29. Mr. Bull's Afternoon Farewell Sermon

29. Mr. Bull's Afternoon Farewell Sermon
"And now, Brethren, I commend you to God, and to the Word of his Grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among them that are sanctified." - Acts 20:32.
The words are part of St. Paul's Farewell-Sermon, or Discourse to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus, one of those famous seven Churches of Asia, that we read of in the Book of the Revelations. It is not to be doubted, as Calvin doth comment upon the place, but though the Apostle speak immediately to the Elders, yet he doth comprehend the whole Church in the Speech.
Our holy Apostle had been a long time with the Church, preaching among them, taking pains with them, both in publick and private, as you may see in the 20 verse, and declares to them the whole counsel of God, verse 27. and now being called away, taken off by Divine Providence, by the will of his Master, the last and best office that he thought he could do for them, was, to commit them to the care of God, and to leave them in his arms, and to recommend them to his Grace.
It would be more then the time would permit, to look over the whole Apostles Sermons, which is partly Narrative, and partly consolatory: Narrative, to put them in mind in what manner he had preached to them, from ver. 17. to ver. 27. and it is partly consolatory: from the 27. to the Text, wherein the Apostle could hold no longer, but his love constrains him, and makes him break forth into the pathetical wish, or rather prayer, and now, Brethren, I commend you to his Grace. As if he had said, I am just now going from you, not knowing that I shall see your face any more: now I am a dying man, as to my conversing with you, any more: Now I am departing, this is the best Legacy I can bequeath unto you, to commend you to God and to his Grace. And if he speaks to persons as standing in the same relation with God and Christ, and having the same Faith, and the same elder Brother: As if he should have said, you are as dear to me as my own flesh, as if you were my Brethren by Consanguinity, and it is my sorrow that I must leave you; but as it is my greatest grief to part with you, and must leave you, yet this is the comfort, that I shall leave you in safe hands, I do not leave you to the wide world, I do not leave you as Orphans without a Father, as Sheep without a Shepheard, but I commend you to God and his Grace.
O happy words! Though I must leave you, yet, I trust, God who is able, will keep you. As God is present everywhere by his Essense, so by his gracious presense more especially, God is present with his people. I commit yon, I commend you to God, I commit you to his care, to his keeping, so the word signifies; so Pavenelus interprets the words, I trust you with God, I leave you as a Depositum in Gods hands, as a dying man leaves his Children in a Friends hands to look after them: as Christ did his Mother in Johns hands: So the Apostle leaves the Ephesians in the hands of God and the Word of his Grace; that is, the Gospel that he had declared to them. The Word of God in Scripture is often called his Grace, 2 Corinthians 6, Ephesians 3:5 because it is a declaration of the free Grace of God to poor souls, and because it is the Spirits instrument to work grace in the hearts of sinners.
This is remarkable, that after the Apostle had recommended them to God, he adds this word, of his grace: He doth not think it enough to mention Recommending them to God, but to the Word of his grace. The expression is not for Euphoniae gratia, it is no tautology, it is not for more than needs, but to shew how needful and necessary the word of Gods grace is, as well to the building up, as for the converting poor sinners: and though God can build up a Saint immediately, yet ordinarily he doth it not but by the Word of his Grace, which is able to build you. Beza and Calvin refer this clause to God, answering to that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 9:18. God is able to cause all grace to abound in you. But Erasmus refers this word to the Word of Gods Grace which is able to build you up. And this Construction is favoured by those two places of Scripture, and may very well be meant both in 2 Timothy 3:15. James 1:21. both which places attribute to the Word of God, as this doth: And in the second place, Receive with meekness the ingrafted Word, which is able to save your souls. So that both these words may be referred to this cause; The word of God, and the Word of his Grace; to God, as the Principle; and to the Word of his Grace, as the Instrumental cause to build them up: As much as if he had said, I commend you to the Grace of God, which is able to build you up. The Apostle tells them, that he left them to such a God, as through the Gospel was sufficient to build them up, till he brought them to the full fruition of the Saints in light.
The Apostle commends this to his Church, that were ready to weep, and fay at his departure, O Paul! God hath made thee a happy Instrument of laying a good Foundation among us, of doing a great deal of good to our souls, and we may bless God that ever we saw thy face; but now, alas! thou art going from us, we are afraid all thy pains will come to nothing; we should hope, that if God had pleased to continue thee among us, then we should have been built up; and surely, if God had intended good to us, and brought us to Heaven at last, he would not have taken thee from us. No, sayes the Apostle, be not discouraged; though I leave you, yet I commit you to God, and to the word of his Grace. If I be here, it is God alone that must build you up; I am but a poor, weak Instrument in the hand of God: And when I am gone, God can build you up by some means or other, and carry you over, or thorow all oppositions, temptations and discouragements, till he bath fitted you for himself, and given you an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified.
Thus have you the words explained in this familiar Paraphrase; and being thus opened, you may take notice that
The words hold forth the special care of this blessed Apostle of Jesus Christ; Though he must leave them, yet he takes care to leave them in safe hands, that was able to give a good account of them; You have the Apostle making a deed of trust for the securement of the Saints at Ephesus after his departure; or, if you will, you have the Apostles last Will and Testament.
1. You have the Person making over this Trust, St. Paul.
2. You have the Trust itself, and those were the Saints at Ephesus.
3. You have the Trustees, those to whom the Trust is committed; and they are two-fold.
1. To God.
2. To the Word of his Grace.
3. Here is the time of making this Trust, Now I am leaving of you.
4. Here is the commendation of the Trustee, from the power and ability of him to manage this Trust, and this is expressed in two particulars.
1. He is able to build up: And then,
2. To give you an inheritance: As if he should have said, I will leave you with such who are able to build you up. I might raise a multitude of Observations from the words: As first of all,
Doct. 1. That it should he the care of a faithful Minister, when he is by the providence of God taken from a people, to recommend them to God; and to the Word of his Grace.
2. As it is the duty of a faithful Minister to do it, so it is his comfort, that he may do it; that he may leave his people in the hand of God, who is able to build them up in grace.
3. It may be the comfort of any Church of Christ, that when they are deprived of faithful Ministers, that yet they are lest in the hands of God.
4. Though God can by his infinite power perfect grace, and bring men to Heaven without the use of means, yet we have no ground nor warrant to expect one or other, but through the Word of Gods grace.
5. And lastly, though there be a glorious inheritance purchased and prepared by Jesus Christ, yet it is to be expected by none but those that are built up, and sanctified. Or thus.
None must look for an inheritance hereafter, but such as are born of the Spirit, and built up in grace.
I might speak to many more; but I shall gather all that I have said into this one general Proposition, which is this.
Doct. That the best Farewell that a Gospel-Minister can give to his people that he loves and labors amongst, when he by the providence of God is taken from them, is, to commend them to God, and to the word of his grace.
Thus doth our holy Apostle: When he was taken from his people, and left to preach to them no more, he recommends them to the hands of God. And thus doth a greater than St. Paul, even Jesus Christ himself, The great Shepherd of the Sheep, as St. Peter calls him; when he was leaving the world, and could no longer preach to them, he commends them to God, John 17:11. And now, says Christ to his Father, I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thy own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. And in the fourteenth, I have given them thy word: He commends them to God, and to the word of his grace.
In the prosecution of this Truth, I shall explain these particulars.
1. Shew you what it is in a Minister to recommend his people to God.
2. What it is that he should recommend them to God for.
3. Why he should be so careful to recommend them to God.
4. How he should recommend them to God.
Lastly, Apply it.
First, it is to leave them in the hand of God, to give them up unto Gods care and keeping, as I shewed you in the opening of the words: To recommend them to God, is, to do that for them effectually which he would fain do Ministerially, if he had been suffered to continue among them. As when a dying Father or Husband commends his wife and children to some surviving intimate friend, it is a leaving, a committing them to that friend, to deal, and to do for them, which he would have done, if he had lived.
Now let us consider what it is that a faithful Ministers design and endeavors are to do for that Congregation that is committed to his charge. These four things especially every faithful Minister endeavors to do while he is amongst his people.
1. Their Conversion and Sanctification.
2. Their Building and Edification.
3. Their Protection and Preservation.
4. Their Comfort and Consolation.
First, Their Conversion and turning to God. This is that a faithful Ministers heart is set upon, that he may convert poor souls that are in a sinful state; that he may turn poor souls to God; that by often preaching, and praying, and counsel, he may bring them into a state of salvation, Romans 10:1. The Apostle there speaks of the Romans, that they were the people of God in profession: ah, but this was not enough, fain he would that they should be the people of God-in truth; that is the hearty desire of every faithful Minister, not only to bring his people to the outward profession of godliness, but to the work and power of it in their hearts; not only to have the name of Christian, but Christianity itself; and this is the end of all his studying, to get them to God by little and little, till Christ be formed in them, Galatians 4:11. My little Children, says the Apostle, &c. S. Paul travels in birth with the Galatians from a state of nature, to a state of grace, he would get grace wrought in their hearts, he would get them ingraffed into Christ; and this is the end of his commending them to God, which he would fain have done, if he might have been suffered to preach to them. This is the language of a Ministers heart; Lord, Lord, thou knowest that it was the desire of my soul, that every one of this people should be made holy by thy Word; I would fain have begotten them by the Ministry to Jesus Christ; but now by the providence of God I am taken off before my work is done, and thou seest yet there is a great many in the gaul of bitterness, and the bond of iniquity, in a state of death, and I am now likely not to do anything more: Now it is my care, that those that belong to thy Election of grace, may be gathered home to thee.
2. To build them up in knowledge and faith. He endeavors that those that are already sanctified, may be further built up in their most holy faith; Where there are the most eminent Saints, yet there is a great deal lacking. The Apostle gives great commendation of the Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 3:10. They were a famous Church, and there were a great many eminent Christians, yet there was something lacking in their faith, and in their knowledge. Christ speaks to one of the most eminent Apostles, Oh thou of little faith! Though the Foundation-stone be laid, yet there is a superstructure behind, and this is the work of Christ, the building them up, Ephesians 4:12. This is the end of every faithful Minister, to make his people fit for Heaven; he would be feeding of them, that they may grow to the full measure of the stature of Christ: And therefore every godly Minister desires that he may be the Finisher, as well as the Author (under God) of their Faith, that they may be built up to Christs heavenly Kingdom.
3. A Minister's aims are, that his people may be kept from danger. The people of God, after they are effectually called, they are continually in danger, they are as a Lilly amongst Thorns, as Sheep among Wolves, as a besieged City in the midst of her enemies.
They have enemies without, and enemies within: enemies without, the Devil is their adversary.
1. They are in danger, in respect of the Devil, who is a very potent enemy, a roaring Lyon, and a malicious enemy, malicious against God: and industrious enemy, He goes about seeking whom he may devour; he compasseth the earth, to do what he can to keep souls from Christ; he is a subtle enemy, that hath his stratagems to catch and ensnare poor souls. Now it is the endeavor of every true Minister of Jesus Christ, to secure his people by his counsel, and his prayers; for we are ignorant of his devices, 2 Corinthians 2:11. As if he should say, I have most experience of the Devils subtilty, Satan sets to oppose them most; and this is one thing, to rob Ministers of their meditations, of their prayers; and therefore it is the design of Ministers to strengthen their people, in regard of Satans temptations.
2. They are in danger in respect of seducers, that lie in wait to deceive.
3. They are in danger by the World, lest they should be frighted by its opposition.
4. They are in danger by their corrupt lusts, that war against their souls: Therefore every faithful Minister warns his people of those, that their souls may be secured; this being that that a faithful Minister would do among his people while he is with them; when he is taken from them, he commits them to God to be secured from all danger, as Christ in that place before, Father, keep them in thine own hands.
Lastly, every faithful Minister seeks the comfort and consolation of his people. It is their desire to comfort the feeble hands; they are not Masters of your grace, but helpers of your joy, 2 Corinthians 4:12. Where the Gospel appears in power, many will stand in need of comfort, under doubts, fears, and afflictions; and this is the desire of every faithful Minister of Jesus Christ, at their departure from their people, to support the weak, to resolve the doubted, to succour the tempted; and when he is taken from them, and can contribute little to this work, he recommends them to God. A departing Minister may say to his people, If God has made me an instrument of comfort to your souls, you have cause to bless God for it. Now I can do no more, I must recommend you to God, who (I hope) will be the God of your comfort, when I am gone.
2. This is the best office that a Minister can do for his people when he is taken from them, and that whether we look upon Minister or People, certainly it is the best office that a Minister can do for his people, to commend them to God.
1. God is omnipotently, infinite able.
2 God is gracious and faithful, therefore willing to do it.
First, God is infinitely able to manage this trust, he is God all-sufficient, Genesis 17:1. sufficient to make himself happy, much more to make his people happy.
1. God is all in all in the enjoyment of mercy.
2. God is all in all in the want of mercy.
First, He is all in all in the enjoyment of mercy. When a people hath a faithful Minister placed over them by the providence of God, he can do nothing of himself, 2 Corinthians 3:6. Our preaching is from the assistance of God; and when we have done all, we cannot make this effectual, we cannot give the success; Paul may plant, Apollos may water, but it is God that must give the increase, 1 Corinthians 3:6. Why do you keep such a stir? One would have this Minister, another that; One would have Paul, another would have Apollo, another Cephas; Are they not the Ministers of God, by whom you have believed? Our profit depends not upon the parts and gifts of a creature, but upon the blessing of God; it is God that puts this heavenly Treasure into the heart, and it is God that must disperse it for the use and benefit of his people. The most eloquent Apollos cannot perswade obstinate sinners to lay hold upon the Gospel; they may speak to the ear, but it is God that must carry the Word to the heart, either for conviction, or conversion.
Secondly, God is all in all in the want of means. Let the instrument be never so weak, if it be in the hand of God, it shall prove effectual: God can make a poor Fisherman instrumental to catch three thousand souls at one time; and God chuses to do his work by weak Instruments, that the praise may be of God: It is not the Minister's parts or gifts, but only the power of God that strengthens the soul, and sanctifies, and builds them up, and comfort them. God is able to convert all unconverted sinners in a Congregation; God can say, Ephata, Be opened.
2. God is able to build up those that are converted, God is able to make all grace abound, 2 Corinthians 9:8. Those that have little grace, God is able to make it increase; God is the God of all grace, God can make every Saint perfect, entire, lacking nothing; he can fill all the void places of the heart.
3. God can keep us in all tryals and troubles; God can keep up his people in the midst of Apostacy, Matthew 16:13. The gates of Hell shall not prevail against them. God can keep them, that all the power of Hell shall not hurt them.
4. God is able to comfort the most disconsolate soul. Ministers may speak comfortable words, but they cannot speak them further than to the ear; but God can speak them to the heart: I will allure her into the Wilderness, and speak to the heart. God can comfort the poor soul, let the case be never so sad, 2 Corinthians 1:4.
2. As God is infinitely able, so he is infinitely gracious, and faithful. See his Name in Exodus 34. Full of power and tender mercy. Is not God willing for the Conversation of poor sinners, as willing as Ministers? yea a thousand, and ten thousand times more. Hear how patiently God speaks, turn ye, why will you dye? Hear and live. He calls upon men everywhere to repent.
Secondly, God doth not only desire it, but purpose it, and resolve it. God that hath begun a good work, he will finish it; and so for their preservation, he hath said, That the gates of Hell shall never prevail against them. Of all thou hast given me, I have lost none, John 17:11. Though God may suffer his people to be led away for a time, yet they shall be brought back again, and shall be kept through the power of God unto salvation: Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but not one jot or tittle which God hath spoken.
How willing is God to comfort all his comfortless ones? What Mother can be more pitiful to her sick child, than God is to them that are under affliction: Though a Mother forget her sucking child, yet God cannot forget his people. And then he is the Father of all comfort, and there are many gracious promises God hath made to this purpose, that they may be as so many Aquavitae pledges of Consolation to his people: So that this will appear, that it is the best Office of a Minister, both to Minister and People, to commend them to God.
1. To Ministers, it is the highest expression of their love: What greater testimony of their love can they shew to their people, to do all that for them, that he would willingly have done, and ten thousand times more? Is it not an expression of love from a dying Father to his children, Dear Children, I am now dying, I can provide for you no more, I shall leave you such a Friend that shall provide for you in a more abundant measure than if I had been with you: It is the best demonstration of their Faith.
1. That he will not leave them to the wide world: and then
2. He will not take any one, he will trust his people with none but God, who is able and willing to give account of them.
3. It is the greatest satisfaction to his heart. A Minister leaving his People, can never be satisfied in his own breast, that he should leave them, and commit them, and not to know to whom; but when he knows with whom he hath committed them, when he hath delivered them over to God, that first committed them to him, this is a great quietment and satisfaction to a Minister's spirit: God layes the people as a depositum, and will require an account of them at the last day. Now when a Minister is taken from his people, he cannot be satisfied, till he hath delivered back his trust to God: Lord, here they are, and while I was with them, I did what I could; but now I am taken from them, here I surrender them back into thy hand; when I was in the world, I kept them in thy Name: And so it is best for the people to be left to such a one who will keep them in all their Dangers, and comfort them in all their Afflictions.
3. How should a people be commended to God?
1. By Exhortation.
2. By Prayer.
First, By Exhortation. Thus, the Apostle before and after my Text. And then by Prayer, for so doth Saint Paul. Calvin looks upon those Words, as a Prayer brought in, always making mention of you in my Prayers, Romans 1:19, Php_1:4, Colossians 1:3.
And I trust that I shall not only now, at this solemn departure, but as long as I live, still recommend you into the hands of God; though I shall not preach to you, yet I shall still make mention of you in my Prayers, that God would stablish, and comfort, and preserve you to his heavenly Kingdom.
4. Why doth the Apostle commend them to the Word of his Grace? For these two Reasons:
First, Because all the good that any people can look for, is from God; it is declared and laid up in the Promises, and in the Gospel; there is the Treasure of God, it is in the Gospel; The grace of God which hath appeared to all men, bringeth salvation, Titus 2:11. We could never have known of the glorious mysteries of Salvation, had it not been for the grace of God; we could never have expected good, but from the Gospel: that is the great Magna Charta, wherein God hath made over whatsoever concerns the eternal good of his people. We have nothing to shew for grace, and comfort, and heaven, and glory, but his Gospel. That is the great deed of gift that God hath given to his People: poor sinners might look a Saviour, if the Word of God had not revealed it; those people have no ground to expect Salvation, if God had not declared it in his Gospel to bestow it upon them.
2. The Gospel is the only instrument by which God brings, and conveys all that good to the Soul that it stands in need of, all spiritual and temporal good that accompanies salvation.
God works nothing immediately to the Soul, but by the Gospel.
First, if any soul be converted to God, it is by the grace of God: And as Conversion, so Sanctification, that is effected by the word of God; so likewise is Edification, Salvation, and Preservation.
Use. I come now to the Application. It maybe I have been too long already: but Gods knows that it may be the last time that I may trespass in this kind: and I have the Apostles example, who preached at Troas till midnight, but I promise to have done in a great deal less time.
Use. In the Application I shall in the Apostles example, Commend you to the grace of God.
My Brethren, and dearly Beloved, and longed for, now God by his providence is taking me away from you, in the exercise of my publick Ministry, I commend you to God, and to the word of his Grace.
This I shall do, First, by exhorting and counsel; and then by Prayer.
First, By way of Exhortation.
1. In reference to God: and then
2. In reference to the Word of his Grace.
First of all, my Exhortation in reference to God, is, that you would commit your selves to God; If it should be so much a Ministers care to commend his people to God, it's good reason they should commend themselves.
1. A Ministers commending you to God, will be to no purpose, if you do not commit your selves. I shall alwayes make mention of you in my prayers, as long as God shall continue me in this valley of tears: I shall pray that God would build you up, and sanctifie you: I shall pray for you; but God will not hear my Prayers, if you do not hearken to my counsel, to commit your selves to God.
2. Consider, if you can so commit your selves to God, as to get God to take charge of you, you are made for ever.
1. God will be an All-sufficient God, instead of all the friends in the world: you shall not need any that shall provide for you to protect you; God will be All in All, instead of Father, instead of Mother, Houses, Lands, Relations; God will be better to you than ten Husbands, than ten Ministers; Ah, better than ten thousand Worlds.
God can sweeten all your enjoyments, God can provide for you, and make you happy in the midst of the wants of Creature-comforts; God is a Sun, and a Shield, He will give grace and glory, and no good thing will he with-hold from them that fear him.
God contains all in himself, Eminenter; get God, and you get all: Let the World frown or smile, let it turn upside down. Though the Mountain be thrown into the midst of the Sea, though the World be set on fire, yet a Soul that is in Gods keeping is happy: God is a present help in time of trouble.
2. As God is an All-sufficient Friend, so he is a firm and fast Friend to them, My Father and Mother forsook me, but the Lord took me up, Psalms 27:10. My flesh and my heart fails, but God fails me not; though my Minister and my Friend leave me, yet God will not leave me; he is engaged by his own promise, truth; and faithfulness, I will never, (never, never) leave thee nor forsake thee.
If you do not forsake God, God will never forsake you: if once you have so committed your selves to God, as God accepts the charge, he hath undertaken that you shall never depart from him: It is part of the Covenant, and he is engaged to all the Relations wherein he stands to his people, as a Husband, as a Father, as a Master.
But you will say, how shall we commit ourselves to God, that God may have a charge of us? I will give you one Direction for all.
1. Take God to be your God, and give up your selves to be his people; if you will, before you and I part, heartily and unreservedly give up your selves to God, to be his people, it will be the comfortablest day that ever I saw, though in other respects it may be the saddest; As certainly God is your God, so certainly he will keep you; if you will avouch your selves to be Gods, I will avouch God to be yours.
1. You must take God to be the portion of your souls inheritance, lay up all your happiness in God; for if you chuse anything else for your happiness but God, God will have nothing to do with you, God will be All or Nothing: Your hearts must say as David's, Lord thou art my por∣tion whom have I in Heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee. He accounted all nothing for God: God was his happiness. God was his Portion, God was his All in All.
2. You must make God the center of all your love and delight: God will have all from you, or nothing; you must not divide your affection between God and the World, you must love nothing in comparison of him, love nothing but in subordination to him; as you would have God to be wholly yours, so you must be wholly his.
3. You must rake God to be the strength and shield of hearts; As you would have God to take care of you, you must cast your care upon God: If you place your hope anywhere else, there will be no sure hold, the Anchor of your hope must be cast nowhere else; if you lay your burden anywhere else, God will not lend a finger to help you; but if you place your hope in God, God will help you; your extremity shall be his opportunity.
4. You must take God to be the guide of your hearts; if you would have the priviledge of God's guard, you must keep in Gods way; keep in Gods way, and you will be sure of Gods protection; do you keep Gods precepts and God will keep your person; do what God commands, and avoid what God forbids, and then you need not fear what will become of you. Let the World frown, and Friends forsake you, resolve that you will follow God wheresoever he leads you, then he will be your God all your dayes, and he will guide you here by his counsel, till at last he bring you to his glory: And this leads me to the second Exhortation, in respect of the Gospel.
Secondly, Brethren, I commend you to the Word of Gods Grace. I commend you to the Precepts of God, to be obeyed by you; I commend you to the Promises of God, to be believed by you.
1. Keep them, & hold them fast carefully it is your treasure, & life; keep it, and it will keep you; it is all that you can shew for Heaven: I leave it as a Depasitum; if you part with it, take heed how you will answer it at the last day: it is the Talent which God hath committed to you, for which you will be commended for keeping at the great day. Hold fast the Word of God's grace; there is old tugging by the Devil and his instruments, either to pull you from the Word, or the Word from you. Let go any thing rather than the Gospel; let go your Friends, your Estates, your Lives, rather than let go the Gospel.
Study Gods Word, do not keep it by you for no purpose: Search the Scriptures, for in them you hope for eternal life. There's the Pearl of great price, there is Directions, there is Comfort; this Book of God will make you wise unto Salvation.
If you never hear Sermon more, you have enough by the use of the Bible to carry you to Heaven: There's Divinity, there is holiness and Heaven almost in every syllable, when you cannot have it preached to you. Be much in the study of it.
Then practice it conscionably; Be not only Hearers but Doers of it; let your conversation be such as becomes the Gospel. It was the Apostles advice to the Philippians, and its mine to you, Let your Conversation be such as becomes the Gospel. Let your Conversation become the Precepts, the Priviledges, the Promises of the Gospel. Having then thus commended you to God, give me leave before we part to commend God and his Gospel to you.
1. Make it your daily business to walk with God; make him the Companion of your lives; Converse with God every day in the inward of your hearts: He that is a stranger with God, God will soon be a stranger to him; and if you neglect God, one day you may be to seek him when you most need him.
2. Live in the daily exercise of Grace and Godliness.
1. Live in the continual exercise of Faith, live by it; you have need of the exercise of that Grace every day: You can as well live without food, as live without Faith; it is that Grace which feeds upon Christ.
2. Be much in the exercise of the Fear of the Lord all the day long; be afraid to sin against God; in the secret of your souls mind his presense, in all places, in all company, in all businesses.
3. Be much in the exercise of Humility; live humbly, and think better of others than your selves. Humility will exceedingly adorn your profession.
4. Be much in the exercise of Repentance: Be frequent and constant in Prayer, pray continually; do it spiritually, and do it exactly, as to the season of it.
5. Be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Whatsoever you do for God, do it with all your might; do not put off God with the skin, but give him the marrow.
6. Be careful, not only to keep up secret, but Family-worship: the less preaching there is in publick, the more catechising and instructing there should be in private. I know no more likely means than the setting up the worship of God in private Families.
7. Prize the Sabbath: be strict and exact in the observation of the Lord's-day. I have shewed you many times wherein the spiritual observation of it doth consist: it is your Seed-time, your market-day: it is a sign you shall one day celebrate an everlasting Sabbath with God in the highest Heavens.
8. Be stedfast in the ways of God in a back-sliding Age: Keep your ground; while others fall away, stand fast in the Faith: Be not ashamed to own Christ before all the world: reckon upon the reproaches of Christ, and count them greater riches than the Treasures in Egypt. Do not place Religion in a few shadows, when the substance is neglected: do not think that God will be put off with the skin without the substance: and by your holy Conversation, labour to put to silence the foolishness and ignorance of wicked men, that men may have nothing to accuse you but in the matters of Jesus Christ, that you may cut off occasion from them that seek occasion. Let no reproach make you lay aside holiness: and say, if this be to be vile, I will be viler still. And love all those that have been instrumental for your spiritual comfort.
Forget not to contribute to the necessity of the poor Saints; think that God hath given you your Estates for such a time as this, for this is acceptable to God. Bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you, so shall you heap coals of sire upon their heads; when you are reviled, revile not again. Do your duty to your Superiors, to those that God hath set over you, and so carry your selves as it was in the case of Daniel, that they may find nothing against you save in the matter of your God. In all things let your Conversation be as becomes the Gospel of Jesus Christ, That I may rejoyce in the day of the Lord Jesus, that we have not run in vain, and laboured in vain.
And labour to keep up that Christian love which in this place hath been more eminent than anywhere I know. I would preach St. John's Doctrine, Little children, love one another: And that my expression may be pathetical, I shall speak it in the words of the Apostle, in Php_2:1-2. If there be therefore any Consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye my joy, that ye like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
I now have but a word more, speaking of yours and mine own comfort under this sad Dispensation.
1. It is a Minister's comfort, that when he is taken from his People, he can yet Commend them to God, and to the Word of his grace, which is able to build them up, and to give them an inheritance among them that are sanctified.
And truly, my dearly beloved in the Lord, this is my great work now, when I am a dying to you as to my publick Preaching: My beloved, I am very sensible that it is a very sad and solemn thing for a Minister to be rent from a People that he loves as his own Soul, that he hath laboured among; for to bid adieu to those solemn meetings, wherein I have preached to you, wherein we have mingled our sighes and our tears before the Lord, wherein we have rejoyced and sat down before the Lord at his Table: Now to think that I must Minister with you and for you no more in these Ordinances, methinks it is a heart-breaking consideration, to think that I am now dying in this congregation, to think that I now dying whilst I am preaching; but this is my comfort under these sad thoughts, that I can Commend you to God, and to the Word of his Grace; to one that is able to keep you, and to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among them that are sanctified. Like a dying Father, I can commend you to the care of such a Friend, infinitely able to supply all that I could not do for you.
It is the comfort of a dying Father, when he sees his children weeping round about him, that he can commend them to a Faithful Friend, willing to do that for them that he desired to do, and a thousand times more.
I would hope that I have some children that I have begotten to Christ by my Ministry, towards whom my bowels yearn; but his is my comfort, that I can put them into the Arms of their and my heavenly Father, of their and my blessed Redeemer, to be kept in the power of God.
There are many poor souls that are yet in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity; and if the Lord had seen good. I would say have seen of the travel of my soul in their salvation; but I can commend them to God, who knows them who belong to his Election; he can either restore, or can do it by another hand; and you that are in any measure grown in Grace, I will be willing to be helpful to your joy, and instrumental to your comfort: But I commend you to God, who is alle to give all grace to you, and to keep you stedfast.
It will be some alleviation of sorrow, though I must leave you, and dye to you as to my publick Ministry, that I hope I may a while go up and down, and converse with you, to be among you. The Lord grant this favour, that I may behold your stedfastness.
2. This may be your comfort as well as mine; this may be the comfort of all those poor Congregations that are like to be made Widows by the Metaphorical death of their Guides and Pastors; but I leave you into the hands of all Grace and of all Comfort.
This is a black day upon Israel, when so many faithful Ministers are slain at one blow; this is a day of gloominess and darkness in many Congregations, for so many Ministers to be beheaded in one day!
What hath England committed? Is it not some high Treason? If we look to the cause of it, why so many Ministers, are as dead in one day, as so many Children without a Father.
And if we look upon this cause what hath caused God thus to deal with us, we must complain, Oh! our unfruitfulness! Our fearful unthankfulness under the mercies of God: This will be the Emphasis and sting of our grief; and this should be the matter of our grief.
And then, if we consider the sad Prognostick, what it doth seem to foretell: It is a sign, that when God lays aside so many faithful Ministers, of some scourge or calamity that is coming upon us.
But you that can lament this Judgment, you that can lament the sad deprivations of these powerful Ordinances; Remember, that though your Minister be dead, God can raise you up others in their stead; and where the way of instruments are wanting, He can do it without them; and those that are begot in Christ, shall be preserved; and those yet unbought in, who belong to the Election of Grace, shall in Gods due time have the effectual work of the Spirit wrought upon their Souls. For he is able to build you up, and to give you an Inheritance among them that are sanctified.
And though I take this solemn leave of you, as to this publick Exercise, yet if the Lord shall open the door, and take of those bands of Death that the Law hath laid upon my Ministry in regard of Conscience, who cannot Conform (for which our publick Ministry is suspended) I shall chearfully and willingly return to you in this place.
But now, though you're dying Minister, in respect of the Exercise to his publick Ministry, is leaving of you, yet I commit you into a safe hand, I commend you to God, and to his Grace. Amen.