who injoied thâ—m and either opposed them or under-valued them or improved them not as they might have done this God threatens Isa. 57. The righteous perisheth mercifull men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to comâ— by their removal the Lord opens the Sluces to his judgments as men pluck away the props or Pillars of an house when they are willing it should fall downe as in Noahs time as soon as God had housed him in the Arke he presently sent in the flood upon the World of the ungodly and in Lots time as soon as the righteous man vexed with the unclean conversation of Sodome was removed from them presently God rained fire and Brimstone from Heaven and destroied those five Cities thus was it in Iosiahs time as soon as he slept with his fathers all that fierce wrath of God wherewith his anger was kindled against Iudah and Ierusalem which was kept in all the while Josiah lived brake out to the removing of Judah and Jerusalem out of his sight Give me leave now to make a brief application of this First Is this so doth God often times take away the most usefull men when his Church hath most need of them then let all the Church learn never to rest on men how excellent so ever I begin with this first because it is our great and generall sinne that we either vilifie or deifie all Gods instruments either respecting them lesse or more then God will have us if God give us any precious jewels we deal as the Israelites did in the wildernesse turne our golden Eare-Rings into an Idol and thereby change our glory into our shame and misery offering infinite injury unto God who gives us these meanes to use but not to depend upon to bring us neerer to him not as we sinfully make them occasions to draw us further from him this is a very great sinne whereby we lose the taste of Gods goodnesse while wee choose to respect the stream rather then the Fountain and even take our heart off from God and stay too much upon the creature making our comfort to ebbe and flow according as these weak props doe break or hold and even compell God to deprive us of them as Ezekiah uused the Brazen Serpent reserving it in an honourable shrine so long as it was but looked upon as a monument of Gods deliverance But when once they went a Whoring after it he brake it in pieces and that they might know it was but Neâ—ushian a piece of Brasse thus doe we break our staves in leaning too hard upon them It is confidently reported that the King of Sweden a little before his death told some in ward friends that he verily feared God would not use him long because the people attributed more to him then was due to a mortall man and I feare this sinne costs us deare at this day we have over-valued our Parliaments our Armies our Treasures our interests in the hearts of the people leaned too much upon them looked too little unto God who hath therefore brought us low in most of these To my owne knowledge some good men have said of some choise Instruments whose hearts were right with God and zealous in his cause These are the men who must do the deed God will certainly deliver us by their hands Who when they have heard of the sudden and unseasonable cutting off of those men have bin forced to lay their hand upon their mouth and to say What fooles are we to expect any great things from Man whose breath is in his Nostrils God hath sadly broke all our carnall confidence some excellent men he hath took away by death some whom we over-highly valued have beene permitted to discover the falsnesse of their own hearts others little lesse then blasted by peoples mistake although their hearts remaine upright to God and his cause And I verily fear left our relying too much upon the assistance of our brethren from Scotland by their Armies may more prejudice theirs and our successe then the strength of the Enemies can do Let us therfore be perswaded in the feare of God to use men as Gods instruments but build nothing upon them lest our expectation prove that of Cesar Borgia who built infinite projects upon his interest in the Pope and when newes was brought him of the Popes sudden death cried out This I never thought upon now my designes are all lost Certainly whoever lookes for much from men how excellent soever will prove like men who go to lotteries with their head full of hopes and returne with their hearts full of blankes Let therefore every one whom God hath fitted for any service doe what their hand findes to doe with all their power this is Solomons counsel Eccles. 9. and upon this verie ground whatsoever thy hand findeth to doe doe it with all thy might for there is neither worke nor device nor knowledge nor wisdome in the Grave whither thou goest as if he should have said thou knowest not how long God will use thee lay not up thy Talent in a Napkin thy Master may suddenly call thee to an account for it This made our blessed Lord take so much paines Iohn 12. 13 14 15 16 17 Chapters delivering all that excellent matter in one evening because hee was to leave them the next Day This made Paul continue his Preaching at Troas untill mid-night because hee was the next Morning to bee gone from thence this very Argument was thought upon and applied by our blessed Saviour unto himself Iohn II. who when his Disciples would have perswaded him not to hazard himselfe among the Iews who lately sought to stone him answered Are there not twelve houres in the day must I not doe the worke of him who sent me while it is called to day when night comes no man can work God hath fitted thee with many Excellent Talents with Wisdome and Vnderstanding with place of Office and Authority with interest in Friends with strength of Body and courage of Spirit and by all these put some beames of his owne excellency upon thee which is the greatest favour in the World To be a usefull man is at least equall with being a saved man ply this work diligently doe as it is recorded of a famous Minister who wrote upon his Study doore Minister verbies hoc age Thou art a Minister of the Word attend to this worke and thinke often how uncomfortable it would be to thee if GOD should take thee off in the midst of thy race when thou hast burnt out much of thy Candle in play wherein thou shouldest have done much of thy Masters worke And Secondly let the thought of this keep thee from being high minded thinke not too much depends upon thee it may bee thou imaginest what great need the Church or State the City Parish or Family hath of thee or thy parts and abilities Suppose they have are these things thy
after his rising Yea since this very Parliament when there was never more work nor fewer hands Religion to be reformed Liberties to be recovered great offendors to be punished and all the Gates of Hell opened to hinder us to devoure us yet of those few how many of our choisest Nobles Parliament men souldiers and Ministers hath the hand of God deprived us of But what need we seek for more examples when our blessed Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ was himself cut off from out of the Land of the living when he had not attained the one half of the age of man This is one of the Lords strangest works a woke wherein his enemies often rejoice and his people mourne the reason therefore should diligently bee sought out in which enquiry wee shall find that he whose works are all done with unsearchable wisdome and for excellent ends doth hereby first provide for his owne glory and that manie waies As first he often takes away instruments that it may be known that his Church and Cause is not supported by them but by himself alone that the Pillars of the Church are not borne up by any created strength but by him Who measureth the water in the hollow of his hand and weighs the Mountaines in the Scales and the Hills in a Ballance that men may know when the youths faint and be wearie and the young men utterly fall the most active and able Instruments brought to nothing yet the Church is carried in his bosome and by him alone shall renew its strength and mount up with wings as an Eagle run and not be wearie walke and not be faint Secondly to set out his wisdome and the aboundance of spirit in providing varietie of instruments he purposely takes some away to make way for others as in the frame of the world the varietie of the creatures indued with their severall abilities doe all serve for the beauty and good of the Vniverse and thereby set forth the wisdome as well as the power of the Creator so here Moses shall have one part Ioshuah another And Ioshuah shal do as excellently in Canaan as Moses in the Wildernesse he shall honour God as much in the Military part as the other in the legall Elihu a youngmen shall convince Iob and compell him to give glory to God when other wise and gracious men much older then his father had long wrangled with him to little purpose Elisha who powred waterupon Elijahs hands shall work more miracles then his Master did yea Christs Apostles shall doe greater works then he himself did that the world may know that he hath aboundance of the spirit Other Kings and Princes are compelled to preserve their chief Instruments because when they are gone they know not where to find a supplie but God as he needs none so when he pleaseth to use any can raise up stones to be children and children to doe the worke of men and yet all these empty Pipes further then he fills them bubbles easily broken further then he supports them And that is the first reason Secondly As for his own glorie so herein hee also provides for the good of his owne people his owne I say both them that are thus cut off and them that remaine behind First of them who dye for they are henceforth freed from their labours from the body of sin from the cohabitation of it the molestation of it the too often prevailing power of it from the fierie darts of Sathans temptations from the conversation of the wicked from their oppositions persecutions from the worlds allurements on the right hand and afflictions on the left hand from all these they are delivered with which hitherto they had bin vexed yea and oft times taken away from greater evills to come and they also enter into rest receiving the full recompence of all their labours not onely what they have actually done but even what they were resolved and prepared to doe if God had been pleased to employ them any longer in his service Secondly for the good of them that live though this seem most unlikely who shall lose nothing by cutting the pipes whereby mercies are conveyed as long as the fountaine of power and goodnesse remaines iâ—tire in God himselfe who can and will issue it out by other waies and meanes to as great advantage of his people yea I say he makes them gainers by it and that severall waies First He hereby cures them of one of the most dangerous evills which his people are or can be guilty of and that is setting up the instruments of their good to be Idols in their hearts which they are extream prone to doe and for this very cause doth the Lord often break these bubbles with the touch of his finger that his people may thinke of them no otherwise then they are and for this very reason some thinke the Lord buried the body of Moses and would never let the people know where his grave was because he foresaw that they would be ready to worship his dead body Secondly hereby the Lord doth humble his people and awe them with the feare of his wrath making them sensible of it in these heavie stroakes and quicken them more up to prayer and serious seeking after himself as this Church doth in this place Woe is me the good man is perished the Princes the Judges the Nobles c. are all naught none to be trusted neither Wife nor Father nor brother ver. 7. then followes therefore will I looke to the Lord I will wait for the God of my salvation my God will heare me And this lesson the Lord taught his people by Josiahs death Lament 5. ver. 16. c. The Crown is fallen from our heads good King Josiah is dead Woe unto us that wee have sinned for this our heart is faint for these things our eyes à re dim but thou O Lord remainest for ever thy throne from generation to generation VVherefore dost thou forget us for ever and forsake us so long time Turne thou us O Lord unto thee and we shall be turned Now this is one of the greatest blessings in the world to be put into such an humble penitent praying seeking temper as this is his death which can procure this is like to be more advantageous then any mans life Thirdly Hereby the Lord makes his Church more sensible of his power goodnesse and faithfullnesse when they shall find all these constantly continued even when the instruments are taken away Thus Moses the man of God taught the people upon the meditation of all the Sons of men returning to dust to stay themselves wholly upon God who was their dwelling place in all generations from everlasting to everlasting a God all-sufficient Thirdly though he doth this for the good of his owne glory and the good of his owne Saints both the living and the dead yet hereby he makes way for his wrath upon others
to lift up a voice of mourning but even to refuse to be comforted I know large encomiasticall praises of the dead unlesse their lives were eminent in goodnesse and free from any notable blot are much condemned by the most judicious and godly Divines as a thing of very evill consequence first to the Minister himself who hereby is evill spoken of as a man who for a reward or some other base respect like unworthy Heralds will give greatest badges of honour to any ignoble person Secondly to the deceased whilest it occasions some others who haply knew them better to rake into their lives and lay open their former faults which otherwise had been buried in oblivion Thirdly but the worst of all is that wicked men make this a fearfull stumbling-blocke who when they heare such men highly commended in whom peradventure they knew such and such enormities doe hereupon conclude that our preaching for abandoning of all evill is of no great necessity even in the Preachers own judgement who sends men to heaven in his Funerall Orations who yet lived and for ought they know dyed in the practice of such things as the Minister useth to declaime against But I am called to speake of a man so eminent and excellent so wise and gracious so good and usefull whose works so praise him in every gate that if I should altogether hold my tongue the children and babes I had almost said the stones would speak upon whose Herse could I scatter the sweetest flowers the highest expressions of Rhetoricke and eloquence you would thinke I fell short of his worth you would say this very name JOHN PYM expresseth more then all my words could doe should I say of him as they of Titus that he was Amor deliciaegeneris humani should I say of his death as once the Sicilians upon the Grecians departure Totum ver periit ex anno Siciliano should I say he was not onely as one of Davids thirtie Worthies but one of the three one of the first three even the first and chiefe of them the Tachmonite who sate in the seat should I say our whole land groaneth at his death as the earth at the fall of a great mountaine I might doe it without envie in this Assembly Yea should I write a whole booke in his commendation and publish it many of you would say as a Philosopher once did who falling on a booke entituled Encomium Herculis said with indignation Et quis Lacedaemoniorum eum vituperat he thought it time ill spent to praise him whom none could blame and I beleeve your selves are resolved to make some such monument of your high esteeme of him that after-ages as well as the present shall know you valued him above my words But I am well pleased to be impar huic negotio Est hoc maximum laudis genus quum orationis copiam virtus exuperet magnitudo laudati sicque vinci nobis est multo gloriosius quam saepe vicisse And for that I am able to say I am presently at a losse having in my serious thoughts viewed him in his naturals in his moralls in his graces in his relations in his publicke and private behaviour inopem me copia fecit I know I could not speake long but you would be weary of such a speaker and I remember Salusts speech when he was to speake of Carthage Praestat tacere quam pauca dicere then I wisht seriously that it had fallen to the lot of some such able tongue to have so characterized and deciphered him before you that you who now mourne for his losse and knew his worth might say This is the very image of the Man and might once at least be refreshed to see His lively picture represented to your eyes by such a tongue as was suitable to His worth and this present Auditory that that might have been your refreshing which was once Cyprians Auditors to heare the Martyrs praised by such an Oratour as Cyprian was I spare to English what was spoken of the holy Martyr his Eloquence because to doe the like is above my Sphere I want such a tongue and therefore must study to be short and shall confine my self to that rule which Basil worthily called the great observed in the praise of Gordius the Martyr It s the custome of the World said he when they would praise a man to speake of his Family to derive his Pedigree through many discents to open to the full his education parts and learning and such other accomplishments Sed Ecclesia haec tanquam supervacua dimittit The Church lookes onely at those things which may glorifie Christ in his Saints and thereby do good to them who remaine alive According to this rule I shall forbeare to speake any thing of his Family Education naturall endowments His cleare understanding quick apprehension singular dexteritie in dispatch of busines His other moralleminences in His justice patience temperance sobriety chastity liberality hospitality His extreme humanity affability curtesie cheerfulnesse of spirit in every condition and as a just reward and just fruit of all these the high and deare esteeme and respect which hee had purchased in the hearts of all men of every ranke who were acquainted with him such onely excepted of whom to bee loved and well reported is scarce compatible with true vertue All men who knew him either lov'd or hated him in extremity such as were good extremely delighted in him as taken in a sweet captivity with his matchlesse worth the bad as much hated Him out of their antipathy against it But all these things though most desirable and excellent in their place I passe over and shall insist only upon two things which alone are desirable in any man which indeed make a man more precious then Gold then the fine gold of Ophir First he was a true Christian man a faithfull servant of Iesus Christ one who long since was borne againe of Water and the Holy Ghost engratted into Christ adopted to be the Childe of God justified freely by his grace renewed in the spirit of his mind sanctified throughout in spirit soule and body one who had made God his portion and Gods word his guide who in his whole course had left off to fashion himselfe according to the World but in all things studied to know as his rule what was the good and perfect will of God in a word He was a true Nathaniel in whom there was no guile Secondly Hee was a man of a publike spirit a most usefull man He was the good Man of this Text wholly laid out for the publike good the publike safety was written in His heart as men report Queen Mary said that Callis was in hers it was His meat and drinke His worke His exercise His recreation His pleasure His ambition His all What 〈◊〉 was was onely to promote the publike good in and for this Heliv'd in and by this He died And this excellent usefull