be cut off nay to be Rack'd or to have all the Instruments of tortures apply'd to him than to be cast both Soul and Body into Hell where the Worm dies not and the fire is not quenched The sence of a greater does divert a lesser affliction and hereby Men are more appeased under unhappy circumstances when they see others more rigorously dealt with and proclaim their grievances with hideous cries groans and fearful lamentations In like manner a view by thought of the other miserable World and the pains and agonies the Damned there do suffer will make Men bear any temporal affliction with more patience and submissiveness Thirdly and Lastly We learn from the consideration that God has prepared a Hell to torment and pain those who die in enmity with him to hate every sin since it produces so woful an effect This is it which God abhors and therefore has contrived unconceiveable Plagues to punish it Now he manifests his aversion to sin by menacing it with future torments but hereafter his threats will be put in execution in raining down indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every Soul that dies in an impenitent state Where is the sence then of sporting our selves in vicious repasts if we are like to pay so dear in another World for it What is a Man profited if he gain the whole World and lose his own Soul What if he were as Wealthy as Croesus as Great as Alexander had the whole Universe and all the Delights and Pleasures thereof at his beck if when he dies he must descend into the Regions of Sorrow and be locked up in the Prison of Hell for ever and ever What will it avail him that once he was Rich and Honourable since now all the Goods that ever he had are converted into flames Hell comprehends a deprivation of all Good and the presence of every Evil and one would imagine that the very thoughts of it were enough to damp Mens spirits and to make them carefully shun the breach of their Innocence that they would caution them against Temptations and fill their Minds with Wise Considerations When Men draw so near to a woful Eternity that they can as it were look over to it when they see the Grim and Terrible Serjeant Death coming to hale them into another World then they will be terrified and amazed and cry out against those sins they formerly delighted in and will wish they had been so wise for themselves to have considered the unhappy and fatal consequences of Vice that they might have avoided it in time of health and strength And why will not Sinners come to a serious and a right frame of Mind now since they know they shall repent of those things with shame and sorrow which now they glory in when they lie languishing If therefore we would escape those punishments which God Almighty has prepared in the other miserable World let us so meditate and pause upon them as to shun those things which are threatned with the second Death Therefore Beloved since ye know these things beware lest ye fall from your stedfastness but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and ever Blessed Spirit be given all Honour Praise Thanksgiving and Obedience now henceforth and for evermore Amen SERMON VII Luke XVI 25 26. But Abraham said Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented And besides all this between us and you there is a great gulf fixed so that they that would pass from hence to you cannot neither can they pass to us that would come from thence THis is the Answer to the Rich Man's foregoing Request That Abraham would send Lazarus with a drop of Water to cool his Tongue Abraham gives him the Title of Son either as he was lineally descended from him or as he was a Member of that Church of which he was the Father So he terms him by way of Irony or Exprobration that he might Remember as an addition of his misery how basely he degenerated from the practice and example of the Father of the Faithful the advantages and opportunities of being happy he neglected and his folly in contenting himself with the bare denomination of being a Member of the Church of Christ Remember that in the other life thou enjoyedst the upper and the nether Springs hadst all the comfortable Accommodations the World could present thee with and in them all thy happiness was fixed thy heart and affections were wholly taken up with the pomp and pride of Life thou hadst no regard to nor value for the things of another world thou hadst neither reverence for God the Author and Giver of thy store nor common compassion for thy Fellow-Creatures driven to poverty and extream want Therefore art thou now tormented a wretched and pitiless Object Not because of thy riches but because thou didst not employ them to those ends and purposes for the which they were bestowed upon thee Lazarus whom thou desirest to cool thy Tongue shall not bring thee the least comfort because thou wert so stubborn and hard-hearted to deny him the crumbs which fell from thy Table He was poor and despicable appeared like one forsaken had neither Friends nor Wealth but embracing such a poor condition with patience and thankfulness is now made amends for all and enjoys all that can caress his powers all that can ravish his heart all that is good lovely and desirable But besides there is a great gulf fixed between you and us that there is not a possibility for the Saints to come to you nor for you to come to us both states are determined Thou therefore must endure hunger and thirst and the other direful torments in Hell without pity or succour and Lazarus shall enjoy the sweet and ravishing entertainments of Heaven without lett or hinderance where no satiety shall ever render his fruition lothsom or tedious no sad circumstances imbitter his delights nor any temptation disturb or molest him But Abraham said Son remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art termented And besides all this between us and you there is a great gulf fixed so that they that would pass from hence to you cannot neither can they pass to us that would come from thence From which words we are advised First of all That it will be a great aggravation of the misery of the damned to consider and recollect the former means and advantages they have been under for Salvation if they have descended from godly Parents or have been Members of the Church of Christ initiated thereinto by Baptism and have made an open acknowledgement of its Faith and Doctrines Son says Abraham to the rich Man remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things Secondly
Infidelity when the Word of God doth not take place convince Men of their Sins and happily bring them from under the power of Satan unto God And now I proceed to draw some Inferences from the whole and so conclude And here First We learn what a mighty Privilege and Advantage we are partakers of that Almighty God should honour us sinful Creatures with the declaration of his Will the which is a guide to conduct us through cragged and uneven ways a glass to discover our nakedness the spots and stains upon our Souls that we may wipe them out by repentance and a new life and a Lamp to light us to Heaven We might still have been bewildered with foolish fancies and gross illusions have followed the ignis fatuus of our heady Minds and run violently into the Ocean of Misery if God who careth for us and highly values our good had not set out this great illuminary his Word to bring us back and call us from the destruction we were ignorantly posting to What an esteem and veneration ought we to have then for the Scriptures How dear should they be to us We cannot read and meditate on them too often we cannot be too wise for Heaven nor too much acquainted with our selves Our selves are a great Mystery which requires a good Judgment a discerning Spirit and a sagacious Mind to comprehend and the Scriputres mightily help us in the knowledge of our selves by them as one of the Fathers has it all Men may be amended the weak strengthened and the strong confirmed so that surely there are none who are enemies to the reading of God's Word but such as either be so ignorant that they know not how wholsom and salvisick it is or else be so sick that they loath and stomach at the most comfortable and adapt Medicines to heal their malady or so ungodly that they would with all persons might continue in blindness and gross ignorance of God and themselves It is a lamentable consideration that the Bible which treateth of Mens salvation and teacheth them how they may make sure of Heaven should be so much slighted as it is that Novels Romantick Hisicries and Pedantick Poetry all but human Wit and Invention should be read with such attention and curiosity with an eager appetite and a well-pleased fancy and the Word of God which hath brought light and immortality into the World hurried over and slovenly perused as if it were a dull sapless and heavy composition not worth Mens while to carry in their memories It will turn to a dismal after-reckoning when God shall judge the contemners and despisers of his Oracles when they shall be tried by that Word which now they disdain and the threatnings therein denounced which now they laugh at shall be put in full execution better they had never heard of a Gospel or a Jesus Christ better they had lived in some dark corner of the earth where the Sun of righteousness never shined Secondly If we hope and wish for the continuance of God's Word among us if we would that it may be a savour of life unto life to us in fine if we would have that righteousness wherein we must stand before the Son of Man when he comes attended with his mighty Angels to judge the World and to determine every Mans final state then it highly concerns us to put a separate value upon the Scriptures to read them as the Oracles of God to believe them as the contents of his Will concerning us and to order our Lives and Conversations according as they direct us To revere them as they bring the glad tidings of Salvation and to admire them as they contain wonderful expressions of the Divine Love to us They instruct us how to behave our selves in all conditions of Life If we are rich they counsel us to be humble meek and condescending to be indifferently affected with our Wealth that we may not be too much incumbered with cares fears and uneasie jealousies which disturb the Mind distract the Thoughts and make Men unapt for the Kingdom of Heaven If we be poor the Bible even improves and sweetens an adverse state by counselling us to cast all our care upon God who careth for us to put our confidence in him to present our Pravers to him who if he grant not those things we pray for yet some other he knows most suitable and convenient for us and at last will reward us with the felicities of his Kingdom for our faith patience and continuing in well-doing In fine the Bible has a Salve for every Sore Medicaments of all sorts it cures blindness of Heart weakness of Judgment the inconstancy of Faith and makes a Christian such a one as God would have him to be Is then this Book to be slighted and thrown by as useless Can Men be unwilling to peruse and meditate upon it or think their time ill spent in reading it Can they be better imployed than in acquainting themselves with God's Will and searching how they may fullfil it How they may pass through this troublesom and vexatious World blameless that they may commence a happy and blessed Eternity What can be compared with the Soul And what loss so irreparable as the loss of it Insomuch that our Saviour says What will it avail a Man if he had the Worlds wealth every thing that is great good and desirable in it and lose his Soul All that he has cannot make him satisfaction or repair his damage What therefore should be every Mans study so much as to provide for the after state of his Soul to read and ponder the ways and means he must use to prepare his Soul for the embraces of the Father of Spirits How melancholy soever Men may think it is to fill their Minds with the thoughts of Death Judgment and Eternity yet when they come to die they will earnestly wish themselves well provided for their Voyage into another World Let them therefore lose no time in health but read diligently meditate seriously and practise conscionably the Word of God which by Divine Grace and their own endeavours will make them wise unto Salvation Finally and to conclude As we are Christians let us have a special regard to God's Word and with the Psalmist hide it in our hearts that we may not sin against our Maker Let it be our Counsellor our Guide and Director that all our Actions Words and Thoughts may be pure and blameless And that we may thus order our steps let us pray as our Church O Blessed Lord who hast caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our Learning grant that we may in such-wise hear them read mark learn and inwardly digest them that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting Life which thou hast given us in thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with the Father and the ever Blessed Spirit be given all
it not to me and in denying of them ye deny'd me and their cause I will espouse and therefore go ye carsed into everlasting fire But Thirdly From the death of Lazarus we learn to be content with our Condition tho' never so mean and to keep our selves in the Exercise of Religion tho' we are deprived of this Worlds goods Lazarus tho' he was Hungry and Thirsty his Soul fainted in him tho' he was Naked and full of Sores yet he murmured not but committed himself to God to whom his Soul was carried by the Angels as soon as separated from his Body It is excellent to be Poor and Virtuous for it argues the strongest Faith the best Hope and the best Affections because there are not those outward encouragements to Goodness in Adversity as Prosperity Poverty is look'd upon as a kind of Judgment as if God hates the Person and therefore makes him an Object of Scorn and Infamy so that he is apt to be discouraged and can do nothing else but bewail and lament his unhappy circumstances sit drooping and pausing on his low condition But however the Scripture has well inform'd us that God Almighty means no ill towards his Creatures and that when he changes things and removes Prosperity from the Door it is only to try them how they will manage themselves upon an alteration what kind of nature they will appear to have whether they will make application to him and carry themselves in all Duty and Allegiance towards him And since such is God's Wise design it is but very reasonable that we should be as Good and Vertuous when poor as well as when rich especially considering that we deserve nothing at the Hands of God nothing but Fury and everlasting Damnation Besides the advantage of Piety Is a Man poor and low in the World it doth improve and sweeten even that State It keepeth his Spirits up above dejection desperation and disconsolateness it frees him from all grievous solicitude vnd anxiety shewing him that altho' he seemeth to have little yet he may be assured to want nothing he having a certain Succour and never-failing supply from God's good Providence that notwithstanding the present straightness of his condition or scantiness of outward things he has a title to goods infinitely more precious and more considerable To conclude Let it be our main imploy to improve our Judgments and Understandings in things Spiritual that we may have right notions of God such as become the perfections of his Nature and the excellency of his Goodness that in whatsoever state and condition we are we may glorifie his Name And thus when we have conquer'd our selves and brought our Minds to a settlement in the ways of Holiness we shall resign our Concernments with more freedom to God's wise disposal and be submissive to his Laws whatever our condition be May God assist us by the influences of his Grace and blessed Spirit so to order and govern our Natures that we may love him freely believe in him stedfastly and serve him faithfully to our lives end And this for Jesus Christs sake to whom with the Father and ever blessed Spirit be given all Honour Praise Thanksgiving and Obedience now henceforth and for ever more Amen SERMON IV. Luke XVI part of the 22 Verse And was carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosom HAving in my last Discourse treated of the Death of Lazarus and particularly considered what were the immediate causes of his death the manner and circumstance of his dying and how his dead body was probably disposed of My Text now leads me to consider the state and condition of his Soul after separation from the Body It was carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosom Many differ in their sentiments about this Expression and have conceived Witty and Learned Notions of it but yet seem to agree in this that by Abrahams bosom is meant Heaven and the Reason of this phrase is Abraham is stiled The Father of the Faithful and while he lived a very Hospitable person to him was the Soul of Lazarus convey'd as a Sanctuary of Rest and Peace the just reward of his patience during his great want and heavy conflicts Some urge it as a Metaphor from Parents who imbosom and hug their Children when tired by running to and fro or have met with some hurtful mischance and come weeping and lamenting themselves A very adapt Parallel The Soul of poor Lazarus was grieved and wearied with Fastings and Miseries perplexed and overwhelm'd with sorrows for the cruel treatment he met with in the world it was therefore conducted by the Heavenly Courtiers into Abraham's bosom to be succour'd and made amends for past indignities He was carried by the Angels As if they contended who should usher it into Paradise Now Lazarus thou recountest with triumph the difficulties thou hast rubb'd through the afflictions thou hast endured the shame pain and ignominy thou hast undergone for Christs sake Now thou art made acquainted with the Arcana Imperii the secrets of the other happy World and rejoycest with joy unspeakable and full of glory Nothing shall interrupt thy peace nor call thee off from thy enjoyments but there thou shalt swim in rapturous pleasures for evermore This may serve to prevent those who are in sorrow trouble or any other adversity from reflecting upon the Divine Justice as if he unequally distributed his Mercies In this life it matters not whether his Servants be accommodated with sublunary affluences or no since he has prepared a wide and capacious Heaven to receive and replenish them wherein are all the instances of Joy all the ingredients of felicity and nothing else to the contrary all that can caress our powers all that can ravish our hearts all that is good lovely desirable is there to be compendiously enjoyed But to traverse the Text The Soul of Lazarus was carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosom or Heaven Which words afford us this matter First That the Angels are imploy'd to convey the Souls of true Believers into a fixed state of blessedness And to prove this granting that there are such Beings as Angels because the Scriptures often speak of them I shall First of all Undertake to shew their Offices as relating to God's faithful Children in this life Secondly The great love and kindness they have for mankind First then I am to distinguish their Offices as relating to God's faithful Children in this life They are called in Heb. 1. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation The word Angel signifies an Ambassador which is sent upon another's Errand and in Scripture sense it is restrainedly taken for a select divine sort of Emissaries Spiritual Beings created commissioned and employed by and under God Now first it is part of the Angels Employment upon any urgency to reveal God's mind and will and to bring Embassies from him to us for our instruction and
were out upon thee when Death like an Executioner comes to seise and apprehend thee and hurry thee before the dreadful Tribunal where all thy past Actions must be examined all thy secret Sins laid open and a dreadful Sentence shall be immediately pronounced upon thee Is not the Consideration of this enough to prevail with Men who have their Wits about them to break off their Sins timely by Repentance and apply themselves to a serious thoughtfulness of their latter end Should a damned Spirit be permitted to come from the Region of Misery to tell thee how intolerable those Preparations are what Pain and Anguish those wretched Ghosts endure thou saist it may be that thou wouldst repent but if thou wilt not be convinced by the assertions of the Gospel it is to be presumed nothing besides can have effect upon thee as Abraham answered the rich Man in that Parable who desired him to send some Spirit to his surviving Bretheren to scare them to Repentance If they will not believe Moses and the Prophets they will not be persuaded though one rose from the dead Lastly And since we are promised all the assistance imaginable to fit us for those Mansions of Bliss let us not be so injurious to our selves as to be lacking on our parts Let us offer violence to our stubborn Wills wean our Affections from the objects of Sin and mortifie the Flesh till it is brought in subjection to the Spirit and intirely submissive to the Law of Reason Let us improve the means of Grace and be purely governed by the motions of God's Spirit What a comfortable Death will such a regular and well-managed Life produce All slavish fears misgivings frightful thoughts and terrible apprehensions will flee away and a prospect of the Heavenly Canaan will present it self we shall have a view of that glorious reception we are like to have which will sweeten the agonies of Death lift us up under the pressure of a sore Disease and carry us out of the World with a solid hope of entering into our Masters joy And here the Soliloquy of a Soul that is ready to pass out of this World into a better I a poor Creature of this World below I who have felt the troubles of this Mortal State been tortured by the Passions of Flesh and Blood Fears and Cares Despair and Hopes even I am going into a Heaven where none of these can enter where I shall be made happy with these Enjoyments which make God and Angels so I shall be made equal to the Angels in Heaven how far above them in my Happiness For what a value will the Experience of this World make me set upon the joys of another The sence and memory of Misery will make my Heaven double Oh! The mighty Raptures and Extasies this holy Soul falls into till it is swallowed up in uninterrupted Joys and holy Wonder And since there is far less trouble in Virtue than in Sin and since the Reward of each is so vastly different how blameable and worthy of Condemnation are they who refuse the former and chuse the latter Let none of us then for the sake of a few short-liv'd Pleasures run our selves in danger of being cast into a miserable Eternity wherein we shall sorely repent of our Inadvertencies and stubborn Perversenesses and wish we had been perswaded in time Let us therefore with our Church pray O Almighty God the Protector of all that trust in thee without whom nothing is strong nothing is holy increase and multiply upon us thy Mercy that thou being our Ruler and Guide we may so pass through things Temporal that we finally lose not the things Eternal And thus we beg for Jesus Christ's sake to whom with the Father and the ever Blessed Spirit be given all Honour Praise Thanksgiving and Obedience now henceforth and for evermore Amen SERMON VI. Luke XVI latter part of 22 verses The Rich man also died and was buried And in Hell he lift up his Eyes being in torments and sees Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom And he cried and said Father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my Tongue for I am tormented in this flame WHen I enter'd upon these words you may remember I raised these following particulars from them As First That as the Souls of true Believers when they go out of their Bodies launch into a fixed state of Blessedness so the Souls of wicked men pass into a fixed state of Misery We no sooner read of the Rich man's being dead and buried but in Hell he lift up his Eyes being in torment Secondly That it will be a great part of the misery of the damned to understand those to be in Heaven whom in this life they scorned reproached and abused and it may be were Instruments of hastening them to those blessed Mansions It was doubtless a great aggravation of the Rich man's misery when he saw Lazarus in Abraham's bosom that Lazarus whom he suffered to perish with hunger at his Gates Thirdly That the time will come when the most proud and ambitious Sinners would gladly be relieved by the meanest Saints Father Abraham says the Rich man send Lazarus the very same who begg'd for the crumbs which fell from my Table Fourthly That the state of the damned will be void of the least degrees of comfort The Rich man desired but the cooling of his Tongue but with as much Water as could be brought upon the tip of Lazarus 's finger Fifthly and lastly That the Tongue is a member the abuse of which in another life will lie very heavy upon lost Souls The chief member which the Rich man complained was most afflicted was his Tongue Send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue As concerning the former of these That the Souls of wicked Men when they go out of their Bodies pass into a fixed state of misery I urged that though their punishment will not be compleat till the day of Judgment when Soul and Body shall be re-united and sentence pass upon them yet their condition is irreversible no changing it for a better but there they weep and howl for the loss of Heaven reproach themselves for their obstinate perversenesses in neglecting the opportunities and slighting the means of happiness and sadly expect the day of Judgment having too much Reason to believe they shall be cast and condemned at that formidable Audit Hence I told you the Devils are said to fear and tremble being convinced that they shall at the last reckoning be thrown into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone And therefore it is spoken by St. Jude concerning the fallen Angels that kept not their first Estate having violated those everlasting Laws given to them by their Creator They are reserved in chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day That is they are not in
it so falls out that thou shouldst out-live thy Happiness see thy self stripp'd of all thy Pomp and Riches thou mayest justly expect to meet with hard and severe usage for besides the many Reflections which would certainly be cast upon thee that this sad Catastrophe and dismal change of things is a just Judgment upon thee for thy Pride Arrogance Self-conceitedness and Uncharitableness during thy Prosperity Men would be so far from pittying thy downfall and considering thy necessities that rather they would reproach thee for thy Poverty and laugh at thy Calamities The World is apt to remember faults and never at a better time than when Men are fallen to decay and stand in special need of common help then the generality lay their heads together and recount as many failings which may harden them against a charitable disposition but enough for the second general thing namely That Riches are strong Temptations to Pride Haughtiness and Uncharitableness The other remaining Topick namely That Poverty is a most despicable state and renders a Man most vile and mean in the Eye of the World drawn from the miserable condition of Lazarus and the base usage shewn him in his Low Circumstances By the Rich Man shall be my business the next opportunity I now proceed to make some special Use of what hath been said at this time and so conclude And the first Use is That if Riches are such Lures and strong Temptations it should serve for an Admonition to those who are blessed with them that they do not set too great a value upon them nor hugg them with too much eagerness and desire that they labour to make their love of Wealth subservient to their love of Heaven and heavenly things that they learn to admire and adore their Creator who has cast their Lott in a fair Heritage and rightly understand his wise and holy Purpose in crowning them with Prospeperity that Riches are not given to spend them upon our Lusts to live sumptously every day to trifle our time in ease Idleness and security this is the abusing of Riches No no they are given to more excellent ends To encourage us in our Duty to give our Children good Education to help the Fatherless and Widow the Oppressed Stranger it is sad to consider how Lavish and Prodigal many are whom fate has blest with plenty and store laying out vast sums in beautifying buildings dainty fare and well furnished Wardrobes and the like while the poor perish at their Gates Dives was so taken up with his various and extravagant Diversions that he could spare no time or rather would not to hear the doleful complaints of distressed Lazarus or to see consider and relieve his necessities He was cloathed in Purple and fine Linnen his belly filled with the best of Provisions and therefore considered not what it was to be Hungry Thirsty Naked and Friendless he was not tormented with that sharp Thorn which so miserably afflicted Lazarus that he cryed Oh! fill my craving Stomach with the crumbs that fall under thy Table with those superfluous morsels which are thy Dogs Food I desire not that which thou feedest upon nothing else but the worst bit thy Servants leave this is my request this I should be glad of and without some speedy relief I shall faint and drop and perish at thy Gates This dismal story no way affected this Inexorable wretch but he rather chid him for his importunity than pitied him for his poverty One would have thought that such expressions as these were enough to have pierced the most obdurate heart and to have melted it down into compassion but such is the unhappy proof of an heart enamoured with and inseparably fixed upon Riches Let it therefore be a caveat to those who are favoured with the smiles of fortune that they do not reckon too much upon their prosperous condition nor be too much in love with it Secondly The second Use is That since Riches are apt to seduce and betray men tempt them to forget God and themselves let those whose fortunes are mean in the world learn to be content in their State They have the more leisure to look after the concernments of their Souls and to provide for their long Journey into Eternity they are free from abundance of cares fears and troubles they are not perplexed with contriving how to purchase such an Estate nor over-whelmed with the fear of losing it but have many fair opportunities of preparing themselves for the embraces of the Father of Spirits Therefore Christian grudge not that thy Portion in this life is so narrow if thou art brought to a morsel of bread to a draught of water yet even this is enough to bear thy charges to Heaven But if thou art not so fortunate to be Master of this meaner Diet thy life will be only the shorter and possibly God keeps thee short here that he may plentifully reward thee hereafter Heaven is sufficient to make thee satisfaction for all thy sufferings in Gods presence there is fulness of Joy and at his right hand are pleasures for evermore To be received into that capacious world where are all the instances of Joy all the ingredients of felicity to have all thy faculties enlarged to the end they may relish those hidden Comforts to know and understand the methods of providence and to be made acquainted with the Arcana Imperii the secrets of Heaven In a word to possess all that that is good lovely and desirable and that for ever The consideration of this is enough to bear us up under the sorest Tryals and most pressing Calamities To conclude let us all endeavour to answer the end of God in whatsoever condition we are if we be Rich let us be Humble Meek and Modest Affable Courteous and Charitable if Poor Content Thankful and Holy Now to the mighty Governour of the world who loveth Mankind and giveth to all men according to his Infinite Wisdom be given the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen Soli Deo Gloria SERMON II. Luke XVI Ver. 19 20 21. Ver. 19. There was a certain rich man which was cloathed in purple and fine linnen and faired sumptuously every day Ver. 20. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus which was laid at his gates full of sores Ver. 21. And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich mans table moreover the dogs came and licked his sores AFter a plain and familiar descant upon this part of the Parable in my last Discourse to the end it might be more emphatical and taking I proceeded to Division and told you That these words were separated into two Parts The first Being a brief Narrative of a rich Man's general course of living that he lives softly arrays himself splendidly and fareeth sumptuously every day The second A description of the miseries which attend an impoverish'd state namely Hunger Thirst declension of Health Contempt and the like
thy sin purged Isa 6.5 6.7 When our dearest Lord was strugling in a mighty Agony that he sweat as it were great drops of blood when the bitter cup was presented to him of which he was to drink and which he prayed if possible might be removed from him in the midst of his conflicts the Angels his Attendants came and strengthned him When in the Wilderness set on and tempted by the Devil those Celestical Spirits came and Ministred unto him When Lot was in danger of being torn apieces by some of the vicious Sodomites two Angels haled him into his House from their fury and struck those that encompassed him with blindness Gen. 19.10 11. Shadrach Meshech and Abednego those true Servants of the most High God being condemned by that Tyrant Nebuchadnezzar to be scorched to death in a Furnace seven times hotter than ordinary they were thrown in bound hand and foot but behold an Angel indemnisied them they were not singed neither had the flames any power on them Did we not says Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 3.24 25. cast three men bound into the fiery furnace Lo I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire and they have no hurt and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God When Daniel was doom'd to the Lions Den in order to be devoured by them an Angel by an irresistible power restrains the appetites of those voracious Beasts that he dwelt in safety in the midst of danger My God saith he has sent his Angel and hath shut the Lions Mouths that they have not hurt me for as much as before him Innocncy was found in me and also before thee O King have I done no hurt Dan. 6.22 To name no more When Peter was imprisoned by Herod and a strong watch ordered to keep him safe Behold an Angel came to him and unloosed his Chains burst open the Prison-door led him through the Wards and coming to the main Iron Gate that opened of its own accord This miraculous deliverance did so amaze Peter that he could scarce believe the truth of it till coming to himself he humbly accknowledged saying Acts 12.11 Now I know of a surety that the Lord has sent his Angel and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the People of the Jews Thus these Celestial Spirits encamp round about them that fear the Lord. But Secondly I am to consider the great love these Heavenly Courtiers bear to Mankind And here doubtless their affection is infinitely great For when the Son of God descended from above and Ecclipsed his glory with humane Nature to work the Redemption of man these Celestial Ambassadors gathered together expressing their joy for the Restauration of lapsed Mortals by a general shout and then joyning in a Chorus Sang Glory be to God on High and on Earth Peace good will towards men Luke 2.14 They could not but celebrate this stupendious act of Condescension and loudly eccho it in the Shepherds ears They seemed as it were transported that they had a message of this kind to deliver to undone Mortals who were groaning under their own burden When a stuborn sinner returns from the errour of his ways bethinks himself alters his mind and becomes a new Creature these Heavenly Spirits are all in a Rapture and Exstacy they break out into loud acclamations of joy Luke 15.10 There is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repenteth And the Reasons of this are First Because their employment for God is encreased They are Ministring Spirits sent forth to Minister for those who shall be heirs of Salvation Secondly Because every converted sinner adds to their Communion In some respects even now Angels are a Saint's Familiar they have a special charge over them and pitch their Tents round about and Minister unto them but that which enhances their gladness they shall enjoy an everlasting Conversation with them Sing and praise the Lamb that sits upon the Throne together Behold the beauty meditae upon the glorious perfections of God and be swallowed up in holy wonder This it is which enjoins the Angels to take such care of the Saints in this life defending them from extraordinary mischiefs guarding them from the Power and Malice of the Devil directing them in ways of uncertainty and peril watching over them by night and conducting them by day namely that their Communion may be improved their Joys fulfilled in an everlasting harmony mutual concord And now if God has thus Commissioned his Angels to Minister to his Saints to defend and keep them to guard and shield them from dangers and mischiefs and if these glorious Harbingers bear so great a love to men as has been plainly proved doubtless they are very ready to receive and carry the Souls of good men into Heaven One of the Fathers calls the Angels Evocatores animarum The callers forth of Souls and such as shew them paraturam diversorii the preparation of those Mansions they are going to Hence we observe When good men are dying they are often in silent raptures and express a kind of impatience till they are dissolved And why because they spiritually see what they cannot utter as did St. Paul when he was wrapt up into the third Heaven There is a kind of a draught presented to them by their Guardian Angels of those transcendant joys they are almost ready to enter in possession of and therefore long and pine till they are conveyed into that place of Unspeakable Felicity These Heavenly Spirits succour and support them under their pain and sickness and when their Souls are stormed out of their Bodies they encompass and embrace them soaring through the Regions of evil Angels into Heaven As my Text speaks concerning Lazarus that he was safely carried by the Angels into Abraham's bosom And thus much for the Proposition I raised from the words of the Text namely That the Angels are employed to convey the Soul of true Believers as soon as separated from their Bodies into a fixed state of blessedness I now proceed to draw some practical Inferences from the whole and so conclude And here First We cannot but admire at Gods tender love to men that he should create such Beings to be our Guardians to help and succout us in the time of our Pilgrimage here What is Man that God should be so mindful of him or the Son of Man that he should so regard him What tongue can be silent upon a serious thoughtfulness of the honour God conferreth upon Man Let us then break out with St. Bernard Lord what is Man that thou thinkest thus on him Thou sendest to him thine only begotten Son thou sendest into him thy Holy Spirit thou promisest him the light of thy Countenance and that nothing in the Heavenly Region might be un-imployed in follicitude for him thou sendest forth also those blessed Spirits the Angels to Minister to us And with another of the
Ancients who studiously contemplating this Subject and reflecting upon his own unworthiness thus uttered himself When I remember these things O Lord I confess before thee and praise thee for thy great benefits wherewith thou hast honoured us Thou hast given us all things under Heaven and yet countedst that but a small provision unless thou hadst also given us the things above even those Angels of thine as Ministring Spirits unto us What is man that thou thus respectest him Secondly The consideration that the Angels are about us should fill us with a reverential awe and dread and oblige us to be circumspect and innocent in our transactions When Jacob saw a Ladder reaching from Earth to Heaven and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon it he said How dreadful is this place his spirit was struck with fear And certainly if we confidered that these Heavenly Courtiers were attending us curiously observing our actions and taking cognizance of our behaviour we should be much more cautious and wary in our prosecutions especially in our demeanour while in God's House The Angels are our Guardians directing and guiding us to good it should therefore be our care to manage our spiritual concernment with such Christian prudence that they may continue our Keepers while we live here and receive our Souls at our deaths and convey them into Abraham 's bosom It is the highest ingratitude to slight their directions besides a woful disadvantage For being not under their protection the Evil Spirits have the opportunity of exercising their Wiles and Arts upon us of filling us full of all iniquity and bringing us to destruction both of Body and Soul The Devil is called the Prince of the Air and why he doth us no more mischief because the Angels of God encamp round about us to keep and preserve us from his power If then we foolishly throw our selves from under their care and protection by adhering to the lusts of the flesh this Prince of the Air with his Diabolical Crew having no obstruction enters into us and our latter end becomes worse than the beginning Thirdly The consideration that the Angels are our Guardians should encourage us to persevere in our duty and not be discouraged at difficulties remembring that we have more for than against us Being compassed with so great a cloud of witnesses and mighty helpers we are to lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us and to run with patience the race that is set before us And having so great encouragement and consolation we are not at any time to be weary of well doing or frightened from it but to be sledfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord as it becomes Persons of such hopes for hereafter the Heirs of Salvation and such security in the interim attended with the Holy Angels Lastly The consideration that these Heavenly Courtiers are our Attendants and Guardians should engage us to honour and esteem the meanest of Gods Servants not to despise reproach and load them with oppressing calumnies How darest thou to contemn and slight one of Gods poor Servants when they have Celestial Spirits attending them They are the Sons and Daughters of the great King of Heaven and Earth and born to a fair Inheritance a transcendantly Rich and Glorious Kingdom And in the mean while however thou mayst look upon them as destitute and forsaken they have an invisible Guard about them upon occasion to Minister for their supply defence and vindication Such honour have all his Saints The Angels smote the Men of Sodom with blindness because they disturbed and provoked Lot And though now a-days God does not so ordinarily resent the indignities of his poor Servants by open Judgments yet he will be sure to right them in the other world by condemning their Enemies Our Saviour has represented the danger of contempt and uncharitableness towards the poor in the case of the Rich Man In Hell he lifted up his eyes sees Lazarus afar off whom he suffered to perish at his Gates Of whose succour he would have been glad Send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my Tongue for I am tormented in this flame Besides in despising the poor we despise also Christ himself who became poor that we might be made rich And what punishment shall they be thought worthy of who trample under foot the Son of God Let us therefore since we all are partakers of one hope of being Heirs of Salvation High and Low Rich and Poor learn to respect and honour the meanest among us especially remembring that God has given them a mighty priviledge of being attended and guarded by his Angels But to conclude Since these heavenly Guardians are holy unspotted and undefiled Beings and delight continually to sing Praise Honour and Glory unto the Lamb that sits upon the Throne let us endeavour to emulabe them as much as is possible in this our frail state let us love and seek after those things which belong to our everlasting peace Let us exercise our selves in Religion chearfully and frequently If thou delight in the word of God and prayer says devout Gerard thou shalt be gratified with the Holy Angels patronage While I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel saith the Prophet Daniel and presenting my suplication before the Lord my God for the Holy Mountain of my God Yea while I was speaking in prayer the Man Gabriel whom I had seen in the Vision at the beginning being caused to fly swiftly touched me about the time of the evening-oblation Dan. 9.20 21. This exercise the Holy Angels delight in May God grant that we may be governed and guided by those Celestial Spirits whom he has commissioned and charged to encamp about us that they may succour and defend us while in this life and when we dye receive and carry our Souls into Abrahams bosom And this we beg for Jesus Christs sake Amen SERMON V. Luke XVI 22 23 24. Ver. 22. The rich man also dyed and was buried Ver. 23. And in hell he lift up his eyes being in torments and seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom Ver. 24. And he cried and said Father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame DEath is the Lot of us all He invadeth the rich Man's Palace as well as the poor Man's Cottage he storms the Princes Court as well as the Peasants meaner Habitation High and Low all must submit when this grim Serjeant makes a demand Neither Wealth nor Honour neither beauty nor wisdom nor any secular regard can plead against death or priviledge a Man from the Grave Which consideration should insinuate with Men to be less in love with this world and more thoughtful of that time when they must go into a fixed state
either of eternal happiness or misery But such was the stupid folly of Dives that to dye was the least of his care and the least in his mind His chief study was what he should eat drink and put on what sort of pleasures would best suit with and accommodate his senses In sine his happiness was fixed in these perishing enjoyments and so fondly imagined his condition immutable But behold a woful change of things In the midst of his carnal security death steps in an unwelcome Guest a frightful Spectrum and irresistably hauls him from all his darling repasts and crouds him into the Region of damned Spirits Now he that was cloathed with Purple and fine Linnen is inveloped in devouring and unquenchable flames he that fared sumptuously and deliciously every day is confined to a loathsom dungeon and doomed to suster those intolerable preparations And to enhance his Misery Lazarus whom he uncharitably denyed the crumbs which fell from his Table and without any reluctancy permitted to faint languish and dye at his Gates is at a distance presented to his view lying in Abrahams bosom crowned with glory and encircled with the rades of eternal bliss To Abraham he addresses himself Pity my hard fate consider my woful condition see how the flames scorch and torment me see how my tongue is parched with heat I am so miserably afflicted that I cannot express my self I pray thee therefore to send Lazarus with a drop of water to abate the anguish and allay the throbbing of my enflamed tongue So great and vehement are the plagues of Hell that the damned Spirits there cry continually for help and succour but are not pitiable Objects having withstood the frequent tenders of grace and mercy Now from the words of the Text we learn First That as the Souls of true Believers when they go out of their Bodies launce into a fixed state of happiness so the Souls of wicked men immediately upon separation go into a fixed state of misery We no sooner read of the Rich Man being dead and buried but it follows And in Hell he lifted up his eyes being in torment Secondly That it will be a great part of the misery of the damned to understand those to be in Heaven whom they in this life scorned reproached and abused and it may be were instruments of hastening them to those blessed Mansions It was doubtless an aggravation of the rich Mans torments to see Lazarus in Abrahams bosom that Lazarus whom be did brow-beat and suffered to perish with hunger at his own Gates Thirdly That there will come a time when the most proud and ambitious sinners would gladly be relieved by the meanest Saints Father Abraham says the rich Man send Lazarus the very same who begg'd at my Gates for the crumbs which fell from my Table Fourthly That the state of the damned will be void of the least degrees of comfort The rich Man desired but the cooling of his tongue with as much water as could be brought upon the tip of Lazarus's finger Lastly That the Tongue is a Member the abuse of which in another life will lye very heavy upon lost Souls The chief member which the rich man complained was most afflicted was his Tongue send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and could my tongue Intolerable are those preparations in the other miserable world But concerning the former of these First That the Souls of wicked men as-soon as they go out of their bodies pass into a fixed state of misery Which we learn from the former part of the Text The rich man also dyed and was buried and in Hell he lift up his eyes being in torments That is his Soul was hurried by evil Spirits into a state of misery His Body we read dyed and was honourably and splendidly buried in the Earth and there must rest till the great Creator bids it rise in the last day and then shall be re-united to its particular Spirit and both share alike in those unconceivable torments which God has prepared for ungodly men It is therefore an idle fancy of some who conceit that the Soul sleepeth together with the Body and remaineth unactive and insensible as the body The Soul being a Spirit cannot be subject to death and though its agility is much restrained while confined in the body yet as soon as it is delivered it swiftly returns to its own place carried either by good Angels into a state of happiness or by evil Spirits into a place of torments And such is the opinion of the wise man Eccles 12.7 The dust that is the body so termed from the matter of which it is compounded returneth to the Earth again as it was and the Soul to him that gave it to be sentenced either to dwell with God or damned Spirits for ever And though the happiness and misery of departed Souls is not compleat at the highest perfection till that day wherein Christ will come in the glory of his Father with the Holy Angels to judge all the world yet this no way favours the Romish Doctrine which insinuateth a Purgatory a place where departed Spirits are purged by fire and by the fervency of prayer may be redeemed from thence a most pernicious principle As the tree falls so it lyes After this life which is the time of Tryal and Probation a fixed state either of bliss or torment commences And a good Soul cannot then be deprived of happiness tho' not yet in the highest degree but with exceeding joy and a kind of holy impatience it waiteth for the Day of Judgment then to enter on the possession of those good things which God hath prepared for them who continue stedfast unmoveable always abounding in his work Nor on the other hand can a wicked Soul be ransomed from Hell tho' it be not yet in the midst of most exquisite torments but with dread and fear sadly looks for the great and terrible day wherein it must change its unhappy condition for a much worse Those Angels which kept not their first estate are reserved in chains under darkness unto the Judgment of the great Day that is they are not yet afflicted with those punishments which they shall feel and endure when Christ comes to separate the Sheep from the Goats They are therefore said to tremble at the thoughts of a Judgment when Sentence shall pass upon them to be confined in those unhappy Residencies of Misery and to undergo the utmost fury of an Omnipotent God And tho' it is expressed that the Rich man being dead and buried in Hell he lift up his Eyes being in torments we are not to understand him in that place of Misery which wicked men shall be doomed to in the General Judgment but in a state of despair of Mercy without any intermission of hope weeping and wailing for the loss of Heaven which Lazarus whom he reproached reviled and suffered to perish has a sure hope of A state of dread