a Christian in this case concerning Christ Whom have I in death but thee and there is none in life I desire in comparison of thee The comfort of life is in the knowledge and the profit of death is in the fruition of Christ if we be without Christ it is hard to say whether is better to live or die the truth is both are hurtful whilst life will prove an increase of sinne and death sends to torment but if Christ be ours both will be to our advantage according to that of the Apostle All things are yours whether life or death things present or things to come all are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods 2. But because all Greek copies divide the verse into clauses and as Zanchy well observeth it is not safe to recede from the plain reading of the Text unless necessity compell whereas here the verse being read according to the Originall is more full and no lesse true I shall adhere to our last as the best Translation and so much the rather because in this construction it holds well in connexion both with what praecedeth and followeth Therefore his expectation was that Christ should be magnified and he not ashamed whether he did live or die because if he lived it should be Christ if he died it should be gain and so no cause in either of shame to himself but from both there would accrue honour to Christ Again therefore he did not wot what to choose whether life or death because to him on the one hand to live was Christ and on the other to die was gain To look upon the words in themselves you have in them some things supposed and some things proposed The things supposed are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as a presence of life so a certainty of death The things proposed are the dedication of his life to Christ and the advantage of death to himself Of the former more briefly Of the later more largely 1. To live to die are the things supposed the one common to all others with S. Paul the other common to S. Paul with all others First S. Paul lived so doe all men so doe all animals what our Apostle saith of bodies I may of life There is a naturall body and there is a spirituall body so there is a naturall and there is a spirituall life this is an hidden but that a manifest life this an inclosure but that a common it is common to Heathen with Christians to beasts with men the little ant the crawling worms have a share in life as well as we so that these may say as well as S. Paul To me to live why should we be so much in love with or dote upon this life which we have no more interest in than the meanest living creature indeed it is a mercy for which we ought to be thankfull it is a talent which we are to improve but it is no priviledge wherein we should glory whereof we should boast or wherewith we should be too much affected Secondly As S. Paul lived so he made account of dying Others live as well as he and he must die as well as others The {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is as certain as the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as sure as we live we must die man is no lesse subject to perishing than the beast yea the good man hath no more exemption than the bad for so the Prophet Esay asserts The righteous perisheth Indeed our Apostle elsewhere calls righteousness a breast-plate but it is not death-proof and though it delivereth in yet not from death It is true death is the wages of sin but still it is here the lot of a Saint perfect innocency should not have known mortality but grace in the best is mixed with that sinne which bringeth death Christ I grant hath taken away death but so as he hath taken away sin for the present onely in part not fully sin is taken away ne praesit death ne obsit the power and guilt of the one the sting and venome of the other but neither ne sit not the beeing of either And indeed it is not without manifold reason that Divine Providence hath so ordered it 1. That the members may be conformable to their head we may follow Christ the same way of death in which he hath gone before us to glory 2. That by the pulling down of the wall the mosse may be fully-plucked out and by the dissolution of the body its infirmity and frailty wholly purged away 3. That the power of God may appear the more glorious in raising us up after death hath layd us in the grave and the grave turned us into dust 4. Finally That the strength of our faith might appear the more in believing we shall live though we die For these Reasons the wise God hath appointed his own children to walk through the valley of the shadow of death To carry it yet one step further and that in a few words it is no other than S. Paul who was not onely a Christian but an Apostle who taketh it for granted that he must die neither the word nor the work of righteousness can secure from death Prophets Apostles Ministers as well as others are mortall and must die Indeed they are according to our Saviours metaphor the lights of the world but such as after a while may be blown out by a violent however must go out by a naturall death Clouds they are from whom the rain of instruction falls upon the people but at length they themselves vanish away Finally Angels they are in respect of their Office but still they are Men in regard of their nature and must die like men S. Paul himself hence supposeth it as a thing which sooner or later would befall him And so I have given a dispatch to the first passe we on to the Next and principall part of the Text the things that are proposed concerning the things supposed which accordingly are two namely Christ the scope of the one and Gaine the attendant on the other which when I have viewed severally I shall look upon them joyntly and so put a period to my discourse on this Scripture To me to live is Christ is the first Propsition to be discussed It is that which according to that twofold life a Christian leads namely spirituall and temporall is capable of a threefold interpretation 1. Many of the Fathers understand this to live in a spirituall sense and so this phrase To me to live is Christ is made Synonimous with that of this very Apostle elsewhere Christ liveth in me To this purpose is that Paraphrase of devout Anselme upon this Text That by which I live is Christ I live not the old but the new man And of eloquent Chrysostome I live not a common life but
if you will know where Christ is you shall finde it by other Scriptures to be farre above all heavens at the right hand of God Indeed the contract between Christ and the soule is made on earth but the marriage is consummated in heaven here Christ is with us by his Spirit there we shall be with him first in our souls and at last in our persons It is much for a Prince to visit a poor man in his cottage but it is farre more for him to take the poor man home with him to his palace Esse Christum cum paulo magna securitas Esse paulum cum Christo summa foelicitas It is our great security while we live that Christ is with us but it shall be our felicity when we die that we shall be with Christ 3. Finally when we die our souls are endowed with perfect purity and spotlesse holinesse and grace receiveth its consummation by glory the Apostle maketh mention of the spirits of just men made perfect that is perfectly just and holy in their spirits Indeed the perfection of glory is not till the resurrection when soule and body shall be united but in the mean time the souls of them that die in Christ are adorned with a perfection of grace and if the beginnings of grace be pretious what is the completion of it if the first fruits be desirable what is the full crop if the soule which hath but one dram of grace be more truly noble than if it had all other naturall or morall endowments how glorious shall our souls be when they shall be as vessels filled to the brim with fulnesse of grace By all this which hath been said the truth of this Apostolical Assertion sufficiently appeareth but that all Objestions may be removed be pleased to consider it comparatively and to weigh a while in the scales of reason both the losse and the gain of death that we may see how much the gain preponderateth the loss and so this Doctrine will remaine undoubtedly true notwithstanding whatever may be pretended to the contrary It is true death bereaveth us of a mortall and transitory but it is an inlet to an immortall and everlasting life it despoileth us of our worldly possessions I but it putteth us into possession of our heavenly inheritance it taketh us from the society of our neighbours bosome of our friends I but it sends us to Abrahams bosome makes way for our society with Christ Finally it severs the soul from the body I but it unites the soul to God what is it for the candle to be put out whilst we enjoy the light of the Sun for the standing-pools to be dry so long as we may drink at the fountain for our earthly comforts to be taken from us when heavenly joyes are conferred on us The truth is death is not a privation but a permutation So holy Iob calleth it a change and that a blessed exchange of a cottage for a palace a wilderness for a paradise a house of bondage for a place of liberty of brass for gold pebles for pearls earth for heaven And now tell me if upon all these considerations S. Paul had not just cause to say To me to die is gain The meditation whereof may serve as a check to those passions of grief and fear which are apt in this matter to be exorbitant the one in respect of our friends and the other of our own death It is the use which Cyprian teacheth us to make of this very doctrine Ut neque charorum lugeamus excessum cum accessionis propriae dies venerit incunctanter libenter ad Deum ipso vocante veniamus That we should not too much bewail the departure of our dearest relations and when the day of our dissolution doth approach that we readily and chearfully obey Gods call 1. Let the gain of death moderate our sorrow for our friends who sleep in Iesus Why should we be troubled for them who are at rest sit down in sorrow for them who are entred into joy Why are we clad in black for them who walk in white and so many tears flow from our eyes for them who have all tears wiped from theirs It is storyed of the Thracians that they mourn at the birth and rejoice at the death of their friends Nec imprudenter saith S. Ambrose nor was it without reason that they should account those fit to be bewail'd who are launching forth into the tempestuous sea of this world and attend them with joy who are got into the harbour of rest We read concerning Lazarus that Christ rejoiced when he was dead but wept being to raise him to life And Chrysologus his note is very apt to our present purpose Christ us recipiens Lazarum flevit non amittens Christ bewaileth not the losing but restoring of his life according to which the Greek Fathers make the reason of our Saviours tears to be that he should now call him back to a miserable life Indeed as S. Hierome saith concerning Nepotian we may say of every one who departeth in Christ Non tam plangendus est qui hac luce caruerit quam gratulandum ei qui de tantis malis evaserit We are not so much to condole his losse of this life as to congratulate his deliverance from the miseries of this life Thou wilt say perhaps It is my friend my dearly beloved friend who is dead and can I choose but mourn But is he thy friend and dost thou envy him his happiness dost thou dearly love him and yet grieve at his welfare He is thy friend and death is his benefit and shall the benefit of another especially of thy friend be thy sorrow I but he is snatched from my arms I have a great losse in his departure and that is my trouble True this nature promteth to that we should be sensible of our own losse yea grace requireth that we should be sensible of such a losse as it is a crosse inflicted upon us by Divine Providence Thus patient Job when the news came to him of his childrens death shaved his head and rent his mantle signes of that sorrow which naturall affection put him upon yea he fell down upon the ground and worshipped signes that in his sorrow he looked higher at the hand of God which had done it But as with one eye we look on our losse and weep so with another eye we must look on their gain and rejoice as it is a chastisement to us we must be affected with sorrow as a mercy to them with joy and thus whilest we mingle these affections together our sorrow will not be exorbitant Indeed when any die to whom we have reason to fear death is the beginning of sorrrow there is sad cause of bitter mourning but not for them who die in the Lord Scribitur David justè flevisse filium parricidam qui alium parvulum
Christ liveth in me and going on in his rhetoricall strain he puts the Question Why ô blessed Apostle doest not thou breathe in the ayre and tread on the earth as we doe Art not thou nourished by food and refreshed by sleep as we are Yes but this life he despised looking after another he did not lead a sinfull but a spirituall life and so to him to live was Christ Thus Origen occasionally speaking of these words saith In quibusdam vivit Iesus in quibusdam defunctus est Christ is as it were dead in some Christians in some he liveth to wit in those who can say to me to Live is Christ in this sense it is that Christ is the efficient cause of a Christians life and as the head communicateth motion to the members and the root sap to the branches so doth Christ life to all Christians 2. One upon this Text expounding it of naturall life rendreth the sense thus To me to live is Christ that is the onely reason why I am content to live is Christs pleasure if Christ will have me to live longer I am willing what seemeth good to him is so to me Consonant to this is that of S. Ambrose To an holy man to Live is Christ quasi servus enim non refugit vitae obsequium since as a faithful servant he doth not refuse the work of life if it may be an opportunity of advancing his Masters glory or like a good Souldier he is willing to stay in the field as long as his Captain commandeth 3. But lastly and as I conceive most rationally we are to interpret this to live of S. Paul's natural life and Christ as the finall cause of it so that we may best render the meaning of these words in Estius his Paraphrase Vitam meam Christo Evangelio consecravi To me to Live is Christ that is I have consecrated my life to Christ and his Gospel This is that which was true of Paul under a double notion the one speciall as an Apostle the other general as a Christian 1. Consider him as an Apostle and so it lets us see what ought to be the chief ayme and scope of every Ministers Life namely the honour and glory of Christ Indeed what other is the work to which a Minister is called and about which he is to be imployed but to use S. Pauls expression in the very next chapter the work of Christ What is it we are to publish but the Gospel of Christ and therein the love of Christ to lost sinners in this respect we are compared to Ambassadours and as the Ambassadours businesse is to declare his Masters message so is this our work to make known the glad tydings of salvation by Christ as being the great errand about which he sends us What is it we endeavour by publishing the Gospel yea not onely by preaching but praying and all other religious means but the gaining of souls to Christ Upon this account we are called the friends of the Bridegroom and as the friends office is to speak a good word in the Bridegrooms behalf and to conciliate the Brides favour and affection towards him so is this our employment to wooe your soules that they may be married to Christ Indeed as Saint Bernard hath piously observed That purity of heart which especially ought to be in a Bishop and Pastor of the Church consists in two things to wit in seeking the glory of Christ and the good of the people it behooving him in all his words and works to seek not himselfe but either Christs honour or the Peoples profit or both so doing Implebit nonsolum Pontificis officium sed Etymologiam nominis pontem seipsum faciens inter Deum proximum he shall according to the Etymologie of the Latine word make him self as it were a bridge between God and his neighbour whereof the one part reacheth God by advancing his glory and the other extendeth to his neighbour by furthering his benifit Oh that all we who undertake this sacred Function would take out this lesson farre be it from us to live to our selves either onely or chiefly ayming at our own emolument wee are among other resemblances compared to Eyes and eyes which see all things else see not themselves no more should we look at our selves in any thing we doe It is said of Ignatius that the name IESUS was as it were engraven upon his heart Oh let our heart be fixed on and then our life cannot but be devoted to him we are in a more speciall manner servants of Jesus Christ it is that character which the Apostle S. Jude giveth of himself and whose work should we imploy our selves about but his we are the soldiers of Jesus Christ according to S. Pauls character of Timothy and whose commands should we observe if not his Finally we are as so many stewards intrusted by Christ with his glory his Gospel and what an odious thing is it for a man not to discharge his trust Oh my brethren if we should not live to Christ who should our relations to him are nearer our obligation greater than any others and therefore as we have opportunity let us lay out our abilities in the service and for the glory of Christ 2. But further consider him as a Christian and so it is a pattern for all to follow and instructs us all what is the genuine character of a sincere Saint To him to live is Christ as Christ is the Alpha or beginning of his spirituall so he is the Omega or end of his temporall life the life of grace he deriveth from him the life of nature he devoteth to him and indeed by the one he is inabled to the other it is only a principle of supernaturall life which inclineth a man to order his conversation aright and steer the course of his life so as may best redound to Christs honour In this respect it is that S. Paul saith in the name not onely of himself but all believers both negatively none of us liveth to himself and affirmatively we live unto the Lord that memorable saying of the Emperour Jovinian is the Motto of every Saint Scopus vitae Christus Christ is the Christians scope and whatever he is or hath or doth it is all in reference to Christ What the end is to the agent that is Christ to a Saint the end is that which doth both excitare and commensurare stirre up the agent to act and according to which he ordereth and squareth his actions so it is with a Christian in respect of Christ that which both moveth and squareth him in all that he goeth about is the glory of Christ what the center is to the circumference that wherein all the lines which are drawn from every part of it doe meet that is Christ to the Saint all the lines of his thoughts and words and works tend to
am not unthankfull He conferreth on me grace for grace I return him praise for his grace He is for my deliverance I for his honour He for my salvation I in subjection to his will Thus it was with the Spouse and thus will it be with every Christian who duly pondreth upon the mercy of Christ towards him and hath his soul affected with love and gratitude to Christ To end this If there were not in us any spark of love to Christ yet even self-love cannot but strongly oblige us to live to Christ inasmuch as this is the onely honourable profitable and pleasurable life 1. No life so honourable as this all actions are dignified especially by the end to which they tend whence the more noble the intention the more noble the operation and what intention can be higher or end nobler than the glory of Christ this is that which by a strange activity turneth our earthly into an heavenly our naturall into a spirituall life which is the most excellent of all lives To live to a mans lusts debaseth his life and maketh it no better than bestiall to live to Christ exalteth it and rendreth it no lesse than angelicall 2. No life truly profitable but this the way to live to our selves is to live to Christ whilst he hath the glory we have the benefit and as his name is advanced so our good is advantaged There is a strange riddle and a seeming contradiction in those words of God by the Prophet Ephraim is an empty vine and bringeth forth fruit a vine is then said to be empty when it is fruitlesse and can that which bringeth forth fruit be said to be fruitlesse But the next words to himself unfold the riddle and reconcile the contradiction since the fruit which is brought forth to our selves is no fruit What he said of the day wherein he had done no good Diem perdidi I have lost a day that may we say in this case that day and time of our life is lost wherein we live not to Christ Finally this is the most pleasurable life free from those cares and feares distraction and vexation with which living to the world and our lusts is encombred full of those joyes and sweet pleasures and delights whereof all others are ignorant He that can say To me to live is Christ may say To me to live is peace of conscience contentment of minde and joy in the Holy Ghost In one word this is the onely way to make both our life comfortable and our death gainfull And so I am fallen on The other branch of this Text that which is here proposed by our Apostle concerning his death in those words To me to die is gain To die whether violently or naturally by sickness or a sword be the manner or means of death what it will it is gain not onely not injurious but commodious no hurt but profit no losse but benefit To me and all such as he was whether faithfull Ministers or good Christians Indeed this is primarily true of that dying to which S. Paul being now in chains at Rome might especially referre I mean a violent death for the cause of Christ by heathenish persecution And so this is true of the death it self and true Martyrs may say the very {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to die is gain to thm Indeed to die for Christ is both an honour and a gain an advancement and an advantage S. Paul in this very Chapter tells the Philippians it was given to them to suffer as if this were a special choice gift an extraordinary gratification conferred by God upon a man when he calleth him to suffer and especially death for his truth yea the death it self gaineth an increase of the reward and a further accession of glory In this respect our blessed Saviour saith He that loseth his life for my sake shall finde it which is in effect He that loseth shall not lose yea the very losing his life in this quarrell shall be an advantage to him whilest he shall finde that life which infinitely exceedeth this Mors quippe integriorem facit vitam mors magis deducit ad gloriam to use S. Cyprians expression such a death shall not onely accelerate but accumulate the glory of that other life But besides this speciall it is according to a right construction true also in a generall notion not onely of them that die for but all that die in the Lord that death is a gain to them onely with this difference to Martyrs their dying is a gain and all Christians gain by dying Indeed this gain is not a direct and proper but onely an accidental effect or rather a consequent of death not flowing from but following after it that which death in its own nature bringeth forth is evill it causeth not gain but losse depriving good as well as bad men of the sweet comforts of this present life but in regard of the good Christ hath by obtaining for them a life after death made death of a curse to become a blessing of a punishment a benefit of a departure an entrance and of a losse a gain thus as the waters of Marah were sweetned by the tree so is the bitternesse of death allayed the sting of it plucked out yea the nature of it changed by the crosse of Christ This being premised I shall intreat you to walke awhile with me in this pleasant field of deaths gain which I shall endevour to illustrate both absolutely and comparatively privatively and positively 1. This will appear to be a truth absolutely Death is a gaine to a godly man if you consider both the evils from which he is freed and the good things of which he is possessed 1. Privatively death is a gain to true Christians in respect of those various evils from which it delivereth The evils of this present life are of two sorts to wit temporall and spirituall from both which death delivereth Many are the miseries under which we groan in this life but Mors pro remedio so S. Ambrose death is a cure for them all In this respect it is that Seneca saith aptly it is Nullius mali materia multorum finis The cause of none but the end of many evils Upon this account it was that death hath been even by the heathens looked upon as an advantage When those two famous carpenters Agamedes and Trophonius had built a Temple for Apollo at Delphos they begg'd of him a Reward To whom this answer was given by the Oracle That it should be conferred on them within nine daies within which time they died And when Cydippe begg'd of Juno a boon for her two Sons Cleebis and Byto she found them in the morning dead in their beds as if the Gods could not bestow a greater benefit than death by which men are freed from the calamities of life In this respect Seneca's comparison is very fiâ— who
quia sciebat non peccasse non flevit David justly bewailed dead Absalom because he died in his rebellion and therefore despaired of his blisse but when the other childe dieth he drieth his eyes as not doubting its happinesse They indeed cannot sufficiently be lamented at their death who dying in their sins drop into hell not they who are carried into those heavenly mansions saith Isidore excellently 2. Let the gain of death mitigate the fear which is apt to arise in us from the apprehension of our own When Abigail told Nabal the threatning words of David the Text saith His heart died within him and became as a stone Thus is it with the most of us when any summons of death is given nay not onely with the most but even sometimes with the best Christ cometh to the Disciples on the Sea to preserve them from the storme and they are troubled death cometh to deliver us from all evill and we exceedingly tremble Indeed the reason is because we consider not that death is a deliverance and so gaine to us What Chrysologus saith of Martyrs is true of all good men Morte nascuntur fine inchoant occisione vivunt in coelis lucent qui in terris putabantur extincti their death is a birth and end a beginning they live by being killed and whilst they are thought to be extinguished on Earth they shine in Heaven and surely were this well pondered by them they would not seek consolation against death but death it selfe would be their consolation Those words of Job I have said to Corruption Thou art my Father to the Worme Thou art my Mother are not unfitly allegorized by Origen to this purpose Ut pueri consolatores habent parentes sic ego mortem putredinem as if he therefore called Corruption and Wormes his Father and Mother because as Parents are comforters to the Children so were they to him It is true the Separation of Soule and Body is terrible and a naturall feare of it may be cannot but be in all I but it is as true in respect of the godly that when this separation is made anima absolvitur corpus resolvitur quae absolvitur gaudet quae resolvitur nihil sentit as St. Ambrose elegantly the Soule is set at liberty and rejoyceth yea the body is at rest and knoweth no trouble and is such a separation to be feared This life what is it but a going to death and death what is it but a going to life little cause then sure why we should either too much love the one or feare the other Non est timendum saith Tertullian quod nos liberat ab omni timendo shall that be the object of our feare which freeth us from what ever is to be feared by death we gain glory and shall we not glory over death non repuerascam said a Roman si Deus mihi largiretur I would not be young againe though God would grant it me and he giveth this reason quia ab hospitio ad domum discedam because when I dye I shall goe from my Inne to my home Did ever childe cry when his Fathers man came to fetch him home Alas beloved as St. Ambrose rightly non mors ipsa terribilis sed opinio de morte not death it self but our misapprehension of death is terrible to us did we look through beyond death at the gaine which followeth it would not be dreadfull but amiable in our eyes and with this holy Apostle we would not feare but desire to depart That of the wise man the righteous hath hope in his death the Caldee reads The righteous hopeth he shall dye so farre is a good man upon serious meditation of deaths gaine from fearing of that he hopeth for his dissolution and though he dare not rashly hasten yet he willingly entertaineth it whensoever sent by God to him To draw to an end Be pleased to put both clauses together since indeed they cannot be asunder If to us to live be Christ to dye must needs be gaine to dye cannot be gaine but onely to them to whom to live is Christ If a good life precede an happy death cannot but follow Nor is it probable a gainfull death should be the consequent if a religious life have not been the antecedent Indeed if we observe the temper of many in the world we shall finde them either inverting or separating these clauses 1. Some there are who would invert these words make gain the predicate of the former and Christ of the latter thus doth every covetous man say To me to live is gain and to dye is Christ vaine men who will have Gold to be their God and yet Christ to be their Redeemer they will serve Mammon whilst they live and yet be saved by Christ when they dye but it will be just with Christ to say at death to all such Mammonists in these words of God to the Israelites in the day of their distresse Goe to the Gods which you have served the gaine which you have lived to and let that deliver in this houre of your death 2. More there are who would sever these Clauses whilst they would gladly say to dye is gaine but not to live is Christ One was asked whether he had rather be Craessus or Socrates his answer was in vitâ Craesus in morte Socrates he would be rich Craesus in his life and good Socrates at his death you know whose prayer it was Let me dye the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his and it is that no doubt which many wish and desire nay hope who yet regard not to live the life of the righteous and that their course to that end may be like his But what a folly nay madnesse is it for men to expect to reap what they doe not sow to sow to the flesh and to the world and yet reap by Christ the gaine of everlasting life after death as therefore we expect that one let us endeavour the other and if gaine by death be our hope let living to Christ be our practice So that this Scripture thus considered doth plainly put a difference between the pretious and the vile the godly and the wicked whilest to these who live to themselves death is a losse to those who live to Christ it is a gaine Adrian was wont to say that death is pavor divitum pauperis desiderium the rich mans feare and the poor mans desire I may well apply it here death either is or may be the bad mans feare but the good mans wish or to use St. Ambrose his expression justis mors quietis est portus nocentibus naufragium it is an Haven to the Just but a Shipwrack to the Guilty to those a bed of repose to these a rack of torture The man who liveth to the world saith to death as Ahab to Eliah Hast thou found me oh