Practical Discourses on Sickness and Recovery, Sermons · Sermon 1

Practical Discourses on Sickness and Recovery · Sermons · Sermon 1

p. 1SERMON 1.

PSAL. 30. ver. 3, 4.

O Lord, thou hast brought up my Soul from the grave, thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

Sing unto the Lord, O ye Saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.

IT hath pleased that all-wise Providence that Governs, orders and directs all things in this lower World, after a very long and terrible Sickness and Calamity to give me an opportunity to appear in this Place at this time. 'Tis a place where I am well assur'd there have been many prayers p. 2put up for me during my sore and great Affliction. And seeing the Most High God, in whose power alone it was to relieve me, has from his own Soveraign Goodness, not cast off your prayers nor turn'd away his mercy from me; I am now come to thank him in the midst of this Congregation, for remembring so mean a Creature and so vile a sinner in his low Estate, for his mercy endureth for ever. As also to thank those of you here that had a sense of my sorrowful Condition, for your kind Affection, and for the Requests which with so much pity and Compassion you presented to the Throne of God in my behalf. I judge it equal, that in a place where there have been offer'd up so many sacrifices of hearty prayer there should be also offer'd up one common Sacrifice of as hearty Praise, and that a great Cloud of Incense may go up from us towards Heaven with an united flame of Love and Joy. For may you not say with me, Who is so great a God as our God, who does marvellous things without number; who commands Salvation where there seems to be no sign but of approaching Misery and Ruin; and, p. 3who is so good a God as our God, that does not contend for ever; that Creates Light in the thickest Darkness, and turns the shadow of death into the morning. It is this Mighty and this Gracious God that I would praise my self, and that I would now invite you to praise. It is no less than his all-powerful Voice, that has asswag'd those Flouds that overwhelm'd me; after I have been like Jonas in the very belly of Hell, swallowed up with amazement and fear, he has made those Waves of Trouble which in a Continual Succession roul'd over my Head, to set me now as on the dry Land. It was without doubt a surprizing thing to Jonah after so sad a Case as is mentioned in Chap. 2. ver. 3, 4, 5, 6. wherein he thus speaks, Thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas, and the flouds compassed me about, and thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple, the waters compassed me about even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapt about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever, &c. I say after p. 4so sad a Case as this, it was a surprizing thing to the poor man to see himself in this pleasant World again, and to find that the same Creature that had swallowed him up should be the vessel that should Convey him to the shore. As it is not easie to know after what manner he lived, for those three days and three nights, how he breath'd in the Sea, and in the belly of the Whale, and with what he was nourish't and maintain'd, so his escape from a danger which had actually overtaken him was no less miraculous. I am not in a less surprize than he may be suppos'd to be in, nothing but that Almighty power to which nothing is impossible could save either him or me. Methinks I begin to stand as on the firm Land, and behold that stormy Sea, and those rough Winds that blew so violently, and fill'd me with so great a fear, and which lasted more Months, than his did Nights and Days. And though I was no way like to that Holy Prophet, unless it were in his Impatience and Anger, yet I can say with him, Jon… 2. 9. I will sacrifice unto the Lord with the voice of thanksgiving, I will pay that that I have vowed, salvation is of the Lord p. 5Though I have such a remaining pain as makes me not to know what a Total Ease is, yet I own it as an effect of his Unsearchable Grace that I have now so much hope as to be able in some measure to pray to him, and so much Ease, as to be able to speak to you, neither of which I could have done whilest his heavy hand prest me very sore. Had it not been for some remaining indispositions, I had not so long delayed to appear in this place. I have thought indeed sometimes that I would with Sampson arise, and do as I did at other times, but that tedious and uncommon pain that afflicted me, and the Consciousness that I have of mine inability to manage so Honourable and so difficult a work as this, has long kept me back. Moreover, I thought there was no need of my weaker Light, nor of my meaner Capacity whilest in my absence you had others, whose understandings being better furnished could communicate to you in larger measures from their more abounding store. But the deliverance which God by his own Power and Goodness has already given me, is so wonderful, so unexpected, and especially so undeserved, that p. 6I cannot but thrust my Sickle into the Harvest, though it be with a very trembling hand. And I promise my self that you will joyn your prayers with mine, that it may be for the good of some Soul or other, nay if God so please, that it may be for the good of many Souls that I come here this Evening; that it may be for the preservation of others from so thick a darkness, and so woful a Condition as that, wherein I have been. I come to you as one from the dead, to say no more, and though if you hear not Moses and the Prophets, and the well attested Revelations and Discoveries which God has made by them, neither will any other methods be successful to your good; yet one would think that the Words of one that has dwelt so long as in the very Grave and in the nearest Confines of Eternity, ought to carry more than ordinary weight with them. A peculiar attention is usually afforded to dying Persons, and I think the same should not be denyed to such as in the Judgment of others and in their own opinion have been no longer for this World, as I was for above a year; and upon that account have Cause to say p. 7as in the Text. O Lord thou hast brought up my Soul from the Grave, &c.

From the Words we may raise these two Observations.

First, That God alone is the Soveraign disposer of Life and Death.

Secondly, To be brought up from the Grave is a Mercy greatly to be acknowledged, and for which all such as are recovered ought to be very thankful.

First, God alone is the Soveraign disposer I. Obs.of Life and Death. This great God concerns himself not only with the Nobler parts of his Dominions, but with such as are more inconsiderable. He not only preserves the vaster and the purer Orbes above, but also this little drossy Globe. His Care extends its self not only to the Highest Angel, but to the least and the meanest Man. And though Men are among us distinguisht by several Excellencies and Titles of Honour, yet before him all flesh is as grass. He gives a Being to the meanest Pile in its ordinary p. 8Garb as well as fine Apparel to the beautiful Lillies of the Field. 'Tis in him that we all live and move and have our being, and if his Concourse be removed, all our operations will immediately cease. We cannot act without him, for then we should be self-sufficient, and Independant on him. He is the Author and the Preserver of our Nature. He first tyed our Bodies and our Souls together, and 'tis his care that maintains this Incomprehensible Union that is between parts in themselves so vastly different; and when he pleases to suspend his Influence, 'tis dissolved and broken asunder. He is the strength of our Life, Psal. 27. 1. From him we have all our Healthfulness and Vigor. He is the Great Agent, the principal Efficient Cause of All that Exists, and all second Causes in their several Actions depend upon him. Though the manner of his Influx is very Mysterious, and it becomes not the weakness of our Minds daringly to determine which way it is, we that are extremely in the dark about many of the motions of our own Faculties, ought not any way to Limit Him, whose Wayes are Unsearchable, and who is so far above us. But this we most certainly know that our whole being, and the continuance of it depends on him alone. 'Tis his Sun that does refresh our Spirits with his Temperate, and Comfortable beams, and that by his Amiable shine renders this World a place of delight. For were it always covered with darkness, it would be a place very undesirable and full of horror. They are his Vapours that are drawn up to fill the bottles of Heaven, and 'tis his hand that opens them again, and makes the Clouds dissolve to give being to Grass and Corn, to feed the Beasts for us, and to be the staff of our Life. 'Tis his Day in which we work, and his Night in which we sleep; 'tis his Earth that bears us, his Air in which we breathe, and they are his Winds that purisie and fan that Air to make it healthful, and serviceable to us. It was this great and Gracious God that first breathed into us the breath of Life; he formed our several parts with curious and inimitable Art, and his own skilful hand brought us from the darkness in which we were inclos'd safely to the Light of Day. 'Twas by his Goodness alone, p. 10that we were not strangled in our Birth, or smother'd in the Cradle; and that we did not there by the Carelessness of our Keepers, and by the many distempers that attend our Early Age find a Grave. His Goodness sav'd us from the dangers which we our selves were unable to apprehend, and which without his extraordinary Favour would have clos'd our eyes as soon as we saw the Light; and have sent us into the other World, when we were but newly entred into this. His Mercy deliver'd us from the unknown dangers of our heedless Infancy, and from the unfear'd evils of our daring Youth. 'Tis God alone that holds ou… souls in life and suffers not our feet to b moved, Psal. 66. 9. 'Tis he that furnishes us out of his Stores wherewith to repair the daily decayes of Nature. He gives us the things that are absolutely necessary to maintain our Life and those also that are necessary for refreshment and delight. His corn his wine, and his oil. Hos. 2. 8. He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle and herb for the service of man that h… may bring forth food out of the earth, and wine that maketh glad the heart of man p. 11and oyl to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth mans heart, Psal. 104. 14, 15. 'Tis he that spreads our Table, and who fills our Cup, and makes the things which we take for the support of Life to give us strength; for we live not by bread alone, Mat. 4. 4. 'Tis he that gave and that maintains that heat in our Stomaches, and those Acid juyces there, that alter and attenuate and distribute the several parts of our Meat. 'Tis he that gave us the desire of Food, and that drives away those diseases that would lessen and abate our Appetite. And it is in the sense of his Providence that we ask his Blessing before we eat and return him thanks afterwards. For were it not for his Gracious Influences, our Faculties would quickly lose their proper Vertues, and we should notwithstanding all our Care quickly dye. All Sicknesses are at his disposal, for it is he that kills, and that makes alive, he bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up, 1 Sam. 2. 6. When he pleases to withdraw his most Common Blessings, we droop and Languish and pine away. Thousands of Diseases stand in a readiness waiting for his Command, and p. 12when our sins make him to give the word, they fall upon us with a mighty Violence; and in a few restless dayes and nights change our Countenances, break off our purposes and stain all our Pride and glory. Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat, and they draw nigh unto the gates of death, Psal. 107. 17, 18. God has fixed the bounds of our habitations, and the very time of our stay, and when it shall be that they must know us no more, We are but Dust and Ashes, and how soon can the mighty power of our great Creator blow away the most strong and healthful, with more ease than we can our breath scatter a little dust. All things in this lower World have their Rise, their Progress and Decay by the Decree of God, and so have the Lives of men. There is a time wherein to be born and a time wherein to dye, and both known to him though upon wise Reasons hid from our knowledge. God does with great Wisdom cast a Veil of thick night upon all future Events, that so we may without needless and diverting Curiosity perform our present p. 13duty. He shews this Dominion that he hath over the Lives of Men in these two things.

First, In the large difference which his Providence makes amongst those persons whose outward Circumstances seem to be much alike. One sick man by the use of some mixtures or applications immediately recovers, and another that with the most exact observance takes the same Physick, consumes his days in tedious Sorrows, and in the flouds of his own Tears, is carried Mourning to the Grave.

Secondly, He shews his Soveraign disposal of the Lives of Men, in ordering the different Seasons and times of their Death. One is cut down in his early Spring, and in his blooming greener Youth, and his Sun is covered with darkness, almost as soon as it begins to rise, whilest another weathers out the Storms, and grows to a mature and full Age. One does but peep as it were into the World, takes a short view of it, and is commanded out again, and is at his Journeys end in the morning of his Life, and another is allow'd to travel till the shadows of the Evening are stretched out according to p. 14their most regular advances, and till the Threescore and Ten that is the usual date of Long Life is expired. One is quickly summoned to the Great Tribunal and judged, whilest another has a longer space wherein to prepare for his Tryal and his Final doom. 'Tis the Divine Providence that sees and orders not onelyonly the larger portions of the lives of Men such as Infancy and Childhood and Youth and Manhood, but as God numbers the Hairs of our Heads, so known to him are all the minutes and hours and days and particularities of our Life, and every moment of our Time. He has set us our bounds that we cannot pass, and with respect to his Appointment no man dyes before his Time. Though a man that dyes by an acute Disease, or a violent Death, dyes before that time which he might have reach'd in an ordinary Course, and before old Age, which we reckon to be the most seasonable time wherein to dye; Bloody and deceitful men are said not to live out half their dayes; that is, according to the General Limit and Order of Providence as to the Age of Man, viz. Seventy or Eighty years. And indeed every Wicked Man in p. 15some sense dyes before his time, because he is not sit to dye, like Fruit that is gather'd before it be fully ripe. I now proceed to some Application: And from this Doctrine we may Infer.

First, If God be the Soveraign disposer Inf. 1.of Life and Death, then the Friends of the Sick do them the greatest kindness when they recommend their Case to him. And to this they are obliged by the Communion which they have with them in the same Humane Nature, they are also in the body; in such a body as is liable to as many pains as they see in others. They may be plunged into the same distresses, and need the same favour to be shewed to them. Regard, I beseech you, your afflicted Friends with great tenderness and pity, for whatsover their Case is, your sins may bring you as Low; and you have no assurance that what has happen'd to them may not be your own Lot before you come to the period of this miserable Life. It is also the duty of the Sick themselves, in the first assaults of Pain, with great Humility and Contrition of Spirit to betake themselves to God as their onelyonly helper, and, with a p. 16fervour suitable to the sadness of their Case to request of him. Faith and Patience, Repentance, and Mortification, and the pardon of sin; and earnestly to pray (that if it may be) their sickness may not be very long, nor very sharp. For long and sore afflictions are so great Tryals of Humane Nature that they may very well be prayed against; and I suppose no man thinks himself obliged to desire an heavy Cross. As to what concerns the Sick Man himself, he is to put his Affairs into the best order he can upon the first warning, the first beginning of his Illness; for indeed in most Distempers those increasing pains that attend them will not allow him to do it afterwards. Thus Job advises, Chap. 33. 26. that, When a man is chastened with pain upon his bed he shall pray unto God and he will be favourable to him, and he shall see his face with joy. But he that never begins to pray till he be almost at the last Gasp, will not be able to make such a strong and fervent Prayer as is like to reach to Heaven. As for them that try the Physitian till he gives them over, and never till then seek the Prayers of the Church, p. 17they have but little Reason to hope for help from God, to whom they have no recourse till they are driven by the last extremity. For they shew that if they could have had Relief without him, they cared not to be beholden to him for it. In which Case it is just with God to suffer the Sickness to be mortal, which perhaps had not been so, if Applications had been made to him with the first, by calling for the Elders, by confessing their Sins, by promising Repentance, and by Prayers for good things requisite, as well for the body as for the Soul. Discourse of Extream Unction. pag. 48. It is also the duty of those that are acquainted with the sick, instead of vain and frivolous discourses of Common Affairs, which have no relish with those that are in great pain, to Minister as far as they are able to their Spiritual Wants; to direct, instruct, and any other way to help them; to set their Souls in order, and to trim their Lamp. See what Care the Holy Prophet used to his Enemies, Psal. 35. 13, 14. When they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth, I humbled my soul with fasting, and my p. 18prayer returned into my own bosom, I behaved my self as though he had been my friend, or brother: I bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his Mother. Those means which he used for their Recovery were an argument of the sincerity of his own Religion, as well as of his most affectionate Sympathy and tenderness to them. When you visit the sick you see in them the prospect of your own Mortal Estate. You see how soon their Complexion, their Temper, their Sociableness, and all that agreeableness of Humour which was pleasing to you is gone and changed. In their broken feeble expressions, in their wan and pale looks and in their fallen Countenances, you behold that man in his best Estate is altogether vanity, Psal. 39. 5. and how when God with rebukes does correct man for Iniquity, he makes his beauty to consume away like a moth, ver. II. then you see that all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field, Isa. 40. 6. How many times do you see those whom you love, strugling with pains strong and bitter even as death it self, and you cannot though p. 19you never so earnestly desire it, afford to them the least Relief, not a moments ease, nor the smallest interval of rest; but when your hearts have sunk within you with the doleful and unintermitted accents of their Groans and Sighs, how often have you prayed to God and he has appear'd to your help and theirs? There may be many Cases wherein much speaking may do your afflicted Friends no good at all, but there is no Case wherein your prayers may not be of great advantage, either to preserve them with you, or to obtain for them some Gracious discoveries of the Love of God, or a more easie passage both which are very great Mercies. What wonders have been wrought in all Ages by the power of the United Intercession of Believers when they have carried their sick to Christ. What numbers are there of perfect Souls in Heaven that can Witness to the Truth of this; and how many deliver'd Captives are on Earth, that can now with joy set their Seal to it, and say with Transport, truly God, is a God hearing prayers. The continued prayers of the Church for Peter p. 20did procure his Enlargement and an Angel was dispatcht to break his Chains, and to send him to carry the welcom news to the then praying Church, that their prayers were heard and he was deliver'd. Many there are now alive that owe their Lives to this, whereof I am one. The Mercy of God which alone could help me, and that was implored and sought by your prayers has brought me from the very Grave. In all future occasions try this method for you know it is available and successful. Is any afflicted let him pray himself; is any so overwhelm'd that he cannot well perform it, Let him call for the Elders of the Church, and let them pray over him, and the prayer of Faith shall save the sick. Jam. 5. 14, 15. He is to use this course as a means for the recovery of his Health, for though we cannot with any Modesty pretend to the prayer of Faith here mentioned, that is, of a certain perswasion that the person for whom we pray shall be raised up; yet we ought to pray in this Faith, that it is pleasing to God when we express our dependance upon him by asking those p. 21things which we need; that every good thing comes from him, and therefore health and deliverance from death; that though he does not alwayes, give that particular thing which we ask, yet 'tis sometimes denied because we do not ask, and that as he never gives the greatest Blessings of all, which are those of a good mind, but in answer to prayers. So sometimes he does not send bodily good things, because he is not prayed to for them. And there is no less Reason for Prayer, when God raiseth up the sick by Blessing ordinary means, than when it was done by a supernatural Gift. Discourse of Extream Unction, pag 46.

Inf. 2. There is great Reason to Fear and Reverence God. For as he presides over all the Revolutions of Empires and Nations, their Original, their Growth, their Prosperities and Decayes, so he does likewise over particular persons in their Life and Death. His knowledge and his Government reaches to all things; for their Existence depends upon his Will. It is p. 22in his power to destroy or to save. He is the God in whose hand our Life is. We lye at his Mercy, and according as he Wills we must either be Healthful or Sick, Live or Dye. His are our times, on his pleasure our present happiness and our future welfare depends. He sits upon the flouds, and orders with a steady and uniform design, All that appears most uncertain and changeable to us. He can either make the Waters of Affliction to drown us, or say unto them as unto the waves of the Sea, hitherto shall you go and no further, even then, when their swelling Pride threatens us with total desolation. He has appointed his Sun to measure out our time, and knows when shall be the last concluding day. When those that are now living shall dye, and by what sort of death, and where after that they shall be placed, whether in Happiness or Wo. He knows when the last Trumpet shall sound, and when the dead shall be rais'd. Of him therefore should we stand in Awe, as having that voice continually in our ears, Deut. 32. 39, 40. See now that I, even I am he, and there is no God with me: I kill and I make alive: I wound p. 23and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand, for I lift up my hand to heaven and say I live for ever. What an abundance of diseases are at his beck, what abundance of Arrows are in his Quiver, what abundance of sins do we commit which cause him to bend his bow, and provoke him to set us up as marks of his displeasure? He can strike the most consident and secure sinners dead in a moment, or with long abiding pains fill them with so great anguish and vexation that they shall chuse strangling and death rather than Life. Alass what are we to this Great God, but as Chaffe before the Wind, but as Thorns and Briars before a Consuming Fire; but by a reverential awe of him we may lay hold of his Strength and be at Peace. Look up to his Heavens, and that vastly extended Firmament that is above, and then reflect and think how great is he that made all this Creation with a Word. Look to his Law and consider how holy he is in his Precepts and Threatnings, and then look to your selves and consider how Sinful and how Vile you are. Look upon the strange punishments p. 24and miseries under which many of your Fellow-creatures groan, and be not high-minded but fear, because the God that afflicts them may perhaps very shortly do the same to you; and let it fill you with the most awful thoughts, when you consider how great is his power, how severe his Justice, and how unspotted is his Holiness. How easie is it for him to bring you to the Grave, if he do but withdraw sleep from your eyes, so that you have no rest for three or four nights or for one Week. Then there is a stop put to all your present projects, and then all the Comfort of the World is gone. For all Affairs depend upon Activity and Vigour, and this will cease when sleep does no longer refresh your Spirits as it us'd to do. All your apprehensions will change when you have lost this support of weak nature, this onelyonly prop of Comfortable Life. God can make the strongest and most healthful persons quickly to feel Sickness and Diseases. He can quickly turn a pleasant fruitful Land into barrenness and the most beautiful Habitations into Dust and Ashes. p. 25We should greatly beware of provoking him of whose Mercy we stand in need, and whose Wrath we cannot bear. He can quickly change all our Joy into Mourning, and our Day into Night, and our Light into the shadow of Death. When he frowns all the stateliness of Buildings, all the Glory of Nations, all the Pomp and Splendour of the World is gone. How soon can he lay waste a flourishing Countrey with War or Plague or Famine, he can quickly turn the house of Joy into an house of Mourning, and deprive us of what is most pleasant in our Eyes, and blast all our hopes You have seen that by letting loose an unruly Element of Fire he turn'd this City in two or three dayes into an heap of Ruins; and by filling the Air with contagious Vapors sent many thousands in a very little time into the Grave, and he can by letting loose any one Humour in your bodies make you a burden to your selves, and to be weary of a World in which you can no longer live as you us'd to do.

p. 26Inf. 3. There is great Reason that, Inf. 3.under any Sickness or Distress that befalls us, we should submit our selves to this God that brings even to death and back again. If you be plagued all the day long, and chasten'd every morning, Psal. 73. 14. whilest others are in no trouble; and if you feel your strength decay, whilest theirs is firm; let no murmuring thoughts fill your Minds, because you are the Creatures of God, and he may do with you what he will. Keep a remembrance of his absolute Soveraignty alwayes imprinted on your Hearts. Job 33. 12, 13. God is greater than man, why dost thou strive against him, for he giveth not account of any of his matters. Whatever he doth, is therefore good and holy because he does it. And when he chastens us very sore, we should lay our Mouthes in the dust, and bear with Patience his Indignation, because we have sinned against him. We must not yield our selves to our Miseries, but to him that sends them; and that you may submit in Great and Heavy Trials, you must have recourse to the Promises p. 27of the Gospel, the Mercy of God, and the Righteousness of Christ, the Merit of his Sufferings, and the Efficacy of his Intercession, and if you believe you will be established, for without Faith in Christ there is no Hope, and without Hope no Submission. How can this be done if a man have no prospect of advantage by it, either in this or the next World; for no man can possibly submit to be for ever Miserable. It is good that a man should both hope, and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord, Lam. 3. 26. Inveigh not therefore against the Rod though it smart very much, but look to the hand in which it is, to that Wisdom that has the disposal of it, and to those sins that have deserv'd it. Look not upon your Evils as the product of Chance or Fortune, but as the effect of an Holy Providence, which though it is many times very severe, yet is alwayes very just. Adore this Providence with an humble Silence and Veneration. You do not know which is better for you, Health or Sickness, p. 28Affliction or Deliverance, he onelyonly knows that knows all things, and it will be very grateful to him if you give a chearful entertainment to his Order and Decree. If he please, who is your Gratious Creator and your Father, he can therefore afflict you, that he himself may be your Cordial, and revive your fainting spirits from the very Grave; but if not, your Religion should teach you to approve of all the messages he sends you, and by a quiet Resignation to put your Souls into his hands, when he signifies by the Progress and Increase of your Distemper that your Race is finisht, and that it is now your time to die. And in order to this, you must lay up a good store against that Evil day. For you may be warned from the World with long Chronical Diseases, that by their Acuteness and Violence, may be as so many several Deaths complicated together. And, then, when you have no hope of bodily ease any more, then will be the great Tryal of your Faith. Several Men will with great hardiness p. 29and resolution bear very great pains, so long as there is the least hope of Life; but to be patient and submissive in the deepest Sorrows, and in the view of certain death, this is what none can rightly attain to but those that Believe, and not all those neither, but such whose Faith is deeply rooted; has for a long time flourisht, and Conquer'd overwhelming doubts, and so is of more than an ordinary growth. This is that which rendred the Patience of our Blessed Redeemer so very remarkable, that when he was lead to the slaughter where he knew he was to suffer violent and great pain from barbarous and cruel men, yet even then he opened not his mouth, and when he knew there was unspeakable bitterness in that Cup which he was going to drink yet notwithstanding all the Wormwood and the Gall that was in it, and though his Innocent. Nature did recoil a little yet he drank it off, saying with an entire freedom of Choice and a full Acquiescence, Father, not my Will, but thine be done. And this p. 30was the fruit of a mighty trust in God; for without it lingring and continued pains are not to be born. For he that can submit for a Week may not have strength enough to submit for a MonethMonth; and he that can submit for a single MonethMonth, may fail when his Pain and Anguish is continued for Ten or Twelve Months together. We must prepare our selves for Sufferings and beg of God, that we may be satisfy'd with his pleasure when they come, and that we may wait for our Change, for we cannot dye till he will, of which Job was sensible, Chap. 6. 8, 9. Oh that I might have my request, and that God would grant me the thing that I long for! even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand and cut me off. All our strugglings, all our impatient and hasty wishes do not hasten our Last Hour; not all the Enemies we have in the World, nor we our selves, can put a period to this Life without the permission and the leave of God. Therefore in all Cases we must submit our selves to him. Though p. 31to be stupid is as far from our Duty as to be overwhelm'd. He that would have us to be sensible of his Bounties, would have us also to be sensible of his Corrections, and the Prophet takes notice of the omission of this as of a very great fault. Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock they have refused to return, Jer. 5. 3. A Careless unconcerned frame in Affliction is an Affront to his Justice and his Wisdom, and defeats, as far as in us lyes, the designs of his Providence; and to sink, and altogether to dispond is as great a Crime. Our Tears are then just, when we look upon our Sins, and see to what Miseries they have brought us, and how they have made that Gracious God to punish us with severity who does not willingly grieve the children of men. We then Act most like Christians when we answer our Holy Calling by a Resignation to those Evils, which he is pleas'd to send; and when we exercise those Graces which p. 32he requires from us. This is the onelyonly Cure of all our Troubles, for 'tis no more in our power to thrust away a Disease by force, than to support a falling Rock. Some indeed will advise you not to think of the Evils you suffer, and then they will be less; whereas it may be through the raging pain that you are under, your Disease is in your Thoughts; and then it is no more than to advise you not to be diseased when you are diseased. But alass! 'tis not in a Mans power not to think of Pain when he is in Pain; a Man cannot avoid being sensible of what he feels, no more than he can avoid the Sense it self; and it is somewhat hard when a Man feels exquisite Pains, to be told that they are light enough of themselves, if he would not greaten them by his own weakness. This is to upbraid a Mans Misery, not to relieve him; and to add reproach to his Calamity by making his Infelicity his Folly. Demonstr. of the Law of Nature. pag. 103. Patience tho it doth not take away our Pain, yet p. 33it may prevent new degrees of Trouble; and though at first we are unaccustom'd to the Yoke, yet by suffering we may learn to suffer.

Inf. 4. Seeing God alone brings to Inf. 4.the Grave and raises up again, then put not too great Trust or Confidence in Physitians. A Man indeed is under the Obligation of Self-preservation to have recourse to them, and to keep up his Clay Cottage as long as he can with all possible repaires; and when one is in very sharp pain, and knows not which way to turn himself for Anguish and Trouble, then indeed he does most willingly seek for help, and will take any thing though never so displeasing to the Taste, if he have any hope of being better, or more at Ease. But upon the first pain or sickness we must by serious Prayer go to God himself, and open our Case to him who is a most Gracious Creator, and most able to help us, and this we should do before we go to Men, who many times when they are most willing to relieve us, cannot do it. It is a perpetual reproach upon Asa that p. 34in his Disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the Physitians, 2 Chron. 16. 12. And 'tis left upon Record to warn us from a practice that is unsafe for us as well as dishonourable to God. It is God alone that has put healing Qualities into Herbs, Plants and the Flowers of the Field, and who can discover the several Vertues that are in them for our good. Place not too much trust in your Physitians, and this Advice I think is not unnecessary because there are several people that by manifold disorders and Excesses impair and ruin their Health, of which they are less Careful, from a secret Opinion they have that 'tis in the power of Physick, to give them certain, Relief, and they doubt not but they will be able to rebuild those Walls which they have pull'd down with their own hands. But this is far from being true, for there are abundance of secret and violent diseases into which they cannot penetrate with all their Learned Art. And though you go to such as are Men of Knowledge and Fame in their Profession, yet there are many things in this little p. 35World Man, that are to the most knowing as a Terra Incognita, and there may be a Thousand Diseases for which they want a name, and much more a Cure, and for which there is no Receipt in all the Dispensatories in the World. Their Profession indeed is Learned, but like all other Humane Sciences, full of Imperfection, and the Light which has broke out by the Discoveries and Inquiries of Latter Ages even as to many things in the very frame and Contexture of Humane Bodies, which were not known before, shews the darkness and ignorance of former Ages, and when this has done its best, the next will its like see more. Beware of leaving your dependance on God to put your trust in Men. And though it is commonly said every one is to be believed in his own Art, yet that belief very easily degenerates into presumption. A Thousand things may hinder your having any Relief from Physitians: You may be so pained as not to be able to give them an account how you are, or what part is affected, or after what manner; or you may p. 36as it frequently happens, have several complicated illnesses, and what they prescribe for one, may be very prejudicial to another; or they may do it in haste, or by a wrong Judgment, (which is very easie to fallible Men) take that for your Disease which really is not so, or the Apothecary may fail in the mixture, or those that attend you in the Administration, all which may betray you to death or to long pain. Seek chiefly to the Soveraign disposer of all things, who can either cure you without means, or make those that you try to be available; knowing that without him not all the Cordials in the World can for one moment stay the departing Life. Of which many Physitians are so sensible that they frequently tell you that by the blessing of God they hope to do you good. Indeed they had need be men of Prayer, that by their means Religio Medici might be as famous in reallity as it has been in scorn. And though I pretend to no great skill in these affairs, yet I have some Experience as to what I say. I have often found the Insufficiency of p. 37all things that have been prescrib'd, and that they have not given me the least Ease in my violent and sharp pain; and how what I have taken with a design to help me has increased my Disease and made it more painful. Therefore having severely smarted my self for my folly in expecting too much from humane help, I may be allowed to warn others, that they may not fall into the same snare; and to desire them to trust more in God and less in Men. We may be as guilty of Idolatry in giving Men too much of our Trust, as if we bowed before a Graven Image; and it is an evil to which Men are as prone as to any other sin. An Instance whereof is that which Suidas saith, that the Book which Solomon wrote of Physick, was affixed upon the Gate into the Entry of the Temple, and because the People boasted too much in it, neglecting the Lord, Hezekiah caused them to pull away this Book and bury it▪ and the Talmud saith, that Hezekiah did two memorable things, first he hid the Book of Physick which Solomon had written; and secondly, he p. 38brake the brasen Serpent which Moses made. Weemes Exerc. div. pag. 120. Indeed men do as that King said unto Hazael, 2 King. 8. 8. Take a present in thine hand, and go meet the man of God, and enquire of the Lord by him, saying, shall I recover of this disease. They seek for Recovery first of all as that which would bring them the most acceptable News, which made the Prophet use such Ambiguity in his Speech, Verse 10. For 'tis likely that 'twas no dissimulation, because his Sickness was not in it self Mortal, yet he should surely dye, that is by the Treachery of Hazael. The hope of Recovery is so grateful to the Patient, that Physitians are not a little tempted to conceal the danger when it is visible to all but to the Sick Man, and of how ill Consequence is this? I cannot better express it than in the Words of an Honourable person, for whom men of all the Learned professions have a just value. For my part (sayes he) who take the prognosticks of Phytians to be but Guesses, not Prophesies, and know how backward p. 39they are to bid us Fear, till our condition leave them little hopes of us: I cannot but think that Patient very ill advis'd, who thinks it not time to entertain thoughts of death, as long as his Doctor allows him any hopes of Life; for in case they should both be deceiv'd, 'twould be much easier for the mistaken Physitian to save his Credit than for the unprepared Sinner to save his Soul. Boyle Occasional Reflections, Sect. 2. pag. 222. Our safest Course in all our Troubles and Sicknesses is to Go to Jesus Christ, who has an Omnipotent Vertue and Ability to help, as when he was on Earth he healed all manner of Diseases, and among the rest a person that had suffered many things of many Physitians and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse. Mark 5. 26. So he has still the same power and Compassion, and though Thousands have shared in the Gracious effects of his Bevenolence, yet he has still the same Charity, and the same All-sufficient Fulness from whence to relieve us as the Sun after it has by its Light and Quickning p. 40influences given Being and Refreshment to so many several Creatures in the World, suffers no diminution of its own Light and Heat, and is no less Communicative and Beneficial to this very day, then it was many hundred years ago.

The whole of what I have spoken upon this Head is onelyonly to keep our spirits from placing an undue reliance on the Creatures when our Trust is chiefly to be fix'd on our Glorious and powerful Creator. One would think it strange, and yet so it is, that when God has by some sharp and severe stroak beaten off our hold from those props whereon we us'd to lean in the time of our Careless Health, when he has confin'd us to a solitary state, and we can no longer have our Antient Friendships, nor our former hope, yet even in distress it self (so great is our adherence to Creatures) we substitute to Our selves new Reeds whereon to lay some strength; and our vain trust does not expire but with our latest breath.

I would not have any part of what I have said to reflect in the least upon p. 41those worthy Physitians who in the time of my woful Calamity gave me their Charitable Visits; though God was not pleas'd to succeed the Endeavours they used, yet I hope and pray that he may reward them for their labour and their diligence: As also Those that gave me their kind help when I was not able to help my self. I owe to them all great Respect and Thanks, and none can take it ill if I say what to his Glory I ought to say, that God onelyonly was my Physitian and my Deliverer, and to him is all the praise due. He hath torn, and he hath healed, he hath smitten, and he hath bound me up, he hath revived me, and I live in his sight. Hos. 6. 1. So that I may say with David, Psal. 103. 1, 2, 3, 4. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Who forgiveth all thine Iniquities, and healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy Life from destruction, who crowneth thee with Loving-kindness and tender mercies. Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things so that thy Youth is renewed like the Eagles.

p. 42Observ. 2. To be brought up from the Obs. 2.Grave, and to be kept alive from going down to the Pit, is a Mercy greatly to be acknowledged, and for which we ought to be very thankful And tha… upon these following Accounts.

Reason 1. Because Life is the dearest of all our present Blessings. All Happiness Rea. 1.is usually represented by the name of Life, and all Misery by the name of Death. Other Evils take from us, each of them some part of our Comforts. Death bereaves us of them all. Bondage deprives us of Liberty, Banishment of our Countrey; Sickness afflicts our Bodies, shame or Infamy our Souls, pain troubleth our Senses, poverty incommodateth our Life; but there is no Calamity so great, as not to leave us the use or enjoyment of some good, or at least of our selves. Death extinguisheth our Life, and by this means overthrowing the very Foundations of our Enjoyments, doth at the same time despoil as of all other good things altogether. Daille sur Coloss. 2. 13. p. 43Life is the most excellent Gift of God, but Death is an Enemy to Nature and cannot be lov'd for it self; 'tis the fruit of Sin, Rom. 5. 12. 'Tis the wages thereof, Rom. 6. 23. For if Adam had persever'd in his Innocent Condition he had enjoyed a Glorious Immortality without those pains, and that Death which is now our Lot. The Philosophers indeed thought that death was natural to Man, and all the discourses they grounded upon this false principle, are so vain and empty, that they onelyonly serve to shew in the General how weak Man is, seeing the greatest productions of the wisest Men are so mean and Childish. Pascal, pensees. S. 30. Death is the matter of the Threat, and therefore a punishment; though Believers whose Faith is in exercise may quietly submit to it, as a passage to Eternal Glory. We give it indeed many soft names, and seem to make nothing of it in our ordinary discourse, we speak of nothing with more unconcernedness, and with less Fear; but it ceases not to be an Enemy though we give it p. 44never so many fair Characters. Men at a distance from it can make a sleight matter of it, but its nearer approaches, if attended with the due sense of Futurity will make the boldest and the stoutest Man to tremble, it will strike a damp into his Spirits, mingle Gall and Wormwood with his Wine, and Bitterness with his sweetest Joys. Death is not the less formidable for being unavoidable, but rather more so; as a certain Evil is more an Evil than that which is only probable, and which may never happen, but do we consider what it is for the Union that is between the body and the Soul to be dissolv'd, what it is to see Corruption, what it is to have this Body turn'd into a Carkass without Life and Motion, what it is to have this Body which we have tended with so long a Care, which we have maintain'd at so vast a Charge of Meat and Drink and Time, to have this Body in which we have slept and liv'd at Ease, laid into the cold Grave, and there in a loathsome manner to putrifie and consume away; it cannot but occasion very great Commotions, p. 45when the day is come that the two Friends who have been so long acquainted, and so dear to one another must part. Death is an evil to be prayed against, for as such it cannot be the Object of desire: And the old saying of Augustin is not unworthy of our Observation, That if there were no bitterness in Death the Constancy of Martyrs would not be so remarkable. Therefore says the Apostle, 2 Cor. 5. 4. We would not be uncloathed, but clothed upon. It is promised as a favour to Ebedmelech, that though he sustained many other losses yet he should have his life for a prey, Jer. 39. 18. and Paul, then whom none had a greater desire and esteem of Glory, yet reckons it a Blessing for a good Man to be kept alive. For he sayes of Epaphroditus, Phil. 2. 27. He was sick nigh unto death, but God had mercy on him. And we find the Holy Men of Old very earnest for their Lives. Return, O Lord, deliver my soul: O save me for thy mercies sake. For in death there is no remembrance of thee, in the Grave who shall give thee thanks, Psal. 6. 4. 5. p. 46Psal. 39. 13. Oh spare me, that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more. Psal. 102. 24. I said, O my God take me not away in the midst of my dayes. And what doleful Expressions did Hezekiah use upon the news of his approaching death, Isa. 38. 10. I said in the cutting off of my dayes, I shall go to the gates of the Grave, I am deprived of the residue of my years. I said, I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of the living; I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the Earth.

Reason 2. When a Man dyes, 'tis Rea. 2.to him as an end of all the World. He is no more considered as a Member of that Community to which he did once belong. When his Eyes are once clos'd by Death, he is no more to behold the Sun, Moon and Stars which he now sees; nor his Fields and Gardens, his Shops and Houses, his Estate and Lands. As the waters fail from the Sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up: So man lieth down and riseth not till the heavens be no more, Job 14. 11, 12. He quits for ever p. 47all those Earthly things on which he once set his Heart; and when he is asleep in his Bed of dust, he will not awake to pursue secular Affairs and Business, which took up so much of his time and labour. He must no more frequent his Exchange, not read Books, nor discourse with his Relations and Friends as he us'd to do among the Living here. The first sound that he will he will hear, will be the Voice of the Last Trumpet, Arise ye dead and come to judgment. The first sight that he will see, will be the Mighty Judge in the Clouds, and the Heavens and the Earth all in one flame: All that little share of the World which he called his own, will be undiscern'd, and buryed in the vast ruins and desolations of the Great Day. When a Man dyes, 'tis with him as an End of the World; all the Affairs of Peace and War, of Trade and Commerce, and Gain and Riches, all his projects and designs, his large reaches, his forecast, his …ughtfulness about News, or about providing for his own Name, or for posterity, all these things are at an end with him p. 48for ever. It would put a mighty Change upon the Face of things, and the Circumstances of particular persons if they knew certainly the World would be at an end in four or five years, or in so many Moneths, and no man knows but it may be so as to him, because before or at that time Death may cut him off; and then he has no more to do with this Earth, or with the Sons of Men. As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more. He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more, Job 7. 9, 10.

Reason 3. Because when we dye our Rea. 3.Everlasting state is to be determin'd l After Death the Judgment. The moment of our departure hence will pass us over to the Righteous Tribunal of God. It will make us either to shine with the Angels above, or to set with the Devils. It will either fix us in a joyful Paradise, or in an intolerable state of Wo. So that we may say with Nieremberg, how many things are to pass in that Moment. p. 49In the same is our Life to finish, our Works to be examined, and we are then to know how it will go with us for ever and ever? In that Moment I shall cease to Live, in that Moment I shall behold my Judge, in that moment I must answer for all my publick and my secret Actions, for all that I have ever thought, or spoke, or done; for all the Talents, the Time, the Mercies, the Health, the Strength, the Opportunities and the Seasons and Dayes of Grace that I have ever had, for all the Evil that I might have avoided, for all the good I might have done and did not, and all this before that Judge, who has beheld my wayes from my Birth to the Grave; before that Judge who cannot be deceiv'd, and who will not be impos'd upon. Little can he that has not been brought near to Death and Judgement know what Thoughts the diseased have when they are so. Little, very little does a Soul in Flesh know what it is to appear before the Great God. This is so great and so strange a thing, that they onelyonly know it who have receiv'd their final Sentence; but p. 50they are not suffer'd to return to tell us how it is, or what passes then; and God sees it fit it should be concealed from us who are yet on this side the Grave. But who does not tremble to think of this mighty Change, and of this Moment that is the last of Time and the beginning of Eternity; that includes Heaven and Hell, and all the Effects of the Mercy and Justice of God. See Moral Essayes, Vol. 4. Lib. 1. Chap. 9. Who does not tremble when he Considers that Infinite and Holy Majesty before whom the Angels cover their Faces; that Considers his Omniscience and his Greatness and the mighty Consequences of that Sentence, how sudden it is, and how irresistible, and that it is an irrevocable Decree, and by a Word of this Mighty Judge we live or dye for ever. It is no wonder if the thoughts of it make us shrink and quiver. It is a greater wonder that when some or other, whom we know, are almost every week going to such a place and state as this, we who are not yet cited to the Bar, are no more concerned, p. 51and use no more endeavors to be ready for it; 'tis a wonder that we put no higher a value on that Gospel that teaches us how we may avoid Condemnation; 'tis a wonder that we prize no more that Gracious Redeemer, who alone can plead our Cause, and that we labour and strive no more to be partakers of his Righteousness by which we may be Justify'd. It is no wonder if this prospect throw men into strange Agonies, as it frequently does those who are dying. Many people will say, when they hear the Complaints of the Sick, and their Long Continued Groans, It were well if God would take their souls away from their pained Languishing Bodies; it were well indeed if that could put an end to their present and their future pain. But do they not know that they must go into Eternity and be judged after death. Oh my Friends when you come to the Borders of the Grave, when you are within an Hour or two's distance from your Final Judgment, and your unalterable state, what a mighty Change will it cause in p. 52your thoughts and your apprehensions. You will then know and feel it, Then, when the Perspective is turn'd, and the other World begins to appear very great, and this very little. This that I have represented to you is a part of that which we call dying. Death is that which the Philosophers have talk't of with great. Contempt and with lofty Speeches, but I believe they commonly talk't so confidently when they thought themselves far from it, and I am sure they did so because they had not a distinct, knowledge of Futurity. For had they consider'd their own sins, and the nature of their last Trial with the Consequents of it, this would have lower'd all their Pride and Glory, they would have changed their Language had they look't upon Death as the Conclusion of Time, and the beginning of Eternity; and not onelyonly as a going out of this, but as an entrance into a state that would never Change. It is a great Mercy and greatly to be acknowledg'd that God allows us so much time wherein to prepare our selves for this final and irrevocable doom. It is an instance of his p. 53Patience that is truly Divine, that notwithstanding our many repeated Sins he has not cut us off. It is his great Mercy that gives us leave to appear in his Courts before we appear at his Tribunal, and that he affords us such large notice and warning that so we may be ready for our Last Tryal, whereon so very much depends.

The Conclusion.

I May say to you this Evening as Christ to the People concerning John, Mat. 11. 7. What came you out to see. As for those who came hither out of a Curiosity onelyonly to see one of whom they have, it may be, heard much discourse, Let them know that though, by reason of my long and sore Affliction, I have been a wonder unto many, yet now I can say with some hope that God is my strong Refuge p. 54As for those that came with an expectation of hearing something new and diverting, that might please their Fancies or gratifie their Ears onelyonly, they find themselves by this time mightily disappointed. But Those of you that came with a more serious Intention, know, that you see a Person that has by his own Sins and the Righteous Displeasure of God been for a long Season as in the very Grave, and yet by the Power and Goodness of God brought from thence again. You see a poor Reed that has been shaken indeed by the Wind, but which the Grace of God has kept from being broken to pieces. 'Tis to you to whom I would principally direct my Speech, 'tis your Prayers which I would beg, that so you would desire of God that the Deliverance which he has so far advanced, may be compleated by the same Hand and Mercy that has hitherto reviv'd me. You that have Health, have cause to praise him for his Mercy; and I that have been long sick, have cause to praise him who has been my Physitian p. 55and my Helper. O magnifie the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together, Psal. 34. 3. Let us as we join our Prayers, so unite our Praises to this mighty Lord. Do you praise him for keeping you from violent overwhelming pains, and I will Praise him for mitigating those that I laboured under; and though he chastened me sore, yet he has not deliver'd me over to death. And so by this means we shall bring an acceptable Sacrifice to his Altar, and it may be that through Jesus Christ he will receive as an odour of a sweet smell this our Evening Sacrifice.

The End of the First Sermon.