the outward man which is the separation of the Body from the Soul it is no Death if it separate not both from God which it can never do if a man keep the sayings of Christ therefore though his body that keepeth the sayings of Christ be took from his soul yet he seeth not death so as to have any hurt by it he feeleth no ill by it nay it is good to him for it is a passage from misery to rest and felicity Thus ye have these words as faithfully interpreted to you as I know how And now I will make proof of this Doctrine thus explicated namely that thus to keep Christs sayings to know and follow the Doctrine of the Gospel is the only sure way to escape the danger and hurt of Death Saint Peter acknowledgeth as much when he said to the Lord Jesus Christ that he had the words of Eternal life then he that keepeth them is certainly safe against the hurt of Death So the Angel speaks to the Apostles whom the Pharisees had imprisoned when he brought them forth of Prison he biddeth them speak to the people the words of this life since Christs Doctrine is the word of life it must needs follow that the keeping thereof is a perfect Antidote against the poyson of Death And Saint Peter when he gave an account to the rest of the Apostles and the brethren of Judea of his going to the Gentiles he saith that an Angel appointed Cornelius to send for him that he might speak words to him whereby himself and his family should be saved and those words which cause a man to be saved you know will give him freedome enough from Death Thus I have proved the point by expresse Texts and there are two reasons of it The first is delivered by the Apostle Saint John in the first Epistle and second Chapter where he faith let that abide in you which you have heard from the beginning that is the Doctrine of the Gospel which Christ taught his sayings if that remain in you you also shall continue in the Son and in the Father He that hath fellowship with the Son and with the Father can never see Death for God is the fountain of life therefore those that are one with him and continue in him cannot see Death no more then he can be overwhelmed with darkness that is where the Sun shineth fully no more then the body can be dead as long as it hath communion with the soul so those in whom the word of Christ remaineth and stayeth they are assured that they shall remain with the Father and the Son and therefore being united to that that is life God the Father and the Son it is impossible that ever they should be hurt by the first or ever at all taste of the last Death Again the Word of Christ freeth him in whom it remaineth from the power and hurt of sin bringing to him remission of sins and sanctification And being free from sin the cause of Death it is easie to conjecture that he shall be freed from Death it self Let a mans Debt be satisfied and let the favour of the Prince be obtained and a Pardon granted the Prison shall never hold him long he shall not be brought to the place of Execution but when his guives are knocked off he is set at liberty so when we have obtained power against sin by the powerful work of the Spirit of God which alwayes at the same time doth bend the heart of man to rest on Christ for salvation and heartily to indevour to walk before him in holiness and righteousness when I say we are thus freed from the power and guilt of sin it is impossible that Death should lay hold upon us as his prisoner to carry us to the dungeon of Hell and to hold us under the wrath of God and that fiery indignation of his that causeth Hell to be Hell Therefore certainly the words of Christ are an undoubted truth and we must rest upon them without all distrust and wavering that he that keepeth his sayings shall never see death and that the knowledge and beleeving and obeying the Doctrine of the Gospel is the only sure way to escape the hurt and ill of Death it self Let us make some Application of this Doctrine to our souls First to stir us up to a right hearty thankfulness unto Almighty God that is pleased to cast our times and dayes into that age and those places where the Doctrine of the Gospel this Saying of our blessed Saviour is so clearly and plainly and evidently laid open to you and frequently and earnestly prest upon your souls where the Lord cometh to declare unto you the way to life where he scoreth you out a path that will bring you quite out of the clutches and danger of Death this is the happiness of our present Age and place where we live and this whole kingdom too The grace and mercy and favour of our loving God hath so disposed of us that we do not live in times of Paganisme and darkness where there was no news of Christ that we live not in places of Popish darkness where the Doctrine of the Gospel is so mixed and darkned with tricks and devices of their own that they cannot see Christ clearly It is our happiness I say that we do not live in those places and times where either Paganisme or Popery with their darkness covered Christ from us and caused us that we could not clearly see or hear him and so not keep his sayings But now grace is offered light is tendered to us we may be saved we may escape the danger of damnation if the fault be not solely and wholly in our carelesness and wilfulness and neglect and abuse of the means that God hath afforded us The heathen men that have not heard of Christ cannot possibly attain to life as far as we can judge by the Scripture And it is very difficult for the Papists that hear so darkly and are told of the Doctrine of the Gospel with so many sophistications to come to be saved But for us that have the Doctrine of the Gospel so plainly and carefully taught us and revealed unto us we may be saved and may easily see the way to obtain salvation So we go beyond them in happiness Oh blessed be the name of the Ever-living God that beside the peace and plenty and other temporal benefits wherewith he hath crowned this unworthy Nation of ours he hath added this blessing of blessings this King of favours to give us so clear a revelation of the Doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ alone Blessed be his name and let your hearts say Amen to this thanksgiving and let it be one part of your endeavour this day to give solemne praise every man apart and his Family apart for this unspeakable mercy of his in making you live in the dayes of Light and in the bright Sun-shâ—…ne of
of doing holy duties Would you be found praying pefunctorily and carelesly Would you be found coming to the Sacrament unprepared What though you do holy actions that are good for the matter would you be found doing of them with unfit and unprepared hearts You see what the Apostle saith 1. Cor. 11. For this cause many are sick and weak and many sleep they slept they were dead for this even because they came unworthily to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Would you therefore be found doing of holy duties and not in a right manner The serious consideration of this that Death is the end of all men with the particular application of it to a mans selfe that as it is the state of all men so it is mine in particular I must die and I may die now it hath an influence into all the actions of a mans life To conclude In the last place This point is of use to us also in the death of others First to moderate the mourning of Christians for the death of others Why It is the end of all men it is that that is the common condition of all men it should not be too grievous not too doleful to any man We would not have our freinds to be in another condition in their birth then others we would not have them have more fingers or more members then a man and would we have them have more dayes Let this serve as a brief touch upon that Secondly it teacheth us to make good use of our fellowship while we are together Not only we may die but those that are useful to us may die also let us make good use of one another while we live therefore This will make the death of others bitter and will be worse than the death and losse of our freinds the guilt upon a mans conscience that he hath not made that use of them while they were alive that he might have done let us therefore make the death of our freinds easie by making good use of them while they live It did smite the heart of those Ephesians that they should see the face of Paul no more specially above the rest it grieved them that they should see him no more how would it have grieved them think you if they had alwayes hardned themselves against his ministry before Think with your selves seriously here is such a Minister such a Christian freind that husband and wife that parent and child a time of parting will come let us make it easie now by making good use of one another while we live that when freinds are took away we may have cause to thank God that we have had communion and confort of their fellowship and society the benefit of their graces the fruit of their lives and not sorrow for the want of them by death So much for that I come now to the second and principal reason why it is better to go to the house of mourning then to the house of feasting it is this because the living shall lay it to his heart What shall he lay to his heart That that is the end of all mèn he shall lay the death of all men to heart The point I observe from hence is thus much It is the dutie of those that live to lay to heart the death of others That is seriously ro consider and make use for themselves of the death of others You see the Text is clear for the point And there is good reason why it should be so First in respect of the glory that cometh to God Secondly in respect of the good that cometh to our selves by it First God is glorified by this when we lay to heart the death of others there is a dishonour to God to slight any of his actions this is one of Gods works in the world the death of men this is a thing wherein Gods hand is seen he saith to the sons of Adam Return The spirit returneth to God that gave it It is he that hath the power of life and death If a sparrow fall not to the ground without the providence of God much lesse the servants of God the precious ones upon the earth the excellent ones as David calleth them I say God is seen much in these works and it is a great dishonour to God when men do not consider the works of his hands David by the spirit of prophesie in Psal 28.5 wisheth a curse upon ungodly men and for this reason among the rest because they consider not the operation of his hands this is that that puts men into a curst estate and exposeth them to the wrath of God when they regard not the works of the Lord. The actions of Princes and great men upon earth every man considereth of them and weigheth them It is that wherein we give God the glory of his wisdome and of his truth of his power of his justice of his mercy of his soveraignty and dominion and Lordship over the whole earth when we labour to draw to a particular use to our selves the works of God in the world specially the death of men of all men good and bad for we must give it the same latitude and extent and scope that the Text doth here he speaks here of the death of men in general and he saith of all men that their death shall be laid to heart by the living Secondly as their is reason that we should take to heart the death of others in respect of the glory that cometh to God thereby so in respect of our selves also much benefit cometh to our selves by laying to heart the death of other men There be three special things considerable in the death of any one that is matter of profit and benefit to those that live and survive after them Therein we see the Certainty of Death Therein we see the Nature of Death Therein we see the Cause End of Death First therein we see the certainty of death For now we have not only the word of God that tels us that we shall die but the works of God taking others before us that as the Sacraments are called visible instructions because they teach by the eye and the outward senses so the death of others are visible instructions to the living it teacheth by the eye a man is guided by the eye to see his own condition and as it were in a glasse there is represented to him his own state what we are they were once the time was that they converst with men as we do that they spake for Gods glory upon earth as we do and what they are now we shall be there will come a time when our works shall cease as theirs do when we shall be in the place of silence as they are I say it confirmeth to us the former certainty and assurance of our death when we see others fall before us And there is great profit and benefit that
are still looking for this second coming Let me give you but a place or two of Scripture The Apostle saith Phil. 3.20 Our conversation is in heaven from whence we look for the Saviour saith S. Jude vers 21. Keep your selves in the love of God as men that look for the mercy of God at that great day to eternal life Gird up your loyns saith our blessed Lord and let your lights be burning in your hands that you may be as men that look for the coming of the Bridegroom Indeed beloved if we look into the lives of men I cannot tell whether I shall say they look for his coming or no this blessed hope Wilt thou prophane the sanctified day of rest wilt thou blaspheme the great and glorious name of God wilt thou wantonly abuse the creatures of God in drunkenness wilt thou lie and steal and whore and yet tell me thou lookest for that blessed hope surely thou dost not If quoth the Apostle we do look for these things in the place named before 2 Pet. 2.14 Then let us do our diligence that we may be found of him in peace If thou do not thy diligence that when he comes thou maist be found in peace never tell me thou lookest for him There was never time yet for us to lie and wallow in sin to think nothing that we do dishonest there was never time for these things since time was Surely there is no time for it now All the dayes since Christ are called the last dayes all of them are the last dayes since that day of the first Epiphany but there is a day that will be the last of all those last dayes And me-thinks it will not be long before that last day of all come me-thinks I see the day broke already it is break of day already Therefore brethren if you do indeed look for the coming of Christ for this blessed hope at his appearing be diligent that you may be found of him without spot in holiness I have done with the Text. I come now to the occasion at this time You have brought hither a dead body of a very good neighbour of ours and whom I acknowledg I ever found a kind and a loving friend You have brought it here to be laid up in the Grave in hope of a blessed and joyful resurrection I need not speak much of his life here an ancient inhabitant When it pleased God to call me first to this place 26. years since I found him then in the chief office of the Church and divers times since he hath been in it and I have seldome known any more painful and more industrious and more honest in those places then he was We have all known him a man humble in his conversation just of his word true in his promises merciful in his dealing charitable to the poor ready to every good work His life was such a life as the Apostle would have ours to be a life sober and just and pious in this present evil world He lived and lead a life pious in regard of God just in the regard of men sober in regard of himself I can say no lesse of him and I will say no more of him I know you desire to hear of his death and it hath much afflicted my soul to hear what unjust aspertions have been upon the manner of it There was a sudden stroak indeed of Gods hand and it was in my house and seeing that it so pleased God I am glad that it was in my presence and sight that I might give the better testimony of it The suddenness of the stroak made him liable to some misconstruction and hath given many men occasion to passe a very uncharitable and unchristian verdict of him I beseech you let me give you a true naked relation how it was I never knew any men of so peaceable a disposition but there might be sometimes some difference between them there was between Abraham and Lot between Paul and Barnabas and there was between another honest neighbour and him both men of a peaceable disposition They did not desire to go to law they desired the matter might be put to Arbitrators they chose four honest Gentlemen to take up the matter between them they made me as an unworthy Umpire in case they did not agree On Thursday last they met and each of them pleaded their cause And let me say thus that if this brother of ours had been judg'd to do any wrong in that cause if he had uttered one word of falshood to help his cause if he had used one word of imprecation wishing any curse to himself then it had been peradventure a just thing with God to have taken him at his word If he had sworn one oath if he had uttered but one uncharitable word against his neighbour if he had shewed but any malice or spleen against him if he had been but transported with passion as a man may easily be in his own cause we are but men I say if he had been but transported with passion then peradventure some men might have thought it had been the stroke of divine justice upon him but let me tell you I have the witness of honest Gentlemen that were the arbitrators and will justifie First that his cause was good and that there was not one word spoken but was confirmed by honest witnesses present Then he used no kind of imprecation in the world no not as I remember so much as a protestation or any asseveration there was not one oath sworn either by him or by others that were present There was not one uncharitable word spoken by him there was not any malice or ranckour or hatred appeared either on the one side or the other between them he was no way transported with passion He did plead his cause but with that meekness of spirit with that quietness with that sweet temper and that Christian moderation as more could not be required in any Saint of God Therefore brethren let me only tell you thus much while this was in agitation I could not perceive that he was moved at any thing he was not stirred he was not earnest in his cause Till it pleased God to touch him and he had some sense and feeling of it rising from his stool he sate rubbing of his cheek or his neck with his handkercheif He fell upon the neck of a Gentleman that sate close to him who perceiving that he was not well asked him how he did he was scarsely able to give us an answer I perceived that he was stricken with the dead palsie Brethren considering these things that I have told you before I beseech you judge not that you be not judged condemn not that you be not condemned You owe a duty to the truth every one of you and by that duty that you owe to the truth I was about to say I charge you as before God but I beseech you as before God stop the
be said he straight-way dyed As a condemned person is called a dead man though he be respited for a time Besides the Messengers and Sergeants of death presently took hold of him and arrested him for sin as hunger and thirst and cold and diseases daily wasting of the natural moysture to the quenching of life Indeed God suffered him that the sentence was not presently executed so to commend his own patience and to give to Adam occasion of salvation the promise of Christ being after made and he called to repentance by that means to attain a better life by Christ then he lost by sin It is objected again Christ redeemed us from all sin and all the punishment thereof but he did not redeem us from bodily death from temporal death for the faithful we see die still even as others do therefore it is concluded by some that temporal death is not the wages of sin for then when we were free from sin by Christ we should be freed from that Our answer to this is that Christ hath freed all his elect not only from eternal but even from temporal death though not from both in the same manner From temporal death first in hope of which the Apostle speaking 1 Cor. 15. saith The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death meaning temporal death at last then it shall be destroyed mortal shall put on immortality as the Apostle speaks but in the mean time it is destroyed in hope though it remain indeed and must be undergone even of the faithful in this life Howbeit to them Christ hath changed the nature of it and now they no longer undergo it as the wages of sin but for other causes As first the exercise of their graces their faith and hope and patience and the rest all these are exercised as in other afflictions so even in the death of Gods Children Secondly the total removal and riddance of the reliques of sin from which they are not freed in this life but when they die then all sin is taken away for as at the first sin brought death into the world so to the faithful now death carries it out again Thirdly their entrance into heaven and to be at home with the Lord from whom we are absent as long as we are at home in these bodies Fourthly to prepare their bodies for renuing at the last day that is done by death for as a decayed Image or statue must first be broken that it may be new cast so these bodies of ours must be broken by death that they may be cast into a new mould of immortality at the general resurrection But here as some sin remains so death remains though we be in Christ yet we are still in that estate wherein it is appointed to all men once to die Thus even temporal death is left to the Children of God to be undergone before they come to heaven It is left to them I say and that justly in respect of the remnants of sin yet they undergo it no other way but for their own good and benefit However temporal death in its own nature to an unbeleever is the wages of sin And as temporal so eternal death for when God told man that in the day he finned he should die the death he meant not only temporal but eternal death he meant that principally as I shewed before in that the Apostle opposeth it to eternal life in the next clause of the sentence Now Christ hath freed all beleevers actually from eternal death But how eternal death should be the wages of sin may be doubted because between the work and the wages there must be some proportion that seems not to be between sin and eternal death for sin is a finite a temporal thing committed in a short time and that death is eternal Now to punisha temporal fault with an eternal punishment it seems that it is to make the punishment to exceed the fault and that is against justice But for an answer to this doubt we must know that however sin considered in the act and as it is a transcient action it is finite yet in other respects it is infinite and that in a threefold consideration First in respect of the object against whom it is committed for being the offence of an infinite Majesty it deserves an infinite punishment for we know oftences are reckoned of for their greatness according as the greatness of the person is against whom they are committed If he that clips the Kings coyn or deface the Kings Arms or counterfeit the broad Seal of England or the Princes privie Seal ought to die as a traytor because this disgrace tends to the person of the Prince much more ought he that violates the law of God die the first and second death too because it tends to the defacing of the Image and the disgracing of the person of God himself who is contemned and dishonoured in every sin Secondly sin is infinite in respect of the subject wherein it is the soul of man Seeing the soul is immortal and of an everlasting substance and that the guilt of sin and the blot together stain the soul as a crimson and skarlet die upon wooll and can no more be severed from the soul then the spots from the Leopard it remains as the soul is eternal and as that is everlasting so sin is infinite in durance and continuance and deserves an infinite wages and punishment which is eternal death Thirdly it is infinite also in respect of the tie between the desire and endeavour of an impenitent sinner for his desire is to walk on still in sin and except God cut off the line of life never to give over sinning but he would run on infinitely committing sin even with greediness And it is reason that as God accepts the will for the deed in godliness so he should punish the will for the deed in wickedness if we sin according to our eternity in our will and purpose to sin God will punish us according to his eternity it is just that they that would never be without sin if they might have their own will should never be without punishment Thus we see eternal death is the wages of sin though sin be committed in a moment though it be a transcient action in it self yet it is just with God to give it the wages of eternal death So you see Death both temporal and eternal is the wages of sin We come to the Use of the point being thus declared First it teacheth us contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome that original lust and concupiscence in the regenerate is a sin for how else should God be just in inflicting temporal death upon infants that are regenerate actual sins they have none and if they have no original sin neither then God should inflict the wages of sin where there were no sin which connot be because there is no
committed to my custody never any but one escaped whom the heaven of heavens could not contain much less any earthly prison he might truly say and none but he O grave where is thy victory all save him I keep in safe custody that were ever sent to me Yet may all that die in Jesus and expect a glorious Resurrection by him even now by faith insult over the Grave for Faith calls those things that are not as if they were it looketh backward as far as the Creation which produced all things at the first of nothing and as far forward to the resurrection which shall restore all things from nothing or that which is as much as nothing Faith with an eye annointed with the eye-salve of the spirit seeth death swallowed up into victory and the earth and sea casting up all their dead and upon this evidence of things not seen triumpheth over Death and Hell saying O Death where is thy sting O Hell where is thy victory We have spoken hitherto of Death and the Grave let us now hear what they have to say to us Death saith fear not me the Grave Weep not immorderately for the dead Death bids us die to sin the Grave Bury all thy injuries and wrongs in the pit of oblivion both say to us slie sin and neither of us can hurt you both say to us Give thanks to him who hath given you victory over us both the sting of death pricks you not but if you die in the bosome of Christ rather delights and rickles you Death is no more Death but a sleep the Grave is no more a grave but a bed Death is but the putting off of our old rags the Grave is the Vestry and the Resurrection the new dressing and richly embroydering them Enough hath been said to convince us that Death which before was like a Serpent armed with a deadly sting is now but like a silly flie that buzzeth about us but cannot sting Yet as long as there is sin in us we cannot but in some degree fear Death and as long as natural affection remains in us take on for them that are taken away Neither doth Christian religion pluck out these affections by the root but only prune them All that my exhortation driveth unto is but to moderate passion by reason fear by hope grief by faith and nature by grace Let love express it self yet so that in affection to the dead we hurt not the living Let the natural springs of tears swell but not too much overflow their banks let not our eyes be all upon our loss on earth but our brothers gain also in heaven and let the one counter-ballance at least the other The parish hath lost a great stay his company in London a special ornament his Wife a careful Husband her Children a most tender Father the poor a good friend for besides that which his right hand gave in his life-time which his left hand knew not of by his Will he bequeathed certain sums of money for a stock to those Parishes wherein he formerly lived and to the poor of this twenty pounds to be distributed at his Funeral Many shall find loss of him but he hath gained God and is found of him no doubt in peace for there were many tokens of a true child of God very conspicuous in his life and death He loved the habitation of Gods house and the place where his honour dwelleth He was just in his dealings and sought peace all his life and ensued it he forgot nothing so easily as wrongs and though he enjoyed the blessings of this world in abundant measure yet he joyed not in them his heart was where his chief treasure lay in heaven he foretold his own death and the manner thereof that it should be sudden and sudden it was yet not unexpected nor unprepared for for three dayes before he set his house in order and desired to converse with Divines and all his discourses was of the kingdome of God and the powers of the life to come When the pangs of death came upon him he prayed most earnestly and desired if it so stood with Gods good pleasure to be eased yet uttered no speech of impatiency but being asked how he did answered that he was in Gods hands to whom he committed his soul as his faithful Creatour and so died as quietly as he lived wherefore sith he lived in Gods fear and died in his favour and shall rise again in his power though the loss of him be a great cut unto us as the loss of their children were to Pericles and Horatius Pulvillus yet as the one hearing of their death as he was at a solemn sacrifice kept on his Crown the other as he was at a dedication held still the pillar of the temple in his hand till the whole Ceremony was performed So let us continue our devotion notwithstanding this Parenthesis of sorrow and make an end of our evening sacrifice concluding with the words of the Apostle immediately following my Text Thanks be unto God who hath given unto our brother and will give unto us all victory over Death and the Grave yea and Hell to through Jesus Christ c. FATO FATVM OR THE KING OF FEARES FRIGHTED AND VANQUISHED SERMON XLIV HOSEA 13.14 O Death I will be thy plagues THe Rose is fenced with pricks and the sweetest Flowers of Paradice as this in my Text are beset with thorns or difficulties which after I have plucked away the Holy Spirit assisting me I will open the leaves and blow the flowers in the Explication of this Scripture and in the Application thereof smell to them and draw from thence a savour of life unto life The Thorn groweth upon the diversity of Translations for Rabbi Shelamo larchi reads the words Ego ero verba tua ô mors I will be thy words O Death Aben Ezra ero causatuoe mortis I will be the cause of thy death Saint Jerome Ero mors tua ô mors O Death I will be thy death O Hell I will bite thee and he conceiveth that when our Saviour descended into Hell and his flesh in the Grave saw no corruption he spake these words to Death and Hell O death I will be thy death for therefore I dyed that thou mightest be slain by my death O hell I will bite and devour thee which devourest all things in thy chops The Septuagint render the Hebrew ubi causa tua ô mors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where is thy plea or thy indictment what hast thou now to say against the chosen of god Saint Paul ubi stimulus tuus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O death where is thy sting that is faith Saint Austin where is sin wherewith we are stung and poysoned Is not this Ghius ad Choum do not these Translations as well agree as harp and harrow neither can it be answered to salve the repugnancy and solve the difficulty that
him to rule and command his own Generation and yet it is said he served the same Princes are not priviledged by their greatness only to tyrannize over others but are accountable to God how well they discharge their duty to all such to whom they are respected Proceed we to see how David served his generation which he did in an eight-fold capacity First as a dutiful son to his Father and Mother 1 Sam. 22.3 And David went thence to Nizpeh of Moab and he said unto the King of Moab Let my Father and Mother I pray thee come forth and be with you till I know what God will do for me And be brought them before the King of Moab and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the hold The case was thus David foresaw that the tempest of Sauls fury would fall full heavy on his Fathers family he foresaw also that though he himself might be alwayes on the wing hunted from place to place as a Partridge on the Mountain yet his aged Parents could not keep pace with his suddain uncertain unseasonable late and long removeance and therefore as a dutiful son he provided for them a private place of peaceable repose Secondly he served his generation as a very loving Brother witness the dangerous visit whith at his Fathers command he gave his Brethren in the Camp when Goliah was in the field victualling them with all necessary provision on the same token that he received nothing for his pains save a jeer from Eliab his eldest brother 1 Sam. 17.28 Why camest thou down hither and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness I know thy pride and the naughtiness of thine heart for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle Thirdly he served his ganeration as a kind and carefull Husband I will not excuse his Polygamy having many wives at once nor dare I flatly condemn it God conniving thereat in the antient Patriarches However David cannot be charged with want of love amongst his store of wives Once I confess he made a tart and sharp return to Miehal 2 Sam. 6.21 mocking him for dancing before the Ark. But was there not a cause when through the sides of David she struck at all true devotion and smartness on such occasion is zeal and no trespass against Marital affection Fourthly he served his generation as a tender Father indeed he faulty it was in the excess being over-indulgent to Absolom and Adoniah whom he never took to task nor called to account 1 Kings 1.6 Why have you done so and seeing he would not use the rod on them God therefore used them as a rod on him such cockerings we confess is a catching disease amongst us parents but to give David his due for the main he behaved himself no doubt as a discreet and tender Father to his numerous issue Fifthly he was a fast and faithful Friend witness the exchange of hearts as well as cloathes which passed betwixt him and Jonathan yea David made a tripartite expression of his affection 1. He loved Jonathan in his life 2. Lamented him at 3. Shewed mercy to him after his death 2 Sam. 6.3 in restoring Nephiboseth to all his lands and making him Fellow-Commoner at his own Table So that we may truly say and justifie the expression There was two men Jonathan and David and it will be made good by the Rules of Amity if any question the phrase in the Rule of Grammer Sixthly he was a loyal Subject whereof he gave two signal testimonies like to find more to admire then to imitate them amongst posterity if any should chance to be estated in his condition with the same advantage For being Reversion'd to the Crown he twice had an opportunity if so pleased to put himself into the present possession thereof Once when he had Saul in the Cave 1 Sam. 24.5 and his heart smote him for being over-bold with Gods annointed though he did but cut off a skirt of his Garment Again 1 Sam. 26.12 When he found Saul a sleeping and if so disposed might have left him a sleeping till the sound of the last Trumpet should summon him to awake A surly General walking the Round and finding one of his Centinels asleep nailed him with his spear to the earth and excused his act with this jest whether witty or cruel let others judge Dormientem inveni Dormientem reliqui Sleeping I found him and sleeping I left him David might have done the like especially seeing Abisha not to say Providence impelled him thereunto but would not as having a principle of piety within him which remonstrated against such proceedings Seventhly he was a prudent Soveraign both in peace and war in Court and Camp for the space of full forty years going in and out before the people of Israel whom he ruled prudently with all his might I confess his son Absolom taxed him with neglect of the affairs of State 2 Sam. 15.3 that no man was deputed by him to hear the causes and redress the grievances of his oppressed subjects But what saith our plain proverb Ill will never speaks well And therefore I listen to Absoloms words as to a loud Libell and we should be no less injurious to our own judgements then to Davids innocence in giving credit to a proud ambitions son against an holy and humble Father Eightly and lastly David served his generation as a gracious Saint this was the Diamond of the Ring and I have kept the best wine for the last to close and conclude Davids character therewith He is termed in this Chapter ver 22. a man after Gods own heart being the best transcript or copy of the best Original Objection But you wittingly and willingly and wilfully will some say have suppressed and concealed a necessary truth because tending to Davids disparagement Saint Paul saith Titus 3.3 that some men serve divers lusts and pleasures and so did David himself He did not serve his generation but his own wicked wantonness when he imbroydered his Adultery with Bathsheba with the Murder of Uriah Answer O not a word not a syllable not a letter not a tittle hereof God hath forgotten it why should man remember it God hath cast it behind his back why should we cast it in the teeth of Davids memory let us never mention it to his disgrace but for our own direction Partly to teach us not to trust in our selves lest we fall into sin partly to comfort us that after sin committed pardon is obtainable on our unfeigned repentance Yea this is a very comfortable consideration That though there be many faults failings and defects in our performances yet if there be sincerity Gospel perfection therein if our hearts be set to seek the Lord God of our Fathers God will be mercifull unto us though we be not purified according to the purification of the Sanctuary Thus Lot not withstanding the soul
's the reason of this but that man may come to this conclusion with himself that he may bring his own heart to a reckoning for his former carriage This is that the Apostle faith for this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep some were taken with sickness upon others there was a consuming weakness and others were strucken with death what is the end that God propounds in all this For this reason that we should judge our sevles for if we judge our selves wee shall not be judged of the Lord but when we are judged wee are chastned of the Lord that we should not be condemned of the world As if he should say God now calleth you to a reckoning in this life to the end you may prevent that heavy and grievous one that comes after this life Againe when outward afflictions prevail not God hath spiritual afflictions to awaken men Thus David when he was in a deepe sleep of securitie God awakned him with a spiritual judgment see his speech in the 32 Psal When I kept close my sinnes my boues were consumed and I roared for the disquietnesse of my soul what followed God by this means brought him to confession I will confesse my transgressions to the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquitie of my sinne Thus God in this life calleth men to a reckoning sometimes by the preaching of the Word sometimes by judgments upon the outward man or by terrours upon the soule But if all this prevaile not to make a man reckon with himselfe in this life then God hath another reckoning after this life where every man must give an account and cannot avoid it and there he must abide the sentence of the Judg that would not prevent it before That there is such a Judgment to come it appeareth By the Equitie of it By the Necessitie of it In respect of God In respect of the Saints In respect of the wicked First I say in respect of God there is a necessitie of it That his Decree may be fulfilled and executed Hee hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousnesse And his counsell shall stand and he will doe all his pleasure Secondly it is necessary that Gods honour may be vindicated Now things seeme to go in some confusion and disorder in the world good men the children of God are not alwayes best in the place of judgment I have seene saith Solomon an evil under the Sunne that in the place of judgment wickednesse was there and in the place of righteousnesse that iniquitie was there this observation Solomon makes therefore I said God will bring to judgement every thing both good and evill for there is a time for every work and every purpose God hath a time to doe that great work that he hath now purposed What is that work that is to bring every work to judgement whether it be good or evill I say if we consider this it is necessary that there should come a judgment that shall set all right againe It is necessarie likewise in respect of the Saints The very tribulations of the Saints in 2 Thes 1.5 are called Indigma an evident demonstration or a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God There is a necessitie of it in respect of them in two regards First that there innocencie that is traduced here may be manifest They undergoe many disgraces and hard censures amongst men the world accounts them proud hypocrites singular foolish vaine-glorious and I know not what now saith Iob my witnesse is in heaven and saith Saint Paul I care not to be judged of you or of mans judgment he that judgeth me is the Lord. The Word in the Greek is mans day as if he should say Men have their day here but God hath a greater day after the Lord will judg in another manner and upon other grounds than men doe Secondly it is necessary also That their works may be rewarded When we speak of reward wee meane not the reward of merit wee meane the reward of grace called a reward because God is tied to it by his promise The servants of God though they serve him with all care they have not the fatt of the earth as sometimes the Ishmaels of the world have they doe not abound with outward things as many others doe nay sometimes they are in the worst condition and that makes Gods wayes the more despised as if God were not able to maintaine his servants in the world in his wayes and worke God therefore hath a time when his servants shall have full measure heaped up pressed down shaken together and running over When God shall make up his jewels as he saith in Malac. 3. then shall yee discerne between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not Marke yee shall discerne God will make it appeare to the whole world in the day when he makes up his jewels that not withstanding his servants are dispised and lie here under divers pressures yet that they are a people whom he delights in and accounteth as his treasures Thirdly it is necessarie in respect of the wicked too that is First that Gods righteousnesse may fully be manifested Secondly that their unrighteousnesse may fully bee punished First I say that Gods righteousnesse may fully bee manifested therefore the day of Judgment in Rom. 2.5 is called a day of wrath and revelation of the righteous Judgment of God As if he should say As God will manifest his wrath against the vessels of wrath so he will make it appear to the world that he proceedeth in a right manner and by a right rule in judging For wee must know that howsoever God cannot bee unjust and how soever that the ungodly men in this life contend with their owne consciences such is the hardnesse of their hearts and abundance of corruption that they would faine justifie themselves amongst men and againe howsoever it bee true that the soule when it is departed out of the body is under Gods particular judgment by an intelectuall elevation of it that it may receive the sentence of the Judge by an illumination and by such a spiritual and contemplative discourse and observation and understanding of Gods actions as that by reflection upon it selfe it may know it selfe to be accursed or acpuitted and accordingly is entred into the possession either of happinesse or miserie Yet all this is secret in the world till the day of Gods tribunall come wherein secret things shall be made manifest and things that have beene done in darknesse shall appeare before men and Angels Secondly Gods justice must be cleared and fully manifested so the wicked and unrighteous must be fully punished They are not fully punished when they are under the sense of Gods wrath in this life or when the soule is judged at death there must be yet a
therefore goe about it now Reckon with others also for works of mercy what thou hast been wanting in to thy brethren thou hast lived thus long in a plentifull estate what hast thou done wich thy estate Josephus reckons up three several tenths that were expected and exacted of the Jews Wouldest thou be less liberal now in the time of the Gospel then they were under the law Is God lesse merciful or hath he less interest in thy estate Thou hast so many thousands What hast thou done out of this to releeve the poor or to set up those in a course of traffique and trade that want a stock Beloved you cannot if you look about you want objects of mercy and means to further your reckoning at the day of the Lord. And if you would be faithful stewards to God say thus I have been thus much behind-hand in paying the due I owe to the poor to the Church c. I will pay it while I live and if that be not enough when I die I will pay it But I hasten That is the second thing Let every man reckon thus with his own heart The third thing is the daily exercise of repentance upon the sight of your former evils God now saith the Apostle calleth all men every where to repentance because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness Let this then stir us up to repentance God expects that men should judge themselves now Fourthly If you would stand at that great day of Judgement when there shall be such an exact reckoning Interest now your selves in Christ There is no way to escape the Judgement to come but by making peace with the Judge now There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus This was prefigured in the Mercy-seate that was to be compassed about with the wings of the Cherubins all covering the two tables of the Testament one Cherubin to look toward another shewing us thus much that there is no covering of our transgressions committed against the commandements of God the tables of the Testimony but by the great Mercy-seat the Lord Jesus Christ upon whome the Fathers of the times before Christ and Beleevers since look expecting the covering of the guilt of their sins from the wrath of God by no other means but by this propitiator or Mercy-seat that covereth the Arke of the Testimony Lastly it serveth also for instruction in another point that is To teach us to lead a holy conversation This use the Apostle Peter made of the Doctrin of the day of Judgement Seeing saith he that we locke for these things what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godlidesse Alas beloved little do you know whether this be the last Sermon that many of you may heare whether this be the last day wherein God will ever call upon you to repent and amend your lives There shall be a fearful dissolution and destruction of all things that you see There shall be a naked appearance made before the Judge at that day of reckoning let every man therefore say within himself How shall I stand at that time at that Judgement All our care should be that of the Apostle Pauls Whether we be absent from the body or present in the body we labour that we may be accepted of the Lord Whether we live a day longer or die this day before the morrow that we may be found acceptable before the Lord. And for this cause saith he in another place because there shall be a resurrection from the dead both of the just and unjust I exercise my self to have alwayes a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men Look to it in your places and in your hearts that you may have a good conscience void of offence toward God and men for the time shall come that nothing in the world shall stand you in stead but a good conscience and if then when the books are opened it be found that your reckonings are even and the accounts clear between you and your Master by obedience and repentance by works and by faith happy shall that servant be whome his Master at that day shall find so doing The last Use is a use of comfort to all the servants of God Let them quietly and cheerfully suffer that portion of miserie and affliction that the Lord dealeth out unto them Let them not grudge at the prosperity of ungodly men or at the variety of changes that themselves are exposed unto because there is a day of reckoning and account when all things shall be made even The Apostle Saint James exhorteth Christians to patience upon this very ground because the day of the Lord draweth nigh If therefore you see wicked men prosper and bring their enterprises to passe be not troubled at the matter A man doth not much envy an enemy that is now in prison though he have some good chear there though he have some friends that come and see him there because he knows he is but a Prisoner and he shall be brought out at the Assizes and then he shall be righted The world is the common Jayle whereinto Adam was cast after he had sinned and we are all prisoners in this prison-house the enemies of Gods glory and of his Church and people they cannot escape out of this prison here they are tied Gods chains are upon them and he will bring them to an account before his Judgement seate and that before all men and Angels With these things let us comfort and support our selves A word concerning the present occasion Yee have heard that all men are Gods Stewards yee have heard that God hath a time wherein he will call all his Stewards to an account the fore-runners of this great account shall be in this life and after death when God strikes men down by death it is that they may be brought into his presence and there receive the sentence either of absolution or condemnation as I shewed you before concerning the soul o man in that intelectual manner receiving the sentence It is appointed to all men once to die and after that the Judgement You have now a spectacle of mortality before you one of Gods stewards took away and called by death to give up his account Concerning whom it cannot be expected that I should say much or any thing at all specially by those that know both the condition of his living and of his dying For his living It was not in the Citie but for the most part it was from us in the Country For his dying He was here but a day or two before he was taken hence Hee came to the Citie in the extremity of his weaknesse and it took him with some violence as the nature of that disease the stone is There was much expression expected from him but it pleased God to make a sudden change more then we looked
see his face no more It parteth those friends who were so united together in love as if they had but one soul in two bodies see it in the separation that was made by death between David and Jonathan that were so knit together in their love that he bewaileth him Woe is me for my brother Jonathan This is a necessary consideration for us that live that we may learn to know how to carry ourselves towards our wordly friends and how to moderate our selves in our enjoyment of these worldly comforts Look upon every worldly thing as a mortal as a dying comfort Look upon children and friends as dying comforts Look upon your estates as that that hath wings and will be gone Look upon your bodies that now you make so much of as a thing that must be parted from the soul by death and that ere long See what advice the Apostle giveth 1 Cor. 7.19 the time is short saith he therefore let those that marry be as if they married not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it A man abuseth the world when he useth it beyond the consideration of the shortnesse of enjoying these things when he looks upon these things as things that he shall enjoy alwayes But if we would use it aright look upon things as things that we shall enjoy but for a short time This body that seemeth now to have some beauty in it yet it must die be laid in the dust these friends that seem now to have some pleasure and delight in them yet I must die and be took from them this estate and wealth that now I set so much price upon I must die and death will part me and it So I say look upon every thing as separable from us Moderate your affections likewise to them Use them onely as comforts in the way as a traveller doth the pleasures of his Inn he stands not to build himself houses against every pleasant walk he looks upon he stands not to purchase lands and to lay them to every Inn he comes to lie at No he knows that he is now but in his passage in his way he knows that he is not at home that is the place he is going to and after a time he shall come thither So make account that you are not now at home it is death that must help you to your home Let this therefore take you off from all these things that are in the way It is a strange thing to see how Sathan besotteth and befooleth men They strive and labour to compasse many worldly things as if their happinesse stood in the enjoyment of them as if they should have their wealth and their comforts for ever What care is there amongst men to get wealth and many times lose their souls in getting the world Alas Death will part soul and body them and their wealth and all Do we not see this daily in the death of others before us such a one is dead where is his body now in the dust Where are his friends and his companions now Where is his wealth and his estate for which many flattered him and fawned upon him are they not all separated from him they have nothing now to do with him he cannot dispose of one penny of his estate now it is left he knows not to whom others now have the mannaging of it As now you can say this of others so there will a time come that other men will say the like of you I had such a friend but death hath parted him from me he had such an estate but death hath parted him and his estate Let us therefore make this use of the death of others to conclude with our selves that there will be a parting of all those outward things that now we are so apt to dote upon The third special thing considerable in the death of others that will be matter of profit and benefit to those that live and survive after them is the end and cause for which God sendeth Death abroad into the world with such a large commission that it goeth on with such liberty to every family to every place that it seizeth upon every person What 's the reason of it You shall see in the several deaths of men several causes There is judgement and mercy sometime a mixture of both and sometime but of one of these Sometimes we see an apparant judgement of God in the death of some A judgement of God upon themselves Thus the young Prophet that disobeyed the word of the Lord a Lyon met him in the way and slew him So those Corinths that did eat and drink unworthily in the Lords Supper though they were such as were saved after yet neverthelesse for this very cause saith the Apostle some of them were sick and weak and some slept they died they were judged of the Lord that they might not be condemned with the world When you see death seizing upon men as an act of divine judgement of divine displeasure let it make you more fearful of sinning against God lest you provoke against your selves the same warth in the very act of sin Sometimes again it is a judgement of God upon others Thus God takes away divers of his servants because the world is not worthy of them And as this is an act of judgement upon the world so it is an act of mercy to them God in mercy taking of them away from the evil to come and from the evil present A judgement of God to others that are udworthy of them A mercy to themselves that they are took away from their own evil from sin from temptations from all the effects and fruits of sin and taken away from the evil that is to come upon others An act I say of mercy to them So it was to the child of Jeroboam he should die and should not see the judgement that was to come upon his fathers house because there was found some good thing in him toward the Lord. So it was to Josiah He should be gathered to his fathers in peace and his eyes should not see all that evill which the Lord would bring upon Jerusalem and upon the inhabitants thereof An act of judgement to others Righteous and merciful men are taken away and no man layeth it to heart they consider not the causes wherefore God takes away those good men A Land a Kingdom a State a People a place is much weakned when those that are righteous and merciful men when those that stand in the gap and use their endeavours to prevent judgments are taken away The house will certainly fall when the Pillars are removed They are the people of God only that hold up a state that hold up the world Assoon as Noah is put into the Ark presently cometh the deluge upon the World Assoon as
the Stage by Death You will say this is a hard condition for so Noble a creature as Man is to be folded up in the grave for so fair a beauty as the life of man is to be closed up in eternal darkness that man should turn to the acquaintance of dust and worms and make his habitation with rottenness and loathsomeness that Death should have the victory of so excellent a Creature it is a hard condition The Apostle thinks not so he thinks otherwise Death faith he ver 54. is swallowed up in victory As if he should say It need not trouble you to think so of Death the condition of it is not so strange and hard as men take it to be It is swallowed up in victory If a man have a strong enemy to deal with it might trouble him but it is no great matter to deal with a conquered enemy Christ hath overcome Death hath conquered that strong enemy Death is swallowed up in victory Therefore Saint Paul in the precedent and subsequent verses of this Chapter seemeth to insult and triumph over Death Oh Death faith he where is thy sting Oh grave where is thy victory As if he should say before Christ came and conquered thee Death thou wert victorious so it was there was a sting in it before Christ sweetned the grave there was something that was terrible in the Grave but now because Christ is come and hath gotten the victory over the one and sweetned the other therefore Saint Paul breaks forth thus into an insultation and triumph But how can this be Why doth the Apostle thus triumph The reason is insinuated in the verse I have read to you the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law But this is the occasion of trouble to Christians No it is not thanks be to God that hath given us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord As if he should say I will shew you the reason of my triumphing over Death there was a sting in Sin and Sin is the sting of Death and the Law is the strength of sin but Christ hath took away sin and hath satisfied the Law sin being taken away Death cannot hurt me the Law being satisfied Sin cannot prejudiceme This was the cause of the Apostle and in him of every Christians insultation over Death The words I have read contain two parts First the sting of Death Secondly the strength of Sin First the sting of death is sin Secondly the strength of sin is the Law If there were no law there would be no sin and if there were no sin there would be no death Sin is the transgression of the Law and sin is the sting of death I shall only at this time insist upon the first of these from whence I shall deliver that which if it please God to accompany with his Spirit may be useful to you The proposition shall be the very words of the Text. Sin is the sting of death This Proposition I would not have you understaud in this sense only that death came in by sin meerly in a habit though that be true too But understand it in this sense That all the horrour and terribleness of Death all the power and rage it hath whatsoever makes it fearful to a man it receiveth it all from sin It is sin that armeth Death against a man if Death have any weapons against a man Sin puts those weapons into the hands of Death if Death have any poyson against a Christian the sin of that person putteth that poyson in it Death may be considered two wayes either as Christ hath made it or as we make it Death as Christ hath made it is a medicine to a Christian a passage and entrance to happiness it is a day of redemption and refreshing and so we need not be afraid of it Death as we by sin have made it is the Pale horse Saint John speaks of in the Revelation it is as a fearful arrest to the debtor it hath a sting in it and so it is feareful But that I may open this point more profitably we will inquire into these particulars First what death the Apostle speaks of here Secondly of what sin he speaks of Thirdly in what respect sin is called the sting of death And then we will make the use and application of all this First of what death doth the Apostle here speak of that sin is the sting of For answer hereunto there is a double death corporal and spiritual Corporal death is the privation of the soul when the soul is severed from the body Spiritual death when God and grace are severed from the soul The Text speaks of the corporal death Sin is not the sting of the spiritual death for the spiritual death is sin it self And hear I will not contend with any man if he be full of enquiry but I will distinguish two parts of spiritual death and I grant in one of them is this sting In spiritual death therefore there are two parts or two degrees The first is called the first death That I take to be the death of the soul in sin The second part is when soul and body are for ever closed up in Hell And in this part sin is the sting And remember this by the way Sin is not only a sting now but it will be a sting to men in Hell the sting the deadliness the exreamity of punishment that is in Hell it is received all from sin for the damned in Hell when they come there as they cease not to sin so the sting of sin ceaseth not to be with them and it may be delivered by conjecture I think Hell were no Hell if there were not the sting of sin there So then you see what death the Apostle speaks of principally of corporal death but it may be extended to the second part of spiritual death for their sin continueth and so the sting remaineth The next question is what sin the Apostle speaks of when he faith the sting of death is sin This is not a time to stir controversies therefore those ancient controversies and such as are lately stirred up about original sin how far it is the sting of death I let them go In a word to let you see what sin is the sting of death remember this Sin may be considered two wayes either as it is intire untouched uncrushed Let that sin be what it will be whether it be original only or whether it be any actual sin streaming from original whether it be a sin of ignorance or knowledg whether it be of pleasure or of profit A sin immediately that respecteth God or immadiately respecteth our neighbour whatsoever the sin be if it be not touched if it be not crushed if it scape uncontrouled if it be in its native power and keeps in his kingdome if it rule in a man that sin will certainly be the sting of
be greater then I can give warrant for they that die thus die eternally And we had need beseech God with all earnestness of spirit to keep us from such a fearful temptation as this for they that die thus die not in the Lord and therefore cannot be blessed for my Text saith it of no other but of those Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. This is the first point I come to the Restriction Die in the Lord. It may be construed two wayes the preposition is Ambiguous for the preposition many times in Scripture signifies In Domino or propter Dominum As Rom. 16.1 I commend unto you Phebe our sister that you would receive her in Domino in the Lord that is for the Lords sake as becometh Saints And in the twelfth verse of the same Chapter Salute the beloved Persis which laboured much in the Lord that is laboured much in Gods cause for the Lord. So again Say to Archippus look to the ministery that thou hast received In Domino that is for the Lord for the Lords service for his work I might give you many more instances There is one place most pregnant Eph. 4.1 I Paul a prisoner in Domino so saith the vulgar Latine and so is the Greek interpretation In the Lord. What meaneth Saint Paul A prisoner in the Lord what is that A prisoner for the Lord a prisoner for the Lords cause And thus you may take the word here in the Text Blessed are they that die in Domino that is such as die in causa Domini and thus Judicious Beza to whose judgment I attribute much in translations he readeth it so Blessed are the dead qui moriuutur causa Domini and then in his Annotations propter Dominum And if you take it thus then the Martyrs only are blessed That Martyrs are blessed the Church of God is so far from making a question that they set it down as a Rule Injuriam facit Martyri qui orat pro Martyre A man doth wrong to a Martyr that prayes for a Martyr their blessedness is so sure for He that loseth his life for my sake and the Gospels shall find it saith Christ If he loseth a temporal life he shall find an eternal If he lose a life accompanied with sorrow he shall find another life that is with joy such joy as cannot be conceived such joy as shall never be ended Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his Saints There are two things saith S. Bernard that makes the death of a Saint precious the one is a good life before the other is a good cause for which he dieth A good life will make it a precious death but a good cause will make it a more precious death But that is the most pretious death that hath both a good life before it and a good cause coming next The Matyrs are blessed but they must be such Martyrs as suffer for the Lord be sure of that or else they are not blessed There be some that would be accounted Martyrs a great company of such we have had of late that have died for broaching of reason and some for sowing of sedition some for absolving subjects from the oath of Alleageance some for attempting to blow up Parliament houses Such as these are not Martyrs It is not the punishment it is the cause that makes the Martyr Our blessed Lord himselfe that never did evil was crucified between two evil-doers there was an equal punishment there was not an equal cause It must be the cause that we must look to if we look to be blessed But I cantot stand upon that Here is the first interpretation To die in the Lord is for the Lord. But there is a second and that is more large die in the Lord that is die in the faith of the Lord. Salute Andronicus and Junius my fellow prisoners which were in the Lord before me Saith S. Paul that is that were Beleevers that were in the faith before me And to let pass many other places if there be no resurrection of the dead saith the Apostle then we that are asleep in Christ c. If we beleeve that Jesus died then those that sleep in Jesus shall he bring with him c. and Again He shall descend from heaven with a shout and they that are dead in Christ shall rise first Now what is it to die in Christ in a large sense I will tell you He that would die in Christ first he must die in obedience There are many works of obedience that we are to doe Our last and greatest act of obedience is to resign up this same spirit of ours willingly chearfully into the hands of God that gave it If we have not attained to that strength that some have done that is to live patiently and die willingly yet we should labour to attain to thus much strength to live willingly and to die patiently So as Christ may be magnified in my body saith the Apostle I pass not it makes no matter let it either be by life or by death When we have done the work that God hath set us to do we must be gone and thus must every one say with himself Lord if I have done all the work thou hast appointed me to do call me away at thy pleasure Here is the first In obedience Secondly Die in repentance I remember what Possidonius said of Saint Augustine a little before his death that it was necessary that men when they died they should not go out of the world absque digna competenti resipiscentiâ without a fit competent repentance He himselfe did so for he caused the penitential Plalmes to be written and they were before him as he lay upon his bed and he was continually reading those penitential Psalmes and meditating upon them with many tears he died even in the very act of contrition I do love to see a man chearful upon his death-bed but I do more love to see a man penitent There is a day indeed when God will wipe away all tears from our eyes When that cometh then he will wipe away these tears of repentance too these tears of godly sorrow But the Lord grant he may find me with tears in mine eyes Thirdly Die in faith Indeed if ever Faith had a work to doe it bath then a work to do when all other comforts in the world fail us and freinds go from us then faith to lay hold on the promises I know that my Redeemer liveth and that I shall rise again at the last day and be covered with my skin and shall see God with these same eyes Thus faith And then fourthly Die with Invocation calling upon the name of God Thus have all the Saints of God done continually commending of their souls to God in prayers Saint Paul would have us commend our souls to God in well-doing And it is a necesary thing every morning
Nation or Kingdom it is an infallible sign of judgement falling upon it And is must be so and there is great reason for it If we either consider the causes of security whence it cometh or the concommitants that accompany it or the fruits and events of it it must be that great judgements must befall men and places when they are under this carnal security First look to the causes Whence is it that men that are not at peace with God yet flatter themselves that they shall do well It proceedeth from that unbelief and infidelity that is in the hearts of men therefore they flatter themselves and pride themselves in things that will not hold them up in the end I say infidelity is the cause that men are so secure Did men beleeve the word of God that every threatning that goeth out of the mouth of God against any particular sin should certainly fall upon the head of the sinner durst they go on in a course of sinning against God Durst they add drunkenness to thirst one wickedness to another No certainly In that measure a man hath faith in that measure he feareth God and his judgements that he hath threatned See it in Noah Heb. 11. By faith Noah being warned of God moved with fear prepared an Ark. He beleeved the word of God was faithful that had threatned a judgement upon the world he beleeved the word of God that commanded him to provide an Ark for the safety of him and his house and therefore he feared the Deluge to come and prepared an Ark. So likewise Josiah when he read the book of the Law and saw what was threatned against the sins of the people his heart melted within him and why because he beleeved that this was the word of God he beleeved that God would be as true as his Word therefore his heart melted within him at the sight of those sins wherein the people had continued so long a time Nay it is made a discription of a beleever in Isa 61. That he is one that trembleth at Gods word On the other side what is the reason why infidelity doth presently bring judgements upon men The cause is apparant infidelity it draweth men from God An unbeleeving heart departs from the living God And when a man departs from Gods presence God pursueth him with his judgments All the judgements of God are upon that place where Gods presence in his graces is not If I go faith David to the uttermost parts of the earth thou art there if I go into the deep thou art there And how there Not only as an observer but as a punisher that is when men come to this point to flie from God Now unbeleef is a drawing of the soul from God to the creature therefore it provokes God for it sets up an Idol in the heart of man and Idolatry exceedingly provokes God and therefore he bringeth judgements upon it Beside that marke the threatning of the word against this Deut. 29. When a man heareth the words of this curse and blesseth himself and saith I shall have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart the Lord will not spare that man but the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoak against him and all the plagues that are written in this book shall be heaped on him When is that when is the time that the wrath of God shall smoak At that very time and instant when he flattereth himself with his vain conceits that he shall have peace though God threaten judgement then at that very instant the wrath of God shall fall upon such a man In this manner did God deal with the Israelites in Isa 6.9 10. Make the heart of this people fat make their ears heavy and why so that they may see and not perceive that they may hear and not understand lest they should be converted and I should heal them How long shall this be saith the Prophet till the Cities be wasted without inhabitant and the houses without man and the land be utterly desolate When God giveth over a people to be regardless in hearing the Word that they hear and do not hear ken they hear and do not regard they do not comforme and reform according to the doctrine delivered then God intendeth to sweep them away by judgement that they may be utterly left desolate as the Text saith You see then it must needs be a grievous fore-runner of a judgement upon a place or City or people or nation when they remain impenitent in their sins and yet cry peace Again secondly If you marke the concommitants what accompanies that carnal security in the heart of men and it will appear then that it must of necessity bring a judgement upon a Land and place What is that that accompanies it A disposition slighting of God himself When a man I say heareth the Word the judgements threatned heareth the Law warning him to take heed of wrath the Gospel alluring him to repent and yet all moveth him not but still he flattereth himself I say here is a disposition slighting God himself God in all his Attributes is slighted His power his wisdom his justice his truth is slighted yea his mercy and patience and long-suffering all are slighted when a man in the course of sin goeth on in carnal security Especially amongst the rest this is a slighting of Gods patience and long-suffering and forbearance of men Wherefore do men harden themselves against exhortation to repentance but because they presume upon the continuance of Gods long-suffering toward them Mark how the Lord takes notice of this The forbearance and long-suffering the goodness and mercy of God should lead thee to repentance and therefore God hath forbore thee all this while that he might bring thee to repentance But what if he do not Thou after thy hardness and impenitent heart heapest up as a treasure to thy self wrath against the day if wrath What day is that The day of the revelation of the righteous judgement of God As if he should say Now you obscure Gods justice and righteousness from others and from your selves Well God therefore will take a time to declare his righteous judgement for that purpose God hath a day of wrath and thy daily going on in sin against the long-suffering and patience of God it doth but add wrath to that day Thus it is when God hath borne with a man his own self So it is likewise when God warneth a man by his patience toward others What hardneth men in security Do we not see God hath been merciful to many sinners why may he not be so to me too He gave them repentance after many sins committed why may he not do so to me Mark what Solomon faith Eccles 8.11 Because sentence against an evil doer or an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is set in
Will not God be offended and displeased Shall I go on in this vanity Would I have the judgement of God find me in this company would I have it seize upon me in this imployment in this business in this action Fear lest God should strike thee in such an act lest Death should seize upon thee in such a place and let that make thee keep a constant watch against the shares that are in those places Fourthly keep good company Company you know is a good means to keep men awake Two are better then one and wo to him that is alone saith Solomon I say good company for there are a company that will infect you Keep not company with a froward person lest thou learn his frowardness So keep not company with drunken and swearing persons these are the Divels instruments to keep a man in carnal security No keep company with those that have a charge given them to exhort one another daily and to consider one another to provoke to love and good works Keep company with the Saints and make use of all opportunities to provoke others and to be provoked by others That is the fourth help Fifthly would you be kept from this sinful security then keep God alwayes in your sight It is a good way for a man that would keep himself awake to fix his eye upon some object Fix your eye upon this main object God Whether shall I depart from thy presence faith David This is that the Lord would have his people to consider to keep them from sin in Jer. 23.23 Am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not a God a far off Do not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord Can a man hide himself from God in any secret place Think in thy chamber in thy parlour in thy shop in thy house in thy friends house in the street in the Church in every place wheresoever thou art that there God is also If a man had but alwayes some one before him as a witness he would not venture upon many things that he now doth If a malefactour should see the Judge before him if the child had alwayes his fathers eye upon him or the servant had alwayes his Master sitting about him and above him though there are many that are unjust servants yet nevertheless he would serve him at least with eye-service Now set your selves in the eye of God that sees you in the dark hears you in your most secret whisperings knows every action of your life and every circumstance of those actions This will be a means to keep thee from security I will add but one more which is the sixt Consider thy latter end The night is now coming upon us If it were told any of us that this night thou shalt die as it was told the rich man in Luke 12. Thou fool this night shall they take away thy soul I think there is none that heareth me this day but he would certainly keep waking this night But it is not bodily waking we plead for but spiritual waking a waking from sin a waking to repentance And we tell you that Death is now at the door ready to seize upon you We speak not only to you that are aged that are at the brink of the grave but we speak also to you that are young Death may seize upon you and strike you this night be awakened now to repentance I remember what God said to the Church of Sardis Be watchful and strengthen the things that remain That Church was asleep as many of us are at this day God cometh to awaken you now as he did them that that little goodness you have left may be renewed and confirmed You that are quite out of the way of grace and go on in a course of sin sit now down and humble your souls get into a secret corner wherein you may consess those many provocations whereby you have provoked God all your dayes and resolve to amend if the Lord spare you Begin now delay it no longer it may be the last night the everlasting night to you take this warning now therefore be awakened to repentance This is that the Scripture calleth upon so much Eccless 11. Rejoyce O young man in the dayes of thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in thy youth and walk in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all this thou shalt come to Judgment As if he should say You that are in the middest of your delights that solace your selves in the middest of the abundance of the earth which you enjoy that sport your selves in the pleasures of this would know that there will come a Judgment day see therefore now what will best answer God then Since the end of all things is at hand saith the Apostle let us be sober and watch We know not how neer the end of the world is we know indeed it shall not be yet be cause Antichrist must be destroyed and the Jewes called before that day come but nevertheless certainly thy end is neer thy day thy particular death and that is the time of thy particular Judgment may be sudden It is appointed for all men once to die and after that cometh the Judgment That is the particular Judgment that cometh upon Death so I say this may be the night of thy death and the morning may be the day of thy particular doom Judg your selves now that you may not be Judged of the Lord It was the use that the Apostle made even to good men For this cause saith he many are sick and weak and many sleep that is they are dead what then If we would Judg our selves we should not be judged of the Lord. So say I to you judg your selves now bring your selves as prisoners before the Bar arraign your selves as malefactors before the Judg bring out the particular bills of inditement against your selves whereby you have provoked God yet there is mercy the day of grace and opportunity of repentance and turning unto God yet lasteth therefore do it now I might add many other helps to this purpose but these shall suffice at this present We have an example before our eyes enough to warne us of this Here is an example of Death which should teach us now to awaken our selves and not to live securely as men that dream of a long life for many years Here is a young man dead took away in the prime of his time in the beginning of his dayes his sickness though it held him not long yet it was somewhat violent How know you what a short time you have though you are now young or if you live longer what sickness you may have it may be you may be deprived of your reason and senses therefore now while health and reason and sense while these Warning Sermons are afforded take time and make use of time lest your security make good
in all causes and over all persons but over all causes too even Kings are subject to his regiment He bindeth Kings in chaines and Nobles in fetters of Iron Psal 149. The Kings of the earth saith Saint John and the rich and the great men and the great Captains and the mighty men they shall all hide themselves in the caves and rocks and mountains Revel 15. crying to the mountains and rocks to cover them from the face of the Judg and from the wrath of the Lamb because the day of desolation is come Nay God is not only over all the Kings of the earth but he is Potentate of heaven and hell too He hath a commanding power over all the Angels fear the Divels tremble when they come to stand before God In a word as Saint Paul saith all power is of God then of necessity followeth that God himself in his power is most absolute That is the second thing belonging to the office of a Judg as he must have knowledg to discerne so he must have power to execute Thirdly there must be Justice in the execution therefore the Grecians were wont to place justice between Libra and Leo to signifie indifferency in weighing causes and strictness in executing the sentence So the Egyptians signified as much by their Hierogliphical purtraicture of an Angel without hands wincking or without eyes such a one a Judg should be he should have no hands to receive bribes nor no eyes to respect persons the person of a Judg must not take the person of a friend A man must not personate a friend in justice but as Levi he must know neither father nor mother nor brother Justice amongst us is purtraicted holding a Ballance in one hand and a sword in another the Ballance sheweth the upright weighing of causes and the Sword sheweth the strictness of the execution of the sentence And if this Execution be wanting both the other are to no purpose It is to no purpose to know and to have power if their be not Justice But God is a true and just Judg Howsoever it be amongst the Judges of the earth yet unworthy is he of the place of a Judg and fitter to stand at the Barr then to sit on the Bench that suffereth himself to miscarry by friendship or love or bribes or sutes or favour or envie when either of these prevail they tie the tongues of men to plead for wrong causes Shall a Traytour presume on the Kings favour and Mordecai be out of the Kings grace But there shall be no such thing here God is the Judg of all the earth and shall not he do right Gen. 18. Doth God pervert judgment or doth the Almighty pervert Justice Job 8.3 When thou standest before the Judgment seat of God thou shalt neither be elevated with vain hopes nor dejected and cast down by sinister and wrong fears but assure thy self such as thy cause is such shall thy sentence be as Saint Bernard well a pure heart shall prevail more with God then a smooth word good consciences shall speed better then full purses for he is an upright and just Judg with whom no fair words nor friends shall prevail So I have done with the first thing The Judg. Secondly something of the Judgment and therein two things First that it shall be Secondly in what manner it shall be First that it shall be The text is plain God shall bring to Judgment There might many Texts besides this be alledged consonant and agreeable to this but it is superfluous Besides Texts of Scripture we have Types also to prefigure it and reasons also to prove and confirm it Two Types of the last Judgment our Saviour himself propoundeth Luk 17. One was the destruction upon Sodome the other the destruction that God brought upon the old world Look as Christ saith how it was with them of Sodome in the dayes of Lot they did eat they drank they bought they sold they planted they builded and look how it was with the men of the old world in the dayes of Noah eating and drinking and sporting and marrying until the very day that Noah entred into the Ark and the flood came and destroyed them all So it shall be at the last day when the Son of man shall come The Apostle Saint Peter speaking of the latter of these telleth us of mockers in those times that scoffed when they heard of the Judgment there hath been talk a great while of such things promised but when will it come Where is the promise of his coming There are scoffers in these dayes but such if there be any cannot but speak against their own consciences and knowledg they cannot be ignorant both of the Judgments that have been and shall be or if they be they are wilfully ignorant That God did once wash away the sins of the world with a Flood of water and that the time is coming that God will purge the sins of the world with a flood of fire the Rainbow in the clouds as it is a Monument of the one so it is a fore-runner of the other The two principal colours of the Rainbow are blew and red the blew and waterish colour of the Rainbow is an evidence of that Judgment that is past when God washed the sins of the world away by Water the fiery colour is a prediction of a Judgment that is to come when God shall purge the world by a Flood of fire But besides these Types there are divers reasons that may be given to assure us that we have reason to expect this day Those five Attributes of God afford five reasons to confirm it His Power his Wisdome his Truth his Justice his Mercy First his Power God will have it be thus for the manifestation of his Power A work of great power it will be indeed All must be brought before Gods judgment seate every one as the Text saith after It may seem strange peradventure incredible to here that all the men and women that ever lived in the world that so many multitudes and millions of thousands of all kindreds and nations should all be summoned to appear before one Judgement seat But as Saint Austin faith Consider who is the doer and then thou wilt not doubt It is true indeed with men such a thing as this is impossible but with God all things are possible Could God at the first draw all things out of nothing and cannot God as well bring together all again when they are turned to nothing Could he make that body of thine out of the dust of the earth and cannot he raise that body when it is turned to dust Could he unite that body to the soul in the time of the Creation and cannot he unite it at the time of the Resurrection Certainly there is nothing impossible too hard to the great and terrible voyce of God as Saint Chrysostome saith to that voyce of God that cleaveth the
affections of the whole man yeeld obedience now to his will and thou shalt find him a Jesus then He is not a Jesus a Saviour except he be a Lord and Commander also But you see I cannot stand to insist upon this The occasion of our meeting at this time is to commit to the Earth the body of our Sister departed She hath now the termination and conclusion of all her waiting and expectation And after so long a waiting there remaineth a sleeping in the Grave awhile when the soul resteth in the hands of Christ and waiteth for that great day when body and soul shall be joyned together I perswade my self well of her that She was one of the number of those waiters that shall have joy at the coming of Christ I had not much knowledg af her only I observed in her sickness a good purpose and desire of new and better obedience and performing better service to Christ then she had done if God should have spared her longer And she expressed also a great desire of Christs second coming a desire that he would receive her to himself and that these dayes of sin might be finished Much she was in these desires and she had good warrant for it for she was careful as I am informed to set up the kingdome of Christ in her Family It is the duty of a good Wife to be a help to her Husband especially in matters of piety and the worship of God and therein her example should teach wives to strive herein She was alwayes stirring him up to prayer in his Family to a more careful sanctifying of the Lords day herein She was frequent She was much mortified to the world for some late years as it was observed in her daily course by those that knew her Thus she laboured to fit her self and her Family that she might have comfort in the great Day of the appearing of the Lord Jesus I speak upon information for your edification to stir you up to labour to fit your selves for Christ by purging out of sin in your hearts and lives Labour to fit your Families for Christ that when you and your servants and children shall appear before him you may look on them and look on Christ with comfort as men that before have prepared themselves for the coming of Christ and as those that then shall lift up their heads because the day of their redemption draweth nigh CHRISTS PRECEPT AND PROMISE OR SECURITY AGAINST DEATH SERMON XVII JOHN 8.51 Verily verily I say unto you if a man keep my saying he shall never see Death IT is not long men and brethren since Death rode in triumph thorow this City and did bear down all before him he locked up your houses pulled down your windows and made the wealthiest among you put upon them the semblance of Banckroutness by locking up their doors and turning their backs to their houses and running away so it plaid the Tyrant then there died thousands a week and the Grave that alwaies cryeth Give give was almost cloyed with carkasses Death served himself so fast that the Prison could scarse hold the Prisoners It might almost have been said then of this City as once it was of AEgypt There was scarse a house wherein some were not dead at least where there was not the fear of Death Now it hath pleased God to shew you more favour and men now die but by scores Death goeth his old pace and takes away a few secretly without observation But Death is amongst you still and still will be so long as sin is among you and therefore it will not be unseasonable upon this occasion for me to speak and you to hear somewhat that may arme you against this last and worst Enemy Death which though he make not such a stir in these times of less Mortality yet he will certainly take us all away one by one And who can tell but he may be amongst the number of the hundred or fewer hundreds that die now as no man could tell wether he should be amongst the number of the thousands then Since Death therefore is alwayes an enemy and alwayes fighteth against us though not alwayes with like fury and violence it is a part of wisdome in us alwayes to hear and to practise that which may secure us against the danger of death And that is taught in this Text. Verily verily I say unto you If a man keep my saying he shall never see death Wherein not to speak any thing of the Context I pray take notice who speaks the words The Author of truth the Death of Death he that can best tell by what means a man may shun the hurt of it he that hath vanquished it and overcome the uttermost of his assaults Our Lord Jesus Christ that hath slain death and brought life and immortality to light He giveth us this direction for the avoyding of the hurt of Death Then observe the manner of his speaking Verily verily I say unto you with an affirmation earnest and redoubled He never affirmed any thing unture therefore that which he speaks is an undoubted verity He never spake any thing rashly therefore that which he affirmed so earnestly is a weighty thing and of great consequence And lastly observe that which I only shall insist upon the matter of his direction here comprehended in a hypothetical proposition which hath as all such have two parts An Antecedent and a Consequent In the one he sheweth the Duty to be done as a necessary condition for the obtaining of that which is specified in the other The first hath the Duty The second the benefit that floweth from the Duty These two are knit together in a most necessary consequence If a man keep my word he shall never see death You see now the only and perfect remedy against the evil of Death that is to keep the saying and word of Christ If any would know by what means he may be secured against the terrible of all terrible things as one calleth Death here is a sure and certain rule for him and he need not doubt of it it cometh from the mouth of Christ let him keep his saying and then Death shall never do him harm I will first interpret these words unto you and then make them good by Scripture and Reason and then apply them and commit my self and you and all at last to the blessing of God First then when our Saviour Christ saith If a man we must conceive him to mean generally at least indefinitely If any man whatsoever for so it pleaseth him to in large his promise in the redoubling of the word that no man may have cause to say he is excluded except he exclude himself Keep my sayings Here first I must shew you what is meant by sayings and then what it is to keep those sayings The Saying or words of Christ is the doctrine of the Gospel the Covenant of Grace which by an excellency
men oft rejoyce they are prudent and wise And you see that this is a vain thing In the second place if a young man rejoyce in his honour and credit amongst men this also is vain Solomon hath shewed it Eccles 2.16 He 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 fool for ever for that which now is in the dayes to come shall be forgotten and how dieth the wise man as the fool Again if a man rejoyce in honour and much glory he cannot beleeve so faith Christ John 5.44 How can you beleeve since you seek honour one of another and not the honour that cometh of God only And it is noted to be the reason why many of the chief 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 envy Gal. 5.26 Be not desirous of vain-glory envying one another Envy is a vexing affection this vain-glory is the cause of this envy whereby we shall pine away when we see the happiness and welfare of our brethren Further if young men delight in pleasures which is the common course of youth these also are vain things I said in my heart saith Solomon Eccles 2.2 Go to now I will prove thee with mirth therefore enjoy pleasure and behold this also is vanity Kings that have had the greatest wisdome to invent them and the greatest leisure to use them yet they never found full contentment in the same I made me saith he vers 4. great works I builded me houses I planted me vineyards I made me gardens and orchards and planted trees in them of all kind of fruits I made me pools of water I got me servants and maidens also I had great possessions of great and small cattel above all that were in Jerusalem before me I got me 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 vers 11. Behold saith he I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought and on the labour that I had laboured to do and behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit and there was no profit under the Sun The wise Solomon that had been 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 Sun Yet further these pleasures shall cease there shall be an end of them 1 Cor. 7.29 The time is short it remaineth that those that have wives be 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 choak the word of God that it cannot bring forth grateful fruit to God Fourthly if young men delight in riches and rejoyce in their estates that God that given them this likewise is a vain thing For first many times wealth is gotten by deceit and then God bloweth on it Jer. 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 net my soul be avenged on such people as this Again wealch is kept with much sorrow Eccles 5.12 The sleep of the labouring man is sweet whether he eate little or much but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep Thirdly wealth is lost with a great deal of sorrow and vexation Rev. 18.18 when the smoak of Babylon ascended up to heaven Oh what lamencation there was they cryed out What city is like unto this great city and they cost dust on their heads and cryed weeping and wailing saying Alas alas that great city wherein were made rich all that had shipps in the sea by reason of her costliness for in one hour is she made desolate But suppose further that a man should get and keep his wealth in the fear of God yet these things are most uncertain as the Apostle faith 2 Tim. 1.16 Charge them that are rich in this world that they trust not in uncertain riches Lastly these riches cannot preserve our life so faith Christ himself Luke 12.25 Take heed and beware of Covetousness for no mans life is preserved by the abundance of that he possesseth In the last place If young men rejoyce in friends and Allies this also is a vain thing For Psal 62.9 The man of low degree is vanity and the man of high degree is a lie to be laid in the ballance they are lighter then vanity Again no friend can deliver us from Death Psal 49.7.8 No man can by any means redeem his brother nor give to God a ransome for him for the redemption of their soul is precious and it ceaseth for ever that he should still live for ever and not see corruption Thus I have shewed several things that young men rejoyce in and have shewed likewise that their joy is founded upon vanity upon nothing And this is the second means to heal young men of the inordinateness of their Joy to meditate with themselves how vain and frivolous all things are that they delight in The third means is to betake themselves to seek spiritual joy The well-head of this Joy is God whom the Scripture calleth the God of cousolation The instrument to convey this Joy is Faith Rom. 5.1 Being jnstified by faith we 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 book of life Here is the fountaine of spiritual joy to a true Christian Rejoyce saith Christ not that the divels are fallen before you but that your names are written in the book of life Secondly the other ground of spiritual joy is the good things promised us And those may be reduced to two heads God hath made promises either in regard of evil things as we call them of afflictions that befall us Or the weakness of the graces that are in us Now in the evil of Affliction we may rejoyce first In the promise of protection in affliction 2. In the promise of Edification by affliction 3. In the promise of deliverence from affliction All in the best season Again for the defects of grace in us which indeed is a thing exceeding grievous to a true Christian Here we may rejoyce First In the promise of preserving of grace 2. In the promise of augmentation and
there shall be a Judgement For let a man commit secret sins that none knoweth but God and he yet many times he feeleth hellish horrour which is a manifest proose that conscience seeth and apprehendeth God as the supream Judge that will call all men to an account for their sins Thus you hear the reasons why there must be a Judgement The manner of this Judgment consisteth in these particulars First it shall be the last Judgment after which there shall be no other which declareth the terribleness of it In this life while there is life there is hope Let the wicked forsake his wayes and turn to the Lord he will be gracious to him But then the sentence shall not be reverst then there can be no appeal from that Judg and judgment Again it shall be a General Judgment which is the second thing God judgeth in this world and that both in life and in death He judgeth in life by chastising his children for their faults and avenging himself upon his enemies He judgeth every man at death But then there shall be a General Judgment of all 2. Cor. 10. We must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ In the third Place It shall be a manifest Judgment Sometime the Lord Judgeth men secretly by raising up in them fears and horrours in their hearts causing his curse in theâ—… as water in their bowels and oyl in their bones But then God shall open his wrath against the children of wrath before a world of men and no eye shall pitty them Fourthly it shall be a sudden Judgment Even as the flood came upon the old World when they were sporting themselves and deriding Noah that preached to them of the flood so shall the fire come upon the World that shall pass before the face of Christ when he shall judg the quick and the dead As asnare saith Christ shall it come upon all that dwell upon the earth When the Fowler layeth a snare to take a Bird he giveth not warning to the Bird but surprizeth it suddenly so will Christ Jesus surprize the sons of men suddenly beyond their expectation The Evangelist faith he shall come as a theef in the night A theef knocks not he giveth not warning so Christ Jesus beyond the thoughts of men will be on them suddenly before they are aware by his dreadful Judgement Fifthly it shall be a most righteous Judgment Then God as the Apostle saith Rom. 2. will render to every man according to his deeds He will not regard the face of any He will not be bribed by wealth or reward He will not heare the testimony of the world for the wicked or against the godly but deal impartially and give to every one according to his doings Lastly It shall be an Eternal Judgment So saith the Apostle Heb. 6.2 The meaning is not that God shall sit for ever sifting matters and surveying causes but it is so called from the effect for the conclusion shall be this the Eternal weale and happiness of the godly and the eternal wo and misery of the wicked that shall be plunged by the justice of God into the severest torments The Use of this Doctrine First it serveth as a preservative against temptation for so Solomon hath made it in the Text a preservative and bridle to young men God will bring thee to judgment saith he and let me make it so to you When Sathan tempteth you to sin remember God will call you to Judgement even for those faults for which you may possibly escape the penalty of men yet not withstanding is is impossible for you to avoid the righteous Judgment of God If Sathan would have thee do any thing that the word of God and thy own conscience sheweth thee to be hateful and wicked in the sight of God say to him No no God will bring me to Judgment This is the pollicy of our Adversary when he induceth us to evil he makes sin sweet and pleasant to us but it should be our wisdome to make sin bitter and loathsome even in this meditation God will bring us to Judgment for the same The Apostle saith Resist the divel and he will fly from you But how must we resist him not by arguments of our own making but by arguments of the word of God and amongst other weapons remember to list up this when Sathan would have thee sin say No no God will bring me to Judgment When the Divel solicited Eve and circumvented her she spake in the Serpent to Sathan concerning the Judgment of God We may eat saith she of all the trees of the Garden but not of the tree in the middest of the Garden least we die here she brought an argnment from the judgment of God but here was her weakness she presently let it fall It should be otherwise with us when Sathan tempts us let us say we shall die and be condemned for sin say so and continue in it If any revolt from the truth he professeth he shall die in his sin If any man disquiet the people of God by vexation or oppression he shall die in his sin If any man be a drunkerd or Epicure he shall die in his sin If any man be a whoremonger or adulterer he shall die in his sin If any man be a swearer God hath vowed he will not hold him guiltless he shall die in his sin If any man be an ignorant person disobeying godliness and obeying unrighteousness he shall die in his sin If any man continue in gross wickedness in any wickedness without repentance he shall die in his sin Oh remember this Judgement of God this death that God will inslict on sinners for sin For the wages of sin is death and arm your selves with this when Satan tempteth you if you forget Death and Judgement you are naked and unarmed your spiritual Adversary may hit you on the bare and spoil you as he will The second use is for instruction Will God bring us to Judgment for our sins Oh then let us hast to repentance Beloved this is one of the last things that God will do and this is the greatest thing that Ministers can say God will judge you for your sins The Apostle Saint Paul he moveth the Atheniaus Acts 17.31 to repentance upon this very ground because God hath appointed a day in which he will Judge the world in righteousness And surely if this will not awaken us nothing will nothing can What do we mean beloved to suffer our sins to stand upon the score Where is our wisedome Our grace Are we able to stand before God when he is angry with us Why do we not take off our sins by godly sorrow If a Judge should say to a Malefactour except thou mourn for thy offence thou shalt die and be execnted Doe we not think he would mourn to save his life Behold God faith to you except you mourn for your
the beavens from this full perswasion did arise this heavenly affection in this we green earnestly But alas how different is our disposition from this heavenly temper how pale how wan is our countenance at the mention of Death at the least summons of our last accounts as vinegar to our teeth as smoak to our eyes as a sudden damp to our lights as an horrid crack of thunder in the middest of our jollities so is the mention of Death If any ask the reason of this it is too manifest Want of judgement what is the true good of the sons of men Want of apprehension of the happiness of the Saints Want of faith in God of Union with Christ our souls never make any holy peregrination from the body and seat themselves with Angels and Archangels and trace the streets of New Jerusalem we anticipate not the joyes of the life to come by devout meditations and contemplations we have not our conversation in heaven from whence we look for our Redeemer Our soul thirsteth not our flesh longeth not after the living God The reason of this is we hang upon the teats of the world like babes and children we suck venome out of it to our souls we walk upon our bellies as unclean beasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we jutt against God and offend him our accounts are not streight and even therefore we are afraid at the appearance of our Saviour and of our citation to appear before his Tribunal we groan when we hear of death we groan not that we may die this is our condition and are not these different one unto another Doth not this stain the verdure of our countenances and cover us with shame and confusion to observe so manifest a declination of the fervor of the Spirit That you desire this heavenly temper I doubt not I should offer violence to Charity the Queen of Graces if I should think otherwise For this cause many of you are strict in the perforamnce of holy duties agreeable and convenient to this sacred time That your devotions may attain a happy end let me lend you a helping hand whilst I discourse these words which even now founded in your eares In this we groan earnestly c. Which I will resolve into three Propositions 1. That we are strangers in this life without our house 2. That the Saints desire their true and proper house 3. The intention of their desire In this we grown c. That we are strangers do not the sacred Oracles declare our conversation our polity is in beaven faith the Doctor of the Gentiles Our life it is hid up with Christ Col. 2. We are fellow Citizens with the Saints of the houshold of God Ephes 2. Doth not the chief of the Apostles intreat us as Pilgrims and strangers to abstaine from fleshly lusts which fight against the soul and do not these and the like demonstrate unto us that a Christian lives with men yet above men in earth yet in heaven bound yet free detained with us yet far above us living a doubble life one manifest the other Hid with Christ one contemptible the other glorious one natural the other spiritual that his Parentage is from heaven that his Treasure is in heaven that his heart is in heaven that his root is fastened in the everlasting mountains though his branches are here below that his dwelling is in heaven though his peregrination be here on earth and did not these Oracles tell us thus much yet are there not enforcing arguments to convince us of this Truth Are not they strangers that are out of their proper place and are not Christians while they are here out of their place Is this world made for Man an Ark of travel a School of vanity a Laborinth of errour a Grove full of thorns a Meadow full of Scorpions a flourishing garden without fruit a fountain of misery a river of tears a feigned fable a detestable frenzy and is this the place of man What means the fabrick of our body lifted up to heaven our hands eyes head upward but to shew us as Chalcidius the heathen man observed that our Progenitors are from heaven that our place is in heaven Every place is adequate to the thing placed in it is this world adequate to man are not his desires infinitely extended beyond the same Every place hath a conserving vertue in it Doth this world Preserve man well may it minister a little food to this beast of ours which we carry about us but can it afford the least savory morsell to the soul it were to be wished that it did not poyson contaminate and desile the soul so that the safest way for the soul is to flie from the world as from the face of a Serpent Is this world the place of man why doth our tender Mother the Church assoon as we come into the world snatch us out of the world and as assoon as we breath in the ayre bury us by Baptism in the grave of Christ and assoon as we move in this world consigne us with the sign of the Cross to fight against the the world and all the pomps of the same and are not we strangers Are not they strangers that have different lawes and divers customs and another Prince to rule and command them You have heard of the Prince of the ayre and the Lawes of the flesh of the fashions of the world of the wisdome that is from below and earth-creeping Are Christians guided by these rules have they not the God of heaven and earth the Lawes of the Spirit and the wisdome that is from above and customes that are from heaven whereby to regulate them Who are the men of this world are they not those who have the God of this world to reign in their hearts who are led captive by him whose understandings are darkned their wills obfirmated their hearts hardned their consciences seared their conversation defiled with all uncleannesses their senses open breaches for sin to enter their tongues blaspheming the name of God and are these conversations fit for the Saints and are they not strangers Are not they strangers that are not capable of honours of possessions in the place wherein they live as being not free Denizens of the place and is not this proper to Christians whose duty it is to vilisie riches and honours and pleasures in themselves as much as they that have these do others that have them not to account riches the greatest poverty and pleasures the greatest torments and honours the greatest ignominy and power the greatest weakness not to possesse the world not to enjoy it not to account any thing good that maketh not the owner better not to admit any thing from the world but so far as it may advance the true Nobility of man the purity of the Image of God his restitution to his ancient descent his re-estating him in the possession of heaven and the society of Angels and Archangels to rise
Saint Paul 1 Cor. 15.55 his words have no reference to this Text in the Prophet for the last Translation approved by our Church in the marginal note upon the 1 Cor. 15.55 sends us to this verse in Hosea and we find no other place in all the Scriptures of the old Testament to which the Apostle should allude but this And although Calvin endeavouring to untie this Gordean knot saith peremptorily that it is evident that the Apostle 1 Cor 15. doth not alledg the testimony of the Prophet to confirm any Point of Doctrine delivered by him yet Calvin hi◠evidence for it seems to me obscure and inevident his satis constat minime liquet for the express words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.53 54 55. are for this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality so when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory What shall we say then hereunto With submission to those who out of better skill in the original and upon more exact examination of all Translations may bring them to a better accord for the present I thus resolve First that Rabbi Iarchi his translation is utterly be to rejected for it is like the white of an egg that hath no taste what sense can any man pick out of these words ero verbo tua ô mors I will be thy words O Death unless we help them with our English phrase I will do thine errand Secondly Aben-Ezra is to go packing with his fellow Rabbin for his interpretation is a manifest contradiction to the former words of the Prophet I will ransome them from the power of the grave I will redeem them from death he that will redeem them from death can in no sense be said to be the cause why they die but why they die not Besides both he and Iarchi stumble at the same stone to wit the word Deborica which they derive from dabar signifying verbum or causa whereas they should have derived it from Dever signifying pestem or a plague Thirdly for Saint Jerome his translation though it differ somewhat from the original yet it is no Antithesis to the Text but an elegant Antanaclasis or at least a Metonymie generis pro specie mors pro peste I will be thy death for I will be thy plague Fourthly for the translation of the Septuagint which Saint Paul most seemeth to follow because writing to the Gentiles who made use of that translation and understood not the original he would not give them any offence nor derrogate from it which was in great esteem among all in regard of the antiquity thereof and it stood the Christians in those dayes in great stead to convince the unbelieving Jewes It well agreeth with the Analogie of faith and the meaning of the holy Spirit and the Hebrew letter also will bear it for Ehi as Buxtorphius the great Master of the holy tongue out of David Kimchi observeth signifieth ubi where as well as ero I will be and a venemous sting and pestis the plague differ but little so that although the words in the original seem to be spoken by an affirmation but in Saint Paul and the Septuagint by an interrogation in the one by a commination in the other by an insultation yet both come to one sense and contain an evident prophesie of Christ his conquest over Death and Hell I have pluked away the thorn and now I am come to blow the flower and open the leaves of the words O death I will be thy plauges that is I will take away from Death the power of destroying utterly and from the Grave the power of keeping the dead in it perpetually If we take the words as spoken by way of insultation ô mors ubi est aculeus tuus O death where is thy sting thus we are to construe them as a hornet or serpent when his sting is plucked out can do no hurt to any other but soon after dyeth it self so Death is disarmed by Christ and left as good as dead for as David cut off Goliahs head with his own sword and Brasidas ran through his enemy with his own spear so Christ conquers over Death by death in as much as by his temporal death he satisfied both for the temporal and the eternal death of them that believe in him And as he conquered Death by his death so he destroyed the Grave by his burial for suffering his body to be imprisoned and afterwards breaking the gates and barrs of the prison he left the passage open to all his members to come out after him their head These sacred and heavenly mysteries are shrined in the letter of this Text for although the Prophet speaketh to the Israelites and maketh a kind of tender unto them of redemption from temporal death and deliverance from corporal captivity yet to confirm their faith therein he bringeth in the promise of eternal redemption from whence they were to infer if God will redeem us from eternal how much more from temporal death if he will deliver us out of the prison of the grave how much more out of common Goals what though our enemies have never so great a hand over us what though they exceed in their cruelty and put us to all exttemity and do their worst against us their cruelty cannot extend beyond death nor their malice beyond the Grave but Gods power and mercy reacheth farther For he can and he promiseth that he will revive us after we are dead and raise us after we are buried he will pluck deaths sting out of us and us out of the bowels of the Grave Death hath not such power over the living nor the grave over the dead as God hath over both to destroy the one and swallow up the other into victory For therefore the Son of God vouchsafeth to taste death that Death might be swallowed up by him into victory Although Death swallow up all things and the Grave shut up all in darkness yet God is above them both therefore when we are brought to the greatest exigent when nothing but death and torments are before us when we are ready to yeeld up the buckler of our faith and breath out the last gasp of hope let us call this Text to mind O death I will be thy plagues neither Death nor the Grave shall be my peoples bane because I will be both their bane and change their nature which destroyeth all nature For to all them that believe in me Death shall not be a postern but a street-door not so much an out-let of temporal as an in-let of eternal life and though the grave swallow the bodies of my Saints yet it shall cast them up again at the last day Thus the words yeeld us
all foul play towards him justling him on the side seeking to trip up his heels yea sometimes thrusting him forward on the back that so he might fall headlong by his own weight and their violence so often cometh it to pass betwixt rivals in the race of honour and vertue Ill-minded men perceiving themselves quite out strips by some eminent person who hath got the speed of them and despairing fairly to overtake him resolve fouly to overturn him by all means possible contriving his destruction Hence come those many millions of divices and stratagems contrived for his ruin endeavouring either to Divert him from his righteousness or Destroy him in his righteousness If the first takes no effect and if his constancy appears such as without regret he will persist in piety leaving them no hope to byass him to base ends then dispairing to how him from they contrive to break him in his righteousness Thus whilst he hath many enemies which conspire his destruction seeking with power to suppress or pollicy to supplant him The wicked man on the other side hath the generality of men the most being bad as himself to befriend him a main cause of his prolonging himself successful in his wickedness Secondly Righteous men perish in their righteousness because not so wary and watchful to defend themselves in danger being deaf to all jealousies and snspitions over-confident of other men measuring all others by the integrity of their own intentions This makes them lie at an open guard not fencing and fortifying themselves against any sudden surprisal but presuming that deserving no hurt none shall be done unto them Thus Gedaliah Governour of the remnant of the Jews after the captivity twice received the express intelligence of a conspiracy to kill him yet was so far from giving credit that he gave a sharp reproof to the first discoverer thereof Yea when Johanan the son of Kareah tendered his service to kill Ishmael sent as he said from Baalis King of Ammon to slay Gedaliah Gedaliah rejoyned Thou shalt not do this thing for thou speakest falsely of Ishmael His noble nature gave no entertainment to the report till he found it too late to prevent it Whilst wicked men partly out of policy more out of guiltiness sleep like Hercules with their club in their haud stand alwayes on their guard are jealous of their very shadows and appearances of danger a great cause of their safety and success prolonging themselves in their wickedness Thirdly They perish because of a lazie principle which hath possessed the heads and hearts even of the best men who are unexcusable herein namely that God in due time will defend their innocence which makes them more negligent and remiss in defending themselves as the Prophet makes mention of a stone cut out without hands they conceive their cause will without manshelp hew its own way through the rocks of all resistance as if their cause would stand Centinal for them though they slept themselves as if their cause would fix their Muskets though they did it not themselves Thus the Christians in their battels against the Turks having won the day by their valour have lost the night by their negligence which principally proceeded from their confidence that God interested as a Second in every just cause was in that quarrel concerned as a Principle and it could not stand in his justice to suffer it to miscarry Whereas on the other side wicked men use double diligence in promoting their designs If their lame cause lack legs of its own they will give it wings from their signs If their lame cause lack legs of its own they will give it wings from their careful solliciting thereof and will soulder up their crackt title with their own industry They watch for all tides and wait for all times and work by all wayes and sail by all winds each golden opportunity they cunningly court and greedily catch and carefully keep thristily use in a word they are wiser in their generations then the children of light This may be perceived by the parallel betwixt the wife and the harlot many wives though herein they cannot be defended knowing their husbands obliged in conscience to love them by verture of their solemn promise made before God and the congregation at their marriage are therefore the less careful to study compliance to their husbands desires they know their husbands if wronging them wrong themselves therein and presuming themselves to deserve love as due unto them for their honesty and loyalty of affections are the less sollicitous to gain that which they count their own already Whilest the harlot conscious to her self of her usurpation that she hath no lawful right to the imbraces of her paramour tunes her self to the criticalness of all complacency to humour him in all his desires And thus alwayes those men whose cause have the weakest foundation in piety getteth the strongest buttress in policy to support it Lastly the righteous man by the principles of his profession is tyed up and confined onely to the use of such means for his preservation as are consonant to Gods will conformable to his word preferring rather to die many times then to save himself once by unwarrantable waies Propounded unto him a project for his safety and as Solomon promised favour to Adonijah so long as he shewed himself worthy otherwise if wickedness were found in him he should surely die So our righteous man onely accepts and embraceth such plots to secure himself thereby as acquit themselves honest and honourable such as appear otherwise he presently dispatches with detestation destroying the very motion and mention thereof from entring into his hearts On the other side the wicked man is left at large allowing himself liberty and latitude to do any thing in his own defence making a constant practice of doing evil that good may come thereof Yea we may observe in all ages that wicked men make bold with Religion and those who count the practice of plety a burden find the pretending thereof an advantage and therefore be the matter they manage never so bad if possible they will intitle it to be Gods cause Much was the substance in the very shadow of Saint Peter which made the people so desirous thereof as he passed by the streets And the very umbrage of Religion hath a sovereign virtue in it No better cordial for a dying cause then to over-shadow it with the pretence that it is Gods cause for first this is the way to make and keep a good and strong party No sooner the watch-word is given out For Gods cause but instantly GAD Behold a troop cometh of many honest but ignorant men who press to be listed in so pious an employment These may be kild but cannot be conquered for till their judgements be otherwise informed they will triumph in being overcome as confident the deeper their wounds got in Gods cause gape in their
bodies the wider the gates of heaven stand open to receive their souls Besides the pretending their cause is Gods cause will in a manner legitimate the barest means in pursuance and prosecution thereof for though it be against Gods word to do evil that good may come thereof yet this old error will hardly be beaten out of the heads and hearts of many men that crooked waies are made direct by being directed to a straight end and the lustre of a bright cause will reflect a seeming light on very deeds of darkness used in tendency thereunto This hath been an ancient stratagem of the worst men great Politicians to take piety in their way to the advancing of their desences Thus Rabshakeh pretended a Commission from God for all the wickedness he committed and complements blasphemy Am I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it the Lord said to me Go up against this place to destrey it The Priests of Bell were but bunglers which could not steal the meat of their Idol but they must be discovered by the print of their foot-steps Men are grown more cunning thieves now adaies first they will put on the shooes of him they intend to rob and then steal that so their treadings may tell no tales to their disadvantage They will not stride a pace nor go a step nor stir a foot but all for Gods cause all for the good and glory of God Thus Christ himself was served from his cradle to his cross Herod who sought to kill him pretended to worship him and Judas kissed him who betrayed him By these arts and divices it cometh to pass that wicked men prolong themselves into heir wickedness Traiterous Zimri indeed continued but seven daies that was not long wicked Jehojachin reigned but three months in Jerusalem that was not long ungodly Amon reigned two years in Jerusalem that was not long idolatrous Ahab reigned in Samaria twenty and two years that was indifferent long cruel Herod the King who sought to kill Christ reigned in Judea well nigh forty years that was long indeed he prolonged himself to purpose in his iniquity Seeing therefore to recollect what hath been said the righteous hath most foes the wicked many friends the righteous free from the wicked full of jealousies the righteous too often over-careless the wicked over-careful in his defence the righteous limited onely to lawful the wicked left loose to any means for his own advantage No wonder if it often cometh to pass that the righteous man perisheth in his righteousness and the wicked prolongeth his life in his wickedness Come we now to the abuses which wicked men make of the righteous mans perishing in his righteousness And here the whole kennel of Atheists come in with a full cry oh that there were no more of them on earth then there are in hell where torture makes them all speak truth spending their wicked breath against God and his attributes Some bark at his Provedence as if he perceived not these things How doth God know and is there knowledge in the most high Others cavil at his justice that he has no mind others carp at his strength that he has no power to rectifie and redress these enormities This world say they is a ship without a pilot steered onely with the windes and wayes of casualty it is a meer lottery wherein the best man dayly draw the blanks and the worst run away with the prizes And as Absolom boasted if he were king of Israel how far he would out-do David in right managing of all matters so these impudent wretches conceive with themselves the Plat form of the world hath been more persect might they have been admitted to the making thereof The Moon would have shined without any spots Roses grow without any Prickles fair weather should never have done harm because rain should only fall in the night neither to hinder the pleasure of the rich or hurt the profit of the poor Merit should be made the onely standard of preferment no perishing of the righteous man in his righteousness when success should onely be entailed on desert In a word such Atheists presume all things by them should be so prudently disposed that nothing no doubt in the whole world should be out of order save themselves More might be spoken to heighten and prove the objection but I am afraid to persist further therein It is not onely dangerous to be but even to act an Atheist though with intent to confute their errour for fear that our poisons pierce further then our antidotes But in answer to this objection know that God without the least prejudice to his justice may suffer the righteous man to perish in his righteousness because allow him righteous justicia cause he is not so justicia persone the best man standing guilty of many faults and failings in his sight God needs not pick a quarrel with any man having at all times matter of a just controversie against him And seeing God hath oftentimes connived at him being faulty he may condemn him being faultless for mullum tempus occurrit Regi the King of heaven is not limited to any time but at his own pleasure and leasure may take an opportunity to punish an offender Secondly grant that the cause of the righteous man was just in the primitive constitution thereof yet if it branch it self forth into numerous circumstances appendant thereunto many whereof may be intricate and perplext if it be of so spacious and ponderous a nature that it requires many heads and hands as subordinate instruments in several places for the managing thereof Lastly if the cause be so prolix and tedious that many years must be spent in the prosecution thereof the original righteousness of the cause may be already with the handling of it and much injustice annexed thereunto for which God may justly cause it finally to miscarry For it is possible that a cause consisting of such variety of limbs retaining thereunto should be carried on without many grand errours and mistakes committed therein and the righteousness of the best men will not spread so broad without shrinking stretch so long without tyring apply it self so exactly to each circumstance without some swerving therein Especially when all the faults of the inferior officers employed under him are chargeable on the righteous mans account the matter of whose cause may justly perish by Gods just anger on the unjust managery thereof Yea God without the least blemish to his Justice may suffer the righteous temporally to perish in his righteousness because in the midst of their sufferings his mercy supports them with the inward comfort of a clear conscience In the time of persecution a woman being big with child was imprisoned and condemned to die which the night before her execution was I cannot say brought to bed delivered of a child when her pain wanting the help of a midwife must be presumed
To humble his children Psal 9.20 2. Cor 12. To strengthen their faith 2 Cor. 1.9 10. To encrease their watchfulnesse Mat. 25. 2 Pet. 3.1 1. To prepare them for death 2 Chro. 20.3 2. Sathan 2 Cor. 7.5 The inward causes of the fear of death 1. Natural In respect of the object it self death The apprehension of death as an Ill. Eccles 9.4 The apprehension of death as an ill unavoidable The apprehension of Death as an ill future In respect of the subject men Judg 8.20 Gen. 201 1. Sam 16. 2. Inward causes sinful 1. The want of the fear of God Deut. 28.65 66 c. 2. In ordinate love of the world Isa 38.11 Eccles 9. 3. Want of the assurance of Gods favour Luke 16. Mat. 6. Rev 6. Isa 33.14 Object Answer Psal 42. Exod. 14 11. Psal 23. Object 2. Answer Vse For exortation To be under the fear of death an uncomfortable estate The fear of death a bondage in two respects 2. It is possible to be freed from the fear of death Means to be freed from the fear of death 1. Humility 2. Faith 3. watchfulness 4. Preparation 5. Right apprehension of Death Phil. 3. Assurance of Gods favour 1 Cor. 3.23 2 Cor. 5.4 Coherence Definition of Patience Rom. 15.5 Gal. 5.22 Mat. 25 VVhat I is to let patience have her perfect work Rom 15.13 Collos 1.11 VVhat is meant by intire and wanting nothing 1. Sam. 30.6 The parts the text 1. A duty exhorted to 2. An Argument to Inforce it Conclus 1. Conclus 2. Conclus 1. A Christian not perfect without patience Mat. 5.48 Reas 1 A twofold perfection of a Christian Perfection of parts what it is 2 Pet. 1.5,6 Reas 2. Luke 21.19 Reas 3 No dutie can be rightly performed without patience Not Prayer Matth. 15. 2 Cor. 11. Not hearing Luk. 8.15 Rev. 3.10 Heb. 10.36 James 1.21 Reas 4. Heb. 10.36 Heb. 12.1 Conclus 2. Christian must labour for perfection in Patience Coll. 1.11 Mat. 5 48. Reas 1. Eph 5 Exod. 34.7 Rom. 11. 1 Pet. 3.2 Pt. 2 Rom. 8.29 Luke 9. James 5.10 verse 11. Rom. 15.4 Reas 2. Acts 14.22.2 Tim. 3.12 Psal 73.27 Vse 1. For reproofe VVayes how men increase Impatience in themselves 1. By aggravating their afflictions Lam. 1.12 2. By giving liberry to their passions 3. By resusing comfort Gen. 37.34 4. By looking only on afflictions present not on mercies Est â—… 13 5. By looking on the instrument and not on God Psal 55.12.13 Plal. 39.9 6. By looking on the smart and not on the benefit of affliction Heb. 12.11 1. Cor. 11.32 Vse 2. For exhortarion How to exercise patience In present crosses 1. Cosider God the orderer of all conditions Therefore give him the glory of his soveraignty 1 King 20 3. Job 1.21 2 Sam 15 25 O his wâ—…sedome Of hâ—…s mercy Lam. 2. Ier. 45.5 2. Consider the desert of siu Dan. 9. Eâ—…â—… 9. Lam. 3. 〈…〉 of 〈◊〉 born 〈◊〉 Patience Rev. 3.10 How to exercise patience in Gods delaying of mercies 1. Consider that delayes are not denyals 2. That delaies increase mercies Isa 61.7 2. Cor. 4. 2. Cor 1. 3. That delaies are but short compared to eternitie Coherence Division 1. Davids carriage durlâ—…g his childs sickness Meaning of the words 1. Cor. 3.8 Rom. 14.17 Davids Fast a religious fast Davids teâ—…rs proceeded nor from a natural but from a spiritual principle Gen. 32. Hso 12. Isa 38. 2. The reason of Davids carriage Gods absolute sentence implies condition Isa 38. Jonah 3.4 1 Sam. 15. Verse 35 Chap. 16.1 Num. 14. Vse 1. For instruction Jer. 18 7. Vse 2. For inconragement Ezek. 33.10 11. Gen. 3. Joel 2.12 13. Observe first Davids piety Mat 15 22. Comfort to Gods children Psal 103. Isa 63.9 2. Observe Davids piety Parents in their childrens miseries should remember their own sins 1. King 17. Object 1. Deut. 24.16 Ezek. 18.20 Answ Object 2. Answ Quest Answ Pro. 31. 1. Sam 2 29 chap. 3.12.13 Vse 1. To parents The sins that bring judgments upon mens posterity Vse 2. To children 2. Davdis carriage when his child was dead The reasons of it Observation from the first reason Psal 44. The way to order our affections is to reduce them to the principles of rectified reason Job 14.14 Observation from the second reason Vse Encles 1 2. Observation from the third reason Observation from the fouth reason Eccles 3.2 Coherence Division Pâ—…pos Sin is the sting of death A double consideration of death What death is here meant Corporall death Principally Two parts of spiritual death What sin is the sting of Death Sin two wayes considered Sin unmortified proves the sting of death 1. In respect of the guilt 2. In respect of the filth How sin is said to be the sting of Death Sin stings before death A death After death At the day of Judgement After the Judgement Sin makes death fearful Sin makes death hurtful Vse Bâ—…cles 11. How a man shall know whether Death shall come with a sting to him Eccles 11.9 How to get the sting of Death pâ—…lied out 1. Get a part in Christ Rev. 1.18 Rom. 8. 2. Get sincerity of heart Isa 38. 3. Practise Mortification 1 Cor. 15. Vse 2. Division of the text 1. Death is Nature teacheth 1. what death is 2. The properties of death That it is 1. Universal 2. Inevitable 3. Uncertain The Scripture teacheth 1. what death is 2. what are the causes of death 3. what are the consequences of death Heb. 9.17 The particular judgment The general Judgment 5. what is the remedy against the evil of death 2. Death is an enemy 1. Depriving a man of all that is benefitial or comfortable 2. Inflicting misery upon a man 3. Death the last enemy Not to all But to the Saints 4. Death shall be destroyed Vse 1. For Examination How a man may be fitted for death 1. Get death disarmed now 2. Get armour against death Vse 2. For reprehension Vse 3. For Exhortation Vse 2. For comfort The division of the text The first part of the Text. The meaning of the words 1. Of the subject Merciful men 1 Joh. 4.20 Rom. 12.18 2. Of the predicat they perish Eccles 3. Observat 3. Of the extent from the evil to come 1 From the evil to suffering That he shall not see it That he shall not endure it Ezek 9 Exod. 12. 3. From the evil of finning That he shall not see sin com mitted by others That he shall not commit sin himself Vse Quest Answ The loss of a godly man a great punishment to a place The second part of the Text. Inconsideraton a great sin A frui of sin A cause of sin Isa 40.6 Luk. 1.4 Psal 90.10 Exod. 17.14 Isa 8.1 Ezek. 24.2 Rom. 14.1 The division of the words Observation 1. Aust lib. 19. de Civit. Dei. A double blessedness Phil 3.21 2. Cor. 5.7 Phil. 1 23. 1. Cor. 15.19 Eccles 9.4 Job 2 4 Job 6.3 Psa 119.175 psal 39.13 Isa 38.18,19 Job 7.15
fear is Kinds off fear 1 Natural 2 Carnal fear 3 Servile fear Act 2. 4 Filial fear Isa 8 12. Reas We are delivered from our enemies either Luke 1.47 1 By reconciliation 2 By conquest Vse 1. The power of grace must reflect on a mans self Vse 2. Possible to live without fear Psalm 23 Vse 3. Reproof for inordinate fear 1 We fear too soon 2 Too much 1 It brings a great deal of ill Isa 66.4 2 It unfits the heart to bear evils It hurts the body It doth hurt to the soul 1 Natural 2 Spiritually Fear the ground of most sins Vse 4. To sence our hearts against it No cause of fear 1 Of spiritual enemies 2 Of worldly evils Ier. 46.28 Object Answ Object Answ Quest Answ How to get the conquest of fear 1 Labour for the spirit 2 Keep covenant with God 3 Strengthen faith 4 To place our love aright August Simile Doctr. Both words and actions shall be called to account Matth. 5.22 Iude 13.14 Reas 1. The Law binds men in speeches Reas 2. Words injure God and man Levit. 24.11 Act. 8. Vse To condemn those that make light account of words Pal. 39. Psal 131. Doctr. God will proceed in judgement according to his Law Ioh. 12.48 Object Answ All men judged by the Law The Law not alike expressed to all Rom. 2 14. Reas 1. The Law is Gods scepter that he ruls by Reas 2. Because the law is a rule Vse 1. Reproof of those that neglect the law Quest Answ To despise Gods commandement what Matth. 25.41 Vse 2. Admonition to observe the Law 1. For direction 2. For tryal Doctr. The consideration of the day of Judgment should move to holiness 1 It hath drawn some to obedience Eccles 11.9 1 To forsake the world Phil. 3.7 2 Disposing the heart to obedience Eccles 12.10 Heb. 12. Rev. 14â—… 2 It quickens to actions of obedience 1 Of particular calling 2 General calling 3 It confirms in obedience Vse Shewing the cause of the worlds prophaness and the Saints dejectedness 2 Pet. 3. Vse 2. To strengthen faith of the judgment Jerome Parts of the Text. Meaning of the words Doctr. Death due to sin as wages Quest Answ What death due to sin 1. Temporal Object Answ How Adam died a natural death as soon as he sinned Object Answ How Christians freed from temporal death Christians undergo temporal death why Simile 2 Eternal death Answ Sin infinite three wayes 1 In respect of the object 2 The subject 3 The sinners desire Vse 1. Original lust a sin Basile Vse 2. Confuration no sin in it self venial 1 Joh 3.5 Sins mortal and venial how Vse 3. In spectacles of death to see the heinousness of sin Vse 4. To deterre us from sin Similles Joh. 2. 1 Sam. 14. Vse 5. To be humble and thankful Life twofold 1 Natural 2 Spiritual 1 In this life Job 17.5.2 In deathy 3 Afterth e Resurrection A thing eternal three wayes Doct. Salvation the feee gift of God Quest Answ Austin Quest Answ Joh. 3. Vse 1. Confutation of merit Rom. 8. Vse 2. To humble us Vse 3. Comfort Vse 4. Thankfulness Isa 45 24. The Analysis of the Chaper Propos 1. God is pleased to set himself to procure the profit of his people Proved by instances 1 In his instituting Ordinances in the Church 1 The preaching of the Word Act. 26.18 2 Tim. 3.16 2 The Sacrament of the Supper 3 Prayer Unprofitable living under the ordinances a taking the name of God in vain 4 Sending of Christ into the world in our nature 2 In his command and injunction Deut 10 13. Matth. 5.29 3. In his several administrations 1 Permitting sin to remain 2. To prevail 3. Withdrawing his presence 4. Suspending his answer to their prayers 5. Denying their particular suites 6. Deprives them of their dearest blessings James 5.11 Use of exhortation Vse 2. Of instruction Propos 2. Gods aim in afflicting his children is their profit Gen 41.52 Afflictions they are profitable The blessed fruit of afflictions 2 Chron. 33.12 Deut. 8.15 Isa 27.9 Hab. 1.12 The Saints of God have walted for the profit of afflictions 2 Sam. 16.12 2 Sam. 16.12 Isa 37.4 Vse 1. For reproof Gods children prone to misconster the intent of God in their afflictions 1 Sam. 27.1 Esa 6.5 Lam. 3.16.18 Isa 49.14 Vse 2. For comfort Isa 10.57 Simile Isay 12.12 Vse 3. Exhortation to a patient expectation of the fruit of affliction Object Answ Iob 17.4 The sum of the words Division Explication Simile Doct. 1. Ground 1 From God Psal 84. Why God withdraws the light of his counâ—eâ—ance from his people 1 For correction of their former abuse of his mercies 2 Of the neglect of their duty Cant. 5. 3 Of their carnal security 3 To teach them wherein their present comsort and happiness consifts Simile 3 For prevention 1 Of pride 2 Of considence in the creature or in habits of grace Ground 2 From Satan How Satan causeth trouble in the hearts of Gods servants 1 By stealing out of thest hearts the promises of the Gospel Heb. 12. Matth. 13. 2 By presenting to the soul the truths of God in false glosses Ground 3. From our selves From some distemper of the body 2. Prevailing of some strong lust Heb. 12.1 3 Inordinate passions Heb. 1. Vse 1. To teach us compassion toward those that are in trouble Isa 53.4 God suffers his servants to be in inward distress and why Doctr. 2. Faith is a special means to quiet the soul 2 Cron. 20.20 2 Tim. 1 12. Vse Doctr. 3. Faith that quiets the soul must be pitched upon God in Christ Doct. 4. Vse Quest Answ What it is to believe in Christ What it is to receive Christ as a Prophet As a King As a Priest Quest Answ Object Answ Quest Answ Quest Answ Quest Answ Devision of the words Doct 1. Strong trials befall strong Christians 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Job 1.8 Wherein the strength of a trial consists Why God laieth strong tryals on strong Christians Reas 1. Reas 2. Doct. Faith acquits a man in great tryals Reas 1. Reas 2. Reas 3. Reas 4. Reas 5. Vse 1. 1. 2. Vse 2. The sum of the words Parts of the Text Coherence The first branch of the Text Explication 1 What life it is that is here meant Eternal life proper to the Saints Begun in this world Gal 2.20 Heb 2 3. Consummated in the world to come Phil 1.21 1 Thes 4.17 Joh. 5.26 Joh. 6 33. Vse 1. For instructiou Vse 2. For demonstration 1 Tim 5.6 Ephes 2.1 Vse 3. For consolation 2 Tim 3.12 Act 14.22 Mark 5.26 Eccles 9 4. Job 2.4 Phil. 1.7 Rom. 14.17 2 Cor. 12.2 1 Cor. 2.9 Rom. 8.18 2 Cor 4.17 The second branch of the Text. Eternal life cometh from divine grace Tit. 3.7 Eph. 2.8 Reas 1. Reas 2.2 Cor. 3.5 Vse 1. For confutation Vse 2. For Consolation Vse 3. For Instruction Vse 4. For exhortation The third branch of the Text. The