of Records as it were wherein are written the names of as many as God hath appointed to life Rejoyce not saith our Saviour in this that the divels are subdued unto you but rejoyce that your names are written in heaven And all that are not found written in the booke of life are cast into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone Rev. 20. 15. God in his secret counsell and purpose in his speciall providence and love takes notice of all his servants even of their names and he hath them as sure as if they were written downe in a booke there is not one man that commeth to heaven but the Lord knowes him already to be a man ordained to that estate and condition Secondly as in all Cities and Societies there is a certaine law whereby they are all governed in obedience to which they live So there is a law whereby all the Citizens of heaven all the houshold of God are governed that law which the Apostle Saint Iames calleth the royall law a law which commandeth the very spirits of men a law that disposeth the whole man to a heavenly frame and subjection to the will of God the great King of Heaven so that a man while he is here below by degrees is drawne off from the world in his affections and disposition and carriage and made sutable and conformable to the rule of righteousnesse Thirdly as in all Cities there is a kind of safety and securitie to those that dwell there not onely as they are incompassed with walls but also as there is watching and warding some wakinâ—… while others sleepe to keepe the rest in safety So in this heavenly societie the Angels pitch their Tents about those that feare God nay the Lord himselfe is the Shepheard of Israel that neither slumbereth nor sleepeth while men oppose them God defends them while men are labouring and plotting and devising against them and they it may be are secure and feare no danger God disperseth and disappointeth a thousand projects intended against his servants It was so with his owne people Israel while they were in the plaines securely lying in their tents there is Balack and Balaam consulting upon the mountaines how to curse them but the God of Israel that is above the mountaines that sitteth on the highest Heavens hee ordereth the matter so that Balaam for his life though hee might have had all the wealth and honour of the Kingdome could not pronounce one curse against Israel because God had said to him that he should not curse Fourthly As in Cities and societies on earth men have communion and societie one with another the lesse have interest in the greater and the greater in the lesse and all have interest one in another the inferiours receive from the superiours protection and provision and the superiours receive from the inferiours subjection and submission So it is in this heavenly Corporation in this spirituall Hierusalem Ierusalem is a Citie at unitie in it selfe There is a communion and fellowship that the Saints have with God the Father with Christ with the Angels with the Saints in heaven and one with another on earth With God the Father they have an interest in him as subjects of his kingdome as servants and children of his family there is not the meanest subject in this kingdome but he may make his request knowne to this Prince there is not the least servant in this Family but he may make his complaint to this Master they may as children goe boldly to the throne of grace and make their request knowne unto him though it be but in sighes and groanes Hence it is that God takes notice of them your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things and therefore hee will supply them If you that are earthly can give good things to your children how much more shall your heavenly Father give good things to them that aske him They have interest in Christ also he is their Intercessour therefore hence it is that he is said to sit at the right hand of God making intercession for us Hee is their Advocate if any man sinne wee have an Advocate with the Father even Iesus Christ the righteous Hee is their Lord and Captaine the Captaine of the Lords Armie to defend his Church Michael the great Prince standeth up for the children of his people They have interest also in the Holy Ghost the third Person in Trinitie they have not only the love of God the Father but the communion and fellowship of the Holy Ghost as the Apostle wisheth for the Corinthians Hence it is that the Holy Ghost is ready to helpe their infirmities to inable them to put up their requests when they know not how to pray as they ought Hence it is that hee sanctifieth them and therefore they are said to bee Borne againe of water and of the spirit that hee comforteth them therefore hee is called the holy Ghost the Comforter As the Saints have interest in the three Persons in the Trinitie in respect of their dependance upon them so the blessed Trinitie hath an interest in them also If I bee a Father where is my honour if I bee a Master where is my feare Because they acknowledge God to be their Father they honour him because they acknowledge him to betheir Lord they feare him c. They have interest in the Angels also Hence it is that they are called Ministring spirits sent forth for the good of the Elect They were Christs messengers his Angels and now they are made Messengers Angels to the Saints therefore saith Christ Offend not one of these little ones for I tell you that their Angels behold the face of my father in heaven They have interest in them not as worshippers of Angels which the Apostle condemneth Coll. 2. as foreseeing to what a height Popish superstition would rise in this kind I say not to worship them to invocate them to pray to them we know no such will-worship which is without the rule Wee have an Angell comforting Hagar we have an Angell defending Elisha we have an Angel incouraging Iacob wee have an Angell carrying Lazarus into Abrahams bosome But wee never had any Angell that stood in this place to have worship and adoration This indeed the Angels have from us imitation of their obedience we pray thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven They have interest in the Saints also yea in those that are dead not as though they praied for us yet they have a common desire of the welfare of the whole Church The soules under the Altar cry How long Lord holy and true wilt thou not avenge our bloud on those that dwell upon the earth All the Saints departed their soules crie to God to finish these dayes of sinne and hasten the comming of Christ. And besides this this further benefit wee have that we are all members
vexation of spirit Againe God will abolish this humane wisedome 1 Cor. 1. 19. I will destroy the wisedome of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent Where is the wise where is the Scribe where is the disputer of this world Hath not God made foolish the wisedome of this world Besides all your humane wisdome it shall not goe downe to the Grave it shall leave you when you die There is no worke nor device nor knowledge nor wisdome in the grave whither thou goest Eccles. 9. 10. This is the first thing in which young men oft rejoyce they are prudent and wise And you see that this is a vaine thing In the second place if a young man rejoyce in his honour and credit amongst men this also is vaine Solomon hath shewed it Eccles. 2. 16. Hee declareth to us that all the honour of the world will end in oblivion there is saith he no remembrance of the wise more then of the foole for ever for that which now is in the dayes to come shall bee forgotten and how dieth the wise man as the foole Againe if a man rejoyce in honour and much glory hee cannot beleeve so saith Christ Iohn 5. 44. How can you beleeve since you seeke honour one of another and not the honour that commeth of God only And it is noted to bee the reason why many of the chiefe Rulers that beleeved on Christ did not confesse him without which faith cannot be unfeigned because they loved the praise of men more then the praise of God John 10. 43. Nay further the Apostle sheweth us that this is the cause of envie Gal. 5. 26. Bee not desirous of vaine-glory envying one another Envie is a vexing affection this vaine-glory is the cause of this envie whereby we shall pine away when we see the happinesse and welfare of our brethren Further if young men delight in pleasures which is the common course of youth these also are vaine things I said in my heart saith Solomon Eccles. 2. 2. Goe to now I will prove thee with mirth therefore enjoy pleasure and behold this also is vanitie Kings that have had the greatest wisedome to invent them and the greatest leasure to use them yet they never found full contentment in the same I made mee saith he vers 4. great workes I builded mee houses I planted mee vineyards I made mee gardens and orchards and planted trees in them of all kinds of fruits I made me pooles of water I got mee servants and maidens also I had great possessions of great and small cattell above all that were in Ierusalem before mee I got mee men-singers and women-singers and the delights of the sons of men as musicall instruments of all sorts Here were the pleasures of Solomon But verse 11. Behold saith hee I looked on all the workes that my hands had wrought and on the labour that I had laboured to doe and behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit and there was no profit under the Sunne The wise Solomon that had beene trying every creature whether it had any thing in it that might give him a true rellish profest that there was no profit under the Sunne Yet further these pleasures shall cease there shall bee an end of them 1 Cor. 7. 29. The time is short it remaineth that those that have wives bee as though they had none they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not they that buy as though they possessed not they that use the world as not abusing of it for the fashion of this world passeth away Lastly our Saviour Christ in Luke 8. 14. sheweth that the pleasures of this life choake the word of God that it cannot bring forth gratefull fruit to God Fourthly if young men delight in riches and rejoyce in their estates that God hath given them this likewise is a vaine thing For first many times wealth is gotten by deceit and then God bloweth on it Ier. 5. 27. As a cage is full of birds so are their houses full of deceit therefore they are become great and waxen rich shall not I visit for these things saith the Lord and shall not my soule be avenged on such people as this Againe wealth is kept with much sorrow Eccles. 5. 12. The sleepe of the labouring man is sweet whether hee eate little or much but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleepe Thirdly wealth is lost with a great deale of sorrow and vexation Rev. 18. 18. when the smoake of Baby lon ascended up to heaven Oh what lamentation there was they cryed out What city is like unto this great city and they cast dust on their heads and cryed weeping and wayling saying Alas alas that great city wherein were made rich all that had shippes in the sea by reason of her costlinesse for in one houre is shee made desolate But suppose further that a man should get and keepe his wealth in the feare of God yet these things are most uncertaine as the Apostle saith 2 Tim. 1. 16. Charge them that are rich in this world that they trust not in uncertaine riches Lastly these riches cannot preserve our life so saith Christ himselfe Luke 12. 25. Take heed and beware of Covetousnesse for no mans life is preserved by the abundance of that hee possesseth In the last place If young men rejoyce in friends and Allies this also is a vaine thing For Psal. 62. 9. The man of low degree is vanitie and the man of high degree is a lie to bee laid in the ballance they are lighter then vanitie Againe no friend can deliver us from Death Psal. 49. 7 8. No man can by any meanes redeeme his brother nor give to God a ransome for him for the redemption of their soule is precious and it ceaseth for ever that hee should still live for ever and not see corruption Thus I have shewed severall things that young men rejoyce in and have shewed likewise that their joy is founded upon vanity upon nothing And this is the second meanes to heale young men of the inordinatenesse of their Joy to meditate with themselves how vaine and frivolous all things are that they delight in The third meanes is to betake themselves to seeke spirituall joy The well-head of this Joy is God whom the Scripture calleth the God of consolation The instrument to convey this Joy is Faith Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by faith wee have peace with God The grounds of this Joy are twofold First the good things exhibited Secondly the good things promised The good things exhibited That God hath written our names in the booke of life Here is the fountaine of spirituall joy to a true Christian Rejoyce saith Christ not that the divels are fallen before you but that your names are written in the booke of life Secondly the other ground of spirituall
a glasse with good keeping may last as long as an earthen Pot but both brittle Now notwithstanding this Sex bee brittle and the weaker yet to be honoured and that upon this ground because partakers with Men and as well as Men of the greatest priviledge the grace of life Were this a meeting for the solemnization of a Mariage I might further descan upon this plaine-song that ariseth from the inference of Mens honouring of Women What have I said if it were a Mariage solemnitie surely howsoever here bee before our eyes the eyes of our bodies a visible object of mortalitie yet notwithstanding here is before us an invisible occasion of rejoycing as at a Mariage solemnitie to the eye of our soule understanding and faith for while here we live in the world Jesus Christ our Spouse hee hath his friends friends of the Bridegroome his Ministers and messengers that in his name come to us wooe us use all the meanes that may be to move us to accept of Christ for our Lord and Husband When a man accepts of this offer there is then the contract consummated in regard of the mutuall consent that passeth betweene the one and the other Christ having his Proxies here wee the Ministers being for him and every beleeving soule for himselfe This contract continueth so long as here wee remaine in this world when wee depart the body is laid in the Bride-bed quietly to rest and sleepe till the Bridegroome be pleased to come and awake his Spouse and it will be a blessed voyce that hee shall come withall Come yee blessed of my Father receive the kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the world As for the soule that goeth immediatly to Christ and is in his Fathers house with him the Spouse in that part with her Husband the Lord Christ enjoying an eternall inviolable communion and sweet societie But howsoever this is thus to the invisible eyes of the soule we now must looke upon the object here before us and answerably order our matter and therefore with this touch I let passe the inference and come to the substance of the Text. You heard the summe you heard the parts But wee must here proceed Huesteron and Proteron and cleane invert the order of the words as I hope your selves will discerne if you doe but well marke the order and method Life is in the last place Grace before it the right that commeth before it and the extent of that right before all I suppose therefore you will thinke that first it is meet to lay forth the priviledge it selfe Life and then to speake of the ground of it then of the right that we have and then of the Extent of that right and this order I purpose to follow First therefore concerning the Priviledge it selfe Life For brevities sake I forbeare to speake much of the divers acceptations of life and distinctions thereof as it is in the Creatour the onely true God Father Sonne and holy Spirit or as it is in the invisible and glorious creatures the Angels or as it is in men who are animated by a reasonable soule or as it is in those creatures that are guided only by sense Beasts Fowle Fish or otherwise as it is in Trees and Plants that come forth out of the earth having a vegetative life onely The life here meant is that wee call eternall life consisting in our communion with Christ our Spouse and this is a life proper to the Saints proper unto them because comming from the grace of God extended unto them alone proper unto them because they are heires of it And in this extent there is a restraint howsoever the extent bee in divers considerations yet a restraint a qualification onely beleevers onely sound true Christians to them it is proper And this life is to be considered either in the Inchoation and beginning thereof or in the consummation and accomplishment thereof In regard of the Inchoation of this speciall life of the Saints it is here begun in this world I now live saith the Apostle speaking even of this life by the faith of the Sonne of God And the Iust shall live by faith This life it is by Christs dwelling and living in us I now live yet not I but Christ liveth in me saith the Apostle in the place before quoted The other it is in the world to come and it is by a sweet feeling and fruition it is by our abiding with Christ and living with him in which respect saith our Lord Christ to the penitent beleever upon the Crosse This day the very day that he died shalt thou be with me in Paradise and so Saint Paul saith of himselfe I desire to bee dissolved and to be with Christ implying that upon the dissolution immediatly there is a fruition a communion with Christ And the same Apostle speaking of those Saints that shall be upon the earth at the very moment of Judgement when the dead saith he are raised then shall wee also that are alive and remaine be caught up together with them in the cloudes to meet the Lord in the ayre and so shall wee ever be with the Lord. Now then marke here you see the soule hath present communion with Christ upon the dissolution of the body and the body also shall have communion with him at the great day of the Resurrection of all flesh Now this life and communion with Christ is proper to the Saints by vertue of their union with Christ A misticall union For Christ the Sonne of God hee is life originally in himselfe for as the Father hath life in himselfe so hath hee given to the Sonne to have life in himselfe Hee is also Life communicatively communicating life unto us therefore hee is said to be the Bread of life and in this sence because hee is that Bread which commeth downe from heaven and giveth life unto the world The Use of this point my brethren is manifold I will but touch it First it doth instruct us in the great love and good respect that God beareth to us children of men that of his owne good pleasure hath written our names in the booke of life and hath sent his Sonne to purchase life for us and to bring us also to this life Behold what love the Father hath shewed to us in Christ Secondly this is a demonstration of the wofull plight wherein naturally men are in this world they may seeme to be of some account they have a life that is farre different from the life of Plants and also from the life of Beasts they have a reasonable soule to animate them Oh but this this is is not the life Naturall life indeed is a death compared to this life that is here noted to bee proper to the Saints which commeth by grace whereof wee are heires and therefore of all naturall men it may bee said as the Apostle saith of the wanton
that they may rest from their labours and their workes doe follow them THe Scripture will afford us many Texts for Funeralls Me thinkes there is none more fit nor more ordinarily preached on then two and they are both of them voyces from heaven One was to Isaiah the Prophet Hee was commanded to crie The voyce said Cry And hee said What shall I crie All flesh is grasse and all the goodlinesse thereof is as the flower of the field You will say That is a fit Text indeed So is this here A voyce from heaven too But Saint Iohn is not commanded to crie it as Isaiah was he is commanded to write it That that is written is for the more assurance It seemeth good to mee saith Saint Luke in his preface to his Gospell Most excellent Theophilus to write to thee of those things in order that thou mightest know the certaintie c. It did not please God for many generations to teach his Church by writing The Fathers before the flood he did not teach by writing They lived long their memorie served them in stead of bookes and they had now and then some Divine revelations They needed no writing But after that the dayes of man grew short as they did in the time of Moses the man of God the dayes of our yeares are threescore yeares and ten then I say when the dayes of man came thus to be shortned it pleased God to teach his Church by writing And although the whole will of God all things necessarie to salvation bee written yet God did appoint some speciall things above all others to be written some passages of divine truths As that same historie of the foile of Amalek in the wildernesse Scribe hoc ad monumentum saith God to Moses write this for a memoriall in a booke So God commandeth Isaiah to take to himselfe a great roule and to write in it with a mans pen. So to Ezekiel Son of man write thee the name of the day even of this same day the king of Babylon set himselfe against Ierusalem this same day And Saint Iohn to goe no further though he was commanded to write this whole Epistle and all the Visions he saw yet there is some speciall thing that God in a more speciall manner would have him to write And here is one Write this same voyce this voyce that came downe from heaven write it Though that writing addeth nothing to the Authoritie of the Word For the word of God is is the same Word and is as well to be obeyed and as well to be beleeved when it is delivered by tradition as when it is by writing yet notwithstanding we are to blesse God that we have it written How many Divine truths have beene turned into lies And how many divine Histories have beene turned into fables when things have beene deliuered by tradition from hand to hand and from man to man Tradition was never so safe a preserver of Divine truths Wee are to thanke God I say for the whole Scripture for every part of it for whatsoever is written is written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope But what comfortable thing is this that here Saint Iohn is commanded to write Write what Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord so saith the spirit they rest from their labours and their workes follow them In the which you have five things First you have a Proposition Dead men are blessed Blessed are the dead Now because this is not generally true therefore Secondly you have a Restriction all Dead men are not blessed But who are blessed then they that die in the Lord. There is the Restriction Thirdly you have the Time from whence this blessednesse beginneth From hence-forth blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. Fourthly you have the Particulars wherein this blessednesse consists It is in a Relaxation of their labours and a Retribution of their workes they rest from their labours and their workes follow them Lastly you have a Confirmation of all this It is confirmed first by a voyce frm heaven A voyce from heaven said write And then it is confirmed by the Spirit of God Even so saith the spirit they rest from their labours You must not looke that in this shortnesse of time I should goe through all these And I doe not intend it It may bee only the first and second I pray let mee take some time to speake of the occasion of our meeting I would doe all within the houre I begin with the first Dead men are blessed Blessed are the dead Blessednesse is a thing that every man desireth Hee is no man but a monster that would live wretchedly Every man desireth to be blessed But that thing which wee all desire in common when it commeth to be determined most men mistake it Some place blessednesse in riches And some place it in honours Some place it in pleasures And some place it in health of body And some place it in civill vertues What need I tell you more S. Austin in his 19. booke DeCivitate Dei telleth us of no fewer then two hundred fourescore and eight severall places of blessednesse All determined in this life To let them passe Blessednesse consisteth in the enjoying of the soveraigne good That same soveraigne good is God Wee enjoy God both in this life and in the life to come From hence there is a double Blessednesse Distinguish them as you will Whether you call one Beatudo viae the other Beatudo patriae as some doe The Blessednesse of the way and the Blessednesse of the Countrey Or whether you call one Beatudo spei the other Beatudo rei The Blessednesse of expectation or the blessednesse of fruition Or whether you call them as usually you doe The Blessednesse of Grace here and the Blessednesse of Glory hereafter It mattereth not in what termes you distinguish them but so we know this have one and you are sure of both There is none have the Blessednesse of Glory but such as were first Blessed in the state of Grace And there is none Blessed in a state of Grace but shall be Blessed in the state of Glory There is a threefold condition of a Blessed soule It is here in the bodie as long as God pleaseth But then it is from the Lord. It is with the Lord but then it is from the Bodie There is a third Condition when it shall be in the body againe and with the Lord for ever Then is the full consumation of blisse when this same body of ours shall bee raised up and made like the glorious body of Iesus Christ. But our Blessednesse in this life though we have here a comfortable fellowship with God yet because that it is not per speciem it is not by sight it is but by faith wee walke by faith and not by sight Because
shall be revealed and manifested all our wayes and workes the godly and the workes that they have done though never so secret the wicked and their workes the secret sins that they have committed That is the second thing in the manner of the Judgement First that all shall be summoned secondly upon the Summons all shall bee made to appeare Thirdly the Separation that shall be made at that time for when all are congregated by and by all shall be severed and separated a separation and division shall be made amongst them some shall be set at the right hand of the Iudge some at the left hand As a shepheard searcheth his flocke in the day when hee is amongst his sheepe that are scattered so I will search out my sheepe at that day and I will divide betweene cattell and cattell betweene the sheepe and the goates The Sheepe and the Goates here they flocke feed and fold together they will doe so they must doe so The Tares here must be let alone and grow with the corne till the day of harvest but yet afterward there shall be a division and a separation the wicked and the godly live together here but at the last the wicked shall be separated from the godly like the chaffe from the wheate as when two travell one way they passe together and lodge together but the next morning they part and take severall wayes so the wicked and the godly after they have beene here a time eating and drinking conversing and living and perhaps dying and rotting in the graves together notwithstanding when this day that I here speake of shall come then there shall be a separation and division made then the sheepe shall bee set on the right hand then you shall know which is Iacobs flocke and which is Labans which belong to Christ and which belong to Sathan then the chaffe shall be winnowed from the wheat and wee shall see which is for the Barne and which is for the fire Goe on you wicked still seeme the same you are not delude the eyes of the world that you have the same heart that you appeare you have Maskes and Vizards now the time will come your paint shall be washed off your fig-leaves shall bee stripped and your nakednesse shall be seene and all manifest at that day of God there shall be a separation of the good from the bad as the shepheard separateth his sheepe from the Goates Fourthly with this separation there shall be a tryall the Scripture speakes of after the conventing and separation there shall be a tryall I saw saith Saint Iohn Revel 20. 12. the dead small and great stand before God and the bookes were opened and another booke was opened which is the booke of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in those bookes according to their workes Marke there are severall bookes and so as there are severall books there are severall judgements some are tryed by one booke some by another First there are some bookes by which the workes of men are tryed the booke of Nature the booke of Scripture the booke of Conscience They that neuer heard of Christ shall be judged by the booke of Nature there is enough in the booke of Nature to leave all unexcusable They that live in the Church shall be tryed and judged by the booke of the Scripture Of the Law They that have sinned under the Law shall be judged by the Law Of the Gospell God shall judge the secrets of all hearts according to my Gospell Both of them shall be judged according to the booke of Conscience for God will lay that booke so cleare and open that they shall see what they have done against that Booke Lord what a many of sinnes have we committed here that we never remember and thinke of when they are done Our memorie and conscience now is a Book clasped up we see not a thousand things that are registred there but when God shall lay open that Booke and in large our memories and inlighten our consciences then men shall clearly see what they had forgot before they shall promptly dictate the whole course of our lives and acquaint us with every action that hath past us and every circumstance to accuse and excuse This is the kind of the tryall by which the workes of men shall be tryed Lastly with the Summons there shall be an appearance and with that a separation and a tryall after all these are done then commeth the sentence then the Sentence shall be pronounced upon the one and upon the othet the one Sentence full of sweetnesse and comfort every word droppeth as a honey combe Come you blessed of my Father inherit the kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the world The same voyce that Christ spake to them here Come to me the same shall be there Come yee blessed and as they were carefull to come to Christ here so they shall make a happy comming to Christ there The other is a sentence of Hell and wrath and horrour Depart yee cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the divell and his Angels as they desired here to depart from God and said to him depart from us so they shall heare that word of horrour and woe pronounced at that day they shall bee sent away into fire to have their portion with the Divell and his Angels Thus briefly I have shewed concerning the Person judging First for the Iudge himselfe God And then for the Iudgement first that it must be and then the manner how I should goe on to the next generall point that is to consider the things and persons Judged every worke of every man whether it bee good or whether it bee evill And so I should have given the Application and Use of all together But so much for this time FINIS A A TRIALL OF SINCERITIE OR THE DESIRE OF THE FAITHFVLL ISAIAH 25. 9. This is the Lord wee have waited for him wee will be glad and rejoyce in his salvation PSAL. 38. 9. Lord all my desire is before thee and my groaning is not hid from thee LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. A TRIALL OF SINCERITIE OR THE DESIRE OF THE FAITHFVLL SERMON XV. ISAIH 26. 8 9. Yea in the way of thy Iudgements O Lord have wee waited for thee the desire of our soule is to thy Name and to the remembrance of thee With my soule have I desired thee in the night yea with my Spirit within me will I seeke thee early for when thy judgements are in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learne righteousnesse THis Chapter is a sweet song of the Prophet if I mistake not concerning the restauration of the Iewes And the words of the Text are the sweet Swan-like song of our deceased Sister which she desired might be her Funerall song her Funerall text at this time and desired it long agoe before any thing that is now fallen
joy is the good things promised us And those may be reduced to two heads God hath made promises either in regard of evill things as wee call them of afflictions that befall us Or the weaknesse of the graces that are in us Now in the evill of Affliction wee may rejoyce first In the promise of protection in affliction 2. In the promise of Edification by affliction 3. In the promise of deliverance from affliction All in the best season Againe for the defects of grace in us which indeed is a thing exceeding grievous to a true Christian. Here wee may rejoyce First In the promise of preserving of grace 2. In the promise of augmentation and growth in grace 3. In the promise of bringing the weastest grace to perfection Here you have the well-head of Joy Oh that young men would know God and Christ Jesus and the word of God and the promises that they might leave this sinfull and sottish joy whereto they are so adicted This is the meanes to bee rid of it by getting into their soules the sense and feeling of the true Joy of the children of God Againe in the second place Young men should bee exhorted not to walke after their owne heart which is the next thing that Solomon noteth as a fault in them The heart saith Ieremy is deceitfull above measure and desperately wicked It is so deceitfull sucha Cheator that we are not able to comprehend it it is desperatly wicked Who will follow a false guide and a desperate wicked guide so is the heart of man Lastly they should not walke after the sight of their eyes David prayed Turne away mine eyes that I regard not vanity and quicken mee in thy Law And againe Open mine eyes that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law There is much danger in following our eyes Eve was misled by her eye shee looked upon the forbidden fruit and saw it beautifull and so lusted after it And when I saw saith Achan among the spoiles a goodly Babylonish garment and a wedge of gold then I coveted them and tooke them David was defiled by the eye Hee saw Bathsheba from the roofe of his house washing her selfe and then he lusted Holy men have prayed to God that hee would keepe their eyes in a right frame and temper These are the particulars that Solomon giveth to young men in direction to take heed of carnall joy to take heed of walking after their hearts or after their sense And these things brethren I have now committed in direction to you The last use of this Doctrine is for old men For if young men may not rejoyce carnally much lesse may old men Youth may plead for it selfe in want of wisedome and gravitie sobrietie and experience better then those of age If young men may not have evill hearts and evill eyes much lesse old men Looke to it you that heare me this day that are stricken in age as the Scripture speakes that are smitten in your limmes with age that you cannot walke with activity and nimblenesse and are smitten in your senses with age that you cannot well see and heare and taste Oh that your hearts would smite you for your sinnes May not young men rejoyce in pleasures in friends in honours in wealth Much lesse may those of old age Must young men be carefull to chase away all carnall joy and to get spirituall joy that beginneth in godly sorrow much more must old men It is no time for those that are old to rejoyce in carnall things a few daies will make an end of them and lay them in the Grave Oh then you that are of yeares breake off your sinnes by repentance and your iniquities by mercy Rejoyce in being good and in doing good This Joy will continue with you as for the Joy of corne and wine and oyle and silver and gold this joy will die when you die Yea notwithstanding all the supports of this joy in this life yet in another life you may bee transported to hellish torments Thus much for this first In the second place Solomon sheweth the remedie against this carnall Joy in young men which also may bee a preservative against sinne both for young and old But know thou saith he that for all these things God will bring thee to judgement The Doctrine is thus much That the Lord God will certainly bring men to judgement for all the sinnes they have committed This is an infallible truth Know thou this that for all these things God will bring thee to judgement Malach. 3. 18. A booke of remembrance is written before God for those that feare the Lord and thought upon his name So the Lord hath a booke of remembrance wherein hee writeth downe the sinnes of the sonnes of men and this shall bee opened and unclasped in the evill day Eccles. 12. 14. God will bring every worke into judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it bee evill 2 Cor. 5. 10. Wee must appeare before the Iudgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that hee hath done whether it bee good or bad 1. Thes. 4. 16. The Lord himselfe shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voyce of the Archangell and with the trump of God Epistle of Iude vers 14. And Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied of this saying the Lord commeth with ten thousands of his Saints to execute Iudgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him For opening of this point I will briefly shew you these two things First what is the reason that God will bring all these things to Judgement Secondly what manner of Judgement it shall be For the first What is the reason that God will bring all these things to Judgement The first reason is His Decree Heb. 9. 27. It is appointed to all men once to die and after this the Iudgement Even as it must needs be that men must die because God hath so appointed it so also it must needs be that men must come to Judgement in regard of the purpose and decree of God Secondly God will doe this in regard of his righteousnesse Hee is a holy God a hater of iniquitie But many times in this world it is well with the wicked and ill with the godly Lazarus hee is in wofull miserie and Dives hee is in abundance of prosperitie Now God will shew his love to the righteous and his hatred to the wicked in this Judgement If judgement here begin at the house of God It is impossible the familie of Sathan should escape hereafter Thirdly God will by this meanes cleare his wayes as the Apostle speakes Rom. 2. 5. There are many wayes of God that are darke and
in the garnishing and sauce of every dish smell in the stench of every dead corpses feele in the beating of every pulse yet we are not sensible of it wee will not take knowledge of it though we cannot be ignorant of it In which consideration the Wise man whose words are as goads and nailes vers 11. pricks us deepe with the remembrance hereof so deepe that hee drawes blood sanguinem animâ—… the blood of the soule as Saint Austin tearmeth our teares lachrymae sanguis animae For who can reade with drye eyes that tbose that looke out of the windowes shall bee darkened Who can heare without horrour that the keepers of the house shall tremble or consider without sorrow that the daughters of musicke shall be brought low or comment without deepe fetched sighes upon mans going to his long home and the mourners going about the streetes to wash them with teares and sweepe them with Rosemarie Origen after he had chosen rather facere periculosè quam perpeti turpitèr to burne Incense to the Heathen gods then to suffer his body to be defiled by a Blackamore and the flower of his chastitic which he had so long time preserved to be some way blasted at a Church in Ierusalem goeth into the Pulpit openeth the Bible at all adventures intending to preach upon that Text which he should first light upon but falling upon that verse in Psal. 50. But to the wicked saith God what hast thou to doe to declare my statutes or that thou shouldest take my covenants in thy mouth which contained his suspension shutteth his booke speaketh not a word more but comments upon it with his teares so me thinkes having read this Text in which I find all our capitall doomes written I cannot doe better then follow that Fathers prefident and shut up not only my booke but my mouth also and seale up my lippes and comment upon the coherence with distraction the parts with passion the notes with sighes the periods with groanes and the words with teares for alas as soone as a man commeth into his short booth in this world which he saluteth with teares he goeth to his long home in the next And the mourners goe about the streetes It is lamentable to heare the poore infant which cannot speake yet to boad his owne misery and to prophecie of his future condition and what are the contents of his Prophecie but lamentations mournings and woes Saint Cyprian accords with Saint Austin in his dolefull note Vitae mortalis anxietates dolores procellas mundi quas ingreditur in exordio statim suo ploratu vel gemitu rudes animae testatur Little children newly borne take in their first breath with a sigh and come crying into the world assoone as they open their eyes they shed teares to helpe fill up the Vale of teares into which they were then brought and shall bee after a short time carried out with a streame of them running from the eyes of all their friends And if the Prologue and Epilogue bee no better what shall wee judge of the Scenes and Acts of the life of man they yeeld so deepe springs of teares and such store of arguments against our aboad in this world that many reading them in the bookes of Hegesias the Platonicke presently brake the prison of their body and leaped out of the world into the grave others concluded with Silenus Optimum non nasci proximum quam primum mori That it was simply best never to be borne the next to it to die out of hand and give the world our salve and take our vale at once How-be-it though this might passe for a sage Essay and a strong line amongst Philosophers yet wee Christians who know that this present life to all that live godly in Christ Iesus how full of troubles cares and persecutions so ever it bee is but a sad and short Preface to endlesse Volumnes of joy an Eves fast on earth to an everlasting feast in Heaven ought thus to correct the former Apophthegme Optimum renasci proximum quam primùm mori That it is best to be new borne and then if it so please God after our new birth to bee translated with all speed into the new Heaven But soft we cannot take our degrees in Christs schoole per saltem we must keepe our Termes and performe our exercises both of faith obedience and patience wee must not looke from the Font to be presently put into the rivers of pleasures springing at Gods right hand for evermore Wee must take a toylesome journey and in it often drinke of the waters of Marahâ—… Wee must suffer with Christ before wee reigne with him Wee must taste of the bitter cup of his Passion before wee drinke new Wine with him in his Kingdome wee must sowe in teares here that wee may reape in joy hereafter Every man goeth though some set out sooner some later and shall arive at his home but let him looke to his way as the way is he taketh so shall the home be into which he is received if he take the way on the right hand and keepe within the pathes of Gods commandements his home shall be the New Ierusalem descending from God most gloriously shining with streetes of gold gates of pearle and foundations of precious stones where all teares shall be wiped from his eyes but if he take the broad way on the left hand and follow it his home shall be a dungeon or vault in Hell where he shall be eternally both mourner and Corps But to shoot somewhat nearer to the marke Marriages and Funeralls though most different actions and of a seeming contrary nature yet are set forth and as it were apparelled with parallell rites and ceremonies our raiments are changed in both because in both our estate is changed Bells are rung flowers are strowed and feasts kept in both and anciently both were celebrated in the night by Torch-light Hee that hath but halfe an eye may see in the Ritualls of the Ancients the blazing and sparkling as well of the funeriall as the nuptiall lights and no marvaile the shadowes meete when the substances concurre the pictures resemble one the other when the faces match the accessaries are corresponding where the principalls are sutable as here they are for in marriage single life dyeth and in death the soule is married to Christ The couple to bee married in ancienter times first met and after an enterview and liking of each other and a contract signed betweene them presently departed the Bride to her Mother the Bridegroome to his Fathers house till the wedding day on which the Bridegroome late in the night was brought to his Spouse and then hee tooke her and inseparably linked him selfe unto her Here the couple to bee married in man are the bodie and the soule at our birth the contract is made but after a short enterview and small abode together the parties are parted and the bodie the Bride
while wee are here though wee doe see the face of God in the Mirrour or glasse of the Gospell yet because wee are absent from him as he is objectum Beatificans Because here the teares are not all wiped from our eyes and we have not yet a full rest from our labours nor a full reward for our services Therefore our Bessednesse here it is nothing to speake of in comparison of that Blessednesse which we shall have hereafter when the soule is separated from the body and is with the Lord. Therefore saith the Apostle I desire to be dissolved and to bee with Christ and this quoth hee it is melius it is better Better Yea it is multo melius it is much better Yea it is multo magis melius you must beare with Saint Pauls incongruitie of speech it is much more better to bee with him If our hope were only in this life of all men beleevers the children of God were most miserable But the hope of our immortall life is the life of this mortall There was some little glimpse of this light even amongst the Gentiles such as did beleeve the immortalitie of the soule One of the heathen Poets could say No man is blessed till death Cressus the Lybian a man happy in his great achievements asked Solon Pray quoth he tell mee what man dost thou thinke happie Hee named one to him Tellus a man that was dead But quoth he whom else dost thou thinke happy Hee named two brethren more that did a worke of pietie to their Mother it were too long to tell you the particular storie and they were dead I thinke them happy quoth he Cressus began to bee angrie that hee himselfe should not be thought a happy man Am not I happy Oh quoth he I take thee for a great king but I account thee not happy before death Cressus grew to miserie and then he cried out Oh Solon Solon c. Here we have a word a voyce from heaven and the Word confirmed by the Spirit and we have testimonies of Scripture and we have some little glimpse of this light from the Gentiles yet notwithstanding flesh and bloud will not be perswaded of this that dead men should be happy that there is a happinesse in death There are many things they have against it First say they Death is an enemie It is very true Death is an enemie the Apostle calleth it so The last enemie that shall be destroyed is Death And say they it is a terrible enemie It is very true and of all terrible things the most terrible yea and nature abhorreth it exceedingly See it in any creature that liveth Marke if every creature would not use legges wings hoofes hornes tuskes beakes or whatsoever thing it is wherewith God and nature hath armed it to preserve life Solomon saith it but he saith it in the person of a carnall man as he doth many things by Metaphors in his booke of Ecclesiastes That a living dogge is better then a dead lyon Sathan is a lyar and the father of lies but yet notwithstanding that word of his was a truth Skin for skin yea all that a man hath will hee give for his life Vita dum super est benè est said Moecenas when he lay grievously sicke of the Gout So long as life remaines it is well enough You have one man that liveth in extreame povertie eateth no bread but the bread of affliction yet hee would live You have another man that carrieth about him a diseased body the arrowes of God sticking fast in him and the venome of them drinking up his spirits by some sicknesse yet he would live You have another man that hath a rotten name that stinkes while he liveth yet he would live still Yea and not only wicked men doe make many base shifts to live they have their portion in this life no wonder therefore they doe it but even Gods best children that looke for a better life then this when this is ended are not willing to part with this life if they could keepe it Doe you not remember how David pleaded for life Oh let me live that I may praise thy Name oh spare mee a little before I goe hence and bee no more Hezekiah turneth his face to the wall and wept oh shall the grave give thankes unto thee or shall the dead celebrate thy praise No Vivens it is the living it is the living that must praise thee as I doe this day I know indeed that sometime you shall find some of Gods children wishing for death Iob My soule hath chosen strangling and death rather then my life Lord I pray thee saith Moses kill mee out of hand and let mee not see my wretchednesse Elijah when hee fled from Iezabel for his life Lord quoth he take away my life for I am not better then my fathers Hee was not willing that Iezabel should take away his life but he would have God to take it away You know Ionah his pettish moode that he was in when hee would deeds thinke to know what was better for him then God himselfe doth Lord take I beseech thee my life from mee for it is better for me to die then to live These men of God they were sonnes of men they had their passions as other men have and passion was never good judge betweene life and death I know againe that there is a question made by Iob Wherefore is light given to a man that is in miserie and life to the bitter in soule Such a man I confesse that hath bitternesse of soule he may happily seeke for death as for treasures and be glad when hee hath found the grave But let God be but pleased a little to allay that bitternesse let him but lap up that bitter pill in sugar a little and then he will like life well enough Why doe we all this while goe from my Text Surely there be so many voyces upon earth against it that if there were not a voyce from heaven to say Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord we should scarce beleeve it But then if the dead be blessed why doe wee not die that wee may be blessed There is such a like Question of Scipio in that same booke of Tullies Somnium Scipionis Scipio asked his Father when his father had told him of those glories that the soule enjoyed in immortalitie Why saith he doe I tarry thus long upon the earth why doe not I hasten to die The schollers of Eugesius when they heard their Master dispute of the immortalitie of the soule went and laid violent hands upon themselves that they might go to that immortalitie And so Cato Vticensis after he read Platoes books of the Immortalitie of the Soule made away himselfe Many such examples there have beene And I find often-times in your bills many that have laid violent hands upon themselves some that cut their owne throats and
and douleia to little purpose doe it roundly enough and the people in their practice But wee give them their due and as much as themselves would be willing to receive as wee gathered from the behaviour of the Angell that was sent to Iohn Apoc. 19. 10. But in the meane time while they make a thriving trade of the flattering of the Dead they neglect and abuse the living Saints not only writing a Dele in their Indices expurgatory upon the testimonie of Pius or Prudens given by some more ingenuous men of theirs to some of our Divines in particular but also traducing the whole estate of our reformed Churches for schismaticall and hereticall Use 4. If there be some Saints of God here let us choose to be of their acquaintance and keepe their company because they doe best of all know the way to heaven and it is good to goe safely that journey by direction of the best and most skilfull guides lest we misse it in those places where the way turnes or where the path is not so well beaten as the other Roade 2. Gods Saints doe also die The Death of his Saints Holinesse frees not from death Abel Noah Abraham Moses David the Prophets the Apostles the Fathers are all dead Your Fathers where are they and the Prophets doe they live for ever Zach. 1. 5. God cuts off both the righteous and the wicked Ezek. 21. 4. The righteous perisheth and the hhasidim the mercifull men or the men of godlinesse are taken away Es. 57. 1. Yea and often-times as Menander was able to observe it Whom God loves best hee takes soonest An observation much like that in 1 King 14. 12 13. That sonne of Ieroboam who only of that family had some good thing in him was taken away young But whether sooner or later their holinesse frees not from death rich gilding upon an earthen pot keepes it not from breaking They are made of the same mettall of the same clay with other men The Apostles that brought the treasures of grace to the world were themselves Testacea vasa so Saint Hierome Vasa fictilia so Saint Gregorie but only earthen vessels 2 Cor. 4. 7. Clay in the hand of the potter Es. 64. 8. And therefore all things in this respect come alike to all Eccl. 9. 2. Use 1. If such die then Death is not alwayes evill for sure it is not evill to them to whom all things worke for good Rom. 8. 28. The sting of it is gone And though it have not a pleasant looke to entertaine us with it is but as a rude groome that opens the gate by which we must passe to a better place and to better company The godly have many advantages by death 1. Rest from their labours 2. A Crowne when they have finisht the race 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. 3. Freedome from danger of sinning any more Rom. 6. 7. 4. Death frees from a possibilitie of further dying 2 Cor. 5. 1. Let mee die saith Seneca and what hurt comes by that I can bee bound no more I can bee sicke no more I can die no more 5. They goe presently to God While we are at home in the body wee are absent from the Lord Wee are willing rather to be absent from the body and to bee present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 6. 8. I desire to bee dissolved to bee with Christ Phil. 1. 23. 2 Tim. 4. 6. Wee wrong death when we call it horrid it is sinne which makes it to be so else it is but conceit There is often more paine in a tooth-ake then in dying Teares and blacke cloth and the tremblings of the guilty doe disguise Death and make it looke terrible Hee that said it was of all terrible things the most terrible was himselfe an Heathen and knew not what Christ had done to alter the property Once indeed it was uncouth and hideous but since Christ dyed it hath a more faire and pleasant face There can bee no danger in that way which all the Saints have gone As Phocion said to one that by the same sentence of the Judges was to dye with him Art thou not glad to fare as Phocion doth So are wee not glad to fare as the holy Patriarkes Prophets and Apostles have done and to goe after them Hee that went this way the first of any man-kind was holy a Saint it was Abel whom God accepted Wee use to call those passages and Streights which have beene first found and discovered by any by the names of the first Discoverers as the Streights of Magellanus and that a little lower Schouten Streight or Fretum le maire So if it may afford us any comfort for the passage let us call Death no longer Death but Abels streights Let us learne if not to love yet to contemne Death that so wee may have the more easie conquest over all other hard things It was a bravery in Damindas an heathen which Christians should be ashamed to come short of When Philip had broke into Peloponesus and some Lacedemonians said They were likely to sustaine much evill unlesse they could reconcile themselves to Philip Damindas said O Semi-viri quid nobis poterit acerbè accidere qui mortem contemnimus Ah poore spirited men what can be sharpe or hard unto us who have learned to despise death it selfe Use 2. Because Saints or holy men doe also die let us make the best use of them while they are with us To benefit and profit ourselves by our religious friends acquaintance neighbours and kindred When God raises up some man eminent for wisedome and a godly life hee is set up as a light for the towne or neighbourhood to walke by Yet oft-times such as dwell neere are carelesse and neglect their benefit when strangers farther off draw neere unto the light and gaine by it as wee use to let our owne bookes lye by and rather make use of such as we borrow to take notes out of them because we know not how soone they may be called for by the owners and presume that the other will still be in our keeping Wee should improve our good acquaintance and walke by the light while we enjoy it because many times the Sunne sets and it is night in a neighbourhood or a family when a good friend a good Parent or a good Master dyeth Remember Ioash and Iehojada 3. The Death of Gods Saints is precious in Gods sight When David was opprest with griefe it seemes hee had such thoughts as these Surely man is res nihili a vaine and worthlesse thing too low and too unworthy that God should take any notice of him or bee carefull of him But at last he overcame such thoughts when hee had found the experience of Gods tendernesse towards himselfe in particular and towards all his people and now resolves That God neglects not his as if hee were not affected with their miseries but their soules lives and safeties are deare and
your selves with these things And particularly concerning the Female sex because the Apostle here applieth it to them and saith of them as well as of men that they are heires Co-heires of the same inheritance this therefore is to be applied to them for when the Apostle makes distinction of outward conditions in Gal. 3. 28. hee putteth in this Male and Female and of these and those hee saith all are one in Christ no difference for the Female at first were made after the same Image that the Male were Hee made them Male and Female in his owne Image Gen. 1. 27. Both sorts have the same Saviour and are Redeemed by the same price A woman said My soule rejoyceth in God my Saviour they are both sanctified by the same Spirit the Apostle saith that when an unbeleeving Husband is knit to a beleeving Wife the husband is sanctified by the wife as well as in the other case the Wife is sanctified by the Husband And this my brethren giveth a checke to the undue the unjust censure that many doe give to this weaker vessell that this Sex is as it were the imperfection of nature and I know not what I will not stand upon it as most unworthy the confutation But for the Sex it selfe it is a particular consolation against that matter of griefe which it might conceive through Eves first sinne not onely in sinning her selfe but in taking Sathans part to tempt her Husband whereupon followed subjection to the Man and likewise paine in travell and bringing forth of children But notwithstanding saith the Apostle of that Sex they shall bee saved if they continue in faith and charitie and holinesse with sobrietie So that you see they have a right too And the truth is that God hath graciously dealt with them in making them the meanes of bringing forth the principall ground of this right of the one and of the other which is the Lord of life the Saviour of the world who was borne of a Woman Now this Sex is to comfort themselves in this that notwithstanding there bee some differences in outward condition yet they are made partakers of the greatest and best priviledge alike joynt heires of the grace of God I find but two things that in Scripture are exempted from that Sex two priviledges one to have jurisdiction over the Husband another publikely to teach in the Church of God But yet notwithstanding marke a kind of recompence made for this The former is but particular betweene Husband and Wife but in lieu thereof a Woman may reigne over many men yea over Nations Queenes shall bee thy nursing mothers saith the Prophet Isaiah to the Church And for the later to recompence that they may bee and have beene endued with the gift of prophesie so that wee see how God doth every manner of way incourage them One word more concerning men and so I will conclude this point Namely admonition to them answerably to respect the other Sex as those that are Co-heires with them and therefore while they live according to their places according to their gifts according to the bond of relation that is betweene them to respect them and to shew the same when they are dead by a decent comely Funerall and maintaining their credit and giving of them their due praises Thus much for the Text. And now my brethren give mee leave I beseech you to steppe a little further and to speake a word concerning this object before mee Howsoever I am not over-forward at any time to speake much on such occasions yet at this time I suppose I should doe much wrong to the partie in concealing those things that are meete to be made knowne to the honour of that God who bestowed those excellent endowments upon her and also injurie to those that knew her I doe not feare to be accounted a flatterer by any that heare mee and if any else shall imagine any such thing it may it must needs bee their envie in that they censure what they know not My feare is lest those that did know her should thinke that wrong is done to her by that little that shall be spoken for enough cannot be spoken of her You see here a blacke Herse before you a body in it deprived of life and within these few dayes animated by a divine soule now as we have just cause to beleeve glorified in heaven The body of Mistris I. R. in regard of Mariage being the Daughter of Master I. B. a Gentleman in C. It seemed that as God endowed her with excellent parts every way so shee had good education Shee was married to Master I. R. a grave prudent man that lived in the fore-named place who had beene twice Major there and long continued Alderman still relyed upon when any matter of employment was to bee performed and therefore oft chosen to be a Burgesse of the Parliament out of that Corporation In the beginning of her mariage shee attending to the Word as Lydia did God was pleased to open her heart and that specially under the Ministrie of a reverend Pastour now some yeares with God faithfull painfull powerfull in his place while he lived who yet liveth in the many workes hee published in his life time I say by his Ministrie being wrought upon she wonderfully improved the grace that was so wrought in her and used all meanes for the growth thereof by continuall applying her selfe to the publike ministrie of the Word conscionably on the Lords day frequently also on other dayes both in that Citie and in this also whither she came oftentimes upon sundrie imployments both while her Husband lived and likewise since she hath beene a Widow which hath beene about the space of five yeares Now I say as shee did thus helpe on the growth of grace by this publike meanes so also by private diligently reading the Word not contenting her selfe with a coursorie reading it over by taske as some doe but shee had a Paper booke by her and in reading would note downe particular points note speciall duties that belonged to such and such persons to Magistrates to Ministers to Husbands to Wives to Masters to servants Generall duties that belonged to Christians as they were Christians and that in such a manner as if so bee they had beene the Common places of some young Divine And here by the way let me tell you what my selfe have seene of an Alderman of this Citie some while dead who left behind him Volumes of bookes written with his owne hand his manner was first he would reade and after that he would walke up and downe and meditate upon what he read and write downe the summe and particulars of it as he conceived by which meanes hee made himselfe excellently skilfull as in Divine so in humane learning Thus did this grave Matron hereby she came to much knowledge shee gathered also many signes whereby she had evidence of the truth of grace and
assurance that the sting of Death is plucked out that Gods wrath is appeased that sinne is pardoned that Heaven gate is opened whence shall wee fetch these but from the Scripture the directions for a holy life which is the best preparation for Death where shall we find them but in the Scripture Here then we see is a Caveat to all that have no will nor desire to be acquainted with the Scripture Divers thinke they should have done well enough though wee had no such Booke as we call the word of God To bee a Scripture-man is a by-word a reproach a matter of disgrace and sooner will men listen to some idle Pamphlet then to a matter of Scripture Well beguile not your soules with these vaine conceipts with your Popish and carnall imaginations I say and testifie from this place that that man or woman which careth not to be taught out of Gods booke cannot die like a Christian Who can teach thee the way to dye well but God And where doth God teach but in the Scripture If our thoughts of Death if our provision and preparation for Death be not warranted and guided by Gods word it is all in vaine Lord saith Simeon my desire of dissolution is according to thy Word my care to be prepared hath beene ordered by thy Word hee cannot die with comfort that cannot make the like profession And this may serve for the next generall part the the ground of this desire and preparation for Death it is Gods word Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart according to thy Word The third and last part followes the nature and qualitie of the death of the Righteous A departure in peace or a peaceable dismission Here are two things first a dismission secondly a dismission accompanied with peace The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated Let thy servant depart may well be Englished thus Let thy servant loose Lord free mee enlarge mee set mee at libertie Hence wee learne that The servants of God doe by Death receive a finall discharge from all manner of miserie This is evident out of the force of the phrase here used Simeon knew that so long as hee lived his soule was as it were imprisoned in his body and in it hee was held in bondage under the remnants of Originall corruption subject to the assaults and temptations of Satan in continuall and daily possibilitie to trespasse and sinne against God beside other afflictions and grievances in the body and estate but hee had withall this knowledge and understanding of the nature of Death that it was an enlargement to the soule and a freeing of it utterly and finally from all those and the like incumbrances The same may be gathered from the phrase used by Saint Paul I desire saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bee dissolved and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read the time of my departure the words shew that there comes a liberty by death to the soules of Gods servants The phrase that Saint Peter useth is worthy our observation for this purpose First hee tearmes death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the laying downe of a burden and by that meanes the soule is lightned and eased Secondly he tearmes it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a going out from a place and condition of hardship The second booke of Moses which relates the departure of the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage hath the same name Exodus As for the point it selfe namely that the death of the Righteous is to them a discharge from all miserie the Scripture beares witnesse to it Blessed said he are the dead which die in the Lord even so saith the spirit that they may rest from their labours As long as they live here they are diversly troubled when they die their labours are at an end and they are received into rest Saint Iohn tells us that in his vision he saw the soules of them that were slaine lye under the Altar Now the Altar in the time of the Law was a place of refuge and safetie and thence it appeares that by death the servants of God are eft-soones received into a place of holy securitie where there is no expectation of any further miserie They are said to be received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into Abrahams bosome into the fellowship of the same happinesse with Abraham the Father of all true beleevers The Doctrine in the first place makes against those of the Church of Rome which maintaine a place of torment even for the servants of God after this life where they must bee tryed for a time before they can enter into Rest and happinesse This place they terme Purgatorie the torment here they hold to bee unspeakable and farre surpassing any torment which the wit of man is able to devise But this place among others is sufficient to overthrow this dotage for how were death to the Righteous a dismission a loosing a freedome from miserie if there followed after it a torment of farre greater extremitie then at any time before was ever tasted of So that the death of the servants of God being as I have proved it to bee an enlargement from misery certainly the soule is not bound in any new Prison whence it must expect and await and pray for a second dismission In the next place this Doctrine makes much for the comfort of Gods servants the face of Death to the wicked is very dreadfull the day of it is to them the beginning of sorrowes their soules are instantly arrested by the damned spirits and kept in everlasting chaines of darknesse but to those that are the servants of God it is otherwise I may by way of allusion to the phrase of my Text compare their day unto that which happened unto Ioseph in which hee was brought out of prison to bee Ruler over all the land of Egypt So is their death unto them a day of Bailement out of prison a day in which all teares shall be wiped away In which they shall have beauty for ashes and the oyle of gladnesse for the spirit of heavinesse and the long white robes of Christs Righteousnesse by which they shall be presented blamelesse unto God That day shall be to them even as was the day of escape to the Jewes a feast and a good day in which they shall see God as hee is and know him as they are knowne of him But hapily thou maist say how shall I know that the day of Death is the day of dissolution and this kind of dismission A very necessary quaere indeed this is for every man almost is ready to challenge to himselfe a part of this happinesse and it is a matter presumed upon by many which shall never enjoy it I will therefore give you one certaine marke by which wee may know assuredly that the day of our death shall be to us a day of enlargement and of finall discharge
wee have sinnes enough to bring us all thither God grant they bee not so violent and full of ominous precipitations that they portend our sudden ruine portend it they do but O nullam sit in omnia c. I am loath to bee redious Hee should not be tedious that reades a lecture of mortalitie How many in the world since this Sermon first began have made an experiment and proofe of this truth of this sentence that man is mortall and those spectacles are but examples of this truth they come to their period before my speech My speech my selfe and all that heare me all that breath in this ayre must follow It hath beene said wee live to die give me leave a little to invert it let us liue to live live the life of grace that we may live the life of glory and then though we doe die let us never feare it we shall rise from the dead againe and live with our God out of the reach of the dead for ever and ever So much for the Text at this time To declare unto you the cause of this present assembly would be altogether superfluous the dumbe oratorie of that silent object doth give you to understand in a language sufficiently intelligible that we are now met to performe the last rites and dutie that we owe to the memorie of our deare Sister here before us And Christian charitie hath beene so powerfull in all ages that it hath beene retained as a pious and laudable custome at Funerall solemnities to adorne the dead with the deserved praises of their life not for any pompe or vaine-glorious ostentation but that Gods glorie here may bee for ever magnified by whose grace they have beene enabled to fight a good fight and that the surviving may be encouraged to runne the same course when they behold them discharged of this tedious combat and crowned with a crowne of glory and immortalitie This Sister of ours was borne in this parish and hath lived in it some thirtie foure yeares or there-about eighteene yeares a single woman and sixteene yeares a married Wife of whom though upon my owne knowledge I can speake but little yet having credible information from others with whom she had long and private intimacie of many yeares acquaintance I must and will speake That which I told you was recorded of Rachel that shee was fruitfull in procreation of Children may in a great measure bee spoken of her for if the Scripture account bearing but of two children fruite certainly it will make an extraordinarie fruite in bearing of twelve which shee did It is a certaine token of a true and faithfull servant of God to frequent his house to pray unto him to praise him in his Church earnestly to labour to bee instructed in his will out of his Word then and there read and preached to them all which evidences of a good Christian were found in this our Sister For her constant comming to Church I my selfe can now speake upon my owne knowledge I have seriously and strictly examined my selfe and I professe ingenously before God that knowes my heart and you that heare me speeke that I cannot call to mind that ever she mist comming to Church twice a Sabbath day since I came which I would be heartily glad I could speake as well of others of this Parish as of her For some of them have got such a fisking tricke up and downe to goe to other Churches as if there were no rellishable food at their owne that I feare at the last they will come to none at all I pray God they amend this fault It was a vertue in her that deserved commendation and it is a vice in them that deserves reprehension When shee was in Gods house shee did not as too too many doe imploy her time in sleeping or some such ill course but I ever observed her to listen very diligently and attentively to what was delivered for the nourishing of her soule I confesse I doe not remember that ever I saw her take any notes in the Church of Sermons that were preached for it seemes shee did it when she came home for since her death going to her house accidentally I met with a booke of hers wherein shee had written many texts of Scripture with notes the day when they were preached and the persons by whom most of those which I have preached I saw and perused and others of stangers that I my selfe have heard these qualities are not to be past over in silence but are worthy of your serious imitation Neither did she thinke it fit barely to set them downe for her owne instruction only but what she heard upon the Sabbath day that she constantly practised upon the weeke dayes Shee catechised her children in those points spending some time in trayning them up in the knowledge of God and putting them in mind of their dutie to him in whom wee live and move and have our being by repeating Gods word delivered by hearing them reade Gods word printed and by singing Psalmes and hymnes and spirituall songs That she was a most provident and carefull Wife and a most indulgent and loving Mother all that knew her can best testifie and some of them have informed me And this let me speake and I have it from the mouth of some that perhaps did not thinke I would have mentioned it at this time and would have had it concealed but for reasons best knowne to my selfe I hold it very fit to relate shee was ever held to be of a most sweet nature and of a very loving disposition that shee was very charitable and inclined to relieve the poore It is likewise testified of her she was liberall alway but more liberall now then usually having had a consideration of the hard and needie times to which end as if shee had prognosticated her owne death shee layd by some money according to that abilitie that God had blessed her with for the reliefe of the poore Let no man censure me for speaking these things I doe for if I should not have given her her just and deserved praises some that now heare me and knew her from her cradle might justly have censured me for too much remisnesse Thus for her life As for her death I can say little touching it It pleased God not to giue her any long time of sicknesse but to take her away though not unprepared yet on a sudden with a short warning When her bitter pangs first came upon her she called to her Husband and desired him to joyne with her in hearty prayer to Almightie God that he would bee graciously pleased to extend his mercie towards her that hee would be pleased to let her live longer that she might repent of her sinnes and beg mercie at his hands for them that shee might amend her life And if he would not grant this for her yet for those many poore Children that were young that she was to leave behind her
be presented before Gods severe Judgement-seat with Usurie in thy baggs with bribes and oppression in thy hands with a scumme of holinesse in thy mind with uncleannesse in thy members with drunkennesse in thy mouth with swearing in thy tongue O Lord I tremble to thinke of it Fourthly the soule when it is once gone by Death can never be recovered any more the tree may be cut and that may grow againe the shippe may be lost and the wealth laboured up againe but if the glasse be broken in peeces it cannot bee made whole againe the soule of man is but one and the losse of that one is the losse of it for ever when death hath closed up thy eyes thou shalt never have opportunitie to pray more to weepe more to humble thy selfe more to fast more Never any Prophet or Apostle shall come unto thee in the Name of God more after death all the Ordinances cease unto thee for ever and all the space of returning shall cease unto thee for ever thou shalt not lye a fewyeares in flames of wrath and then get leave to come out and take a better course O no if once there then for ever there this life is the time of mercy and space of repentance but when Death shall deliver thee up to be judged by the Lord thou must stand for ever to his sentence therefore as Christ spake Agree with thine adversary while thou art in the way lest the Iudge deliver thee to the officer and hee cast thee into prison I tell thee thou shalt not depart thence till thou hast paid the last mite Luk. 12. 58. And get oyle into your lampes before the doore be shut Fiftly consider it will be as much as thou canst doe to doe the worke of Death when Death doth come therefore prepare and get all thy other worke done before For my Beloved consider three things First Conscience usually is most active at the time of death a man that could withstand and silence it in his life yet when hee comes to dye he shall heare his voyce and perhaps not bee able to stand under the bitter inditements and manifold accusations of it then it will spread the booke of thy life before thee and then and there thou shalt see thy sinnes as gastly presented as if they were so many wounds newly made Secondly thy patience will bee tryed with varietie of paine interruption of sleepe every place will be a thorne to thee and every action a burden Thirdly thy faith may be tryed to the utmost if thou lookest to thy Wife her teares may trouble thee if to thy Children their cryes may perplexe thee ifto thy friends they may bee discomforters to thee and will Satan let thee alone all this while will he let him lye downe in comfort who would not scarce let him live an houre in peace oh what a victory would it be if hee could at the last make thee cast a way thy confidence it is true he cannotattaine it but he may desperately attempt it Why brethren who knoweth the power of those sharpe temptations which may then beset him Verily all the holinesse which we have attained already all the duties we have performed already we may then looke on them with teares and cry out O why no sooner why no better why no more then all the strength of thy faith will be little enough to support thee Will there then be a change befall even all the sonnes of men Then to make some Use and Application of what hath beene said to ourselves First build no Tabernacls here Wee have here no abiding Citie And brethren saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 7. 29 30 31. The time is short it remaines that they that have wives bee as if they had none and they that weepe as though they wept not and they that â—…oyce as though they rejoyced not c. Why this thirst for riches there will bee a change why this unwearied seeking after the things of this life as if thy soule were to goe into a barne or a bagge and there tumble it selfe for ever Thou foole this night may thy soule bee taken away and whose possessions shall then thy carefull and only gettings bee the glasse will be broken and all the wine will flye abroad though thou hast with much eagernesse grasped the world in this life â—…et in death thy hands must open themselves and let it goe thou must not hold the world above thy life nor thy life beyond the day of death no wee cannot alway have that which we desire wee must certainly part with what we most esteeme of Secondly what comfort is this to a good soule If wee had hope onely in this life saith Saint Paul wee of all men are most miserable 1 Cor. 15. Death is a happy change to a holy person First it is a change which shall put a period to all his changes in this life his outward condition how ofâ—… doth it change sometime by joy and sorrow sometime by comfort and miserie by health and sicknesse by abundance and want but when Death comes all sorrow shall flye away for ever thou shalt never bee more troubled with a sick body with a sad estate with common losses but the change of a temporall life shall set thee in a full and settled possession of an heavenly His inward condition how oft doth it change sometime free anon distressed now a sweet view of heaven anon darkned with feare now rejoycing in Christ anon buffeted with Sathan now blessing God for grace anon distracted with the insolent workings of remaining corruptions but when Death comes then comes a change of all this it will release thee for ever of sinne and Sathan after death sinne shall be a burden no more and Sathan shall be a tempter no longer but thou shalt be as happy as thou canst desire and shalt enjoy thy God and thy Christ without feare or trouble in glory in felicitie in eternity all the cruell insolences of tyrants shall come short of thy soule thou shalt be above their malice and beyond thy selfe Secondly it is a change and no worse then a change just as Ioseph changed his garments and went into Pharaoh so thou shalt put off thy body and goe into glory put off thy mortality and goe into immortalitie Oh whatterrour to wicked men a day of change will befall them Why didst thou say Oh David there is no bands in their death and they are not in changes like other men Verily I should have checked thee hadst thou not recanted it presently thy selfe Psal. 73. 4. 17. 18. 19. and reported it to us that they are set in slipperie places and are brought into desolation and cast down into destruction in a moment and utterly consumed with terrour Good Lord what a change is that to them they judged with insolent and unrighteous judgement the Children of God now but death will change this the unjust steward
shall be called to an account and he that beat his fellow servant shall bee eternally judged by a righteous God and their honour shall sincke in the dust neither shall their riches deliver them from wrath but they shall see him whom they have peirced and persecuted and shall not be able to escape his presence A dismall thing will this bee that a man shall have his honour die and the great God put disgrace upon him a dismall change indeed when a man shall see all his power changed into impotencie his pleasures into torment and wrath put upon his soule when God shall separate thee from his presence thou shalt not have a drop of ease nor any friend to assist thee nor any hope of comfort thou shalt bee stript of them all and in a moment shall a change of all this bee O considr this if there be any here that forget God least he teare you in peeces and there bee none to helpe remember and consider your latter end and applie your hearts to wisedome Last of all shall there be a change that shall befall every sonne of man then Oh that this people were wise as Moses sayth that they would remember their latter end all the dayes of our appointed time to waite till our change come What do you thinke of servants to whom you had committed servile employments till you came home and if when you come home they were absent and you found one in the street drunke another in a chamber with a strumpet how would you take this Brethren thinke upon it we are Gods servants or should bee two things are imposed upon us one to honour God another to save our owne soules if hee finde us doing the workes of the Divell and the flesh and finde us in the workes of the World how will hee take this Come saith God I have lent you a life thus many years I told you what you should be and what you should doe and what have you beene doing all this life what have your workes been what courses have you taken are these the fruits of your waies to have a life runne over with ignorance with prophanesse c. Alas when a man at that time shall have nothing to say but Lord I have lived in such a sin all my dayes I have fulfilled my owne desires thou hast set mee in this World and I have laboured to get a great estate all my dayes Another may say I have spent my time in drunken societie c. What will God say to these men are these the endings of thy life the fruits of thy opportunities where is the repentance I called for at thy hands where is that godly sorrow that I called for for the sins of thy life did not I send thee into the world for this end to get Grace to get Faith to make up thy accounts with mee thy God and hast thou no regard to it Well thou hast beene foolish inconsiderate for the time that is past yet now understand that a day of change will befall thee O let us be perswaded I beseech you bee perswaded to it in this our day to know the things that concerne our peace whilest it is called to day not to harden our hearts whilest it is called to day not to deferre our repentance thou art not assured of any more time then present Death may meet with thee as thou settest in thy seat as thou goest out of the Church doore and thou knowest thy heart hath beene wicked oh why wilt thou set thy eternall estate upon so small a point as it were the cast of a Die Remember what Daniel sayd to Nebuchadnezar let it have acceptance with thee breake off thy sinnes by repentance c. Seing we must dye and appeare before the judgement seate of God what manner of persons ought we to bee in all holinesse of life and conversation as soone as we are we begin to sinne and as soone as wee are wee begin to dye let us looke upon our account and bee faithfull to our soules perhaps thy accounts are yet to make oh bee sure to let it bee the first thing thou doest and give thy selfe no rest till thou hast done it and when thou hast done this labour to cleare it with the bloud of Christ labour by humble confession and hearty repentance to turne unto the Lord goe on in a holy course and then assuredly wee shall live with joy and dye with peace when wee can get grace in our soules sorrow for our sins newnesse in our natures reformation in our lives uprightnes in our waies faith in Christ a discharge from God peace of conscience oh what a happie day the day of death will bee to our Soules FINIS ἙΞΑΛΈΞΙΟΠHEXALEXIUM OR SIX CORDIALS TO STRENGTHEN THE HEART OF EVERY FAITHFVLL CHRISTIAN AGAINST THE TERROURS OF DEATH By DANIEL FEATLEY D. D. Chaplaine to his sacred Majestie Philip. 1. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is to me life and death is to me advantage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Immortall descended into a single combate with Death and gave Death a deaths-wound by his death Greek Liturg. LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Nicolas Bourne 1639. ITER NOVISSIMUM OR MAN HIS LAST PROGRESSE A SERMON PREACHED At the Funerall of the Right Worshipfull Sir THOMAS THINNE Knight SERMON XLI ECCLES 12. 5. Man goeth to his long home and the Mourners goe about the streetes ALthough I might in the Kings King Solomons name command yet I will rather in the Preachers his other style humbly entreate your religious attention to the last Scene and Catastrophe of mans life consisting of two Acts and those very short 1 The dead his passe he goeth c. 2 The Mourners march they goe about c. Whereas the whole Scripture is a Volumne of divine Sermons and the Authour of every booke a Preacher and every Chapter a lesson and every verse and piece of a verse a Text. Gregorie Nysscen reasonably demands why this Book which treateth throughout of the vanity of the world and miserie of man is intituled The booke of the Preacher To passe by other answers rendred by him and others not so pertinent to our present purpose I conceive this title of the Preacher is in speciall set over this booke to intimate unto us that according to the Argument thereof there is no Doctrine so fit for all Preachers to teach and all hearers to learne as the vanitie of the creature and the emptinesse of all earthly delights and comforts And in very deed there is no meditation more serious then upon the vanitie of the world no consideration more seasonable then of the brevitie and uncertainty of time it selfe no knowledge more wholesome then of the diseases of the mind no contemplation more divine then of humane miserie and frailtie Which though we reade in the inscription of every stone see in the fall of every leafe here in the knole of every bell taste
returneth to her Mothers house the earth but the soule the Bridegroome to his Fathers house the Father of 〈◊〉 in Heaven as both their gests are set forth in this chapter verse 7. the dust returnes to the earth as it was and the spirit to God that gave iâ—… But in the evening of the World at that dreadfull night after which the Angell swore there should bee no more day or time here the soule is given by God to the bodie againe and then the marriage is consummated and both for ever fast coupled and wedded for better for worse to runne one everlasting fortune and to participate either eternall joyes or torments together Thus man is brought to his long home or as the Seventy and Saint Ierome render the Hebrew his house of eternitie and the mourners go about the streets here is a short reckoning of all mankinde like to that of the Psalmist who alluding to the name of the two Patriarches sayth Coll ADAM ABEL All men are altogether vanitie so here upon the foot of the account in Bonaventâ—…res casting all appeare wretched and miserable describitur miseria mortis in morientibus compatientibus all are either dead corpses or sad mourners corpses alreadie dead or mourners for the dead and their courses and motions are two 1 Straite man goeth c. 2 Circular mourners goe about The dead goe directly to their long home the living fetch a compasse and round about the termini of which their motions shall bee the bounds of my discourse at this present Wherein that you may the better discerne my passage from point to point I will set up sixe Posts or standings 1 The Scope 2 Coherence 3 Sense 4 Parts 5 Doctrine 6 Use. The Scope will give light to the Coherence the Coherence to the Sense the Sense to the Parts the Parts to the Doctrine the Doctrine to the Use. Wherefore I humbly entreate the assistance of Gods Spirit with the intention of yours whil'st in unfolding this rich peece of Arras I shall point with the finger to 1 The maine Scope 2 The right Coherence 3 The litterall Sense 4 The naturall Division 5 The generall Doctrine 6 The speciall application of this parcell of holy Scripture First the Scope Although all other Canonicall bookes of this old and new Testament were read in the Church yet as Gregorie Nyssen acutely observes this booke alone is intituled Ecclesiastes the Preacher or Church-man because this alone in a manner tendeth wholy to Ecclesiasticall politie or such a kinde of life or conversation as becometh a Preacher or Church-man For the prime scope of this booke is to stirre up all religious mindes to set forth towards Heaven betimes in the morning of our dayes Chap. 12. verse 1. Remember thy Creatour in the dayes of thy youth to enter speedily into a strict course of holinesse which will bring us to eternall happinesse to dedicate to God and his service the prime in both senses that is the first and best part of our time For as in a glasse of distilled water the purest and thinnest first runneth out and nothing but lees and mouther at the last so it is in our time and age Optima queque dies miseries mortalibus â—…vi prima fluit Our best dayes first runne and our worst at the last And shall wee offer that indignitie to the Divine Majestie as to offer him the Devills leavings florem aetat is 〈◊〉 consecrâ—…re faecem Deo reservarâ—… to consecrate the toppe to the Devill and the bottome to God feed the flesh with the flower and the spirit with the 〈◊〉 serve the world with our strength and our Creatour with ouâ—… weaknesse give up our lusty and able members as weapons 〈◊〉 sâ—…nne and our feeble and weake to righteousnesse Will God accept the blinde and the lame the leane and the withered for a sacrifice How can we remember our Creatour in the dayes of our age when our memorie and all other faculties of the soule are decaied How shall wee beare Christs yoake when the Grashopper is a burthen unto us when wee are not able to beare our selves but bow under the sole waight of age What delight can wee take in Gods service when care and feare and sorrow and paine and manifold infirmities and diseases wholy possesse the heart and dead all the vitall motions and lively affections thereof Old men are a kinde of Antipodes to young men it is evening with them when it is morning with these it is Autumne in their bodies when it is Spring in these the Spring of the yeare to decrepâ—…t old men is as the Fall Summer is Winter to them and Winter death it is no pleasure to them to see the Almond-tree flourish which is the Prognosticatour of the Spring or the Grashopper leape and sing the Preludium of Summer for they now minde not the Almond-tree but the Cypresse nor thinke of the Grashopper but of the worme because they are far on in their way to their long home and the mourners are already in the streets marshalling as it were their troops and setting all in equipage for their funerall no dilectable objects affect their dull and dying sences but are rather grievous unto them as the Sunne and Raine are to old stumpes of trees which make them not spring againe but rot them rather and dispose them to putrifaction And so I have past the first and am come to the second Post or standing The right Coherence When they shall be afrayd of that which is high and feare shall be in the way and the Almod-tree shall flourish and the Grashoper shall bee a burthen and desire shall faile because man goeth to his long home If this Consequence be firme the Coherence must needs bee good but if this bee infirme and lame that must needes bee out of joynt let us then consider of the Consequence Surely Aristotle seemeth to bee of another minde whose observation it is old men that have their foot on Deaths threshold would then draw backe their legge if they could and at the very instant of their dissolution are most desirous of the continuance of their life and seeing the pleasures of sâ—…e like the Apples of Tantaâ—… running away from them they catch at them the more grâ—…dily for want is the 〈◊〉 one of dâ—…ire and experience offereth us many instances of old men in whâ—… Saint 〈◊〉 growes young againe who according to the corruption of nature which Saint Austin bewaileth with teares â—…alunt libidiâ—…em expleri quam exâ—…gui they are so faâ—…re from having no lust or desire of pleasures as being cloyed there with that they are more insatiable in them then in youth the flesh in them is like the Peacockes quae â—…ctarecrudescit which after it is sod in time will grow raw again so in them after mortification by diseases and age it reviveth Sophocles the Heathen Poet might passe for a Saint in comparison of them for hee
print that the Apostles and Evangelists had no command from God to write their Gospells or Epistles but that they wrote upon the entreatie of some friends or some emergent occasions Were there no other Text in all the holy Scriptures but this nor word in this Text but this one Write it were alone sufficient to convince him of grosse ignorance if not rathâ—…r giving the lye to his own knowledge But yet farther rather to confound him with shame then convince him with evidence doth not the Apostle affirme in generall of the whole Scripture that it is given by Divine insâ—…iration and what is inspiring but a kinde of dictating to all the Pen-men of the holy Ghost and doth not hee that dictateth to another both tell him what hee shall write and bid him write it Besides in the 1. of the Apocalypse vers 10. 11. Saint Iohn heard a great voyce as of a trumpet saying I am Alpha and Omega the first and the last and what thou seest write in a Booke Thirdly besides the generall command of committing the whole Word of God to writing and a speciall mandate for the writing the Apocâ—…lypse wee have a singular precept for the writing the precise words of this Text and must not that needs bee thrice worthy our observation which is written by a threefold command and what is that Blessed are the dead If the dead are blessed the dead are for â—…n argument à tertio adjacentâ—… ad secundum ever holdeth if the teaâ—…es bee taken in the proper sense The Metaphisicks demonstraâ—… non entis nullus esse affectiones that such things as have no existence have no qualities nor reall attributes but blessednesse is here attributed to the dead the dead therefore are And the Philosopher who being demanded whether the living or the dead were more in number answered that doubtlesse the living quia mortui ne sunt quidem because the dead were not to bee reckoned upon inregard now they are not at all spake without booke and uttered that which is most false as wee learne from the mouth of Truth himselfe who not onely affirmeth that the dead are but that they are also living though dead to this World yet not to the World to come dead to men but not dead to God have yee not read sayth our Saviour what is spoken unto you by God saying I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaack and the God of Iacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living for all live to him but are all the dead blessed the Text answereth all the dead that die in the Lord That dye in the Lord Yea but you will say those that are already dead cannot dye what then is the meaning of this phrase the dead that dye in the Lord Saint Ambrose answereth hee that is dead alreadie cannot dye in the same sense that hee is dead but hee that is alreadie dead in one sense may bee sayd to dye in another hee that is dead to the World as all the regenerated who have mortified the deeds of the flesh may afterwards dye to the bodye and so dye in the Lord that is breathe out his soule into the hands of the Lord. This is sound Divinitie and a true proposition but no true exposition of this place in which the latter seemeth to bee a limitation of the former as God is neare to all that call upon him yea all that call upon him faithfully so here blessed are the dead what all dead howsoever they dye no but all that dye in the Lord. There is much varietie among the interpreters about the interpretation of this phrase to dye in the Lord. Some will have the meaning thereof to bee those that dye for the Christian faith and seale the truth thereof with their bloud And they alleage for themselves first paralell texts of Scripture wherein the preposition in is put for pro for as Gen. 18. 13. omnes in tâ—… benedicentur all Nations shall bee blessed in thee that is for thee and in thy seed that is â—…orthy seed and Gen. 28. 18. servivi Berachel word for word I served in Rachel that is for Rachel Next they alleage the anteâ—…edents together with the occasion of these words verse 12. here is the patience of the Saints here are they that keepe the Commandements of God and the faith of Iesus Christ and truly the maine scope of the Text seemeth to bee to arme the godly with patience and to encourage them to fight against the Beast upon whom before God execute vengeance if it so fall out that many of Gods faithfull servants loose their lives Yet that none should be dismayed therewith because all that so dye are blessed for they exchange a temporall life in this World for an eternall in another Thirdly say they it cannot bee well conceived how any can dye in Domino in the Lord who is the Lord of life if wee take the preposition in the proper sence for though in the naturall bodie a member may bee cut off and dye the head being alive yet it is not so in the mysticall bodie of Christ no true Member thereof can bee cut off much lesse dye while it continues in that bodie by dying in the Lord therefore wee must understand dying for the Lord so they Others will have the words not to bee restrained to Martyrs onely but to belong to all that die in the feare of God and the faith of Christ. And they alleage for themselves also a paralell Text 1 Cor. 15. 18. where to fall a sleepe in the Lord is spoken generally of all true beleevers departing this life Besides Saint Bernard and other of the Auncients apparantly distinguish these phrases mori in Domino mori propter Dominum to dye in the Lord and to dye for the Lord mori pro Domino martyrum est mori in Domino omnium confessorum si beati qui in Domino moriuntur quanto magis qui pro Domino moriuntur to dye for the Lord is the glory of martyrs but to dye in the Lord the glory of all Confessors if they are happy who dye in the Lord how much more they that dye for the Lord Thirdly the reward here promised is common to all beleevers and not peculiar to the Martyrs for all true beleevers when they dye rest from their labours and their workes follow them If the Spirit had meant Martyrs onely hee would rather have sayd they have ease from their torments then rest from their labours and their trophies and victories follow them All that dye for the Lord dye also in the Lord but all that dye in the Lord doe not necessarily dye for the Lord wee denie not that the Martyrs have the greatest share in this blessednesse but all Confessours have their partsalso the Martyrs Crowne is beset with a Rubie or some richer jewell then ordinary their Garland hath a flower or two more in it to
shee cannot want eithera sweet memoriall of her vertues in the booke of God or a stately Monument in the Church and in your hearts too Happily some may scoffe and some may doubt as though this commendation flew too high or out of sight To whom I shall briefly answer both For the former It is reported of two great Tragedians learned and famous in their time Sophocles and Euripides Euripides presented upon the Scaene all naughty women and Sophocles presented all vertuous women and the ordinary observation of the wits of the times was as men are apt to bee vainly witted in these things they thought that Euripides that presented them bad presented women as they were and Sophocles that presented them good presented them as they should bee If I had nothing else to say to the scoffes of any but only this I suppose it would be sufficient I doe beleeve fully that I have presented her as she was but howsoever you can take no hurt if you doe but consider that it is spoken as what you should be I am sure and I know I have presented what you should be And for any that shall doubt yet that it may seeme too high I would desire them only to consider this I describe in the Text the very temper and character of one that is truly godly such as I conceive her to have beene and the truth is there is none that is truly godly but in some degree or measure must attaine and doe attaine to participate in a conformitie with this Character and therefore I have neither done you as I conceive any wrong and yet done her right too And to draw to an end She hath left this honour behind her that she lived beloved and died desired And who is there here almost that suffereth not a losse in her Her Husband hath lost a loving wife that honoured him highly Her children have lost a loving Mother that loved them tenderly that tendered them duly Her servants have lost a loving Mistris that governed them gently and was every way beneficiall to them Her Brothers and Sisters have lost a loving Sister that answered them in their loves sweetly Her Neighbours have lost a loving neigbour full of courtesie to the rich full of charitie to the poore And my selfe have lost I hope there is none here so weake to suspect that I blast the living to blazon the praise of the dead or that I doe robbe or strippe the living to cloath the dead with their spoyles but I thinke I may truly say I have lost as truly and cordially a loving friend as any shee hath left bebehind though I esteeme many her Peeres and I cannot complaine of any But to end all Her gaine in Christ countervaileth and sweetneth all our losses Shee was a disciple of Love shee loved her Lord and loved all his Saints and servants and therefore I doubt not that she was a beloved disciple and resteth in the bosome of her Love where not to disquiet her happinesse and detaine your patience any longer I shall leave her in that blessed place and commend you to the blessing of God FINIS THE EXPECTATION OF CHRISTS COMMING OR A MOTIVE TO A GODLY CONVERSATION 2 THESSAL 4. 16. For the Lord himselfe shall descend from heaven c. 2 PET. 3. 14. Wherefore beloved seeing that yee looke for such things be diligent that yee may bee found of him in peace without spot and blamelesse LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. THE EXPECTATION OF CHRISTS COMMING OR A MOTIVE TO A HOLY CONVERSATION SERMON XVI PHIL. 3. 20 21. For our conversation is in heaven from whence wee looke for the Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ. Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himselfe IN the seventh verse of this Chapter the blessed Apostle Saint Paul exhorteth the Philippians to bee followers together of him and to marke them which walke so as they had him for an ensample And that hee might the better direct them in the dutie the imitation of his ensample he sheweth that there is a great difference betweene others that pretended themselves to be the Apostles of Christ and indeed were not and himselfe Many saith he walke of whom I have told you often and now tell you weeping that they are the enemies of the crosse of Christ whose end is destruction whose God is their belly and whose glory is their shame who mind earthly things These ensamples he would have them to avoide follow not such but be yee followers of us for our conversation is in heaven from whence we looke for the Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ c. and follow those which walke so as yee have us for an ensample This is the example he would have them imitate In the words you have these things considerable First What the conversation of these men was whom the Apostle would have the Philipians to follow Their conversation was a heavenly conversation Our conversation is in heaven Secondly the reason or incouragement that they had to this imitation to walke so heavenly while they were on earth because from thence we looke for a Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ. Thirdly the benefit by that Saviour whom they looke for from heaven Hee shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like to his glorious body Fourthly the meanes by which this great worke shall bee effected According to the working whereby hee is able to subdue all things unto himselfe For the first to touch it only in a word there is from that these two Observations clearely arising First That there is a heavenly conversation of the Saints on earth Secondly That while they are on earth they are now stated in heaven Our conversation is in heaven Hee saith not only it shall bee in heaven though there it shall be perfected but it is now in heaven in regard of our present state and possession Concerning the first that the Saints on earth have a heavenly conversation You must know that the word here Politeuma translated conversation signifieth such a course of life and of traffique as is in Cities and Corporations where many are knit and united together in one common societie in one common freedome Our conversation is in heaven that is we have a kind of heavenly traffique a heavenly trade while we are upon earth There are divers things wherein there is an agreement between the cariages and conditions of men in Cities and Societies here on earth and this of the Saints of God that have their conversations in heaven I will only in briefe run them over this being not the thing that I purposely ayme at First in Cities and Corporations there is a Register wherein the names of the Freemen are inrolled So in heaven also there is a Register a certaine booke