This the rather to note a corrupt atheistical course in those that are to deal with sick folk, that are extreme sick, that conceal their estate from them, and feed them with false hopes of long life. They deserve ill of per- sons in extremity to put them in hope of recovery. Physicians that are not divines in some measure, what do they ? against their conscience, and against their experience, and against sense. Oh, I hope you shall do well, &c. Alas ! what do they ? they hurt their souls, they breed a false con- fidence. It is a dangerous thing to trust upon long life, when perhaps they are snatched suddenly away, before they have made their accounts even with God, before they have set their souls in that state they should do.
Therefore the best way is to do as good Isaiah did with Hezekiah, ' set thy house in order, for thou must die,' 2 Kings xx. 1, that is, in the dis- position of second causes, thou shalt have a disease that will bring thee to death, and God had said so. God had a reservation, but it was more than Isaiah knew at that time. ' Set thy house in order, for thou must die.' So they should begin with God, to tell them, as we say, the worst first. It is a pitiful thing that death should be accounted the worst, but so it is, by reason of our fearfulness. Deal plainly \vith them, let them ' receive the sentence of death,' that so they may be driven out of themselves and the creature altogether, and be driven to trast in ' God that raiseth the dead.' Put thy soul in order. You are no man of this world ; lest they betray their souls for a little self-respect perhaps, because they would not displease them.
It may be in some cases discreet to yield, to make the means to work the better; but where there is nothing but evident signs of death, they ought to deal directly with them, that they may receive the sentence of death. It wrought with St Paul this good effect, ' I received the sentence of death, that we might not trust in ourselves, but in God that raiseth the dead.'
It is God's just judgment upon hyjiocrites, and upon many carnal wretched persons, that are led with a false confidence all their life, that trust in the creature, trust in friends and riches, that w^illnot trust in God, and will not be taught to number their days in their lifetime. It is just with God [toward those who], to their very death [are filled) with false con- fidence, when they come to death, to suffer them to perish in their false
128 COMMENTARY ON
confidence, and so to sink into hell. It is just with God to suffer them to have atheists ahout them, or weak persons that shall say, Oh, you shall do well enough, and then even out of a very desno to live, they are willing to helievo all, and so they die without all show of change ; and as they live, so they die, and are wretched in both. The life of a wicked man is ill, his death worse, his estate after death worst of all ; and this is one way whereby God suffers men to fall into the snare of the dcivil, when he suffers not those that are about them to deal faithfully. St Paul received the sentence of death, that it might force him not to trust in himself, but in God that raiseth the dead.
The second thing that is observable hence out of this first part, which ia the negative part, is this, that,
Doct. God's children arc prone to trust in themselves.
The hearts even of God's dear children are prone in themselves, if they be left to their own bent and weight, to self-confidence, and will not hold up in faith and affiance in God further than they are lifted and kept up by a spirit of faith, which God puts into them. It was not in vain that God used this course with blessed St Paul. Here is an end set down, that he 'might not trust in himself.' What, was he in peril to trust in himself? Alas ! St Paul, though he were an holy excellent man, yet he was a man; and in the best man there is a double principle, a principle of nature, of corrupt nature, and a principle of grace ; and he works according to both principles. There is an intermixture of both in all his actions, and in all his passions too, in his sufferings. Corruption shews itself in his best deeds, and his best sufferings, in everything. ' That we should not trust in ourselves,' that is, in anything in ourselves, or out of ourselves, in the creature ; it is all one. We see by the example of St Paul that the best are prone to trust in them- selves. All this hard usage of St Paul, that he received the sentence of death, it was that ' he should not trust in himself.' What, was there danger in St Paul to trust in himself ? a man that had been so exercised with crosses and afflictions as he had been, no man more, one would think that he had been scoured enough of pride, and self-confidence ! the whippings and misusings, the stocks, the dungeons, &c., would not all this work pride, and self-confidence out of the apostle ? No ! So deeply it is invested into our base nature, our trusting to present things, that we cannot live the life of faith, we cannot depend upon God, whom we cannot see but with other eyes than nature hath. It is so deeply rooted in our nature, that the blessed apostle himself must have this great help, to be taught to go out of himself, and to depend upon God. We see in what danger he was, in another place, to be lifted up with the revelations. He was fain to have a ' prick in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him,' 2 Cor. xii. 7. I Hezekiah, his heart was lifted up, as the Scripture speaks, in his treasures, that he shewed to the King of Babylon's ambassadors, as if he were such a rich prince. And so holy David, in numbering the people, to shew what a mighty prince he was. It was his vain confidence. Therefore God put him to a strange cure. He punished him in that that he gloried in. He took away so many of his people. And so Hezekiah was punished in that he sinned in. He was fain to have a purge for it. His treasure was taken away and carried to Babylon. ' I said in my prosperity,' saith holy David, ' I shall never be moved,' Ps. xxs. 6. The best are subject to false con- fidence to trust in themselves.