The Usefulness and Excellency of Christ, Section 13
SECT. 13.
Of Blockishnesse, the second Let.
THe second let which here must be pulled away, is Blockishnesse, wherby The second Let, is Blockishnesse.many men and women are so stupified, as that they care as little for this rose of Sharon, as a great many of your blockish countrey people care for other roses, though they have great store of them in the countrey: For they doe not conceive that they may be sicke and stand in some need of them, and therefore they will not take the paines to gather them, and to preserve them against a time of faintnesse or sicknesse which may happen, Nor doe a great many men among us once seriously thinke upon the evill day, when Christ the rose of Sharon will doe a man more good then this whole world, if it were turned into one entire lump of gold, nay, they doe even purposely put off all such pensive thoughts as now and then doe mind them of such a day: Like that timorous King of France, who charged all his followers, that they should not once name before him that most dreadfull, fearfull name of death; they doe not desire to thinke that ere long they must sicken, and dye, and come to judgement; and therefore, though we Ministers tell them never so much of Christ, and doe even fill their eares with Christ, and make them even weary to heare so much of Christ, yet can we doe them no good, because they be so blockish, as that they cannot or will not remember their latter end. So that needs thou must remove out of the way this blocke, if thou be yet out of Christ, and remember that a day is comming, even a day of darknesse, and of gloominesse, a day of clouds, and of thicke darknesse, Ioel 2. 2. when thou shalt lie downe upon thy death-bed, in thy last sicknesse, unlesse God take thee away suddenly. When the *Tremell. in Eccless 12.keepers of the house, thine armes shall tremble, and the *Idem. …b.strong men, thy knees shall bow themselves, and the grinders, thy teeth, I mean, shall cease, and those that looke out at the windowes, even those very eyes of thine shall be darkened, when friends will be troublesome unto thee, thy servants or those that shall keep thee, will not be able to please thee, when speaking will spend thee, and silence grieve thee, and thy wife and children, those pieces of thy selfe, in another kind, weeping about thee will torment thee, and when thy feet will begin to grow cold, and thy face to waxe pale, thy lips and mouth to retire, thine eyes to pitch, thy tongue to faile, thy teeth to close, thy breath to faint, thy heart to beat and ake; and when the memory, the magazine of the soule, as *Manchest…r al mondo.one aptly termes it, will recount all that thou hast done, thought, or spoken, and Satan, yea, many devils and malignant spirits will in this thy last assault with combine… forces surround thy bed, and lay to thy charge what thou now slightest, even thy most abhorred underprizing and undervaluing of the Lord Christ, and thy wilfull neglect of a number of golden seasons, and precious duties, besides an infinite multitude of other most grievous and haynous abominations, youthfull lusts, and execrable pollutions, extortions, oathes, cursings, revilings, and the like, which will most bitterly aggravate the unexpressable *Nam dolor est solutio continui. Cureus de sens. l. 2. 6. 43 So that the dissolution of soul and body most nearly compacted, must needs be exceeding great.paine of death, who in the meane while will put thy whole dying body into a most grievous and coldest sweat, as an infallible *P. Boaystuan in suo th…a…ro mundi, l. 3 p. 147.evidence that nature is now vanquished, yea, will be sure to batter chiefly thy once strongest castle the heart, straightening and distressing it round on every side, and bursting the very strings of it, to make the last fatall breath, and to fetch out by force and maine strength thy poore and trembling soule, and to deliver it, if thou dye out of Christ (which God forbid) unto his fellow, the second death, to be tormented for ever and ever: For therefore it is written, Luke 12. 20. thou foole, this night thy soule shall be required of thee, *foreign.or they shall require thy soule of thee. Marke they, and who they be, thinke ye? the first death, and the second, one suceeding, as it were, and seconding the other; and therefore I beseech 1. S…riously. 2. Frequētlyyou, think but seriously and frequently on this your last sicknesse, and upon your latter end, which is approaching, and be not so blockish as formerly you have been: For then, as the little Bee, which so soone as flowers spring, goeth abroad, vieweth the gay diapery, and the variety of the sweetest flowers, growing in the coloured fields, fraights her thighes, maketh a curious combe, and so betimes hoards up honey in the pleasant summer against the cold, sad and troublesome winter: so you cannot chuse but take this golden opportunity, which God in mercy offereth you, causing the most sweetest rose of Sharon, even Jesus Christ himselfe, blessed for ever, to spring, as it were, and to appeare. Here before you, I say you cannot but goe forth now forthwith, & use the means formerly shewed, that you may sucke, provide, and get, I will not say a little corruptible honey out of this my text, which is Christs owne speech; but Christ himselfe, who is sweeter then honey, though it be made never so pleasant with the most fragrant roses, against that most heavy, most grievous, and sorrowfull winter of your latter end, which is to come.
The Lord make you thinke upon it, that you may not neglect or forslow this most pleasant summer day of your most gracious visitation, in the which the Lord Christ doth so blessedly appeare unto you in his blessed word, and proffers himselfe unto you so lovingly and pleasantly, like a rose full fresh and faire in the field.