his Love and Power shine with greatest Lustre Remember â—our Sanctifier but forget not his most Sanctified ones I conclude with a saying of one â—cquainted with God above thouâ—ands He never knew a heavenly â—onversation that pretending to know God alone hath no converse with his â—oly ones that attend Him and doth â—ot live as a Member of their Society â—n the City of God that doth not with â—ome delight behold their Holiness â—nity and Order But as it is time 〈◊〉 proceed to my next Observaâ—â—ion D. 2. The holy Faith and Conversation of godly Ministers and Friends deceased must be considered and followed So the Text in terms most plaiâ— Follow their Faith to wit considereâ— by you And that Comma consâ—dering the end of their Conversation imports evidently a command to follow it For the sake of these waâ— the remembrance of their Persons fore required Which without thâ—â— use of their Faith and Conversatioâ— would be to little purpose Bâ— it considered therefore strictly 1. What this Faith is 2. What this Conversation And 3. What the Reasons for our coâ—sidering and following both 1. Faith is considered as Objectively taken or Subjectively A the first it is the truth of the Goâ—pel by them held Viz. 1. Thâ— Gospel-History of the Primitiâ—â— Friendship between God and Man of the Enmity raised by the first siâ— between them and of the Reconcâ—liation made by the Son of God 2. The Gospel Offer and Invitation of Sinners unto Grace and Salvation â—y a New Covenant one of admiraâ—le Promises and most equitable and â—racious Demands 3. The Gospel-Rule and Directory for the Worship â—nd the whole Walk of all embracing â—nd entring that Covenant This History they Credited this Offer â—hey Accepted this Covenant they Entred this Rule they Followed â—ubjectively taken their Faith is that â—race of God in them whereby â—hey so received the Gospel Now â—his grace of Faith is either general â—nd so 't is their Assent and Consent â—nto all God's Revelation as perfectâ—y true Or special as it relates unâ—o Christ Jesus the sum of all God's Revelation and so it is their accepâ—ance of Him in all his Offices as Teacher Saviour Ruler The deâ—arted Saints we speak of had a Faith which was unto them instead of Possession and Sight One that made things said by God as credible as if they had seen them with their Eyes And things promised by God as comfortable as if they had had them in their hands I would be understood of the Truth only not of the degree of Credibility and Comfort They had also a Faith iâ— their Hearts which was unto them a Marriage Knot whereby they joyned themselves unto Christ Jesus in everlasting Covenant Resigning themselves to him to be Taught Saved and Ruled Committing themselves to God's saving Mercy lodged in Christ's Hand And submitting themselves to God's governing Authority lodged in the same This Faith of theirs in both acceptations is that which we are to consider and follow Conversation is the way and course of humane life Respectively of all Duties towards our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier towards the Church the World and our Selves And this as under all Circumstances of our various Conditions in our Pilgrimage The way and course of the Saints we speak of was Holy and Exemplary Through their Faith in Christ working by Love purifying their Hearts conquering the World and chasing the Devil they sincerely and perseveringly glorified God They held Communion with the Father Son and Spirit in Faith Hope and Love in Worship and Obedience They loved the Church as Christ's Body served it and sympathized with it as members of it The Unregenerate World they pitied and spent their days in pains and prayers for it's conversion Their Hearts that is Themselves they kept with all diligence preferring always the man above the Brute the Soul above the Body In a word their life was an Exercise of Grace a Warfare against Corruptions and Temptations a putting of their Talents to Usury and merchandizing to and for Heaven All their days were Humiliation-days for their Sins their Own and their Relations and Thanksgiving days for their Mercies and Hopes They walked after the Spirit and not after the Flesh And this their walk is that their Conversation that we are called to eye and to imitate We shall briefly enquire the Reasons for this practice To wit of our considering the Faith and Conversation of our glorified Brethren And of our setting our selves to transcribe both Our own vanity is apt to charge the Divine Wisdom foolishly for commanding it And to ask Unto what purpose is this our cost and pains Being we have the perfect rule of the Gospel and of our Saviour's own transcendent Example St. Austin's word is of great weight WHY God commands any thing I need not trouble my self He will look to that Let me ever look well to WHAT he commands Whether we see them or no there are infinite reasons for every thing God requires But yet when those reasons are obvious their use is rich and various Of the Practice foresaid I shall therefore point out a few such as are most clear and apparent R. 1. This practice unites the upper and lower House of God The Church above and that below It holds together the Members of the Family in Heaven and upon Earth It engageth us to keep eyeing of them As Scholars of the lower Form eye those of the higher whom they must imitate It even necessitateth the Houshold of Faith to hold great conversation with them that live by Sight This is no light reason with such as consider how God stands for his Children's Union and Association Such as hath been forespoken of and therefore shall have no more here said of it R. 2. This Practice doubles our help to the Life of Faith and Holiness The Instructions and Precepts of the Gospel are a blessed Help But not all that we need Who feels it not After that we have heard our Master's best and brightest Doctrines we need our Fellow Servants instructive and motive Examples Which are indeed the most instructive Comments to the understanding of them and most motive Encouragements unto the obeying of them as Experience certifieth By what is here said no disgrace is cast upon the Gospel 'T is meerly from our own dulness that we need superadded Examples And the shame of that want rests singly upon our own Head While in the mean time unto God belongs the glory of the additional Mercy Admirable Mercy For the Gospel shews us but the Duty But the Example of deceased Saints shews also the possibility of living by Faith and in Holiness Because what has been done may certainly be done again We are emboldned to believe we may so live when we consider others to have lived so And let it not startle you if I say this Jesus Christ's own Example is in this one respect a much less encouragement than one of his least and poorest Servants For it doth
not nearly and immediately so teach the possibility of the foresaid Life as his Servant's example doth A Soul under Temptation exclaims that be it ever so necessary 't is altogether as impossible to live by Faith in this World and hold a rightly ordered Conversation in such a Catholick Sodom Go you and tell him that the Son of God did live by Faith and fulfil all righteousness even in this World He shall reply upon you that it is a wild inference that he may because the Son of God did so do He shall tell you Christ had none of his sins in him and he has little or none of Christ's strength in his dejected Soul Christ had all created and uncreated holiness and might well overcome World and Devil but it were a wonder if they should be overcome by him a weak and sinful Dust He shall ask you what Logick of yours it is that thus argues An Angel slew an hundred thousand Enemies therefore a Worm may slay as many But on the other hand tell you this bruised Reed that yonder in Heaven be multitudes and many of his own Acquaintance that were Worms as weak as himself as tempted as himself and many a time as dejected as himself who did nevertheless keep the holy Faith and finish their holy Course and win the Crown of Righteousness What then Why then you do bind his contradiction hand and foot and it is odds but you cast out his despairing Spirit To be sure you silence him and very probably you make him by and by to speak Evangelically And to fall to chiding of his legal self and counselling it in Davids Rhetorick Why cast down O my Soul why disquieted in me Trust in God For I even I may yet Praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God And now I ask Should such a Tower of David such an Armory as this whereon there hang a thousand bucklers and shields for tempted despondent Souls should such a practice suffer disuse It would be unspeakable loss to the whole generation of the righteous But blessed be his excellent name He that delights of bruised Reeds to make polished Pillars in his Temple and of smoaking flax to make burning and shining lights He is more wise and kind than to admit it Glory be to him in the highest R. 3. This practice doubles the glory of God from the Faith and Conversation of Saints deceased If I may so speak God had from themselves one crop Or tribute of glory And would have had it tho' no eye but his own had seen their Faith and Conversation Tho' no mortal man had observed and followed them But now now that Faith and Conversation are not buried in Oblivion but are lifted up and draw men after them behold a second crop another tribute springs up So fruitful do living Christian's Meditation and Imitation make them that it may be said of deceased ones much like as of Sampson The Praises they bring unto their God in their death be more than they which they brought in their life Can therefore any Lover of God be without a deep sense of the reason of this practice Or need to be farther told that he who hath made all things for his glory hath required this practice for the same Here I must believe that none are Blind but those that will not see R. 4. This Practice doth likewise add unto the joy of Saints deceased Heaven is the element of Joy There 's less water in the Sea and light in the Sun than Joy in Heaven But we are generally taught that the Inhabitants have various degrees even after the Resurrection However it be it is this only that I would here propose viz. Of their Joys in Heaven this must needs be one that they did in their measure glorifie God in their day upon Earth And if they have knowledge of it it must be another Joy to have their Faith and Obedience live and bear fruit after that they are transplanted To have their old Graces and Duties for many years after to edify their Brethren and glorifie their Father And why we may not conceive them soon to know it when it is so let them say that can I cannot With humble submission I conclude that they are informed of it when the matter of their Joy is obtained Whether the holy Angels give them notices or what way they receive the same I take not on me to determine Some have thought that this is true concerning men Damned Such whose Errors are remembred to the diffusing of their enmity and malignity after their death they have proportionable encreases of their torment in Hell made presently made and with full significations given of the meritoriously procuring cause of it And on the other side concerning Saints in Heaven some have presumed this viz. That such whose Faith and Holy Life are commemorated c. made use of to the edification of the Church they receive like encreases of Joy As soon made as the foresaid sinners increases of Torment Learned men have thought Jer. 17.10 to make this way I the Lord search the heart I try the reins even to give to every man according to his ways and according to the FRUIT of his doings and with full certification of the service that is so of grace rewarded I contend not but to as many as with me do suppose this which I think no one will pretend an ability to disprove To such at least I shall think this reason of good force Upon the very single account hereof I dare ask them Is there not a cause for the commended Practice If we on Earth have Power should we not have Will to add to the Joy of our Brethren in Heaven R. 5. This Practice of good men exalts the saving grace of God Grace unto a Sinner is and will be an eternal Wonder Saving grace even most restrainedly considered is above all the blessing and praise that can be given it in the very state of Glory Abraham himself even after the Resurrection will be unableadequately to praise the grace of his own Salvation The grace that took him out of his misery and qualified him and brought him unto Glory That said to him in his blood Live That when he was alive gave him Life more abundantly And when he waâ— Meet placed him in the inheritanâ—â— of the Saints in Light This gracâ— unto his single Person will transcenâ— all his possible conception But leâ—â— this Grace to him be considered iâ— its just extent As saving him anâ— making him an Instrument of savinâ— many others In a sense the Fathâ—â— of thousands of heirs of Salvation An Exemplar unto them Making his Faith and Obedience blessâ— means of grace unto multitudeâ— Causing generations to call him blesseâ— Using him when Alive and alâ—â— when Dead as a Co-worker with Goâ— What an addition is this Thiâ— that makes Salvation it self somewhâ—â— more than it self Yea much more As to save a man from
joyful praises of him that Redeemed us and washed us from â—ur sins in his Blood such a Heaven â—ill satisfie my hopes I believe that â—ll Sin and Curse shall be done away â—ut I think such a Repentance is neiâ—her Sin nor Curse As I live in almost continual thoughts 〈◊〉 Heaven so the remembrance of â—ultitudes of my old holy Acquaintance 〈◊〉 seldom left out of these thoughts â—nd there are few sleeping nights in â—hich I dream not of some or other of â—hem And if it be a weakness I will â—nfess it to you that I have much ado 〈◊〉 think but some shame with confesâ—on will accompany me when I first â—eet any there that I have been unkind 〈◊〉 or wronged and that will know â—y faults better than here they did â—nd that I shall ask them forgiveness 〈◊〉 which I know being forgiven by Christ they will soon grant I supâ—ose you have read or heard of my Dear and Holy Friend Dr. Drake's Letter to Mr. Love before his Execution I go not so far but with myâ— thanks for your excellent Books I telâ— you that waking and sleeping living and I hope dying I cannot spare in my Meditations of Heaven the pleasant familiar thoughts of my Acquaintance gone before with all the blessed Body of Christ With such thoughts is passing your unworthy Brother Rich. Baxter Aug. 21. 1690. Men and Brethren THE Supreme Lord hath wonderfully distinguish'd men in the condition of Living But all are equal in â—â—e necessity of Dying David a King proclaimed himâ—â—f a Worm And alas we see and â—el it The Prophets do not live for â—er Tho' blessed be God our great â—rophet dies no more but is with â—s Church to the end of the â—orld The best of the Church â—ust be taken out of the World â—racious Persons must Die to be â—ved as Graceless ones must Die 〈◊〉 be Damned The Churches Angels be not imâ—ortal Mr. HENRY HURST was â—t for God has taken him You â—ow this good Man is fallen You know it you have and you do stilâ— bewail it So Samuel died and aâ— the Israelites were gathered togetherâ— and lamented him Many of you have heard a verâ— seasonable and useful Sermoâ— preach'd at his Funeral in this plaâ—â— And many more would have heaâ— it if the Place had been larâ— enough to receive them All of yoâ— if I mistake not are melted into 〈◊〉 good disposition for another Seâ—mon on the same Subject And 〈◊〉 Esteem for him and Affection 〈◊〉 your selves have inclin'd me to giâ— you this An Impulse is faln on me 〈◊〉 weak as I am to undertake a thiâ— very great herein Even to raise tâ— Dead To raise again this hâ— Man and very many more 〈◊〉 raise them in a very good senâ— and unto very good service Bettâ— than it would be if I could fetâ— back their Souls from Abrahaâ— bosom and their Bodies from tâ— Earth's bowels Plainly Sirs I assay in this Sermon to raise of our blessed Brother and of other glorified Brethren tho' not the Lovely PERSONS yet the holy FAITH the heavenly CONVERSATION and the victorious END Egress or Going forth thereof into Glory And all these for your Instruction and Encouragement unto Faith and Holiâ—ness I have found a Text apt like the Archangel's Trumpet thus to raise the Dead and change the Quick To raise Dead Saints and make more Lively the Living ones A Text which if I handle not â—nd you hear not amiss will do it For it is the King of Heaven's Mandate given for the raising of them And I will be bold to â—ay If the mighty work be not done â—tis because of our unbelief Heb. 13.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Remember them which have the rule over you who have spoken unto you the Word of God whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation Or rather thus Remember your Guides who have spoken unto you the Word of God whose Faith follow considering the End Escape or Issue of their Conversation I am of his mind who hath said This Epistle to the Hebrews is as serviceable to the Church as the Sun is unto the World But I wilâ— confine my present discourse to this stricture of it which is my Text The sacred Writer is here pressing unto Perseverance in the Faith Worship and Obedience of the Gospel For promoting the same he prescribes a duty of which our Pulpits have been too silent and your Pews too ignorant if I rightly judge The duty of recalling to mind Departed Ministers adding spiritual mental Converse with Dead ones unto Atâ—endance upon Living ones Making use of Comprehensors as well as of â—iators of Teachers glorified as well â—s of Teachers but imperfectly sanâ—tified And of these four things are reâ—uired 1. Remembrance of their Persons 2. Imitation of their Faith 3. Consideration of their Converâ—ation 4. Consideration of the End and â—ictorious Issue of that their Converâ—ation These are required for the exâ—ellent and important End aforesaid â—f these the Connexion is too plain 〈◊〉 be insisted on For the Imitation of the Faith of any doth evidently enough require the honourable Memory of their Persons We have no Power to follow forgotten steps Nor Will to tread in any but those of reverenced Feet And this latter as evidently requires the former For Reason admits us not to Honour or give our selves trouble to Remember such after whom we think not fit to walk That were to be absurdly prodigal of our Mindâ— and Memories Nor needs it be said either how necessary it is that we consider first what mens Conversation is before we consider what itâ— blessed End is Or how requisite iâ— is unto our Imitation of the Faith oâ— Believers that we have the motivâ— considerations of the gracious Conversation in which it did begin anâ— of the glorious Victory in which iâ— did end For how useless to youâ—self were your most perfect Knowledge of Heaven's Glory if you coulâ— have it without a competent undeâ—standing of the Work whose Reward â—t is And who would take care to â—ook much upon the Penny before â—â—e had took good cognisance of the â—abour in the Vineyard whereof it is â—he wages We must know the Race before we can or shall list much to heed the Garland And â—ruly till we see the difficulties of â—he Race to be run thorough by â—others and the glories of the Garâ—and put upon their heads we have â—ut little heart to Engage in the â—ne or Expect the other for our selves Well it were if by sight of â—oth we were duly animated The substance of the Text I shall â—abour to present in three orderly Positions scil P. 1. Godly Ministers when Dead â—ught not to be Buried in Oblivion P. 2. Their holy Faith and Conversation ought to be considered and folâ—owed P. 3. Consideration of their Conquest and Escape out of all their Difficulties here below is a very necessary motive to our imitation of their holy Faith and Life I begin with the
first P. 1. Godly Ministers when Dead must not be Buried in Oblivion My Text expresly commands the contrary Remembrance of them Natural and Moral is here required Naturally we remember those whom we often call to mind think of and speak with our selves concerning them For thinking is nothing but speaking with our selves Thoughts be the words of our hearts Morally we remember such as we do congruously speak of with our selves I mean agreeably to their worth and suitably to the proper End of our commemorating them This Moral remembrance without the Natural is impossible and the Natural without this Moral is at least vain and idle Remember your Guides is in effect thus much Multiply honourable and affectionate thoughts concerning them Thoughts proper and apt to praise the Gifts and Graces of God in them and to promote the same in your selves Our English Translation renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Participle of the present tense The Syriac Arabic Vulg. Lat. Rhemists Calvin and Grotius and of our own Writers Doctor Owen and Bishop Lloyd so take it But I rather conceive it a Noun Substantive in this place because the Apostle speaks of such as had been Rulers not such as continued to be so He seems to intend the Apostles Evangelists and all ordinary Pastors who had led and ruled them by God's holy word and were now â—t rest from their Labours and enâ—oying their Reward These he commandeth to be remembred but not with any Heathenish or Popish Celebrations These without the â—east particular deference unto St. Peter or any ambitious pretending Successors of his These with a veâ—â—y apparent exclusion of all the Tribes that take on them to Rule without speaking the Word of the Lord. All that Preach not oâ— Preach another Gospel But be it here observed it is not only or principally as Ministers but as Members of Jesus Christ thaâ— we are charged to remember these departed ones aforesaid Their Ministry of the Word is indeed considered as an Engagement unto the required Remembrance But it iâ— their Faith their holy Conversation and the glorious End of both thaâ— are proposed as specially obligativâ— thereunto Insomuch as my Texâ— may well admit a comprehension of all Christians that have fought thâ— good fight kept the Faith finished their Course and received their Crowâ— I mean of such as tho' they werâ— never called to the distinct Office oâ— the Ministry yet in all manner of hoâ—â— Conversation have ministred untâ— our Faith and Joy as all seriouâ— practical Christians do And 〈◊〉 whom after their Dissolution we may assert the things foresaid in Hope and Charity It being not for mortal Worms to conclude peremptorily who do enter the heavenly Mansions I shall therefore confirm the Doctrine proposed as so far extended And advance Considerations which do very convincingly prove thus much scil That godly Ministers and Christians when they are Dead ought so to be remembred as we have foresaid C. 1. Your reasonable Nature binds you to remember your godly Ministers and Friends deceased It binds you to converse most in your thoughts with the most noble Objects But of â—ll Creatures excepting the blessed Angels these are the most excellent They are so in themselves and so in our Opinion or rather your Faith When they were in the Body you â—â—ought them pieces of Heaven of whom the World was not worthy You â—alled them the excellent of the Earth and all your delight was in them How readily did you break from other Company put off any dispensable Business and undertake Journeys otherwise tedious to solace your hearts with their Converse 〈◊〉 And are they now grown worse for their very Perfection Are they lesâ— Lovely for their being in Glory Bâ— they therefore faln in your esteem because they are advanced unto Heaven The nearer they be unto their Lord and yours the farther must they be from all kind thoughts of yours What hinders that you cannot more delightfully visit them now when all that is delightful fill them That you cannot follow them to no worse a Countrey than you profess your selves seeking and nâ— more remote than that you havâ— your Conversation in if you anâ— true Israelites It is full as easie to think of 〈◊〉 friend at the Indies as at next dooâ— And of your friends that be in thâ— house made without hands as those â—hat be in any house of your own here â—elow Wherefore your own Minds if you inhumanely resist not â—heir Light and Law will be aâ—cending unto these Stars in Glory And that as naturally as the sparks â—y upward Or as Men impatient â—f herding with Creatures that live â—ut an Animal Sensitive life do â—esort for their pleasure unto the â—ossessors of their own more noble Nature And most Industriously â—nto such of them as are of most â—nspicuous Goodness C. 2. Your gracious Love of God â—nds you to Remember your godly Miâ—sters and Friends deceased Love â—hich is all Religion is of all things â—e most Imperious And of all â—ings to be named doth most comâ—and those Legions of ours which are â—â—dest to be Governed our thoughts â—endures not wilful Ignorance or â—â—â—getfulness of it's Object It hath â—en named very justly the matchless Art of Memory Ubi Amor ibiâ— Oculus If the Love of God prevail in your Hearts it will carry your Minds and keep them where he is It will turn the stream of your cogitations and hold them toward Heaven The Heaven in which He is not without his Children with Him Without the Souls of the juâ—â— made perfect who behold his face iâ— Righteousness and are satisfied with his Likeness Every one exulting in that triumph about Him My God iâ— mine and I am His. And is it possible think you to Love this Father and not Love these Children of His to Converse with Him and to forget them with a neglectful Oblivâ—on of them to hold an acceptablâ— Communion with him The beloved Disciple tells us unâ—â—mitedly concerning all his Family on Earth as well as Heaven Eveâ— one that loveth him that begat loveâ— him also that is begotten of Hiâ— 1 John 5.1 But what Children of hâ— can we Love if we Slight the very best He hath And do then regard them â—east when we conclude them to have most of his Image Likeness and Complacence C. 3. Your continued Relation unto godly Ministers and Friends deceased â—inds you to the Remembrance of them Sirs you have been often charg'd â—ot to look upon your selves too â—bstractedly but to consider your â—elves as Members of a Community All the World is naturally but â—ne Man and Woman's Children The Church above and below is but one Family Besides as you cannot be â—gnorant the great Lord of this â—amily hath pleased yet nearer to â—yn you and those â— speak of To â—ut you in particular endearing Reâ—â—tions unto them Your Ministers â—ow in glory were some of them our Fathers and begat you in Christ Others were your Nurses â—nd
Piety In Children it is playfulness in Men it's Childishness if no worse D. 3. Consideration of deceased Ministers and Friends escape out of all their sublunary Difficulties is a necessary motive to the imitation of their Faith and Life The Original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render End is rendered an Escape 1 Cor. 10.13 Nor doth it express a meer End or common Issue of things But an End attended with Victory and deliverance out of things grievous That the consideration of Saints that are blessed with such an end is as it is here asserted is by the Apostle plainly declared Who maketh it the motive unto the imitation that we have â—â—ready pressed His words do evidently import as much as if he had â—id these following ones Sirs it is a hot service I put you upon Imitation of departed Saints Faith and Holiness is no easie business African Lyons appear in every step of it's way All the World is in arms against it Throwing Firebrands Arrows and Death The Devil and his Angels raise their Posse and do their worst I know your want and God directs me to furnish you with a most powerful Encouragement One which if you rightly use you shall walk undauntedly in your most difficult Duty You shall Run and not faint The Swords of them that lay at you shall not hold neither their Spears nor their Darts Their Arrows shall not make you flee You shall laugh at the shaking of their Spears And this so mighty motive is Consideration Careful and Curious Inspection reiterated and repeated contemplation To wit of your Predâ—cessors glorious Conquests over aâ—â— that stands against you And 〈◊〉 their triumphant Ingress into thâ— caelestial and eternal Blessedness One too rich to be comprehendeâ— by the present poverty of your Understandings But yet one whereof your little Understanding is enough both to sweeten aâ—â— the bitterness and spoil the tempting power of all the sweetness of this world Keep this consideration and live Keep it as the Apple of your Eye For the display of this general position to the weakest minds I will cast it's contents into these four particulars P. 1. Our deceased good Ministers and Friends were in this world threshed and winnowed as much as our selveâ— are Their Escape out of sufferings speaks their fore-endurance of them Of which their Endurance it will not be useless to take some good notice And ever and anon compare â—heir Hardships and our own It â—s a small Map in which I must present the World of them Their Souls lodged in as Frail and as Burthensom Bodies as ordinarily ours do And as hard to keep in Subjection and be possessed in Honour Bodies that were as very Prisons and Fetters unto their Spirits Whose Weaknesses Pains and Deformities were neither few nor light Their treatment by the World was with the same malignity as ours is or worse It Hated them as much Censured Reproached and every way Injured them by secret and open practices One while it bespake them as it doth us in words smooth as butter sweet as hony-combs By the sweet Poyson of Flattery designing upon them the worst of cruelty Assaying by the Lordly dish and sweet milk to court them unto the fatal Nail and Hammer Another time it spake of them as it doth of you all manner of evâ—â— Poured out Cursings and Bitterness breathed out threatnings and slaughter Trying if it were possible to frighten whom they could not flatter out of God's way Their Temptations by Satan were no less than our own Are we pestred with his Suggestions Persuasions Instigations So were they as they have oft complained unto some of us and unto God in the hearing of all that worshipped with them Do we find that he subtilly suits his temptations unto our Ages our Tempers and our Conditions in the World We are vain if we think he did otherwise with them Doth he assault us oft-times in temptations unto sins from which we think our selves most safe No question but he so assaulted them In a word All his Logical fallacies all his Politick wiles all his Military stratagems were used against them as surely as they are against us How many have told us their Temptations unto Atheism Blasphemy Despair Murther Self-murther and what not Their Afflictions from God were such as ours do not appear to exceed Understand me of Afflictions upon Soul Body Name Estate Family Friends From his hand are all are they not By whomsoever they are Executed 't is by him they are Ordered And that as to the Sort Degree and Duration of them Now can you answer me Which of your Souls doth God exercise with more Griefs Fears Anguish than he did theirs Who of you have Bodies more acquainted with the Stone Colick and Strangury Feaver Consumption and Palsie than theirs were Who can say his Name is more Laden with reproach than their Names used to be Or that his Estate hath been so torn from him as none of theirs ever was Or that Providence never made any of their Families such Hospitals as it hath made his Or so parted any of them from their Lovers and Friends as it hath parted him Many indeed are the afflictions of the righteous in this World But not more than those of the righteous before you were who are ascended into the World where none are Their Indwelling Sin was their perpetual troubler as ours is And found them as much to do as ours findeth us Held them in continual warfare as ours holdeth us They all had Sin and felt Sin and lamented Sin in all and every part of them As wormwood hath bitterness in its Root in its Stalk and in its Leaves Their Minds had abiding Unteachableness Wills Untractableness Consciences Unsensibleness Memories Unfaithfulness Affections Unorderliness Imaginations Unruliness That which came into them when their Souls came into their Bodies never perfectly left them till their souls left their Bodies All days of their lives therefore their Faith was weak Hope infirm Love chill Many a trembling hour they spent in fear that they were but shadows and empty shows of Faith and Hope and Love that they had In fear of their being Graceless yea and what is worse past the day of Grace Being Unreconciled to God yea and thro' deadly delay Unreconcilable Many have so feared and all have lived exclaiming O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me Such fears simple souls do think to have been no ones bitter Draughts but their own But I tell them they cannot answer me this question To which of your friends in Heaven can you turn that hath not drank them Again Their Loads of Actual Sin pressed them down as sorely as ours do press us My sin is ever before me was the perpetual cry of one of them Are we Burthened with our sins their Aggravations and th ir Demerits they were so with theirs Their sins against Law against Gospel against Conscience With their Aggravations by their Multitudes
Faith and Holiness is the highest that can be in this low world The best Heaven to be had on earth And yet do we want a much better to allure us unto it So dark is the Light that is in us So so have we lost the first Light Purity Vigilance of our Minds and the Rectitude of our Wills Things despicable insinuate themselves into us very easily Their faint color of profit or pleasure invades us with marvellous power Power that ravishes presently the esteem of our Minds and Choice of our Wills The lying vanities that do still deceive us can even compel us and carry us whither we think at least we would not go But objects most amiable in themselves most excellent and unto us most important such as deserve the throne of our hearts alas how darkly do our Minds represent these how coldly do our Wills receive them Till Omnipotence draws us we never run or go or so much as look after them A most humbling consideration We do need bit and bridle to keep us out of Satans crooked way and spurs and goads to make us go in God's strait paths I. 5. The kindness of God to untoward men This if any thing shines in my text and doctrine For in what appeareth God's kindness if not in his methods of calling us to Faith and Holiness Which are so admirably suited unto our weakness So apt to reduce and engage the most extravagant Souls So fitly qualified as hath been before shewed to make pliant the most obstinate in evil and to nail fast the most irresolute in good Motives even such the divine grace presents So it self doth the dread Soveraign of the whole Creation court every worm Vouchsafing not only to Will and Command but to encourage and entice us unto Faith and Obedience So making that if we will swim on in sin unto Damnation it shall be against the stream of grace in its utmost Condescention I. 6. The Benefit of godly Ministers and Friends This doth hence appear great Because not only Living but Dead they are unto us great means of grace As we may profit much by hearing Est aliquid quod à magno viro vel tacente proficias Sen. Ep. 94. and seeing them while they be here we may do the same by Remembring them when they be gone It is our own fault if it does not do us good to think of them It is true we may reap advantage from the thoughts of them who to us were unknown And of whom and of whose Faith and Holiness we have only read or heard They have well deserved from the Church whose Pens have preserved the History of pious Persons for us Abroad Melchior Adam Theod. Beza and others At home our immortal Martyrologist Jo. Fox Mr. S. Clark Dr. Bates Dr. Fuller Dr. Lloyd c. That dunghil Spirits should contemn their sacred Pearl is of no wonder at all But that reputed Merchants for Heaven should grudg them their Money and their Time is sadly strange A Collection of the Characters of many most exemplarily religious is now preparing in this City Surely men of real Religion will pray for its good speed as conceiving it a very apt medium for commending unto us the City that hath better foundations and for animating us to Live to Suffer and to Die for it But it may not be denied and it ought to be considered Great is the power of Acquaintance and Converse Our thoughts have by far the easiest and sweetest access unto them in Heaven that we had most friendship with upon Earth In a word Pearls are but the shining Froth of the Sea as Silver and Gold be but the White and Yellow Dust of the Earth An Holy Friend is an incomparably richer thing and more serviceable I. 7. The Praise of Consideration Which thus here meets us It is by the sacred Writer made the capital means of our excitation unto the things which are our Life Yea of our excitation unto them by the most powerful motive It is by him made as necessary to our being benefited by God's Word as Eating is necessary to our being nourished by Bread For his phrase is to be understood as if the Text had plainly said The blessed End of your holy Predecessors take you into just deep consideration without which it can no more affect you than a Beauty and Treasure can affect one that neither sees nor hears of them Nor any more draw forth your hearts to imitate their Faith than Chains or Cords can draw forth of their places things that they take no hold of Indeed the usefulness of Consideration is self-evident nor need words for information's sake be multiplied All men grant that every good Act is a product of stated Judgment not of a sudden rash Thought and stated Judgment it self is the issue of serious Perpension the ultimate and most perfect Act of our Reason or Thinking faculty But interpretative Contradiction is the rife Plague among us Most men sleep in their gross Inconsideracy and are strangers unto true Contemplation And it is to be feared some are vain and wild enough to expect benign infusions of the Holy Spirit without the required considerations of their own Miserable delusion For He is a spirit of Wisdom that is of wise Thoughts Not a spirit sent to make Fools that is creatures spending no Thoughts or but few and slight ones on the things of their Peace His work is to make wise and to set at rights our Thoughts To wit as to the Objects Qualities Numbers Orders and Ends of them In a word He that eats not necessary Bread is dead naturally and he that considers not necessary Truth is dead spiritually Spare Meals make slender Bodies and slight Meditations make lean Graces Wouldest thou be much edified by thy glorified Friends Examples then contemplate them much Expecting not holy Impulses from a few roving Thoughts Without much musing no holy fire burns Precious Metals and Jewels are produced where the Beams of the Sun are most strongly reflected and there it is that heavenly Affections are kindled where apt Thoughts are most vigorously exercised Now in his Name whose we Are whom we Serve and to whose Tribunal we Hasten I exhort as follows Let not worthy Mr. HURST or any other Servant of Jesus Christ be without a Religious Monument in your Hearts Former Ages have exceeded bounds in commemoration of deceased Friends Papists abide still in their Excesses But abhorring them run you not into a contrary peccant Extream Idolize your Friends in glory you may not honourably and affectionately remember them you must Your duty is to follow their Faith not their Fancies And their holy Walks not their wry Steps They were but Men our fellow-servants and not our Masters Nor are they to be followed by us farther than they followed their and our one Master It shall be Praise now and Glory in the day of your accounts if you consider their Chief End and aim at the