A Funeral Sermon Preached at Deptford June 3. 1688. Upon the occasion of the Death of Mrs. Elizabeth Kilbury, Late Wife of Mr. John Kilbury. By Henry Godman, Minister of the Gospel. With Allowance. LONDON, Printed for Nath. Crouch at the Bell in the Poultry near Cheapside, 1688. TO THE READER. THat thou may'st profit by thy hearing or reading of Sermons: There is a necessity of more Pastors and Teachers, to open and apply the Word, than one: Thou must act the part of a Pastor and Teacher unto thyself, and thine own Soul. The Minister's Application without thine own, will be to little or no purpose. When there is the Application of the Word to the heart by preaching; and the Application of the heart to the Word preached, by serious Meditation; when (I say) both these meet and strike one upon the other, there will, by the help of the spirit, (who is always ready to promote his work) be some sire struck, and a kindling of some good things in our Souls towards the Lord our God; meditate on these things, saith the Apostle, that thy profiting may appear. Reader, if thou wouldst meditate well on this plain Sermon, and ponder with thy Heart and Soul on these plain truths that are here laid down; thou wouldst doubtless find them to be blessed for thy Spiritual and Eternal advantage: but without this, all will prove but empty words, and the whole Discourse, but as so much water spilt upon the ground. This Sermon was calculated for a plain Country Auditory; such as it is, I mean rude, rough and unpolisht as it is, I let it go: Being importuned by the earnest desires of several persons, especially those concerned for the preaching of it, to send it forth. And indeed, to tell you the truth, if I had never so many polished shafts in my Quiver (as I have none) I should not care to draw them out in my Ministerial work: being convinced in my Soul and Conscience, that there is very little work done for God or men's Souls this way. I done't at all affect to tickle means ears with pleasing Eloquence, or to humour their fancies: Though the flashy Professors of our Age (whose Religion lies all in their fancies, memories or minds, for there is little or nothing of it in their hearts) like nothing else; I am sure that God in the Scripture doth not labour to please men's ears, nor to adorn his matter with a curious garment of words; but represents the matter itself to the Souls of men, as that which is worthy of all acceptation. The things of God need no humane Eloquence to commend them: Painting spoils Native Beauty, and external Ornaments would disfigure some things that are of themselves Proportioned and Lovely. It's that preaching which the world counts foolish, and which men being vain in their imaginations are ready to despise; that is made mighty through God for the casting down the Devil's Kingdom, and the setting up the Kingdom of Christ in the Souls of men. If God would please to bless these plain things for the good of any poor Souls, than I should easily despise all the exceptions of the Curious, and slight all the cavils of the Captious. That the Lord may water these Seeds with his Blessing, shall be my Prayer. Farewell. Psalm 73. 25, 26. Whom have I in Heaven but thee? And there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee. My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my Portion for ever. My Beloved, THIS Text was bequeathed unto me and you (as I may say) by the last Will and Testament of a Deceased Friend, both mine and yours; which the Lord can make more profitable to us, than thousands of Gold and Silver: And I am sure it was the earnest desire of her that left it, that it might be blest to us all for our everlasting benefit. In the first verse of the Psalm, the sweet Singer of Israel lays down a Consolatory Proposition for the whole Israel of God, to cheer up and refresh their Souls withal in their darkest and most cloudy seasons of trouble and affliction — Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart: As if he should say, though God may seem by his Providence to neglect the ways of men, and the worst in the view and judgement of sense may seem to prosper most, and the best be of all men the most miserable; yet for all this, I am sure that this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, That God is good to his Israel, and will do them good. Then to come near to the Text, he tells us that God will guide them, v. 24. by his counsel, and hereafter will receive them to his glory. He speaks indeed in the singular number as of himself, but you are to understand him in what he says, as personating all the People of God: Therefore it must needs be well with the People of God here, since Infinite Wisdom doth guide and direct them; and it shall certainly go well with them hereafter, since Infinite Glory than shall crown them: Which blessed Estate the Psalmist esteemed above all that this world can afford, because God in that estate will be all in all, in the faith, hope, and expectation of the enjoyment of him for ever, knowing that in him he shall inherit all things, he incourages and comforts his Soul in his present troubles; verse 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee? And what is there upon Earth that I desire besides thee? The words, you see, are an Interrogation, which here hath the force of a Negation: Thus, there is nothing, Lord, in my Judgement, either in Heaven above, or on the Earth beneath, that is of any real worth and value to me, or affords any comfort to my Soul besides thyself. Now the doctrinal Observation which I shall draw from hence is this, Doct. That God is the All of a gracious and godly Soul. Other things to him are but as Ciphers, that signify nothing, are but as shadows, which are something in show, but nothing in substance; the things that the men of the world court and adore, the Trinity which the world doth worship, which are earthly pelf, sleshly pleasure, and airy honour, Haec tria pro trino numine mundus habet are nothing, less than nothing, and vanity in compaparison to him, unto such a Soul. Take this in two or three particulars. 1. This gracious Soul sees all things in God: I am God All-sussicient, saith God to Abraham, and I see thou art so, saith this Soul to God. In thy breasts are all things (as the Hebrew word imports) out of which we may draw, and suck every thing that we need, either for the vile Body, or the precious Soul; he sees by an Eye of Faith, and the Vision of an enlightened mind, that all things are in God comprehensively, eminently, virtually, superlatively; according to what we read, Rev. 21. 7. He that overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God. The carnal heart makes nothing of God, Psal. 10. 4. He is not in all his thoughts; God is not worth his thinking of; he Idolizes God, as if he were nothing in the world, and he Deifies the Creature, making that a God: He sees nothing in him, no excellency at all why he should desire him; He prefers the dung and dross of the world before him, and is a lover of these things more than God; these broken Cisterns that hold no water, he prefers before the Fountain of living waters. But the gracious Soul sees all things in him, and that all things which we can desire are not to be compared to him. 2. He accounts nothing misery but to be separated from God. There is no sorrow, saith this Soul, to this sorrow; all other sorrows laid in the balance he finds but light. He had rather choose to beg with God, than to reign without him: He had rather die with God, that is, in the Arms of his Mercy, and in the Bosom of his Love, than live without him, in the affluence and confluence of all creature comforts, enjoyments and delights. Hîc ure hîc seca, saith this Soul, Burn me Lord, wound me, rend and tear me with the Briers and Thorns of the most grievous afflictions, for this do I choose, and this is infinitely more eligible unto me, with the enjoyment of thyself, than to live without God in the world, in the Sunshine of all its favours, and to bathe myself all my days in the River of its pleasures and delights. Much rather would this Soul be with Job upon the Dunghill, groaning under the burden of all his sorrows; or with Lazarus at the Rich man's door, covered all over with Sores and Ulcers from the crown of the head to the soles of his feet, than to be without God. But you may say, Are not these things miseries? Surely they are; for a Poor creature to have no soundness in his flesh, and to have no rest in his bones, to be chastened with pains, to be feeding on Wormwood, and drinking the waters of Gall all the day, and all the night long to be pinched with Poverty, to lie upon the wrack of continual pains, to be always under griefs and groans; are not these miseries? Ans. Yes, they are mala & miseriae in se, but not ad hominem istum; I mean, that they are evils and miseries in themselves, and so they are to all others, but not to that man that hath the Lord for his God: Therefore saith the Apostle, Rom. 5. 1, 2. We glory in tribulations, having peace with God: Tribulations are to us no tribulations; all our maladies are now turned into medicines, our crosses into comforts; all these things shall work together for our good. God's People shall gather Grapes of all their Thorns, and Figs of all their Thistles: All their bitter Waters of Marah shall be turned into sweet Wine unto them: God will comfort them in all their sorrows, for he will not leave them comfortless, John 10. 18. but will come unto them: The fruit of all shall be the taking away their sin, and the making them partakers of his holiness: When they fall into the Waters of Affliction, it's that they may be washed there; when they fall into the Fire of Tribulation, it is, that they may be purged there: With these God proves them that he may do them good in the latter end: All shall work for the increasing their Grace, and preparing them for Glory, and the adding more weight of Glory to their Eternal Crown. These are restraints to them from doing evil; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and Spurs to them, to provoke and excite them to good. In a word, there is no evil befalls any one that hath an interest in God, but what shall be turned to a far greater good, than that is an evil; therefore under all, they should with Habakkuk, joy in the Lord, and rejoice in the God of their salvation. 3. He accounts nothing blessedness and happiness but to be united to him; to be one with him, and to live in the enjoyment of him: Psal. 144. 2, last: Happy are the people that are in such a case, even the people that have the Lord for their God. Nihil bonum sine summo bono; There can be no good without the chiefest and best good: Therefore those terrae filii, those men of the world, that you read of, Amos 6. 5, 6, 7. that did lie upon their Beds of Ivory, and stretch themselves upon their Couches, and did eat the Lambs out of the Flock, and the Calves out of the midst of the Stall, that did chant to the sound of the Viol, and invent to themselves Instruments of Music, like David, that did drink Wine in Bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief Ointments, are said, verse 13. to rejoice in a thing of nought: Intimating to us, that they did put a value upon nothing, and made themselves glad with Dreams and Fancies, as Madmen use to do: We must derive our joy from the Eternal Spring, which is God himself, else our joy will quickly be turned into sorrow, because that Well out of which we did draw our Water, will be dried up. In 1 John 1. 4, 5. These things write I unto you, that your joy may be full; and what he was writing about, we read before, about fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ: That you may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ: And truly unless we attain to that blessed fellowship, we can never have verum aut plenum gaudium, that is, true or full joy. Qu. But you may say, Is not this happiness, to have what heart can wish? For a man to have his desires attend him all the days of his life, and to have all the sDreams of the Creature to concur together to bring him satisfaction; to be like the Rich man in the Gospel, to be clothed with Purple, and to sare delicicusly every day? Ans. This is indeed no happiness, no blessedness without God at all; because without him there is nothing blessed, but every thing cursed which we do enjoy, Psal. 69. 22. Their Table becomes a snare, how well furnished soever it may seem to be, and that which should otherwise have been for their welfare, is turned into a trap, by which they are taken and snared unto their destruction, Job 29. 18. Their Portion is cursed in the Earth: It may be a large, a very plentiful and stately Portion, and men may bless them because of it, but the Lord abhors them, and the Curse of the Lord is upon them and their Portion: They were better indeed ten thousand times have no meat, than such sauce. Solomon tells us, that the prosperity of fools doth destroy them, and is as Prov. 1. 32. a Sword in their bowels to them: Their Cups of pleasure and delight, are but sweetened draughts of mortal Poison: This the godly man seeth by Faith, and that this Poison will work in a little time in a visible way, and they will be brought into desolation even in a moment. USE I. Examine yourselves whether God be your All; Can you say, Whom have we in Heaven but thee, and that there is nothing on Earth that we desire besides him: Prove your own selves by this Touchstone; try yourselves by this Weight and Balance of the Sanctuary: If you do not attain to this, you are reprobate Silver, and the Lord will reject you. We have reason to examine ourselves about this matter. 1. Because there are but few that make God their All: Many give him glorious Titles, and challenge an interest in him; they call him their Lord, their God, and their King, yet in their serious and practical thoughts have higher estimations of lying vanities, than of God blessed for ever. Many there are that hear the Word of the Lord; they come before him as his people use to do, and sit before him as his people use to sit, but amongst these how few are to be found that make him their All, that look for no happiness, no comfort, no good but in the enjoyment of him? 2. We have reason to examine, because of the necessity of it, it must be done: Woe unto us if it be not done; we are no Christians without it; we are not in the state of Grace, if this be not: We are no more Saints whatever our Profession may be, than the picture or carcase of a man is a man. Oh! if we do not make God our All, though we may seem to be something, and may deceive ourselves and others, yet in God's account we are nothing, and God will make nothing of us, i e. will have no regard of us, or respect unto us another day. To help us now a little in our enquiry about this matter, I shall give you a few Characteristical Marks of such a Soul as makes God his All. 1. This Soul will love to draw near to God: To draw near to him by Faith, by Prayer, and in all the Duties and Ordinances of his Worship: you read in the last verse of this 73 Psalms: It is good for me to draw near to God: So saith every one that makes God his All: Oh I love to draw near to God, One day in the Courts of the Lord is better Psalm 84. 10. to me than a thousand elsewhere. I was Psalm 122. 1 glad when they said unto me, Come let us go into the house of the Lord: Whilst others say unto God, Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways, Job 21. 14. And again, chap. 22. 17. They said unto God, Depart from us, and what can the Almighty do for us? We shall get no good by Gods drawing near to us, nor by our drawing near to him; and in the 15th verse of the 21 chap. of Job, What is the Almighty that we should serve him? and what profit should we have if we pray unto him? This is the language of the men of the world, their words are indeed stout against the Lord; but saith the Soul that Mal. 3. 13. makes God his All, it's good for me; whatsoever the sentiments and apprehensions of carnal ones are, this I am sure of, it's good for me; I believe it to be good, and I have found it to be good; all the people of God say its good for them, and I will say its good for me, to draw near to God: Lord, saith Peter, Whither should I go but unto thee? Thou hast the words of eternal life: Lord, saith this Soul, Whither should I go but unto thee? I love, I love to come to thee, for thou art my All, and all my Springs are in thee, and slow from thee. 2. He is one that fears to sin against God: He fears indeed nothing more; his Motto is, Nil nisi peccatum timeo: There is nothing in all the world that I fear more than sin, because this is the only thing that can separate between him and his God; and that can make a partition wall between him and his great All. He fears sin more than suffering, and will choose it rather than iniquity; because suffering doth not separate between the Soul and God. He fears sin more than poverty, than sickness, than death itself, for none of these can separate between the Soul and God. He knows what is expressed, Rom. 8. ver. 35, etc. That tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword; neither height nor depth, death or life, i. e. The pains of death, or the afflictions and sorrows of life, can separate from the love of God in Christ Jesus; therefore he fears sin more than all. Sin is against God, suffering is only afflictive to the Creature. It's sin only that causes God to hide his Face from us, and to set his Face against us. 3. When other things come into Competition with God, this Soul that accounts God his All, will leave them, and cleave to God. If he can't enjoy Father and Mother, Brethren and Sisters, Houses and Lands with God, he will leave them all, because they are not his All, and will cleave to God. As Rath left her Kindred, and her Father's house, and joined herself to Naomi: And as it's said, a man shall leave his Father and Mother, and shall cleave to his Wife; in like manner will that Soul do, whose All the Lord is: As Mephibosheth said, Let Ziba take all, since the King is returned in peace, 2 Sam. 19 29 So saith he, Let all go, I am willing to forgo them all; if God will return to me in peace, and abide with me, I shall say, My lines are fallen in a fruitful place, and truly I have a goodly heritage. Sometimes we may see a Servant following two Gentlemen, but unto which of these the Servant belongs, we can't tell, until they part asunder, and then the Servant will go with the one, and leave the other. While we can have God and the world both, it's hard to say which is our All, and which is our Master that we desire to serve; but when they come to part asunder, and we can no longer enjoy God and the world together, that Soul whose All the Lord is, will resolve with Joshua, that he will serve the Lord; and as the Needle in the Compass leaves all the other points and stands to the North, so will he leave all his other enjoyments, and join himself to the Lord in an everlasting Covenant to love the name of the Lord, to fear him, and serve him for ever. 4. Such as these will not be envious at the foolish when they see the prosperity of the wicked. I mean, this temptation will not abide in and upon them▪ they will not remain under the power of it, though they may be surprised with it, but they will soon get out of it. He that makes God his All, cannot but see, that tho' they seem to possess all things, yet indeed they have nothing; that they are more to be pitied than to be envied; and that they have greater cause to weep and howl even in the fullness of their sufficiency, than they have to rejoice and be glad. It's said of Jehoshaphat, that he had Silver and Gold in abundance, Riches and Honour in abundance, 2 Chron. 17. 5, 6. but his heart was lift up to God in the ways of God: He valued not himself by his Riches and Honour, but by his relation to God, and interest in him; without whom all other things had been but low-prized Commodities, and of very little account with him. The wicked man's Riches, Honours and good things are his All; for what hath he more? God pays them their Portion in the World's Coin, and in a little while will say unto them, You have received your Consolation: And then they will wish that they had begged their Bread with Lazarus on Earth, rather than their Water with Dives in Hell. Oh! pity these miserable Souls; they have nothing within them or without them, that can do them any good: They have nothing but Sin within them, and that will damn them; they have nothing but the World without them, and that cannot save them; no, it will prove a heavy Millstone about their necks, which will sink them down deeper into the Gulf of Eternal Woe and Misery. I now pass on to the next, which is the 26th verse: My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. Where you have the Psalmists Complaint; And secondly, the Psalmists Comfort. In the former part of the verse, you find him going forth weeping, My flesh and my heart faileth; but because he had within him precious seed; (For light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart: This seed is already sown in their Hearts and Souls;) Therefore in the latter part of the verse, we find him returning again rejoicing with his Sheaves in his bosom: But God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. We will first consider his Complaint; My flesh and my heart faileth, 〈◊〉 will fail; my flesh will fail, my heart will fail in a little time: He speaks in the present tense, to notify the certainty of the failure: Such forms of speech are frequently used in Scripture: Babylon is fallen, is fallen— i. e. Babylon shallas surely fall as if it were fallen already. The Scripture speaks often of things that will be done, as if they were at present done, Rom. 8. Whom he justified, them he glorified; that is, they shall as certainly be glorified, as if they were already in the Kingdom of Glory. Thus here, My flesh and my heart faileth, that is, it's sure and certain that it will be so: My flesh, my heart; we are not to understand it exclusiuè, as if it were only appropriate to himself, and were not the case of others as we●l as his; no, but you are to understand it inclusiuè, as meant of all that dwell in these fleshly Tabernacles and Houses of Clay: This is a common case; there is no exemption from this general Calamity and Affliction The Doctrine from hence, (which I shall but briefly insist on) is this: Doct. That the flesh and the heart of every man will certainly fail. Though at present this flesh of ours may flourish as the Grass; and may be in its beauty as the Flower in the field; yet as the Grass soon withereth, and the Flower soon fadeth, so will it be with our flesh. Though at present, these hearts of ours may be sound and strong, though they are every moment moving and beating in our bosoms, always opening or shutting. Still busy either in a way of contraction or dilatation; but e'er long all this work will fail, this motion will cease, the heart will faint and succumb, and the strings of it will be broken in pieces. Man's flesh and heart will surely fail: I shall in a few words animadvert, 1. Upon the failing of man's Flesh. 2. On the failing of man's Heart: And then, 3. Show whence this failing proceeds and doth arise: And, 4. Make some brief Application. 1. Man's Flesh that will fail: Flesh sometimes is taken in Scripture, Sensu morali, or rather, immorali & corrupto; in a moral, or immoral and corrupt sense; for the depraved Nature, for the unregenerate Part in man: As in Gal. 5. 17. The flesh lusteth against the spirit. Rom. 7. 18. In my flesh there dwelleth no good thing. So in Gal. 5. 19 The works of the flesh are manifest, etc. But this is not the meaning of it here. Though this flesh shall fail, and doth fail, for in every regenerate Soul, it is dying daily. Sin in the Godly hath lost its Sword. So that it can't kill; it hath lost its Sceptre, so that it can't rule, and in a few days it shall lose its Being, its Habitation and Residence. The death of the Body shall be the destruction of the body of death. Now sin is dying in them; it hath received a deadly wound, but than it shall breathe out its last, and live no longer, to be a Thorn in their Eyes, or a Goad in their Sides, to vex and disquiet their righteous Souls, as now it doth from day to day: Then this cursed Inmate shall be turned out of doors, and Grace shall dwell alone in the Soul for ever. This body of death is now under a Curse, and then the Curse of the barren Figtree shall fall upon it, and no fruit shall ever grow on it more. But secondly; Flesh is taken and to be understood sensu naturali & physico, in a natural and physical sense; and thus we are to take it here: For the fleshly part of man, that fleshly substance that our bones are covered withal; that fleshly Tabernacle in which the Soul of man doth dwell: This flesh will fail, Isa 40. 6, 7. All flesh is grass, and the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field; the grass withereth, and the flower fadeth, so will the flesh: All the goodliness of it, its comeliness, strength and beauty, all will fail: A blast will come upon all, which will cause it to wither and decay, which will turn it into rottenness, and make it become like a Motheaten garment, Job 13. 28. How beautiful soever you may now be, in a few days your beauty shall be turned into deformity: And how strong soever you at present be, it will not be long but this flesh of yours will become so weak, that it will not be able any longer to hold the spirit. The Lord hath determined a Consumption to come upon all flesh, Isa. 28. 22. and he hath many ways and methods to bring it about: As in Deut. 28. 21, 22. Either by the pestilence, or a fever, or an inflammation, or an extreme burning, or the sword, etc. How many hundred diseases and distempers are there up and down in the world, effecting this determined consumption: If God give any one of them a Commission to come to us, and to effect the same (as surely at one time or other he will) then will our Beauty consume away as a moth, and this blow of his hand will make our flesh to fail. 2. Man's heart will fail. This heart of man, which is that part that is primum vivens, and ultimum moriens in him, which is first alive, and dies last; this heart will fail, grow cold and die away: It dies last, but die it must. This strong hold in man will be assaulted, and forced, nolens volens, whether it will or no, to surrender to the power of sickness and death: Sickness will come and closely besiege it; one Disease and Distemper or another will give it a Summons; then Death will come, that Mighty Conqueror, and break the very strings of it, and so quite subdue it. Thus, as you read Eccles. 12. ver. 6. This golden bowl will be broken, and the pitcher will be broken at the fountain, and the wheel will he broken at the cistern; that is, the heart of man, with all the instrumental and subservient parts, whereby supplies of Blood and Spirits are conveyed from it, into the several parts of the Body, will break and fail, and the Offices of these parts will cease, and be performed no more. 3. We are to show from whence this failing doth proceed. The answer to this Question, hath occasioned many serious thoughts amongst the Wise men of this world; I mean, amongst many Sage Heathens and Profound Philosophers; these evils and miseries they were sensible of, and complained of them; but the rise and original of them they could not come to the knowledge and understanding of: This wisdom and understanding was too deep for them to sound with their line of reason, and too difficult for them to attain unto: Therefore they looked upon death, and all the failings and tendences thereunto to be a common Tribute, laid upon every Creature to pay; to be an Universal Law that all Mankind must obey▪ and submit to: And to have the same reason that other mutations and changes have, which they did see in the course of nature every day: And they could render no other reason, but the same which they gave when they saw other things dissolved into their Elements: This is a common fate, Sic fata volunt: It's so appointed by the Higher Powers; but the reason of the appointment they could not find out. And because they did apprehend no farther, it's no great wonder why they did fear death and dissolution no more than they did; but rather expected or desired it, as a rest from their labours, and an end of all their sorrows and miseries. But God hath shown in his Word unto us the true cause of all our woe, and the original of our failing and dying; that all proceeds from man's sin; Hinc illae lachrymae; from this cursed root of bitterness doth spring and arise all our Wormwood and Gall. Rom. 5. 12. By one man's disobedience sin entered into the world, and death by sin: Death with all its appurtenances, with all that leadeth to it, and all the miseries that follow after it; all are the issues and products of sin: There had been no sickness, no death, no failing of heart or flesh, had there been no sin. Man hath sown unto the flesh, and therefore of the flesh must reap corruption, Gal. 6. 8. Sin as naturally produceth these evils, as every Seed doth produce and send forth its own Herb: It's this that hath opened the Sluice, and let in that Inundation of miseries, that we poor Creatures are assaulted and overwhelmed withal. It's storied, Of a Person travelling in Germany, and beholding the ruins and desolations which the Wars had made there; that he said, Haec sunt peccata Germanorum; that is, these ruins and desolations are the Germans sins; meaning, that their sins and provocations were the procuring causes of all their mischiefs and miseries. James 4. ver. 1. The Apostle proposes a question, and gives the resolution of it: From whence (saith he) come wars and fightings, with all their mischievous and destructive attendances? He tells us, they come from the lusts of men that war in their members against the Lord, and against their own peace, comfort and tranquillity. There had been nothing but good Seed in the whole Creation, which would have brought forth good fruit, had not man by his sin sowed tares: There had been no pricking briar, nor grieving thorn, there had been nothing to hurt or destroy in the whole Universe, had it not been for man's sin: Man hath sowed the wind, and reaps the whirlwind. We will now make some brief Application, and so dispatch this point. USE I. Let's all look to this, that all be well within with our Souls and Spirits, because these failings and failures will certainly come upon our flesh and our hearts: Oh look to your Souls, and ask them often how they do? And whither they are not in danger of failing too? I mean of being lost and undone for ever. Oh it's sad to have a failing Body, and a perishing Soul; to have a pained and languishing Body, and to have a pained and dying Soul; troubles without and terrors within; this must needs be doleful and dismal: The spirit of a man will bear the infirmities and failings of the Body, if that be but sound, and in a good condition; but if that be wounded and galled with the guilt of sin and apprehensions of wrath, what is there then to help us to bear? USE II. Let's think seriously of this failing: Make me to know how frail I am, Psalm 39 4. Help me to apprehended and consider what a poor failing Creature I am, saith David; those of you that have Bones full of Marrow, and Breasts of Milk, that are in your Health and Strength, and seem to flourish like the green Bay-tree; Oh consider this and lay it to heart, that your Flesh and your Hearts must fail before it be long. The Lord help us so to consider it, that we may apply our hearts to Wisdom; Oh that there were such an Heart within us! Eccles. 11. 8. If a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Oh don't let us forget the days of darkness; let us not put away from us the evil days of failing, of trouble and affliction, because they will assuredly come upon us. Some Heathens accounted it true Wisdom and sound Philosophy to meditate often of Death: To be sure this would be of excellent use, and would much conduce to the promotion of Piety and true Religion, if we would be much in meditation on this Subject. Let it be much in your thoughts in your lying down, and in your rising up, in your going out, and in your coming in, at home and abroad; Oh consider that your Flesh and your Heart must fail in a little time. This frequently considered on, and often revolved in our minds, would (by the assistance and operation of the Spirit of grace) doubtless better us to a far higher degree than yet we have attained unto. 1. We should verily be less earthly than we are, did we ponder this more in our hearts than we do. We should not be so much concerned about the Body and the things thereof as we are, did we seriously consider this: Certainly men would not spend their days, waste their lives, prostitute their Consciences, in making provision for their Flesh, and in getting supplies for their Bodies; did they seriously consider that this Fabric of the Body, this Tabernacle of dust, this House of clay, is falling down about their ears, and then what profit will they have of all that they cared for, and laboured after under the Sun? Were this well considered, we should not be so like the Serpent as we are, which goes on its Belly and seeds on Dust. men's Souls cleave unto the dust as David speaks, though in another sense, Psal. 119. 25. Adhaerent pavimento: They are as if they were all Flesh, and had no Spirit to mind at all, as if they were all Body, and had no Soul, which would not be, if this were well considered by us. 2. We should be surely more heavenly than we are, if we did meditate more on the failing of our Flesh and our Heart. We should be more heavenly in our Conversations, in our Communications, in our Hearts and Affections, in our Labours and Endeavours. This would cause us to groan to be delivered out of this failing Tabernacle, and to be clothed upon with our House which is from Heaven. Here we have no continuing City, saith the Apostle, Heb. 12. 14. There is not a House in it, but what is failing, decaying, and even ready to drop down: Therefore we seek one to come; even a City that hath Foundations, and will never fail, whose Builder and Maker is God. USE III. Let's from hence learn to hate sin to a greater degree than yet we do. This is the evil of evils; the greatest evil of all evils; and the evil that is the cause of all our other evils: It's this that doth us all the mischief: All our Consumptions, our Pains, Diseases, Distempers, Failings come from this cause. It's strange indeed, that men should be in love with their deadly Enemy; that they should entertain it in their Bosoms, that they should lodge it so near their Hearts: That they should nourish this Viper which will gnaw out their very Bowels, and will assuredly feed upon the slaughters and ruins of its dearest lovers. Oh if we love our sins we are cruel unto our own Souls. If any man among ourselves, should take away our Money, should fall upon us, and beat, and wound us, or deprive us of any worldly accommodation; how easily can we hate such a Person; and how hardly be reconciled to him? Oh learn to hate sin; all ye that love the Lord hate evil; all ye that love yourselves, that love your Souls, hate sin: There's nothing more prejudicial and destructive to us. This is the Enemy that robs and wounds us; this weakens and debilitates our Bodies, and ruins our Souls: This is the Enemy that separates the Soul from the Body, and God from the Soul. Thus we have done with the Psalmists complaint, My Flesh and my Heart faileth, there's the dark side of the Cloud: We pass on now to the bright side thereof; which is the Psalmists comfort, But God is the strength of my Heart, and my portion for ever. Thus, as in 1 Sam. 30. 6. he encouraged himself in the Lord his God; and in the view and apprehension of the failing of his flesh and his heart, these consolations did refresh and delight his Soul. Here I shall only glance a little upon these three particulars, which may serve for so many Doctrinal Observations. 1. That God is the Believers strength. 2. That God is the Believers portion. 3. That God is the Believers everlasting portion. Every one of these is a Well of Salvation, out of which with the Bucket of Faith, we may draw out abundance of the Waters of Consolation to cheer our Hearts withal in our greatest troubles. 1. God is the Believers strength: From God he hath strength, 1. To bear his burdens. Alas! without the strength of God, we should faint in the day of adversity, because our strength is small: God puts underneath his everlasting arms, and enables them to bear: He strengthens them with all might by his Spirit in the inward man; and helps to undergo the miseries, infirmities and burdens, that are upon the outward man, therefore by Faith we should cast all our burdens upon him, for he hath promised to sustain us, Psal. 55. 22. He will give us shoulders suitable to our burdens, or else suit our burdens to our shoulders. 2. From God he hath strength to do his Duties: As he gives shoulders for every burden, he hath for us to bear, so he gives hands for every piece of work he hath for us to do: Alas! Without him we can do nothing, as the Hand can do nothing without the Head, the Body can do nothing without the Soul; no more can we do, without the strength of God: Therefore where ever there is a command that finds us work, there is always a suitable promise to find us strength: I will cause you (saith God) to walk in my ways, my grace shall be made sufficient for you: God doth not deal with us as the Egyptian Taskmasters did with the Israelites, who required Brick, but would give them no Straw: God doth not require Duty and Service of us, and leave us to get strength to do it, where we can; no, but is pleased graciously to promise, that he will give what he doth command, and that his Spirit shall help our infirmities, and that he will strengthen us unto the performance of every good work. 3. From God he hath strength to overcome his corruptions. Were it not for the power of God resting on them, and working in them, these Sons of Zerviah would be too hard for them; these mighty Philistines would certainly vanquish and overcome them. Therefore he goes out against them in the Name of the Lord, as David did against that Philistine Giant, 1 Sam. 17. 45 knowing, that in his own strength he cannot prevail; therefore he begs of God to teach his hands to war, and to strengthen his fingers to fight, that he may be avenged on the Enemies of God, and of his Soul, and be made more than a Conqueror in and through the strength and power of Christ Jesus: It's from the Spirit and strength of Christ, that any Soul is enabled to mortify the deeds of the flesh; without this strength, instead of mortifying our lusts, our lusts, to be sure, would mortify us, and lead us captive as it were bound hands and and feet, and triumph over us. 4. In God is his strength to stand it out against, to resist and to overcome Satan's Temptations. The Tempter is strong, and we are weak; he did overcome Man when he had no sin, and gave him a sad fall; even then, when he was in the rectitude of his Nature, when there was nothing within to take the Tempter's part: But now he hath much more power over us, because we have a party within us, that upon every occasion and temptation, is ready to betray us, and to deliver us up unto him. So that if we be not kept by the power of God through Faith in Christ Jesus, unto salvation, we shall undoubtedly come short of the Kingdom of God: We have not only flesh and blood, but principalities and powers to wrestle withal. How shall we quench the fiery Darts of the Devil? How shall we resist his strong Temptations, when we are weak as Water, if we be not strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, and be not strengthened by the hand of the mighty God of Jacob? But God tells us, that we have more with us, than we have against us, though the Gates of Hell, and all the Power and Policy of that Kingdom of Darkness be engaged against us. He hath assured us that he will be with us, and strengthen us, and that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against us. USE I. Learn from hence, That such as are without God are without strength: You are in the midst of Enemies, and have no strength to resist them; in the midst of dangers, and have no strength to fly or make an escape, and so to deliver your own Souls. You are without strength for active Obedience, you can do nothing as you ought to do it, you are without strength for passive Obedience, you can bear and suffer nothing as you ought to bear it; in a word, you have strength for nothing but to fight and rebel against God, and in so doing you do but kick against the pricks, you wound your own Souls, and add coals of fire to your Eternal Flames. USE II. Let the people of God have frequent recourse unto their strength. The name of the Lord is a strong Tower, the righteous fly unto it, and they are safe; all is well with them then. Let me tell you, that you are but a feeble people of yourselves, every blast of Temptation will blow you down; every gust of the wind of Affliction, every wave and billow, will overcome and overwhelm you; every duty and service will be too mighty for you; therefore have recourse to your strength, keep close to your strength. You read Prov. 30. 26. That the Coneys are but a feeble Folk, therefore they dwell in the Rocks. Oh! go to the Rock that is higher than you, dwell in the Rock, and build upon the Rock; and this Rock will be a hiding-place from the wind, a covert from the storm, and afford a shadow unto you in a weary Land: You will find Honey in this Rock to delight you, Water in this Rock to refresh you, Strength in this Rock to support and bear you up, when your flesh and your heart will fail you. This Rock will follow you whither soever you go, it will never leave you nor forsake you: When you go through the Fire, and the Water, you will find it present with you; as Isa. 43. 2. When thou passest thorough the Waters, I will be with thee, and thorough the Rivers, they shall not overflow thee: When thou walkest thorough the Fire, thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the Flame kindle upon thee. None have such a Rock as is our Rock; we may appeal to the very Enemies of God themselves to be Judges, if they would speak arbitrio sano, and judge according to evidence. Let us then fly to our Rock by Faith and Prayer; let us get into the clefts of it; if we build upon this Rock, and put our confidence in it, we shall never be moved. 2. God is the Believer's Portion. The people of God are the Lord's Portion, and Jacob is the Lot of his Inheritance— And the Lord calls them his pleasant Portion, Deut. 32. 9 God indeed would be very poor in the World, and would have no pleasure in the works of his hands, were it not for them: So God is their Portion, he hath made over himself by a deed of gift, to be their God, and their exceeding great Reward: And here I might show you: 1. What an enriching Portion God is. 2. What a Soul satisfying Portion God is. And 3. What a Soulsaving Portion God is. But I have no time to enlarge upon these things: If you know God, you know it all, and abundantly more than I am able with words to express. I shall therefore only show you, first, how they came to have this Portion; and then secondly, make some brief Application. First, How they came to have this goodly Portion, and to be instated in such an Inheritance, which is incorruptible, undesiled, and that fadeth not away. For answer, First, Negatively, 1. They were not born to it. Some among men are born to great Portions, and large Inheritances; these are their birthright, and entailed upon them as being the lawful Heirs of such and such persons: But the Lord knows, that we are all base-born, because born in sin: Our Father was an Amorite, and our Mother an Hittite; and so we are become an accursed generation, and are Heirs of nothing but Wrath and Hell: We did no sooner live, but we deserved to die; and no sooner did we see the Light, but we deserved that God should give us our Portion among Devils and damned ones, in the Kingdom of Darkness: In the Womb we were like the Cockatrice Egg, filled with deadly Poison, and since we came thence, we have been like the troubled Sea, casting forth mire, filth and dirt. As we are Adam's Children, if God should pay us our Portion that belongs unto us, it would undo us for ever. Secondly, They did not get this Portion by their own industry, labour and diligence. Sometimes among men the diligent hand makes rich; and persons born to nothing come to acquire great things, and to purchase for themselves large Revenues. But so it is not here; this Portion was not acquired by us in this way. Alas! what were we able to do in order to this, whose hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked above all things? as God, who knows us infinitely better than we know ourselves, witnesseth of us. We have nothing within us to principle any one good action: If the Tree be bad, so must the Fruit of necessity be. If we would attain to this of ourselves, we must first pay the debt which we owe to Justice for our sin; and then we must perform that sinless and unspotted obedience which the Law demands. Both which all the men on Earth, and I may add, all the Saints and Angels in Heaven, are not able to do. Thus negatively. 2. And Positively. We are born again to it, by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, 1 Pet. 1. 3. Who hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: The meaning is, that being born again, we sly to Jesus Christ by Faith, and by his Resurrection are assured, that God is reconciled, and that our Peace is made, our Debt is paid (for otherwise he having been arrested and laid in the Prison of the Grave, he had not risen again and come forth from thence, if full satisfaction had not been given) and thus we come to a lively hope, that now we are upon good terms with God, and that he is become our Father, and will be the portion of our Souls for ever. USE I. Hence we may be informed, That none are so rich as the people of God: None so rich in possession, none so rich in reversion: Many of them seem to have nothing, yet they possess all things: None can tell how rich they are, but they that can tell how rich God is, for the riches of God are all theirs. USE II. Let the people of God make use of their portion; is men do, for the supply of those things they need; they go to their portion, and with that procure those necessaries and conveniences which they want. Oh, let the people of God, go to their portion every day, and make use of it, for all they want for their Bodies, or for their Souls, for their inward, and for their outward man, for Time and for Eternity: There are some men of the world that do not use their portion, Eccles. 6. ver. 2. There is a man to whom God hath given Riches, Wealth, and Honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his Soul of all that he desireth; yet he hath not power to eat thereof. By reason of inordinate Love, distrustful Providence, and the encumbrances of earthly employments, they hinder themselves of the enjoyment of what they have; and so they are Poor in the midst of their Riches, and Beggars in the midst of their Abundance. There is as it were a Spell set upon their Estates, so that their Wealth says to them, Touch not, taste not, handle not. They are like the Dog in the wheel, that toils all the day to Roast meat for others eating. Truly many of Gods own people live exceedingly below their allowance, they live, as if they had nothing, were worth nothing, when they have a rich Portion; they have it, but they do not use it: What comfort, what joy, what peace which passeth all understanding, might they find in it, if they would live by Faith upon it? USE III. Let all be exhorted to get this Portion: What will you do when your Flesh and your Heart faileth, if God be not your Portion? What will you do when Death and Judgement comes, if God be not your Portion? Oh Death will be deadly to you, if God be not your Portion; Judgement will be terrible and amazing, and you will be ready to cry to the Rocks, to the Hills and Mountains to fall upon you, and to hide you from the wrath of the Lamb that sits upon the Throne, if God be not your Portion. Oh get this portion! I told you before, that it is not procured by our endeavour, we can't purchase it by all that we are able to do; but this is procured by another; there is a near Kinsman of ours, that hath redeemed this mortgaged or lost Inheritance, that is, Jesus Christ; the right of Redemption did belong to him, and he hath done the part of a Kinsman for us. Now if we will come to him as poor, miserable and undone Creatures, and take this Inheritance thankfully out of his hands; if we will receive it, in his right, and submit to his terms, which are as reasonable as can be desired; then this Inheritance is our own, and God will become our Portion again. Oh, get this Portion, or you get nothing; get this Portion, and you get all; this Portion will make you happy in Life and Death. If God be your Portion, if your Possessions are lower he will heighten the Fruition: He can crowd in abundance of comfort in a little of the Creature. He can make a single Dish outvie a Feast, and the meanest fare, suppose a Dinner of green Herbs, to be sweeter and better than a stalled Ox. With God a small Stock, will be more comfortable and satisfying than a large Revenue. Or if he suffer us to be bereft of all, he himself will be instead of all. He hath taken to himself the names of all things needful and comfortable, to intimate to us, that he alone stands for all they signify or are worth. Therefore he is called a Portion, an Inheritance, an Habitation, high Tower, Shade, Strength, Deliverer, Friend, Father, Husband, etc. To let us know that all these are nothing without him, and that he can be all without these▪ Without this portion, when you come to die, not Angels but Devils will receive your Souls: and eternity will not be the measure of your joys but of your woes: Oh think of your dying day, and how near you may be to that day, and be awakened to make sure of this portion. Death is riding its Circuit, up and down every day, it will not be long but it will come to us: it will come with its Sith, and Mow us down, it will come and take down the Glass, and stop our breath, and tell us that we have lived our last! Oh then, make sure of this portion: and he will be your God in Life, in Death, and after Death to all Eternity. Make sure of this portion, or you will have the wicked man's portion, Psal. 11. 6. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest; this shall be the portion of their cup. 3. God is their everlasting portion. A portion that they shall never leave, a portion that they shall never lose. For we must have a better and a more enduring substance, than can be had and enjoyed here: we shall outlive all these things. A portion in this world will not serve our turns, because we are hastening away out of this world into an everlasting state; and therefore must get an everlasting portion: Alas, A month may devour us and all our portion that we have here, Hos. 5. 7. yea a week, a day, a night, may devour all; but the Godly man's portion is everlasting. God, saith the Psalmist in the Text, is my portion for ever. There's nothing but God that suits the Souls nature; nothing but God that can fill the Souls Capacities, nothing but God that can equal the▪ Souls duration. Here is a Portion indeed that is Coaetaneous with the immortal Soul of man. As for all the perfection that is here below we shall soon see an end of it: As David said, I have seen an end of all perfection, Psal. 119. 96. he speaks not of every kind of perfection, but of all the perfections of one kind: as for divine perfections and enjoyments they have no end; therefore an end of them cannot be seen; but all humane perfections and enjoyments they must and will end. By the sight of his eye, he had seen an end of many humane perfections; and by the sight of his mind he had seen an end of them all; some he had seen already ending, and he saw of necessity that all must end. But the Godly man hath an everlasting Portion, a Portion that shall survive all the Vicissitudes, and changes of time: in fatal period shall ever come to put an end to their enjoyment of this Portion, to denude or rob them of this precious treasure. To the enjoyment of this blessed and everlasting Portion, our Friend (whose death was the occasion of this discourse) is gone; and now all tears are wiped from her eyes, and she is bathing herself in those rivers of pleasures that are at God's right hand for evermore. Tho' she be dead, she yet speaketh; she speaketh to her yokefellow and children that she hath left behind, to live godly, righteously, and soberly in this present world, as she did; to mind their precious and immortal Souls, to provide for Eterity and to lay a good foundation against the time to come, 〈◊〉 she did. She speaks to us all, to be followers of them, 〈◊〉 through Faith and patience inherit the Kingdom: Such a one she was, under her long affliction though she di● groan, she never grumbled; though she mourned, 〈◊〉 she never murmured; her earnest desire was rather to be●● her affliction sanctified to her, than removed from 〈◊〉. As to life or death, she left it wholly to God's choice choosing infinitely rather to be at his dispose than her own. I verily believe that if life and death had been put in a Pair of Balances, she would not willingly have 〈◊〉 in one dram, to turn the Balance any way. The Kingdom of Heaven had already entered into her, and she had a longing desire (if her time was come, and her work done) to enter into it. FINIS.