bodies bee raised O then let vs so prepare for death by a good life that the day of our resurrection may bee a day of refreshing to vs from the Lord. Act. 3.19 When the wicked as seede that rotteth in the earth which God doth not blesse shall arise without comfort let vs endeuor to lie downe in that fauour of God wherein who so falleth a sleep shal out of the same be sure to awake comfortably and ioifully hauing no more woe nor sorrow And as Christ is the first fruits of them that sleepe 1. Cor. 15.20 there resurrection beeing yet in the blade and greene eare and their bodies at rest in their graues as it were beds of peace in which they sleepe quietly till he shal raise them who raiseth the Sunne daily from his den So let vs so liue in Christ by our good consciences that when the night shall come that night or hour in the night whereof our Sauiour spake when hee said the night commeth when no man can worke Ioh. 9.4 we may goe down peaceably to our sepulchers as into our beds with confidence to stand before God in the resurrection of the iust The day will come let vs thinke of it earnestly when we must meete the Lord face to face It is good therefore to meete him heere in his word and in our honest conuersation seeking the things aboue Col. 3.1 that when we shall goe forth to meet him with the Virgins that had oile in their lampes and store of oile that is grace in their hearts wee may not bee ashamed Math. 25.1.10 If we will attaine to the resurrection of the iust we must begin it here in the New birth of a Christian and new life of one that is so borne For as in the first birth man is brought forth consisting of soul and body so in this second of our spirituall resurrection wee must haue a new soule and bodie as it were new heauen and earth created in vs. Of flesh we must be made spirit and of fleshly diuine so wee may comfortably looke for the last resurrection or our parts in it a day that sweeteneth more then sugar the crosses and miseries of our hard life here The comfortable day of the Saints and Christs glorious and welcome day after which he will raigne in the middes of the people for euer Againe shall the iudgement be of all men good and bad then it concerneth vs all if we meane to receiue from Christ the Iudge a comfortable sentence in that day to looke well to our estate and matters here that we bring a good cause and the witnesse of a good conscience to that iudgement seat He that hath a matter to be heard before some earthly Iudge and vpon some certaine day will at the time and about the day appointed be in some good readinesse That is He will bring his sufficient counsell to the barre be sure that his matter be good and euâ—dence without exception haue his witnesses to speake for him and the truth of the cause to speake for it selfe And shall we negligently deale in so waighty an action as that which must come to hearing before so great a Iudge of quicke and dead The day is set and we know not how suddenly it will come and in how short time Besides the matter to be heard concerneth not lands or goods but life or death eternall Christ is our onely Counsellour or Aduocate in that court our good deedes are our good euidence The witnesses are the word that must iudge vs and our owne consciences And shall we now despise the Son of God and count his couenant a prophane thing shall we crucifie by our sinnes Christ our Aduocate and thinke to haue him on our side and part or dreame that he will be for vs whom we haue crucified should we not rather kisse the Sonne with the kisse of our reconcilement to Christ who must speake for vs and be for vs if euer we be saued our good deedes are our best euidence and shall we follow after vnrighteousnesse doe bad deeds with greedinesse and shew no good euidence why we should not be damned our witnesses are the word and our owne consciences and shall we make a mocke of the word and not regard the witnesse of our conscience whether it be with vs or against vs if we despise the Gospell it cannot speake for vs and if we goe against our conscience it will surely be against vs. And should not man feare to bring a witnesse specially in such a court that will fearefully speake against him Let vs therefore endeuour by making much of the word by preferring it to our chiefe ioy by hearing it diligently by being moulded in it and fashioned like vnto it to get one witnesse for vs that is more worth then all the pleasures and profits of sinne that wretched men so admire And for the waies of our heart and actions of our life let vs so approue them to God who will giue an vpright sentence vpon them and vpon vs for them and doe them in such an integrity before God and innocencie before men when we either deale with God or haue dealing with our Neighbor that wee may haue two witnesses clearely for vs in that great day of hearing Lastly Vse 3 if all matters and persons must be iudged by Christ they are here reproued who take from God his seat and iudge their brother that is iudge him to condemnation For this Christ hath forbidden who is Iudg. Math. 7 1. And the Apostle Saint Paul would not haue vs thus to iudge our brother giuing this for a reason for we must all appeare before the iudgement seate of Christ Rom. 14.10 as if he should haue said by iudging in this manneâ— we would seeme to step before God and to preuent his sentence exposing our brother with great wrong to a double iudgement one which we pronounce another which Christ will giue at the last day So our brother shall be twice iudged once by vs who are vsurpers and againe by Christ who is Iudge indeed or by such manner iudgement we argue Gods righteous iudgement of insufficiencie and iudgement seat of corruption and so wrong the Lord and not only our brother when we so iudg him But though rash iudgement be forbidden yet all iudgement is not For the Iudge may censure a fault that deserueth death with death and may condemne a malefactor to the gallowes whom he may not condemn to hell The Minister may censure faults by the doome of the word of God and by ecclesiasticall correction Nay the priuate man may iudge a wicked person by his life so farre as he may know him by it and iudge him by the word though he may not iudge him to hell nor iudge him before the time 1. Cor. 4.5 we may iudge the tree by the fruit because by the fruit we may know it Math. 12.33 and so as farre as we know we may speake so we speake charitably
be quite gone which out of temptation and in a calme time shineth wonderfully in our eyes Besides for these outward things whether they befall a man in life or death all things come alike to all Eccles 9.2 And so one may die like a lambe and goe to hell and another die in exceeding torments with lamentable vnquietnesse and shrikes of slesh and goe to heauen But you will say They both say and thinke that God hath cast them off And I say againe that it may be their speech and opinion and yet nothing to the preiudice of their saluation by Christ For when and why doe they so speake and thinke It is not then and because they are sicke of that despaire which ariseth either of the weakenesse of nature or of the conscience of sinne toward death And what maruell if then in that taking they vtter some distempered words and haue strange and vnquiet thoughts Therefore though they should thinke they are damned and speake it in such a disturbance and at such times it can be but the voice and opinion of their sicknesse and a sick mans iudgement of himselfe is not to be regarded So much for the act of walking the obiect before whom followeth Before him The obiect of our conuersation is God the righteous walk before him or haue him before them in all their life looking vpon him as vpon a God of glorious maiestie that wil not iustifie the wicked of gracious mercy that pardoneth sinners of speciall prouidence that numbreth our steppes and of infinite knowledge that seeth all our waies or they haue God before them in Christ and Christ in God beholding his iustice behind the skreene of his mercie and perceiuing his mercie through the darke cloud of his iustice And they who so doe Doctr. cannot but do that which is good in his sight The doctrine then is The best meane of a good conuersation is to set the Lord alway before vs. This hath beene partly spoken of in the first sermon and first doctrine The way to walke aright is to behold the Lord in all our waies So did Eliah who therefore saith to Ahab As the Lord lineth before whom I stand 1. King 17.2 Where hee confirmeth his speech with an oath and lest Ahab should thinke he made no conscience of what he said addeth this clause that he stood in the presence of God As if he should haue said I set God before me in my sayings and therefore make conscience of that I say Cornelius in like manner considering that hee was before God in Peters ministery prouoketh himselfe and others with him to a solemne hearing of what shold be spoken from God vnto them and therefore said Wee are all here present before God to heare all things that shall be commanded vs of God Act. 10.33 His meaning was as if he should haue said to Peter though wee much reuerence thee yet wee more reuerence a greater in place then thou art to wit that terrible God and consuming fire that speaketh by thee And indeed who is he that setting alway before him the God who is of pure eyes and cannot behold euill Habac. 1.13 will not loth the practising of iniquitie if he haue any sparke of grace in his heart or blood of shame in his face for what Subiect would dare to walke vndecently and not feare to doe euill in the eye of his Prince or would a man steale in the presence and before him that must iudge him for his theft And how then can we sinne presumptuously if we set him alway before vs Qnest who is iudge of quicke and dead But how shall we set the Lord before vs that we may liue so as is here required and bridle sinne that it haue not the head among vs I answere Answ We must set him before vs in his last assise remember him as our dreadfull iudge and this will much restraine vs from sinning against him The euill Steward when he remembred that hee had a Master who wold shortly take his office from him did wisely though not iustly in it Luc. 16.4.8 The contrary for getting of the iudgement to come and Iudge that will come is the cause why so many so much differre to knocke at the gate of Heauen with the hand of repentance and voice of their praiers putting off till there be no opening Math. 25.11 And therefore as riotous persons who hauing little in their purse doe in their Inne call for all sortes and varietie of Cates forgetting that a reckoning and shot will come so these gracelesse spenders in their Innes of ease forgetting or putting off the shot and doome of the last day doe nothing but bath themselues in the delights of sinne and put inough vpon the reckoning account to come that they may walke securely acording to the course of this world in all manner lusts and vnrighteousnesse contemning God Am. 6.3 Secondly we must set the Lord befóre vs in his word for so shall we doe wisely and not goe out of the good way till he come vnto vs in our death or at his great day Ps 101.2 Ios 1.8 and largely in the 119. Psalm throughout For this cause the word is called a treasure Mat. 13.44 A treasure which is to be found onely in the field of the scriptures of the old and new testament that we may hide it in our hearts as we safely lay vp a treasure Papists therefore who walke in their owne inuentions as in by-waies and Protestants that walke not in the way of Gods commandements but in the blind-way of their ignorant and foolish hearts that are full of darkenesse Rom. 1.21 Set not the Lord but all manner sinne and concupiscence before them to worke the same with all greedinesse Eph. 4.19 Thirdly we must set the Lord before vs in his mercies and louing kindnesse and this will bridle a good nature from sinning against him For the kindnesse of a father manie times ouercommeth a bad nature and then what is it not able to doe with a good nature Gods kindnesse to vs and tendernesse of vs is more then the kindnesse of any father and tendernesse of any mother to the child whom they dearely loue Esay 49.15 And if we doubt of this remember we the stories of Dauid and of the prodigall sonne For how did the fatherly compassion and motherly pitty of the Lord worke nay exceed toward both of them Dauid committed two great sinnes not repenting for them but lying in them and adding diuers other great euils vnto them The Lord did not for all this reiect him but had great care of him and when he sought not his pardon sent it home vnto him by Nathan in these words The Lord hath put away thy sinne thou shalt not die 2. Sam. 12.13 The prodigall sonne had run a long and wild course of errour yet did the pittifull father at his comming backe not driue him away but meete him in the way nor speake roughly to
daies long continue wherein charity is waxen so cold and faith so scant In men there is not the mercy that hath beene No man almost will speake in a good cause without a fee and without a gift in the hand there is no hearing for it Sinne ranckleth in the bosome and ratleth in the bones of the inueterate adulterer The aged drunkard pleadeth vnto and prescribeth for his sinne wrong sentence is good iudgement in some earthly courts And men hold their peace of these things but will God doe so will not he speake will he keepe silence for euer will he not by the writ of his last great sessions remoue all these matters to his owne court of audience shortly Let vs not therefore too much presume or thinke that God is like vs because he holdeth his tongue while we doe such things for he will reproue vs and set them in order before vs. Ps 50.21 But must a iudgement bee Vse 3 Let vs then while we are here vse all good meanes for abating the edge and seueritie of this iudgement toward our selues And that we may not enter vpon the sharpe of it it shall bee good to practise that lesson of the Apostle where hee telleth vs that if wee would iudge our selues we should not be iudged 1. Cor. 11.31 As if he should haue said if we would examine our selues of our sinnes confesse them before God the Iudge giue sentence against them or as a iudge vpon the bench condemn them and our selues for them wee should not come into condemnation Or if we would iudge our selues God would not iudge vs and if wee would condemne our selues God would deliuer vs. For wee shall not receiue a double iudgement nor double sentence from him that iudgeth righteously When Dauid iudged himselfe God forgaue him 2. Sa. 12.13 When Iob confessed against himselfe God accepted him Iob. 42.6.8 and when the lost sonne came vnto himselfe the father presently receiued him Luk. 15.17.18.19 20. So shall it be with vs in the day of Christ if we will accordingly humble our selues in our day With earthly Iudges the more is confessed by a malefactor the worse it may be for him but so is it not with Christ the Iudge For the more wee aggrauate our faults the more will he lessen them the more wee lay vpon them the more will hee take from them the more wee mislike them the lesse will hee iudge them Let vs learne then to auoide the common fashion and errour of the world in lessening hiding excusing and iustifying of our faults because wee would not bee shamed nor condemned here For here we must be ashamed if hereafter wee would not take shame and here we must be condemned if hereafter we would not bee condemned of the Lord. And better now suffer a little that is in this life then after it suffer with sinners in torments and woe endlesse So much for the certaintie of the iudgement it followeth to shew with how great a traine and solemnitie it shall be performed With thousands of Saints c. Or with his holy thousands These thousands of Christ are the royall hoast of his Angels and the glorious company of his Saints all which shall attend their Lord vnto iudgement The meaning is that Christ shall bee brought with great glorie and attendance to the throne of his last Sessions The doctrine is Doctr. The second comming of Christ shall be manifest and will bee glorious Daniel the Prophet hath a singular place for this purpose where speaking of God the Father Christ his Sonne and of their state and magnificence which was that they sate in thrones shining bright like the flame of a fornace and therefore called thrones of fire the wheeles of which were as burning fire Dan. 7.9 He saith that the ancient of daies meaning Christ who is the same and his yeares shall not faile Heb. 1.12 sate on his throne where thousand thousands ministred vnto him and ten thousand thousands stood before him or attended vpon him ver 10. al which is spoken to shew with what a Court of attendance and traine of glorie Christ shall as it were bee brought to the hall and iudgement place at the last great day And further to make manifest so solemne a Session it is added that the bookes shall be opened meaning chiefely by these bookes as Saint Iohn doth Apoc. 20.12 the booke of Life which is the booke of the law written and the booke of conscience in euery mans heart The booke of the law sheweth what we should haue done and the booke of conscience what we haue done And against these there is no exception For the booke of the law is a booke of commandements that are all holy and righteous Psal 19.9 And the booke of conscience a booke of euidence that cannot lie He that is iudged by it is iudged by a booke that was euer in his owne keeping and is written with his own hand and how can that bee falsified For God will iudge no man by another mans conscience but by his own So manifest and glorious shall Christs comming be Saint Paul speaking of this second comming of Christ sheweth that it shall be manifest For hee saith it shall be with a shout 1. Thes 4.16 Meaning by it aloud and vehement crie such as Mariners nake who doing some businesse in the ship make a very strong and common shout And this is further shewed by that which followeth of the trumpet the shrillest and lowedest of all musicall instruments The Euangelists speaking of the same comming of Christ vnto iudgement say it shall bee glorious There words are The Sonne of Man shall come in his glorie and all the holy Angels with him Mat. 25.31 Mar. 8.38 Mat. 16 27. Or the Sonne of Man shall come in a cloud with power great glorie Luk. 21.27 Their meaning is that as at the setting forth of his Gospell all the hoast of heauen did assist him so comming to reuenge and visit for the contempt of that same Gospell all his Saints Angels and seruants shall attend vpon him As therfore earthly Iudges are brought with great pompe and terrour to the hall or place of sitting the Sheriffe the Iustices and many other gentlemen attending them to the court and the halbards going before So here the sonne of God the great Iudge is said to come with his holy thousands whose Sheriffe is powers principalities thrones and dominions whose followers are the Patriarkes and Prophets with the twelue Apostles and with Disciples innumerable whose guard are the Angels and not a few bil-men whose troupes are the blessed Martyrs the fourtie and foure thousand who haue his fathers name written in their forheads Apoc. 14.1 Whose throne is of fire and seate of burning Iasper whose garments are not of scarlet but of vengeance whose head is like wooll and feete like vnto sine brasse and voice as the sound of many waters Apoc. 1.13.14 15. Thus shall his comming be manifest and thus
in the good way young that they may sucke the milke of the Gospel with the milk of their Mother But to moue such to doe this dutie with more thankfulnesse let it be considered first that such instruction so giuen by Parents is more naturall and kindly then that which is giuen by strangers For as a tender plant will sooner take nourishment thriue better in the soile wherein it first grew and sprung vp then in any other ground because it liketh it owne soile best so tender children will sooner take instruction and good teaching from the Parents with whom they best agree as with their best and most naturall soile in whose loines they seeded and tooke their first roote then they can or are like to doe from strange Teachers when they shall be transplanted as it were into an other stocke and family or be exposed to grow vp in another soile of people then that in the which they had their first nature and sap of being Secondly who but Parents haue such as bee very young and tender vnder their charge and direction Now while they are yong one may work in their youth as in the day Ioh. 9.4 but when the night of their stubborne yeares commeth that season for good things is commonly lost Thirdly as Plants set in the Spring grow and prosper better then they which are set in Winter or Autumne so the instruction that is giuen in the spring of youth better prospereth and doth more edifie then that which is giuen in the Autumne of manhood or winter of gray haires Fourthly as Parents haue brought forth their children the children of wrath by nature So it concerneth them by the doctrine of Regeneration as by a second better nature in all good conscience to help to make them the sonnes and daughters of God by faith Fiftly Parents will betimes put their children forth to good trades And is there any trade of their life for honour delight or riches comparable to the trade and way of godlinesse Is the trade of wisdedome as other common trades which is a tree of Life to all that lay hold of it Prou. 2.18 The meaning is it increaseth strengthneth life where worldly trades if they be wel followed spend and diminish it and where other trades are vncertaine it hath the promises of this life and of that which is to come and where other trades are subiect to the course of this world being sometimes better and sometimes worse this is not so but alwaies good for God hath sealed vp his promise to it that it shall neuer faile which being so how carefull should Christian Parents be not to put off to put out their children carely and as it were at breake of day to such a profitable certaine and happie trade of life by which they shall be sure to liue euer with the Lord But if Parents will not betimes bind their youth by precept vpon precept Esay 28.10 as by Indenture and by Christian discipline as by Indenture sealed to so good a trade I beseech their Christian youth to offer themselues vnto it Sixtly Parents should remember that they help to build or pull downe the Christian world for in their children they beget and beare Parents to posteritie And if they learne no good while they be children how shall they teach it when they be fathers Seuenthly Parents are Gods Husbandmen and their children his seed and husbandrie 1. Cor. 3.9 as therefore in the husbandrie of this world the good Husband before he reape or inne one crop will plow and prepare for another yea and get the best and purest seede that at the time of haruest he may receiue some good increase So God hauing made religious Parents his husbandmen and their children his seede and husbandrie they should see that the haruest of Gods church be in some good proofe and well comming forward in their seede and posterity before their owne croppe be inned in their owne blessed death For Gods husbandrie must not die nor be giuen ouer till death bee vanquished which is the last enemy they must deale with Hee that hath or meaneth to haue and preserue a good Orchard will haue a nurserie also of young trees to feede it with and of these tender trees hee will be more carefull then of those elder in his Orchard of fruits The reason is they may sooner be bitten or nipped or the canker may sooner take them then the other trees God loueth and maketh much of the Orchard of his Church in the old store but hee is tender of it in the nurserie and new store that consisteth of babes in Christ growing to holinesse because the canker of euill things may soonest breed in them heards not of Beasts but of Diuels may soonest bite and nip them and so the Vineyard that God loueth so well may for want of supplies from the seminarie of young men and children begotten to the Gospell become desolate and wast for euer Now is God thus tender of his spirituall Nurserie and shall Christian Parents his husbandmen neglect it Doe they not know that the old trees cannot stand alwaies and that sooner or later they must be cut downe with the axe of death should they not then looke well to the nurserie of the younger impes in their charge by hedging with good nurture and discipline the young men and young women whom they meane to set as trees of righteousnesse in the Orchard of the Lords Church should they not water them with good teaching dresse them in good and due manner paring away their riot and superfluities of apparell of pleasures of play and prouide that no dangerous worme eat into them by any carely habit in euill vnmet with or if they shall despise or post of this so important a dutie what can we call them but prophane and such as leaue Gods Church in worse case then they found it The hope of the Church is in the youth that now haue being for if they be well brought vp they will be carefull that such as proceed from them shall haue good bringing vp also that age will commend this good education to another the next to them that follow and they to others by an inuiolable tradition till there be an end of all generations on Earth And as this is a lesson for all Parents so specially for Parents of great Families for the greater the ship is and the better merchandise it carrieth the more neede it hath of an expert and carefull Pilot. And so the greater a childe is by blood possessions the more need he shall haue of some speciall Ouerseer and one that greatly feareth God to be guide to his youth The contrarie carelesse nursing vp of such in vice and idlenesse is cause of these great wasts that wee find to be made so ordinarily in the best patrimonie of the common wealth for as the fattest soile bringeth forth the rankest weedes when it is not plowed so great houses not well
leasure to liue well but flit from sinne to sinne as the flye skippeth from dish to dish till they be taken with the sweet meate of sin in their mouth and there bee no place to repentanâ—â— Let such consider that the custome of sinne causeth a hardning in sin For so the Apostle speaketh thou after thine hardnesse and heart that cannot repent heapest vnto thy selfâ— wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2.5 and let them remember that custome will adde to nature and turne it vnto it selfe Which is the cause that a Preacher shall as soone take Nature from a man by his words as sinne to which hee is accustomed Besides Sathan is not easily cast our where hee hath long dwelt and if Sathan be in sinne will not be out if Sathan haue possession sinne that attends vpon him will not loose possession if one dwell in vs both as well as one wil and must dwell in vs. So much for the Wisemans exhortation his reasons follow Whiles the euill dayes come not c. These are the reasons for which Salomon would haue his young man not to put of in the age of youth which is most prime and teachable the remembrance spoken of And they are taken from the many infirmities and withdrawings that are to bee found in old age when youth is abused as much as if Salomon should haue said Well my sonne thou art now yong lustie and actiue of good apprehension and sharpe conceite indued with fresh and strong faculties of wit and remembrance thy feete are nimble thy sight is good and thy hearing perfect now therfore serue God whiles thou maist the time may come when thou wilt be old weake and sickely dull in apprehending and of bad capacitie and remembrance without a good legge to bring thee to church without a good eare to heare at Church and either without all eies or darke sighted and so not able to reade or not able to reade long nor a good letter but through spectacles then it will be too late to doe any good seruice to God thy Creator This I take to be the Wise 〈◊〉 meaning in these words and the doctrine from hence is Doctr. Old age is no fit time wherein to begin godlinesse when the gay and fresh age of youth hath beene consumed in vanities The Israelites are complained of by the Lord in Malachy That they offered the blind for sacrifice and the lame and sicke for aâ— hallowed thing Mal. 1.8 He that would not haue a beast that had no eyes in his seruice would haue theâ— whiles thou hast eyes to serue him The sicke and the lame were no good offerings then and bee they good ware now in the sicke and lame bodie of a man that hath desperately put off his turning to God till he can neither draw winde nor legge Moses knew this and therefore bore this burthen yong and while his legges were able to beare him For the Text saith That when he was come to age hee refused to be called the sonne of Pharaohs daughter that is would not liue in delicacies while he had strength to liue vnto God Heb. 11.24.25.26 Ioseph also in his beautie and faire person turned his back to his tempting Mistresse and his face to the Lord. Gen. 39.10.12 He would not put off to serue God till old age had made choppes to his beautifull face and till his skin was withered Iosiah a good King in the eight yeare of his raigne and sixteene of his age when he was yet a Child began to seeke after the God of Dauid his Father and in the twelfth yeare of his raigne and twentieth of his age made a famous reformation 2. Chro. 34.3.4.5.6 What so soone and so young So saith the Scripture and so it was without controuersie For Gods Children take the good daies of youth for good duties and not the euill of sickly and saplesse old age for them as commonly the worlds children doe Samuel serued God in his minoritie and grew in spirit as hee shotte vp in yeares Samuel was a good man and the better beâ—â—â—â— a good yong man The reasons Repentance as it can neuer come too soone where sinne is gone before so it must needes with much adoe and not without some speciall worke of God ouertake so many sinnes of youth and manhood so farre and much before it Secondly old age is full of wearinesse and trouble and where wee haue elbow-roome in youth we cannot turne vs in old age Perhaps wee shall neither heare nor see nor go nor sit without paine and torment in all parts and is this a fit condition of life and age of time to serue God in Or doe we thinke seeing wee will not know God in youth that he wil know vs at these yeares and in this case and state A reproofe therefore to those who bestow on Sathan the beauty Vse 1 strength and freshnesse of youth and offer to God the wrinckles weakenesse and foule hue of old age Or when they haue giuen away the flower of their yong yeeres to Gods enemie offer to God who will haue the first and deserues the best the dregges and leauings To such I say if thou wilt not know God in thy youth hee will neuer know thee for ought thou knowest when thou art gray-headed If as hath been said thou wilt not giue him the yong and sound and that which is without blemish he will neuer take in good part the old and sicke and euill fauoured which no man will giue to his friend nor dare offer to his Prince If thou wilt not when thou art quick-witted when thou art come to yeares of dotage hee will not If thou wilt not beare him in his day thou shalt cry in thy day that is in the euill day and not be heard Prou. 1.28 It is too late to sowe when thy fruit should be in and no time to leaue sinne when sinne must leaue thee An instruction Vse 2 not to trust to the broken staffe of old age for being holy as wee are called to holinesse 1. Thess 4.7 but in the daies of our youth as the yeares of plentie to prouide with Ioseph in Egypt for a famine of hearing a famine that may come by infirmitie of yeares Gen. 41.49 For holinesse is a gift and the grace of holinesse is the gift of God Psal 51.10 Now a gift must bee taken when it is offered It is offered to day to day if you will heare his voice Psal 95.7 And therefore we may not come for it many yeares hence being promised to day What folly is it to challenge it thirty or forty yeares hereafter But if men haue neglected in their youth thus to remember God it is high time in their age to remember him Which would bee considered of those who haue already put foot within the dores of that age in the which the Almond tree flourisheth the haires are turned white to the haruest of death Eccl. 12.5 For is it not time for
of paine for the fruition of that which is perfectly pleasing and good Or to change death for life Or to passe from a wearie pilgrimage to their desired homes where they shall not onely neuer feele miserie but bee euer happie and blessed with the full sight of that the glimpse wherof shining vpon the face of our Sauiour in his transfiguration made Peter to say Master it is good to be here Math. 17.4 Salomon saith Better is the day of death then the day in which wee were borne Eccles 7.3 And why better except because when we are borne we come into misery when we die we goe out our death beeing changed by the death of Christ and made vnto vs not a death as the Law maketh it but our path and mid-way betweene this life and the other which is eternall or our doore and little wicket out of this world into that world and kingdome which is prepared for the Saints inhabited of the Angels and receiueth honour from God who is the light and temple of that Cirie Lastly death hath lost his sting his hell his victorie I speake in regard of the righteous that which remaineth if wee liue in the spirit and die in the Lord is profitable for vs. For it shall bring an end of all our labours and giue vs vp into the hands of Iesus Christ Now what feare is in all this Let them feare therefore who haue giuen vnto them a spirit of bondage and of feare in which they tremble at their owne estate and which maketh them to carrie in their breast tormenting furies that hold them day and night in the feare of endlesse death Let them feare who rest in sinne liue in errour and ignorance follow the lustes of the world and walke in all the waies of death but let not them feare who are at a couenant with themselues to haue no pleasure in such fond courses and direct waies of death but to haue their pleasure onely in the word of God to vnderstand it and in the mysterie of Christ to bee lightened with it who hate sinne that they may haue hope and walke in righteousnesse that they may walke with Christ Let not such feare for the power of death Satan is broken before such and such may haue boldnesse when they goe out of the world that they shall goe to God A comfort therefore to the faithfull Vse 3 who haue born the brunt of life for such may be comforted in death as a Souldiour who hath endured the skirmishes and scarres of warre is glad and may haue ioy that the enemie is spent and the warre ended where others because they haue spent no time or so little in the Lords seruice and giuen so few strokes if any in the cause of his truth and glorie may feare at the approach of death and iustly complaine of that day as of a day of death indeede and that eternall In the eleuenth Chapter to the Hebrewes the Apostle sheweth what great troubles the seruants of God endured and how ioyfull they were as at a royall feast in all those troubles and sufferings for Christ that they might enter vpon the comfortable death of the righteous They were so farre from fearing death as worldlings feare it that they ranne gladly to it in their hope of the resurrection and reioiced in the welcome day of death as in a day of the greatest good that could befall them The reasons were they knew with Sampson that they should slay moe at their death then they slew in their life Iudg. 16.30 As first that they should slay their last enemie by death which is not slain but by dying And secondly that they should kill the spawne of all enmitie sinne 's sinne which bred death 〈◊〉 4.7 and the miseries of eternall death Which death in the Saints bred by sinne as the worme in the flower killeth the corrupt flower that bred it that is that sinne that caused death And this made c I doubt not but the Prophet here sinned by impatiencie but his hope was in death Eliah to desire death not life and rather to die then to liue saying It is enough 1. King 19.4 It made Dauid to lay vp his flesh in hope Psal 16.9 It made Paul to say I am readie not to bee bound onely but to die at Ierusalem for the name of the Lord Iesus Act. 21.13 And as Simeon said Lord now lettest thou thy seruant depart in peace Luke 2.29 So the godly haue such comfort in death that they say with old Simeon and all Saintes Come Lord Iesu come quickly Apo. 22.20 apprehending death as their onely way to Christ and guide to happinesse and applauding death as Iacob applauded the Chariots that Ioseph his sonne sent for the bringing of him out of a land of miserie into a land of plentie and fulnesse where hee should haue foode inough the best in the land Gen. 45.27.48 The hope of Iob and expectation of the Saints is that they shall see God and come to Christ by death presently in their soules and in their bodies at the last day when all the bones in Golgotha shall rise at that voice that shall say returne yee sonnes of Adam Psal 90.3 For though death shall swallow them vp as the Whale did Ionah and shall binde them as the Philistims did Sampson and the shroude did Lazarus hand and foote Ioh. 11.44 yet the Whale of the earth shall not hold them nor the snares of death and shroude of darknesse preuaile against them when God shall speake by his last trumpet to the graues of the earth and they shall cast out all the Lords Ionahs Ion. 2.10 The bands of death shall fall asunder as corruption and rottennesse in that day in which Christ shall command the holds of darkenesse to deliuer his Saints saying loose them and let them goe Ioh. 11.44 This then beeing all that the righteous shall loose by their gainfull death For they shall loose a short miserable life and receiue a long euer blessed life in glorie what losse can there be in death and what greater aduantage then by dying This the godly know and therefore reioyce in death as they that finde great spoiles They finde that their bodie such as it is now in the estate of corruption is an image of golde which is disfigured that it can be brought to no shape till the owner melt and refound it to a new similitude Euen so the bodie that at first was beautifull hauing such a grace and maiestie set in the face of it that after a sort and outwardly it resembled the Creators image fairer then any of Gold they finde so to bee troden in the mire and so mishapen by sinne that it can neuer receiue the beautie and condition of the first worke till it bee dissolued and new-moulded by the hand of GOD at the resurrection of all bodies and therefore they desire death as the first necessary and blessed work-house of this their
repaire from deformitie to fashion and from corruptible to eternall So death was Saint Pauls aduantage and how can it bee our losse if wee make Saint Pauls end If we had no hope after death wee might feare indeed But GOD hauing made their first Adam a liuing soule not a dying soule and all the sonnes of the second glorious soules not reprobate spirits Why should wee dread or feare to receiue our crown and glorie Or why should we be vnwilling with a ioyfull shout to salute our port and hauen after so many tiring stormes as wee haue endured vpon the raging sea of this world And why be sorie that we are going to our house of peace and home of long life which is at the right hand of God where is fulnesse of ioy and pleasures for euermore Psal 16.11 Doth any man feare to fall a sleepe at night that hath laboured hard all day What is the death of the faithfull but their sleepe of refreshing after the toiles of their life when the night is come in which no man can worke Ioh. 9.4 To this blessed sleepe of peace the Lord for his mercies sake lay euerie one of vs whom hee hath purposed to take to rest from labour in his time appointed Amen The end of the second Sermon THE THIRD SERMON ESA. Chap. 57. Vers 2 He shall enter into peace and they shall rest in their beddes euery one that walketh before him or that walketh in his righteousnesse THis scripture is a scripture of much comfort bringing a Gen. 8.11 an oliue leafe of peace in the mouth of it to the righteous that perish and to mercifull men that are shut vp with the flood of death in the Arke of their graues that they might not see the euill the great euill to come when they should see their enemies in the habitation of the Lord and Iuda with her King and inhabitants lead in Chaines of bondage to Babylon The words particularly and those of the fiue verses immediately before foure of them in the former Chapter the fift and sixt at the beginning of this containe two things as a complaint and comfort The complaint which is ioined with a threatning concerneth the vngodly that liued in their sinnes the comfort pertaineth to those that should be taken away in peace walking before the Lord that is in pathes of righteousnesse before him In the complaint the Prophet speaketh of a lamentable and very vniuersall destruction or plague that the Lord was preparing to send shortly vpon that wicked Rebell Iudah which was come to such a brimme of sinne and senslesse wickednesse and that is he would call for the wild beasts of the field and forrest of Babel meaning those Gentils and Nebuchadnezar their King to deuoure them and to execute the Lords iudgements vpon them eating their flesh and inuading their land Therefore where in a figuratiue speech at the 9. verse of the former chapter he calleth the beasts together as to some royall feast hee meaneth to forwarne the people of some grieuous iudgement prepared for them and comming toward them euen a iudgement of desolation and slauerie entended against them by the King of Babel and his great hoast The like we reade Ier. 9.22 Ezech 39.18.19 And because it might appeare that the Lords iudgements are euer righteous as he himselfe is most righteous and holy in the three verses that follow he speaketh of one maine cause that moued the iust God to send so great a storme of affliction and death in the captiuitie then threatned and that was their watchmen who should haue told them of their sinnes and giuen them warning with the Lords trumpet at their mouth of a plague so neere neither kept watch nor gaue warning but liued delicately and fed without feare being also couetous and greedie dogges that could neuer haue inough And indeed when a kingdome is ouer-runne by such in the forme and calling of Teachers it is a blazing-starre to that people and kingdome of some alteration at hand For if the Sun be set vpon the Mountains what shew can it make in the valleys or if the blind lead the blind must not both of them by the darknes that is in them of sinne and ignorance fall into the ditch of the condemnation of the Lord. Mat. 15.14 But all the fault though the greatest was not in those dumme and greedie Dogs the not teaching and ill ruling Ministers of that time the people them selues had their sinne also spoken of in the first verse of this Chapter and that was a carelesse regard of the deaths of the righteous beside their festrednesse and more then stand in sinne and wickednesse wherein they continued and went on carnally not feeling any stroke of Gods hand in that iudgement which he begunne at his owne house by taking away suddenly his best men And now if this complaint may bee vrged against vs and our coldnesse in a like case at this day as it was against them and if it shall make vs no wiser to God nor more carefull of our last end then it could them let vs prepare our selues to a like iustly deserued miserie and to pledge these in the cup in which they haue drunke before vs or begun vnto vs to destruction Thus farre the complaint The comfort entended only to those who should walke before God in their goodnesse fidelitie and truth for such should be sure vpon the remoue of their soules in soule to enter possession of an euerlasting and present peace and in bodie to rest most sweetly in the common bed and house of the earth till the last great day hath two things to be considered in it as a promise made and the persons to whom the promise is made The promise is in two things peace to the soule and rest to the bodie so soone as the soule goeth out of the bodie The persons to whom this promise is made are iust men and mercifull men that walke before the Lord that is that doe his commandements that they may liue Luc. 10.28 and keep his sayings that their part may bee in the tree of life Apoc. 22.14 The text may be resolued thus as a learned man resolueth it He that is the righteous shal enter into peace or vpon peace and they namely the godly shall rest in their beddes to wit immediately and presently vpon their deaths for as their bodies goe to rest so their soules shall enter into peace as Apoc. 14.13 Luc. 16.22 Euerie one that is euery godly one God is no accepter of persons and there is a generalitie of giuing in him as their must be a particularitie of receauing in vs that walketh before the Lord that is that hath his conuersation in the Lord walking in no way but by him nor in any course but after him This being as I take it the true both resolution and sense of this verse the first thing in it promised to the righteous is peace by which as was said