place that is offensive men hold them closer to them so it should be with all the graces of Gods Spirit with all holy duties they should be pretious to us at all times but specially in times of stress and difficulty Oh then we should cleave close to them then multiply in prayers then multiply in our holy walking with God then multiply examining diligently our wayes and looking more strictly and narrowly to our selves then we should reflect more seriously upon our lives and then we should excel our selves or else it will not countervail and be an Antidote against the evil and bitterness of the times Thirdly there should be shewed patience in the time of affliction in the time of Gods Judgment we should not mutter against God nor struggle nor be violent against him but humbly and meekly lay our selves down before him It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good in his eyes And Lastly there should be a proficiency that the inhabitants of the earth will learn righteousness we should patiently wait upon God in the way of his Judgments and withall we should be good proficients then to learn righteousness Gods rod should be to us as the fescue is to the child the fescue points out to the child the letter makes him take notice of it and so Gods rod points out many good lessons which we should never otherwise learn and take notice of I had never known as Luthers wife said sometime what such and such things meant in such and such Psalmes such complaints and workings of spirit I had never understood the practise of our duty if God had not brought me under some affliction affliction was a Commentary and fescue to point out my lesson to me and by that I understood Let me but mention one thing more in a word I shall leave the Application because I am prevented Here is now the sum of a Christians duty which I have recommended to you out of the words of the verses read partly general duties that belong to all Christians in all times and partly some particular duties which concern them more specially in some special times There is a motive or two to press and stir us up to the performance of these duties There is one in a verse before those I have read the seventh verse The way of the just is uprightness thou most upright dost weigh the path of the just Here the first Motive is from the consideration of God God is a holy overseer of all our wayes a spectatour of all our carriage and behaviour how we do carry our selves and approve our selves to him God is not only a spectatour and an overseer of our wayes but he is an expencer a weigher and Judg-of our wayes to reward every man according to his works and we should often cast our eyes to God and see him looking upon us in our carriages to put some more awe upon our spirits that we may not wantonly break out against God not daring to do evil in the presence of that holy God which one day we know we must be brought to account for at the great Judgment But I can but name it There is a second Motive in the close in those words which stand last of those I read and a verse following And that is from men from the particular proper character of a Christian it is that which differenceth a godly man from a wicked man Herein lies the difference of their temper and of their spirit the godly man he is described already what his carriage is that is his carriage which is here limned out in the Prophets own expression in their name but the wicked men they are clean otherwise they do not perform these duties neither the general nor the particular Now it bohoveth every one to take care to depart from the tents of those wicked men that shall be swallowed up and go down quick to hell every one as it was in the case of Korah It is the command of God that they should depart and sever themselves and make as broad and vast a difference and be jealous and take heed lest they assimulate themselves to wicked men in their lives lest they be like unto them in their deaths that they live not as they do lest they perish as they do Now there be two or three things that are exprest concerning these wicked men First of all their Character is to be refractary to God in what way soever he shewes himself to them if he shew his favour or send his Judgments it is all one in the land of uprightness they will do wickedly and when Gods hand is lifted up they will not see nothing will do them good no way of working upon them neither by fair nor by foul means And we must be unlike them therefore every way we must take every dealing of God by the right care as he said and make the right use of it for good There is another thing exprest of them that God will one day meet with these wicked men let no man deceive himself it is not a vain thing to serve God nor a cheap nor a safe thing to rebel against God for his hand shall be lifted up and he will break them in peeces and the longer he spareth and the gentler he is the more heavy it will come at last Gods Mill grindeth slow but it grinds to powder as the ancient saying is the more God is long-suffering and long lifting up his hand to lay his stroak the heavier stroak he layes upon them and crusheth all to peeces at last But there is another thing too even those wicked men that are so stubborn and refractary and scorn Gods word that lift up the heel and kick against him and it may
only in brief run them over this being not the thing that I purposely aym at First in Cities and Corporations there is a Register wherein the names of the Free-men are inrolled So in heaven also there is a Register a certain book of Records as it were wherein are written the names of as many as God hath appointed to life Rejoce not faith our Saviour in this that the divels are subdued unto you but rejoyce that your names are written in heaven And all that are not found written in the book of life are cast into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone Rev. 20.15 God in his secret counsel and purpose in his special providence and love takes notice of all his servants even of their names and he hath them as sure as if they were written down in a book there is not one man that cometh to heaven but the Lord knows him already to be a man ordained to that estate and condition Secondly as in all Cities and Societies there is a certain law whereby they are all governed in obedience to which they live So there is a law whereby all the Citizens of heaven all the houshold of God are governed that law which the Apostle Saint James calleth the royal law a law which commandeth the very spirits of men a law that disposeth the whole man to a heavenly frame and subjection to the will of God the great King of Heaven so that a man while he is here below by degrees is drawn off from the world in his affections and disposition and carriage and madesutable and conformable to the rule of righteousness Thirdly as in all Cities there is a kind of safety and security to those that dwell there not only as they are incompassed with walls but also as there is watching and warding some waking while others sleep to keep the rest in safety So in this heavenly society the Angels pitch their Tents about those that fear God nay the Lord himself is the Shepheard of Israel that neither slumbereth nor sleepeth while men oppose them God defends them while men are labouring and plotting and devising against them and they it may be are secure and fear no danger God disperseth and disappointeth a thousand projects intended against his servants It was so with his own people Israel while they were in the plains securely lying in their tents there is Balack and Balaam consulting upon the mountains how to curse them but the God of Israel that is above the mountains that sitteth on the highest Heavens he ordereth the matter so that Balaam for his life though he might have had all the wealth and honour of the Kingdome could not pronounce one curse against Israel because God had said to him that he should not curse Fourthly As in Cities and societies on earth men have communion and society one with another the less have interest in the greater and the greater in the less and all have interest one in another the inferiours receive from the superiours protection and provision and the superiours receive from the inferiours subjection and submission So it is in this heavenly Corporation in this spiritual Jerusalem Jerusalem is a City at unitie in it self There is a communion and fellowship that the Saints have with God the Father with Christ with the Angels with the Saints in heaven and one with another on earth With God the Father they have an interest in him as subjects of his kingdome as servants and children of his family there is not the meanest subject in this kingdome but he may make his request known to this Prince there is not the least servant in this Family but he may make his complaint to this Master they may as children go boldly to the throne of grace and make their request known unto him though it be but in sighes and groans Hence it is that God takes notice of them your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things and therefore he will supply them If you that are earthly can give good things to your children how much more shall your heavenly father give good things to them that ask him They have interest in Christ also he is their Intercessour therefore hence it is that he is said to sit at the right hand of God making intercession for us He is their Advocate if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father even Jesus Christ the righteous He is their Lord and Captain the Captain of the Lords Army to defend his Church Michael the great Prince standeth up for the children of his people They have interest also in the holy Ghost the third Person in Trinity they have not only the love of God the Father but the communion and fellowship of the holy Ghost as the Apostle wisheth for the Corinthians Hence it is that the Holy Ghost is ready to help their infirmities to in able them to put up their requests when they know not how to pray as they ought Hence it is that he sanctisieth them and therefore they are said to be Born again of water and of the spirit that he comforteth them therefore he is called the holy Ghost the Comforter As the Saints have interest in the three Persons in the Trinity in respect of their dependance upon them so the blessed Trinity hath an interest in them also If I be a Father where is my honour if I be a Master where is my fear Because they acknowledg God to be their Father they honour him because they acknowledg him to be their Lord they fear him c. They have interest in the Angels also Hence it is that they are called Ministring spirits sent forth for the good of the Elect They were Christs messengers his Angels and now they are made Messengers Angels to the Saints therefore faith Christ Offend not one of these little ones for I tell you that their Angels behold the face of my father in heavenâ—… They have interest in them not as worshippers of Angels which the Apostle condemneth Coll. 2. as foreseeing to what a height Popish superstition would rise in this kind I say not to worship them to invocate them to pray to them we know no such will-worship which is without the rule We have an Angel comforting Hagar we have an Angel defending Elisha we have an Angel incouraging Jacob we have an Angel carrying Lazarus into Abrahams bosome But we never had any Angel that stood in this place to have worship and adoration This indeed the Angels have from us imitation of their obedience we pray thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven They have interest in the Saints also yea in those that are dead not as though they paayed for us yet they have a common desire of the welfare of the whole Church The souls under the Alter cry How long Lord holy and true wilt thou not
overcoming of all sin and by the vertue of Christ he shall prosper in this I beseech you therefore set your selves awork about this great business to get Repentance and Faith and New Obedience it is much more needful then sleep then meat then attire there is nothing in the world so requisite for thy welfare as these things Scrape thou riches together in the same quantity that Solomon did and ten thousands times more yet thou shalt see Death once within a hundred or half a hundred years Get wisdome yet thou shalt see Death after a few years Take pleasure with as much greediness as he did once when he forgat himself for a space yet thou shalt see death These things that the foolish world hunts after with so much earnestness of desire will not secure thee from the sight of the King of feares Death as Job calleth it But if thou once get Faith and Repentance and new obedience then thou hast obtained that that all the riches and honour and pleasures and learning or whatsoever seemeth desirable in the world will not help their possessors to What will you do brethren Grovel still on the earth and still be mad after back and belly Or will you now begin to think I must die I must shake hands with that dismal enemy pale-faced Death that is able to strike terrour into the strongest heart and amazement into the stoutest soul that is not well confirmed and if this Death find me destitute of true Repentance and Faith and New Obedience it will seize upon me and dragg me before the Judgement seat of God where I shall be Henced away with a malediction and curse and be forced to take my place with the Divel and his Angels in unquenchable flames Oh what shall I do then to secure my self from the great from the strong arme of death I will repent now I will begin Lord draw me help me that I may do it I will beleeve now Lord do thou work Faith that requirest it I will obey Lord inable me to preform such needful duties as thou commandest me Shall this be your practice when you come home Will you thus study to practise Repentance and Faith and Obedience and study to cry and call for it and use all your endeavour Or what will you do will you be as idle and careless as negligent and slothful in making after these graces as before Will you be as greedy of the transitory vanities of this life as in former times Oh abuse not the word of God If thou go out of the Church without a full purpose to apply thy self from hence forward either to begin or to proceed in the practise of the saying of Christ Cursed be thou in thy hearing cursed be that hour that thou hast spent and cursed be thy misbestowed labour thou dissembling hypocrite But if thou labour to practise this of Christ namely to keep his sayings the Doctrine of the Gospel to repent to beleeve and to obey blessed art thou in thy hearing and in thy doing and in thy obedience happy is the time and the place and all things that concur together to draw thee to so needful a work I pray Brethren set not your labour upon gold and silver and money and trash not upon the pleasures and delights and contentments of the world not on any other thing but mainly and principally above all things let your chief care be for Faith and Repentance and Obedience If you strive for these things earnestly and heartily and constantly as sure as the Lord is in heaven he will bestow them upon you and with them the benefit of benefits Freedome from Death And now I shall speak comfort to those few that are in the world that keep these sayings of Christ Let them be of good comfort if their capital enemy the King of fears and the King of Afflictions be held from a possiblity of doing them harm nothing can harme them He that Death cannot hurt paine cannot hurt poverty and disgrace cannot hurt nothing can hurt him You know if the King of an Army be reconciled to a place he will keep his Souldiers from spoyling and burning and destroying that place If Death be put out of power to do thee hurt and God be reconciled in Christ because thou keepest the saying of Christ nothing can hurt thee thou art the happiest man under the Sun Why should the poor sad afflicted grieved mourning lamenting Saints of God envie them that are rich and jolly and merry worldlings any of their pleasures and profits any of those things wherewith they like Idiots make themselves laugh at What hath not God given thee better things then he that thou shouldest murmure and whine and weep for want of them art thou still complaining for want of them Remember what Saint James faith Let the brother of low degree that is abased and dispised in the world rejoyce yea rejoyce with great boasting and glory in his Exaltation This is the exaltation of the Saints Christ writing his sayings in their hearts and inclining them through the operation of his Spirit and the powerful work of his Word to repent and beleeve hath freed them from the danger of Death and interessed them into eternal happiness and that blisse that no tongue can expresse nor no heart conceive This is thy happiness it is not to be rich or to be great for these cannot deliver the owner from the hurt of Death natural nor from the danger of Death eternal But to have Faith and Repentance and Obedience this is riches and exaltation for he that hath them shall not alone escape the Dungeon of eternal darkness but be advanced to the Palace of everlasting felicity The Saint is the happy man the penitent beleever and true practiser of Christian obedience he is the sole and only happy man under the Sun for whatsoever storme he suffereth in this present world he shall certainly escape Death and obtaine Glory Blesse God and bless thy self in God magnifie him rejoyce in him take comfort in thy lot and portion Death that devoureth Kings that destroyeth Emperours that conquers Captaines and men of valour shall not be able to approach thee for thy hurt for thou keepest the saying of the Lord Jesus Christ Rejoyce I say in this magnisie him that is the Authour of it and account thy self happy that thou hast receâ—…ed from him so excellent a gift as to be in some measure inabled to keep his saying Yea if it were so may some Christian heart object then I should esteem my self the happiest man alive â—… but alas where is this Repentance you describe where is this New Obedience in me that still still find my self captive and thral to passion to this and that and the other lust and divers corruptions Where is I say that Repentance when I find so much fin Where is that Faith when I find so much wavering and quaking so much aptness to distrust and almost
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
Christ was placed in the summity and height of their souls and the desire of the full fruition of him caused that fainting that earnest longing in their spirits You will say if this be so what will become of the greatest part of Christians who are afraid to die who are so far from groaning to depose this Tabernacle that they groan at the least intimation of dissolution It is true that all men receive not this saying neither is it for every one to attain to this perfection As there are two forts of faith so there are two forts of Christians there is a strong faith and a weak faith and there are strong Christians and there are weak Christians the strong Christian is willing to die and patient to live the weak Christian is willing to live and patient to die he goes when God calls but he could wish that God would defer his calling he hath good hopes of heaven but he desires a little more to enjoy the earth he loves God more then all yet his affections are not fully taken off from all he is not perplexed with the fears of Hell yet he is not ravished with the joyes of Heaven he hath much strength but knows it not as many a Spectator of a prize is better able to performe it then he that undertakes it but either through faintness of heart or ignorance of his own strength dare not put it to the hazard but had rather commend another mans valour then trie his own whereas a strong Christian a man grown in Christ sends a challenge to this Gyant Death singles him out as a fit object of his valour grapples with him not as with his match but as his underling insulteth over him setteth his foot on the neck of this King of terrours and by conquering him captivates with great facility all other petty fears of ignominy poverty and the like which therefore are dreadful because they tend to Death the last the worst the end the sum of all feared evills this is the unconquerable crown of Faith this is the glory of a Christian this is the Diadem of honour wreathed about his Temples advancing him above all other men whatsover But you will say may a man desire death Is this now a question what means the agony of the Apostle I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ What means the earnest longing of the Spouse Apoca. 22. The Spirit faith come and the Bride faith come and let him that hears say come What means her fainting in the Canticles I am sick of love let him bring me into his chamber Let me see his face I am sick unto death Let me dy lest I dy that I may see him for ever What means the Character of a true Christian As many as love the appearance of the Lord which cannot be without death What means the incredible contempt of death in ancient Christians insomuch that it was a received Maxime with the Heathen Omnis Christianus est contemptor mortis What means the heroical incouragement of old Hilarion Egredere anima egredere quid times Go out my soul go out why tremblest thou What means the words of old Simion in the flames Thus to dy is to live What means the rapture of Saint Chrysostome that he would thank that man that would kill him as transmitting him more speedily to those unconceivable Joyes What means this groaning and thirsting in my Text Do not these demonstrate that it is lawful to desire death Not simply in it self or for it self it is the separation of those two whom God hath coupled it is a cessation of being it is an evil of punishment the daughter of sin to desire it simply were to desire evil which is abhorrent to nature much less ought we to hasten our death by violent means Let their memories be buried in perpetural silence as the botches and ulcers of Christianity who out of impatience have perpetrated this heinous sin a sin against God and man against nature against grace against the Church against the common-wealth against all things The Heathen man could say that we are the possession of God to be disposed of by him not by our selves the body is the structure of God the work of his hands the Tabernacle which he hath made and not to be removed or to be taken down but by his command while we live we may advance the glory of God the good of others we may impeople heaven make up the ruines of Angels to hasten our death were to envy this glory to God this good to others In that distraction of our Apostle between two good things his own glory and the good of others you know which way the scales inclined to the good of others as if he had said let my glory be deferred so Gods glory be increased let my joy be increased let my joy be sulpended so the joy of Angels and of the Court of heaven be intended by the conversion of sinners Nay more this is a small thing Let me be an Athema so Israel be blessed let me be blotted out of the book of life so thousands be inserted let the bowels of Christ be streightned to me so they be enlarged to others this is life indeed this is the end of our life this will comfort us in this life and crown us in the life to come He that can truly say that while he lived he lived to God not to himself that he sincerely propounded the glory of God and the good of others unto himself this man may write upon his Tombe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have lived take this out of the life of man and what is it but a meer death if not worse though it be protracted to the years of Methusalem twice told Thus simply to desire death is not good but cloath this with some circumstances and then to desire death is not only warrantable but commendable when we have done all the good we can when our lives will be no more serviceable to Church or Common-wealth when we have with all fidelity done our Masters work when we have the testimony of a good conscience that we have fought a good fight that we have kept the faith that we have finished our race then may we say with old Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace then may we with our Apostle lift up our eyes to the crown of righteousness which the righteous Judge hath laid up for them that fear him then we may expect the Euge of the good servant Well done good and faithful servant enter into the joy of thy Master Again when we are called to be Holocausts or sacrifices oblations of sweet savours the Frankincense of the Church to perfume others to deliver up our lives unto God to seal his Truth with our bloud to encourage others then we ought to run unto death with all alacrity rejoycing that we are counted worthy to suffer for his Name to triumph to boast
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
to the outward man if a man keep himself in order in regard of these thought is free and the Law doth not take hold of a man for his affections but the Law of God doth therefore you know that lusting after a moman in Gods account is reputed adultery the hating of a mans brother in his heart is accounted manslaughter he is accounted a murtherer that hates his brother so he that is angry unadvisedly you know what he is in danger of and that man is accounted guilty before God that cannot order his affections in regard of those unruly passions that are within him This I observe by the way God in Scripture takes especial notice of it and I am perswaded it is an infallible distinguishing character between an hypocrite and a sincere child of God an hypocrite labours to wash the outside he hath a demure countenance clean hands smooth language c. these things are good but he goes no further he makes no conscience of secret contemplative wickedness of the lusts of his heart and the thoughts of his mind these things he never enters into himself to mortifie But that man that is conscionable so walks with God as that a wrie affection an inward lust after somewhat that is evil troubles him and humbles him before God the vanity of his thoughts in secret cause him to mourn before God this is a sign of a man that walks before God and accounts God a Spirit that searcheth the hearts and tryeth the rains and therefore if ever we will approve our selves to God let our Religion be practical and reflect upon our selves and among other things upon our inward man to set that in order Secondly by way of instruction we see what happy men and women we might be if we were not our own foes if we could attain this pitch to live without fear that nothing should trouble us were it not a happy condition surely it is a thing feazable some Saints have attained it in a great measure you know David when Ziglag was taken his wives gone all the spoyl taken and the people were ready to stone him what did poor David he can incourage himself in the Lord his God notwithstanding this So it may be with a poor Christian his friends may forsake him perhaps the world is gone riches take to themselves wings it may be his body is crazy and all things are out of order yet this man can incourage himself in the Lord his God he can say to himself fear not Saith David though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death a doleful condition yet I will fear none ill Psal 23. And in another place though ten thousand should compass me in on every side I would lay me down and rest Though the Apostles were watched by souldiers laid in the stocks and for ought they knew the next day they should be brought to execution yet they sing as merrily and sleep as heartily as if they had been on a Throne and had been Kings in a Pallace Thus a good conscience will make a Christian happy if he be not his own foe but our hearts are intangled with the world and worldly things that for the most part we see not this priviledge But I leave that Next it may serve to reprehend and chide the most of us yea all in that we are distracted with fears unnecessary such as spend our spirits and consume our precious time such things as make our lives uncomfortable and dishonour God and our Religion and profession and all to no purpose Some things we fear a great while before we need perhaps that we need not fear at all One faith Lord what would become of me if I should loose my wife if I should loose my children or loose my estate What would become of me if the times should be hard if there should be a dear year I can scarse bring both ends together now Another faith what shall I do when I am old and cannot take pains for my living thus men fear a thousand inconveniences What need we meet evils half way what need we create to our selves such troubles sufficient for the day are the troubles of it But in regard of carnal fear all things make us afraid more then we need and the fear of ill oft-times perplexeth a man more then the ill it self that lights upon him And men of a melancholly disposition they frame to themselves such strange Chimera's Imaginations of things that perhaps shall never come to pass and so trouble themselves with a great deal of fear Thou art afraid of such and such losses perhaps thou maist die first and such things perhaps shall never befall thee labour to prepare thy heart before hand and then fear them not I will shew you the inconveniences of this briefly First of all these fears of losses and crosses and the like they often bring a great deal of ill to men nay it brings a great deal of ill as the natural event and consequent of it partly by the judgement of God Isa 66.4 I will bring their fears upon them And that that wicked men fear shall come upon them This is the way to bring ill upon them when men will needs be miserable is it not just with God they should The Romans will come and take away our Empire and so it was Saul was afraid that David should succeed him and so he did When men will not learn to live by faith it is just with God to bring that that they fear upon them because they dishonour him by unbelief In the second place it not only brings ill but it makes the heart unfit for ill when it comes In the fear of man their is a snare but in the confidence of the Lord there is a sure reward In the fear of man there is a snare what doth fear do It insnares a man it binds a man hand and foot and layes him flat before his enemy when he comes and then his enemy tramples upon him It so weakens the Spirits and disheartneth a man before it comes that when it comes he is no way able to bear it For the fear takes away all the joy and content that a man may take in the present good that he enjoyes at the hand of God that he cannot enjoy that because he fears I know not what ill that may come and then when that ill comes he is not able to bear it his spirit is so weak I might shew much hurt that this fear doth both to the soul and to the body of man To the body of man how doth it weaken and contract the Spirits and bring diseases and some times death it self Fear doth much hurt to the soul Naturally Spiritually Naturally it weakens a man in regard of the operations of his sonl that the body is not a fit instrument for the soul to work by It makes a man do divers things
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
discouragements on him that he desires Secondly another advantage he hath for this end is this that is he wondrously prevails upon the heart of man by a careless neglect that is in men every man loves ease There is such a spirit in man such a disposition in the spirit of man that he avoids the things ordinarily that have great labour this disposition to ease and rest Satan serves himself on and makes great use of so when a man hath come from hearing the Word and reading the Scriptures whereas he should now be exercised and labour in meditation to work those things on his heart that now the root might fasten and things might settle on the soul he passeth by these easily now the heart of a man lies open as the high way you know the parable Matth. 13. when the seed fell on the high-way the Fowls of the ayr came and picked it up and it was gone presently where there is no pains taken with the heart of a man as there is none taken with the high way that the seed that falls there might grow as in the plowed ground when there is no pains taken with the heart now every notion every direction and every spiritual instruction it lies lightly there and is soon carried out this is the advantage that Satan makes of a mans love of ease But there is another thing concerning the way that Satan takes not only to steal it out of the mind by those two wayes but again by presenting the very truths of God to men in false glosses so as a man cannot discern them in their own shape and nature but in such colours as he presents them to them If the time would have served I might instance in several particulars I will but touch upon one or two and leave the inlargement to your own meditations Sometimes things that are great and of precious use shall be presented small and of no account and things again that are small and little shall be presented wondrous great The mercies of God the Attributes of God the promises of the Gospel the sufficiency of the merits of Christ these shall seem small things little to be regarded less then ever God intended them to be And on the contrary a mans own sins his own distempers shall be made exceeding great Worldly things shall be presented as things of the greatest consequence and spiritual things as meer accessories as things that depend upon them and that come in after Sometimes again things that are most necessary to be understood and known things that should be particularly applyed shall be presented obscurely and confusedly and sometimes things of lesser consequence the knowledge whereof is not so necessary shall be presented with more clearness and with strong perswasions to the study and knowledge of them But I will not stand on this this is enough to give you a taste of Satans subtilty this way whereby he wondrously prevails in bringing trouble upon the spirits of men Thirdly it is from our selves and so it comes to pass from that general corruption that is in our natures from whence all other sins flow that the spirits of men are troubled and disturbed by things that fall out from day to day And first it comes to pass that the soul of man is miserably in bondage and captivated and inthraled and is deprived of liberty as it were through the distemper of the body as in Melancholy and sickness we see how the soul is disâ—…urbed by the very diseases and distempers in the body it self and that by vertue of that simpathy in the soul with the body it riseth from the union of it to the body by the spirits but this I will pass by Sometimes we see the soul subdued with lusts and corruptions somestrong lust some strong sin or other prevails And then as it is with the Fowl that is now flying in the air it may be there is bird-lime cast upon the wings of it it falls down presently and can flie no further so it is with the soul somewhat presseth it down somewhat compasseth it about and coups it in as that expression is used Heb. 12.1 Let us cast off the sin that compasseth us about and that presseth so heavy down that we may run with patience the race that is set before us And sometimes the soul is disturbed by inordinate passions which arise from that general distemper that is diffused through every faculty and so the understanding looks upon things as through a mist it sees nothing clearly and in most common things it is blind and it is led by blind affections too and when the blind leads the blind both fall into the ditch saith Christ and so the memory that should retain the precious treasures the promises of the Gospel to relieve the soul in all cases it is like a leaking vessel that lets things run out as it is Heb. 2. Take heed that the things you have heard run not out saith the Apostle alluding to that Metaphor And the very conscience it self that should be conclusive it now rests in generals and uncertainties conscience should determin what my case is whether I be the child of God or no whether I be in the state of grace or no to put a man to bring things to particular now for the most part by mans own neglect it remains in doubt it may be I am it may be I am not it may be I have a right in the Covenant of grace it may be not c. And now because conscience is not come to that resolute conclusive act that a man may determine of his own particular case hence it is that every thing troubles and disquiets him Thus beloved you see the reasons of it We will briefly pass it over with a word of Application And first it should teach us compassion towards those whose spirits are troubled our Saviour Christ saith here Let not you hearts be troubled He considered of them in their weakness and doth not much upbraid them with it but helps to bring them out of it in much mercy and love and so should we There is such a disposition rising from the pride cruelty and uncharitableness of the hearts of men that they are apt to add to the burthen of the afflicted and to make their afflictions more by their censuring of their troubles You know the speech of old Eli a good man but yet he failed in that when he saw Hannah in great trouble of spirit uttering her heart before the Lord Lay away thy drunkenness saith he he thought she was drunk at lest with some passion and all came but from perplexity and disturbance of spirit and in that manner he rather added to her grief then eased hen So Jobs friends you see what they said they presently judged him in that case as one that God had cast off for hypocrisie and for his pride and covetousness or for some one
all the Angels and Saints in Heaven the spirits of just men made perfect to Abrahams bosome to be with Christ Et quanta 〈◊〉 felicitas What greater happiness It was much that Moses obtained to see the back-parts of God but how much greater favour is it to see him face to face to have eternal fellowship with God the father with Christ the Redeemer with the Holy Ghost the sanctifier The knowledg of this benefit of Death makes the face of it comfortable to Gods servants and causes them to strive with their own natural weakness that so they may even long for their day of dissolution But now against this point divers Objections may be alledged For first the Apostle Paul sayes that Death is the wages of sin And else-where he stiles it Christs enemy the last enemy that he shall subdue is Death How should not death then be rather a day of misery to be trembled at then a day of happiness to be longed for To this I answer that we are to distinguish touching Death for it must be considered two wayes First as it is in its owe nature Secondly as it is altred by Christ in the first sence it is true that Death is the wages of sin and the very suburbs and the gates of hell But in the second taking of Death it ceases to be a plague and becomes a blessing inasmuch as it is even a door opening out of this world into Heaven Now the godly look not upon Death simply but upon Death whose sting and venome is plucked out by Jesus Christ and so it is exceeding comfortable But then secondly it is objected that we read of many that have prayed against death as namely first David Return O Lord faith he and deliver my soul oh spare me for thy mercies sake for in death there is no remembrance of thee Secondly Hezekiah when the message of death was brought to him Thirdly Christ himself Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me To all these I answer first touching David that when he composed that sixt Psalm he was not only grievously sick but also exceedingly tormented in mind for he wrastled and combated in his conscience with the wrath of God as appears by the first Verse of that Psalm therefore we must know that he prayed not simply against Death but against death at that time in asmuch as the coming of it was accompanied with extraordinary apprehensions of Gods wrath for at another time he tells us that he would not fear though he walked through the valley of the shaddow of Death And the like I say touching Hezekiah that his prayer proceeded not from any desperate fear of Death but first that he might do more service to God in his Kingdom And with such a kind of thought was Saint Pauls desire of dissolution mingled Secondly he prayed against Death then because he knew that his death then would be a great cause of rejoycing to evil men to whom his reformation in the State was unpleasing Thirdly because he wanted issue God had promised before to David that there should not fail a man of his seed to sit upon the throne of Israel so that his children did take heed to their wayes Now it was a great discomfort to him to die chidless for then he and others might have thought that he was but an Hypocrite in as much as God had promised issue to all those Kings that feared him and for this cause God heard his prayer and after two years gave him a son Manasseh by name And so I say the same touching our Saviour Christ that he prayed not against Death as it is the separation betwixt Body and Soul as appears by what the Apostle faith that he was heard in that he feared for he stood in our room and became a Curse for us it was the Curse of the Law which went with Death and the unspeakable wrath and indignation of God which he feared and from this according to his prayer he was delivered But thirdly we see in most good men a fear of Death and a desire of life and I my self may some godly man say do feel my self ready to tremble at the meditation thereof and yet I hope I belong unto God I answer that there are two things to be considered in every Christian Flesh and Spirit Corruption and Grace and the best have many inward perplexities at times and doubtings of Gods favour Now it is a truth which our Saviour delivers that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak And as in all other good purposes there is a combate betwixt the flesh and the spirit so is there in this betwixt the fear of Death and the desire of Death sometime the one prevails and sometimes the other but yet alwayes at last the desire of Death doth get the victory Carnal respects do often prevail far with the best care of wise children and the like These are their infirmities but as other infirmities die in them by degrees so these also at last are subdued and the servants of God seeing clearly the happiness into which their Death in Christ shall enter them do even sigh desiring to be clothed upon with their house which is from Heaven Here then is a good Mark by which we may know our selves to be Gods servants viz. by the state of our thoughts and meditations touching Death I will so deliver it as may be most for the comfort of those that truly fear God I demand therefore of thee Dost thou know that the confident and comfortable expectation of Death is the work of the Holy Ghost in Gods servants Dost thou desire unfeignedly that the same may be wrought in thy heart Dost thou labour to know what happiness comes by Death to those that feare the Lord Dost thou grieve at thine own weakness to whom the thought of Death is sometime troublesome and unsavory Dost thou pray the Lord so to assure thee of his favour in Christ that death may be desired before it comes and welcome when it is come Dost thou when thou hearest this speech of Simeon wish that thou wert able to use the like words with the like resolution Surely these things shew that thou art Gods servant and that by Death the Lord will draw thee to a place of rest If these thoughts which I have now named be strangers to thy heart and thou dost not love to trouble thy self to study about Death it is an evil sign The servants of God are not wont to be so secure in matters of this quality And thus much for the first particular in the first general part the desire in the godly of death the second is their care for it the point thence is that It is the care of Gods servants to be alwayes so prepared for death as at what instant soever the Lord shall send it they
dominion and rule that what it doth now is as a theef by stealth that surprizeth a man in his sleep And it hath its deadly wound whereupon it withers and decayes and at last in the sight of all men and at such a time when if there were any life it would appear at such a time it shall appear that sin is dead Thus you see the first expression opened the change from sin by death you are dead to sin Now take the second expression you are alive to God that expresseth the second part of sanctification that this the quickning of a man to newness of life It is with thee now as with one that was dead and is alive there is such a change in thee And how is this expressed by life Thus in three respects this change is fitly expressed by life The first is this you know life it consists in the union of a man with the principle of life when there is a union between the body and the soul here is life Now though there are bodies and spirits yet the bodies live not by those spirits except they be united with them therefore when the soul is separated from the body the â—…ody dies and the man is said no more to be a live so here in this fence when there is a union between the soul of a man and the principle of spiritual life then there is that change wrought whence he is said to be alive Now the principle of spiritual life is only Christ so you see here in the Text you are alive to God through our Lord Jesus Christ when there is a union between Christ and you And how is that It is by an influence from Christ into the soul and that is the mighty work of the Spirit of God as you see Joh. 6.63 It is the Spirit that quickneth saith our Saviour The great work that is wrought by the Spirit in quickning a man is the work of Faith Now I live saith the Apostle by faith in the Son of God that dyed for me Gal. 2.20 Now when there is such a union between Christ and a man then he lives there is such a change in him as there is in life Therefore beloved this change is not in any that profess the knowledge of Christ and have not yet union with Christ It is not enough that a man be called a Christian it is not enough that a man prosess that he hopes to be saved by Christ It is not enough that a man go on in some external actions as other Christians do unless that he doth and that he is in any spiritual a 〈◊〉 on it be by vertue of his union with Christ that it be by life received from him by a quickning vertue flowing from him to every member that is exprest Joh. 15.9 by the branches in the Vine they are quickned by union in the Vine cut the branches from the Vine and they die and wither So it is with men let hem be in the Lords Vineyard yet if they be not united with this Vine Christ they are but dead men dead in trespasses and sins Ephes 2.1 that is the first Secondly this change is exprest by life in another respect for look as in life there is not only an union with the principle of life but besides that there are those living actions and operations that naturally flow from that union in every living creature so in spiritual life there are spiritual actions and operations that flow from every man that is thus united to Christ As every thing is in being so it is in working take a natural man he doth naturalactions by vertue of a natural life Take a worldly man he doth live as a man may say in worldly actions by vertue of that worldly principle that is in him So take a spiritual man what is the reason he delights in spiritual things His delight is in the Law of the Lord as David saith and in that Law be meditates day and night What is the reason his delight is in the Saints and the more spiritual any one is the more he delights in them the reason is this because he lives a spiritual life therefore he doth actious agreable to that principle with which he is united therefore by this you shall know it Thirdly there are certain properties in life that hold in this too and we will instance but in two First wheresoever there is life there is a natural appetite and desire after all means that may preserve that life Wheresoever God gives life to any creature he gives also a desire to that creature to preserve that life it hath which is the best state of being Now it is so with a Christian all his desires are to preserve spiritual life and to increase it he rests not in what he hath but labours to be more yet and to do more yet to know God more to love God more to serve God better to live more fruitfully more profitably among men He delights in the actions of spiritual life therefore he would strengthen those habits by all actions and industry and indevour As new-born babes faith the Apostle desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby No sooner is there life in a new-born babe but there is a desire to â—…ourish that life You see there is a natural appetite even in the very trees that thrust their roots down into the ground to draw moysture below from the earth by an instinct to preserve that life they have in the stock and in the branches So it is in every man that hath a spiritual life he puts forth with all industry for all spiritual helps according to that strength he hath for the preservation of his spiritual life That is the reason why they are not content in the abundance of all outward things when they want spiritual helps and that is the reason that they are not satisfied nor solace themselves in dead worldly company that is the reason their hearts rest not in things below because these are not the food of their spiritual life these are not the things that preserve that life that is in them Secondly as there is a desire of the preservation of life so there is a desire of propagation and transfusion of it to others as much as may be So you see those things that have but a metaphorical life as we may say that are said to live by way of allusion and metaphor as the fire in the coal when it is said to live in the coal it is for this reason because it is apt to kindle another It is so in a Christian wheresoever there is spiritual life there is a desire to communicate it with as many as it can And this you see in all the servants of God Philip calls Nathaniel Joh. 1.44 when he bad gained the knowledge of Christ And the woman of Samaria goes to call in the City when she had
and yet there is none of his coming Wilt thou still retain thine integrity right Jobs Wife as she speaks to him wilt thou still retain thy trust to what purpose is it It is in vain to serve the Lord as those wicked ones speak in Malachy Now if Hope will come in and say notwithstanding all these things yet pass by bad report and good report be of Davids mind I will yet be more vile before the Lord that chose me before thee and thy fathers house and I will stand it out notwithstanding all the mockings of men Here is a manifest sign that there is Hope Thus you may seek to find this grace in your selves and you shall find it by many such kind of assaults as these which Faith meeteth withall Now as you are to find it so you are to fight against the hindrances of this Hope And the hindrances of a mans hope are sometimes slavish fear sometimes an impatient spirit and sometimes even Death it self and that is a tedious affront indeed that Hope meeteth withall First Fear a kind of passion and perturbation of the spirit of a man that makes his grief begin before his affliction comes upon him this same Fear hath a great deal of painfulness in it Where the fearful are they are shut our with the unfaithful and without shall be dogs with those that are subject to this fearfulness Now Hope cometh to a man and faith Though I sometime be afraid yet put I my trust in God and therefore I will not fear what man can do unto me I will not be danted with any kind of slavish terrour Hold out thou that faist thou hast faith and be not afraid of the Arrow that flies by day nor of the terrour by night Here is the hindrance of this hope taken away Then there is an impatient spirit that many times possesseth men An impatient spirit and a hopeful heart they are both as contrary as can be You shall have many a man so touchy that he cannot endure any delay he must have things come according to his own mind or he loseth his patience presently Oh but I will patiently wait for the Lord saith hope And here is the opposition that must be made for the maintenance of this hope against all kind of impatiency In patience possesse your souls The last hindrance is death The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death We have many enemies in this world our very life is a warfare but amongst all the fightings and combates we meet with in the world there is none comparable to this last single combate we must undergo with death it self this is a terrible assault that betideth the hopeful faithful man to know that notwithstanding all his faith and all his hope and all his love and all his patience what grace or vertue soever he hath else yet not withstanding he must go down to the grave make his bed in the darkness and lie down in the dust and when he hath fought all that he can yet not withstanding he must down he must yeeld he must take the foyl the fall in the body howsoever the soul escapeth Now here is a kind of dismaidment of hope But I will tell you how it is spoken of the faithful and so of the hopeful The faithful are said to endure as seeing him that is invisible how do they endure by the supply of hope for this hope is it that makes the faithful against all hindrances to fight it out so as that they would not be delivered as it is spoken in the Epistle to the Hebrews And shall death separate us from that we hope for No faith the hopeful man it shall not Yea so far he is from being unwilling to submit himself to this way as knowing it to be the way whereby he cometh to that he hopeth for as that he is very ready and greedy of death it is the way to that I hope for saith he therefore it is sweely spoken of an Ancient and you will acknowledge it to be a sweet sentence of that Father Saint Austin He that desireth to be dissolved according to that of the Apostle and to be with Christ Non patienter moritur He doth not die patiently See here is a faithful a hopeful man and yet doth not die patiently what would the Father say He liveth saith he patiently the very life he liveth putteth him to his patience when he cometh to die he dyeth pleasantly he goeth away with his hope and his hope is full of immortality And no more for that point The next thing I observe is concerning the Object of this hope and this is it that Christ is Object of the Christians hope We have hope in Christ Hear it in the general hear it in the speciall In the general 1. Tim. 1.1 Saint Paul he beginneth his Epistle with Christ our hope Col. 1.27 The riches of the mystery of Gods grace to the Gentiles is Christ in you the hope of glory Here is Christ our hope and Christ your hope in the general In the special hear it in Saint Paul hear it in the prophets and others Saint Paul to me to live is Christ to die is gain Christ is to me in life and death advantage living or dying I am Christs I have hoped in the Lord faith the Prophet David And God is my hope and hath been my help even from my youth This is the general song of the whole Church God is our hope and therefore the Prophet Jacob made an excellent Ejaculation in those blessings he gave his sons when he said Oh Lord I have waited for thy salvation Here was his waiting his hope for the salvation of God from the God of his salvation And so let him slay me if he will saith holy Job yet not withstanding I will still trust in him Thus the faithful have hope and their hope is in Christ No more of it for the enlargement of it It sheweth to us in the first place this Note that A Christians wings do mount him above all means What are his wings his hope Whither slyeth his hope It takes its flight up to heaven to God to the right hand of God to Christ there is his hope So then he that hath this hope being poor he flyeth not to riches for they make themselves wings and fly away from him Being weak he flyeth not to the arm of flesh for in man there is no hope nor no confidence to be put in Princes in the Ballance they are lighter then vanity it self faith the Psalmist Being sick he flyeth not to the Physitian he fleeth to these as the means not to rest in them to make it the main of his aim the scope of his hope he doth not fly thus to them but he goeth to God that commandeth all that worketh above all against all and without all
themselves and pay him So liberal a Patron he was that he not only freely bestowed all the Benefices that fell in his gift but was also at all the charge of institution induction composition first-fruits and whatsoever burthen fell upon the Incumbent Such patterns of Patrons we may rather wish then hope for after him what shall I need to add more concerning him whose birth was illustrious his education liberal his Patromony great his Matches sutable his life exemplary and his death comfortable Single vertues we meet with in many but such combinations as were in him such affability in such gravity such humility in such eminency such patience in such trials such temperance and moderation in such abundance as we have just cause to bless God for in him so we have great cause to pray for in others of his Rank In his tender years he was set as a choice Plant in the famous Nursey of good learning and Religion the University of Oxford where living as a Commoner in Corpus Christi Colledge under the care and tuition of Doctor Sebastian Wenfield he very much thrived and grew above his equalls both in grace and in knowledge gaining to himself as much love as learning After he was removed from thence he fell into very great troubles as well before as after the death of his Father but the Lord delivered him out of all These crosses and afflictions served but as Files to brighten those gifts and graces in him which shined afterwards most brightly in his more setled estate and eminent employments being chosen Deputy Lievetenant in Wiltshire Commissioner in three Shires Four times High-Sheriff and often Knight for the Shire in Parliament in all which places of important negotiations and great trust he so carried himself that all men might see in all his actions he had a special eye to the Motto in his Escouchion Jeay bonne cause for with Mary he alwayes chose the good part and stood up for the truth which he confirmed with his last breath You have heard what he was in publick but what was he in private we have seen him in the Sun how demeaned he himself in the shade True Religion is like the precious stone Garamantites which casteth no great lustre outwardly but semper intus habeat aureas guttus but we may discern as it were golden drops within Three of these after I have presented to your view I will then set free your patience and give your sorrow full scope to vent it self in tears The first of these was tenderness of conscience which is one of the most infallible tokens and marks of the Child of God so tender was he that he would undertake no business before he was fully perswaded of the lawfulness thereof both by clear texts of Scripture and the approbation of most learned and conscientious Divines he made scruple not only of committing the least known sin but of imbarking into any action which was questionable among those that love the truth in sincerity And therefore although God blessed him with great wealth and store of coyn yet he never put it to Usury or Intrest thereby to increase it for he held the tolleration of the Law in this Kingdome to be no sufficient warrant for any violation of the divine Law the destinctions lately coyned of toothless and biting Usury he no way allowed judging truly that all Usury according to the Hebrew Etymology is biting and hath not only teeth but Adders teeth envenomed for all Usury if it bite not our Brother as per accidens sometimes it may not yet it biteth the conscience of all such who have any remorse of sin The second aurea gutta was Christian compassion whereby he took to heart the afflictious of Joseph and misery of Lazarus whose fores he cured with the most precious balsamum he could buy for his money What Pliny writeth lib. 32. c. 8. Attalus usus est Thynni recentiores adipe ad ulcera on the Fish in Latin Thynuus that it is a soveraign remedy against many diseases and cureth all kind of ulcers was truly verified in him for he furnished himself with the best cordials and the rarest medicinal receipts and when he heard of any poor sick or hurt he not onely sent them money but Bezar and balsamum thinking nothing could cost him too dear whereby he might save the life or recover the health of the poorest member of Christ Jesus In the years of death and sickness he sent provision to all the Parishes about him and thrice a week relieved a hundred at least at his gate neither did his compassion die with him for in his Will and Testament confirmed by him the day before his Death he bequeathed divers Legacies to the poor whereof these following came to my notice To Saint Margarets in Westminster 10. pound To Kempsford 60. pound To Cosley 60. pound To Froome and the Woodlands 100. pound To Warmester 100. pound To Deverill and Mounten 100. pound The last aurea gutta which I shall present to your view at this time was his servency of zeal for the truth of the Gospel in all the Benefices which he bestowed he took special care to make choice of men sound in the Faith no way warping either to Popish superstition or schismatical seperation as he made greatest accompt of those Ministers of the Gospel who were servent in spirit zealous for the truth so he hated none more then temporizers and luke-warm Loadiceans he seldome spake of any Romanist without expressing a great detestation of their idolatry and superstition the night before he changed this life for a better after an humble confession of his sins in general and a particular profession of the Articles of his belief in which he had lived and now was resolved to die he added I renounce all Popish superstition all mans merits trusting only upon the merits of the Death and passion of my Saviour and whosoever trusteth on any other shall find when he is dying if not before that he leaneth upon broken reeds Here after the benediction of his Wife and Children being required by me to ease his mind and declare if any thing lay heavy upon his conscience he answered nothing he thanked God yet like an obedient child of his Mother the Church of England both heartily desired and received her absolution and now professing that he was most willing to leave the world he besought all to pray for him and himself prayed most fervently that God would enable him patiently to abide his good will and pleasure and to go through this last and greatest work of faith and patience and the pangs of Death soon after coming upon him he fixed his eyes on Heaven from whence came his help and to the last gasp lifted up his hand as it were to lay hold on that Crown of righteousness which Christ reacheth out to all his children who hold out the good fight of Faith to the end and conquer in the end Which
Saint Paul 1 Cor. 15.55 his words have no reference to this Text in the Prophet for the last Translation approved by our Church in the marginal note upon the 1 Cor. 15.55 sends us to this verse in Hosea and we find no other place in all the Scriptures of the old Testament to which the Apostle should allude but this And although Calvin endeavouring to untie this Gordean knot saith peremptorily that it is evident that the Apostle 1 Cor 15. doth not alledg the testimony of the Prophet to confirm any Point of Doctrine delivered by him yet Calvin hi◠evidence for it seems to me obscure and inevident his satis constat minime liquet for the express words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.53 54 55. are for this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality so when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory What shall we say then hereunto With submission to those who out of better skill in the original and upon more exact examination of all Translations may bring them to a better accord for the present I thus resolve First that Rabbi Iarchi his translation is utterly be to rejected for it is like the white of an egg that hath no taste what sense can any man pick out of these words ero verbo tua ô mors I will be thy words O Death unless we help them with our English phrase I will do thine errand Secondly Aben-Ezra is to go packing with his fellow Rabbin for his interpretation is a manifest contradiction to the former words of the Prophet I will ransome them from the power of the grave I will redeem them from death he that will redeem them from death can in no sense be said to be the cause why they die but why they die not Besides both he and Iarchi stumble at the same stone to wit the word Deborica which they derive from dabar signifying verbum or causa whereas they should have derived it from Dever signifying pestem or a plague Thirdly for Saint Jerome his translation though it differ somewhat from the original yet it is no Antithesis to the Text but an elegant Antanaclasis or at least a Metonymie generis pro specie mors pro peste I will be thy death for I will be thy plague Fourthly for the translation of the Septuagint which Saint Paul most seemeth to follow because writing to the Gentiles who made use of that translation and understood not the original he would not give them any offence nor derrogate from it which was in great esteem among all in regard of the antiquity thereof and it stood the Christians in those dayes in great stead to convince the unbelieving Jewes It well agreeth with the Analogie of faith and the meaning of the holy Spirit and the Hebrew letter also will bear it for Ehi as Buxtorphius the great Master of the holy tongue out of David Kimchi observeth signifieth ubi where as well as ero I will be and a venemous sting and pestis the plague differ but little so that although the words in the original seem to be spoken by an affirmation but in Saint Paul and the Septuagint by an interrogation in the one by a commination in the other by an insultation yet both come to one sense and contain an evident prophesie of Christ his conquest over Death and Hell I have pluked away the thorn and now I am come to blow the flower and open the leaves of the words O death I will be thy plauges that is I will take away from Death the power of destroying utterly and from the Grave the power of keeping the dead in it perpetually If we take the words as spoken by way of insultation ô mors ubi est aculeus tuus O death where is thy sting thus we are to construe them as a hornet or serpent when his sting is plucked out can do no hurt to any other but soon after dyeth it self so Death is disarmed by Christ and left as good as dead for as David cut off Goliahs head with his own sword and Brasidas ran through his enemy with his own spear so Christ conquers over Death by death in as much as by his temporal death he satisfied both for the temporal and the eternal death of them that believe in him And as he conquered Death by his death so he destroyed the Grave by his burial for suffering his body to be imprisoned and afterwards breaking the gates and barrs of the prison he left the passage open to all his members to come out after him their head These sacred and heavenly mysteries are shrined in the letter of this Text for although the Prophet speaketh to the Israelites and maketh a kind of tender unto them of redemption from temporal death and deliverance from corporal captivity yet to confirm their faith therein he bringeth in the promise of eternal redemption from whence they were to infer if God will redeem us from eternal how much more from temporal death if he will deliver us out of the prison of the grave how much more out of common Goals what though our enemies have never so great a hand over us what though they exceed in their cruelty and put us to all exttemity and do their worst against us their cruelty cannot extend beyond death nor their malice beyond the Grave but Gods power and mercy reacheth farther For he can and he promiseth that he will revive us after we are dead and raise us after we are buried he will pluck deaths sting out of us and us out of the bowels of the Grave Death hath not such power over the living nor the grave over the dead as God hath over both to destroy the one and swallow up the other into victory For therefore the Son of God vouchsafeth to taste death that Death might be swallowed up by him into victory Although Death swallow up all things and the Grave shut up all in darkness yet God is above them both therefore when we are brought to the greatest exigent when nothing but death and torments are before us when we are ready to yeeld up the buckler of our faith and breath out the last gasp of hope let us call this Text to mind O death I will be thy plagues neither Death nor the Grave shall be my peoples bane because I will be both their bane and change their nature which destroyeth all nature For to all them that believe in me Death shall not be a postern but a street-door not so much an out-let of temporal as an in-let of eternal life and though the grave swallow the bodies of my Saints yet it shall cast them up again at the last day Thus the words yeeld us
their patience to endure for Gods cause whatsoever man or divel can inflict upon them to part with any limb for their head Christ Jesus gladly to forfeit their estates on earth for a crown in heaven chearfully to lose their lives in this vail of tears that they may find them in the rivers of pleasures that spring at Gods right hand for evermore Here is work for their faith also to see heaven as it were through hell eternal life in present death to beleeve that God numbreth every hair of their head and that every tear they shed for his sake shall be turned into a pearl every drop of blood into a Ruby to be set in their crown of glory To confirme both their faith and patience Christ proclaimeth from heaven that howsoever in their life they seemed miserable yet in their death they shall be most blessed and that the worst their enemies can do is to put them in present possession of their happiness Blessed are the dead c. So saith the spirit whatsoever the flesh saith to the contrary Here we have 1. A proposition De fide of faith 2. A Deposition or testimony of the spirit A Proposition of the happy estate of the dead A deposition of the holy Ghost to confirm our faith therein 1. Saint John sets down his relation 2. A most comfortable assertion 3. A most strong confirmation The relation strange The assertion as strange of a possession without an owner a blessed estate of them who according to the Scripture phrase are said not to be The Confirmation as strange as either by an audible testimony of an invisible witness So saith the spirit Or because this asseveration concerning the condition of the Saints departed is propositio necessaria as the Schools speak we will cloath the members of the division with terms apodictical and in this verse observe 1. A conclusion sientifical whereof the parts are 1. The subject indefinite mortui the dead 2. The attribute absolute beati blessed 3. The cause propter quam the Lord or dying in the Lord. 2. The proof demonstrative and that two-fold 1. A priori 1. By a heavenly oracle I heard a voyce c. 2. A divine testimony So saith the spirit 2. A Posteriori by arguments drawn 1. From their cessation from their work They rest from their labours 2. Their remuneration for their works Their works follow them Where the matter is pretious a decision of the least quantity is a great loss and therefore as the spie of nature observeth the Jewellers will not rub out a small clowd or speck in an orient Ruby because the lessening the substance will more disadvantage them then the fetching out of the spot advance them in the sale Neither will the Alcumists lose a drop of quintessence nor the Apothecaries a grain of Bezar nor an exact Commentatour upon holy Scriptures any syllables of a voyce from heaven the eccho whereof is more melodious to the soul then any consort of most tuneable voyces upon earth can be In which regard I hold it fit to relinquish my former divisions and insist upon each word of this verse as a Bee sitteth upon each particular flower that we may not lose any drop of doctrins sweeter then the honey and the honey comb any lease of the tree of life any dust of the gold of Ophir 1. J there were three men in holy Scripture termed Jedidiah that is Beloved of God Solomon Daniel and Saint John the Evangelist and to all these God made known the secrets of his Kingdome by special revelation and their prophecies are for the most part of a mystical interpretation This Revelation was given to John when he was in the spirit upon the Lords day and if we religiously observe the Lords day and then be in the spirit as he was giving our selves wholly to the contemplation of Divine mysteries we shall also hear voyces from heaven in our souls and consciences Heard with what ears could Saint John hear this voyce sith he was in a spiritual rapture which usually shutteth up all the doors of the sences I answer that as spirits have tongues to speak withall whereof we read 1 Cor. 13.1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and Angels so they have ears to hear one another that is a spiritual faculty answerable to our bodily sense of hearing The Apostle saith of himself that he was in the spirit and as he was in the spirit so he saw in the spirit and heard in the spirit and spake in the spirit and moved in the spirit and did all those things which are recorded in this Book When Saint Paul was wrap'd up into the third Heaven and heard there words that cannot be uttered and saw things which cannot be represented with the eye he truly and really apprehended those objects yet not with carnal but spiritual sences wherewith Saint John heard this voyce A voyce from Heaven The Pythagoreans taught that the Coelestial sphears by the regular motions produced harmonious sounds and the Psalmist teacheth us that the Heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work and that there is no speech nor language where their voyce is not heard but that was the voyce of Heaven it self demonstrately proving and after a sort proclaiming the Majesty of the Creatour But this is vox de coelo a voyce from Heaven pronounced by God himself or formed by an Angel so Gasper Melo expresly teacheth us Saint John heard a voyce not sounding out wardly but inwardly framed by that Angel who revealed unto him the whole Apocalypse Saint John here heard a voyce from Heaven commanding him to Write and Saint Austin heard a voyce from Heaven commanding him to Read Tolle lege and most requisite it is that where Heaven speaks the earth should hear and where God writes that man should read There never yet came any voyce from Heaven 〈◊〉 did not much import and concern the earth to hear The first voyce that came from Heaven was heard on Mount Sinai and it was to confirm the Law to be of divine authority and establish our faith in God the Creator A second voyce from Heaven we hear of in Saint Peter on the holy Mount when the Apostles were there with Christ and it was to confirm the Gospel and to establish our faith in Christ the Redeemer A third voyce or sound was heard from Heaven in the upper room where Christs Apostles were assembled in the day of Pentecost and it was to confirme our faith in the holy Ghost the Comforter A fourth voyce that came from Heaven was heard by Saint Peter in a vision and it was to confirme our faith in the Catholike Church and the Communion of Saints and the incorporating both Jewes and Gentiles in one mystical body Lastly a voyce was heard from Heaven by Saint John in this place to establish our faith in the last Article
Christ for all Cui c. VICTORIS BRABAEUM OR THE CONQUERORS PRIZE A SERMON Preached at Rotheriffe at the Funeral of M ris Dorothy Gataker Wife to the Worthy and Reverend Divine Master Thomas Gataker B. D. SERMON XLVI Apoc. 14.13 So faith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works follow them THe longer a man enjoyeth the benefit of life the more cause he hath to desire death for cares grow with years and sins with cares and sorrows with sins and fears with sorrows which trouble the quiet and confound the musick and blend the mirth and damp the whole joy of our life so that he who spinneth the thred of his life to the greatest length gaineth nothing thereby but this that he can give a fuller and clearer evidence of the vanity of the world and yeild a more ample testimony to the misery of man during his abode in the flesh whom if we take at the best advantage of his Worldly happiness he must needs confess that he hath nothing of all that is past but a sad remembrance nor of that which is to come but a solicitous fear As after a great feast at which a man hath glutted his appetite nothing remaineth but loathsome and stinking fumes ascending from the stomack to the head and offending the brain so of all the pleasures of sin past nothing remaineth but a bitter tast in the conscience or rather to use Saint Bernards Metaphor amar a foeda vestigia foul and stinking prints left in the floar where he danced after the Devils pipe sorrow and shame for what he hath been and fear for what he shall be mingles and sours all the joy and delight in that he is And what is he at the best a poor tennent at will of a ruinous cottage of loam or house of clay ready to fall about his ears with a Grashoppers leap in a spot of ground His apparel is but stoln raggs his wealth the excrements of the earth his dyet bread of carefulness got with the sweat of his brows and all his comforts and recreations rather as Saint Austin tearms them solatia miserorum quam gaudia beatorum sauces of misery then dishes of happiness For albeit a good conscience be a continual feast and the testimony of the Spirit an everlasting Jubilee in the soul yet the most righteous man that breaths mortal ayr either by frailty or negligence or diffidence or impatience or love of this present life or suttlety of perswasions or violence of temptations so woundeth his conscience and grieveth the Spirit of grace that this feast is turned for a time into a fast and the Jubilee into an ejulate or howling All things therefore laid together the scorns of the World assaults from the flesh temptations from the Devil rebukes from God checks from conscience sensible failing of Grace spiritual dissertions with many a bitter agony and conflict with despair I cannot but perfectly accord with the Poet in his doleful note Foelices nimium quibus est fortuna peracta jam sua they are but too hapyy whose glass is well run out and with the Evangelist in my Text beati mortui blessed are the dead for they rest from their labours and their works follow them they rest from those labours which tie us that live and the works which we are to follow follow them A three-fold cable faith the wise man is not easily broken and such is this here in my Text on which the anchour of our hope hangeth 1 The testimony of Saint John Yea. 2 The testimony of the Spirit so saith the Spirit 3 A strong reason drawn from their rest and recompence they rest from their labours and they receive the reward of their labours they are discharged of their work and for their work If they were discharged for their work and not discharged of their work they could not be said blessed because their tedious and painful works were to return And much less happy could they be termed if they were discharged of their work but not for it for then they should lose all their labour under the Sun they should have done and suffered all in vain but now because they are both discharged of their work for they rest from their labour and discharged for their work for their works follow them they are most blessed The Spirit here taketh the ground of this heavenly musick ravishing the souls of the living and able to revive the very dead either from the labourers pay or the racers prize If the ground be the labourers joy for their rest and pay the descant must be this our life is a day our calling a labour the evening when we give over our death the pay our penny If the ground be the racers joy for their prize the descant may be this the Church is the field Christianity is the race death is the last post and a garland of glory the wager let us all so run that we may obtain Yea faith the Spirit We read in the Law and the Prophets Thus faith Jehovah the Lord in the Gospel Thus spake Jesus But in the Epistles and especially in the Revelation thus faith the Spirit now the Spirit speaketh evidently hear what the Spirit faith unto the Churches he that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit faith unto the Churches and the Spirit and the Bride faith come While Christ abode in the flesh he taught with his own mouth the Word of life but now since his Ascention and sitting in state at the right hand of his Father he speaketh and doth all by his Spirit By the Spirit he ordaineth Pastours furnisheth them with gifts enlightneth the understanding of the hearers and enclineth their wills and affections and so leadeth the Church into all truth In which regard Tertullian elegantly tearmeth the Spirit Christi Vicarium Christ his Vicar preaching in his stead and discharging the Cure of the whole World Secondly so faith the Spirit not the flesh the earth denies it but Heaven avereth it when a man removeth out of this World the flesh beholdeth nothing but a corps brought to the Church and a Coffin laid in the Grave but the spirit discerneth an Angel carrying the soul up to Heaven and leaving it in Abrahams bosome till the Father of spirits shall give her again to the body arrayed in glorious apparel There is no Doctrine the Devil the flesh and the World more oppose then this here delivered by the Spirit concerning the blessedness of the dead for all Atheists all Heathen all carnal men all Saduces and sundry sorts of Hereticks deny the Resurrection of the body and the greater part of them also the immortality of the soul A wicked and ungodly person believeth not his soul to be immortal because he would not have it so he would not that their should be another World because he can have hope of no good there having carried himself so
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
earnestly with such vehement affections as if they were to live their age over a hundred times be there not a number of polititians that profess this hope too that hold it most unwise and foolish thing in the world to lose any thing for conscience-sake and for Christ Alas these things will not stand with this expectation When a man hath a good title to heaven he is content to part with the broken title to the things of this life as long indeed as a man hath not a better title he will hold to that worse but when he hath a blessed title to the inheritance of the Saints in light he careth not for this broken Tenour and title he will not hold them because they cannot hold him In the last place another note that attendeth this expectation is where this is there will be an answerable affection there will be a promoting of all the means to further it their will be a grief and sorrow for all things that come against it to hinder it Thus we do in other expectations When we expect this or that reversion when anything cometh between our hope we grieve for it any thing that cometh or falleth out to further our hope we rejoyce in it And thus it will be likewise in this expectation of Christ if it be true whatsoever it is that may further our hope and further Christ his coming that we desire and pray for that we rejoyce in that we promote and put on with all our power and strength and because a powerful ministry of the Word promoteth the kingdome of Christ and setcheth in the company that shall be saved and hasteneth his coming therefore we will withall our power and strength hold up the ministry of the Word of GOD that Scepter of Jesus Christ for the gathering in of people to God for the perfecting of the number of the Elect that so Christ may come and finish our salvations And whatsoever it is that may hasten this his coming and appearing we are glad to see it in the means of it when the Word is preached when the Sacraments are administred when people are gathered to God when grace appeareth in the hearts and lives of men when we see the power of godliness manifest it self any where when we see godly men incouraged and entertained when we see the fear of God to prevail in Families and the like we rejoyce at this Why so because this increaseth and confirmeth our hope it gathereth in the number that must be accomplished before our final deliverance And contrarily when we see things to impair and hinder the coming of the kingdome of Christ that hinders the salvations of men when we see the Church of God left without able teachers and in stead of them to come in unprofitable and unsufficient ignorant men when we see the free passage of the Gospel hindered many excellent lights shut under a bushel and their light hid from the people of God and the Gospel from the Church of God when we see faction prevail and both Civil and Ecclesiastical government despised when Heresies are countenanced and the people of God discouraged and disheartned when we see the state of the Church of God abroad that many sad blows are given by the enemies and the sword of the enemie is sharp upon the Church when we see these things these dazle our hopes they come between us and the kingdome and second coming of Christ the hastening of it therefore there must be griefe for it Thus it will be We pray for every thing that may hasten it and pray against every thing that stands between and hinders the conversion of men and the glory of God and the proceedings of Christs kingdome thus I say it will be with us But where is the man that takes these things to heart who setteth himself on these holy and conscionable courses If this be so it appeareth manifestly that this expectation though it be every where exprest is hard to be found any where there be very few that believe our report few there be that set themselves to sift and examine the soundness of their expectation and desire after Christ yet where it is not these attendants it is not sound and sincere In a word to stir us up to this as the Church and the Spirit and the Bride and he that is athirst here saith Come to stir up I say our desires to this we will use a Motive or two Do we not see by all this discourse a plain difference between godly men and unbelievers A godly man that hath the Spirit of God in him saith come A wicked man hath no such spirit in him with his tongue he may say come sometime when he is forced but he hath not the spirit to say come Here is the difference in their present estate but afterward the differences is greater when the evil servant will not waite for his Masters coming but sits with the drunken and Libertines he shall be made a spectacle of his masters fury The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him and at an hour when he is not aware and will cut him in sunder and will appoint him his portion with unbeleevers Ther 's then another difference Again consider though the coming of our Lord Christ be certain yet the particular time to our knowledge is uncertain but though the particular time be uncertain yet it is hastening it is not far off In the time of the Apostle there was but an hour saith Saint John now is the last hour if it were the last hour in the Apostles time certainly it is the last minute now the very last minute of an hour now And I beseech you let us consider the promise that is made to persons that expect the coming of Christ Blessed is that servaut whom his Master when he cometh shall find so doing how doing watching and preparing for and expecting of his Masters coming Blessed is the servant that his Master shall find so doing he speaks there in the singular number there are not many that he shall find so doing therefore he speaks of one that is blessed one of many that shall be found so doing Blessed are they that watch and keep their garments clean that purge themselves as he is pure that labour to be holy as he is holy blessed is he that doth so If it were not for these promises how were it able for Christians to get over the rubbs and hinderances that lie in the way of this expectation how were it possible for a Christian to leap over the brunt of reproaches the execution of sentences and persecutions that the Saints of God go under onely because they have an eye upon the White the expectation of the coming of Christ The faithful Martyrs in this Kingdome and in other Countries what did drive them to embrace the flames and the cruelest death and torments that Persecutors could devise but onely
how to live and how to die while we live let us desire of God so to steer our course as that we may lead the lives of holy and devout Christians We desire to live and have we no desire to live well what 's this life without godliness what is it to live and to have our hearts all the dayes of our lives void of grace and piety Life without grace is like beauty in a woman without discretion Pro. 11.22 Non est vivere sed valere vita It is no life but a living death alwayes to live and to want health and strength which sweetens life and makes it comfortable So it is no life a Christian leads where there is a want of piety in the heart What is this to live unless we know how to live well and to make a right use of our time We must consider wherefore we live even to improve our time to the best advantage for the saving of our Souls otherwise we live like Beasts not like Men not like Christians These silly brutes live in time but know not the time in which they live so careless Christians run out their time but know not how to make use of their time they consume their time but they do not increase it Like Bankrupts that waste their stock but never seek to improve it We make a decoction of our time as water is boil'd away from a fourth part to a third and from a third to half so we waste and consume our time till we have no time left even till we come to the last minute of life why then while we have time let us pray to God to teach us to use it aright to give us grace to consider the time we spend that we may make the best improvment of it and as Esan did Jacob hold time by the heel and not suffer it to slip from us without giving a good account to God that we have imployed that time and space of life which is allotted us here for the advancement of Gods glory and the purchasing of our own Salvation We proceed to the third particular that we go to God by prayer to teach us the right use of our time in a right manner So teach us that is Teach us so efficaciously so powerfully so constantly as that we may attain to the true wisdome and knowledg of saving of our Souls We must pray to God to teach us effectually Psal 119.33 Teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes and I shall keep it unto the end We can know nothing of heaven unless the Spirit of God instruct us There is a great Light in us the Light of Nature and this light is enough to condemn us if we walk not according to this Light this Light of Knowledg imprinted by God in our hearts and by this Light all Heathens are condemn'd but this Light is not able to carry us half way to heaven The Light of Nature cannot save us but the light of Grace must bring us to the light of Glory Esther was fain to stand a loof off in the Court till the King reach'd forth his Golden Scepter to invite her nearer to him Nature only leads us to the outward Court of Heaven but Grace holds forth the Scepter to bring us into Heaven Nature like the faint heat of the Sun draws up the vapours but a little way it hath not strength enough to master our Corruptions but the heat and power of Gods grace is only able to dispel and vanquish them It is only the work of Gods Spirit to shew us the right way to Heaven and to guide us in that way All lies in the Grace of God and unless we are continually assisted and carryed on by his gracious Spirit we are never likely to come near the sight of Heaven We have indeed many helps and furtherances to carry us to heaven but none of these will avail us without God The word of God is constantly preach'd in our ears the Ministers of God are daily pressing us forward to heaven but what can the frail voice of man work upon the heart without the powerful influence of Gods holy Spirit We Ministers without God are but as Gehazi's staff laid upon the dead Child we are no wayes able to raise the Soul from the death of sin to the life of righteousness unless God first breath upon it and infuse the life of Grace into the dead heart of the sinner Let this teach us not to rest in our selves or any outward means for the purchasing of the joyes of heaven but place our whole trust and confidence in the living God What 's all the Light of Reason but darkness it self to bring us to the Light Everlasting All humane wisdome is but a false Light which will lead us in the end to the pit of destruction It is a good caution the Apostle gives us Col. 2.8 Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit If we follow the false Light of Reason it will deceive us and misguide us in our way to Heaven Natural Reason haply may see the heavenly Canaan afar off and have some stragling thoughts of the happiness of another world but it shal never be able to get possession of heaven The horns of this Altar shall never save any man that flies unto them As the light is hid under a bushel so nature is clouded and darkned with many mists of errour and cannot reach the sight of heaven In the second place let us fly to God by prayer that he would teach us effectually and shew us the right way to heaven Before we hear the Word of God let us fall upon our knees and beg of God to make it profitable and useful to our Souls What makes the word of God so ineffectual how come we to gain so little comfort by the preaching of the Word Is it not because we do not pray to God to open our hearts and make it useful to us that we may attend to the word of Truth and obtain Salvation by it The people before the Law was published to them were cleansed and sanctified by Moses to receive it Exod. 19.14 So ought we to Sanctifie our hearts by prayer and desire of God to purge our Souls of the many pollutions of our sins that we may gain a blessing by the Word of God and return with joy and comfort from the house of God It is prayer that makes the word of God profitable to our Souls it is like the Salt which Elisha threw into the waters to heal them So does prayer make the word of God beneficial to us and causeth us to relish the sweetness and comfort of it The heart is like that Book sealed with seven Seals which no man can open but God himself Therefore let us pray to God to open our hearts that we may receive instruction from the Word of God There is no man can teach us