Practical Discourses on Sickness and Recovery, Title page – Dedication
PRACTICAL DISCOURSES ON Sickness & Recovery, IN Several SERMONS, As they were lately preached in a Congregation in London.
BY TIMOTHY ROGERS, M. A. After his Recovery from a Sickness of near two years continuance.
LONDON, Printed for Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower End of Cheapside, Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-yard, and John Dunton at the Raven in the Poultrey. MDCXCI.
To the Right Worshipful Sr. WILLIAM ASHURST, AND Sr. THOMAS LANE, Knights, And Aldermen of the City of London.
Most Honoured,
AFter I had once resolved to let the following Discourses see the Light, in hope that they might be some way serviceable to the Glory of God, and the Good of Men, especially of the Sick, or such as are recovered, I had no doubtful Thoughts to whom they should be address'd. You were the Persons that I first thought upon, and it is to You that I am obliged in a more than ordinary manner. Therefore I take this occasion to make my Acknowledgments, and to testify my Gratitude. It was from your Kindness, that in troubled and uneasy Times I did obtain many a pleasant and quiet Retreat. In both your Houses in the Country I always met with a chearful Entertainment, and had there an opportunity of Study, which together with the benefit of your Conversation, and a leisure to think, without being diverted by the noise and burry of the disagreeing World, made me to relish a very sensible Delight in being there.
It is to me and others a thing very observable, that the Honours which you have received both from the King and your Fellow-Citizens, have made no Alteration in your former ingaging Tempers and Carriage: You are still as free, as pleasant, and as affable to your meaner Friends as you were before. Whereas we daily see many Persons, whom a little Honour or Advancement changes from all the good Qualities they once possess'd, to Loftiness and Pride; whom an high Station fills with as high Thoughts, and who cannot from their more exalted Condition look upon such as are below them without Contempt and Scorn. And tho this may not cause them to lose some outward Civilities from those that are dazled with their shining Grandure, yet they do thereby lose all that Reverence and Esteem in the Minds of Men which other wise they might expect.
You are, for the great Zeal you have manifested to the Good of your Country, and more especially to the Liberties and Priviledges of this City, justly beloved; and the more so, because you were always steadily resolved to promote the true Interest of both, even in such a Season, when some that had either no English Blood in their Veins, or no true Love to their Country in their Hearts, were willing easily to part with those excellent Rights which cost their Forefathers very dear; who were in some sense worse than Esau, for he sold his Birthright, but they were willing to surrender, and to give theirs away for nothing. It comforts us when from our low Ground we look up to your higher Sphere, and see you so well to fill your Orbs with Light; And we daily pray that you may long shine there for the Common Good, and that we may long be refresh'd with those Influences which have already been so comfortable to us.
You have now, through the Providence of God, an honourable Station, but before that, you were most honorably descended: You derived your Birth not only from Families that had done worthily in Ephratah, and were famous in Bethlehem, but from such as were the Friends of God, of a strict Piety, and of an unblamable Religion: some of which are now Citizens of a better Corporation, even of that which is in Heaven. What a Comfort is it to the Children of good Parents, that they can pray to their Fathers and their Mothers God? In Yours you have beheld the Amiableness of Religion represented to the Life, in their good Example, and the Holiness of their Conversation. You may fire your Souls (if at any time they begin to cool) by the pleasant remembrance of that which they did for God. You can remember with what Constancy and Fervour they prayed, with what Reverence they read the Word, and heard it preach'd, with what Seriousness and Frequency they spoke to you of heavenly Things, and of the Life to come, with what watchfulness they managed their Prosperity, with what Patience they bore Afflictions, with what Meekness they forgave their Enemies, with what Readiness they entertained all those whom they judged sincerely to name the Name of Christ. You see those who are yet alive, worshipping and serving God; and you can (though not without sorrow for your own loss) remember those who are dead and gone, with what Faith they lived, and with what Hope they died. Give me leave humbly to desire you, to continue to set often before your Eyes their heavenly Example, and to keep the same good Order in your Families that they kept, and to read the Scriptures with as much Frequency and Seriousness as they read them, to be as conscientious in all the Duties of Religion as they were, that so They and You may meet with Joy in the Great Day.
The Thoughts of Death, as it is an Entrance into an Unalterable and Eternal State, will very much promote all this. It will help us to have our most delightful Conversation with those Persons with whom we desire and hope to be found when our Lord comes. It will regulate our use of lawful Things, and guide us in the management of our Pleasures and our Recreations; it will keep both our Bodies and our Souls in a readiness for private Prayer, the serious, and reverent, and lively performance of which will greatly promote our Growth in Gracê. We give to our Friends large Portions of our Time every day, and we should devote some part of it to converse with God; and that not in a cold manner, but endeavour to warm our Souls with a deep sense of our Wants, and with some suitable foregoing Meditations. This is that Duty to which you are no Strangers, and You and all others, that are in earnest for your Souls, will preserve this as a strong Defence against all your spiritual Enemies, and the manifold Snares and Temptations of the World; for it brings to our Assistance the Help of God, and of our blessed Redeemer.
There is no Pleasure that we have in our Friends, or in our Diversions, that is comparable to that Joy which an holy Soul finds in its humble and reverent Approaches to the Throne of Grace, where God and the Soul meet together, where God by his Spirit kindles heavenly Desires, and where the Soul, upon the Wings of those Desires, takes its flight from this lower World; when the Soul complains of the burden of Sin, and God by his free and gracious Pardon takes the Burden off; when the Soul pants and breaths for the living God, and he is pleas'd to meet and to satisfy the longing Soul. It is then upon the Mount, and sees his smiling Face, and would fain always see it; it is loth to come down to the meaner Employments of this World; and when the necessary Affairs of the present Life call it away, it comes from the pleasant Work, shining with brighter Grace and Holiness.
It is a thing of more Honour to You than a thousand honourable Titles, that You keep up constantly the worshipping of God, and reading the Scriptures in your Families Morning and Evening: and indeed it is an Arrogance in those to call themselves Christians, who neglect so sacred and so considerable a part of our holy Religion: And your good Example in the due practice of these excellent Things will have a powerful Influence upon your Children; and what you now do, they will also do, if they live to have Families; and the sight of Religion in you will convey to them a greater Approbation, and a more easy practice of it.
God has bless'd you with a numerous and an hopeful Offspring, whose present and future Welfare I do with an undissembled Affection most heartily desire. By their Seriousness, their Ingenuity, and their good Inclinations, they give us cause to expect, that though they are now as Olive-plants round about your Tables, yet that they will hereafter refresh the Hearts of many more besides your own Families: And that, as it is expressed in Psal. 144. 12. Your Sons may be as Plants grown up in their Youth; that your Daughters may be as Corner-Stones polished after the Similitude of a Palace. I question not but the Prayers that you send up to Heaven for them, will procure the Blessing of the Divine Providence, which is the richest and the best Inheritance. It is a Blessing of God that you have so many living Images of your selves, in whom you see your own Life renewed. And you are so happy as to have your Quivers full of them. May they all live to be your Comfort, and to maintain Religion in the World.
God has been pleas'd to give You several Instances of the Vanity of this World, by the Deaths of several of your Relations, some of which *Mr. Joseph, and Mr. Benjamin Ashurst.died in their most hopeful Youth, and in the Flower of their Age, whilst their Friends promised themselves a long Comfort and Delight in their Conversation, who had they lived might have been of great use to their Country, and to the Church of God. And one Relation †Alderman Cornish.you lost, by a way that was very afflicting to you, but advantagious to him. He died unseasonably as to us, for we needed his Prayers and his good Example; but his Death was seasonable as to himself; for I do not doubt but he was prepared for it. He died much beloved, and greatly bewailed. Those that knew him could not but esteem and value him for the Assableness and Civility of his Temper, the Conscientiousness of his Dealings, the Sincerity and Heartiness of his Expressions, the good Order that he kept in his Family, and for that Uprightness and unaffected Religion that appeared to all that observed his Conversation. I may without any shew of Flattery, say he was one of those good Men for whom many would have died, could they have exchanged their meaner Lives for his more serviceable Life. He died by a may somewhat terrible to Flesh and Blood, but which by Faith he overcame. His Zeal for the Liberties of this City, and which he shewed whilst he was in an honour able Station, rendred him obnoxious to those Persons then in Authority, who gave liberty to their Revenge to fall upon those who knew not how to flatter, or commend, or promote their Arbitrary Designs. It was a thing below him to use such sneaking and such unchristian Arts for Honour or for Safety. There is nothing can satisfy his Friends for the loss of so excellent a Citizen, so good a Man, and so sincere a Friend, but the consideraon of that Providence, which tho it be mysterious and severe for the present, yet will hereafter appear to have been very wise, and very good to all those that love God. Tho the Loss his Friends sustained by his removal from them be great, yet it cannot but be a Satisfaction to them to consider that he was happy in his Death. He is gone to that God that (as he said himself) knew his Innocence, and to a Place where there are no false Accusations, and where he and his holy Friends shall never part again. This and much more than what I have said, is due to the Memory of so great and so good a Man, whom it is impossible for a true Lover of his Country ever to forget.
My Zeal to the remembrance of those Persons which I have mentioned, and whom I honoured and esteemed, together with the Respect that I ought to express to them, has drawn me to a much greater Length than what I at first intended; and tho when I consider the multitude of your Affairs both publick and domestick I am afraid I have too much presum'd upon your Time in this Dedication, yet the Experience that I have often had of your Candour, makes me to believe that you will forgive even so criminal a Presumption.
God has given you plentiful Estates, and, which is as great a Mercy, Hearts to use them. You have often been Eyes to the Blind, and Feet to the Lame. There are many hundreds whom your Charities have refresh'd; the Blessing of those that were ready to perish, has often come upon you: And you have made the Hearts of the Desolate to sing for Joy. And it is no small support of your Prosperities to have many praying for you to God, and who are the more earnest as having been greatly obliged by you.
I do now thank you for all the many Kindnesses that I have received from you both in my former Health, and in my late sore Affliction. I thank you for Visiting me in my low Estate, tho the greatness of my Pain, and the anguish of my Thoughts allowed me not to take such notice of so great an Honour as otherwise I should have done. I have often said when I was greatly afflicted, That I should neither see you, nor any others of my Friends till the great Day, and till the Heavens were no more: And God alone by his Soveraign Goodness hath brought me from the lowest Pit. It was to manifest my Thankfulness to my great Deliverer, that I preached the following Sermons, in a Place where were many of my Friends, many that had prayed for me, many that had continued their Kindnesses to me, when I could no way be serviceable to them, and to whom I can make no other Requital than by praying for them, and endeavouring to live to the Glory of that God, for whose sake both you and they so kindly remembred me.
In these Discourses you will find a Relation of some part of my Affliction. It is impossible to relate the whole of it, for my Sorrows were beyond expression. I have not here insisted on that, which was the Trouble of my Trouble, my spiritual Distress, my Anxieties and my Fears, which were vastly more afflicting to me than my bodily Pains, which yet were both sharp and long. I do purpose if these Discourses meet with Acceptance, to publish some others hereafter, that shall both contain an account of the Distresses of my Soul, and also some Directions to those that are long afflicted, and more especially to melancholy People, to whose Case there is very little said by those that have long been so themselves. Since I have been so long sick, I cannot look upon any of my Fellow-Creatures but with great pity, when I think how many thousand Pains and Troubles may be their Portion before they die. I could not have thought there had been in the World so many and so great Miseries as those are which I my self have felt: Tho at the same time I cannot but adore the Wisdom of God's Providence that conceals from the knowledg of Men those Evils to which they are obnoxious; for if they foresaw them, it were impossible for them to perform their present Duty, they would cause such troublesom Agitations in their Spirits. I have been somewhat particular as to my own Case in the following Sermons, that I may warn all People to walk humbly, and not to be secure when they see what strange Miseries God has wherewith to correct our Follies; to desire them to prepare for long Sickness and Pain; as also to excite those that are delivered from the Grave, and so have received two Lives from God, to be very thankful, and to improve so comfortable and so great a Mercy.
That You may prosper in your Trades, and go on with the same Vigour and Faithfulness to manage the Duties of your Publick Station that You have hitherto done; That You may long live to promote the Welfare and Happiness of this City, and by the careful discharging of your Talents may afterwards have Authority over ten Cities, and exchange your Gowns for Robes of Glory; That the Blessing of God may be upon You, your Ladies, your Children, and your whole Families, is, and shall be the constant Prayer of,
Gentlemen, Your very much obliged Servant, TIMOTHY ROGERS. London, Sept. 22. 1690.