they not dead and what is their epitaph but they lived and dyed Gen. 5. Gen. 5. Gen. 47.9 To summe up all in one and to make this one serve for all Iacob is an hundred and thirty years old for so you see it registred in Gods book yet now being demanded to tell his age he answers but Dayes and his dayes are but Few how should they be many that now are gone already these few dayes they have been Scribit in marmore laesus 2. And as time past tells our dayes so it counts all our miseseries who cannot remember the miseries he doth suffer The poor the sick the banished the imprisoned the traveller the souldier every one can write a Chronicle of his life and make up large volumes of their severall changes What is the history of the Bible but an holy brief Chronicle of the Saints grievous sufferings See the miseries of the Patriarchs described in the books of Moses see the warres of the Israelites set down in the books of Ioshua see the afflictions of David in the books of Samuel Ezra Nehemiah Esther Iob every one hath a book of their severall calamities and if all our miseries were but thus abrevitaed I suppose the world would not contain the books that should be written There is no man so cunning to know his future condition but for those things which have been every one can reade them Look then beloved at the time now past and will you not say with Iacob your dayes have been evil Evil for your sinnes and evil for your sufferings if you live more dayes what do you but increase more evils the just man sinnes seven times a day and every one of us perhaps seventy times seven times do we thus multiply sins and think we to subract our sorrows think but of those storms that already have gone over our heads famines sores sicknesses plagues have we not seen many seasons unseasonable because we could find no season to repentance Our Springs have been graves rather then cradles our Summers have not shot up but withered our grasse our Autumns have took away the flocks of our sheep and for our latest Harvest the heavens themselves have not ceased weeping for us that never yet found time to weep for our selves And as this procured the famine so famine ushered the pestilence O the miseries miserable that at this time fell upon us Were not our houses infected our towns depopulated our gardens made our graves and many a grave a bed to lodge in it a whole family Alas what an hideous noise was heard about us In every Church bells towling in every hamlet some dying in every street men watching in every place every where wailing and weeping or groning and dying These are the evils that have been and how should we forget them that have once seen them with our eyes Call to mind time past Recole primordia Bern. was the rule of Bernard what better rule have we to square our lives then the remembrance of those evils which our lives have suffered Look back then with Iacob and we have good reason to redeem the time past because our dayes have been evil 2. But there is yet another reason why these few evill dayes have been As the time past is best known to Iacob so the life of Iacob is but as the time past Go to now saith St. Iames ye that say to day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain and yet ye cannot tell what shall be to morrow James 4.13 James 4.13 It is a meer presumption to boast of the time to come can any man say he will live til to morrow look back ye that trust to this staff of Egypt there is no man can assure you of this day Man knoweth not his time saith the Preacher Eccles. 9.12 Eccles 9.12 As near as it is to night it may be before evening some one of us may be dead and cold and fitter to lodge in our graves under earth then in our beds above it nay assure your selves our life is of no long continuance what speak we of to morrow or this day we are not sure of that least of times division a very hour watch therefore saith our Saviour and will you know the reason for ye know neither the day nor the hour when the Sonne of man will come Matth. 25.13 Matth. 25.13 The man with ten or twenty dishes set before him on his table when he hath full intelligence that in one of them is poyson will he not refuse all lest in eating of any be runne upon the hazard of his life What is our life but a few houres and in one of them death must needs come watch then for the hour is at hand and we know not how soon it will seiz upon us This hour the breath thou drawest may be thy infection this hour the bread thou eatest may be thy poyson this hour the cup thou tastest may be that cup that must not passe from thee But what speak we of this hour seeing it is come and gone The sweetest ditty that Moses sung were his briefs and semibriefs of life and what is it but a watch Psalme 90.4 Psal 90.4 what is it but a sleep Psalme 90.5 Psal 90.5 we watch when it is dark we sleep when it is night if then our life be no more but a night-work what is truer then this wonder our life is done our dayes they have been You may think we go farre to prove so strange a paradox yet Job goes further what are we but of yesterday for our dayes upon earth are but a shadow Job 8.9 Job 8.9 See here the chronologie of mans frailtie we have a time to live and when is it think you not to morrow nor do day nor this hour nor last night it is as long since as yesterday it self Are not we strangely deceived What mean our plots and projects for the time to come why our life is done and we are now but dead men To speak properly In the midst of life we be in death our whole life being truly if not past yet as the time past that is gone and vanished The similitude or resemblance will runne in these respects the time past cannot be recalled suddenly is vanished And so is our life can we recall that which is fled away the the life that we led yesterday you see it is gone the life that we led last night it is past and done the life that we led this morning it is now a going nay it is gone as soon as we have spoken Nicodemus saying according to the flesh was true How can a man be born which is old can he enter into his mothers womb again and be born John 3.4 John 3.4 How should a man recall that is past can he receive again the soul once given and begin to live
goats severed asunder each from other Vse 1 And now see the parties thus summoned raised gathered severed is not here a world of men to be judged all in one day Multitudes multitudes in the valley of decision Joel 3 14. for the day of the Lord is neer in the valley of decision Ioel 3.14 Blessed God! what a multitude shall stands before thee all tongues all nations all people of the earth shall appear at once all we shall then behold each son of Adam and Adam our grand-father shall then see all his posterity Consider this high and low rich and poor one with another God is no accepter of persons Heark O beggar petitions are out of date and yet thou needest not fear thou shalt have justice this day all causes shall be heard and thou though a poor one must appear with others to receive thy sentence Heark O Farmer now are thy lives and leases together finished this day is the new harvest of thy Iudge who gathers his wheat into his garner Matth. 3.12 and burns up the chaffe in fire unquenchable no boon no bribe no prayers no tears can avail thy soul but as thou hast done so art thou sentenced at the first appearing Heark O Land-lord where is thy purchase to thee and thy heires for ever this day makes an end of all and happy were thy soul if thou hadst no better land then a barren rock to cover and shelter thee from the Iudges presence Heark O Captain vain now is the hope of man to be saved by the multitude of an host hadst thou command of all the armies on earth and hell yet couldest thou not resist the power of Heaven see the trump sounds and the alarum summons thee thou must appear Heark O Prince what is the crown and scepter against thunder the greatness of man when it comes to encounter with God is weakness and vanity Heark all the world Ecclus 40.3 4. From him that sitteth upon the glorious throne unto him that is beneath in earth and ashes from him that is cloathed in blue silk and weareth a crown even to him that is cloathed in simple linnen all must appear before him the Beggar Farmer Land-lord Captain King and Prince and every man when that day is come shall receive his rewards according to his works Vse 2 But O here is the misery Every man must appear but Every man will not think on it would you know the sign of that man which this day shall be blessed it is he and onely hee that again and again thinks on this day that Ierome-like meditates on this summons and resurrection and collection and separation Examine then your selves by this rule is your mind often carried to these objects soar you on high with the wings of faith and a sound eye to this hill why then you are right birds truly bred and not of the bastard brood I pray you mark it every cross and disgrace and slander and discountenance losse of goods disease of body or whatsoever calamity if you are the children of God and destined to sit at the right hand of our Saviour they will ever and anon be carrying your minds to those objects of Doomes-day And if you can but say that experimentally you find this true in your selves if ordinarily in your miseries or other times you think on this time of refreshing then be of good comfort for you are of the brides company and shall enter into the marriage-chamber to abide there there for ever But if you are destitute of these kinde of motions O then strive for these properties that are the inseparable breathings and movings of an holy heart sound mind and blessed person every day meditate that every man shall appear one day and receive his reward according to his works You see how we have followed the cause and wel-neer brought it to finall sentence the term is discovered the Iudge revealed the prisoners prepared and the next time we shall bring them to the bar to receive their rewards This time depart in peace and the God of peace keep your souls spotless without sin that you may be well prepared for this day of judgment According to his works VVEe have brought the prisoners to their triall and now to go on how should this triall be I answer not by faith but works by faith we are justified by works we are judged faith onely causeth but works onely manifest that we are just indeed Here then is the triall that every soul of man must undergo that day Works are the matter that must be first enquired of and is there any wicked man to receive his sentence let him never hope to be saved by anothers super-erogating the matter of enquiring is not aliena but sua not anothers but his works Or is there any good man on whom the smiling Iudge is ready to pronounce a blessed doom Let him never boast of meriting heaven by his just deservings see the reward given not propter but secundum as Gregory Greg. 1. in illa verba 7. Psal poenit Auditam fac mihi mane misericordiam tells us not for his works as if they were the cause but according to his works as being the best witnesses of his inward righteousness But the better to acquaint you with this triall there be two points of which especially we are to make inquiry First how all mens works shall be manifest to us Secondly how all mens works shall be examined by God 1. Of the manifestation of every mans work Revel 20.12 Iohn speaketh And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works Revel 20.12 God is said to have books not properly but figuratively all things are as certain and manifest to him as if he had registers in heaven to keep records of them Remember this O forgetfull you may commit add multiply your sins and yet run on score till they are grown so many that they are out of memory but God keeps them in a register and not one shall be forgotten there is a book and books and when all the dead shall stand before God to receive their sentence then must these books be opened That is the book of Gods memory Mans conscience Eternall life There is a book of Gods memory and herein are all the acts and monuments of all men whatsoever enrolled and registred A book of remembrance was written before God for them that feared the Lord and thought upon his name Malac. 3.16 Malach. 3.16 This is that which manifests all secrets whether mentall or actuall this is that which reveales all doings whether good or evill In these Records are found at large Abels sacrifice Cains murther Absolons rebellion Davids devotion the Iews cruelty the Prophets innocency good mens intentions and the
sinners actions nothing shall be hid when this book is opened for all may run and read it stand and hear it How fond are we that imagine heavens eye such is this book to be shut upon us Do we not see many run to corners to commit their sins there can they say Let us take our fill of love untill the morning for darkness hath covered us and who seeth us who knoweth us Esai 29.15 Prov. 7.18 Esay 29.15 But are not the Angels of God about you 1 Cor. 4.9 We are a spectacle to the Angels saith the Apostle I am sure we must be to both to Angels and to men and to all the world O do not that before the Angels of God yea before the God of Angels which you would shame to do in the sight and presence of an earthly man Alas must our thoughts be known and shall not dark-corner sins be revealed must every word and syllable we speak be writ and recorded in Gods memorable book and must not ill deeds ill demeanours ill works of darkness be disclosed at that day yes God shall bring every work unto judgment with every secret thing be it good or evill Eccles 12.14 Eccles 12.14 Wail yee wicked and tremble in astonishment Now your closet-sins must be disclosed your private faults laid open Gods keeps the account-account-book of every sin every transgression Imprimis for adultery Item for envie blasphemy oaths drunkenness violence murther and every sin from the beginning to this time from our birth to our buriall the totall summe eternall death and damnation this is the note of accounts wherein are all thy offences written the debt is death the pay perdition which fury pays over to destruction But there is another book that shall give a more full I cannot say but a more fearfull evidence then the former which is the book of every mans conscience Some call it the book of testimony which every man still bears about him There is within us a Book and Secretary the Book is Conscience and the Secretary is our soul whatsoever we do is known to the soul and writ in our book of conscience there is no man can so much as commit one sin but his soul that is privy to the fact will write it in this book In what a wofull case will thy heart then be in what strange terrour and trembling must it stand possest when this must be opened and thy sinnes revealed It is now perhaps a book shut up and sealed Liber signatue clausus in die judicii aperiendus but in the day of judgement shall be opened and if once opened what shall be the evidence that it will bring forth there is a private Sessions to be held in the breast of every condemned sinner the memorie is Recorder grief an Accuser truth is the Law damnation the Judgement hell the Prison Devils the Jaylours and Conscience both Witnesse and Judge to passe sentence on thee What hopes he at the generall Assize whose conscience hath condemned him before he appear Look well to thy life thou bearest about thee a book of testimonie which though for a time it be shut till it be full fraught with accusations yet then at the Day of Doom it must be opened when thou shalt read and weep and read every period stop with a sigh every word be enough to break thy heart and every syllable reveal some secret thy own conscience upon the matter being both witnesse Judge accuser and condemner But yet there is another book we read of and that is the book of life Herein are written all the names of Gods elect from the beginning of the world till the end thereof these are the golden leaves this is that precious book of heaven wherein if we are registred not all the powers of hell or death or devils shall blot us out again Here is the glory of each devout souldier of our Saviour how many have spent their lives spilt their blouds runne upon sudden deaths to gain a perpetuall name and yet for all their doings many of these are dead and gone and their memories perished with them onely Christs souldier hath immortall fame he and onely he is writ in that book that must never perish Come hither ye ambitious your names may be writ in Chronicles yet lost writ in durable marble yet perish writ in a monument equall to a Colossus yet be ignominious O were you but writ in this book of life your names should never die never suffer any ignominy It is an axiome most true they that are written in the eternall leaves of heaven shall never be wrapped in the cloudy sheets of darknesse Here then is the joy of Saints at that Day of Doom this book shall be opened and all the elect whom God hath ordained to salvation shall see it read it hear it and greatly rejoyce at it The Disciples casting out devils return with miracles in their mouths O Lord say they even devils are subject to us through thy name True saith Christ I saw Sathan as lightning fall from heaven notwithstanding in this rejoyce not that the spirits are subject unto you but rather rejoyce because your names are written in heaven Luke 10.20 Luke 10.20 And well may the Saints rejoyce that have their names written in Gods book they shall see them to their comfort writ in letters of gold penned with the Almighties finger ingraven with a pen of a diamond thus will this book give in the evidence and accordingly will the Judge proceed to sentence Vse 1 Consider thou that readest what books one day must be set before thee a time will come when every thought of thy heart every word of thy mouth every glance of thy eye every moment of thy time every office thou hast born every companie thou hast used every sermon thou hast heard every action thou hast done and every omission of any duty or good deed thou hast left undone shall be seen in these books at the first opening of them thy conscience shall then be suddenly clearly and universally inlarged with extraordinary light to look upon all thy life at once Gods memory shall then shine forth and shew it self when all men looking on it as a reflecting glasse they shall behold all the passages of their misspent lives from their births to their burials Where is the wicked and deceitfull man wilt thou yet commit thy villanies treacheries robberies murthers debates and impieties Let me tell thee if so to thy hearts-grief all thy secret sinnes and closet villanies that no eye ever lookt upon but that which is a thousand times brighter then the Sunne shall then be disclosed and laid open before Angels men and devils and thou shall then and there be horribly universally and everlastingly ashamed never therefore go about to commit any sinne because it is midnight or that the doors are lockt upon thee suppose it be concealed and lie hid in as great darknesse as
then of thorns Thus for the beginning what then is the increase of this This increase say Physitians is when the symptomes more manifestly appear either of life or death and no sooner was our Saviour born but he had manifest tokens evidently showing that for us he must die If you run through his life what was it but a sicknesse and a purge Consider his parcitie in abstinence his constancie in watching his frequencie in prayer his assiduity in labour But how soon and Herod makes him flee into Egypt and live an exile in a strange land At his return he dwels at Nazareth and there is accounted Jesus the carpenter Mark 6.3 When he enters into his Ministerie he hath no house to repose him no money to relieve him no friends to comfort him See him first set on by Satan then by men he is led into the wildernesse by the spirit and there he fasts fourty dayes and fourty nights without bit of bread or drop of water The devil seeing this opportunitie begins his temptation who presently overcome the Jews follow after him with hue and cry mark but their words and works In word they call him a glutton a drunkard a deceiver a sinner Matt. 11.19.27.63 John 9.24.10.20.8.48 Psal 35.12 a mad-man a Samaritane and one possessed with a devil Good words I pray is not he the anointed of God the Saviour of men yes but they rendred me evil for good and hatred for my good will said the Psalmist in his person When therefore he did miracles he was a sorcerer when he reproved sinners he was a seducer when he received sinners he was their favourer when he healed the sick he was a breaker of the Sabbath when he cast out devils it was by the power of devils what and how many unjust contumelies indured he of the Pharises who sometimes cast him out of the citie accused him of blasphemy cryed Out upon him he was a man not worthy to live And as they say they do observe but their works First they send officers to apprehend him but they being overcome with the grace of his speeches return onely with this answer John 7.46 Never man spake like this man Then took they up stones to stone him but by his miraculous passage whiles they are a conspiring his death he escapes out of their hands John 10.39 then lead they him to an hill thinking to throw him down headlong and yet all would not do for ere they are aware of it Luke 4.30 he fairly passeth through the midst of them all At last his last passion draws near and then men and devils combine in one to make him at once wretched and miserable He is despised and rejected of men yea he is a man full of sorrows saith the Prophet and hath experience of infirmities Esay 53.3 Esay 53.3 Or for a further inquirie let us do what our Saviour bids Search the Scriptures John 5.39 for they are they which testifie of him We have but two Testaments in the whole Bible and both these give full evidence of Christs miserable life In the Old Testament it was prefigured by Adams penalties Abels death Abrahams exile Isaacs offering Jacobs wrestling Josephs bonds Jobs suffering Davids mourning yea the Prophets themselves were both figures and delivered prophesies of our Saviours afflictions Thus Esay of him Surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we did not esteem him stricken smitten of God and afflicted Esa 53.4 Esay 53.4 Thus Jeremy of him He gives his cheeks to him that smites him he is filled full with reproach Lam. 3.30 Lam. 3.30 Thus Daniel of him After threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be slain and shall have nothing Dan. 9.26 Dan. 9.26 Thus Zechary of him What are these wounds in the midst of thy hands and he shall say With these wounds was I wounded in the house of my friends Zach. 13.6 Zech. 13.6 But come we to the New Testament and in every Gospell we may not onely read but see him suffer Matthew who relates the history of his life what writes he but a tragedy wherein every chapter is a scene Look through the whole book and you read in the first Chapter Matth. Chap. 1 Ioseph will not father him in the second 2 Herod seeks to kill him in the third 3 Iohn the Baptist would needs out his humility deny him baptisme in the fourth 4 he fasts fourty days and fourty nights and is tempted in the wilderness in the fifth 5 he fotetells persecutions and all manner of evill against his Apostles in the sixth 6 he teacheth his church that strict course of life in fasting praying giving of almes and forgiving of enemies in the seventh 7 he concluds his Sermon made on the top of a mountain in the eighth 8 he comes down and towards night hath no house to harbour in nor pillow to rest his head on in the ninth 9 he is rebuked of the Pharises for not fasting in the tenth 10 all men hate his disciples for his sake in the eleventh 11 they call him that knew no excesse a glutton and a drunkard in the twelfth 12 they tell him how he casts out devils through Beelzebub prince of devils in the thirteenth 13 they are offended at him and derive his pedigree from a Carpenter in the fourteenth 14 Herod thinks him to be Iohn Baptists ghost in the fifteenth 15 the Scribes reprehend him for the breach of their traditions in the sixteenth 16 the Sadduces tempt him for a token in the seventeen 17 he pays tribute to Cesar in all the rest he foretels and executes his passion now count not chapters but hours from that hour wherein he was saught for untill the sixth hour of his crucifying one betrayes him another apprehends him one binds him another leads him bound from Pilate to Herod from Herod back again to Pilate thus they never leave him till his soul leave the world and he be a dead man amongst them You have seen the beginning and increase and we 'll now draw the Curtains that you may behold the Bridegroom where he lyeth at Noon day to wit in the state or vigour of his grievous sufferings This state or Akmen say Physitians is when nature and the disease are in greatest contention when all the symptomes are become most vehement so that neither nature or the infirmity must needs have the victory and although say Divines all Christs life was full of miseries Kecker Syst l. 3. c. 4. yet principally and chiefly is that called his passion in Scripture which he indured two days before death and to this extream passion saith a Modern is the purging of sins chiefly attributed Come then ye that passe by behold and see if there was ever any sorrow like unto this sorrows which is done unto him in the day of Gods anger Lament
and though men be so strong that they come to fourscore years yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow so soon passeth it away and we are gone Psal 90.10 Psal 90.10 Here is halfs of halfs and if we half it a while sure we shall half away all our time nay we have a custome goes a little further and tells us of a number a great deal shorter we are fallen from seventie to seven in lifes leases made by us Nay what speak I of years when my text breaks them all into dayes Few and evil have the dayes been so our former translation without any addition of years at all and if you mark it our life in Scripture is more often termed dayes then years the book of Chronicles which writes of mens lives are called according to the interpretation Words of dayes to this purpose we read David was old and full of dayes 1 Chron. 23.1 1 Chron. 23.1 and in the dayes of Iehoram Edom rebelled 2 Chron. 21.8 2 Chron. 21.8 So in the New Testament In the dayes of Herod the King Matth. 2.1 Matth. 2.1 and in the dayes of Herod the King of Iudea Luke 1.5 Luke 1.5 In a word thus Iob speaks of us our life is but dayes our dayes but a shadow we know nothing saith Iob and why so our dayes upon earth are but a shadow Iob 8.9 Job 8.9 Lo here the length of our little life it is not for ever no Adam lost that estate he that lived longest after Adam came short of the number of a thousand years nay that was halfed to somewhat lesse then five hundred and that again halfed to little more then two hundred Iacob yet halfs it again to a matter of seven score and Moses halfs that again to seventy or a little more nay our time brings it froÌ„ seventy to seven nay Iacob yet brings it from years to daies few and evil have the dayes of the year of my life been Vse 1 Teach us O Lord to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts unto wisdome Psal 90 12. Moses Arithmetick is worthy your meditation learn of him to number pray to God your teacher think every evening there is one day of your number gone and every morning there is another day of miserie coming on evening and morning meditate on Gods mercy and your own miserie Thus if you number your dayes you shall have the lesse to account for at that day when God shall call you to a finall reckoning Vse 2 But miserable men who are not yet born again their dayes run on without any meditation in this kind What think they of but of long dayes and many years And were all their dayes as long as the day of Joshuah when the Sun stood still in the midst of heaven yet it will be night at last and their Sun shall set like others True God may give some a liberall time but what enemies are they to themselves that of all their dayes allow themselves not one 1. Pet. 3.10 If any man long after life and to see good dayes let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile How live they that would needs live long and follow no rules of pietie many can post off their conversion from day to day sending Religion afore them to thirty and then putting it off to fourtie and not pleased yet to overtake it promise it entertainment at threescore at last death comes and allows not one hour In youth these men resolve to reserve the time of age to serve God in in age they shuffle it off to sicknesse when sicknesse comes care to dispose their goods loathnesse to die hope to escape maâ—tyrs that good thought O miserable men if you have but the Lease of a Farm for twenty years you make use of the time and gather profit but in this precious farm of Time you are so ill husbands that your Lease comes out before you are one penny worth of grace the richer by it Matth. 20.6 Why stand ye here all the day idle there are but a few hours or dayes that ye have to live at last comes the night of death that will shut up your eyes in sleep till the day of doom You see now the term of our Lease our Life lasts but Dayes and although we live many dayes Luke 19.42 Matth. 6.12 yet in this thy day saith Christ and Give us this day our daily bread say we as if no day could be called thy day but this day if there be any more we shall soon number them my text tells you they are not many but few Few and evill have the dayes of my life been Few OUr Lease is a Life our Life is but Dayes our Dayes are but Few The Phoenix the Elephant and the Lion fulfill their hundreds but man dieth when he thinks his Sun yet riseth before his eye be satisfied with seeing or his ear with hearing or his heart with lusting death knocks at his door and often will not give him leave to meditate an excuse before he comes to judgement Is not this a wonder to see dumb beasts outstrip mans life The Phoenix lives thousands say some but a thousand years are a long life with man Methushalem you saw the longest liver came short of this number and yet could we attain to so ripe an age what are a thousand years to the dayes everlasting If you took a little mote to compare with the whole earth what great difference were in these two and if you compare this life which is so short with the life to come which shall never have end how much lesse will it yet appear As drops of rain are unto the sea Ecclus 18.9 and as a gravell stone is in comparison to the sand so are a thousand years to the dayes everlasting But will you haue an exact account and learn the just number It was the Arithmetick of holy men to reckon their dayes but Few as if the shortest cut were the best account The Hebrews could subduct the time of sleep which is half our life so that if the dayes of men were threescore years and ten Psal 90.10 here 's five and thirty years struck off at one blow The Philosophers could subduct the time of weakness which is most of life so that if vivere be valere that onely a true life which enjoyes good health here 's the beginning and the ending of our dayes struck off at a second blow The Fathers could subduct all times not present and what say you to this account were the dayes of life at noon man grown to manhood look ye back and the time past is nothing look ye forward and the time to come is but uncertain and if time past and time to come stand both for ciphers what is our life but the present and what is that but a moment Nay as if a moment were too much look
my beloved well may our eies shed tears at this when his veins thus shed their bloud for us But here is yet a third effusion of bloud and that as Bernard tels us was in vellicatione genarum in the nippings and tearings of his sacred cheeks Bern. de Pass Dom. c. 38. to this bears the Prophet witness Esay 50.6 Esay 50.6 I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to the nippers or as our later Translation I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair whether his cheeks were torn or his beard plucked off some vary in opinion Bernard thinks both might be true Bern. ibid. or howsoever we believe most probable it is that neither of them could be effected without effusion of hloud And now me thinks I see that face fairer then the sonnes of men spit on by the Jews nor is their scorn without some cruelty for in the next Scene they exercise their fists which that they may do with more sport to them and spight to him Luke 22.64 they first blindfold him and then smiting him on the face they bid him read who it is that strikes him and yet as if whitenesse of their spittle and blewness of their strokes had not caused enough colours they once more die his rosie countenance in a bloudy red to this end do they nip his cheeks with their nails and as others pluck off his hair with their fingers whereby streams and stroaks of bloud run down his cheeks and drop down at his chin to his lower garments O sweet face of our Saviour what mean these sufferings but to tell us if ever confusion cover our face for him that we consider then how bloud and sweat thus covered his face for us But yet here 's a fourth effusion at his Coronation the blows drew not bloud enough from his fâ—ot and therefore the thoâ—â—s must fetch more from his head If mine advâ—â—sary says Iob should write a book against me sâ—â—ely I would take it upon my shoulder and binde it as 〈…〉 â—â—b 31.36 Job 31.36 the 〈◊〉 in stead of writing a book the 〈…〉 own and see how our Saviour â—iâ—â—â— it to 〈◊〉 not onely on his shoulder as 〈◊〉 to bear it but on his hâ—â—d too as a Crown to 〈◊〉 it â—â— but neither is it for triuâ—â—â— onely but for torture it is a Crown woven of boughs deck'd with thorns and 〈◊〉 of bloud in lieu of precious stones O Jesâ—◠〈…〉 thy ciâ—tâ—â—eâ—◠〈…〉 thy scepter thâ—se 〈…〉 â—â—â—â—ple died with bloud thy royall Robes Is â—â—â—â—nkfull people 〈◊〉 watred with his bloud that bring forth nothing but hâ—iâ—â—s and thorns to crown him but wherefore 〈◊〉 save onely to crush into his tender hand and to this 〈◊〉 they do not onely stick his head full 〈◊〉 but after they 〈…〉 to fasten the crown better they strike him on the head their reeds or 〈◊〉 Matth. 27.30 are 〈…〉 not like 〈…〉 at the Country afforded stronger and greater to 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 with more ease and see here 〈◊〉 not 〈…〉 heavier and solider 〈◊〉 and plenty of them to 〈◊〉 and hammer that crown of thorns deeper and deeper into his head O 〈◊〉 imagine Ne hic puto rivos sanguinis defuisse Bern. de pass Dom. c. 39. what streams of bloud gushed 〈…〉 sharp prickled were shot in 〈◊〉 less then 〈…〉 on his neck his face his shoulders and 〈◊〉 â—is 〈…〉 uâ— member of that Head his hâ—â—◠〈…〉 down upon all his members And his head â—ein 〈…〉 they 〈…〉 of bloud issuing out of his 〈…〉 the whips wherewith 〈…〉 his sacred sides 〈…〉 aâ—ter 〈…〉 Consider I pray you 〈…〉 strip our Saviour of his 〈◊〉 â—nd 〈…〉 his holy body to a pillar he poor 〈◊〉 〈…〉 â—he without any friends to 〈…〉 â—im whilest they strike â—n their 〈…〉 again and again full 〈…〉 leave a drop of bloud in all his body whâ—â—◠〈…〉 in all this the Law of Moses commanded that Malefactors should be beaten with whips and it shall be if the wicked be worthy to be beaten that the judg shall cause him to lye down and to be beaten before his face according to his fault by a certain number what number forty stripes he may give him and not exceed lest if he should exceed and beat him above these with many stripes then thy brother should seem vile unto thee Deut. 25.2 3. Deut. 25.2 3. Thus indeed were the Iews tied but the Gâ—â—tiles neither bound by law nor moved with compassion 〈◊〉 exceed this number I have read that he received no lesse then 5400 stripes S. Gert. l. 4. divin insinuat c. 35. which if we consider these things is not altogether improbable First the law of beating that every guilty should be stricken by every one of the Souldiers a free-man with staves and a bond-man with whips Secondly the cause of this Law that the body of him that was to be crucified should be disfigured that the nakedness should not move the beholders to any dishonest thoughts when they should see nothing pleasing or beautifull but all things torn and full of commiseration Thirdly the purpose of Pilate who hoped to spare his life by this so great cruelty used against him Fourthly the great care and haste which the Priests used in carrying of the crosse lest Christ should have died before he was crucified every one of these reasons argue an unreasonable whipping which our poor Saviour endured But O joy of the Angels and glory of Saints who hath thus disfigured thee who hath thus defiled thee with so many bloudy blows certainly they were not thy sins but mine that have thus evill entreated thee it was love and mercy that compast thee about for I should have suffered but to prevent this thy mercy moves thee and so thou takest upon thee all my miseries But all this will not satisfie the Iews Behold the man said Pilate to them Joh. 19.5 when he thought to have pacified their wrath by that dolefull sight but this nothing moved them though presently after it moved rocks and stones to shiver in pieces Behold then a sixth effusion of bloud when his hands and feet were pierced thorow with nails he bears indeed upon his shoulders an heavy and weighty cross of fifteen foot long which must needs say some cause a great and grievous wound but to omit that which is questionable here be those wofull sufferings now come the barbarous inhumane hang-men and begin to lose his hands that were tied to the pâ—st to tie them to a worser pillory the cross then strip they off his gore-glued cloaths which did so cleave to his mangled battered back that they pull off cloathes and skin together nay yet more and how 〈◊〉 I say it without tears for â—â—n the cross is ready and nothing wanting but a measure for the holes down therefore they lay him on it and though the print of his bloud gives them a
is but the image of death saith Cato Here is a true picture of our frailty life is like death indeed so like so near together that we cannot differ each from other See here the condition of our life what is it but a Rose a Grasse a Picture a Play a Show a Sleep a Dream an Image of death such a thing is life that we so much talk of Vse And if Nature give this light how blind are they that cannot see lifes frailty you need no more but mark the Destinies as Poets feign to spin their threds one holds another draws a third cuts it off what is our life but a thread some have a stronger twist others a more slender some live till near rot others die when scarce born there 's none endures long this thread of life is cut sooner or later and then our work is done our course is finished Are these the Emblemes of our life and dare we trust to this broken staff how do the heathen precede us Christians in these studies Their books were skuls their desks were graves their remembrance an hour-glass Awake your souls and bethink you of mortality have you any priviledge for your lives are not Heathens and Christians of one Father Adam of one mother Earth the Gospel may free you from the second not the first death onely provide you for the first to escape the second death O men what be your thoughts nothing but of Goods and Barns and many Years you may boast of Life as Oromazes the Conjurer of his Egge which he said included the felicity of the world yet being opened there was nothing but Wind Think what you please your life is but a Wind which may be stopt soon but cannot last long by the law of Nature But secondly as Nature so Scripture will inform you in this point The life of man is but of little esteem what is it but a Shrub or a Brier in the fire As the crackling of thorns under the pot so is the life or laughter of the fool momentary and vanity Eccles. 7.6 Eccles 7.6 Nay a shrub were something but our life is lesse no better then a leaf not a tree nor shrub nor fruit nor blossome We all fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have swept us away Esay 64 6. Esay 64.6 Yet a leaf may glory of his birth it is descended of a Tree life is a Reed sometimes broken at least shaken so vain so infirm so inconstant is the life of man What went you out to see a reed shaken with the wind Matth. 11.7 Matth. 11.7 Nay a reed were something our life is baser indeed no better then a rush or flag Can a rush grow without mire though it were green and not cut down yet shall it wither before any other herb Job 8 11 12. Job 8.12 What shall I say more what shall I crie a rush All flesh is grass and all the grace thereof as the flower of the field the grass withereth the flower fadeth surely the people is grass Esa 40.7 Esa 40.7 I am descended beneath just patience but not so low as the life of man as all these resemble life so in some measure they have life but life is a smoke without any spark of life in it thus cries David My dayes are consumed like smoke my bones are burnt like an hearth Psal 102.3 Psal 102.3 Yet is here no stay the smoke ingenders clouds and a cloud is the fittest resemblance of our life Our life shall passe away as the trace of a cloud and come to nought as the myst that is driven away with the beams of the Sun Wisd 2.4 Wisd 2.4 Neither is this all clouds may hang calm but life is like a tempest it is a cloud and a wind too Remember that my life is but a wind and that mine eye shall not return to see pleasure Iob 7.7 Job 7.7 Nay we must lower and find a weaker element it is not a wind but water said that woman of Tekoah We are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again 2. Sam. 14.14 2. Sam. 14.14 yet is water both a good and necessary element life is the least part of water nothing but a foam a bubble The King of Samaria that great King is destroyed as the foam upon the water Hos 10.7 Hos 10.7 I can no more and yet here is something lesse a foam or bubble may burst into a vapour and What is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and afterwards vanisheth away Iam. 4.14 Jam. 4 14. Lesse then this is nothing yet life is something lesse nothing in substance all it is it is but a shadow We are strangers and sojourners as all our fathers were our dayes are like a shadow upon the earth there is none abiding 1. Chr. 29.15 1. Chr. 29.15 See whither we have brought our life and yet ere we part we will down one step lower upon a strict view we find neither substance nor shadow Psal 39.5 onely a meer nothing a verie vanitie Behold thou hast made my dayes as an hand breadth and mine age is nothing in respect of thee surely every man living is altogether vanitie Psal 39.5 Psal 39.5 Lo here the nature of our life it is a shrub a leaf a reed a rush a grasse a smoke a cloud a wind a water a bubble a vapour a shadow a nothing What mean we to make such ado about a matter of nothing I cannot choose but wonder at the vanitie of men that runne rid toil travell undergo any labour to maintain this life and what is it when they have their desire which they so much toyl for we live and yet whilest we speak this word perhaps we die Is this a land of the living or a region of the dead We that suck the air to kindle this little spark where is our standing but at the gates of death Psal 9.13 Psal 9.13 Where is our walk but in the shadow of death Luke 1.79 Luke 1.79 What is our mansion-house but the body of death Rom. 7.24 Rom. 7.24 What think ye Is not this the region of death where is nothing but the gate of death An non haec regio mortis ubi porta mortis umbra mortis corpus mortis and the shadow of death and the body of death Sure we dream that we live but sure it is that we die or if we live the best hold we have is but a lease God our chief Lord may bestow what he pleaseth to the rich man wealth to the wise man knowledge to the good man peace to all men somewhat yet if you ask Who is the Lessor God Who is the Lessee Man What is leased This world For what terme My life Thus Jacob tels Pharaoh as the Text tels you Few and evil have the dayes of my
it was committed till Dooms-day again yet then shall it out with a witnesse and be as legible in thy forehead as if it were writ with the brightest stars or the most glistring Sun beam upon a wall of chrystall Vse 2 As you mean the good of your souls amend your lives call your selves to account while it is called to day search and examine all your thoughts words and deeds and prostrating your selves before God with broken and bleeding affections pray and sue that your names may be writ in heaven in that Book of life This will be the joy of your hearts the peace of your souls the rest of your minds yea how glad will you then be to have * It is a question whether the sinnes of Gods people shall be manifested at that day some say they shall be manifested not for their ignominy or confusion but onely that the goodnesse and grace of God may be made the more illustrious and for this they urge Matth. 12.36 2 Cor. 5.10 Revel 20.12 Others say they shall not be manifested 1. Because Christ in his sentence onely enumerates the good works they had done but takes no notice of their sins 2. Because this agrees best with those expressions that God blotteth out our sins and that they are thrown into the bottome of the sea 3. Because Christ is their bridegroom friend advocate and how ill would it become one in such relations to accuse or lay open their sins which of these opinions is truest is hard to say Heb. 6.10 all these books laid open by this means I speak it to the comfort of all true hearted Christians shall your obedience and repentance and faith and love and zeal and patience c. come to light and be known God is not unrighteous to forget your works of labour and love No all must out especially at that day when the books shall be open our works manifested and as we have done so must we be rewarded for then he shall reward every man according to his works The books are opened and now are the matters to be examined there is first a view and then a tryall The Law-book whereby we are tryed contains three leaves Nature the Law and the Gospel the Gentiles must be tryed by the first the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles by the second and the faithfull Jews and Gentiles by the last Those that confesse no God but nature must be judged by the law of nature those that confesse a God no Christ must be judged by the Law of God without the merits of Christ those that confesse God the Father and believe in God the Sonne shall be judged by the Gospel which reconcileth us to God the Father by the merits of Christ Atheists by the law of nature infidels by the law of God Christians by the Gospel of our Saviour Christ To the statutes of the former who can answer our hope is in the latter we appeal to the Gospel and by the Gospel we shall have our tryall They that have sinned without the law Rom. 2.12 shall perish without the law and they that have sinned under the law shall be judged by the law Rom. 2.16 But God shall judge the secrets of all hearts of all our hearts by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel Rom. 2.12.16 Vse Vel te totaliter absolvit vel te capitaliter damnat John 16.9 Let this then forewarn us what we have to do It is the Gospel that will either throughly justifie thee or extremely condemn thee The Spirit shall convince the world of sinne saith Christ and why so but because they believe not on me John 16.9 There is no sinne but infidelitie no righteousnesse but faith not that adulterie intemperance malice are no sinnes but if unfaithfulnesse remain not all these sinnes are pardoned and so they are as if they were no sins indeed How quick a riddance true repenting faith makes with our sinnes they are too heavie for our shoulders and we cannot bear them faith onely turns them over unto Christ and we are disburthened of them whereas there would go with us to judgement an huge kennell of lusts an armie of vain words a legion of evil deeds faith instantly dischargeth them all and kneeling down to Jesus Christ beseecheth him to answer for them all howsoever committed O then make we much of faith but not of such a faith neither as goes alone without works it is nothing at this judgement to say I have believed and not well lived the Gospel requires both faith to believe and obedience to work not onely to repent and believe the Gospel Mark 1.15 Mark 1.15 but to obey from the heart that form of doctrine Rom. 6.17 Rom. 6.17 True indeed thou shalt be saved for thy faith not for thy works but for such a faith as is without works thou shalt never be saved we say therefore A justificando non à justificato works are disjoyned from the act of justifying not from the person justified heaven is given to us for Christs merits but we must shew him the fair copie of our lives O then let this move us to abound in knowledge and faith and repentance and love and zeal and clothing and feeding and lodging the poor members of Christ Jesus and howsoever all these can merit nothing at Gods hands yet will he crown his own gifts and reward them in his mercy Say then dost thou relieve a poor member of Christ Jesus dost thou give a cup of cold water to a Prophet in the name of Prophet Matt. 10.42 Christ doth promise thee of his truth he will not let thee lose thy reward certainly he will not so thy works be done in faith why this is the covenant the glad tidings the Gospel to live well and believe well O let not that which is a word of comfort to us be a bill of inditement against us albeit in our justification we may say Be it to us according to our faith yet in our retribution it is said as you have it before you in this Text read unto you Then he shall reward every man for manifestation of his faith according to his works A little to recall our selves The Prisoners are tryed the Verdict's brought in the inditement is found and the Judge now sits on life and death even ready with sparkling eyes to pronounce his sentence This we must deferre a while and the next time you shall hear what you have long exspected The Lord grant us an happy issue that when this day is come the sentence may be for us and we may be saved to our endless comfort Shall reward VVHat Assize is this that affords each circumstance of each prisoners triall the time is Then the Judge is He the Prisoners Men the evidence Works Non coronat Deus merita tua tanquam merita tua sed tanquam donasua Aug. lib. de grat lib. arbit cap. 7. which no sooner given in but