godly which is a great incouragement and comfortable to the servants of God I will only speak in general The Prophets when they spake of the Kingdome of Christ they set it out by good things there is no need of their good things Nation shall not rise against Nation they shall break their spears into mattocks The wolf shall dwel with the lambe and the Leopard with the Kid They shall eat of the tree of life and the hidden Manna there They shall be made pillars in the Temple of God There they shall be cloathed with long white robes Which places take us by the hand and bring us to some conceit of those joyes How then doth it stand every one upon now while we have time to labour to have intrest in those joyes Thrice happy is that man or woman that comes to enjoy those joyes It is spoken of Christ that he the joyes of heaven being set before him he sustained the cross Saint Paul accounted all but dung that he might win Christ and come to those joyes And Ignatius faith that breaking of bones fire and gallows quartering of limbs come what will so I may come to those joyes I would we had all the like zeal after those joyes Our coldness in seeking those joyes come from a base esteem of them for if we did esteem them we would labour exceedingly after them Many things for use might be inferred hence As first here is comfort and incouragement to all the Saints of God the servants of Christ that take pains to live a godly life However here they indure afflictions and mockings and reproaches and scoffs of the world yet Christ hath a great reward for them Let them rejoyce great shall their reward be Give me a man then that hath buckled with the sins of the times that hath studied the advancement of Religion give me such a one as hath incouraged those that are feeble that hath provided for the Lords Prophets that hath reformed the abuses of the Lords day as Nehemiah what will inflame his zeal more then this that Christ his Saviour sees it and regards it and will reward him And lest he should faint before the reward come he saith he will come shortly This comforted Elias in the Wilderness and Jeremiah in the Dungeon and Job on the Dunghil so that they were more then conquerours through Christ Secondly is it so that Christ shall come to Judgement and hath his reward with him here is terrour to all the wicked workers of iniquity Behold faith Malachie Mal. 4.1 The day of the Lord cometh it shall burn as an oven and all the wicked and ungodly of the earth shall be as stubble and straw and fuel for the furnace of Gods wrath What a woful and heavy day will this be to all the wicked and ungodly Me-thinks they might conceive the terrour and they shall cry out at the last day when he shall come to reward them is not this he whose lawes we have contemned whose sides we have pierced whom we have nayled to the Cross whose Ministers we have reviled whose servants we have reproached And this shall strike great terrour to the hearts of all wicked men when Christ shall pronounce against them Go ye cursed Whither to the divel and his place of torments Then they shall cry to the mountains to fall on them Oh that some wild beast would follow them and tear them in peeces but it will be too late their part and portion is in that Lake that burns with fire and brimstone Lastly this would stir every one up to fit himself to prepare for this Judgement And let us continually therefore lift up our hearts to heaven and as the Apostle speaks wait for the appearing of Christ to Judgement Then all tears shall be wiped from our eyes there shall be no more sorrow and mourning there we shall fit with the Saints and sing with the Angels Halelujah halelujah all praise and honour and glory and might and dominion and majesty be to him that is upon the throne the Lamb Christ Jesus for evermore THE SAINTS LONGING FOR THE GREAT EPIPHANY SERMON XXIV TITUS 2.13 Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ THe former Verses you may remember I chose to speak of upon another occasion I shewed you how the grace of God that brought salvation to all men appeared Secondly how it teacheth those men to whom it brings salvation Every man would be glad to be saved by grace but they love not that grace should teach them now grace saveth none but whom it teacheth it first teacheth them and then saveth them Now it teacheth us as the Apostle faith three lessons First Quid vitandum what we are to shun ungodliness and worldly lusts Then Secondly it teacheth us Quid faciendum what we are to do to live soberly and justly and piously in this present world Soberly toward our selves righteously toward our Neighbour and piously towards God this is the second Lesson Then it teacheth us a third lesson quid expectandum what we must look for looking faith the Text for the blessed hope the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ The two first points I handled then And I told you I would reserve the third point till it pleased God to give me a fit occasion It hath pleased God to give me a fit one but a very sad accasion It is the Lord let him do what seemeth good in his eyes I will go over the words in particular and observe something out of them And then out of altogether I will raise this Doctrine that A child of God must live so soberly so justly so godly in this present world as becometh a man that looks for a more blessed hope at the great day at the appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ I begin with the first The first word is Looking and it hath in it these four things First earnestness a Saint of God must look and look earnestly The Apostle when he sets down the looking of the creatures for the creatures look too together with us to be freed from the bondage of corruption in the glorious liberty of the Sons fo God when he speaks of the looking of the creature he useth a strange word which signisieth a putting out of the head looking to see what it can espie a great way off to see if there be any sign of his coming Rom. 8.19 And he tells us that the creature doth not only put out the head and look but waits and groans and sighs and travelleth as a woman in pain and quoth the Apostle not only the creatures do thus but we that have the first fruits of the spirit Nay if the creature put out the head and groan and wait and is in pain till that day come how much more should we that have the first fruits of
Disciples Mat. 24. The Disciples point Christ to the stately buildings of the Temple but they were soon damped when Christ told them that after a while there should not a stone be left upon a stone So perhaps you are taken with admiration at the former part of the discourse concerning the excellency of mans soul but are damped to consider that a man may lose it It is a substance immortal in respect of the being of it but defiled with sin it is adjudgeable to death in regard of the well-being and a posibility so to die is nothing repugnant to the immortality of the soul The damned spirits they are alwayes dying and are never dead they are alwayes deprived of Gods comfortable presence and are never released of their hellish torments As the Apostle saith in another case as dying and yet behold they live as living and yet behold they die The soul expiring is the death of the body and God forsaking is the death of the soul But you will say how is it possible The question is soon resolved if we ponder the causes of death A thousand mortal maladies there are to kill the body and there are a thousand deadly diseases to destroy the soul There is no sin so small but in the rigour of Gods justice and in its own nature it way damn the soul When God in the beginning stated man in Paradise he gave him a special caveat about the tree of knowledg he gives him a command thus In the day thou eatest thou shalt die What for bare eating No beloved but for the sin for tansgressing so small a commandement of so great a God Sin alone makes a separation between God and the soul and causeth the death of the soul the soul that sins the same shall die It may teach us that for the time that we live in this world there is nothing easier then to sin There is a tree of Life and a tree of Kuowledg and by eating of the tree forbidden cometh death there is a way of felicity and a way to destruction there is a God of salvation and a ghostly enemy and by adhering to the pricipality of sin a man may lose his own soul Is it possible then that a man may lose his soul that is so precious and have we not great reason to try and to suspect our selves touching our standing towards God Is there not a main necessity to seek the means to preserve us in the compass and seals of grace It is lamentable to consider how in bodily diseases men can open their grief and seek for help and send to some learned Physitian We can go to some noble learned councel in case of law But alas the soul lies wounded in the way over laden with the grievances and pressures of sin distracted with the affrightings of a troubled conscience as if there were no balm in Gilead no Physitian there as if there were no Minister to afford help There is no seeking abroad a Lyon is pretented to be in the way and Solomons sluggard folds his hands to sleep O let not these things be so Be not as the Horse and Mule that have no understanding Neglect not the helps of your preservation in grace but be continually watchful with suspition and jealousie and abstain from fleshly lusts that fight against your souls The Poet could say Theeves rise by night to rob and kill and steal and wilt not thou wake to save thy soul God for the most part saith Saint Chrysostome hath alotted to nature all by two's two hands two eyes two feet two ears ears eyes hands feet two of all that if we chance to maim one we can help to relieve the necessity of it by the other but he hath given us but one soul if we lose that what shift shall we make for another soul a piercing contemplation if we had grace to consider it Therefore O my soul tender thy self as my own happiness if thou be translated to heaven the body in time shall come thither this corruption shall put on incorruption this mortal shall put on immortality Again if thou be haled with the fiends to the nethermost hell the body in time shall be tormented with thee It is altogether just with the righteous God that they that meet in sin should also consort in suffering Save thy self and save all and by woful consequence lose thy self and lose all For what is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul So much for the second point the possibility of losing a mans soul Come we to the third the compossibility of outward prosperity he may lose his soul in gaining the whole world In the diversity of opinions concerning the chief good some there were that placed it in riches others in honours and how ever they differed in their judgements yet both agreed in this that they were both deceived For how ever it cannot be denied but that riches and honours are the blessings of God yet again they are no demonstration of a blessed man Lest any man should take them to be ill they are bestowed upon them that are good lest any man should reckon them for the chief good they are bestowed likewise upon the evil external blessings are but common favours vouchsafed to good and bad Was Abraham rich so was Abimelech Was Jacob rich so was Laban Was David a King so was Saul Was Constantine an Emperour so was Julian Salvation depends not on the multitude of riches or emminency in place the tallest Cedar hath the greatest fall and the fairest houses many times the greatest ruin and outward prosperity uuguarded with inward sanctity may soon lose the soul For first rich men are tainted with covetousness which is a kind of secret Idolatry Collos 3. and covetousness which is Idolatry saith the Apostle If you would know the reason the more tenaciously a man loves his own the less devotion he offers to God you cannot live in the service of Mammon and of Christ the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it you cannot serve God and Mammon If the young man in the Gospel have great possessions if Judas carry the bag if Demas imbrace the present world then fearewel Christ farewel Paul and farewel soul too So true is the saying of the Apostle They that will be rich fall into temptations and snares and many foolish and noysome lusts that drown men in perdition and destruction Where he saith not they that are but they that will be rich It is not simply money but the love of money that is the root of all evil Riches are good with a good conscience but if the soul be infected with avarice if it savour of that bitter Collaquintida Death is in the pot and how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdome of heaven For the desire of worldly men it is as the unsatiable thirst of a dropsie patient there is
see his face no more It parteth those friends who were so united together in love as if they had but one soul in two bodies see it in the separation that was made by death between David and Jonathan that were so knit together in their love that he bewaileth him Woe is me for my brother Jonathan This is a necessary consideration for us that live that we may learn to know how to carry ourselves towards our wordly friends and how to moderate our selves in our enjoyment of these worldly comforts Look upon every worldly thing as a mortal as a dying comfort Look upon children and friends as dying comforts Look upon your estates as that that hath wings and will be gone Look upon your bodies that now you make so much of as a thing that must be parted from the soul by death and that ere long See what advice the Apostle giveth 1 Cor. 7.19 the time is short saith he therefore let those that marry be as if they married not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it A man abuseth the world when he useth it beyond the consideration of the shortnesse of enjoying these things when he looks upon these things as things that he shall enjoy alwayes But if we would use it aright look upon things as things that we shall enjoy but for a short time This body that seemeth now to have some beauty in it yet it must die be laid in the dust these friends that seem now to have some pleasure and delight in them yet I must die and be took from them this estate and wealth that now I set so much price upon I must die and death will part me and it So I say look upon every thing as separable from us Moderate your affections likewise to them Use them onely as comforts in the way as a traveller doth the pleasures of his Inn he stands not to build himself houses against every pleasant walk he looks upon he stands not to purchase lands and to lay them to every Inn he comes to lie at No he knows that he is now but in his passage in his way he knows that he is not at home that is the place he is going to and after a time he shall come thither So make account that you are not now at home it is death that must help you to your home Let this therefore take you off from all these things that are in the way It is a strange thing to see how Sathan besotteth and befooleth men They strive and labour to compasse many worldly things as if their happinesse stood in the enjoyment of them as if they should have their wealth and their comforts for ever What care is there amongst men to get wealth and many times lose their souls in getting the world Alas Death will part soul and body them and their wealth and all Do we not see this daily in the death of others before us such a one is dead where is his body now in the dust Where are his friends and his companions now Where is his wealth and his estate for which many flattered him and fawned upon him are they not all separated from him they have nothing now to do with him he cannot dispose of one penny of his estate now it is left he knows not to whom others now have the mannaging of it As now you can say this of others so there will a time come that other men will say the like of you I had such a friend but death hath parted him from me he had such an estate but death hath parted him and his estate Let us therefore make this use of the death of others to conclude with our selves that there will be a parting of all those outward things that now we are so apt to dote upon The third special thing considerable in the death of others that will be matter of profit and benefit to those that live and survive after them is the end and cause for which God sendeth Death abroad into the world with such a large commission that it goeth on with such liberty to every family to every place that it seizeth upon every person What 's the reason of it You shall see in the several deaths of men several causes There is judgement and mercy sometime a mixture of both and sometime but of one of these Sometimes we see an apparant judgement of God in the death of some A judgement of God upon themselves Thus the young Prophet that disobeyed the word of the Lord a Lyon met him in the way and slew him So those Corinths that did eat and drink unworthily in the Lords Supper though they were such as were saved after yet neverthelesse for this very cause saith the Apostle some of them were sick and weak and some slept they died they were judged of the Lord that they might not be condemned with the world When you see death seizing upon men as an act of divine judgement of divine displeasure let it make you more fearful of sinning against God lest you provoke against your selves the same warth in the very act of sin Sometimes again it is a judgement of God upon others Thus God takes away divers of his servants because the world is not worthy of them And as this is an act of judgement upon the world so it is an act of mercy to them God in mercy taking of them away from the evil to come and from the evil present A judgement of God to others that are udworthy of them A mercy to themselves that they are took away from their own evil from sin from temptations from all the effects and fruits of sin and taken away from the evil that is to come upon others An act I say of mercy to them So it was to the child of Jeroboam he should die and should not see the judgement that was to come upon his fathers house because there was found some good thing in him toward the Lord. So it was to Josiah He should be gathered to his fathers in peace and his eyes should not see all that evill which the Lord would bring upon Jerusalem and upon the inhabitants thereof An act of judgement to others Righteous and merciful men are taken away and no man layeth it to heart they consider not the causes wherefore God takes away those good men A Land a Kingdom a State a People a place is much weakned when those that are righteous and merciful men when those that stand in the gap and use their endeavours to prevent judgments are taken away The house will certainly fall when the Pillars are removed They are the people of God only that hold up a state that hold up the world Assoon as Noah is put into the Ark presently cometh the deluge upon the World Assoon as
ever Lot was got up to Zoar presently the Lord rained down fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah Assoon as ever the mourners are marked presently cometh the destroying Angel upon the rest Beloved when we see those that are mourners for the evils of the times and places where they live look away we should lay it to heart and consider it as a sign of Gods displeasure as a sign that he is a going and departing when he takes away his jewels as a sign that he is a coming to judge the world when he beginneth to separate to take to himself his own Certainly as soon as ever that number of the elect shall be accomplished when the company of those that God hath determined to eternal life shall be fulfilled when the sheep of Christ that are yet to be brought into his fold are gathered together when the fulnesse of the Gentiles is come in and the nation of the Jewes added then the world shall he burnt with fire and the day of Judgement shall come nothing shall hinder that general destruction that shall be the end of all things here below As it is with the general Judgement of the world so with particular Judgements upon Nations when God takes away his people when the Saints go out of Jerusalem to Pila then cometh the sword of the enemie upon Jerusalem when God drawes out his own people presently cometh judgement upon the rest It is good to observe Gods method and order that he takes in governing of the world at this day that in the death of the servants of God we may consider our own time that we may prepare for those evils that are a coming and for those greater judgments that are hastning Thus you see what use may be made of laying to heart the death of others God is much glorified thereby For all his attributes are seen in all his works and the glorifying of God is a declaring of God to be as glorious as he hath revealed himself to be in his attributes which is by shewing of them forth in his works When men can see the wisedome the justice the power the mercy the truth the soveraignty of God and all in the death of others then they glorifie God in taking to heart the death of others You see likewise what good cometh to a mans self by laying to heart the death of others He sees thereby the certainty of his own death He sees the nature of death and what the proper work of it is viz. to separate between him and all those outward comforts all those props and staies whereupon his heart rested too much on earth in the dayes of his vanity And lastly he sees the end and cause why God sendeth Death into the world sometime in judgement that men should take heed of sin sometimes in mercy in mercy to the men themselves and in mercy also to those that live that they seeing the servants of God lodged up before the tempest may learn to fear and to hide and secure themselves under Gods special providence who can either hide them amongst the living or the dead in the worst times Now let us conclude with some application to our selves In the first place it serveth for the just reproof of that great neglect that is in the world at this day that men lay not to heart the death of others I wish that this were only the sin of worldly men I know to a worldly man it is of all things the most unpleasant thought that can be to think of death he cannot indure to hear this they shall fetch thy soul from thee It is as unpleasant to him as it is to a Bankrupt to hear of a Sergeant coming to arrest him as unpleasant as it is to a Malefactor to hear of being brought before the Judge And that is the reason why men in the time of feasting cannot endure such discourses at their Tables as might put sad thoughts of death into them oh these are too melancholly thoughts Yea but in the mean time it is thy folly thy want of wisedome He that was guided by the spirit of wisedome and had now bought some wisdome at a deare rate by woeful experience of his former follies he now seeth that it was farre better to go to the house of mourning that is seriously to consider of that which men account the most ordinary cause of mourning that is the death of others and of themselves then to go to the house of feasting that is to sport a mans selfe in the pleasures of the world and to give liberty to a mans selfe to all manner of delights But I say I wish that this were their fault onely and that it may die with them But it is too much the fault of Gods own people Moses is fain to pray for Israel in the Wildernesse where they saw so many die before them that God would give them wisdom to number their dayes And Ministers have still the same cause to pray for the people and Christians to pray one for another that God would give them wisdome to lay to heart the death of other men Have you well considered of Death when you can only discourse that such a one that was profitable in his instruction is dead such a one by whom we have had good in conversing with is dead such a one that was young and likely to live many years longer is dead What of all this this is but idle and empty discourse What use makest thou of this to thy self dost thou gather from thence the certainty of thy own death Dost thou consider what death will do to thee when it cometh how that it will separate between thee and all things in the world as it hath done them Dost thou consider for what cause God sendeth Death abroad into the world Dost thou consider this with thy selfe as thou oughtest to do This is an act of wisdome This is that we call due consideration when the soul reflects upon it self it is their case now and it will be mine and mine in the same manner therefore it is good for me to set my accounts strait with God When thou accompaniest another to the grave dost thou conclude thus with thy self the very next time that any death is spoken of it may be mine or as Saint Peter speaks to Saphirah after the death of Annanias the feet of those that have buried thy husband are at the door and shall carry thee out also This is reason of all that worldly-mindednesse of all that earnestnesse and invention to gain the favour of men by indirect means this is the reason of all that immoderate care about our businesse with the neglect of our souls this is the reason of all that carnal security of all that forgetfulnesse of God and the account that shall be made at the day of Judgment this is the reason of the unfruitfulnesse of our lives of our unprofitable spending of our times or
of whatsoever else it be this is even the very reason of all because even those that professe themselves to be the people of God and to give God the glory of his attributes in all his works yet they lay not to heart the death of those that are before them Men durst not they could not passe away their time in such unprofitablenesse and unfruitfulnesse as they do if they did seriously consider and lay to heart the death of others before them Again secondly As it condemnes the general neglect that is amongst men of this duty so it serves to reprove that sinful laying to heart of the death of others that is too frequent and common in the world That is first when men with too much fondnesse and with too great excesse and distemper of affection look upon their dead friends as if God could never repair the losse nor make amends for that he hath done in taking of them away Rachel mourneth and will not be comforted David mourneth and will scarce be comforted Oh Absalom my son my son would God I had died for thee What is all this but to look on freinds rather as Gods then men as if all sufficiency were included in them only Men look on their freinds as Micah did upon his Idol when they had bereaved him of it they took away all his comfort and quiet You have taken away my Gods saith he and what have I more or as Laban that when his Idols were stoln away his heart was dead he could not stay in his house he could not enjoy himselfe wherefore have you stollen away my Gods saith he So I say men look on their dead freinds as they should look upon the Creatour and not as upon the creature they take their death to heart but not in a right manner This is the very reason why God many times makes your Christian freinds so unprofitable to you when they live because you idolize them you advance them above God This is the reason also why you are so unable to bear the losse of them when they die God beating you now with your own rod and making you feel the fruit and effect of your own folly This now is an ill taking to heart the death of freinds to mourn as men without hope Secondly there is a taking to heart and considering of the death of men but it is an unrighteous considering an unrighteous judging of the death of others If men see one die it may be a violent death then they conclude certainly there is some apparent token of Gods judgment on such a one If they see another die with some extremity of torment and vehement pains certainly there is some apparent evidence of Gods wrath upon this man If they see another in some great and violent tentation strugling against many tentations they conclude presently certainly such are in a worser case then others I may say to all these as Christ said once to those that told him of the eighteen men upon whom the Tower in Siloe fell think you that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem Or rather as Solomon saith All things come alike unto all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked to the clean and to the unclean to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath Learn to judge righteous judgment to judge wisely of the death of others take heed of condemning the generation of the just But rather in the last place Make this use of the death of every one Doth such a man die by an ordinary sicknesse having his understanding and memory continued to the end Doth such a man die in inward peace and comfort with cleare and evident apprehensions of Gods love so that he can with Simeon say Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace What use shouldest thou that livest make of this now Certainly let the sweetnesse of their death make thee in love with the goodnesse of their lives That is the only way to a happy death to a comfortable end indeed the leading of a fruitful and profitable life Again dost thou see the Children of God full of temptations full of fears and disquietnesse of spirit in their death Sometimes so overcome with the violence of the disease as that it may be they speak impertinently and idely it may be sinfully What use shouldest thou make of this now Certainly let the terribleness of the example of such a mans death let it be a terrour to thee and a means to stir thee up to more carefulnesse of making good use of thy time in this life Nabal dieth and his heart is in him as a stone If ever God quicken thee if ever God breath upon thy soule or enliven thee by the inward motions of his Spirit embrace those opportunities and seasons of grace lest God smite thee with an everlasting deadnesse Again hath God caused the light of his countenance to shine upon thy heart Doth he offer a gracious message of peace to thy soule Doth he speak peace at any time by the ministery of his Word Imbrace those offers yeeld to those conditions of peace lest thou be deprived of peace at the end Againe hath GOD given thee any strength over temptations Hast thou prevailed over the assaults of Sathan and other of thy enemies Hath he made thee a conquerour take heed how thou insnarest thy selfe againe how thou inthrallest thy self in yeelding to Sathans yoke lest he buffet thee by him in a worse manner at thy end Thus I say thou canst see nothing befal any of Gods servants in their death or in the manner of their death whether in be more pleasing or more sorrowful more calm and quiet or more tempestuous and full of trouble whether it be more comfortable or more lamentable but it may be useful unto thee If it be good it may be it shall be so with thee if it be bad it may be it shall be so with thee too The main businesse that a man hath to do is to make sure of himself in this life It was the question that Saint Austin made to those that told him of a violent death that seized upon one But how did he live saith he He made no matter how he went out but how he carried himself in the world And truly this is the great Question that every man should put to his soule I must out of the world how have I lived when I was in the world had GOD any glory by me had men any good by me have I furthered my account against the day of reckoning that I may give it up with joy it makes no matter how I go out of the world I am sure if my life have been serviceable to God and beneficial to men my departure shall be for gain and advantage it is
beyond and short and above and below us in those that are elder and younger and richer and poorer all forts he will strike us at last this thing I say should stirr us up to prepare for our own dissolution A man would think that there were no need of such a thing the very bare sight of a Corse or a Hearse the bare sight of a deed corpse the bare ringing of a bell or a Funeral Sermon should be warning enough to the living to tell him of death When a man sees a company carrying a dead body to the grave he should say to himself It may be the feet of these may carry me next But how cometh it to pass hat it is not thus Certainly there is not power in all examples to work this it is the work of Gods spirit Though a man observe the death of never so many before him yet his cannot work in him a serious care to make preparation for his own death except God adde a further work to it We may see this in the expression of Moses when so many died in the Wilderness Lord teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdom As if he should have said Though so many thousands died in the Wilderness and that by so many several kinds of death yet we shall never apply our hearts to wisdom by those examples except God teach us that wisdom Therefore we should pray to God to teach us by his Spirit to make use of Examples Men must give account for examples as well as for rules men must give account for examples of mortality as well as for Sermons of mortality therefore let the example of others mortality stir you up to prepare for your own and that you may do so be much in calling upon God Lastly He shall not return to me that is in this sense to converse on earth as he had done before I shall return to him but he shall not return to me He doth but reitterate and repeat what he had said before in effect This is the thing then that Parents must make account of both for themselves and their children For their children It should make them moderate therefore in their sorrow for them God now hath shewed his purpose and declared his will therefore we should rest in that will of God This is the thing that David aymed at Gods will was not only to take away his child but so to take him away as never to return to him again in that manner Now God had declared his will and therefore Why should I fast saith he as if he should say I will now rest in the will of God In all the things which we account crosses and losses in children and friends c. The main business of a christian is not to expresse sorrow but submission and subiection to God to exercise and inure his heart to patience and to rest in Gods good pleasure and will As Eli though he failed in his carriage to his sons yet he shewed a dutiful respect to God his heavenly father When Samuel told him the judgement of God that should come upon his house It is the Lord saith he let him do what seemeth him good in his own eyes though it were a heavy judgement such as whosoever should hear of it both his eares should tingle yet it is the Lord let him do what seemeth him goad As if he should say I have nothing to do in this business but to subject my self with patient submission and contentedness to his will it is the Lord it becometh not me to contend with him and to reason with God concerning his work I confess he is righteous let him do what see meth him good in his own eyes And so Aaron There was a heavy judgement befallen him his sons were consumed with fire yet the text saith Aaron held his peace When God manifested so great wrath to his house in wasting and consuming and burning his sons for offering of strange fire yet Aaron held his peace that is he did only mind how to glorifie God by a contented submission to his will So Job he heard not only of the losse of his children but that he lost them in such a manner by a violent death by a house falling on their heads yet the Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. Whereas a carnal worldly man would have fallen to strugling and contending and quarrelling against God and so trouble and perplex his own spirit We do exceedingly imbitter Gods cup by mingling with it ingredients of our own passions and so make the affliction more heavy and grievous then God intends it Here is the reason we possess not our souls with Patience When we are sensible of the losse of friends and children c. let us learn to make it our business to think I have a greater work to do to prepare for my own death God in the death of this man speaks to me to prepare for my own And then to glorifie God by submission to his will make it appear that thou acknowledgest a power in God to dispose of thy house to do every thing by patiently resting in his will And yet this comfort is added though children be took away that they shall not return in an earthly manner yet they shall in a better manner Parents are contented to part with their children for a time for their preferment Children though they are very young that are commended by the prayers of the godly Parents into the hands of God these whose hearts God hath inlarged and quickned fervently and faithfully to pray in the besalf of their children they may rest in this assured that they shall meet at the Resurrection in a better manner their children shall be better preferred then if they were on earth and shall be raised up to perfection Here you see there is not a tooth bred in a child without a great deal of pain and every tooth cost some pain but this mortal body shall put on immortality and this corruption shall put on incorruption This weak body shall be made strong weak children strong without pain Death endeth these things and the Resurrection shall present him in a perfect measure of strength in a glorified estate So much for this text and for this time THE STING OF DEATH OR THE STRENGTH OF SINNE SERMON VI. 1 COR. 15.56 The Sting of Death is Sin and the Strength of Sin is the Law SOlomon telleth thus that there is a season for every thing there is a time to be born and a time to die These two are the two great seasons of all men we are as sure to die as we are sure we have lived and every degree of our life is but a step to our death Every man of us hath but a part to act here in the world when we have done that that God hath appointed us we are drawn off from
shall never again be known in the world or felt by his servants and he preventeth all those evill effects that it would work in the soul for eternity and removeth all the ill effects of it that it hath wrought on their bodies for the present time Death takes away a mans goods for the present Christ abolisheth that he giveth everlasting substance in heaven Death takes away friends Christ abolisheth that he sends us to heaven where we have more friends and better Death brings the body to rottenness and corruption it laieth it in the dust turns it to putrifaction Christ abolisheth that at the Resurrection it shall rise again in glory How that is done the Apostle tells us in the end of this chapter The body shall be laid in the dust a weak and feeble a mortal and natural body but it shall be clothed with immortality This mortal shall put on immortality this corruptible shall put on incorruption then shall be fulfilled that saying Death is swallowed up in victory But this is also limited it shall be destroyed to whom To those that use the remedy those that partake of Christ those that have put on him that is the Resurrection and the life Thus I have laid before your eyes briefly these four things that the Apostle leadeth us to treat of concerning death That it is That it is an enemy That it is the last enemy And that it shall be destroyed Now I desire to apply this and to make use of it First I shall be bold to play the Examiner to search each conscience a little Brethren let the word of God enter into your souls Ye hear that there is a death and that this death is a sore and bitter enemy and ye hear that to some sort of men it is the last enemy that ever they shall encounter with and be freed from all the hurt of it it shall be utterly destroyed Now do so much as discend every one into himself and inquire what care there hath been to prepare for death to make use of the remedy against death what time and paines hath been bestowed to seek to get that that is the only means to escape the Dart of this enemy and that that is the only cause to procure this enfranchisement to the soul from that that else will destroy all A man hath not fitted himself to encounter with his enemy when he looks after wealth and followeth the pleasures and contentments of this life these things will do no good they will be rather a burthen to the heart and vexe the soul and increase the mischief laying more sin upon the soul and giving death darts to pierce the soul with But when is a man fit for death and who may encounter with this enemy with safety I will tell ye That man that takes the greatest care to disarm death of his weapons to arm himself with defensive weapons against death If an enemy come upon a man with good weapons in his hand and find him altogether unweaponed it is hard for a naked unarmed man to deal with him it is hard for a man that never thought of it before to fight with one that is skilful at his weapons Death I told ye is an enemy and an enemy that is skilful in his weapons and the weapon of death it is our own sin Death bringeth nothing with it to hurt a man It findeth with us and in us that whereby to hurt us so many corruptions as are in thy heart so many weapons so many idle words so many bad deeds so many swords to pierce thy heart Death maketh use of those weapons it findeth in our selves and with them he destroyeth and killeth and brings us to perdition Now what have ye done beloved to disarme death what care have ye taken to break sin apieces that it may not be as a sword ready drawn for the hand of death when it cometh as Arrows in a Bow to shoot at you when Death layeth hold on you That man that hath took no care to overcome sin in the power of it and to get himself free from the guilt and punishment of it is unfit for death If death come upon him and find his offences unrepented of unpardoned unsubdued he will so order those offences that he will thrust them into his foul as so many poisoned Darts that will bring sorrow and anguish and vexation and destruction to all eternity Ye may see then whether ye have any fitness to meet with this Enemy whether ye be in case to fight that battel that of necessity ye must for Death as I told ye before is enevitable If ye have not Get alone between God and thy self and there call to mind the corruption of thy nature the sins of thy childhood of thy body of thy mind bring thy soul into his presence confess thy sins with an endeavour to break thy heart for them and to be sorry for them mightily crying to him in the mediation of that blessed Advocate Jesus Christ that died on the Cross to pardon and to wash thy soul in his bloud and to deliver thee from the pollution of thy sins Beg the Spirit of sanctification to bear down those sins and subdue thy corruptions Bestow time to perform these exercises daily carefully present thy self before God thus to renew thy repentance and faith in Christ to make thy peace with God Labour to purge away the filthiness of thy sin and then whensoever Death cometh thou shalt find in thy self sufficient against it thou hast disarmed it But if ye spend your time in pursuing profits and pleasures and follow the vanities of this life and either ye do not think of death or ye think of it no otherwise then a heathen man would have done to no purpose ye think of it to enjoy the world while ye live because ye know not how soon death will end the world and you if you play the Epicures in the thought of Death to annimate you to enjoy the outward benefits of this life to think of it to no purpose but only to talk and discourse now and then as occasion serveth then Death will find your souls laden with innumerable sins that repentance hath not discharged and undoubtedly it will bring eternal perdition Have ye thus disarmed Death But again a mans self must be armed or else he cannot incounter with his enemy What is our Armour against Death to keep off that blow The Apostle in one word sheweth us these Armours when he saith a Breast-plate of faith and love and the hope of salvation a Helmet If a man have got faith to rest on Christ alone for eternal happiness and his soul filled with the hope of glory and salvation through him and then with love to him and his servants for his sake These three vertues will secure a man against all the hurt that death can doe Faith Hope and Charity the Cardinal vertues that Christian religion requires
and commands us to seek these are Armour of proof against all the blows of death he that hath them shall never be hurt of Death because he shall never taste of the second death he hath only to wrestle with the first Death and there is no terrour nor terribleness it that if a mans heart be secure by these Graces Faith whereby we depend on Christ and on him alone for grace and salvation bringing hope whereby we expect and look for salvation of our souls by his blood according to his promise and working charity whereby we love him for his goodness and his servants for his sake If it be charity not only of the lip to speak well but that that produceth wel-doing I say this is that makes us that death cannot separate us from Christ but the further we are from life the neerer we are to him for when this outward tabernacle of our house is dissolved we have a building with God eternal in the heavens and death to such a man is nothing but the opening of the door to let him out of the dungeon of the world and to place him happily in the Pallace of eternal blisse I pray enter into consideration how ye have behaved your selves in the course of your lives whether as Heathens or as Christians A man that takes no care to prepare for death though he come to the Church from Sunday to Sunday and partake of all Gods ordinances yet if the consideration of death be not so imprinted in him that it become a motive to him to labour for Faith and hope and charity and to endeavour to edifie himself in these graces he liveth as a Heathen or an Infidel and when death cometh to him it will do him more hurt then it will an Infidel because by how much God hath given him more means to escape and by neglecting those means as his sin is greater so shall his punishment be Secondly if ye have been careless for to prepare for this enemy Now be ashamed of it and sorrow for it let your hearts now smite ye and ake within you Oh foolish man or woman say I have lived twenty thirty forty fifty years and some more I have laboured against other enemies if men had any thing against me I would be sure to take order I have laboured for the things of this life for riches and friends and give my self leave for to enjoy pleasures and taken pains to doe good to my body but all this while it never came into my heart seriously to think I must die and after that comes Judgement that I must stand before Gods Tribunal and give account of my wayes I have not laboured to beware of Death and of sin nor to kill my corruptions I have not laboured to increase in Faith and hope and charity I have left my self unarmed against the last and worst enemy Oh what folly is this to live in the world many a long day and never to consider that there will be an end of all these dayes and the end of those the beginning of another life and a life that will be infinitely more miserable then this If this beloved have been any of your faults to be carelesly forgetful of your latter end not to consider of your departure hence if the world have so tempted you and pleasures have so enamoured you that you have forgotten your latter end blame your selves it is the greatest of all follies And that I may disgrace this folly and make you ashamed of it Consider a little That this is to be like children The Apostle biddeth us not to be like children in understanding but he that forgetteth Death and is careless to prepare for it is a very child A little one never thinketh he shall ever be a man himself and maintain himself and live in the world by his own labour or by that he shall have from his friends he careth for nothing butmeat and drink and sport and pastime we blame their folly andlaugh at it as rediculous and therefore by our diligence we prevent that ill that might else come upon them Is it not thus with many of you ye live and build houses and raise your names to be glorious and to make a fair shew in the world but to get grace and to get faith and hope and love and repentance none of your thoughts almost run that way scarce any of your thoughts are so bestowed Is not this to be children in understanding Again he is a foolish man that knoweth he shall meet an enemy and will not prepare If a man should hear of twenty or thirty thousand souldiers were gathered against the City and besieged it to destroy it He would not be so foolish and so simple then as to bestow himself in his trade and to follow his business and to give himself to merrimeut but he would get his weapons and he would look about him help to arm the City and to make it strong Why do ye not consider that your soul is as a City Death will come against it and batter you with sickness with pains and at last will certainly take it and if the soul be not prepared will carry it to Hell fire Why will you be so retchless and sensless to eat and drink and labour to grow rich to bury your selves in eatrthly labours and never think how to escape how Death may be kept out that will destroy soul and body I presume you are ashamed of this folly by this time I hope ye will go away with remorse and sorrow for so carelesly neglecting a thing of so great importance to be provided for In the third place therefore I entreat you begin this great work this day Consider if you have not begun the enemy lieth in wait for thee oh man or woman if thou be never so young thou maist meet with him before night if thou be old thou must meet with him ere long Prepare for him betime think what an enemy may encounter thee in the way If a man be to travel though he be not assured to meet with an enemy yet he will strive to get good company and weapon himself he will carry his sword something he will do that if a theef come to rob him he may be able to prevent the danger Beloved think that there is an enemy that way-laies us as we go along in the world one time or other he will be sure to come upon us therefore stir up your selves begin this day to prepare for this enemy How shall I prepare for Death I told you before it is not amiss in a word to repeat it Get Faith in Christ and Hope and Charity and repentance These will be means to prepare and help thee against Death Therefore if hitherto thou have not lament and bewail the sinfulness of thy nature and life Assoon as thou art out of this place get thee into a solitary room fall upon thy knees lament thy
evil to good to the best good the good of immortaity and eternity the good of the enjoying of God of that that eye hath not seen nor ear hath heard It is true that when we see any impenitent man die any man die in his sins there is just cause of mourning That was the course that David observed he lost two sons Absolom a wicked sonne he mourned for him he lost the child that was begotten in adultery for the life of which he prayed he mourned not for the childs departure and Saint Ambrose giveth the reason well he had a good hope and assurance that the child was translated to a better estate he doubted of Absolom he died in his sins therefore he mourned for him for his death not for the childs So when we see any die in his fins there is cause then of tears and of excessive tears then David crieth Absolom oh my son my son But if there be good evidences of a Saint translated to glory shall we mourn as men without hope As Saint Jerome speaks to Paula mourning for her daughter Art thou angry Paula because I have made thy child mine He bringeth in God speaking thus dost thou envy me my own possession my own Creature It is true for the state of an impenitent man he hath his good things here and his evill to come after there is cause of mourning for that he is translated from good to ill his heaven is in this world his heaven is in his treasure in his riches in his chests and upon his table and as he enjoyed a heaven here so he must not look for it after there is a place of another condition his heaven is here his hell after But the penitent and contrite his ill is here and his good after his hell is in this world in suffering and in mortifying the flesh in wrastling with sin in incountring with tentations here is his hell and his torments but after cometh his heaven and his bliss so he is translated from bad to good he is took away from the evil to come So here is the meaning of all I have shewed first the meaning of the three phrases The second thing I propound is this What the Prophet bemoaneth and makes lamentation for and these merciful men for if they be took away from evil present and evil to come evil corporal and spiritual sufferings extraordinary plague and famine sufferings ordinary sickness and tentation â—… if it be so that no sin shall fall upon them to destruction no tentation fall on them to destroy them here much less afterward if they be took from all these evils how cometh the Prophet to make lamentation that merciful men are taken away from the evil to come for he speaks it mourningly It is one sufficient reason he mourneth over them because others did not But there are two reasons that are more special There is the loss of the godly man for the present when he is taken away that is a thing to be lamented And the danger of the world in respect of the loss of a godly man First the loss of a godly man that is a great punishment that God sendeth on a place there is a great loss to those that survive The loss of their example they shine as lights there is a Taper a Candle taken away Ye rejoyced to walk in his light faith Christ to the Iewes concerning John there was a light not only of Johns Doctrine but of his example whereby those that heard him walked There is the light of grace set up in the life of the Saints of God they are as a Taper to guide us in the paths of mercy and piety that they tread in Job was set up a light of patience Abraham of faith Cornetius of Charity and so every grace that the Saints are eminent in they are set up as so many lights When the light is gone is there not a great loss to have a candle put out Though they enjoy their light we lose it the benefit of their example and society their advice and counsel Oh the experience of the Saints bring a great deal of good to their acquaintance I am in this affliction I remember that you were in the same case how did you carry your self It is a great matter to build upon the experiences of the Saints of God We lose many benefits by losing of a Saint He is not only beneficial in his example but in his prayers He is one of the Advocates of the world that pleads with God that stands in the gap Abraham was a strong Advocate for Sodome and so was Moses for Israel and so was Aaron and so other Saints in their time The Saints while they live in the world there is a great deal of power in their prayers to with-hold judgements and is there then no loss when they are taken away When a Saint is removed a Pillar is removed a Pillar of the house and of the Earth and must there not be danger when the Pillar is gone They are the Corner stones when a corner stone falleth there is a great deal of trash and rubbish falleth with it There is a great deale of discomfort upon the fall of a Saint When God removeth godly and merciful men there is a loss every way to the Church to the State The Church loseth a member the State a Pillar godly men lose an example wicked men lose an advocate poor men lose a Patron all men lose a comfort That is the fitst thing the Prophet bemoaneth in the loss of righteous men First it went to his heart that the world should be left empty of piety and all those vertuous examples that God should cut off those precious plants those that are looking-glasses for us to see our selves in and that pitch of perfection we should breath after and aime at That is the first thing But that is not all for their was impendant danger when they were gone It is a prognosticating of some evil to befal a place when God takes them away If Noah enter into the Ark the world may expect a deluge If Lot be out of Sodome let it look for a showr of fire and brimstone God himself expresseth himself by the Angel that he could do nothing as long as Los was in Sodome he had a commission not to rain fire and brimstone while Lot was there while Lots person and prayers were there assoon as Lot was gone there cometh a cloud of Judgment and in that a showre So the Saints when they are translated into the Ark when they are took from the earth as Noah was Noah was to ascend from the earth to the Ark when Lot is gone to the City God provided for him the City of refuge then we may expect one Judgment or other for they are means to hinder and keep them from being poured out That is the second thing in the loss of righteous men They are took
Zacheus his offer was but half of his goods Lord half of my goods I give to the poor For ought I can perceive and understand above half of her estate she hath given to charitable uses I say no more of her These works of her will praise her in the gates She died in the Country And I am sorry that I had not information as I did desire of her behaviour in her sickness I have it not I can say nothing of it but thus much It was not possible that such a creature that lived thus as we know she did in obedience to God in repentance in faith with invocation of Gods mercy in Charity in Peace but that her death was blessed She that lived in the Lord no question but she died in the Lord and she is blessed for Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. Good Lord teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdom and grant that as we grow in years we may grow in knowledge of thy truth in obedience to thy will in faith in thy promises in love toward thee and toward our neighbours for thy sake that when we come to the end of our dayes we may come to the end of our hope the salvation of our souls through Jesus Christ to whom with thee oh Father and thee oh holy Spirit three Persons but one true and immortal and only wise God be given both from us and all thy creatures in heaven and in earth continual praise honour glory dominion and power now and for evermore Let all those that hear the word of God depart from iniquity Now the God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus the great Shepheard of the sheep through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect to do his will working in you that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ Amen THE CHRISTIANS CENTER OR HOW TO LIVE TO GOD. SERMON X. ROM 14.7 For none of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself for whether we live we live to the Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords THese words contain an Argument or reason which the Apostle useth to prove that the weak Christian should be born withal and that men should not judge because of the difference of meat amongst them He sheweth that they did not with the neglect of the knowledge of any truth keep themselves ignorant in this particular but it was their weakness The strong should bear with the weak and the weak should not censure the strong the reason is because they agree in one end they propound one general end to themselves that guides them in all their actions they walk in one way and in one path and therefore they should in these things agree together The general end at which they all aymed in their doings is the Lord He that eateth faith he eateth to the Lord he that eateth not to the Lord he eateth not that is still he propoundeth God as his end and the pleasing of God in his actions as the rule of them That he may prove this unto us that they stand thus affected both of them notwithstanding this difference he bringeth in this as the general reason where to every particular of their lives may be reduced All their life is ordered by the Lord they live to the Lord they die to the Lord so that whet her they live or die they are the Lords Therefore all their particular actions are to the Lord. Whether we live we live to the Lord and whether we die we die to the Lord. Now this general reason he propoundeth two wayes First Negatively None of us living to himself and no man dieth to himself Secondly Affirmatively which consisteth of two parts Their duty to God Gods acceptance of them and protection over them Their duty to God if we live we live to the Lord and if we die we die to the Lord. Gods acceptance of them Whether we live or die we are the Lords That which we shall now insist upon is the former part the negative expression and proposal of this general reason none of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself Now when the A postle affirmeth this of the beleevers of those times he therein intimateth thus much that it is the course of beleevers in all times It is a duty belonging to all others of which they must make account not to live to themselves but to the Lord. Therefore though he speaks generally here yet there is in his speech a kind of particular universality a generality with a restraint He saith none of us he saith not none in the world live to themselves for there are many in the world live to themselves and not to the Lord but none of us none of those that we rank our selves with that are in the condition of beleevers none of those concerning whom we speak in this question none of us live to our selves Life in general is nothing else but that power whereby we act or move As we read Gen. 2. God breathed into man the breath of life and he became a living soul he gave him the power whereby he acted The acting of this power is the exercise of that life whether the action be of the mind or of the body And so as there is a donble life there are two sorts of actions of life there are natural actions of a natural life and there are spiritual actions of a spiritual life When the Apostle speaks of living he intends both these We live not that is we do not the actions of life whether natural or spiritual to our selves but to the Lord. No man liveth to himselfe By himself he meaneth not only a mans person either soul or body but all those advantages that conduce to the well-being of a man No man of us so ordereth the actions of his life with reference and respect to our selves as the uttermost end we do not make our own well-being or well-fare the uttermost end of our actions none of us live to our selves You have the sense and meaning of the words which being a patterne to other Christians a thing which the Apostle supposeth is or should be in every beleever it giveth us this point of instruction whereupon we shall insist at this time That is No Beleever none that are in Christ should make themselves the end in their actions None should live that is spend their time and strength and endeavour ayming at no higher end then themselves No Christian should so spend his time as to seek himself only in the actions that he doth None of us liveth to himselfe But here it may be objected for the clearing of the point May not a Christian seek himself in the things that he doth When they do good things that which God commandeth that
if there be any good to the soul in things to come all is by Christ therefore all must be unto him If a man have a servant if he be either bound to him suppose an Apprentise or if he be hired to him suppose a workman or Artificer if he live by him and have maintenance from him every man expects that his time be to his Master and his work for his Masters advantage If a day-labourer come at night and demand pay the Master will ask him what work he did suppose the man should tell him he had been building himself a cottage or mending his own apparel or had been doing such and such work for himself but what hast thou done for me saith the Master Dost thou think to live by me and not work to me Do we think to live by Christ and not serve Christ This is the very end why he hath delivered us from the hands of our enemies that we might serve him in holiness and righteousness all the dayes of our life Mark it we must serve him for he hath delivered us that is we must do him service do his work not some peece of the day and the work of another another part of the day do somewhat with respect to God and somewhat with respect to our selves but we must serve him all the dayes of our life The whole time of the hyreling is for his Masters service and the whole time of a Christian for the service of Christ for he hath bought us with the price of his own bloud Then it is an injury to the Lord Christ because he hath ransomed us at such a price for himself if we do things to our selves and not to him Thirdly as it is a dishonour to God and injurious to Christ that men should live to themselves so it is dangerous to a mans self And that will appear by comparing what we lose by it with what we gain by it Compare our loss and our gain together and we shall see then that we do our selves the greatest mischief when we seek our selves most Consider first what we lose by it Our happiness What is the happiness of the creature but the injoying of God We lose our end and perfection What is the blessedness of the creature but to obtain his end What is the end of the creature but the glory of the Creator Then the creature cometh to perfection and blessedness and happiness when it is most empty of himself when he most perfectly and with due affection seeks God Therefore in seeking our selves we lose our happiness Saint Paul so conceived of their blessedness they let fall themselves in the highest point of self-love when they stood in competion with God or oppsition against God Moses desired that his name might be blotted out of the book of life rather then God should be dishonoured And faith the Apostle I could be content to be separated from Christ for my brethrens sake that is that Christ may be glorified He knew that his happiness lay not in injoying a blessed estate to himself free from care and trouble but that herein his happiness lay that God may be glorified and that he might bring it to pass by any means that he might serve God in that end whereto God had appointed him and the more perfectly he could attain that end the more perfectly he should attain his happiness So it is with a true Christian he is so far blessed and happy in heaven as he is serviceable to God on earth as he lives to him and doth much and suffereth much for him when that life that he hath is spent in the several actions and turnings and changings of it in the service and to the glory of God Therefore I say consider this you lose that which you seek you seem to seek happiness to your selves by seeking wealth and pleasures or earthly advantages to your selves and while you seek them with a neglect of duty to God with a neglect of the discharge of that work and service he hath committed to you you lose that happiness that you seem to seek and which you should seek indeed which is the perfection the end of the creature the service of his Creatour So you see what we lose Consider secondly what we gain It may be you gain wealth for you selves this is somewhat you will say It may be you gain honour and esteeme in the World you gain a name amongst men or some earthly advantage Alas what is this if it be rightly considered It is but the gain of a shadow to the loss of the soul If it be wealth doth it satisfie the soul Doth it quiet the conscience Doth it fill aman so as that he needs no more All the wealth in the world cannot do this there is an emptiness in all these things there is fulness to be had only in God in Christ in spiritual things nothing else is able to satisfie the soul in all its desires to give it perfect peace If the happiness of a man where either in himself or in any other creature he need have nothing to do with God he need not then to look higher above himself But God hath placed a vanity both in men and in all creatures man is vain and all the creatures in the world are vanity and vexation of spirit And when the Scripture calleth them vanity what doth it mean but that they are empty things they have not that nourishment in them that they seem to have they have not that in them that they should have according to that esteem that men put upon them they are empty things as we say of wells when they want water they are empty though they be full of other things as dust and sand c. Or as clouds that have no moisture and rain in them they are empty so are all things in the world therefore empty because they have not in them that which the heart seeks after they have not happiness in them they have not contentment in them What is this then but to forsake bread and to seek after husks like the Prodigal that left his Fathers house where there was bread enough and to feed on husks with swine to leave the approach and access of the soul to God wherein it may satisfie it self to the full with that which is food indeed and to seek somewhat in the world that it cannot get I say this is a mans loss Nay he loseth himself in living to himself What shall it profit a man to win the whole world and lose himself Mat. 16.26 To lose his soul saith one Evangelist to lose himself faith another A man loseth himself when he loseth his soul And this he doth in the neglect of God he loseth his soul in that action when a man gathereth wealth by indirect means or keepeth his wealth and douth not disburse it in the service of God for his glory or whatsoever else a man
too he is a man that liveth to himself This was the case of the second and third grounds they received the seed with joy that is when they were sensible of comfort they followed Christ but afterward when persecution arose for the Gospel they fell off and took offence Such as these live to themselves they seem to live to God but it is to themselves and therefore when self-respects fail they fall off too Secondly take another instance for the clearing of it Suppose that not only sensible advantages fail but sensible disadvantages come in the world A man is sensible that he shall disadvantage himself much if he go on in the wayes of obedience to God It may be if he make conscience of his wayes he must make restitution of his estate unjustly gotten He must deny himself in a greater measure of pleasures that he hath unlawfully pursued He must empty himself in works of mercy and piety of a great part of his estate for the good of others that God may be glorified by his substance He shall lose some worldly friends some esteem among men Here are sensible disadvantages to a man Now the Question is what he resolveth to do Here is the command of God and here is the thing whereupon the heart of man and his affections are set upon disadvantages in the world These come together Here is an occasion for a lust a sinful affection to express it self If that be laid in the ballance and shall prevaile above the other that rather then I will endure disadvantage in the world I will neglect the way of serving God this party liveth to himself whatsoever good he did before in matters of religion all was done to himself I say when these two come together as you know when two men walk together and one servant followeth them a man knoweth not whose servant he is till they part but then when they part a stranger may know whose servant he is he followeth his own Master and leaveth the other So when God and the world go together God and a mans own advantages go together when their is nothing commanded but standeth with his own advantages so long a mans deceitful heart may flatter and delude and misguide him he may go on in a false perswasion and in a strong conceit that he is in Christ in a blessed estate But when these two part that I shall not only not advantage my self but sensibly disadvantage my self in outward things Here now I say the the Question is what a man doth If I resolve to cleave to my outward advantages and leave God and leave the wayes of God I live to my self A man that liveth to God you shall see it is otherwise with him as for instance David when he might have had the kingdome of Israel somewhat sooner by sin he would not do it his heart smote him for cutting off the â—…appe of Sauls garment though he might have gained the kingdome of Israel by it he would not lay his hands on the Lords anointed And what was the reason of it because he would not advantage himself by disobedience to God he would rather want himself What was the reason that Daniel when he saw he was in an apparent hazard not only of the loss of honour but of his life and that for the performance but of one duty prayer and that but for a short time yet would not omit it no not for a short time though he might by that not only have saved his life but kept his honour in the Court he prayed to God even at that time when he was forbidden Why so because he lived to God and not to himself Had Daniel lived to and sought himself more then God he would have dispensed with this and saved both his life and honour though he had offended God in that particular of omission But this is the disposition of a heart that is faithful and upright with God it will not dishonour God for the greatest advantage that can come to it self it will not neglect a duty to God whatsoever loss it have in the world Thirdly Take another instance whereby we may see what we intend in this tryall Let the will of God and the bent of a mans own will come in competition together God will have me leave this I will hold it God will have me forsake this I will keep it It is a comfort a wordly benefit I lose my comfort if I part with it He that now liveth to himself he will please his own will and be disquieted and vexed against Gods will that crosseth his But he that liveth to God will be contenâ—… that God should cross him in his will because he would glorisie God in his own will in his soveraignty in his purity in his holiness and justice c. See it in the case of Abraham Abraham had a strong love to Isaac and good cause yet nevertheless though he could see a comfort to himself in this son when God telleth him thou must sacrifice thy son Isaac when he had the revealed will of God Abraham now resolveth to shew that he lived to God and not to himself therefore he would part with any comfort of his life for God when he required it So David If the Lord will saith he he can bring me back that I shall see the Tabernacle and the Arkâ—… if not If he say I have no pleasure iâ—… thee loe here I am let the Lord do with me as seemeth good in his owneyes When the case is this when the will of God crosseth thy will what now prevaileth Doth the desire of having thy own will prevail against the desire of submitting to Gods will Doth it raise murmuring and impatiency of spirit So far thou livest to thy self Therefore consider this Here is an occasion now for a lust and a sinful affection to shew it self either a man may advantage himself in an evil course or he cannot but disadvantage himself in a good course or when God crosseth a man in that he desireth and delights in in the world That is the first tryal whereby a man may know whether he liveth to himself Secondly another tryal will be this Consider if their be any part of the truth of God of his revealed will that for self-respects thou art willing to be ignorant of least the knowledge of it should make the do somewhat to thy own disadvantage in this thou livest to thy self See this to be true in all that live to themselves Balaam though he profest that for a house full of gold he would not go beyond the word of the Lord yet notwithstanding he was willing not to take notice of Gods will but to go on rather to curse Johanan in Jer. 42. professeth deeply that he would obey the will of the Lord but when he understood the will of the Lord when it crost his will then saith he to Jeremy It is not the Lord that hath bid
the say this but Baruch When men cavil against any part of Gods word or hide any truth from themselves and with-hold the truth in unrighteousness Here is a man living to himself How many points are there in Religion that many men are willingly ignorant of And when they cannot but know them how do they labour for distinction how do they dawb over the matter that they may hide the truth from themselves that it may not work upon their consciences to make them leave their profitable fins Some would have the keeping of the Lords day according to Judaisme though it be revealed to them that there is a broad difference between the Jews observation and the Christians keeping of it Another man he will not understand Usury to be a sin because his course is usurious he will not know this willingly because he would not disadvantage himself Another will not understand what he is bound to do to the glory of God with his estate in what measure according to all the good that God hath blessed him with to honour God and give the first fruits of all his increase nor in what manner that he should be ready to every good work to contribute willingly to the necessities of the Saints what he should do to pious and merciful uses what for publike what for private occasions he would not willingly know these things he should have less ease he makes account Thus when a man is not willing to be informed in any thing to sift the truth to the bottome to the uttermost to know any thing concerning a duty in any kind when he laboureth not to convince his heart to this end that he may be brought in every thing to obey God when he standeth out with God in any one point this man liveth to himself and walketh not as he should according to the rule of God Now then beloved let us be convinced of it I beseech you take it home and let every man consider of it with himself Sometime in the actions of religion there cometh matter of glory in the world and this setteth me forward much when these things are spoken against and when I shall suffer disadvantages I cannot hold out At another time though all things be well yet if it cross me in such a course I murmure as if it were an unprofitable thing to serve God And then again when God revealeth his will my froward and rebellious heart hath hung back and been unwilling to submit to Gods will in this point all this while I have lived to my self And if it be true If a man be in Christ he liveth not to himself then it follows if a man liveth to himself he is out of Christ If the weakest Christian live to Christ then the best that liveth to himself is out of Christ Be convinced of this first Secondly Be convinced as it is the case of our selves so it is an ill estate for a man to live to himself You see still it is the whole drift of wicked men to took to themselves Haman aimed at himself when the King asked him what should be done to the man whom the King would honour He thought whom should the King honour but himself He looked to himself Here was the difference between Haman and Mordecai both had honour in the world Haman seeks himself in all his honour Mordecai seeks God and his glory and the welfare of his Church in his honour A great difference Saith Nabal shall I take my bread and my drink and give it to a man that I know not Here was a man that lived to himself Compare him with Job He was a foot to the lame an eye to the blind he continually fed those that wanted food A great difference Job lived to God and therefore he honoured God in releeving many with the estate that God hath given him Nabal lived to himself therefore he regarded none hut himself and his own house and sheep-shearers and those that depended upon him This is the property of a man out of Christ to seek himself and live to himself in all things Again consider others that have gone further in matters of religion yet they have still turned out of the way as far as they have halted in this Matt. 6.22 If thine eye be single the whole body is light but if thine eye be wicked the whole body is darkness A wicked eye is supposed to a single eye a double eye is a wicked eye What is a single eye That that looks but upon one object upon God and God onely and God principally and on all other things in him and with reference to him Now the double eye is that that though it looks to God and do many things in obedience to God yet it looks to somewhat else and takes other things as greater incouragements this is a wicked eye and such a man walketh in darkness when he looks to God he hath light in the duty when he looks to men and other things then he turneth aside and runneth to by-wayes And therefore a double-minded man is unconstant in all his wayes What is a double minded man He is a double-minded man whose mind is set upon more things then one first on the world and then on God as far as he sees it is profitable he will serve God or else not This man is an unconstant man You see it is an ill estate So much for the first Use for conviction Secondly therefore As many as are guilty of this labour to get out of it not to live to your selves any more Let it be enough that you have lived thus long to your selves that you have desrauded Christ of his due that hath puchased you with his bloud and not served him in holiness and righteousness so many dayes of your life Now for the time to come let us serve him better And that you may do thus I will give you two sorts of directions or helps I can give you but the heads of them First be convinced that our good is in God and not in our selves our life is in God and not in our selves our selves are in God and not in our selves that as the beams of the Sun are in the Sun more then in themselves so a Christian is more in Christ then in himself Whatsoever is good and comfortable to him is in Christ he hath all by vertue of a union with Christ he is not at all happy or blessed further then he is in him If then all our good lie in him it is great reason all our actions should returne to him that he should be the Center where all our lines should meet the mark whereto all our actions should aym Let not the strong man glory in his strength or the wise man in his wisdom or the rich man in his riches but he that glorieth let him glory in this that he knoweth me that I am the Lord. Jer. 9.24 What
Lord the Lord that sheweth judgment and righteousness upon the earth there is a mercy shewed to the creature but it is I that do it faith the Lord. If you meet with a merciful man God is merciful in that man If you meet with a bountiful man God is bountiful in that man If you meet with a man whose lips feed many God instructeth that man I say seeing all things we have though they have divers channels and pipes and conveyances whereby God conveyeth goodness and mercy to men yet nevertheless it is in God and from God we receive all let us therefore look upon every creature as instruments in Gods hand that can do us neither good nor hurt without him What good it doth it doth by the influence of the supream cause working by that creature let us so look upon and conceive of every creature Thus the Saints have done in all times Jacob when he saw Esau I have seen thy face as the face of God saith he He saw God in the face of Esau So in all good men we should say God is good in them This should make men not to seek themselves not to study men more then God not to study gain with men with the loss of God to please men with the displeasing of God but to venture the loss of all men that they may please God if they cannot keep men and God together For the affections of men are in Gods hand and he fashioneth and frameth them according to his own pleasure either to love or hatred as David observed in the case of Shimei God hath bid him curse Be convinced I say of this that if we get all the men in the world to be our freinds with the neglect of God if we get all the treasures and wealth of the world if a man were advanced to the Monarchy of the whole earth yet these things are more in Gods hand then in ours When a man hath wealth it is not in his own keeping riches have wings When a man hath favour God gives it not into his own keeping whatsoever we have it is secured to us by Gods protection and made good to us by his blessing Let this be our care and work therefore how we may live to God how we may enjoy God in the things we enjoy and possess God in all things we possess in the things we have still to keep God and that will keep our estates and names and comforts and lives and all That is the first Again secondly There are certain graces to be exercised if a man would not live to himself for indeed it is the property of a Christian and none else to live to God and not to himself and he doth it by vertue of those graces in his heart that empties him of himself and draws him to God therefore I say there are certain graces that every one should exercise if he would not live to himself What are those First the knowledg of God in Christ Get a more full and particular and experimental knowledge of God All our looking to the creature is because we know not God perfectly if we did know him we would account him the chiefess of ten thousand the Church when she knew Christ said so we would account him as Elkanah said to Hannah Am not I better to thee then ten sons better then ten friends then ten worlds Get therefore a more full knowledge of God that all power is in him One thing have I heard once and twice that power belongeth unto God saith he Psalmist Secondly Get faith in the exercise more All the worthies of the Lord in Heb. 11. What made them live so to God and not to themselves as they did because they beleeved they did it by faith by faith Abraham denied himself by faith Moses for sook the pleasures of Egypt by faith those Worthies of whome the world was not worthy wandred up and down in sheeps skins and goats skins and would not be delivered When a man getteth interest in Christ by faith he shall see that in him that will satisfie all his desires and answer all his losses Thirdly exercise Love Faith works by love The more we love God in Christ the more perfectly we shall cleave to him Love is a uniting grace that uniteth the soul to Christ The love of Christ constraineth me faith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. for we thus judge if one died for all then it is fit they that live should not live to themselves And the truth is the more a soul loveth Christ the more it will live to him Lastly a word of the last Use and that for instruction Being convinced that such is the estate of most men that they live to themselves and that whose estate soever it is it is a sinful estate and argueth a man out of Christ and that there is a possiblity of getting out of this estate Let it be for instruction to all those that in some measure live to God and not to themselves let it be to teach them and perswade them more fully to live to him and less to themselves A man simply censidered without any relation to others or dependance upon an another man he may please himself but when a man is considered in his dependance upon God and his relation to men he must then observe the will of his Creatour in that relation God hath set him he must carry himself as his creature and observe the end that the creature is appointed to Nay he must carry himself as a Christian and observe the good of the body he must carry himself as a member to do good to the whole Let every Christian labour to do this if he would have comfort to his soul that he doth not live to himself that he is of the number of those that are accepted of God in life and death Labour to imploy his time and strength and gifts and whatsoever he is and hath to the good of others As every man hath received the gift let him minister to others as faithful dispencers of the manifold grace of God If you have received gifts you have received them from God you have received them for the good of others you have received them as dispensers let every man faith the Apostle dispense the manifold grace of God if the Apostle had said be dispensers of the grace of knowledge that you have for the feeding of the souls of many and not of your estates or relieve as many as you can with your estates but take no care for their souls but when he saith be dispensers of the manifold gifts of God his meaning is that whatsoever I have wherewith I am able to do men good with whether it be inward or outwards gifts the gifts of the mind or of the outward man any thing whereby I can be advantageous to others I must serve God and men in improving of that He that will not
live to himself is bound to serve every man with every gift he hath If God have furnished a man with inward gifts the graces of his Spirit If a man have knowledge and faith or experience or comfort whatsoever graces of the Spirit he hath there are duties appointed and a Communion of Saints exprest that men may be stirred up to exercise those graces in that communion for the good of all the Saints Therefore we are said to have knowledge to profit with And gifts to edifie with All that a man hath God hath given him for this end that God may be glorified by it Hercin is my Father glorified that you bring forth much fruit Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven Men have much benesit by the graces of the Spirit in others when they are improved as they ought they are as lights amongst men in the world Grace when it is opened like the Box of oyntment raiseth a desire in others after it Grace exercised and communicated to others it sheweth the amiableness of it Christians should therefore do it that they may make Christianity lovely that they may make the profession of Religion amiable to the world that is by communicating the graces of God to others This every man should do in his place in his person take all advantages this way And as it is good for others so it is good for a Mans self to do thus a man increaseth his own store Liberality we say is the best husbandry There is no promise in the Scripture for hoarding up there are many to distribute I say it is the best husbandry in the world especially in spiritual things it is as the oyl increased in the pouring out like the loaves the more they were broken the more they multiplied still We see the hand noursheth it self by administring food to the mouth so a Christian not only exerciseth but increaseth grace in himself by communicating grace to others And what I say for spiritual I say for outward things If a man have wealth or honor or any of these outward things and an opportunity he should imploy them for others that it may appear that he doth not live to himself He that layeth up riches only for himself and his family liveth to himself He that followeth his calling only for himself and his family liveth to himself He doth that which a man out of Christ would do but a man that would live to God he must glorifie God with his estate To do good and to distribute forget not for with such sacrifices God is pleased Heb. 13. Charge them that are rich in the world that they be not high-minded but ready to distribute to the necessities of the Saints 1 Tim. 3. It is a charge laid upon all to glorifie God with their estates with their Authority as they are magistrates as Job faith I was a foot to the lame an eye to the blind a father to the fatherless a husband to the widow He did all things for the good of others All men are ambassadours sent from God for the good of the bodies and souls of others Am I a neighbour it is for the good of the body and soul of every one that converseth with me according to the manifold gifts bestowed upon me and I live no further to God then I do extend and communicate all my particular gifts to the good of others both for soul and body Thus you have the point opened and pressed concerning living to our selves as a mark of those that are Christs that they do not live to themselves I beseech you brethren let this be the advantage of Funeral Sermons that are preached upon the occasion of the death of our deceased brethren to teach us how to live Let every man hereaster resolve to lead a profitable and fruitful life to do all the good he can while he liveth that for much good done to many thanks may be given by many on his behalf THE IMPROVEMENT OF TIME OR THE RIGHT USE OF TIMES SHORTNESSE SERMON XI 1 COR. 7.29 30. But this I say bretrhen the time is short It remaineth that both they that have Wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as if they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it for the fassion of this world passeth away THat I may briefly come to open to you the sum of that that I have to deliver out of this Scripture I desire you beloved in the Lord in few words to take notice of the drift and scope of the holy Apostle in this place and that is this The Corinths as it seemeth in the beginning of this chapter had written a Letter to Saint Paul wherein they did propound to him divers Cases of Conscience and did intreat him that he would send him judgement concerning those points Some five or six we may gather they did write to him about One was this whether he thought it either a lawful or a fitting thing for a man to marry The second was Whether if a man were married his Wife and he might not separate themselves one from another The third was If they did live together whether it were lawful for the one to deny to the other matrimonial benevolence The fourth Whether if one of them being a Beleever and the other an Infidel it were lawful or convenient for the beleever to remain a yoke-fellow to the Insidel These and divers other cases of concience they intreated Saint Paul to resolve them in Now the Apostle in the beginning of this Chapter writeth an Answer to every one of these Questions they propounded To some of them he answered thus Indeed I canuot give an absolute determination what is to be done but I suppose this and this is best And to another I advise such a thing I cannot directly determine the will of God but I have received mercy of God to be accounted faithful and if you would know my opinion it is this And so he giveth divers doubtful answers to their Questions only he telleth them this is fittest for the opportunity When he hath done all he cometh to this I have read But this I say brethren c. As if he should say The Questions I have given you an Answer to I think you know not what to resolve upon because I say only this is my counsel or this is my opinion But this I am peremptory in that is That they that have wives be as if they had none they that weep as if they wept not and they that rejoyce as if they rejoyced not This I do not come to say I suppose and I think it sit or I give my advise or for the present occasion it is fit to be thus But brethren herein I am consident and
resolute that you should be as if not in all things in this I am bold This is the drist of the Apostle that he would bring in one thing wherein he is consident after the resolution of divers Questions wherein he could not be so consident So then the words I have read contain two general things First the Apostles Preface to his Exhortation Secondly the Exhortation it self The Preface in these words But this I say brethren The Exhortation in the rest of the words The time is short c. In the Exhortation there are likewise three things that I would note unto you Eirst the ground of the Exhortation in these words The time is short Secondly the Exhortation it self in these words It remainech that they that have wives be as though they had none and they that weep as if they wept not and they that rejoyce as if they rejoyced not and they that buy as if they possessed not and they that use the world as not abusing it Here is the Exhortation Then the third thing is a spur the Apostle addeth to quicken them up to practise all these things in these words For the fashion of this world passeth away The first general thing in the words is the Apostles Preface But this I say brothren And in this I would note but two things I will but name them because I would not be straitned in two principal points that I would gladly open First here I would note How consident and earnest and resolute a faithful minister will be when he cometh to a point that mainly concerns his people In all other things the Apostle giveth them his Answer so as it might seem he had not fully resolved them I give my advise faith he and again I suppose this But now when he cometh unto the right use of the world that it be not abused and the thought of heaven that they might set themselves about it Here he cometh without ifs and ands he setteth it down resolutely and positively Brethren this I say or this you must do This is one thing that I might note Secondly I might note The compellation or term that he giveth them Brethren In which note who they are to whom Saint Paul giveth the Exhortation And it seemeth to me as if the Apostle should say I am putting you now upon a duty that if I could not give you the term brethren I should hope to prevail little with you To come and tell a young gallant that is in the middest of his russe and his jollity and all pleasures the fashion of this world passeth away and I would have you use these things as if you used them not I know he would not receive it Or to come to an old soaked worldling whose Mammon and penny is his God whose thoughts run altogether upon his wealth and to tell him that he should use the world as if he used it not Or to come to another that is newly married and it may be hath made a Goddesse of his yoak-fellow for a while and tell him that he must be as if he were not married I should have little hope to prevail with these But you are brethren and because brethren you know the good things of God you are acquainted with things concerning eternal happiness therefore as long as I can call you brethren I am bold to put you upon the duty So brethren this is my Preface to you I shall anon speak to a point that I shall have little hope to prevail with many in the Congregation when I come to speak of the immoderate use of the world and all the blessings in it it may be both your eares will be so stopped against it But as many of you as are brethren that have given up your selves to God and have taken him for your portion and his Word for your guide in all things I hope you will bring willing and yeelding hearts to resolve that what is delivered out of the word of God to embrace it and to endeavour it concerning the course of your lives And so this will suffice for the Preface because as I said I would not be straitned Now I come to the Exhortation It remaineth that they that have wives be as if they had none c. First I will in brief open the words and then come to some matter of instruction I begin first with the ground of the Exhortation The time is short The word translated short signifieth in the orignal Time cut off And so the Apostle aluded as the best Expositors agree to Seafayring-men that have almost done their voyage and begin to strike sayle and to fold them up together and are even putting into the Harbour and are going to unlade their goods So faith the Apostle the time is short as if he should say if a company that are going out a long voyage should strive who should be Master and who be Masters-Mate and who should have this or that office in the Ship I could not greatly blame them But when they are almost at home when they are within a flight-shot of the shoar when they begin to strike sayle to take in all and to go themselves out of the ship then if they should fall a quarrelling for places and contend and use all the friends and means they could make it were a ridiculous thing and folly So it is with us Time was when the world was in beginning and then when a man came into the world he might say by the course of nature I have a matter of six or seven or eight or nine hundred years to go on in my pilgrimage before I shall end my voyage and then if a man should bestow a little time to think with himself Well if I can live but to see my self the father of a thousand children and might come to people almost a whole Couutry c. then I say if a man should greet the world he might be excused But brethren God hath cast out the time of our age so that as soon as we begin our voyage we are ready to strike sayle presently We have but a little time to continue and much work to be done for another life therefore for us to stand striving about wives and children and courtesies to cry out of afflictions when we are ready to strike sayle and even to go out of the ship into the harbour it is a meer folly These things are not worthy the while heaven is the thing we should look after therefore let us be moderate in all these things This is the meaning So that the ground of the Exhortation affordeth two things The one I will but name The other I will stand upon First The time of our life in this world is very short We have a very little time to continue in this world This is a very fruitful and profitable point but because I would not
be straitned and because the Apostle intends it not as the main thing I do but only name it The second thing and that which Saint Paul mainly intends is that because we have but a little time we are even ready to strike sayle and to go to the Harbour presently therefore he that had a wife should be as if he had none and he that used the world as if he used it not c. And there the Lesson that I noâ—e is this That the serious meditation of the little and short time that we have to remain in here below should be a great means to cut us off from the world and to put us upon thoughts and actions concerning heaven I shall not need to give you a better ground of the point then is in the Text. The time is short saith he the time is contracted you are ready to strike sayle therefore do this I might give you a world of Scripture to prove this But I will satisfie my self in laying you down two or three grounds of it First we know that all things that ever a man can enjoy in this world they all die assoon as ever this time is gone Mark it All things here below let a man dote never so much upon them let him have wife and children and beauty and credit and pleasures and learning or whatsoever it is if his glass be out if his time be gone ther 's is an end of all those to him Now the soul of man careth not for that happiness that hath no continuance at all in it Yea the rarest thing that mortal men seek if they should know before hand that they should enjoy them but a little time the soul careth not for pitching upon it If a man were offered the goodliest woman for his wife that ever lived in this world if God should send him this message there take her I bestow her freely upon thee but to morrow thou shalt die who would care for marrying To be a King we know is simply the greatest thing that men seek after in this world yet among the Grecian Cities as that of Sparta because one was but to have the Kingdome but for a year and then to lay down his Crown and become a private man all the wisest men of the City strove as much not to the King as we to get great places Why because they knew that that honour was but for a year and that would be gone presently therefore they cared not for it So the Apostle teacheth in this place Though thou shouldest have a wife that thou shouldest love mightily though thou shouldest have pleasures that thou takest full content in Why doest thou so We are ready to strike sayle we have but a little time to continue So that because all the blessedness of this life let them be never so many never so great yet they all die with us when our time is ended he that could but seriously think that he hath but a little time to continue below he will never let his heart be set violently upon them that is the first Argument The second and principle Reason why the meditation of the shortness of our time should be such a marvellous means to take us off from all the things of the world is this Because we shall find work enough in this short time for things that more concern us Now the very nature of our soul that God hath put into us is this that a man cannot intend earnestly and violently two things at the same time Let a man for a certain hour wholly be took up with some business though there were a great many other things that be could find in his heart to think upon yet the soul intends that one mainly and can find no time for the other This is our case We have but a little time but in that little time admirable is the work we have to do before this time be spent if we would give a comfortable account What have we to do I tell you in a word The main and needfull thing of all that we have to do in this little time here allotted us is How to shoot the gulph of hell how to make our peace with God how to get his favour in Christ how to have the corruptions of our soul cured and healed how to grow up in grace and to get sure evidence against that day when all shall stand naked before him that then we may be found in Christ Have I ever heard that I have a great work to do and that I have but a little time to do it in Surely then if I seriously think of it I cannot find in my heart to let my soul pitch earnestly upon the things below Beloved our time here is the only time we have to make heaven sure It is the most precious thing that ever we have in the world Now if a man have such a precious thing and but a little of it will he go and spend it for toyes and baubles It is a thing that the Emperour Caligula is laughed at for in all Stories There was a mighty Navy provided admirable and strange and all trimmed and every one expected that with it the whole countrey of Greece should be conquered and so it might have been But he imploped his souldiers to gather a company of Cockleshells and Pibbles and so sayled home Had not every one cause to laugh at the folly of this Emperour Verely such a fool is every man and so we would acknowledge if we would but weigh this God hath given thee but thus much time it may be twenty years it may be but a day or two more in this time he hath furnished thee with that which may be a means to conquer heaven it self now if â—…hou lay out this little about wife or children or to purchase a little wealth or chese things here below is it not the greatest folly that may be Suppose that a servant hath a great deal of work to do and knows that he must give an account to his Master thereof and that if all be not done that should be done he can never appear with comfort before his Master and he sees also that the Sun draws low and the day hastneth to an end do you think that this servant can find time to play If a man have much to write and but a little paper to write in he must write small and thick and close as ever he can So it is with every one of us â—… warrant you there is not any soul of us but we shall find so many thousand things to repent of so many graces to obtain that we stand in need of so many evidences or heaven to get that yet we have not got sealed so many particulars concerning better life that a man may wonder that ever any one should find one half day to 〈◊〉 any thing else Thus you see the reasons why the serious meditation of
the little time we have to continue below should be a marvellous means to take us off from the world and to put us upon the study and thought of better things Well now let me briefly apply this unto you that so I may come to that I principally intend Oh that we had learned this excellent lesson that the Apostle teacheth the Corinths here what wondrous happy people should we be You shall find evermore in the Scripture the Spirit of God putting the neglect that is amongst men and carelesness of heaven and all the wickedness of their lives upon this the not serious meditation of that small time they have to continue below If a man come to those that are not brethren as Saint Paul bespeaks the Corinths in the Text they will say It is true it is a good point to be prest upon a man that is in a consumption on one whom the Doctors have given over to tell him that he cannot continue a week that his time is short But for our parts we are but in the beginning of our voyage it may be we are but twenty years old we began but the other day to be furnished with a stock we are but newly entred and do you think that we are striking sayle Or another that hath lived forty or fifty years in the middest of a full trade that beginneth to get something in the world do you think that he is striking sayl Thus people put it off Alas what is thy time What is all thy life Let God decide it doth not he say it is a vapour a dream a tale that is told like a Ship that sayleth by and is gone and that in the turning or a hand almost If thou have no more time of life here but only while a little sand is running out of a glass while a Ship is sayling out of sight while a short tale is told God saith it is no more wilt thou account that thy voyage is yet scarcely begun I beseech you beloved all go home and often think of this point Say within your selves How long Lord am I like to continue below and what is there for me to do before I go out of this world But the truth is men dare not think of this and the Devil laboureth for nothing more in the world then this to make men put off the serious consideration of the brevity of their lives and that they have longer time to continue here then they have because he knows the truth of this that I have spoken that the meditation thereof will stir them up to make clear all reckonings with God before they gohence and he seen no more You may find this to be true in your own experience how loath men are to entertain thoughts of their latter end Go to one that lies sick of a Consumption and he will tell you the Docters say that I may live and I doubt not but I shall get up again such a one hath been brought as low as I and he is recovered and why may not I I once knew one that when the Phisitians came and told him that he must die Good Lord saith he what a deal of work have I to do I have all my seed to sow all my evidences to seal that my soul should he saved c. Such thoughts should enter into us now pitch on them seriously buckle to them soundly We may learn this point of wisdome of the divel himself He because he knoweth his time is short he is so much the fuller of rage and malice and plies his work with so much the more eagerness Wo be to the Inhabitants of the earth and the Sea Revelat. 12.12 for the divel is gone out amongst men having great wrath because he knoweth that he hath but a short time So should we do Think with thy self the seventh Angel will come ere long and sweare by him that liveth for ever and ever that there shall be no more time but GOD will have an account for the time past What if the Angel should come now and swear as ten to one but there is some man or woman in this Congregation concerning whom GOD hath determined that they shall have no more time before a week be at an end Put the case it should be any ones case thine or mine that God should say Go fetch such a man I will give him no more time It is true I give him some but now his voyage is at an end his sayl is struck and then we should have all to seek no Christ no true faith no evidence for Heaven when we must come and give an account to God What have you done with all your time will God say I must have a reckoning of it And then cometh in Imprimis so much time in drinking so much in revelling so much in dressing my self every day And then God shall say Were these the things I give you time for Did I bestow time on you for to be spent about such things as these No it was for Heaven Beloved how could we answer to these things It is good and profitable seriously to consider of this betimes say to thy self I have not long to live after awhile I must go hence and be no more I must give an account and a reckoning unto God of all that I have done whether it be good or evill But this is not the principal point I have to speak of therefore I pass it briefly I come to the Exhortatiou it self It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though thy had none and they that weep as if they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use the world as not abusing it c. In a word I take the sum of the exhortation to be as if the Apostle S. Paul had said thus Brethren you are ready to cast anchor trouble not your selves be stedfast gird up the loynes of you minds let your care be greatest for heaven as for these things that are here below if you have wives be as if you had none think assoon as you are ashoar you shall have none if you be sick or under any cross or affliction be as though you wept not suppose you be as a fellow that is fain to plie the pump all the day assoon as he is ashoar he is free if you rejoyce if you be in prosperity if you be as the Master of the Ship that hath great preferment be as if you rejoyced not Why you are almost come ashoare therefore be as if not in all these I will briefly open the meaning of all these particulars and then put all into one point of instruction and so come further to apply it unto you as God shall enable me What therefore is the meaning first Let them that have wives be as though they had none To that I answer A man
that hath a Wife hath two things that another hath not that hath no wife The first is He hath a great deal of joy and comfort he hath a second self a loving yoak-fellow one in whose Bosome he can pour his heart at any time one that he can make partaker of all his contentments one that is willing to help him to carry all his crosses so in a Wife supposing her to be a good Wife he hath that comfort that another knows not of Secondly he that hath a Wife hath a great many cares that another hath not he hath a great deal of fear lest he should leave her in distress a great deal of care how she and the children that are begotten by him of her should be provided for when he is gone so that as Saint Paul saith he cannot but care for the things of the world how he may give content to his wife These two things a man hath that hath a Wife Now What is it to be in this as if he had no wife That is this In all contentments that come by a wife to use them as if he had none at all that is to be moderate not to glut himself and to think now I am a happy man I need no more God hath given me such a yoak-fellow and I have abundant joy in it But to moderate his heart in this And for the other thing for care and thought how to provide for her and her children to go on as if he had no wife and children to provide for to leave all to God to go on in his calling in obedience to God and let God do what he will And for matter of providing food and rayment when he is gone let him even carry himself as if all the world were gone when he is gone This is to have a wife as if he had none to be as moderate in the injoying of the contentments that come by his wife to be as moderate in cares required for a Wife so moderate in them as if he had no wife at all to joy in or to take care for For the second They that weep as if they wept not That is for matter of Affliction One man cometh out and he exceedingly glorieth in his happiness that he hath a wife Another complaineth no man is so full of crosses as I every day one cross after another no man hath such children such a husband such an estate so poor so afflicted so weak ever groaning and complaining Now saith Saint Paul be as if not in weeping That is let the thoughts of the neereness of the shoar make you so contented as if there were no cross at all lying upon you For I still follow the Metaphor the Spirit of God useth he that is the poorest man in the Ship he that doth nothing but dress the sayles and as I said before ply the pumpe and it may be is beaten withal yet in the midst of all these he thinketh I shall by and by cast Anchor and though I work hard yet one hour more will make me free So it should be with us in all afflictions as if not that is Think Death will come and end all I am sick in body I am crost in my good name in my yoak-fellow Well Death will end all these I have but a little while ro tarry in this world and short things must not be tedious On the other side He that rejoyceth as though he rejoyced not That is in all the contentments of the world in all the joy a man hath in the things below as suppose a man have an estate here and credit given him or any thing that makes the world account a man happy Remember all these things will be gone assoon as I die as still to use the comparison let it be the Master of the Ship he may think with himself all these are under me I can command them and punish them if they disobey yet as soon as I am out of the Ship they are as good as my self I am now neer the shoar and shall be soon out of the place I am in let me therefore moderate my self So let us in all worldly contentments be so moderate as if we should take our leaves of them and they of us And so for a man to be as though be possest not That is for a man not to inlarge his heart as the world is enlarged But if I have now so many pounds and therewith buy such a purchase and such a purchase let me live and carry my self in my thoughts as if I had nothing but food and rayment And then lastly cometh in the main of all the rest They that use the world as not abusing it By world he means all the good things of the world all that I named before and all that you can else think of Wife and children prosperity and adversity every thing on the right hand and on the left all cometh within the compass of the World use all these things so But especially he aimeth at worldly businesses the things we are exercised about do them as not abusing them as not letting your hearts be set too much upon them but be temperate and moderate in all that we may ever be fit for that great service that God hath to imploy us in Now out of all these put together the main Lesson that I would speak of is this That the true servants of God true beleevers all the blessings and crosses they meet with in this world they must have them as if they had them not This is the point I would open to you That in wife children prosperity crosses think what you can a beleever must be in them as if not as if he were not in that condition To give you for the proof of this any other Scripture then my Text I suppose I need not the Apostle Saint Paul you see layes it down in so many words Yet for the better confirmation of the point I will add to that two or three other plain places Only first I would a little explain to you what it is for a man to use all these things as if not And I cannot for my life better lay it open to you then by such a comparison as this Look how worldly men use the things of heaven so a heavenly man use the things of the world To instance in a few duties that I will but name Suppose it be the duty of prayer Bring me out a true beleever and a worldling let them both be put upon this duty of prayer The true beleever his heart before he goes to prayer is so full of care that he may pray aright so full of fear lest his heart should not carry it self as it should when he is in the duty his heart is so violently bent to it it so strugleth and striveth that he may do it as may please God When he hath done he hath much joy and
he will have thee on the topp of the wheel of prosperity thank God for it take heed of abusing the things thou enjoyest Remember the things of this life are inconstant things as a flower as a nosegay that seemeth as a dainty fine thing but while we are smelling at it and praising it it withereth away so is it with all these things I would I could tell how to speak home to your souls and yet I know that little I have spoken if it be entertained with faith if you beleeve this to be the truth of God not as the speech that a man makes to you but as the speech of Saint Paul an Apostle of Christ that sets it down by the direction of God that it is thus I say if you lay down this as a truth that comes from God and seriously think with your selves I have but a little time to tarry here below and when I am out of the world I shall live for ever in heaven or in hell while I do enjoy the things of this world God will have me to be as if not in them and there is good reason why they are shewes and not substances Grace and the favour of God is only that which is substantial whatsoever you look upon that is under these are but shewes riches and honour and worldly contenments they are but shadows like one in a play that is but a Peasant under the coat of a King these have but only outsides under them there is no such matter This I say which I have spoken being seriously considered and faithfully received may through the blessing of God and your own prayers to God to teach you this be a means to moderate you in the use of all those things that are here below SECURITY SURPRIZED OR THE DESTRVCTION OF THE CARELESSE SERMON XII 1 THES 5.3 For when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape IN the latter part of the Chapter going before the blessed Apostle St. Paul to the end that he might draw those to whom he wrote from immoderate sorrow for them that were departed this life revealeth to them certain comfortable truths concerning the Resurrection from the dead telling them that death it self is but as a sleep whence they shall be raised at the last day by the voyce of the Arch-angel c. In the beginning of this Chapter he prevents an objection that some might make For having fallen upon the discourse of the Resurrection he well knew the curiosity of mans nature that leaves those things that are most profitable to enquire after such things that God hath hid and therefore some men might say Since there shall be such a time and such a change when will those times and seasons be When shall that great day of the Resurrection come when all shall be brought together Of the times and seasons brethren saith the Apostle ye have no need that I write unto you verse 1. As if he should say this is no needful no necessary thing for you to inquire into or for me to tell you rather let us fall upon those things that are necessary and useful for neither you not I can tell the particular time when that shall be yet know this that very suddenly such a time shall come and that when the world least thinks of it The suddenness hereof he setteth down by a twofold comparison First by the coming of a thief in the night Your selves know perfectly that the day of the Eord so cometh as a thief in the night vers 2. Secondly by the travail that cometh upon a woman with child When they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape This latter is that I have made choyce of at this time for my Text. A little for the explanation of the words When they shall say peace and safety The Apostle intendeth not to condemn either the speaking of peace to the children of peace or their rejoycing in that peace they have But that which he condemneth is that they cry peace to themselves whom God denounceth war against Men that go on in a course of sinning and in security and yet will perswade themselves that all shall be well with them in the end these are the men upon whom Death shall come thus suddenly and upon whom the Judgment day shall come thus unexpected When they shall say peace and safety that is when they are living in their sins walking on in their rebellions against God and shall yet be flattering themselves that it shall be well with them not withstanding this then shall Judgment come upon them then sudden destruction cometh By destruction here he meaneth not the destruction of the body or the soul the destruction of their beeing For the Soul even after the death of the body shall have a beeing and the body also shall be restored again to its beeing and parts in the resurrection from the dead It were happy for wicked and ungodly men if there should be such a destruction of there beeing as that they should cease to be any more for then this body the members whereof have been the servants of sin should not be tormented in Hell and then this Soul of theirs that hath set all the body on work in the service of sin it should not be sensible of that anguish that shall cause gnashing of teeth It were well I say for them if there should be such a destruction it is that which if they might have their desire they would wish above all things in the world But it will not be such a destruction it shall be worse with them It shall only be the destruction of their joy and comfort of all their contentments of all those things wherein they solaced and flattered themselves upon earth all these things shall be destroyed Their riches that fed their lusts shall be destroyed and their company that incouraged them in sin shall be destroyed and all things wherein they have delighted themselves here upon earth shall be destroyed the whole earth shall be burnt with fire before them And beside this that same chearfulness of spirit and that free disposition whereby they incouraged themselves in the wayes of their pride or whatsoever else it was that made them seem some body on earth all this shall cease and fail them and forsake them There shall be no mirth no wisdom no courage no friends no wealth no houses no apparrel nothing to pride and delight themselves in there shall be an utter destruction of all these things Then shall destruction come upon them As pain upon a woman with child This sheweth the manner the kind of their destruction that shall come upon them It shall be first a sudden destruction it shall not give them warning either of the time or
this Text upon you When they shall say Peace Peace then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape A CHRISTIANS VICTORY OR CONQUEST OVER DEATHS ENMITY SERMON XIII 1 COR. 15.26 The last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death IT could be no Parradox to declare that every man hath more enemies in the World than friends both wicked and godly There is no question of it But it is true also that so long as a mans waies please God he can make his enemies his friends Of all the enemies men have the spiritual are the worst For they are Common Enemies Continual Enemies Common Enemies I call them because they are every mans Enemies Others though they be Enemies to some they are friends to others these to all Continual because their war is never at an end Other Enemies we may have truce with now and then pauses and breathing times leisure given us when we have done one skirmish to make ready for another from these there is no intermission nor rest not for a moment wheresoever or whatsoever we are about it may be said to us as Dalilah said to Sampson Up Sampson thy enemies are upon thee The three principal of these ye know are commonly reckoned up to be The Divel the World and the Flesh But the Apostle telleth us of a fourth which he calleth our Last enemy the enemy which shall last of all assault us the other will leave assaulting us when we are in this world this when we are leaving the world mustereth up his forces against us sometimes holding us long play as the house of David did the house of Saul till our strength be wasted and spent sometimes dispatching us with a sudden stroke as Absolom did Amnon when our hearts are merry within us This enemy Death the very sound of his name is like the name of Honiades to the Turkes dreadful to some the very dream of it dreadful as Nebuchadnezars dream was to him it troubled him and the image of it made him tremble and quake But though the hearing of an enemy may cause disturbance yet withal to hear that this enemy is overcome and destroyed the newes of that may chear us Behold this is the newes that the Text bringeth It telleth us of an enemy indeed but it telleth us withal of the destruction of this enemy Death is the common enemie of man kind It is our last enemy we may think it none of the least because it is the last yet here is the destruction of it Oh thou enemy thy destruction shall come to a perpetual end It is already destroying and as it is the last so at the last it shall be destroyed Those are the two points that I am to treat of of an Enemy and of the destruction of this Enemy The Enemy is Death and the last Enemy as the Text calleth it the last that shall assault us In that ye may note two things Its Quality and Its Rank First its nature and quality An Enemy Secondly its order and rank in what rank it is Fyled not in the Fore-front of the battel but it cometh behind in the Rear it cometh in the end of the Army when all other enemies have given over and setteth upon us at the last Secondly here is the destruction of the enemy that is the Milk and honey of the Text. Death though it be an Enemy though it be a killing enemy it shall not be a conquering enemy He that subdueth all our Enemies for us will in time subdue them to us And who he is the Apostle telleth you in the verse before the Text Christ our Lord He shall reign till he hath put down all his enemies under his feet And as all His so all ours too both those that are Enemies to him and to his death Among the rest he will destroy that also As it is the last with which we shall be assaulted so it is the last that shall be destroyed There are three points of observation we have here lying before us First that Death is an Enemy Secondly that Death is our last Enemy Thirdly that as Death assaulteth us last so at last it shall be destroyed I begin with the first of these That Death is an enemy And an Enemy indeed it is one of the Divels regiment The Divel he is the General of the Army when he brought sin into the world he brought Death into the world Sin draws Death after it as the Needle draws the thread First I will shew ye what kind of Enemy it is Secondly wherein it appeareth to be an Enemy First what kind of Enemy Death is A common Enemy A secret Enemy A spiritual Enemy A continuall Enemy First a Common Enemy Common to all man-kind The charge it hath is not like that upon the Aramites fight neither with small nor great save only with the King of Israel Great and small King and Keifar all are marks that this aimeth at one killing weapon or other it hath for them all like Ishmacl The hand of him is against every man The young and the old the strong and rich and noble and wise and holy none can scape none can keep out of Deaths reach What man is he that liveth and shall not see death Ye will object to me peradventure Those that shall live at the coming of our Lord at the end of the world shall not see Death I had thought I confess to have stood a little upon this points discussion but I must not I have many things to say In a word therefore First these are but a few and a few make not a general Secondly though these die not the ordinary natural death but as Elijah and Enoch shall be translated up to heaven yet in their translation and assumption they shall suffer a mutation and change which shall be instead of Death Their change is a kind of Death to them as our death is a kind of change to us Therefore we may account it a common Enemy to man-kind for as the Scripture saith It is the way of all the earth And the Grave it is the house appointed for all living It is a common Enemy and it is the more dangerous for that Secondly it is A secret Enemy And it is the more dangerous for that Secret Traytors are worse then open enemies these may be prepared against becuase we know them those may surprize us unawares because we see them not nor suspect them Poor Uriah carrieth Death in his bosome so we carry death about us though like a Moth it lie and fret in the garment and we see not when it eateth nor can certainly determine the time when it will grate asunder the thread of our life What man living candivine when and how and where Deaâ—…h will seize upon him it is not for any to determinesuch a thing it lieth so secret he cannot
the men of darkness as Job calleth it the place of oblivion the pit of stinch and rottenness this is another thing that nature shrinketh and relucts at For there we must bury out of our sight that that once was the delight of our eyes as Ezekiel said by his wife And though it were never so lovely before yet it quickly becometh loathsome Our Beds must be made in darkness where corruption and wormes must be the Mattress and Coverled to lie under us and spread over us Thou shalt say to Corruption thou art my father and to the worme thou art my mother and my sister That body of thine that God in the wombe so wonderfully made that thou all thy life-time paradventure hast delicately cherished lapped in Silk in Fur pampered with sweet wines Death as a proud Tyrant will set his foot upon it and throw thee down to the horrid dungeon where thy flesh shall putrifie and thy bones rot and the beauty of it though somtime it were as the Rose and the Lilly of the field shall soon become as loathsome as the dung in the streets This is another thing that makes the face of Death dreadful and terrible when we think of such privations and annihilations as these that we shall come from a beeing to no beeing These cannot but make Death look with the face of an Enemy Fourthly The loss and deprivation of all worldly contentments and worldly imployments that is another thing that makes Death terrible and fearful to us Look whatsoever contentment we took in any thing here we must bid it farewel then Farewel to all to prophets and pleasures and honours we shall carry none of them away with us None of our pomp and glory shall descend after us as the Psalmist saith Farewell to all the gold and silver we have gathered together to all the goodly lands we have purchased to all the stately houses we have built to all the pleasant gardens and orchards we have planted to all the sports and pastimes we have had to all our merry consorts we have kept company with to all our Jewels and wardrope to our dauncing and feasting and musick Death pulleth us from all these and layeth us levell with the Dust It mingleth shovels and Scepters together It makes rich and poor the Prince and the Peasant alike I shall see man no more All relatians we have now shall be broken off then between Husband and Wife Parents and children Master and servants neighbour and neighbour friend and friend we shall dwell apart with our selves and not so much as shake hands one with another All the services and imployments we are took up with here shall cease then there shall be no frequenting of the Exchange no exercising of Trade no bearing of Office no working in our Calling Death is the night that no man can work in and Death is the place of silence where all affairs are cut off Where there is no work nor invension nor wisdome nor counsel as Solomou saith in the book of the Preacher Oh saith good Hezekiah I shall see the Lord no more in the Land of the living There is no more service to be done to the Lord nor no more in the Church in that manner as it is now there is no exercise of Religion no Word no Sacraments no Fasting no Almes no Preaching no Prayer no Confession and thanksgiving The Corse cannot praise thee the Grave cannot give thanks they that go down into the pit cannot honour thee Oh Beloved how careful and active and vigilant and diligent should this make us to be when we consider it for the well improving of that time that we have lent unto us and for the well-discharging of those places and offices and duties that are now laid upon us Considering that Death is an enemy that will cut us off from all affairs and bereave us of all opportunities of receiving or doing or performing any service to God at all either in Church or Common-wealth Fifthly and lastly Conscience of sin and certainty of judgment and uncertainty of salvation for brevities sake I put them together these things come along with Death and make the face of Death terrible and fearful Conscience of sin first of all For Sin it is the sting of Death And which of us is there that doth not arm Death with that sting Who can reflect on the passages of his life but he shall find it as full of sin as the Leopard of spots We find nothing in sin now but oblectation and delight and therefore we hide it under our tongue and hugg it in our bosomes Oh but when Death cometh once it thrusteth these things out and oh the horrour and anguish that the poor conscience is tormented and made to smart with Again with conscience of sin certainty of judgement that is another dreadful Arrow in Deaths quiver After Death cometh judgement And we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ to receive according to what we have done in our bodies First the particular judgement that passeth upon the soul it shall never be reverst for as the Tree falleth so it lieth And then the General judgement when the Body and Soul shall both be wrapped up in the same condemnation Oh who can dwell with devouring fire with those everlasting burnings And then lastly The uncertainty of our future estate For how many thousands be there that die that can not tell what becometh of them when they die but they must sing that Farewel to their souls as Adrian to his My poor wandring soul whether art thou going What will become of thee Death then being accompanied with such an Army of Terrours as these the Apostle might well call it as it is in the Text an Enemy That is the first thing Secondly we are to consider how it is called the last Enemy For two reasons First because it is the last that shall assault us So Caietan Secondly because it is the Last that shall be destroyed So the common stream of Interpreters It is the Last Enemy that shall assault us And here I have to note two things First that while we live in the world we have more Enemies in the world For when there are some last there must be others going before If Death be the last Enemy there are some others beside I we have so God knoweth Enemies on every side Without us within us The Divel he is an Enemy to us and vollies of tentation he hath to discharge against us So many tentations so many Enemies The World is an enemy to us An enemy when it seemeth a friend When it smileth it betrayeth it kisseth and killeth On the right hand it hath prosperity to allure on the left hand adversity to affright in every corner wicked counfell and company and examples to seduce and insnare us Lastly our own flesh is an enemy It is a Serpent
before hand with the patient and quiet bearing and enduring of these many troubles and crosses that befall thee As Agamemnon first overcome the Lacedemonians by wrastling and then by fighting and Bilney first burnt his finger in the Candle that after he might the better endure the burning of his body at the stake So think with your selves If I cannot endure a little how shall I endure more If I cannot endure a light cross a small affliction do I murmur at that Am I impatient and repine at that How shall I bear the pangs of Death when they come Therefore let us inure our selves to a meek and quiet bearing of lesser stripes so we may be better able to endure heavier strokes Many of us lay out a great deale of care how to live in the world we had more need take care how to die when we shall leave the world Study the Art of dying That is the third Lastly that we may the better subdue Death that it may not be an Enemy too strong Learn before so to dispose of our selves and order our affairs that when Death cometh we may have nothing to do but to die Get all differences reconciled all doubts settled all reckonings ordered sequester our selves from all other avocations that nothing may interrupt us when that work is to go inhand with Put thy house in order saith God to Hezekiah I say so to every one of you First your outward house that which concerneth your worldly estate put that house in order What wouldest thou make thy Will and testament and be troubled about that when thou hadst more need to have that Will and testament confirmed that Christ hath made And then set thy soul and conscience thy inner house in order let not conscience be to seek then of any thing that concerneth thee for thy peace toward God and man Die thus and die happily Though Death be an enemy yet thou shalt not be hurt of it because it is subdued and at last thou shalt get the victory over it when thou shalt see it uttery destroyed And now as I have exhorted you to do this by way of counsel so yet a little further I crave patience that I may encourage you to do it by way of example By the example of this blessed servant and Saint of God for whose occasion you have given this meeting and I have preached this Sermon Give me leave to do by her as Mary Magdelen did by our Saviour Christ to break a box of Spiknard and pour it on her that I may anoint her for her burial Concerning whom though I could say a great deal yet knowing how well she was known to you I should not be afraid to say too much Yet on the other side because the night is farr spent and because she was sufficiently known to you although I speak but a little I shall speak enough She dwelt among you who is he that can speak ill of her who knew her but reported well of her The Apostle Saint Paul reduceth all the practical parts of Christianity to three heads Living soberly and righteously and holily The grace of God saith he hath appeared and teachth us to do all this She had learned to live soberly She was a pattern of sobriety Sober in her countenance in her diet in her apparel in her speeth in all her behaviour And the grace of God taught her to live righteously both in those things that concern the works of justice and those things that concern the works of mercy both are referred to righteousness For her justice I am perswaded she was exceeding careful in all her wayes to keep a good Conscience I am sure she was a woman very diligent and painful in her Calling she was truly one of those good house-wives that Solomon describeth in Prov. 31. and had studied that Chapter well and attained the practise of it she could never endure idleness in any there was no plague she said to idleness and that diligence in our Callings sets open a door to many blessings and shuts up the door to many tentations I may call her a discreet woman that was a crown to her husband so Solomon said a vertuous woman is He had a rich portion when God gave him her Houses and lands come by inheritance but a Prudent wife cometh of the the Lord. She was an excellent guide to her family to her servants Children she had none She had such children as S. Austin speaks of and he saith they are those children that women are saved by What children saith he Good works and those children she was full of She did the part of a Mother in bringing up her servants that were with her insomuch as she would say sometimes though they were none of her own children Behold here am I and the children that God hath given me And for works of mercy aswell as justice she was most open-hearted and handed not only to do according but beyond her ability alwayes ready upon every occasion to distribnte and administer to the necessities of the Saints and provoked and stirred others to the doing of the like Among her neighbours she lived unblameably A woman of a meek and quiet spirit and Saint Peter saith Such of God are much set by She was no tatler nor busie medler in other folks matters For Piety she was remarkable She shewed it both in her health and sickness In her health both publikely and privately In publike She was a religious frequenter of the ordinances on the Lords day and on the week dayes a diligent hearer and attender an exceilent rememberer one of the best Remembrancers that I have heard of And in private she was excellent for duties there both for the discharge of her own duty by giving ensample to others and many times by good and godly exhortations and instructions and daily by private reading and prayer she set apart some time for her self for private meditation In her sickness she was a spectacle for thousands to look on It pleased God to lay a long and heavy affliction upon her She had a Cancer in her breast that had been on her three years in the two last years she suffered a great deal of extremity as you may imagine by one thing that I shall say She was fain to endure a great deal of dressing with Corrasives and sharp medicines a great deal of cutting and searing and burning she was above fifty times burnt with hot Irons but Lord with what patience did she still endure it She would say It was no matter sanctified afflictions were better then unsanctified prosperity Apelles said when the picture of a beautiful woman was to be compleatly drawn he must borrow one part from one and another from another and put all together She had learned this She had looked on many good patterns in the Scripture and had drawn to her self an imitation of them all so that she was a perfect and
in all causes and over all persons but over all causes too even Kings are subject to his regiment He bindeth Kings in chaines and Nobles in fetters of Iron Psal 149. The Kings of the earth saith Saint John and the rich and the great men and the great Captains and the mighty men they shall all hide themselves in the caves and rocks and mountains Revel 15. crying to the mountains and rocks to cover them from the face of the Judg and from the wrath of the Lamb because the day of desolation is come Nay God is not only over all the Kings of the earth but he is Potentate of heaven and hell too He hath a commanding power over all the Angels fear the Divels tremble when they come to stand before God In a word as Saint Paul saith all power is of God then of necessity followeth that God himself in his power is most absolute That is the second thing belonging to the office of a Judg as he must have knowledg to discerne so he must have power to execute Thirdly there must be Justice in the execution therefore the Grecians were wont to place justice between Libra and Leo to signifie indifferency in weighing causes and strictness in executing the sentence So the Egyptians signified as much by their Hierogliphical purtraicture of an Angel without hands wincking or without eyes such a one a Judg should be he should have no hands to receive bribes nor no eyes to respect persons the person of a Judg must not take the person of a friend A man must not personate a friend in justice but as Levi he must know neither father nor mother nor brother Justice amongst us is purtraicted holding a Ballance in one hand and a sword in another the Ballance sheweth the upright weighing of causes and the Sword sheweth the strictness of the execution of the sentence And if this Execution be wanting both the other are to no purpose It is to no purpose to know and to have power if their be not Justice But God is a true and just Judg Howsoever it be amongst the Judges of the earth yet unworthy is he of the place of a Judg and fitter to stand at the Barr then to sit on the Bench that suffereth himself to miscarry by friendship or love or bribes or sutes or favour or envie when either of these prevail they tie the tongues of men to plead for wrong causes Shall a Traytour presume on the Kings favour and Mordecai be out of the Kings grace But there shall be no such thing here God is the Judg of all the earth and shall not he do right Gen. 18. Doth God pervert judgment or doth the Almighty pervert Justice Job 8.3 When thou standest before the Judgment seat of God thou shalt neither be elevated with vain hopes nor dejected and cast down by sinister and wrong fears but assure thy self such as thy cause is such shall thy sentence be as Saint Bernard well a pure heart shall prevail more with God then a smooth word good consciences shall speed better then full purses for he is an upright and just Judg with whom no fair words nor friends shall prevail So I have done with the first thing The Judg. Secondly something of the Judgment and therein two things First that it shall be Secondly in what manner it shall be First that it shall be The text is plain God shall bring to Judgment There might many Texts besides this be alledged consonant and agreeable to this but it is superfluous Besides Texts of Scripture we have Types also to prefigure it and reasons also to prove and confirm it Two Types of the last Judgment our Saviour himself propoundeth Luk 17. One was the destruction upon Sodome the other the destruction that God brought upon the old world Look as Christ saith how it was with them of Sodome in the dayes of Lot they did eat they drank they bought they sold they planted they builded and look how it was with the men of the old world in the dayes of Noah eating and drinking and sporting and marrying until the very day that Noah entred into the Ark and the flood came and destroyed them all So it shall be at the last day when the Son of man shall come The Apostle Saint Peter speaking of the latter of these telleth us of mockers in those times that scoffed when they heard of the Judgment there hath been talk a great while of such things promised but when will it come Where is the promise of his coming There are scoffers in these dayes but such if there be any cannot but speak against their own consciences and knowledg they cannot be ignorant both of the Judgments that have been and shall be or if they be they are wilfully ignorant That God did once wash away the sins of the world with a Flood of water and that the time is coming that God will purge the sins of the world with a flood of fire the Rainbow in the clouds as it is a Monument of the one so it is a fore-runner of the other The two principal colours of the Rainbow are blew and red the blew and waterish colour of the Rainbow is an evidence of that Judgment that is past when God washed the sins of the world away by Water the fiery colour is a prediction of a Judgment that is to come when God shall purge the world by a Flood of fire But besides these Types there are divers reasons that may be given to assure us that we have reason to expect this day Those five Attributes of God afford five reasons to confirm it His Power his Wisdome his Truth his Justice his Mercy First his Power God will have it be thus for the manifestation of his Power A work of great power it will be indeed All must be brought before Gods judgment seate every one as the Text saith after It may seem strange peradventure incredible to here that all the men and women that ever lived in the world that so many multitudes and millions of thousands of all kindreds and nations should all be summoned to appear before one Judgement seat But as Saint Austin faith Consider who is the doer and then thou wilt not doubt It is true indeed with men such a thing as this is impossible but with God all things are possible Could God at the first draw all things out of nothing and cannot God as well bring together all again when they are turned to nothing Could he make that body of thine out of the dust of the earth and cannot he raise that body when it is turned to dust Could he unite that body to the soul in the time of the Creation and cannot he unite it at the time of the Resurrection Certainly there is nothing impossible too hard to the great and terrible voyce of God as Saint Chrysostome saith to that voyce of God that cleaveth the
from Parents it comes not of their substance it is enough for them to be the fathers of the flesh God alone is the Father of spirits as the Apostle makes the antithesis Heb. 12.9 Secondly for the Image the soul is most like God saith Plato saith Aristotle it is of the nearest kin of the greatest consanguinity as I may say and the Lord himself signifies so much After our Image let us make man Then the soul of man is not stamped with a Roman Caesar but with Gods own Image and superscription and that First in respect of the substance being not only a spiritual intellectual incorporeal invisible essence but explaining by the plurality of Powers in the unity of Essence the plurality of Persons in the unity of the Deity Secondly being furnished with singular indowments as in the state of innocency with perfect wisdome and holiness and righteousness Yea still in the state of sin some generals are lest some broken fragments of the creation moral qualifications that may lead us by the hand to the knowledge of our Master Lastly in regard of the comanding power it hath over the body It is to the body as Moses was to Pharoah a God to the body it actuates it and moves and commands and restrains it whereby next and immediately under God we live and move and have our being Seeing then the soul is the immediate work and character of God himself so excellent for the Original and for the Image let nature conclude that the soul in-these regards is of greater value then the whole world Secondly in the Kingdome of grace the price of the soul is far above the dignity of the world and that in the grace of Redemption and the grace of renovation For first in the souls redemption the soul amounts so high as that the whole Creation is not able to discharge it It is not gotten for gold nor silver is not weighed for the price of it it is not valued with the gold of Ophir or the precious Onix It cost more to redeem the soul of sinful man the precious bloud of the eternal Son of God he could only redeem it that at the first created it Ye are bought with a price the precious blood of Christ Secondly in the grace of renovation nothing is able to cleanse it from sin but the Spirit of God The spirit alone must enlighten the understanding and rectisie the affections and purisie the will and sanctifie the conscience and seal up the Image of God in righteousness and true holiness And the soul thus renewed is as a Garden inclosed a spiritual Paradise where the God of heaven delights to dwell the Spouse of the Beloved and in the phrase of the Church As the Lilly among the thorns so is my love among the daughters Seeing it appears that the universal World is not able to redeem or being redeemed to renew or renewed to parallel the soul let grace subscribe to that which nature concludes that the soul is of greater value then the whole world Lastly for the passage of glory the contents of the whole Universe are not able to come neer the soul Saith S. Bernard well well it may be busie and took up with other things but it cannot be satiate and replenished with them And Democrates imagined that if there were millions of worlds it were all one in comparison of the soul for blessedness The world is transitory like the dew of the morning it fades as the grass and as the flower of the field whereas on the contrary the soul of man is the subject of immortality capable of an exceeding surpassing eternal weight of glory For if in the time of grace we behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord and are changed into the same Image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord. How resplendant shall the soul of the righteous be in the beatifical vision of Gods excellencies How wonderful shall that divine capacity be that shall be capable of God himself for a perpetual residence Insomuch that the most ancient of dayes shall give fulness to the Soul of knowledg and wisdom and his sacred Spirit that shall fill it with the fulness of God with contentation and the sacred Trinity shall be all in all to it Seeing then the Soul is capable and is the subject of the happiness and joyes of heaven and partner with the glorious Angels in the fruition of the chief good let the sentence of glory joyn to Grace and nature that the Soul is of greater value then the whole world Behold then O man out of the mouth of three witnesses for I may say in this case as Saint John saith in another There are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the holy Ghost Behold out of the mouth of three Witnesses the surpassing excellency and dignity of thy soul it is the breathing of God the Image of God he created it with his Word redeemed it with his Son and in whomsoever his grace abides he will crown it hereafter with his glorious presence What then remains but that we esteem our souls accordingly as God values them Let us not with the unhallowed voluptuous in these times make Lords of our bodies and slaves of our souls Let us not spend our dayes in providing for the lusts of the flesh Let us not in affectation of fair possessions of able servants of hopeful sons and good friends content our selves with bad souls A mans soul is himself saith Plato And O wretched wight saith Saint Austin how hast thou deserved so much ill of thy self as among all thy goods to be only thy self bad O remember the sublimity of thy precious soul thou knowest not what a precious pearle thou hast in thy body like the hidden treasure in the Gospel it is of greater worth than the whole field I say not as he did know that thou hast a God in thee yet know that in that better part of thy nature thou art like to God for he hath given thee a soul of his own breathing and stamped it with the impress of his own Image and created it capable of the fruition of his own presence in endless glory In the consideration whereof walk worthily of this precious divine inspiration Thy Soul is a spirit let thy thoughts be spiritual Thy soul is immortal let thy meditations be of immortality and renounce thy body and good name and gifts of the world for the gainig of thy soul for what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and to lose his own soul So much shall serve to be spoken of the first point the surpassing excellency and dignity of the soul it is vallued and prized here above the whole world Now the next is the possibility that a man may lose his own soul The mention whereof causeth me to remember that passage between Christ and his
receive the sentence either of Come ye blessed or go ye cursed After which sentence once pronounced there shall never question be made of the end of the joy of the one or the ease of the torments of the other But here ariseth a question you know the world consists but of two sorts of persons beleevers and unbeleevers For the beleever it is evident and plain Joh. 5.24 He is passed already from death to life he hath everlasting life already he shall not come into judgement And for the unbeleever it is as plain Joh. 3.18 that he is already condemned even already both are judged already both the beleever and unbeleever the beleever is saved already the unbeleever is damned already what need therefore a general a second Judgement To this I answer that there is a very great need of it both in respect of the justice and of the mercy of God whose property it is alway to reward the godly and to punish the wicked which seeing he doth not to the full in this life it must needs be that a day will come that he will fully do it You know the course of the Lord as David speaks good men have bands in their death and wicked men are lusty and strong good men are in evil condition and wicked men in prosperity Diogenes the Cinnick seeing Harpalus a thief long in prosperity he was bold to say that wicked Harpalus his living long in prosperity it was an argument to Diogenes that God had cast off his care of the world that he respected not mens affairs And indeed the prosperity of the wicked hath brought the Saints of God to a stand Davids foot slipped almost in seeing the prosperity of the wicked It made Job to say Job 24.12 Men groan out of the City by reason of oppression and the souls of the slain cry out and yet God chargeth them not with folly This made Jeremiah to expostulate his cause with the Lord Jerem. 12. Let me talk with thee of thy judgments Why doth the wicked prosper and they that transgress thy commandements This makes the godly take up that passionate complaint Psal 73.11 How doth God know it is there any knowledg in the most high Certainly we have cleansed our hearts in vain in vain we have washed our hands in innocency in vain we labour to live godly lives Why Every day we are chastened for the Lord corrects us every morning And these have the wealth of the world they have the world at will We in Christianity know this to be true Dives hath the world at will while poor Lazarus is shut out of doors hungry and thirsty cold and naked full of necessity every way This being so the day must needs come that the one shall have fulnesse of glory and the other of misery But to answer those places before cited To the former Joh. 5. where it is said The beleever is passed already from death to life he hath everlasting life already It is true he is passed already from death to life by faith he hath it already and by hope he shall not come into judgement that is of condemnation so we must understand it but there is a judgement of absolution that is to be executed and so when the Lord Jesus Christ shall descend from heaven with the sound of a Trumpet and the voyce of the Archangels then the dead in Christ shall rise first and be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ and then they shall be set at his right hand and hear that heavenly sentence Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the beginning of the world You see the answer to that that beleevers shall not come into judgement that is not the judgement of condemnation but of absolution at the last day Now for the other place where it is said Joh. 3.18 the unbeleever is condemned already It is true he is condemned already and that three wayes First of all he is condemned already in the counsel of God Secondly he is condemned already in the word of God Thirdly he is condemned already in his own conscience First in the counsel of God God hath made an eternal decree of Predestination whereby he hath elected some to salvation and predestinated them thereto and others to damnation In this Gods eternal decree the unbeleever is already condemned nay before ever he came into the world as you have it in the example of Jacob and Esaâ—… Rom. 9. before ever they had done good or evil God hated the one and loved the other Secondly in the word of God he is condemned Jo. 3.18 Why because he hates the light and loves darkness Thirdly in his own conscience he is condemned for the continual horrour thereof gives him no rest day nor night there is a worm continually gnawing there and a sting tormenting him but the full execution thereof is to be in the day of wrath when he shall be set at the left hand of Christ and hear the sentence Goe ye cursed into eternal fire prepared for the divel and his Angels O what a terrible day will this be to all the wicked workers of iniquity for Christ Jesus the Judge shall come then to give them their reward This shall be a black a sad a woful dismal day to them they shall not be able to look on the Judge he shall be so terrible to them You see the terriblness of the Judge set down by Saint John Revel 20.10 11. where it is said he saw a great white throne and one sitting thereon from whose face fâ—…ed heaven and earth and their place was no more found Heaven and earth are great and mighty creatures insensible creatures that have not sinned they flie and tremble and hide themselves at the coming of the great Judge and shall man silly sinful man think to stand before the Judge without trembling Indeed if a man could present himself spotless without blame he needed not to fear but alas it is far otherwise there is none that doth good and sinneth not saith Solomon The most righteous before men are stained and poluted in the sight of God and may cry with the Leper Unclean unclean what is man that he should be pure or the son of man that he should be just with God The Angels of heaven are impure in his sight how much more filthy man that drinketh iniquity as water Job 15. So in Psal 14.2 When God looks down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there were any that would uuderstand and seek after God Will he find any that frames themselves according to the rule of perfection that he requires surely no but this he finds they are all corrupt and abominable in their doings there is none that doth good no not one so sinful is man in his whole race sinful in his conception he is conceived in sin before ever he sees light in this
and there is not one man of ten thousand that holds to a hundred If we compare the continuance of this present age to ages that are past you will confess it is but a-while in former ages men lived some two hundred some four hundred some five hundred some nine hundred years now more die before ten then after sixty so that if once our life were said to be but the breadth of a hand now I may say our life is but a singers breadth If we compare it with eternity I am sure you will say it lasts but a while for eternity cannot be measured with any revolution of dayes or months or nights or years therefore in comparison of that the life of man is but a vapour and a vapour that endures for a little while I need not insist to prove this point the truth of it is confirmed every day I will only give you the use of it First is it so that the life that we lead is rather a seeming appearing then a real life then learn not to be deluded with shewes and appearances not too much to be taken with the joyes of this life they are but appearances and the sorrowes of this life they are but shewes we codemn fools that are taken with shewes and not with substances as the Poet faith of Ixion when he thought he embraced a goddess he embraced a cloud we embrace a cloud when we think we embrace any good thing of this life the world deludes us as Michal did Saul when he thought he had found David he found nothing but an Image of David and a pillow of goats heir so what good things the world promiseth they are not good things but the image of good things honour is but the image of honour they are only truly hon ourable that God honoureth and such honour the world cannot bestow she promiseth riches but they are but the image of riches they are only truly rich that are rich in God and the world cannot bestow that she promiseth pleasure it is but the image of pleasure pleasure is only in the presence of God at his right hand for ever more and such pleasure the world cannot give she promiseth life but it is but the image of life that is only the true life whereby the soul lives unto God and hereafter with God and such a life as this the world is not able to give Therefore let us not dote upon the world and worldly things but learn as the Apostle exhorts Col. 3.2 To set our affections on things above those are the only real good things these are but imaginary In the second place this appearing life of ours it lasts but a little while this may afford to us comfort and instruction first comfort to those whose life here is full of troubles and sorrows the shorter time they have to endure the more patient they may be in enduring of it nay there is no greater blessing for those that live here wretchedly and miserably then the abreviating and shortning their dayes Why is light given to them that are in misery faith Job and the life of them is bitter to their soul they long for death and desire it and dig for it more then for treasure and rejoyce and are exceeding glad when they find the grave As the misery of our life may be the more easie considering the shortness of it so the shortness of our life may be the less grievous considering the misery of it for if God should lengthen out many mens lives what would it be but a lengthening of their misery But our life it is but a little while therefore let us endure it with comfort And as it serves for comfort so for instruction for if the life we live in here be but for a little while then learn to bestow this little time of life that we spend here as profitably and as faithfully as we can both for the receiving and doing of good Thou that livest now under a good Magistrate under a good Minister under a good Father under a good Master gain all the good thou canst now for peradventure they shall live nay certainly they shall live but a little while and when their life is once quenched thou kmowest not what light thou maist have to walk by And for our selves since our life is but a while let us be careful to do all the good we can be stirring betimes while we have opportunity let us do good to all It is the madness of the Epicures because they shall live but a while they will live only to themselves Let us eat and drink because we shall die to morrow and that is the reason they die as beasts because they care not to live as men When they sing out their first canto we will fill our selves with pleasure the burden of the song must be that we have wearied our selves with sin And it is the folly of the Mammonists considering that they have not long to live to put off the doing of all good till they die whereas the rule of Christ is to work while we have day for shortly the night will come when no man can work They contrary put off all their work till night all the day their charity sleeps and doth nothing as one said wittily that that men give then they give of other bodies then their own for they give that that they can keep no longer and though it be said to be given by their Will and Deed it is rather their Deed then their Will for if they could have their will it should never be their Deed they would rather be possessors of it themselves then that others should be their Executors but be exhorted to do works of charity and other good works while you have time while you may make your own eyes your overseers and your own hands your executors while you have oppertunity do good to your selves and others and the rather because you know not how long opportunity will be afforded or took from you For what is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little while Thus of the first circumstance wherein the resemblance consists the shortness of abiding The next is the suddenness of departing It appears for a while and then vanisheth away And here my discourse must be like a vapour short it suddenly vanisheth away that is the nature of a vapour for as there is no matter to give it a fixed foundation so when it appeareth for a little it soon dissolveth and vanisheth away to nothing and such a vapour is the life of man it is gone suddenly it is gone before we are aware and when it is gone there is no memory of it remains no print of it how suddenly and quickly in a moment in the twinckling of an eye have many been deprived both of breath and life as one would put out a candle or tread out a snuff It is true sickness is one common
partly out of love to God and partly out of fear of punishment this is acceptable to God For a man must love himself in subordination to the love of God and therefore he may look to the avoiding of evil and to the getting of good eternal to soul and body Now these fears we may consider of them thus The natural fear may be accompanied with the Spirit but it comes not from the Spirit that must be ordered by the word of God Secondly carnal fear comes not from the spirit nor is accompanied with it this is ever to be mortified this we must take heed of and this fear Abraham is exhorted against here Thirdly the fear that is servile it comes from the spirit but it is not accompanied with the spirit As the dawning of the day the Sun is the cause of it yet the Sun is not present when the day dawns but some glimps goes before him this we must cherish so as we bring it to filial fear and then we deal aright in that Lastly for filial fear we must cherish that at all times we must labour to get still a more reverent respect of the Majesty of God So I have briefly shewed you what fear is And what fear we must labour to be freed from all slavish and carnal fear in regard of the world or any thing in the world any ill that may befall us or any good that may be taken from us Now you see that a Christian is such a man as may live without all fear that is carnal Fear not them that can kill the body And in Isaiah 8.12 Fear not their fear What is the ground of this I will tell you briefly Christ came into the world to deliver us from all our enemies that we might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness Luke 1.47 So then the ground is this that man that hath no enemies that man that cannot possibly be molested with any evil what need he fear For there is no evil in the world that can surprize a man that is in covenant with God that labours to keep his covenant but by the power of the Spirit he may conquer it For only evil and evil future is the object of fear Now if there be no evil that can befall a child of God but such as may be conquered he should contemn it and not fear it Now all the enemies of a Christian are either reconciled or conquered and foyled and what then need he fear them For God that is an enemy to every man naturally he is reconciled Christ hath made our peace with God he hath made our attonement we need not fear him slavishly though we may and must fear him with a filial fear we must not be afraid of him with horrour as to run from him but we must so love him as to reverence before his foot-stool Again in regard of the evils of the world they are enemies too but how Christ hath been pleased to sweeten these to us all things in the world saith the Apostle speaking of afflictions Rom. 8. they work for good to them that fear God Shall a man be afraid of his own good Nay there is nothing in the world that more works our good then afflictions and losses and crosses we might spare any thing better then them shall we be afraid of that that works our good Death it is reconciled and made our friend It was the greatest enemy Christ hath pulled out the sting and changed the nature of it he hath made it the birth-day of eternity a sweet passage to a better life Death brings not evil to a man that is in covenant with God but rather terminates all evil that he is molested with in the world So then some enemies are reconciled and made our friends and these we have no reason to fear Again there are some that are irreconcileable and they are conquered and overcome The Divel will never be friends with us therefore Christ hath spoyled principalities and powers and trampled Satan under-feet and now if he walk about yet he is in his chain he can bite but he can hurt none but those that willingly betray themselves into his hands For sin it is of a condemning nature but those that are in covenant with God and walk with him it is removed as far from them as the East is from the West it is thrown into the bottomeless sea of Gods mercy so that it shall never anger God or hurt us any more then if we had not committed it Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect Nay more God hath bestowed his Spirit whereby he hath freed our hearts and whereby if a man labour to stir up the grace of God in him and to walk comfortably as he might in the presence of God he might through the power of God free his heart from these horrours and fears for faith the Apostle ye have not received the Spirit of bondage to fear again but ye have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father The Spirit of bondage casts down the soul mith horrour and fear but we have the Spirit of God to assure us that we have God for our Father reconciled in Christ and so by consequent that our sins are pardoned that death is overcome that Principalities and powers are spoyled and all things in the world though contrary in themselves yet they shall work for our good So you see the ground of it a Christian hath no enemies some enemies are reconciled and others are trampled under foot that they cannot hurt him And we receive this freedome by the Spirit of God that if we would stir it up and labour to walk as becometh Christians we may make our lives very comfortable Briefly for Application First let us all take notice of the command that God gives to Abraham of this incouragement and make use of it to our selves and know that the power of grace and Religion must reflect upon a mans self He beloved shall be accounted the best Christian before God and in the sight of judicious men whose Religion is practicall and reflects upon himself Now there are many busie ones in the world that meddle with the conversations of others and are still talking and complaining of things without themselves but surely he is a happy man that reformes himself and that sets in tune his own affections and passions as this in particular to labour to be without slavish and inordinate fear Alas we may complain of many that find fault with many things but if they look within there is a combustion of a great many unruly affections and passions and these are the things we never complain of we find not fault with our selves as we should we should take notice of the Law of God that it is spiritual to set in order our hearts and minds and souls as well as our tongues and hands The law of man reacheth but
of protection on the right hand and on the left That then that was the ruin of the Egyptians it was the protection of the Israelites So it is in regard of death that that is the entrance to the doleful misery of evil men that is the most blisseful and joyful day to a child of God that can be for then he rests from his labours and his works follow him But notwithstanding all this it is hard to live without fear I enjoy many things I am afraid to lose them and my children are afraid and loath to part with me my heart wavers and is full of perplexity how shall I be freed from this I know fear is a natural thing deeply rooted in nature think not to get the conquest wholly but by little and little Labour to get the Spirit of God that is supernatural that must overcome this for the strongest resolution of the most resolved spirit in the world will not overcome it it must be by a power that is stronger then our own namely by the Spirit of GOD that we being assured by the Spirit that God is our portion and living the life of faith we may not fear any thing in regard of this world Secondly labour to keep our covenant with God there is an admonition Numb 14.9 Only faith God remember you do not rebel against God and then fear not this people for God is with you but he hath for saken them The righteous is bold as a Lyon but the wicked fears and oft-times where there is no fear What is the reason we are so faint-hearted that we fear the loss of the things of this world because we are not assured that God is our portion for if a man were assured that what he loseth here God would make up in regard of his presence that he would be All in all instead of wife and goods and children and honours c. it is impossible that this man should fear the loss of any thing for he possesseth all in God and he cannot be lost In particular labour to strengthen faith make God our strong Tower and live by faith he shall not be afraid of ill tydings why his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord Psal 1.12 When men make the things of this world their portion when they make riches and the arme of flesh their portion that they must rely upon here is a reed that will either break or pierce a mans hand No wonder that this man fears in all occasions and extremities because he forsakes the Lord and cleaves to the creature But that man that lives by faith is without fear As Peter when he began to sink faith Christ Why dost thou fear O thou of little faith The reason he did sink was fear and why did he fear because his faith failed him he did not lay hold upon God and Christ Lastly let us remember to order our selves aright in regard of our love and this will keep us from inordinate fear For we must conceive that love is the fountain of all other affections we love things and therefore we desire them if they be absent and we rejoyce in them if they be present and we fear the loss of them to be abridged of them Now let us order our love aright in regard of the things of this world and we shall never fear much for it is the observation of S. Austin we fear to lose somewhat that we have attained or not to enjoy somewhat that we desire so it ariseth from love somewhat that we love and affect we are afraid of the loss of it and this is the cause of fear Now in regard of wealth a man is afraid he shall not have enough he shall not have a competency it is because he loves the things of the world too much A man is afraid of Death why because he loves his body too much A man is afraid he shall lose his children or his Friends what is the reason he loves them too much too inordinatly We should labour to love them only in and for God and then we shall not be afraid of the loss of them but shall be content to be disposed in them and in our selves as God shall see convenient in his heavenly wisdom A word for the occasion and that I will dispatch in a word You know the occasion of our meeting at this time and in this place it is to perform this last rite to the body of a Child that God hath taken lately to his mercy You see how Almighty God is pleased to dispose it sometimes even ost-times from the Cradle to the Grave out of the Swadling-bands to the winding-sheet God will have it so sometimes and when it is so we must lay our hands upon our mouths and be content with the will of God For those that are Parents let all learn this lesson not to dote too much upon their children not to be enamoured too much upon such flowers you know how soon God takes them away before you be aware It is not their wit or their comliness or agility and nimbleness or healthy constitution or any thing that can award them from the stroak of death when God sends it Therefore learn to love them in and for God for his sake and you shall have no cause to fear the loss of them or grieve immoderately when they are taken away why because they are all alive still to God and this tender Babe is not lost he is but sent before he is alive still in the presence of God the soul stillives and the body shall live and is in Gods account Christ hath the charge of it and will raise it at the last day That man can lose no friend that loves his friend in and for God because they live with God and he shall enjoy them at the last day Again as we may mourn for the loss of our friends and children or else we were without natural affection so we must rejoyce that they have gained as we have lost them as they are taken from us so they are taken from the evils of the world from a great deal of sin and misery and what that might have been the Lord only knows therefore we have cause to be thankful And beloved be thankful too if God spare any if he take one he might have taken all and prepare for it too be thankful for them that are lest And remember labour betimes to instruct your children in the fear of God let it be the first thing we infuse into them as soon as they be capable namely the elements of Christian Religion holy and heavenly things why because they may be taken away before we are aware It may be we have but a little time but a few opportunities to do good to them I tell you what our conscience will tell us else that we have not been so careful to instruct our children as they have been capable
before Christ so in judgment If not repent of thy guilt in this kind that thy sins may be done away when the time of refreshing shall come from the presence of Christ And in the mean time set thy self in a contrary course to that thou hast been do as one that would have Death find thee in a good course for as death leaves thee judgment shall find thee If Death find the in a state of repentance in a course of reformation of thy evil wayes judgment shall find thee so too Let Death therefore find thee as a man interest in Christ as a man humbling thy soul abhoring thy self for thy former sins let Death find thee as a man reforming all those evils that are condemned in the Word and in thy conscience Now when I say let Death find the so I mean set about it presently for how soon Death may set upon thee thou knowest not whether to night or no and if this be not now done if thou set not about it now it may be too late thou shalt have no more time therefore do that now and go on constantly after knowing that Death may find thee every moment Therefore it is that God keeps from us upon purpose as it were the certain knowledge of the time of Death that we may be alwayes prepared for Death SINNES STIPEND AND GODS MUNIFICENCE SERMON XXIX ROM 6.23 For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. THe latter part of this Chapter from the 12 Verse to the end is spent in a grave and powerful dehortation of the faithful from security in sin against which the Apostle useth sundry arguments That which he presseth most is drawn from the several ends to which sin and righteousness doth lead men The end of sin is death verse 21. therefore that is not to be served The end of righteonsness is life everlasting verse 22. therefore that is to be imbraced Because there is now difference in the manner of the proceeding of these two ends Death coming from sin as from the meritorious cause but life from Righteousness another manner of way therefore the Apostle adds this Epilogue and Conclusion in the last Verse plainly shewing and more clearly expressing the manner of them both For the wages saith he of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. In which words we have a description of a twofold service Of sin in the former clause And of God or righteousness in the latter And how both these are rewarded The one with death it payes us well And the other with life which is bestowed by the free gift of God through Christ These are the two parts the two general points that we are to consider First the wages of sin is death saith the Apostle Of sin That is of the depravation and corruption of our nature and so consequently of every sin that being not only it self sin but the matter and mother of all sin when sin hath conceived it bringeth forth death when sin is put forth whereby he signifieth the general depravation and corruption of our nature from whence all sin flowes So it is here The wages The word in the original signifieth properly victuals because victuals was that that the Roman Emperours gave their souldiers as wages in recompence of their service but thence the word extends to signifie any other wages or Salary whatsoever The wages of sin is death by death here is signified and meant both temporal and eternal death especially eternal death for it is opposed to eternal life in the next clause of the sentence therefore that is that that is principally meant The wages of sin is death that is eternal death This for the exposition of the terms The point to be observed from this first part of the Text is this that Death is due to sin as wages to one that earns it To such a one wages is due in strict justice if a man have a hired servant he may bestow a free gift on him if he will if he will not he may choose but his stipend or his wages he must pay him unless he will be unjust for it is the price of his work and so is due to him that he cannot without injustice with-hold it After such a manner is death due to sin the very demerit of the work of sin requires it as being eraned God is as just in inflicting death upon sinners for their sins as any man is in paying his labourer or hired servant their wages for this is the general plain scope of the Apostles words here So in the beginning God appointed Gen. 2.17 where he told Adam concerning the forbidden fruit in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shallt die the death As if he should have said when thou sinnest death must be thy wages The same is repeated Ezck. 18.20 where it is said the soul that sinneth shall die expressing the wages of sin it is death that is the recompence of sin if sin have his due then death must follow So the Apostle had shewed before in this Epistle Rom. 5.12 that by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin so death went over all men for as much as all men had sinned All had sinned therefore all are payed with death And Saint James shews the consequence and connexion between these two the work and the wages he tels us Jam. 1.15 that when sin hath conceived it bringeth forth death All these places are evidences that death by Gods ordinance by his appointment is the due of sin as due to it even as wages is to a hired servant or one that hath earned it What death is it that is due to sin Both temporal and eternal death I say both deaths concerning both which the truth is to be cleared from some doubts It was the Pelagians errour to think that man should have died a natural death though he had never sinned so they thought that the natural temporal bodily death was not the wages of sin Contrary to the Apostle in the place I speak of Rom. 5. where he makes that death that goes over all men which must needs be natural death to enter by sin sin brought in death no sin no death at all But it may be objected when God told Adam in the day that he eat the forbidden fruit he should die the death he meant not temporal death there as the event shewes for such a death was not inflicted upon Adam in the day that he sinned for after he sinned he lived still in the world naturally he continued living many years after I answer not withstanding all this Adam may be said to die a natural death as soon as he sinned because by the guilt of his sin he then presently became subject to it and God straight-way denounced upon him the sentence of death therefore it may
iniquity with God Therefore certain it is that after regeneration this original lust though the guilt of it be taken away yet as sin it remains the substance of it still remains and will as long as we live in this world For it is in us as it is well compared as the Ivy is in the wall which having taken root so twines and incorporates it self that it can never be quite rooted out till the wall be taken down so till body and soul be taken a sunder by death there will be no total riddance of Original corruption and the depravation of our nature it is still in us as appears by the temporal death even of the best Saints of those that are most sanctified in this life it shews there is remainders of corruption in them still for if there were not sin there would not be the wages of sin there would not be death if there were not sin Secondly the Use of it is to take away a fond Popish distinction of mortal and venial sin they teach some sins to be venial that is such sins as in their own nature deserve not death whereas the Apostle here speaking of all sin in general he saith the wages thereof is death And how can it be otherwise when all sin is the transgression of the Law and Saint John defines it and all transgression of the Law deserves and is worthy of the curse which is both the first and second death for Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are witten in the book of the Law to do them There is no sin then but it is worthy of death therefore there is no such venial sin as they dream of We deny not but that some sins are venial and some mortal in another sence not in respect of the nature of the sin but of the estate of the person in whom the sins are so we say all the sins of the Elect are venial because they either are or shall be pardoned And all the sins of reprobate persons are mortal because they shall never be pardoned It is the mercy of God and not from the nature of the sins that makes them venial for otherwise every sin in it self considered be it never so small is mortal for if it work according to its own nature it works death of body and soul It is a foolish exception that they bring against it that thus we make all sins equal and that we bring in with the Stoicks a parity of sin because we say all are mortal It is a foolish cavil for it is as if one should argue because the Mouse and the Elephant are both living creatures that therefore they are both of equal bigness Though all sins be mortal they are not all equal some are greater and some are lesser according as they are extended and aggravated by time and place and person and sundry other circumstances Suppose one should be drowned in the middest of the Sea and another in a shallow pond in respect of death all were one both are drowned but yet there is great difference in respect of the place for depth and danger So there is great difference in this though the least sin in its own nature be mortal as the Apostle saith here the wages of it is death Thirdly seeing the wages of sin is death it should teach us what Use to make of death being presented before our eyes at such times as this hereby we should call to remembrance the grievousness of sin that brought it into the world by the woful wages we should be put in mind of the unhappy service Had there not been sin there would have been no death upon the death of the soul came in the death of the body first the soul died in forsaking God and then the body died being forsaken of the soul the soul forsook God willingly therefore it was compelled unwillingly to forsake the body This is the manner how death came into the world by sin therefore death must put out sin That housholder when he saw tares grow among his wheat he said to his servants the envious man hath done this So whensoever thou feest Death seize upon any say to thy self sin hath done this this is the wages of sin and if man had never sinned we should have seen no such thing Fourthly this must deter us from sin since it gives such wages Indeed the manner of sin is for the most part if not alwayes to promise better but it is deceitful and this is the wages it payes thee The wages of sin is death The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated wages some take it quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the evening because wages are paid in the evening So the morning of sin may be fair but the evening will be foul when the wages come At the first sin may be pleasing but remember the end the end of it is death Like to a fresh River that runs into the salt Sea the stream is sweet but it ends in brackishness and bitterness Or like to Nebuchadnezzars Image the head was gold but the feet were of clay Or sin may be compared to that Feast that Absalom made for Amnon there was great chear and jollity and mirth for a while but all closed in Death in bloudshed and murther It deales with men as Laban dealt with Jacob he entertains him at the first with great complements but used him hardly at the last Or as the Governour of the feast said Joh. 2. All men in the beginning set forth good wine and then that which is worse so sin gives the best at the first but the worst it reserves for the last This should keep us from every sin though it seems never so pleasing and never so sweet to us remembring that the worst is still to come We read that when the people saw that Saul forbad them to eat though they were exceeding hungry yet not one of them durst touch the honey for the curse though they saw it so the pleasures of sin may drop as honey before our eyes but we must not adventure to taste of them because they are cursed fruit and because of the wages that will follow Never take sin by the head by the beginnings as the greatest part do but take it as Jacob took Esau by the heel look to the extream part of it Consider thy end and thou shalt not do amiss Jezabel might have allured a man when having painted her face she looked out of the window but to look upon her after she was cast out eaten of doggs and nothing remaining but her extream parts her scull and the palms of her hands and her feet it could not be but with horrour so sin may allure a man looking only on the painted face in the beginning but if a man cast his eye upon the extream parts it would then affright and deter him for the wages the end of
this a meeting for the solemnization of a Marriage I might further descan upon this plain-song that ariseth from the inference of Mens honouring of Women What have I said if it were a Marriage solemnity surely howsoever here be before our eyes the eyes of our bodies a visible object of mortality yet notwithstanding here is before us an invisible occasion of rejoycing as at a Marriage solemnity to the eye of our soul understanding and faith for while here we live in the world Jesus Christ our Spouse he hath his friends friends of the Bridegroom his Ministers and messengers that in his name come to us woo us use all the means that may be to move us to accept of Christ for our Lord and Husband When a man accepts of this offer there is then the contract consummated in regard of the Mutual consent that passeth between the one and the other Christ having his Proxies here we the Ministers being for him and every believing soul for himself This contract continueth so long as here we remain in this world when we depart the body is laid in the Bride-bed quietly to rest and sleep till the Bride-groom be pleased to come and awake his Spouse and it will be a blessed voyce that he shall come withal Come ye blessed of my Father receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world As for the soul that goeth immediatly to Christ and is in his Fathers house with him the Spouse in that part with her Husband the Lord Christ enjoying an eternal inviolable communion and sweet society But howsoever this is thus to the invisible eyes of the soul we now must look upon the object here before us and answerably order out matter and therefore with this touch I let pass the inference and come to the substance of the Text. You heard the sum you heard the parts But we must hear proceed Huesteron and Proteron and clean invert the order of the words as I hope your selves will discern if you do but well mark the order and method Life is in the last place grace before it the right that cometh before it and the extent of that right before all I suppose therefore you will think that first it is meet to lay forth the priviledge it self Life and then to speak of the ground of it then of the right that we have and then of the Extent of that right and this order I purpose to follow First therefore concerning the Priviledge it self Life For brevities sake I forbear to speak much of the divers acceptations of life and distinctions thereof as it is in the Creatour the only true God Father Son and holy Spirit or as it is the invisible and glorious creatures the Angels or as it is in men who are animated by a reasonable soul or as it is in those creatures that are guided only by sense Beasts Fowl Fish or otherwise as it Trees and Plants that come forth out of the earth having a vegetative life only The life here meant is that we call eternal life consisting in our communion with Christ our Spouse and this is a life proper to the Saints proper unto them because coming from the grace of God extended unto them alone proper unto them because they are heirs of it And in this extent there is a restraint howsoever the extent be in divers considerations yet a restraint a qualification only believers only found true Christians to them it is proper And this life is to be considered either in the Inchoation and beginning thereof or in the consummation and accomplishment thereof In regard of the Inchoation of this special life of the Saints it is here begun in this world I now live faith the Apostle speaking even of this life by the faith of the Son of God And the Just shall live by faith This life it is by Christs dwelling and living in us I now live yet not I but Christ liveth in me faith the Apostle in the place before quoted The other it is in the world to come and it is by a sweet feeling and fruition it is by our abiding with Christ and living with him in which respect faith our Lord Christ to the penitent believer upon the Cross This day the very day that he dyed shalt thou be with me in Paradise and so Saint Paul saith of himself I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ implying that upon the dissolution immediatly there is a fruition a communion with Christ And the same Apostle speaking of those Saints that shall be upon the earth at the very moment of Judgment when the dead faith he are raised then shall we also that are alive and remain be cought up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the ayr and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Now then mark here you see the soul hath present communion with Christ upon the dissolution of the body and the body also shall have communion with him at the great day of the Resurrection of all flesh Now this life and communion with Christ is proper to the Saints by vertue of their union with Christ A mistical union For Christ the Son of God he is life originally in himself for as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself He is also Life communicatively communicating life unto us therefore he is said to be the Bread of life and in this sence because he is that Bread which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world The Use of this point my brethren is manifold I will but touch it First it doth instruct us in the great love and good respect that God beareth to us children of men that of his own good pleasure hath written our names in the book of life and hath sent his Son to purchase life for us and to bring us also to this life Beloved what love the Father hath shewed to us in Christ Secondly this is a demonstrrtion of the woful plight wherein naturally men are in this world they may seem to be of some account they have a life that is far different from the life of Plants and also from the life of Beasts they have a reasonable soul to animate them Oh but this this is not the life Natural life indeed is a death compared to this life that is here noted to be proper to the Saints which cometh by grace wherof we are heirs and therefore of all natural men it may be said as the Apostle said of the wanton Widdow she is dead while she liveth even so are all such dead while they live dead in sins and trespasses and if so be those that are in this kind dead continue so till the death of the body seize upon them wo wo wo to them upon this followeth an eternal death endless easeless
and remediless torment upon body and soul for ever Thirdly the Saints have here consolation against the mortality and corruption whereto they are subject here in this world wherein their condition is common with the condition of all for that that befalleth one may befall every one in regard of the outward estate and condition All must die Nay further here is consolation against the distresses and afflictions and pressures whereto the Saints are subject above others for their profession sake in this very respect they are hated they are persecuted all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution and through many afflictions we must enter into the kingdom of heaven Where is now there comfort surely this that is set before us you heard that natural men are dead while they live but those that are in Christ do live while they may seem to be dead Jonah lived when he was cast into the Sea swallowed up by a Whale and was even as it were in hell so the Saints though swallowed up as we may say in the tempestuous sea of this world by cruel Whales yet notwithstanding they stil live that life that is begun here in the world whereof you heard before And to this purpose the Apostle Saint Paul in 2 Cor. 4.9 10 11 12. sheweth plainly that though they are given up unto death daily for Jesus sake yet they are not destroyed not clean swallowed up but that they live in Christ and that Christ liveth in them We are perplexed but not in despair perseouted but not forsaken c. And this is it that doth comfort them both the fruition of that life that they have here and their expectation of the accomplishment and fulness thereof in the kingdom of heaven Now my brethren this is the rather to be observed of us because of all others the Saints seem to be most subject to death And the truth is here is matter of admiration in regard of their happiness that notwithstanding that condition whereto they are subject there is a life they enjoy in this world there is a better life prepared for them hereafter And what can be more desired Life of all things else is most esteemed Men are ready in sickness and in other distresses to spend all that they have as the Woman that was troubled with the bloudy issue spent all that she had upon the Physitians to preserve life to recover health Solomon speaking according to the conceit of men saith that a living Dog is better then a dead Lyon any life better then a death thus they imagine and Satan well knew mens account of life when he could say Skin for skin yea all that a man hath will be give for his life Now if so be that this temporal life here that is but a flower but a bubble but a blast but a breath yea that life that in the shortness thereof is subject to so much perplexity as it is be notwithstanding so highly esteemed what is the life here promised that while here in the enjoying in regard of the first fruits thereof is accompanied with such a peace as passeth understanding accompanied with the very joy of the Holy Ghost and in the consummation thereof such contentment such glory as the tongue of man cannot express the mind of man cannot conceive It is noted of the Apostle Saint Paul when he was caught up to the third heaven and saw but a glimps of this life he did there see they are his own words unutterable matter things that cannot be exprest And therefore in this respect he saith and that which he saith may be most fitly applied to this the things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath entred into the heart of man are such as God hath prepared for them that love him This is that Life which we are so to consider of as it may make us say with the Apostle I account that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be campared with the glory which shall be revealed in us for our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory It will be here said whence cometh this or what may be the ground thereof My Text telleth you It is stiled here Grace of Life Neither will I here insist upon the divers acceptations of grace as it is in man as it is Gratis data or as it is in God as it is Gratis faciens making us accepted with himself It is more clear then need to be proved that eternal life it cometh from divine grace Grace is the ground of it Being justified by grace saith the Apostle and again by Grace you are saved And indeed all things that bring us thereto are in Scriptures attributed to Grace And needs must it be so For First out of God there can be nothing done to move him to do this or that as if it should be done for our sakes either meriting or procuring of it He is independant and we are depending upon him and whatsoever we have is out of our selves and cometh from him Again in Man there can be nothing What is there in man but misery whatsoever man had or hath if there be any good thing he hath it from this fountaine of goodness all our sufficiency is of God And this is briefly to be noted against that proud and arrogant position of our Adversaries concerning the merit of mans works as if man by any thing in him could merit or deserve this life it is not the merit of life but the grace of life Surely they know not God they know not his infiniteness his all-sufficiency they know not man his emptiness his impotency his vileness his cursedness they know not this life they know not the reward the excellency of it the disproportion between any thing that man can do and this life that is thus graciously bestowed that have such a conceit Let them therefore pass with their foolish opinion For our own parts it affordeth to us another ground of comfort and that in regard of our unworthiness for as we are creatures we are less than the least of Gods mercies but as we are mortal creatures dust and ashes much more unworthy of any favour but as we are sinful creatures having provoked the Justice of God most most unworthy of any grace of any life most worthy of all judgements and vengeance of eternal death and damnation Where is now our hope what ground shall we have that have nothing in our selves surely this the ground of this life the grace of God What God doth he doth for himself for his own names sake Grace is free And these two joyned together give evident demonstration of God to be a God in the thing that he doth confer upon thee and in his dealing of it the greatness of the
and hindred by it from doing the good which thou shouldest certainly death will be to thee the biginning of thy thraldome and after it thou shalt be a perpetual bondslave unto Satan in the kingdome of etetnal darkness Mark this all ye that take delight in evil to whom it is a pastime to do wickedly and who seek rather how to satisfie then how to suppress your own corruptions who repute it a kind of happiness to follow the swing of your own lusts and to have liberty to do as your own hearts do lead you when you die this shall be your reward even a most miserable and endless captivity under Satan him have you served in the lusts of sin while ye lived his slaves shall you be without hope of releasement world without end This is the right Application of this Doctrine death is a day of enlargement to the godly it is a dismission The next particular is that it is a dismission accompanied with peace the lesson we are taught hence is that The servants of God have at their going out of the word a comfortable quiet and peaceable departure Thus Simeon here he prayed for no other thing but that his end might be as the end of the Righteous is ever wont to be even a departure hence in peace Hence is that general rule of the Psalmist Mark the perfect man and behold the upright man for the end of that man is peace Agreeable whereunto is that of Solomon that the righteous hath hope in his death And memorable to this purpose is that which is storied of old father Jacob shewing unto us the quiet end of the Righteous He gathered up his feet into the bed and so gave up the Ghost It was the blessing promised to Abraham that he should go to his fathers in peace And the same was made to good Josias There is a twofold reason hereof First the assurance which they have of the favour of God in Christ This must needs breed quietness when I am perswaded in my soul and conscience that all cause of danger after death is removed and that God is and will be gracious unto me in his Son What cause of fear is here lest what occasion of perplexity If any man shall doubt whether the servants of God have this assurance I prove it thus that all of them first or last have it in some good measure If any man faith the Apostle have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Hence it necessarily followes that all that are Christs have the Spirit of Christ but now the office of the Spirit is to bear witness with our spirit So that all that are the Lords as they are endued with Gods Spirit so they feel this Spirit bearing witness to their souls of this Adoption Secondly the comfortable Testimony of their own consciences touching their former care to glorisie God by a Religious and godly conversation Hence came Saint Pauls peace I have saith he fought the good fight I have kept the faith Therefore I am sure there is laid up for me a Crown of life Hence Hezekiahs I have walked before thee oh Lord in truth and with a perfect heart Not that they do ground their hope upon the desert of their fore-ran courses but because they know good works to be the way and do understand by the Scripture that a holy life here is the first fruits of a glorified life hereafter Thus we see the truth of this point and the reasons upon which it is grounded Now here some may object first We see many worthy men that have made a great and an extrordinary profession of Religion in their lives and which have also carried themselves unblamable yet to give appearance of much anguish and perplexity and even of a kind of despair in their death How can we say then that all good and holy persons have a peaceable departure I answer first We ought to remember the Rule our Saviour gives not to judge according to the outward appearance It is a very weak argument to say that this or that man dyeth without peace because to the standers by he makes not shew of peace Certaine it is that as a man may have peace with God and yet himself for a time by reason of some tentation not feel it so a man being sick or going out of the world may feel it and yet others that behold him cannot perceive it Secondly we must know that these outward unquietnesses which do many times accompany sickness do happen as well and as ordinarily to good men as to the most wicked such as are ravings and idle-talkings and strange accidents in the body in this sence all things come alike to all God hath made no promise in Scripture that those that serve him shall be freed in their deaths from violent sicknesses Therefore these things must not be thought to be any abridgment of their peace Thirdly we must consider that with the best servants of God Satan is most busie when his end is neerest and when he is as it were out of all hope of prevailing The red Dragon in the Revelation had greatest wrath when he knew his time to be short When the evil Spirit was commanded once to come out of the child then it rent him sore Now these temptations though for the time they be very violent and extream so that the party may happily utter out some words and speeches of dispair yet be they no final prejudice to the inward peace Interrupt they may but utterly quench it they cannot because the power of God is made perfect through weakness And so even in death Satan receives the greatest foil when he thinks to get the greatest victory Thus then I answer in one word The peace of Gods servants at death is not ever in the like measure felt by them but yet it never dieth in them they which behold their death do not alwayes see it yet they themselves sooner or later are sure sweetly and secretly to feel the same My reason for my assertion is grounded first upon that of the Apostle God commands light to shine out of darkness He brings his servants to Heaven by the gates of hell out of sorrow and anguish and tentation he raiseth out their greatest quiet Secondly because the love of God is eternal and unchangeable Whom he loves he loves to the end It is impossible that the Lord albeit he try and that sharply yer should finally for sake those that are his in their greatest extremity But again secondly if you make a peaceable death to be the reward of the Righteous what say you to this There be many that in all their life gave little evidence of any Religion or grace but of the contrary rather yet in their death were very quiet and still and seemed to all that were by to have in them no manner of vexation no
that way for which thou didst receive them The time may come wherein you may desire to do good but cannot wanting an estate and opportunities whereby to do it Mark what Solomon faith Wilt thou trust in a thing of nothing for Riches have wings as an Eagle and fly away toward heaven It is the vanity of men that they still forbear and stay while their estates increase pretending that then they shall be better able to do good and extend themselves more largely or that they may keep their wealth and wait for a better opportunity But why with thou trust in a thing of nothing Thou seest a fowl in her flight and now it may be thou perceivest it but instantly it vanisheth out of thy sight Why riches have wings faith Solomon Thou hast them now in thy possession and retainest them fast in hold but presently they are departed they fly as an Eagle out of thy sight And the same wise man when he exhorteth men to cast their bread upon the waters He gives them this reason Thou knowest not what evils thou knowest not what judgments and calamities God intends to bring upon that Nation where thou livest upon the City upon the Family where thou dwellest upon thy person or estate Thou knowest not what evils God will bring upon the earth And so likewise charge rich men in this world that they be not high-minded and that they trust not in uncertain riches but in the living God that they be ready to distribute and to communicate and to do good works What is it that hinders men from distributing and communicating Because they trust in uncertain Riches For if they would now learn not to trust in uncertain Riches but account them uncertain as they are and put confidence in the living God who can provide for them when those outward means which they so much rely on fail their expectations they would then be more liberal and bountiful and ready to do good and to communicate So then here is the meaning of the point Take the opportunities of life That is first take the time of life while you may do good and then take the means the wealth and estate which is the time of your means For this observe Jobs case he goes on discoursing of this very point he was now a man stript of all he had but the other day the Richest man in the East the Sabeans and Caldeans had carried away his goods his cattel and his children and all things were taken from him Yet there was one thing that administred comfort in the day of his adversity and his affliction And it was this faith he If I have made the eyes of the poor to fail or if I eat my morsels alone or if I have not relieved the fatherless c. If I have not done thus and thus then let the Lords fiercest judgment fall upon me But herein consists my comfort my conscience bears me witness that when I had wealth and estate and enjoyed the goods of this life I did good I was father to the fatherless a foot to the lame and eyes to the blind I did all the good that lay within the compass of my power to do when I had means to do it I say little do you know beloved whatsoever thou art whatsoever estate thou hast though thou be as a nail fastned in a sure place and thinkest thou shalt never be moved from this condition Thou knowest not how soon God may turn his hand upon thee when thou maist be as Job was on the dunghil deprived of all comforts What will be thy consolation then that when thou hadst wealth thou didst good with it It will add to thy affliction that thou hadst great possessions and didst neither glorifie God nor do good to men So much for the opening of the point I come to apply it First then it serves for the reproof of many to whom God hath given the price in their hands But they want hearts to embrace the opportunities of doing good They pretend to do good and have a mind inclining to good But they have no heart to take the opportunities and advantages of times and means which God hath bestowed on them for the same purpose they want hearts to embrace those Remember what Solomon faith Say not to thy neighbour go and come again to morrow If it be now in thine hands to give him The Lord will not only have a man not deny to do good but besides that he would not have him delay to do good put him not from thee till to morrow if his help remain in thine hands to day yea though thou have a purpose to do it to morrow if it be in thy power to day do it and defer it not till to morrow But what shall we say to those who do not only delay their purposes but by protracting lose their purposes There is nothing more ordinary then in some cases for men not only to purpose truly but to promise heartily to God that they will perform these and these acts of mercy if God will deliver them from such fears and dangers as they at such times are incompast with A man that endures extremity of weather in a tempestuous Sea if happily he may attain the land in safety a man that is diseased with sickness if now he may recover his health again or one that suffers imprisonment if he may procure his liberty or a man that is in fear of the loss of his estate by the means of some unhappy casualty if now he may escape that loss he will bestow a great deal on God and on the servants of God nay he promises and vows unto God in his extremity But how many of those promises as well as those other purposes come to nothing they have liberty they receive health they enjoy safety and have the full fruition of all their desires but alas how short come their vows of performance not one of many of them but turns God away without his bargain Remember how the Lord taxeth the people of Israel In the day of their distress and the Lord reckons up divers and sundry troubles they were in then they speak good words to God they would cleave to him and promised to do thus and thus But thus faith the Text They flattered the Lord with their lips and were false in the Covenant with God Is it not it so beloved with many of us Oh that your hearts might smite you this day before the Lord for many purposes and promises that you have made of doing this or that for the glorifying of God and the discharge of your duty One man hath promised restitution of unjust gain another to become more liberal and bountiful toward others And the Lord hath waited week after week moneth after moneth and year after year and yet nevertheless you continue the same men either unsensible or careless to accomplish your promise to God or
rendring unto him his due That is the first Vse Secondly let it stir up every one of us to a care of his duty of embracing opportunities And when we perswade you to take opportunities we would draw you a degree higher not only to take them but to seek them for how shall a man obtain the advantage of taking opportunities if he first seek them not and therefore we perswade you to that We see Abraham sitting in the door of his Tent that he might observe opportunities of doing good he stayed not till the men knocked at his door for reliefe but took notice of their passing by that he might call them We see a good old man in Judges 19. As he perceives a stranger passing the streets first takes occasion to question his wants and forbears not till the man complain so willing was he to administer to his necessities and to embrace a fit opportunity of doing him good We see David expressing his thankfulness to God and to Jonathan He enquires if there were any of the house of Saul that he might shew him kindness for Jonathans sake So should we do Is there any of the houshold of Faith as the Text faith and as the Scripture calls them unto whom I may shew kindness for the Lords sake He hath been better to us then Jonathan was to David and yet we are much more backward to Retribution and expressions of thankfulness then David was to Jonathan But the Scriptures are plentiful in this we need not stand on it I say this is a duty that every one should discharge this task not to stay and forbear till the reports of mens wants are brought to them but to be circumspect and seek for all accasions that may deserve the extent of their goodness If you live in a Parish wherein happily there remains not many poor yet you live in a City there are many there if there be not many in the City you live in a Country in a Kingdom doubtless where there are many if there be none there yet thou hast further means to extend thy charity Thou livest in a Church is there any member of the Church in all the World dispersed in Bohemia in the Palatinate in any place of the earth where the poor abide enquire after them that you may know their wants and relieve their necessities I come now to the second from the determination of time to the declaration of duty while we have time Let us do good I told you what this goodness is in the intent of the Apostle in this place Doing good is a releeving those that are in necessity for that is the Apostles meaning as we may see in the context and coherence of these words with the former So then the main Point is no more but this It is the duty of Gods servants as to make advantage of their times so to employ themselves in releeving of others Take it more briesly It is a doing good to releeve others that is the duty of Gods servants and it well becomes them to be employed in this work while we have time on earth and means to do it to employ our selves in doing good and relieving others And there is familiar appearance of this in Scripture and by reasons also By Scripture it is commanded in precept and commended in practise of the Saints If any of thy brethren among thee be poor faith God thou shalt not harden thy heart thou shalt not shut up thy hand against thy poor brother The not opening of the hands to relieve him God accounts that as proceeding from the hardness of the heart Thou shalt not harden thy heart against thy brother c. Cast thy bread upon the Waters for after many dayes thou shalt find it Is not this the fast that I have chosen for a man to give his bread to the hungry and that a man should release those that are in Captivity and to let the oppressed go free The Apostle wisheth that as they abounded in knowledge and in vertue and in faith and goodness so they might abound also in this Grace of God The Grace of God that he there speaks of is the willing readiness to the doing of good To do good and to distribute forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased You see thereby doing good he means distribution the latter word doth prove the former and both explain this Text. You have it likewise commended in the practice of the Saints I need not be large in discoursing to you the carriage of Abraham of Lot of David of Job the practice of Cornelius yea of Christ himselfe The Scripture is plentiful in this I and that which is more to be observed that although Christ himselfe were relieved by others yet out of that he gave a share to the poor It wil appear likewise in reason that this is a necessary duty and these may be taken First from the equity of it for it is equal you should thus employ your time and estate and those advantages of life which God hath made you doner of partly to that purpose and a man commits an injury in neglecting these holy duties and is not only become an unmerciful but an unjust man and so in the plainest phrase a dishonest man he is not just that doth not thus Therefore with-hold not the good from the owner thereof faith God when it is in thy power to give The poor is owner of the estate of the rich so farr as his necessity requires it and it proves but a matter of justice and equity to bestow his riches where it ought to be bestowed and a man is unjust in that respect if he do it not Riches are called unrighteous mammon as hath been expressed before when they are unrighteously with-held from them to whom they should be given as well as when they are unrighteously gotten So that detaining it from those unto whom it is appointed by Gods direction converts that riches perchance honestly procured into the mammon of unrighteousness Secondly as it becomes a matter of justice so it proves likewise a matter of wisedome a man makes wise provision for the present and the future also by this course And therefore it makes way for the felicity of the servants of God to employ their endeavours in the execution of this duty and to lay fast hold on the forehead of opportunity First it proves a consequent of wisedome for themselves in procuring their own good Blessed is the man that judgeth wisely of the poor why so The Lord will consider him in the day of evil and he will not give him over to the will of his enemies What is the thing that a man is most subject to fear in this World but that which David faith concerning Saul I shal fall sometime or other by the hands of some enemy of some mischievous person or malicious person or other You
Minister that was with her asking how she that had a Husband and Children enjoying an estate and many other comforts could be willing to forgo so many blessings and exchange them all for death She from that inward sence and perswasion of Gods love to her in Christ concluded my Husband is dear and my Children are dear to me but Christ is dearer Therefore I am willing to forgo Husband and Children and all the contents you can number in this life that I might live with Christ to partake of greater felicity then this world can afford me And now the Lord Jesus hath received her into his own protection and satisfied her expectation with the performance of his love But wherefore have we spoken all this what that we might add any praise unto the dead no But to quicken those that are living and incite them to the like duty Some may think it impossible there should be such activeness in doing of good and such unwearedness in performing of the acts of mercy and where say they shall we find such an example you have it before your eyes and know that examples will rise in judgment against you and condemn you as well as precepts If you follow them not while they invite you The Text saith Do good to all especially to the houshold of faith And here is an example before our eyes of one who took her time and opportunity to do good to all especially to them of the houshold of Faith Go thou and do likewise DEATH PREVENTED OR MORTALITY CHANGED SERMON XL. JOB 14.14 All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait to my change come THis Book of Job comprehends the History of a good man and of his many tryals Though goodness deliver from Hell yet it priviledgeth not from temptatious or crosses yea the more eminent Holiness is many times the more it is exposed to sharp and manifold assaults Job is set upon on all sides he found the Devil a fore enemy and his great estate a suddain shipwrack his Children in a moment crusht to pieces He had but three Points of Land to look at in this troublesome sea and every one of them seemed rather to augment than to lessen the storm His Wife whose breath should have sweetned and eased his grief was an impatient vexation His friends whose counsels and compassions should have been an easie harbour and tender relief they became his bitter and censorious judges Yea his God who by his own testimony he served and feared with singular uprightness and whose bowels are ever tender and compassionate to such and upon whose gracious acceptance he thought to quiet and anchor his troubled spirit yet anon he seemed not only a stranger but an enemy and this went deep that even Mercy it self seemed cruel and Kindness so unkind and harsh But what was his behaviour under all these For the general sweet and heavenly For some particulars sad and weak when saith did work he was above all his storms In the deepest calamity saith can settle and compose the soul and fill it with the sweetest comforts When sence and nature did work then he was much impatient and the wind had the better over him In the one be shews himself a Christian In the other a man In the one Job is beyond himself in the other below himself According to the time and manner of these several workings he is like or unlike himself Thus it is with the best whose outward change doth not more vary but their inward carriage doth as much change At length Job after many disputes with his friends and conflicts with himself concenterates his thoughts in two main Points 1. One was still to trust in God let him be what he will and let him do what he will though he should continue his present trials yea and exceed them though he should kill me yet saith he Chap. 13.15 though he stay me I will trust in him and there he disposeth of his soul 2. Another was to prepare for death all the dayes of my appointed time I will wait till my change come and there he disposeth of his body Many arguments he layeth down in this Chapter which did occasion him to these thoughts and resolutions The first is the brevity of mans life Vers 1 2. Man that is born of a Woman is of few dayes he cometh forth like a Flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not He saith not years nor moneths nor weeks but dayes and these dayes not many but few and these few dayes not long but short as quickly set as the shadow as quickly cropt as the flower Secondly the misery of that short life in the same place and full of trouble as if every Article of life were replenished with sorrow even as every vein of the body is with bloud this his own experience could tell him Thirdly the certainty of Death The Sun hath his appointed race which in the Winter is short in the Summer long but in both it hath a certain time of setting so the race of mans life to some it may be shorter to some longer but the night will come and all must be closed up in Death vers 5. His dayes are determined the number of them they are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds which be cannot passe and if so then high time for Job to think of it and prepare for it Death began in a manner to seize on him already in several parts in his feet for his wealth was gone in his loynes having lost his children in his heart his friends leaving him in his bosome for his wife was a discomforter nay in his very life it self so much as was wrapt up in the outward part of his body for that was diseased in his speech and spirits they grow hoarse and faint all these were the harbingers of a future dissolution Well therefore might Job conclude ever I must not live and long I cannot live therefore though in much misery and in had dayes I will think of Death and fit my self for a good end and apply my self seriously and wisely for a good work All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait till my change come Which words contain in them two parts First his future dissolution which he calls a change and a change that is coming upon him as if he had been the next man till my change come Secondly his present disposition I will wait he thinks of death before death and prepares to die while yet he lives Neither was this a death pang a sit a humour which began quickly and expired suddenly Nay he will make it a serious business as if this should be his every dayes work All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait Some read it of my appointed warfare and others of my appointed labour they all intimate that he means by his appointed time his appointed life the lease or term of breathing which
God had allotted allowed and decreed There are two propositions which naturally issue from the words and comprehend the juyce and marrow of the Text. First that there is a change which will befall the sons of men Secondly we should alwayes wait till it come I begin with the first that There is a change which will befall the sons of men Be we poor or be we rich be we noble or be we ignoble be we prosperous or be we afflicted be we strong or be we weak be we old or be we young be we good or be we bad be we male or be we female whatsoever our natures be whatsoever our parrs be whatsoever our places be whatsoever our ages be whatsoever our courses be whatsoever our wayes be how fair and how durable our estates may appear yet at length there is a change which will befall us That which Jacob spake in a pathetical way Joseph is not and Simeon is not may truly be said of all the sons of men once they were now they are not though once we reckoned them upon our account yet at length they are shut out and stand aside as cyphers But that you may the better understand what change it is that is here meant you are to know that there is a fourfold change First a change of the condition this I call a temporal change wherein some or more or all of our outward comforts are shrivelled and seared up by some present misery When poverty breaks in upon us as the hunter doth upon his game and causeth our riches as so many birds to which Solomon compares them to take to themselves wings and flie away When sickness stayeth our health in the bed and imprisoneth us to the chamber When our friends glide away from us like a river through their Apostacy or start aside like a broken bow through their falshood or treachery When the neer relation of Husband and Wife Parents and Children is cut asunder and the many sad tears for their loss imbitter all our former comforts But this is not the change intended in the Text. Secondly there is a change of the Body and this I call a corporal change for even these vild bodies of ours shall be changed Look as the spring is a refreshing change to the season of the year so shall the Resurrection be an exceeding change to our bodies or as the morning is a change to the night so at the Resurrection shall our bodies awake and their corruption shall put on incorruption neither is this the change which Job here intends immediatly though some expound his aim to be at this from whom I cannot absolutely dissent yet I think they hit not the right scope Thirdly there is a change of the Soul that I call a Spiritual change wrought in the soul by the spirit of God nothing makes in this life such a change as true grace We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 This change is like the turning of a disordered instrument or like the refining of corrupt mettal or like the clearing of the dark air or like the quickening of a dead Lazarus but neither is this change that the text intends Fourthly there is a change of the life and this I call a mortal change we shall all be changed faith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.5 life hath the first course but death will have the second As in a Comedy several persons have several parts to act which when they have dispatched they all draw off of the stage so though in life we all present our selves on the stage of this world and act several Scenes and parts yet at length we must all retire and pass away through one and the same door of mortality This is the change which Job speaks of to wit a change of this life by Death Here then are two things to be demonstrated and proved for the making good of the point in hand viz. 1. That death is a change 2. That this change of death will befall all the sons of men First that Death is a change not an anihilation A change is a different and a divers order or manner of being Anihilation is one thing and mutation is another thing there the thing ceaseth utterly to be here the thing only ceaseth to be as once it was so it is with Death it doth not reduce us to nothing but alter our former something it changes our manner or order of being not our being absoluteâ—…y Now observe Death is a change in five respects First it changes that neer union of the Soul and the body and makes of one two severals they that were as the hands mutually clasped or as two persons conjugally tyed together when Death comes it plucks them asunder and divides one from the other as far as heaven is from the earth Secondly it changes our actions or work Whiles life remained here in our bodies while our day lasted we might have sed the hungry clothed the naked visited the sick relieved the distressed frequented the ordinances bewailed our sins but when death once enters the night is come in which no man can work thou art then turned changed into an insensible rotten and loathsome carkass Thirdly it changes our country Whiles we live here we are as children put abroad to school in a strange place hence it is we are so often in the Scripture called Pilgrims and strangers This earth this lower world is not the proper home of the Soul But when Death comes we change our country we go home to our own place to our own City the wicked shall go to their own place as it is said of Judas and the godly to their own Mountain to their own Kingdome Fourthly it changes our company In this life we converse with sinful men empty creatures infinite miseries innumerable conflicts but when Death comes all this shall be changed we shall go to our God and Father to our Christ and Saviour and to the innumerable company of blessed Angels and Saints and the spirits of just men made perfect Fifthly it changes our outward condition When Death comes thou shalt never see the wedge of gold again thou shalt never find thy delights in sin any more all the excellency of the creature and the contentments of them and the sensual rejoycing in them shall go out with life Death shall shut and close them up in an eternal night which shall never rise to another day So much for the first thing that Death is a change I come now to speak briefly of the second that this change of Death will besal all the sons of men Psal 89.48 What man is he that liveth and shall not see death shall be deliveâ—… his soul from the hand of the grave We love to see most things the eye is never satisfied with seeing and yet
this life yet in death thy hands must open â—…emselves and let it go thou must not hold the world above thy life nor thy life beyond the day of death no we cannot alway have that which we desire we must certainly part with what we most esteem of Secondly what comfort is this to a good soul If we had hope only in this life faith Saint Paul we of all men are most miserable 1 Cor. 15. Death is a happy change to a holy person First it is a change which shall put a period to all his changes in this life his outward condition how oft doth it change sometime by joy and sorrow sometime by comfort and misery by health and sickness by abundance and want but when Death comes all sorrow shall fly away for ever thou shalt never be more troubled with a sick body with a sad estate with common losses but the change of a temporal life shall set thee in a full and settled possession of an heavenly His inward condition how oft doth it change sometime free anon distressed now a sweet view of heaven anon darkned with fear now rejoycing in Christ anon buffeted with Sathan now blessing God for grace anon distracted with the insolent workings of remaining corruptions but when death comes then comes a change of all this it will release thee for ever of sin and Sathan after death sin shall be a burden no more and Sathan shall be a tempter no longer but thou shalt be as happy as thou canst desire and shalt enjoy thy God and thy Christ without fear of trouble in glory in felicity in eternity all the cruel insolencies of tyrants shall come short of thy soul thou shalt be above their malice and beyond thy self Secondly it is a change and no worse then a change just as Joseph changed his garments and went into Pharaoh so thou shalt put off thy body and go into glory put off thy mortality and go into immortality Oh what terrour to wicked men a day of change will befal them Why didst thou say Oh David there is no bands in their death and they are not in changes like other men Verily I should have checked thee hadst thou not recanted it presently thy self Psal 73.4,17,18,19 and reported it to us that they are set in slippery places and are brought into desolation and cast down into destruction in a moment and utterly consumed with terrour Good Lord what a change is that to them they judged with insolent and unrighteous judgment the Children of God now but death will change this the unjust steward shall be called to a an account and he that beat his fellow servant shall be eternally judged by a righteous God and their honour shall sinck in the dust neither shall their riches deliver them from wrath but they shall see him whom they have peirced and persecuted and shall not be able to escape his presence A dismal thing will this be that a man shall have his honour die and the great God put disgrace upon him a dismal change indeed when a man shall see all his power changed into impotency his pleasures into torment and wrath put upon his soul when God shall seperate thee from his presence thou shalt not have a drop of ease nor any friend to assist thee nor any hope of comfort thou shalt be stript of them all in a monent shall a change of all this be O consider this if there be any here that forget God least he tear you in pieces and there be none to help remember and consider your latter end and apply your hearts to wisdome Last of all shall there be a change that shall befal every son of man then Oh that this people were wise as Moses faith that they would remember their latter end all the dayes of our appointed time to wait till our change come What do you think of servants to whom you had committed servile imployments till you came home and if when you come home they were absent and you found one in the street drunk another in a chamber with a strumpet how would you take this Brethren think upon it we are Gods servants or should be two things are imposed upon us one to honour God another to save our own souls if he find us doing the works of the Devil and the flesh and find us in the works of the world how will he take this Come faith God I have lent you a life thus many years I told you what you should be and what you should do and what have you been doing all this life what have your works been what courses have you taken are these the fraits of your wayes to have a life run over with ignorance with prophaness c. Alus when a man at that time shall have nothing to say but Loâ—…d I have lived in such a sin all my dayes I have fulfilled my own desires thou hast for me in this World and I have laboured to get a great estate all my dayes Another may say I have spent my time in 〈◊〉 society c. What will God say to these men are these the endings of thy life the fruits of thy opportunities where is the repentante I called for at thy hands where is that godly sorrow that I called for for the sins of thy life did not I send thee into the world for this end to get Grace to get Faith to make up thy accounts with me thy God and hast thou no regand to it Well thou hast been foolish inconsiderate for the time that is past yet now understand that a day of change will besal thee O let us be perswaded I beseech you be perswaded to it in this our day to know the things that concern our peace whilest it is called to day not to hearden our hearts whilest it is called to day not to deser our repentance thou art not assured of any more time then present Death may meet with thee as thou sittest in thy feat as thou goest out of the Church doer and thou knowest thy heart hath been wicked oh why wilt thou set thy eternal estate upon so small a point as it were the cast of a Die Remember what Daniel said to Nabuohadnezzar let it have acceptance with thee break off thy sine by repentance c. Seeing we must die and appear before the judgment feat of God what manner of persons ought we to be in all holiness of life and conversation as soon as we are we begin to sin and as soon as we are we begin to die let us look upon our account and be faithful to our souls perhaps thy accounts are yet to make oh be sure to let it be the first thing thou doest and give thy self no rest till thou hast done it and when thou hast done this labour to clear it with the bloud of Christ labour by humble confession and hearty repentance to turn unto the Lord go on
the one nor the soul in the other Fourthly whence are these mourners if they are mercenary and bired from home they are no true mourners if they are true mourners they keep their Closets they gad not about the streets they shut themselves long at home for their friends that are gone to their long home To dispel all this mist of obscurity and set a light upon each of the material words of the Text. I answer To the first Qnerie that a man is here to be taken neither Collectivè for all mankind in a lump nor Distributivè for ever particular man without exception but indefinite or communiter for man in the ordinary course or tract for you shall hardly find a man that hath no friend to drop a tear into his Grave As for the last men that shall stand upon the earth and shall be alive at Christs coming they shall indeed pass by death properly yet they shall die after a sort by passing from a mortal estate to an immortal and if their long home be Heaven they shall need no mourners If hell they shall want none to bear them company for at Christ second coming all kindreds of the earth shall mourn before him I answer To the second that going here is not taken pro motu progressive in special as walking or running but in general for passing to another world which way soever whether we make our way or it be made for us whether we go to death or death come to us nay whether we stir or lie still whether we are found of foot or lame never had feet or have lost them we go this way of all flesh as I shall shew hereafter I answer To the third that by long home according to the Chaldee Paraphrase is here meant the grave or the place where our bodies or to speake more properly our remains are bestowed and abide till the time of the restitution of all things the Original is Beth gnolemo which S. Jerome renders domum et ern it at is sue because from thence as Lyra noteth he never returneth to live here or the house of his hidden time to wit where he lyeth hid in his Coffin and no eye seeth him whereunto holy Job alluding faith Chap. 14.10 Man dieth and wasteth away and giveth up the ghost and where is he or domus mundi sui as Caietan will have it the house of his world meaning the world of the dead or domus seculi sui the house of his generation as Pagnine Montanus and Tremelius will express it the place where all meet who lived together the randevouze of all our deceased friends allies and kindred even as far as Adam this home may be called a long gome in comparison of our short homes from which we remove dayly these houses we change at pleasure that we cannot there our flesh or our bones or at least our ashes or dust shall be kept in some place of the earth or sea till the Heavens shall be no more Job 14.12 I answer To the fourth that by mourners are here meant all that attend the corpses to the funeral whether they mourn in truth or for fashion and they are said here to go about the streets either for the reason alledged by Bonaventure quia predolore quiescere nequiunt because they cannot rest for hearts grief and sorrow or they go about the streets to call campany to the funeral or because they fetch their compass that they might make a more solemn procession to the Church or Sepulchre Among the Romans the friends of the deceased hired certain women whom they called preficas to lament over their dead for the most part among the Jewes this sad task was put upon widdows or they took it upon themselves as the words of the Prophet imply and there were no widdows to make lamentation and of the Evangelist also Acts 9.39 and the widdows stood by weeping for Dorcas and indeed widdows are very proper for this imployment When a Pot of water is full to the brim a little motion makes it run over Widdows that are widdows indeed and have lost in their Husbands all the joy and comfort of their life have their eyes brim full of tears and therefore most easily they overflow viduae optime deflent viduas Widdows are the fittestto bemoan widdows and what is the body void of the soul but a widdow deprived of her loving mate these widdows went about the streets weeping and howling to awake the living out of their dead sleep of security and to ring in their ears that lesson of the Prophet all flesh is grass and the glory of it as the flower of the field As in a great Clock when the Index pointeth to the hour the wheels move the Clock strikes and there is a great noise till the plummets or weights touch the earth so saith Filius Fabri in the same when the Index pointeth to the last hour of a rich man the Bell rings and there is a hideous and fearful noise of singers and mourners and this continueth till the weight to wit the weighty corpses of the dead toucheth the ground and is put into the earth after which the tumult ceaseth and the loud musick is turned into soft and solemn the Lidian into Dorrick and the shallow channels of tears which made such a noise shall run into the depth of silent sorrow or Mare mortuum And so I come to the fourth Stage The natural division of the Text. There are but there things appertaining to man here 1 Life 2 Death 3 Burial And see they are all three in the Text. 1. Man goeth there is his life 2. To his long home there is his Death 3. And the Mourners go about the streets there is his burial described by pariphrasis And so I am upon the fifth stage The Doctrine Mans life is a voyage his death the term or period of this voyage his Grave his home and Mourners his attendance you may observe a kind of sequence in these observations in the Concatination of them the first linck draws the second the second the third the the third the fourth if our life be a pilgrimage our death must needs be the term and our arival at our Country if Death be our arival the Grave must needs be the house for our bodies if the Grave be our house what fit attendance there but mourners Our life is a pilgrimage so it is termed by Jacob Gen. 47.9 the dayes of the years of my pilgrimage are 130. years And by David Psal 119.54 Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage and we are all pilgrims and strangers 1 Pet. 2.11 and our fathers were no better Psal 39.10 I am a stranger and sojourner as all my fathers were Vita est via omnes Christianus viator Our life is a way and every man living in this world a passenger A direct motion and that continuate
represented to Saint Polycarpe and Saint Cyprian their passage per viam sanguineam The bloody way of martyrdome Policrape not many moneths before he was sacrificed for a whole burnt-offering to God dreamed that his bed was all on fire under him and Saint Cyprian saw in a Dream the Proconsul-give order to the Clerk of the Assizes to write down his sentence which was to have his head cut off with a Sword which when the Clerk by signs made known to Saint Cyprian the godly Bishop earnestly desired a little delay of the execution that he might set his house in order and the Clerk answered him in his dream that his petition was granted and so it sell out accordingly that that day 〈…〉 Dream this Saint of God closing first his own eyes 〈…〉 ceived a glorious crown of martyrdome in heaven The second thing I observed in the manner was that these 〈…〉 way of promise to Abraham whence Galvin rightly 〈…〉 life was a favour of God unto him not the purchase of his own merits 〈…〉 the fruit of his own care for although speaking in ordine 〈…〉 a man may be said by the observation of physick rules to prolong his dayes upon 〈…〉 did who was otherwise a man of a very crazie body and could not 〈…〉 have held out half so long yet if we speak simply 〈…〉 that as no man can by his care add a cubit to his stature nor an hour 〈…〉 the period set by God before all time for my times are in thy hands 〈◊〉 David and our dayes are determined faith Job the number of our months is with 〈◊〉 thou bast appointed man his bounds which he cannot pass Job 14.5 and 〈…〉 appointed time to man are not his dayes as the day 〈…〉 tree groweth not upon the head of any without 〈…〉 bloomed in a seasonable time If life be a blessing long life is a 〈…〉 specially if it be crowned with a happy death for the last Act maketh 〈…〉 medy or a Tragedy and as the evening proves the day so a man 〈…〉 and after over-run the verdict of his life Dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet and so I fall into the road of my Text and begin to treat of the peaceable end of those who die in the faith and lie in the bosome of Abraham Go to thy fathers in peace There is a great difference about the interpretation of this phrase 〈…〉 and the reason of the difference is the difficulty which insueth upon every interpretation For if we refer these words to the body of Abraham and the 〈◊〉 thereof in the Sepulchres of his Fathers this Exposition complieth not with the truth of the story for none but Sarah lay in this cave Abrahams Fathers were 〈◊〉 where bestowed If we refer them to the soul of Abraham and illustrate them with this gloss Thou shalt go on in thy soul to the glorious troup of thy 〈…〉 then will grow what that place is whither his Fathers went before him 〈◊〉 Heaven but some of Abrahams Fathers were Idolatours and we have no warrant to place any Idolatour there Is it Hell thither no man goes in peace neither did ever yet any Jew or Christian so rub his forehead or rather arm it with brass as to affirm that the soul of Abraham in whom all generations of the earth were blessed was in Hell shall we then send him to the Rabbins Limbus or the Popish purgatory or the ancient Fathers occulta receptaâ—…ula hidden receptacles or unknown places wherein Tertullian conceiveth that the souls of the faithful departed resemble those among the Romans who stood for offices and the day of the election while the voyces were in calculation expected in a white gown whether they were chosen 〈…〉 Saint Austin also is very express for these hidden Cells from the death of 〈…〉 the last Resurrection the souls are bestowed in hiddeâ—… 〈…〉 as every 〈◊〉 worthy either rest or pain To dispel this mist which hath 〈◊〉 many to miss their way first by the light of the Scripture I will clear the 〈…〉 question and then interpret the phrase First then for the souls of the faithfuls flight 〈…〉 is free from this clog of flesh I answer that it is straight to Heaven 〈…〉 of the first born there and the spirits of just men made perfect for of 〈◊〉 who 〈…〉 that he might 〈◊〉 with God and of Elias who was carried up into Heaven in a fiery Chariot there is little doubt can be made and less of Abraham to whose besome in Heaven Lazarus was carried and least of all on the Thief to whom Christ promised on the Cross this day thou shall be with me in Paradise Why should Saint Paul so earnestly desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ if after his dissolution till the day of judgment he should not come near him nor see his face Why should all godly Christians be so willing to be absent from the body that they might be present with the Lord if after they were absent from the body they should not come into the Lords presence who dare question that which the Apostle so expresly and so considently delivers we know that if the house of our earthly tabernacle be dissolved we have an eternal in the Heavens As for the phrase thou shalt go to thy Fathers it is but an elegant circumlocution of the period of our life a quaver upon the close thereof for the meaning is thou shalt die or go the way of all flesh Quo pius AEneas quo dives Tullus Ancus Whither all thy Fathers went before thee good and bad rich and poor for Deaths sickle like the Italian Captaines sword which could not distinguish between a Guelf and Gibelive slaies all and makes a prey of all The righteous soul must for a time be divorced from the body as well as the soul of the wicked and in the graves the Worms claim kindred of the elect as well as of the reprobate the consideration whereof put the Preacher into a passion how doth the righteous man die as well as the wicked as it is said of Abraham that he is gathered to dis Fathers so it is said also of Ishmael and may be of the wickedest man that breaths And herein the language of Canaan and the lauguage of Ashdod do not much differ for what the Romans mean by that their phrase abijt ad plures he is gone to the many The Hebrews in a sanctified phrase express by abiit ad patres he is gone to his Fathers or gathered to his people whereof some interpreters give this acute reason It cannot be said of us here whilest we live that we are gathered to our own people in a spiritual sence because here good and bad are gathered together Elect and Reprobate sojourn together all are as it were joynt Comminers upon the earth the City of God and the City of the world sayl in the same ship to
I was thirsty and you gave me drink I was naked and you clothed me I was sick and in prison and you visited me or an Allegory as Where the body is there the Eagles will be gathered or an Apostrophe as Hear O heavens and hearken O earth or an Exclamation Oh that they were wise then they would understand this Oh that my people would have hearkned io my voyce and that Israel would have walked in my wayes In other passages a conjunction and combination of many figures and ornaments of speech as in that Text of the Prophet Jeremy Is there no balm in Gilead no Physitian there Why then is not the health of my people restored In which one verse you may note four figures First an interrogation for more emphatical conviction Secondly a communication for more familiar instruction Thirdly an Allegory for more lively expression Fourthly an Aposiopesis for safer reprehension and the like we observe in our Saviours exprobration O that thou knewest in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace O Jerusalem Jerusalem which killest the Prophets and stonest those that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children as a hen doth her chickens and thou wouldst not Here is a posie of rhetorical flowers an Exclamation O si câ—…gnovisses a reticentia at least in this thy day saltem in hoc die tuo A repetition Jerusalem Jerusalem an interrogation how oft would I quoties volui And lastly an Icon or lively expression to the eye sicut galina congregat pullos suos As the hen gathereth her chickens under her wings Where are now our Anabaptists and plain pack-staff methodists who esteem of all flowers of Rhetorick in Sermons no better then stinking weeds and of all elegancies of speech then of prophane spells For against their wills at unawares they censure the holy Oracles of God in the first place which excell all other writings as well in eloquence as in Science doubtless as the breath of a man hath more force in a Trunk and the wind a lowder and sweeter sound in the Organ-pipe then in the open ayr so the matter of our speech and the theam of our discourse which is conveyed through figures and forms of Art both sound sweeter to the ear and pierce deeper into the heart there is in them plus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more evidence and more efficacie they make a fuller expression and take a deeper impression secondly where are our prophane criticks who delight in the flesh-pots of Egypt and loath Manna admire carnal eloquence in Poets and heathen Oratours and task the Scriptures for rude simplicity and want of all Art and eloquence It is true the Scripture is written in a style peculiar to it self the elocution in it is such as Lactantius observeth that it befitted no other books as neither doth that we find in other books befit it As the matter in Scripture so the form is divine nec vox heminum sonat which consisteth not in the words of mans wisdome but in the evidence of the Spirit Yet is there admirable eloquence in it and far surpassing which we find in all other writings Wherefore Politian the Grammarian who pretended he durst not touch any lease in the Bible for fear of defiling the purity of his language or slurring the gloss of his style is condemned as well by learned humanists as Divines And Theopompus who went about to cloath Gods word with gay and trim phrases of heathen Orators and Poets was punished by God with loss of his wits Thus have we viewed the form let us now have an eye to the matter our Lords conquest over Death and the Grave There are two things most dreadful to the nature of man Death and the Grave the one severeth the soul the other consumeth the body and resolveth it into dust the valiantest conquerours that with their bloody flags and coulors have struck a terrour unto all Nations yet have been afrighted themselves at the displaying of the pale and wan coulours of Death the most retired Philosophers and Monks who have lived in Cells and Caves under the ground yet have been startled at the sight of their Grave How much then are we indebted to our Christian saith that not only overcometh the world but also conquereth the fear of Death and the grave and dareth both in the words of my Text O death sting me if thou canst O grave conquer me if thou be able O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory In which words the Apostle like a Cryer calleth Death and the Grave into the Court and examineth them upon two Articles first concerning the sting of the one secondly concerning the victory of the other Will it please you then to fix the eye of your observation upon the parts of this Text as they are laid before you in terms of Law 1 A Citation 2 An Examination In the Citation upon 1 the manner of it 2 the parties cited 1 Death 2 Grave In the Examination 1 Upon the first Interrogatory put to Death touching the ledging of his sting 2 Upon the second Interrogatory put to the Grave touching the field of his victory First for the manner of Citing it is by an Apostrophe a figure often accurring in holy Scripture as in the book of Kings O Altar Altar O ye mount ains of Gilboa and of the Psalmes lift up ye gates and be ye lift up you everlasting doors and of the Canticles Arise O North and blow O South and in the Prophets O earth earth earth In imitation of which strings of rhetorick the Auncient Fathers in their funeral Orations many times turned to the dead and used such compellations as these audi Constantine vale Paula hear O Constantine farewel O Paula From which passages our advesaries very weakly if not ridiculously infers the invocation of Saints departed making weapons of plumes of feathers and arguments of ornaments and which is far worse Divinity of rhetorick and articles of faith of tropes of sentences By a like consequence they might conclude that hills and trees and the earth and gates and death and hell have eyes to look upon us or ears to hear us or that we ought to invocate them because the holy Ghost maketh such Apostrophes to them as the Fathers do to the souls of Saints newly departed out of their bodies Secondly for the parties here cited and called in their order first Death and then the Grave Death goes before the Grave because men die before they are buryed and the Grave is properly no Grave till it be possessed by a dead body before it is but a hole or pit O Death In Hebrew Maveth from Muth whence mutus in Latine is derived and mute in English because Death bereaveth us of speech and for a like reason the Grave is termed Domus silentii a house of silence In Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either
of the Creed concerning the happiness of the dead and the glorious estate of the Tryumphant Church and the life of the World to come If we desire to be informed concerning the affaires of the Abissens or those of China Sumatra or Japan we confer with those that are of the same Country or have travelled into those parts and for the like reason if we desire to be instructed concerning the state and condition of the Citizens of the Heavenly Jerusalem their insinite number their excellent order their singular priviledges their everlasting joyes their feasts their robes their palmes their thrones their crowns we must enquire of them who either are inhabitants there or have brought us news from thence nothing but a voyce from Heaven can enforce our assent to these heavenly mysteries Now as all words of Kings are of great authority but specially their Edicts and Proclamations so all voyces from Heaven are highly to be regarded and religiously obeyed but especially Decrees and Statutes which are commanded by the authority of the high Court of Heaven to be written for perpetuity such as this is in my Text I heard a voyce from Heaven saying Write with a Pen of Diamond in letters never to be oblitrated write it so that it may be read of men in all succeeding Ages even to the last man that shall stand upon the earth Here I cannot sufficiently admire the boldness of Cardinal Bellarmine who to disparage the necessity of holy Scripture and cry up unwritten traditions which are the best evidence he can produce for his new Trent Creed blusheth not to publish it to the World in print that the Apostles and Evangelists had no command from God to write their Gospels or Epistles but that they wrote upon the entreaty of some friends or some emergent occasious Were there no other Text in all the holy Scriptures but this nor word in this Text but this one Write it were alone sufficient to convince him of gross ignorance if not rather giving the lie to his own knowledge But yet farther rather to confound him with shame then convince him with evidence doth not the Apostle affirme in general of the whole Scripture that it is given by Divine inspiration and what is inspiring but a kind of dictating to all the Pen-men of the holy Ghost and doth not he that dictateth to another both tell him what he shall write and bid him write it Besidesin the 1 of the Apocalypse vers 10 11. Saint John heard a great voyce as of a trumpet saying I am Alpha and Omega the first and the last and what thou seest write in a Book Thirdly besides the general command of committing the whole Word of God to writing and a special mandate for the writing the Apocolypse we have a singular precept for the writing the precise words of this Text and must not that needs be thrice worthy our observation which is written by a threefold command and what is that Blessed are the dead If the dead are blessed the dead are for an argument a terito adjacente ad secundum ever holdeth if the tearms be taken in the proper sence The Metaphisicks demonstrate non ent is nullus esse affectiones that such things as have no existence have no qualities nor real attributes but blessedness is here attributed to the dead the dead therefore are And the Philosopher who being demanded whether the living or the dead were more in number answered that doubtless the living quia mortui ne sunt quiedm because the dead were not to be reckoned upon in regard now they are not at all spake without book and uttered that which is most false as we learn from the mouth of Truth himself who not only affirmeth that the dead are but that they are also living though dead to this World yet not to the World yet not to the World to come dead to men but not dead to God have ye not read saith our Saviour what is spoken unto you by God saying I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living for all live to him but are all the dead blessed the Text answereth all the dead that die in the Lord That die in the Lord Yea but you will say those that are already dead cannot die what then is the meaning of this phrase the dead that die in the Lord Saint Ambrose answereth he that is dead already cannot die in the same sence that he is dead but he that is already dead in one sence may be said to die in another he that is dead to the World as all the regenerated who have mortified the deeds of the flesh may afterwards die to the body and so die in the Lord that is breath out his soul into the hands of the Lord. This is sound Divinity and a true proposition but no true exposition of this place in which the latter seemeth to be a limitation of the former as God is near to all that call upon him yea all that call upon him faithfully so here blessed are the dead what all dead howsoever they die no but all that die in the Lord. There is much variety among the interpreters about the interpretation of this phrase to die in the Lord. Some will have the meaning thereof to be those that die for the Christian faith and seal the truth thereof with their bloud And they alleage for themselues first parallel texts of Scripture wherein the preposition in is put for pro for as Gen. 18.13 Omnes in te benedicentur all Nations shall be blessed in thee that is for thee and in thy seed that is for thy seed and Gen. 28.18 servivi Berachel word for word I served in Rachel that is for Rachel Next they alleage the antecedents together with the occasion of these words verse 12. here is the patience of the Saints here are they that keep the commandements of God and the faith of Jesus Christ and truly the main scope of the Text seemeth to be to arm the godly with patience and to encourage them to fight against the Beast upon whom before God execute vengeance if it so fall out that many of Gods faithfull servants loose their lives Yet that none should be dismayed therewith because all that so die are blessed for they exchange a temporal life in this World for an eternal in another Thirdly say they it cannot be well conceived how any can die in Domino in the Lord who is the Lord of life if we take the preposition in the proper sence for though in the natural body a member may be cut off and die the head being alive yet it is not so in the mystical body of Christ no true Member thereof can be cut off much less die while it continues in that body by dying in the Lord therefore we must understand dying
earnestly with such vehement affections as if they were to live their age over a hundred times be there not a number of polititians that profess this hope too that hold it most unwise and foolish thing in the world to lose any thing for conscience-sake and for Christ Alas these things will not stand with this expectation When a man hath a good title to heaven he is content to part with the broken title to the things of this life as long indeed as a man hath not a better title he will hold to that worse but when he hath a blessed title to the inheritance of the Saints in light he careth not for this broken Tenour and title he will not hold them because they cannot hold him In the last place another note that attendeth this expectation is where this is there will be an answerable affection there will be a promoting of all the means to further it their will be a grief and sorrow for all things that come against it to hinder it Thus we do in other expectations When we expect this or that reversion when anything cometh between our hope we grieve for it any thing that cometh or falleth out to further our hope we rejoyce in it And thus it will be likewise in this expectation of Christ if it be true whatsoever it is that may further our hope and further Christ his coming that we desire and pray for that we rejoyce in that we promote and put on with all our power and strength and because a powerful ministry of the Word promoteth the kingdome of Christ and setcheth in the company that shall be saved and hasteneth his coming therefore we will withall our power and strength hold up the ministry of the Word of GOD that Scepter of Jesus Christ for the gathering in of people to God for the perfecting of the number of the Elect that so Christ may come and finish our salvations And whatsoever it is that may hasten this his coming and appearing we are glad to see it in the means of it when the Word is preached when the Sacraments are administred when people are gathered to God when grace appeareth in the hearts and lives of men when we see the power of godliness manifest it self any where when we see godly men incouraged and entertained when we see the fear of God to prevail in Families and the like we rejoyce at this Why so because this increaseth and confirmeth our hope it gathereth in the number that must be accomplished before our final deliverance And contrarily when we see things to impair and hinder the coming of the kingdome of Christ that hinders the salvations of men when we see the Church of God left without able teachers and in stead of them to come in unprofitable and unsufficient ignorant men when we see the free passage of the Gospel hindered many excellent lights shut under a bushel and their light hid from the people of God and the Gospel from the Church of God when we see faction prevail and both Civil and Ecclesiastical government despised when Heresies are countenanced and the people of God discouraged and disheartned when we see the state of the Church of God abroad that many sad blows are given by the enemies and the sword of the enemie is sharp upon the Church when we see these things these dazle our hopes they come between us and the kingdome and second coming of Christ the hastening of it therefore there must be griefe for it Thus it will be We pray for every thing that may hasten it and pray against every thing that stands between and hinders the conversion of men and the glory of God and the proceedings of Christs kingdome thus I say it will be with us But where is the man that takes these things to heart who setteth himself on these holy and conscionable courses If this be so it appeareth manifestly that this expectation though it be every where exprest is hard to be found any where there be very few that believe our report few there be that set themselves to sift and examine the soundness of their expectation and desire after Christ yet where it is not these attendants it is not sound and sincere In a word to stir us up to this as the Church and the Spirit and the Bride and he that is athirst here saith Come to stir up I say our desires to this we will use a Motive or two Do we not see by all this discourse a plain difference between godly men and unbelievers A godly man that hath the Spirit of God in him saith come A wicked man hath no such spirit in him with his tongue he may say come sometime when he is forced but he hath not the spirit to say come Here is the difference in their present estate but afterward the differences is greater when the evil servant will not waite for his Masters coming but sits with the drunken and Libertines he shall be made a spectacle of his masters fury The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him and at an hour when he is not aware and will cut him in sunder and will appoint him his portion with unbeleevers Ther 's then another difference Again consider though the coming of our Lord Christ be certain yet the particular time to our knowledge is uncertain but though the particular time be uncertain yet it is hastening it is not far off In the time of the Apostle there was but an hour saith Saint John now is the last hour if it were the last hour in the Apostles time certainly it is the last minute now the very last minute of an hour now And I beseech you let us consider the promise that is made to persons that expect the coming of Christ Blessed is that servaut whom his Master when he cometh shall find so doing how doing watching and preparing for and expecting of his Masters coming Blessed is the servant that his Master shall find so doing he speaks there in the singular number there are not many that he shall find so doing therefore he speaks of one that is blessed one of many that shall be found so doing Blessed are they that watch and keep their garments clean that purge themselves as he is pure that labour to be holy as he is holy blessed is he that doth so If it were not for these promises how were it able for Christians to get over the rubbs and hinderances that lie in the way of this expectation how were it possible for a Christian to leap over the brunt of reproaches the execution of sentences and persecutions that the Saints of God go under onely because they have an eye upon the White the expectation of the coming of Christ The faithful Martyrs in this Kingdome and in other Countries what did drive them to embrace the flames and the cruelest death and torments that Persecutors could devise but onely
effectually but God alone no man can shew us the right way to heaven but God Therefore let us pray So teach us c. We now come to the end wherefore Moses begs of God to teach us to number our dayes That we may apply c. In which we meet with three particulars 1. The kind and nature of this wisdome wherein it consists and it is in making the best provision we can for the eternal welfare of our Souls 2. The Subject of it our Hearts 3. The means of obtaining this wisdome and that is by the meditation of Death 1. Of the kind and nature of this wisdome wherein it chiefly consists that is in having an eye to heaven in looking after the eternal welfare of our Souls Our next Conclusion is this It is the only true wisdome of a Christian to provide for his Soul Then are we wise indeed when we are wise unto Salvation when we know how to provide for Eternity True wisdome consists not in gathering riches but in living in the fear of God and ordering our steps so as that we may make sure of heaven another day It is our obedience to Gods Commandments which cries us up for wise Christians in the repute of God and man Deut. 4.6 Keep therefore and do them for this is your wisdome and your understanding in the sight of the Nations which shall hear all these statutes and say Surely this great Nation is a wise and understanding people What is it for a man to be wise for the world and a fool for heaven what 's the wealth and honour of the world to the happiness of the Soul what 's a man the better for being rich and honourable in this world if in the end his Soul be lost Mat. 16.26 What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own Soul What the people said of David 2 Sam. 18.3 Thou art worth ten thousand of us the like I say of the Soul It is more worth than a thousand worlds and the Salvation of thy Soul is more to thee than the gaining of many worlds What the man pleaded to Joab for not slaying of Absolom 2 Sam. 18.12 Though I should receive a thousand shekles of Silver in my hand yet would I not put forth my hand against the Kings Son The like maist thou reason within thy own breast Though I might purchase the riches of a thousand worlds yet would I not seek the destruction of my Soul whatsoever thou dost still have an eye to thy Soul that that perish not in another world what if all other things go amiss with thee in this life â—…f thy Soul be in safety It is wisdome I confess to provide for the world for the body but the main wisdome is to provide for the Soul Be careful of the outward man but be sure thou dost not neglect the inward man Provide for both the body and Soul but let thy chief care be for the Soul which is thy better part It was the Symbol of Rodolphus the second Emperour of Rome who gave an Eagle with a double Head with the one he lookt upwards to the Sun and with the other downwards upon the Earth with this Motto Utrumque I have an eye to both Thus it is Lawful for a Christian to look downwards to the Earth and provide for the body but he must have one eye chiefly sixt upon the Soul and in the first place provide for it we must look directly to heaven obliquely upon the earth fix our eyes upon the one cast a glance upon the other It becomes a Christian to consider what may become of him hereafter and whither he is going Consider thy beginning from whence thou camest and consider thy end what will befal thee hereafter He cannot be a wiser man faith the Healthen wo does not know either from whence he came or whither he must go Sure enough he cannot be a wise Christian that knows not what will become of his Soul It is by way of just Reproof of such as are wise for the world but meer fools for heaven The wisdome of the flesh is meer folly in the sight of God Some men would be reputed wise in the world and yet know not which way to take for the gaining of heaven Such a man passeth in the world for a crafty subtile worldling that knows how to mannage his affairs with the best advantage to himself and yet he knows not a step of the way to heaven It is a Maxime amongst the Jesuites Uti scientia to live by their shifts so do many in the world who have only a little wit to carry them out in secular affairs and their brains serve them to gather a little wealth and muck but they are meer Idiots in all that concerns heaven and salvation and the purchasing of the true riches of the Soul And yet see the fondness of these men that though they know not which way to take to get heaven yet they make themselves sure of it as if Salvation and eternal life were within their reach and power to command it when they please Papyrius Massonus writes of the Jesuites that count themselves so wise ut se putant soelo vel ipsi quandoque imperaturos as that they think they shall one day have the command of heaven it self The like presumption is in many Christians at this day that they believe heaven is at their command and they shall easily obtain it though they do nothing for it Oh shake off this folly make what provision thou wilt for other things thou art but a fool if thou dost neglect thy Soul As provident as the rich man was in the Gospel God gave him the title of a Fool and Cajetan gives the reason of it because he did not provide for himself in such things as were needful for the Salvation of his Soul He is a fool that prefers and Apple before a piece of Gold who keeps those things that are to be cast away and neglects such things as are to be preserved who heeds not his house where he must abide for ever and beautifies that place where he is to lodg but for a night Such an one is he that forgets his Soul and is careful for all other things Give me leave to speak the truth and not alwayes to drop oyl into your ears and speak unto you smooth things Where shall we find the man that desires to save his soul that would willingly part with this world to gain a better We daily hear the word of God we talk much of Religion we boast of our interest in heaven but when the matter comes to decision when we are put to our choice whether Heaven or Earth whether we will forego the profits of this world for the love of heaven this is the fiery Chariot which divides between Elijah and Elisha which parts us and God and makes us to cast away our hope
the best Ermine It is nothing to be born a Gentleman it is all in all to live and die a good Christian This was the sweet expression of this your honourable Neighbour feeling a want of Grace in his heart wherewith he desired to be satisfied Oh says he to me one drop of grace in the heart is more worth than all the wealth and honour in the world I shall not commend to you the goodness of his Nature the sweetness of his Disposition because he bewailed it as a Snare and an occasion of sin to him A mans good Nature leads him many times into sin and the loving temper of his spirit temps him and puts him forward to sin Where Grace does not command there a good disposition is soon marr'd and drawn aside This likewise was matter of grief to him that his frail Nature was soon wrought upon and carried aside to that which his own heart soon after told him was sinful and displeasing to God What need I tell you that he was an affable friendly and obliging Gentleman winning and gaining upon all that came near him He that look'd but upon his Face might have seen goodness and courtesie looking out of his Eyes And what 's all this when he did acknowledge with tears that this pleasantness of his countenance was suddenly clouded with a violent and over-ruling storm of passion which carried him beyond himself But it is strange to see what a command grace hath over the Soul which speaks to these unruly passions as Christ did to the boisterous billows of the Sea Peace be still Mar. 4.39 as easily as the Nurse charms the crying Infant in the Cradle As prevalent as these passions were in the time of his health they were so allayed by God in his sickness as that all his friends about him did rejoyce to see the patience and calmness of his Spirit all the while the hand of God was upon him And that I may give you a clear proof of the mortified Spirit and happy change which God wrought in his Soul When I took the boldness to mind him of a late difference between himself and the Reverend Pastor of this place he burst out with tears and laid this charge upon me That I would right him so far as to acquaint him that he did heartily desire him in particular to forgive him and all other good Christians that he had wrong'd in the heat of his passion either rich or poor Judge ye now what could I have spoken more for his honour than I have done in this discovery of his frailty and his happy conquest of it Therefore I thought good to make this publication of it to the world that ye may know ye never honour you selves more than when ye glorifie God by shaming of your selves when we are most vile in our own eyes we are most honourable in the repute of God and good men But all this that I have spoken is nothing to that which is yet behind Therefore go along with me a little further and I shall in brief relate unto you such comfortable passages as fell from him in the time of his sickness and then leave him to your Christian Charity to judge how well he acted the latter part of his life and with what earnestness of spirit he strove to gain the love and favour of God in Christ At my first coming to him I found him deeply toucht with a serious apprehension of the former errours of his life how far he had provoked a good God by the many sins which his Conscience then charged him with Then dâ—d he break forth into 〈◊〉 free and voluntary confession of all his sins and exprest with many tears his loathing and detestation of them I was glad to see those Limbecks of his eyes distilling and dropping down in such a plentiful manner to find his heart thus smitten and bruis ed with the remembrance of his sins and prest him to a greater measure of sorrow as knowing such clouds of grief would make way for the beams of joy and comfort to shine in his Soul The truth is I have not come near a man that hath reckoned up his fins wiâ—h greater abhorrency and detestation than he did I askt him whether if God should be pleased to grant him a further respite in this world he would become a new man and take off his heart from his former vanities He answered I would not for the gain of the whole world live such a life as I have done and I desire next to Gods glory to live for this very end that I might testifiâ— the truth of my repentance to the world I askt him whether his heart did witness the truth of all this Oh sayes he my heart is deceitful and treacherous but if I know my own heart all that I speak is in truth and sincerity I should be the most cursed Hypocrite alive if I should either dissemble with God or man at such a time as this Oh remember to deal faithfully with your own hearts if you speak otherwise than ye find it to be in your own breasts you turn Imposters to your selves and deludes your own Souls not us It is the integrity of the heart which God looks at if there be no rottenness there there is a good foundation of joy and comfort laid in the Soul 1 Job 3.21 Beloved if our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards God And now from the example of this good Knight let me press this one thing upon you That when ye find your hearts opprest with the weight of your sins ye would give them a speedy vent and seek to ease your hearts of so mighty a clog by a serious confession of them He that smothers sin in his breast will in the end be choaked with the noisome scent of it What is a man the better for hiding and locking up his sin in his bosome Let me advise you to open a vein in your own hearts and let out the corrupt blood that lies there The longer we hide sin in our bosoms the more it festers and what man will not do his best to get rid of a bruise before it rots and putrisies Confession is a soveraign Remedy to procure the pardon of our sins Prov. 28.13 Who so confesseth and for saketh his sins shall have mercy He is most likely to find mercy that is most ready to acknowledge that he deserves none We see what David gain'd by an humble confession of his sins He no sooner cried Peccavi 2 Sam. 12.13 I have sinned against the Lord then the Prophet return'd him a comfortable answer from the Lord The Lord also hath put away thy sin thou shalt not die Quantum valent tres syllabae Peccavi How prevalent are three syllables pronounced by a penitent heart I have sinn'd to move the God of mercy to mercy And here I hope I shall seasonably cast in a word of advice to my Brethren of
fear is Kinds off fear 1 Natural 2 Carnal fear 3 Servile fear Act 2. 4 Filial fear Isa 8 12. Reas We are delivered from our enemies either Luke 1.47 1 By reconciliation 2 By conquest Vse 1. The power of grace must reflect on a mans self Vse 2. Possible to live without fear Psalm 23 Vse 3. Reproof for inordinate fear 1 We fear too soon 2 Too much 1 It brings a great deal of ill Isa 66.4 2 It unfits the heart to bear evils It hurts the body It doth hurt to the soul 1 Natural 2 Spiritually Fear the ground of most sins Vse 4. To sence our hearts against it No cause of fear 1 Of spiritual enemies 2 Of worldly evils Ier. 46.28 Object Answ Object Answ Quest Answ How to get the conquest of fear 1 Labour for the spirit 2 Keep covenant with God 3 Strengthen faith 4 To place our love aright August Simile Doctr. Both words and actions shall be called to account Matth. 5.22 Iude 13.14 Reas 1. The Law binds men in speeches Reas 2. Words injure God and man Levit. 24.11 Act. 8. Vse To condemn those that make light account of words Pal. 39. Psal 131. Doctr. God will proceed in judgement according to his Law Ioh. 12.48 Object Answ All men judged by the Law The Law not alike expressed to all Rom. 2 14. Reas 1. The Law is Gods scepter that he ruls by Reas 2. Because the law is a rule Vse 1. Reproof of those that neglect the law Quest Answ To despise Gods commandement what Matth. 25.41 Vse 2. Admonition to observe the Law 1. For direction 2. For tryal Doctr. The consideration of the day of Judgment should move to holiness 1 It hath drawn some to obedience Eccles 11.9 1 To forsake the world Phil. 3.7 2 Disposing the heart to obedience Eccles 12.10 Heb. 12. Rev. 14â—… 2 It quickens to actions of obedience 1 Of particular calling 2 General calling 3 It confirms in obedience Vse Shewing the cause of the worlds prophaness and the Saints dejectedness 2 Pet. 3. Vse 2. To strengthen faith of the judgment Jerome Parts of the Text. Meaning of the words Doctr. Death due to sin as wages Quest Answ What death due to sin 1. Temporal Object Answ How Adam died a natural death as soon as he sinned Object Answ How Christians freed from temporal death Christians undergo temporal death why Simile 2 Eternal death Answ Sin infinite three wayes 1 In respect of the object 2 The subject 3 The sinners desire Vse 1. Original lust a sin Basile Vse 2. Confuration no sin in it self venial 1 Joh 3.5 Sins mortal and venial how Vse 3. In spectacles of death to see the heinousness of sin Vse 4. To deterre us from sin Similles Joh. 2. 1 Sam. 14. Vse 5. To be humble and thankful Life twofold 1 Natural 2 Spiritual 1 In this life Job 17.5.2 In deathy 3 Afterth e Resurrection A thing eternal three wayes Doct. Salvation the feee gift of God Quest Answ Austin Quest Answ Joh. 3. Vse 1. Confutation of merit Rom. 8. Vse 2. To humble us Vse 3. Comfort Vse 4. Thankfulness Isa 45 24. The Analysis of the Chaper Propos 1. God is pleased to set himself to procure the profit of his people Proved by instances 1 In his instituting Ordinances in the Church 1 The preaching of the Word Act. 26.18 2 Tim. 3.16 2 The Sacrament of the Supper 3 Prayer Unprofitable living under the ordinances a taking the name of God in vain 4 Sending of Christ into the world in our nature 2 In his command and injunction Deut 10 13. Matth. 5.29 3. In his several administrations 1 Permitting sin to remain 2. To prevail 3. Withdrawing his presence 4. Suspending his answer to their prayers 5. Denying their particular suites 6. Deprives them of their dearest blessings James 5.11 Use of exhortation Vse 2. Of instruction Propos 2. Gods aim in afflicting his children is their profit Gen 41.52 Afflictions they are profitable The blessed fruit of afflictions 2 Chron. 33.12 Deut. 8.15 Isa 27.9 Hab. 1.12 The Saints of God have walted for the profit of afflictions 2 Sam. 16.12 2 Sam. 16.12 Isa 37.4 Vse 1. For reproof Gods children prone to misconster the intent of God in their afflictions 1 Sam. 27.1 Esa 6.5 Lam. 3.16.18 Isa 49.14 Vse 2. For comfort Isa 10.57 Simile Isay 12.12 Vse 3. Exhortation to a patient expectation of the fruit of affliction Object Answ Iob 17.4 The sum of the words Division Explication Simile Doct. 1. Ground 1 From God Psal 84. Why God withdraws the light of his counâ—eâ—ance from his people 1 For correction of their former abuse of his mercies 2 Of the neglect of their duty Cant. 5. 3 Of their carnal security 3 To teach them wherein their present comsort and happiness consifts Simile 3 For prevention 1 Of pride 2 Of considence in the creature or in habits of grace Ground 2 From Satan How Satan causeth trouble in the hearts of Gods servants 1 By stealing out of thest hearts the promises of the Gospel Heb. 12. Matth. 13. 2 By presenting to the soul the truths of God in false glosses Ground 3. From our selves From some distemper of the body 2. Prevailing of some strong lust Heb. 12.1 3 Inordinate passions Heb. 1. Vse 1. To teach us compassion toward those that are in trouble Isa 53.4 God suffers his servants to be in inward distress and why Doctr. 2. Faith is a special means to quiet the soul 2 Cron. 20.20 2 Tim. 1 12. Vse Doctr. 3. Faith that quiets the soul must be pitched upon God in Christ Doct. 4. Vse Quest Answ What it is to believe in Christ What it is to receive Christ as a Prophet As a King As a Priest Quest Answ Object Answ Quest Answ Quest Answ Quest Answ Devision of the words Doct 1. Strong trials befall strong Christians 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Job 1.8 Wherein the strength of a trial consists Why God laieth strong tryals on strong Christians Reas 1. Reas 2. Doct. Faith acquits a man in great tryals Reas 1. Reas 2. Reas 3. Reas 4. Reas 5. Vse 1. 1. 2. Vse 2. The sum of the words Parts of the Text Coherence The first branch of the Text Explication 1 What life it is that is here meant Eternal life proper to the Saints Begun in this world Gal 2.20 Heb 2 3. Consummated in the world to come Phil 1.21 1 Thes 4.17 Joh. 5.26 Joh. 6 33. Vse 1. For instructiou Vse 2. For demonstration 1 Tim 5.6 Ephes 2.1 Vse 3. For consolation 2 Tim 3.12 Act 14.22 Mark 5.26 Eccles 9 4. Job 2.4 Phil. 1.7 Rom. 14.17 2 Cor. 12.2 1 Cor. 2.9 Rom. 8.18 2 Cor 4.17 The second branch of the Text. Eternal life cometh from divine grace Tit. 3.7 Eph. 2.8 Reas 1. Reas 2.2 Cor. 3.5 Vse 1. For confutation Vse 2. For Consolation Vse 3. For Instruction Vse 4. For exhortation The third branch of the Text. The
Election God hath elected them to it Secondly in respect of vocation they are begotten again to a lively hope They have now the Word which giveth them a promise of heaven They have now the spirit which is the seal of their inheritance you are sealed by the spirit of Promise to the day of redemption Eph. 1.13 Secondly in regard of possession they are now already in present possession not in full possession but in present possession A possession not in themselves but in Christ by vertue of the union and communion they have in him By the union and contract that is between Christ and the soul Christ is become the Husband the Christian the Spouse So that as a Wife if her Husband should travel into a far Countrey and in her name should take possession of those lands that were left her by her Father the Wife now is possest of those lands in her Husband who in her name hath taken possession of them so Christ entring into heaven hath took possession of heaven which is given to us by the will of God It is your Father pleasures to give you a kingdom Christ hath possessed it in our name I go faith he to prepare a place for you and it is my will that they be where I am I go to my Father and your Father to my God and your God All that Christ hath in heaven He hath it for us He is gone before that we may follow after we cannot possibly lay claime to heaven we cannot hope hereafter fully and personally to possesse it if Christ had not first taken possession of heaven for us The Use of this in a word shall be to stir up every one to look to his hope of heaven It is usual for men to profess their hope to be saved and scarse any but they will say they hope if they die they shall go to heaven Yea but thou must now possesse it if ever hereafter thou mean to enjoy it and thou must possesse it first in Christ thou must be united to him by faith and love those are the bonds whereby the Spirit of God tyeth us unto Christ therefore Christ is said to dwell in our hearts by faith Which shewes the horrible presumption of many and how they add to their other sins this that they presume that they have right and title to heaven and yet are not united to Christ by faith as if a man should give out that he were the heir apparant to a Crown or the son of a King and yet nevertheless should indeed be the son of a Beggar and have nothing to shew for his pretended title to the Crown and Kingdom what would this be accounted but high treason against the King What a height of sin is this that is in many men which to their other sins add a presumptuous claim to heaven when they have no right to it I Remember that in the time of Ezra we shall read of many that laid title and claim to the Priest-hood but Ezra searched the book of the Genealogies and finding none of their names Registred there he presently concluded that they were none of the Priest-hood therefore they were accounted polluted and put from the Priest-hood If any man lay claim to heaven God will search his book of Genealogies as it were he will search the Register of heaven and if he find that his name be not inrolled there if he be not found to have interest in Jesus Christ all will be nothing he shall be cast out to his greater confusion This should therefore stir up every one to make good his claim to heaven now either now to be possest of heaven now to sit in heavenly places with Christ ore lse look not to come to heaven afterward But to leave this and to come to that I mainly intend namely the Argument or reason or ground of the Apostles heavenly conversation Our conversation is in heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ The Apostle observeth here a kind of speech and that which seems not so Gramaticall that he may thereupon build a sound and substantial truth in Divinity He had said before Our conversation is in the heavens in the Plural number but now when he speaks of Christs coming thence he speaks of it in the Singular number Our conversation is in the heaven from whence from which particular place We look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Of purpose to shew us thus much that though Christ in respect of his Deity and divine nature he be in all places filling heaven and earth yet in respect of his bodily presence he remaineth now and so will till his second coming which the Saints look for in heaven Against those Ubiquitaries that will have the body of Christ to be every where In Heaven say they visible in this place invisible The Papists hence build the Doctrine of Transubstantiation they will have the body of Christ even that very body that was born of the Virgin to be now Bread and the bread turned into it The Lutherans will have the same Body about the bread No faith the Apostle there is no such matter from thence from that very place that very individual particular single place from the third heavens where the body of Christ is We look for the Saviour he remaineth there and so will continue till his coming to Judgement So again in another place Collos 3.1 Set your affections on things above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Above that is in heaven where Christ sitteth and continueth and will remain till his second coming Our Saviour told his Disciples in the dayes of his flesh that the poor they should have alwayes with them but me faith he you shall not have alwayes If this be true that they say then Christ hath not said true for he is still in respect of his bodily presence and hath been alwayes with us But I let pass that The thing I note hence is this That that which most soundly and effectually settleth the heart of a man in a heavenly conversation upon earth is the looking for the Saviour of the world even the Lord Jesus Christ to come from thence I say there is nothing that so settleth the heart of a man in a heavenly conversation upon earth nothing that makes him so heavenly minded nothing that ordereth him in so heavenly a course as this if he rightly look for Christ to come from thence That you may conceive this the better you may please to take notice that there are two things included in this point First that all the Saints of God while they are on earth their continual expectation is for Christ to come from heaven Secondly that nothing is so effectual to settle a man in a holy course while he liveth on earth as this expectation These two things I will open to you at this time The
first I say is that the Saints and servants of God while they are on earth do continually expect and look for the Saviour of the world even the Lord Jesus Christ to come from heaven By the coming of Christ you must understand his second coming to judgement For there is a threefold coming of Christ A twofold coming in his Body and one by his Spirit The first was the coming of Christ in the flesh when he came to take our nature upon him and to be born of a Virgin The second is the coming of Christ by his Spirit so he cometh continually and daily in the hearts of men in the preaching of the Gospel in vertue and efficacy His last coming and his second coming in respect of his body is when he shall come to judgement Never look for the coming of Christ in his body upon earth in the sight of men till that great day come when the Lord Jesus shall come with thousands of his Angels in the glory of his Father Now then this being the meaning of it we will prove it And first that it is the continual expectation of all the Saints of God and the continual desire of their hearts their continual waiting is for the second coming of the Lord Christ As it was before the first coming of Christ in the flesh so it shall be before his second coming Before the first coming of Christ after the promise was made to Adam all the expectation and hope of the Fathers and Beleevers was this when the great Messias would come and therefore faith Jacob I have waited for thy salvation and David I have longed for thy salvation meaning Christ the Saviour of the world and the Church groweth to a kind of holy impatiency Oh that thou wouldest break the heavens and come down And immediatly upon the time of Christs coming there were alwayes holy men in those times that were stirred up with a continual expectation of it and therefore it was made a mark of a good man in those dayes It is said of Joseph of Arimathea and Simeon and of divers good women as of Anna and others that they waited for the consolation of Israel they continually waited and expected when the great comforter and Saviour of his people would come So shall the second coming of Christ be from the very time of his Ascension into heaven to the time now and to the time of his last coming to Judgement all the eyes of men will be towards him When I am lifted up faith our Saviour I will draw all men after me which though it be there particularly understood of his lifting up upon the Cross yet it is intended in general of his Ascension into heaven So that as after the promise was given of the Spirit The Disciples waited for the receiving of the gift of the holy Ghost So it is now and will be since the holy Ghost is already given there remaineth nothing to be looked for but Christ himself in his second coming to finish all these dayes of sin And that this is the disposition of all the servants of God appears by divers places of Scripture 2 Tim. 4.8 faith the Apostle there Hence forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto them also that love his appearing The Apostle here makes a description of all those that shall be saved and he faith they are such as love the appearing of Jesus Christ now that which a man loveth he desireth and looks and longs for And in Heb. 9.28 Christ died once for many and unto them that look for him shall he appeare the second time unto salvation Salvation is brought to whom to all those and only to those that look for the appearance of Christ Therefore it is said of all the Beleevers in Heb. 12. That they saw things that were invisible and that they had an eye to the recompense of reward and that they saw the promise a far off They looked still for those things that were to appear by Christ This I suppose is sufficiently confirmed by the Scripture let us therefore make some use of it Try now what comfort thou hast in the expectation of that great appearance of the Lord Jesus here spoken of This is the most infalible ground and undoubted evidence and testimony of the truth of grace now and assurance of glory hereafter if God have now stirred up thy heart in faith and holy affection to look for and to long and waite for the appearance of Jesus Christ Without this there is little love to Christ The Church in Cant. 1.2 sheweth her love to Christ Draw me saith she and we will run after thee And chap. 2.4 Stay me with flaggons comfort me with apples for I am sick of love and chap. 5. If you find him whome my soul loveth tell him I am sick of love If thou be of the disposition of the Church thou wilt out of love to Christ desire nothing so much as to enjoy the presence of Christ The Spirit and the Bride say come and let him that heareth say come the Spirit faith come and the Bride because she is stirred up in the same affection by the Spirit she faith come too Christ faith to his Church I come and the Church she faith again Come Here is the agreement between Christ and his Church and the same disposition is in all the members of Christ a waiting and longing and desiring for the coming of Christ There are many that pretend they wait and desire for the coming of Christ When a man is under any affliction or in any trouble then Oh that Christ would come and end these troubles You shall here a man that is abused and wronged by the oppressions and injuries of others and by the unrighteous dealings of wicked and ungodly men crying out Oh that Christ would come and put an end to these evil times Yea but if thou hast this desire of Christs coming that is in a man of a heavenly conversation It will appear in these three things First it will appear by the Ground of it What are the grounds of thy desire what are the motives that incourage thee to long for the coming of the Lord Jesus That which is the ground of faith is the ground of hope that is the promises Faith is the ground of things hoped for and the Word and Promise are the warrant of Faith Faith and Hope look both on this the free promise of God so it is said of Abraham that be beleeved above hope because be knew that be that promised was able to do it There is the first thing then Faith is the ground there is none but a true beleever that can indeed aright wait for and desire the coming of Christ But this will appeare more in the second thing and that is by the companion