And how can it be otherwise when all sâ—… is the transgression of the Law as Saint Iohn defines it and all transgression of the Law deserves and is worthie of the curse which is both the first and second death for Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the booke of the Law to doe them There is no sinne then but it is worthy of death therefore there is no such veniall sin as they dreame of We denie not but that some sins are veniall and some mortall in another sence not in respect of the nature of the sin but of the estate of the person in whom the sins are so we say all the sins of the Elect are veniall because they either are or shall be pardoned And all the sins of reprobate persons are mortall because they shall never be pardoned It is the mercy of God and not from the nature of the sins that makes them veniall for otherwise every sin in it selfe considered be it never so small is mortall for if it worke according to its owne nature it workes death of body and soule It is a foolish exception that they bring against it that thus we make all sins equall and that we bring in with the Stoicks a paritie of sin because we say all are mortall It is a foolish cavill for it is as if one should argue because the Mouse and the Elephant are both living creatures that therefore they are both of equall bignesse Though all sins be mortall they are not all equall some are greater and some are lesser according as they are extended and aggravated by time and place and person and sundrie other circumstances Suppose one should be drowned in the middest of the Sea and another in a shallow pond in respect of death all were one both are drowned but yet there is great difference in respect of the place for depth and danger So there is great difference in this though the least sin in its owne nature be mortall as the Apostle saith here the wages of it is death Thirdly seeing the wages of sinne is death it should teach us what Use to make of death being presented before our eyes at such times as this hereby wee should call to remembrance the grievousnesse of sin that brought it into the world by the wofull wages wee should bee put in mind of the unhappie service Had there not beene sin there would have beene no death upon the death of the soule came in the death of the body first the soule died in forsaking God and then the body died being forsaken of the soule the soule forsooke God willingly therefore it was compelled unwillingly to forsake the body This is the manner how death came into the world by sin therefore death must put out sin That housholder when he saw tares grow among his wheate hee said to his servants the envious man hath done this So whensoever thou seest Death seize upon any say to thy selfe sinne hath done this this is the wages of sinne and if man had never sinned we should have seene no such thing Fourthly this must deterre us from sin since it gives such wages Indeed the manner of sin is for the most part if not alwayes to promise better but it is deceitfull and this is the wages it payes thee The wages of sinne is death The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated wages some take it quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the evening because wages are paid in the evening So the morning of sin may be faire but the evening will be foule when the wages come At the first sin may be pleasing but remember the end the end of it is death Like to a fresh River that runs into the salt Sea the streame is sweet but it ends in brackishnesse and bitternesse Or like to Nebuchadnezzars Image the head was gold but the feet were of clay Or sin may be compared to that Feast that Absalom made for Amnon there was great cheare and jollitie and mirth for a while but all closed in Death in bloudshed and murther It deales with men as Laban dealt with Iacob hee entertaines him at the first with great complements but used him hardly at the last Or as the Governour of the feast said Ioh. 2. All men in the beginning set forth good wine and then that which is worse so sinne gives the best at the first but the worst it reserves for the last This should keepe us from every sin though it seemes never so pleasing and never so sweet to us remembring that the worst is still to come Wee reade that when the people saw that Saul forbad them to eate though they were exceeding hungrie yet not one of them durst touch the honey for the curse though they saw it so the pleasures of sin may drop as honey before our eyes but we must not adventure to taste of them because they are cursed fruit and because of the wages that will follow Never take sinne by the head by the beginnings as the greatest part doe but take it as Iacob tooke Esau by the heele looke to the extreame part of it Consider thy end and thou shalt not doe amisse Iezabell might have allured a man when having painted her face shee looked out of the window but to looke upon her after shee was cast out eaten of dogges and nothing remaining but her extreame parts her scull and the palmes of her hands and her feet it could not be but with horrour so sinne may allure a man looking only on the painted face in the beginning but if a man cast his eye upon the extreame parts it would then affright and deterre him for the wages the end of it is death What a world of people runne blindly and desperatly on they turne to the race of sinne as the horse to the battell without feare as if the Psalmists Tremble and sinne not were rather sinne and tremble not Whereas we have great cause every one to tremble at the least motion of sinne in our selves to which so dreadfull and wofull wages is due Lastly for this point so many of us as have repented and have already left the service of sin we must hence learne as to be humbled in our selves considering what danger and miserie we have escaped so to be more thankful to Christ that hath freed us from so wretched wages due to our sins and that by taking the whole punishment upon himselfe For we must know beloved that the best of us by nature are children of wrath as well as others the stypend that we have earned is eternall death and surely it hath been payed to us nothing could have kept it from us but only the satisfaction of Christ comming betweene Gods justice and us Thinke we then if we can what miserie it is that wee have escaped as many of us I meane as be in the state of grace we have escaped
of men or whether men affect it in themselves but they account this a matter of praise a vertue praise-worthy to see nothing dolefull nothing worthy of mourning in the death of any one We see it is quite contrarie to the very course of the Scripture But it will be objected We are bid to mortifie our earthly affections and if we must mortifie our affections we must mortifie all our affections that of sorrow as well as anger and the like I answer briefly The Scripture indeed biddeth us mortifie our affections but it doth not bid us take away our affections it biddeth us only mortifie and purge out the corruption of our affections Now there is a twofold corruption and distemper in the affections of men The first is when they are misplaced and set upon wrong objects so we mourne for that we should rejoyce in or wee rejoyce in that we should mourne for Secondly when they are either excessive or defective either we over-doe or wee doe not either not at all or not in that proportion and measure that we should Thus when we over-grieve for worldly crosses and too little for sinne too much for the losse of earthly friends and too little for the losse of Gods favour and spirituall wants this is a distemper of the affections in the defect the heart growes earthly and fixed upon the creature and is drawne away and estranged from God Then there is the excesse that the Apostle speakes of when he exhorts them not to mourne as men without hope whether he spake there of the Gentiles as some thinke that cut their heads and made themselves bald in the day of their mourning an affected kind of outward shew they had to mourne which the Lord forbad the people of Israel to doe or whether as indeed it is because they did not restraine inwardly and bridle the exorbitant excesse of their affection wee should not mourne as the Gentiles but as men of hope mourne as men that can see the changes that God makes in the earth and in your Families and can see how neere God commeth to you and what use God would have you make of every particular tryall and affliction mourne so farre as you see your owne guilt in not making use of the opportunities you have had in enjoying your friends and so farre as you see any evidence of displeasure from God so farre we should mourne but not as men without hope But I briefly passe this intending not to insist upon it only by occasion because Solomon makes the place where any die the house of mourning Wee come now to the proofe of the point why going to the house of mourning taking these occasions to affect our hearts is better then to goe to the house of feasting then to take occasions of delighting our selves in outward things What 's the reason It is double First This is the end of all men What is the end of all men The house of mourning That which he meaneth by the house of mourning here is that which he calleth the end of all men that which putteth an end to all men and to their actions upon earth and that is Death So that the maine point that in this place the wise man intendeth is but thus much I will deliver it in the very words of the Text we need not varie from them at all Death is the End of all men Death is that which every man must expect to be the end of his life and of his actions It is the common the last condition of all men upon earth I will give you but two places of Scripture that include all men in Death One in Iob third from the fourteenth verse to the 20. verse of that Chapter Iob sheweth there how Death is the End of all men he beginneth with the Kings and Counsellers of the Earth with Princes and great warriours and descendeth afterward to prisoners and meane persons to labourers to servants to small and great all saith he lie downe in the dust and goe to the place of silence The other place is in Zachar. 1. 5. Your fathers where are they and the Prophets doe they live for ever That is looke to all your forefathers that have beene in all times before you whether they be those Fathers that you glory in Abraham Isaac and Iacob and the rest or those Fathers that disobeyed the word of Prophesie which indeed is the principall thing here intended all these Ancient persons they are dead or as S. Peter speakes of those that were disobedient in the dayes of Noah they are in prison they are in the grave yea and the Prophets too that preached to you they are dead the generations before you both of Prophets and people are all dead You see then that Death is the common condition of all men Kings and Subjects Prophets and people this is the last thing that shall be said of them all they are dead And it must be so First in regard of Gods decree It is that that God hath appointed and determined concerning all men that they must die there is a statute for it in heaven that can never be reverst It is appointed to all men once to die Heb. 9. 17. Secondly in regard of that matter whereof all men are made of earth Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne Your remembrances saith Iob are like unto ashes and your bodies to bodyes of clay How easie is it for the wind to blow away ashes for a potter to breake in pieces a vessell of clay so easie it is to put an end to the memories and bodies of men they are but ashes and clay Thirdly in regard that every man hath in him that that is the cause of Death sinne It is that that is as poison in the spirits and as rottennesse in the bones Sinne brought in Death and Death seizes upon all men it consumeth all men from the very beginning by degrees Shew me a man without sinne without it either in the committing of it or without it in the guilt of it you may then shew a man that shall not die while all men are under sinne they are under Death Even our blessed Saviour Iesus Christ himselfe though he did not sinne actually yet because hee stood guiltie of our sins Death seized upon him So then Looke to Gods decree that is All men shall die Looke to the matter whereof every man is made that is a decaying dying substance And looke to the cause of death in all men that is sinne If any man can either escape Gods decree or bring a man that is not made of such a mouldring matter or produce and shew a man that hath no sinne in him then you may shew a man that shall not die but till then this conclusion remaineth that the wise man setteth downe this is the end of all men that they shall die But here
greater worke to doe to prepare for my owne death God in the death of this man speakes to me to prepare for my owne And then to glorifie God by submission to his will make it appeare that thou acknowledgest a power in God to dispose of thy house to doe every thing by patiently resting in his will And yet this comfort is added though children be tooke away that they shall not returne in an earthly manner yet they shall in a better manner Parents are contented to part with their children for a time for their preferment Children though theyare very young that are commended by the prayers of the godly Parents into the hands of God these whose hearts God hath inlarged and quickned fervently and faithfully to pray in the behalfe of their children they may rest in this assured that they shall meet at the Resurrection in a better manner their children shall be better preferred then if they were on earth and shall be raised up to perfection Here you see there is not a tooth bred in a child without a great deale of paine and every tooth cost some paine but this mortall bodie shall put on immortalitie and this corruption shall put on incorruption This weake body shall be made strong weake children strong without paine Death endeth these things and the Resurrection shall present him in a perfect measure of strength in a glorified estate So much for this text and for this time FINIS THE STING OF DEATH OR THE STRENGTH OF SINNE ROM 5. 12. By one man sinne entred into the world and by death sinne ROM 7. 9. When the Commandement came sinne revived and I died LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. THE STING OF DEATH OR THE STRENGTH OF SINNE SERMON VI. 1 Cor. 15. 56. The sting of Death is Sinne and the strength of Sinne is the Law SOlomon telleth thus that there is a season for every thing there is a time to bee borne and a time to die These two are the two great seasons of all men we are as sure to die as we are sure we have lived and every degree of our life is but a steppe to our death Every man of us hath but a part to act here in the world when wee have done that that God hath appointed us we are drawne off from 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 faire a beautie as the life of man is to be closed up in eternall darknesse that Man should turne to the acquaintance of dust and wormes and make his habitation with rottennesse and loathsomnesse that Death should have the victorie of so excellent a Creature it is a hard condition The Apostle thinkes not so he thinkes otherwise Death saith he ver 54. is swallowed up in victorie As if he should say It need not trouble you to thinke 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 deale with it might trouble him but it is no great matter to deale with a conquered enemie Christ hath overcome Death hath conquered that strong enemie 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 saith he where is thy sting oh grave where is thy victorie 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 breakes 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 sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law But this is the occasion of trouble to Christians No it is not thankes bee to God that hath given us victory through Iesus Christ our Lord As if he should say I will shew you the reason of my triumphing over Death there was a sting in Sinne and Sinne is the sting of Death and the Law is the strength of sinne but Christ hath tooke away sinne and hath satisfied the Law sinne being taken away Death cannot hurt me the Law being satisfied Sinne cannot prejudice me This was the cause of the Apostles and in him of every Christians insultation over Death The words I have read containe two parts First the sting of Death Secondly the strength of Sinne. First the sting of death is sinne Secondly the strength of sinne is the Law If there were no law there would bee no sinne and if there were no sinne there would be no death Sinne is the transgression of the Law and sinne 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 usefull to you The proposition shall be the very words of the Text Sinne is the sting of death This Proposition I would not have you understand in this sense only that death came in by sinne meerely in a habit though that be true too But understand it in this sense That all the horrour and terriblenesse of Death all the power and rage it hath whatsoever makes it fearefull to a man it receiveth it all from sinne It is sinne that armeth Death against a man if Death have any weapons against a man Sinne puts those weapons into the hands of Death if Death have any poyson against a Christian the sinne of that person putteth that poyson in it Death may bee 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 happinesse it is a day of redemption and refreshing and so we need not be afraid of it Death as we by sinne have made it is the Pale horse Saint Iohn speakes of in the Revelation it is as a fearfull arrest to the debtor it hath a sting in it and so it is fearefull But that I may open this point more profitably wee will enquire into these particulars First what death the Apostle speakes of here Secondly of what sinne he speakes of Thirdly in what respect sinne 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 speake of that sinne is the sting of For answer hereunto there is a double death corporall and spirituall Corporall death is the privation of the soule when the soule is severed from
tell me then what is the disquiet that springeth from sinne in a Cain in a Iudas when it meets with a dispairing disposition Thus you see Sin hath this time to sting and therefore thinke not that Sin will never sting till death sometimes Sinne stingeth a man before death Another time is at death When Death commeth and arresteth a sinner in an Action from God seizeth on a person that is under the power of Sin on one that is in his sinnes untouched howsoever he behaved himselfe in his life-time yet then the very name of Death breakes his heart it apaleth him and then it stings such a person It is appointed beloved for all of us once to die Death will one day arrest every man but when Death appeareth before a man that hath not a part in Christ that is under the power of his sinnes when it commeth to a Belshazzar it makes his very joynts to smite one against another it is a sting to him amidest all those sweet morsels his sinnes which he so much affected and so earnestly pursued it is as a very poyson to him nothing is a poyson now to us but sinne only but then at the time of death sinne is a poyson indeed Lastly Sinne can sting not onely before and at but after death Both at the day of Judgement and after At the day of Judgement Is not the conscience of a sinner thinke you stinged and his spirit deeply affected by reason of the great wrath of God that is to be poured out when he shall cry to the mountaines to cover him when he shall call to those insensible creatures that are not able to lend him that courtesie to crush him to nothing Make this our owne case thinke of it it will be our case as it is appointed for us all to die so we must all come to judgtment And after the Judgement when the sentence goe you cursed is past the sting of Sin ceaseth not no the worme for ever gnaweth in Hell It were a happinesse for a sinner if he might onely heare the sentence if this worme might not still gnaw his conscience but then this is his burthen Sin shall sting him for ever This is the first respect in which sinne is called the sting of death because then Sinne stingeth more emminently and sensibly Secondly it is called the sting of death in respect of the metaphor the Apostle aludeth unto it is taken from the sting of a Serpent and so Sinne is a sting in a double respect First in respect of the fearefulnesse and then in respect of the hurtfulnesse of it First in respect of the fearefulnesse It is Sin that makes Death fearefull to a man Indeed I confesse that in the best Christian though Christ have pulled out the sting of death yet there are naturall grudgings and shruggings As to a Serpent though the sting be pulled away yet there are some abhorrings and dissikes in a man But then how terrible is Derth when it commeth in compleate Armour as it doth against a person in whom Sinne remaineth in its full power it must needs then be terrible See the difference betweene two persons the one is afraid of every one he meeteth the other is not what is the reason the one is greatly indebted and ingaged the other is free So it is with a Christian and another man the one cannot heare of Death but his heart breakes hee is full of feare and horrour the other heareth of Death and is onely somewhat affected in the hearing of it but not possessed with that feare as is the other what is the reason the sting of death remaineth in one and not in another Sin therefore is a sting in that respect Secondly it is a sting in respect of hurtfulnesse The sting of the Serpent is a hurtfull thing it poysoneth the vitall parts it takes away life it selfe All the evill that commeth to us by death commeth by sinne Man need not complaine of the ilnesse of the prison so much as of his owne folly that he ingaged himselfe in debt whereby he is cast into prison Why complainest thou of the misery in Hell rather labour to breake off thy sinnes that are the cause of all that miserie all the hurtfull qualitie and miserable condition that befalleth a person in Death and Hell is for Sin the eternall separation of the soule from God and all punishment that followes after in Hell are the fruit of mans sinne Hell had not beene Hell without Snne it is Sin that causeth it to become hurtfull Thus I have explained these inquiries Now I come to make Use and application and so conclude the Point The first Use of this point shall be this If Sin be the sting of death let it be our wisedome to get this sting pulled out in the time of our life Oh that this people were wise saith God then would they consider their latter end If you were wise that heare mee this day you would consider that Death will come and if it be not taken away before-hand with a sting upon the soule My brethren we have many enemies to deale with even now at this very instant but there is yet an enemie as the Apostle saith The last enemie to bee subdued is Deaeh he his behind and here is the difference betwixt Death our last enemie and some other of our enemies some other of our enemies cannot be subdued but by their presence but let me tell you this Death is such an enemy as is never subdued but by his absence thou canst never overcome Death in death thou must not reserve this combat till thou come to the field but thou must overcome this enemie before he commeth thou must overcome him in thy life How is that Pull out the sting of him now then Death is conquered How will you disarme the tongues of malicious slanderous persons and deprive them of their viperous speech by an innocent life So how will you take away the sting of death watch against Sin take away sinne and you take away the power from Death set upon Sin and Death is overcome so much sinne as is now dead so much is Death conquered I beseech you seriously consider these particulars First that it will not be long ere Death knocke at these dores of ours these houses of clay must shortly be ruinated wee must certainly be resolved into dust What is this life of ours but as a ship that is driven by a gale of breath When the breath of man ceaseth the ship lieth in a dead calme Man goeth to his long home saith Solomon and the mourners follow in the streets Death is our long home wee all are the mourners wee follow in the streetes This dead carcasse is an example that leads us to our home and a sermon to tell us that we must follow we follow now in a charitable expression but we shall follow one day in paying of the
such meditations No man can live well till he can die well Hee that is prepared for Death is certainly freed from the danger of death neither is there any so fit a way to bee ready for it as to be often minded of it Therefore I have made choice at this time to speake of this verse wherein ye see the Apostle declareth and leadeth us to treat of foure things First that there is a Death Secondly that this Death is an enemie Thirdly that this enemie is the last enemie Lastly that this least enemie shall be destroyed A word or two of each of these parts First Death is Yee know that well enough your eyes shew it you daily our senses declare it so plainly that no man is so senslesse that knoweth it not It is agreed upon by all Only for your better furtherance to make use of this point let us acquaint you with that which nature will teach yee concerning Death Secondly with that which Scripture will teach you above and better then Nature Nature sheweth yee concerning Death first what it is And then Secondly what Properties it hath It telleth us this That Death is an absence from life a ceasing from beeing when one was beeing to be thrust as it were out of the present world and be cast some where This is all that Nature informeth us concerning the Essence and beeing of Death Death is a dividing of us from this life and from the things of this life and sends us abroad we know not where Secondly Nature teacheth us three Properties concerning Death One that it is universall It hath tied all to it high and low rich and poore Death knockes at the Princes pallace as well as at the poore habitation of the meanest man It is a thing that respects no mans greatnesse it regardeth no wealth nor wit nothing Death takes all before it That Nature teacheth too Secondly Nature teacheth that Death is inevitable If a man would give all the world he cannot thrust it out of dores It takes whole Armies aswell as one man It scorneth to bee resisted by the Phisitians there is no words no meanes to escape it It is such an enemie as we must grapple with and it will conquer This Nature teacheth Againe Nature teacheth that death is uncertaine A man knoweth not when Death will come to him or when it will lay hold on him or by what meanes it will fetch him out of the world It may fetch him out of the world at any time or in any place and by such occasion as it is impossible for any wit to thinke of before This is in substance all that Nature teacheth And the knowledge of this it is for good use aswell to remember and consider it as to understand it But now I goe on to tell yee what the Scripture teacheth concerning Death for that giveth a perfecter and larger information of the thing then the dimme light of Nature The Scripture then over and above that which Nature sheweth telleth us concerning Death these things First it sheweth better what it is and then It sheweth whence it commeth and what are the causes of it Thirdly it declareth the consequences what follow upon it And lastly and bestly it telleth us the remedie against the ill of Death In all which Nature stumbleth and can doe little or nothing First the Scripture telleth us what it is It letteth us know that it is the disolution of a man not the annihilation It doth not make him cease to bee but takes asunder a while the soule from the body It carrieth the one to the earth and the other to another world so that both continue to bee though they be not united as before The word of God teacheth us that he hath created the world as it were a house of three Stories The middle is this present life where we be And there is a lower place the Dungeon a place of unhappinesse and destruction There is a higher place a pallace of glory According as men behave themselves in this middle roome so Death either leadeth them downe to the place of unhappinesse or conveyeth them up to the pallace of glory and blessednesse This Nature is ignorant of but the Scripture is plaine in The rich man dieth and his soule is carried to Hell the poore man when he died his soule was advanced to Heaven So that Death is nothing but the messenger of God to take the soule out of the body and to convey it to a place of more happinesse or more miserie then can be conceived Secondly the Scripture acquaints us further with the cause of death Philosophers wondred since nature desireth a perpetuitie and continuance of it selfe that man should be so short a time in the world The Scripture endeth this wonderment and tels us that man indeed was made immortall to continue for ever and should not have died but sinne came into the world and by sin death Death is the mother of sinne and of all miserie that by little and little draweth to death I say sinne the first sinne of our first Parents whereby they transgressed that most easie and equall mandate about eating the forbidden fruit That transgression that was the treading under foot the covenant of workes and the disanulling of it that sinne let in Death at a great Gappe and now it triumpheth and beareth rule over all the world Nature cannot tell which way in the world a man should die so soone and that hee that is the Lord of all creatures should bee inferiour to a great number of them in length of life But the word of God unridleth this riddle and telleth us that God made man that hee might and should have lived for ever but Sinne comming and comming in the person of the first man it brought death and made all men mortall and when sinne entred Gods curse came and that working upon us poore and miserable creatures it is the cause that we cannot continue long here It was equall that death should follow sinne for since God made man to obey his will when man had unfitted himselfe for Gods service it was reason that he should have a short continance of life for the longer he endured the more he would abuse himselfe Yee see then two things that the Scripture teacheth concerning death The third thing it sheweth is what followeth after death and that is plaine It is appointed for all men once to die and after death commeth judgement Nature never dreamed of judgement after Death but the Scripture telleth us there is a Judgement after Death Judgement what is that Judgement yee know is a calling of a man before Authoritie a looking into his wayes a considering of his actions a finding out whether hee be a sinner an evill doer and if hee find him so to passe sentence according to his evill deeds When God hath tooke the soule from the body hee takes the soule first
an enemie that it doth not cease till it hath dragged the soule into the presence of God and after from his Tribunall to the torment of eternall fire in Hell That succeedeth death for naturally of its owne nature it tendeth to the destruction of man because it is a fruit of sinne and therefore must needs be the perdition and overthrow of the soule For sinne bringeth destruction in regard it makes God angrie with us and separateth from him and by consequence from all manner of comfort and in regard it separateth from him it bringeth all manner of ill his wrath his hatred and ill will the greatest of all Death I say properly and of it selfe intendeth and seekes to draw all those that it layes hold on to a state of everlasting unhappinesse therefore it is an enemie So you see the second point opened The third is that Death is the last enemie after which there shall bee no more But I must tell you to whom it is the last not to all For there are a generation of men that shall feele death to be the least of enemies and in a manner the first But to the Saints and those that are prepared for death and those that will use the remedie to these and these alone death is the last enemie after once they have grappled and fought and encountred with this enemie they are at peace and rest as he saith Happy are they that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours There is no more toyle and miserie to a good man after death And why Because death seperateth sin from his soule as well as the soule from the body and so taking away the cause of unrest it must needs take away miserie and unhappinesse it selfe Indeed properly Death doth it not but the Lord Iesus Christ by death For it pleaseth him when his servants leave this world then they are fit to enter into a place of happinesse in another world which they could not be except they were freed from sin Death is the daughter of sinne and with a happy patricide as it were at once it destroyeth it selfe and sin and therfore it takes away all misery because it takes away all sinne Therefore it is the last enemie because it killeth the worst of our enemies for when we are dead there shall be no more enmitie betweene God and us and so no more enemy This is the third point The last is that this enemie shall bee destroyed A thing is destroyed abolished when it selfe ceaseth to be and is tooke out of the way and when all the ill effects that it would produce and effect or hath are removed So the Lord Jesus Christ abolisheth Death he destroyeth it that it shall never againe be knowne in the world or felt by his servants and he preventeth all those evill effects that it would worke in the soule for eternitie and removeth all the ill effects of it that it hath wrought on their bodies for the present time Death takes away a mans goods for the present Christ abolisheth that he giveth everlasting substance in heaven Death takes away friends Christ abolisheth that hee sends us to heaven where we have more friends and better Death brings the body to rottennesse and corruption it laieth it in the dust turnes it to putrifaction Christ abolisheth that at the Resurrection it shall rise againe in glory How that is done the Apostle tells us in the end of this chapter The body shall be laid in the dust a weake and feeble a mortall and naturall body but it shall bee clothed with immortalitie This mortall shall put on immortalitie this corruptible shall put on incorruption then shall bee fulfilled that saying Death is swallowed up in victorie But this is also limited it shall bee destroyed to whom To those that use the remedie those that partake of Christ those that have put on him that is the Resurrection and the life Thus I have laid before your eyes briefly these foure things that the Apostle leadeth us to treate of concerning death That it is That it is an enemie That it is the last enemie And that it shall be destroyed Now I desire to apply this and to make use of it First I shall be bold to play the Examiner to search each conscience a little Brethren let the word of God enter into your soules Yee heare that there is a death and that this death is a sore and bitter enemie and yee heare that to some sort of men it is the last enemie that ever they shall encounter with and bee freed from all the hurt of it it shall be utterly destroyed Now doe so much as discend every one into himselfe and inquire what care there hath beene to prepare for death to make use of the remedie against death what time and paines hath beene bestowed to seeke to get that that is the only meanes to escape the Dart of this enemie and that that is the only cause to procure this enfranchisement to the soule from that that else will destroy all A man hath not fitted himselfe to encounter with his enemie when hee lookes after wealth and followeth the pleasures and contentments of this life these things will doe no good they will be rather a burthen to the heart and vexe the soule and increase the mischiefe laying more sin upon the soule and giving death darts to pierce the soule with But when is a man fit for death and who may encounter with this enemie with safetie I will tell yee That man that takes the greatest care to disarme death of his weapons to arme himselfe with defensive weapons against death If an enemie come upon a man with good weapons in his hand and find him altogether unweaponed it is hard for a naked unarmed man to deale with him it is hard for a man that never thought of it before to fight with one that is skilfull at his weapons Death I told yee is an enemie and an enemie that is skilfull in his weapons and the weapon of death it is our owne sinne Death bringeth nothing with it to hurt a man It findeth with us and in us that whereby to hurt us So many corruptions as are in thy heart so many weapons So many idle words so many bad deedes so many swords to pierce thy heart Death maketh use of those weapons it findeth in our selves and with them hee destroyeth and killeth and brings us to perdition Now what have yee done beloved to disarme death what care have yee taken to breake sinne apieces that it may not be as a sword ready drawne for the hand of death when it commeth as Arrowes in a Bow to shoot at you when Death laieth hold on you That man that hath tooke no care to overcome sinne in the power of it and to get himselfe free from the guilt and punishment of it is unfit for death If death come upon him and find his offences
there grow a Fig-tree or Ivy out of the house that it spread the root through the chinckes and partitions of the wall a man that cuts downe the Fig-tree shall not profit for it is so fast rooted in the wall and in the chinkes that either hee must pull downe the wall or else it will not die Therefore a wise man will pull down his house and root out the Fig-tree and then set up stones and and there erect the house beautifull and so both are preserved he hath his end in both both the house is rebuilt and the Ivy consumed and rooted out So it is in case of sinne there is the house we carry about us the building the temple of our body the house is man himselfe sinne is the fig-tree it is such a fig-tree as insinuateth it selfe betweene every chinke and partition in our nature there is somewhat corrupt in every facultie of the soule and it sheweth the fruit in every part of the body that is an instrument of sin it hath so wound it selfe in that the fig-tree cannot be destroyed cannot be pulled out except the house be dissolved there must be a pulling downe of the Temple therefore God in wisedome by Death he takes the temple the house in peeces and then the fig-tree may be pulled out and then he erects the wall of that house more glorious then before it was throwne downe while the fig-tree was in it while sinne was in it it is raised up without it that is that the Apostle saith Corruption shall put on incorruption and mortalitie shall put on immortalitie the body that is sowne a naturall body it shall bee raised a spirituall it is sowne in dishonour it shall be raised in glory God therefore takes them away from the evill of sinne hee dissolveth the body that hee may purifie it and cloath it with immortalitie that it may be a purer body then when it was first presented in nature at the first Creation We see hereby what those good things are that Death bringeth It bringeth immunitie from the evill of suffering God takes away mercifull men that they see not that they suffer not And it bringeth immunitie from sinne that they doe not see it that they doe not commit it The use is a Pillar of confidence not to bee afraid of Death who would feare that which makes for his perfection that is the meanes of his translation to happinesse And in respect of others not to mourne for them that are tooke away out of this world as those that are without hope they are not tooke away but translated they are removed for their advantage for the better Elijah was removed from earth to heaven in a firie chariot shall Elisha weepe because hee enjoyeth him not No he is tooke from earth to heaven Ioseph was sold into Aegypt but it was to be a Ruler God intended that it is the same reason God translates us out of the world to give us the end of our hope even the salvation of our soules Shall we mourne as men without hope God takes them out of a valley of teares shall we mourne unsatiably for those that are tooke out of the valley of teares let us not bring their memory to the valley of teares they are past it God takes them from evill to good to the best good the good of immortalitie and eternitie the good of the enjoying of God of that that eye hath not seene nor eare hath heard It is true that when we see any impenitent man die any man die in his sinnes there is just cause of mourning That was the course that David observed he lost two sonnes Absolom a wicked sonne he mourned for him he lost the child that was begotten in adulterie for the life of which he prayed he mourned not for the childes departure and Saint Ambrose giveth the reason well he had a good hope and assurance that the child was translated to a better estate he doubted of Absolom he died in his sinnes therefore he mourned for him for his death not for the childes So when we see any die in his sinnes there is cause then of teares and of excessive teares then David crieth Absolom oh my sonne my sonne But if there be good evidences of a Saint translated to glory shall we mourne as men without hope As Saint Ierom speakes to Paula mourning for her daughter Art thou angrie Paula because I have made thy child mine Hee bringeth in God speaking thus dost thou envie me my owne possession my owne creature It is true for the state of an impenitent man he hath his good things here and his evill to come after there is cause of mourning for that he is translated from good to ill his heaven is in this world his heaven is in his treasure in his riches in his chests and upon his table and as he enjoyed a heaven here so hee must not looke for it after there is a place of another condition his heaven is here his hell after But the penitent and contrite his ill is here and his good after his hell is in this world in suffering and in mortifying the flesh in wrestling with sinne in incountring with tentations here is his hell and his torments but after commeth his heaven and his blisse so he is translated from bad to good he is tooke away from the evill to come So here is the meaning of all I have shewed first the meaning of the three phrases The second thing I propound is this What the Prophet bemoaneth and makes lamentation for and these mercifull men for if they be tooke away from evill present and evill to come evill corporall and spirituall sufferings extraordinary plague and famine sufferings ordinary sicknesse and tentation if it be so that no sinne shall fall upon them to destruction no tentation fall on them to destroy them here much lesse afterward if they be tooke from all these evils how commeth the Prophet to make lamentation that mercifull men are taken away from the evill to come for hee speakes it mourningly It is one sufficient reason he mourneth over them because others did not But there are two reasons that are more speciall There is the losse of the godly man for the present when hee is taken away that is a thing to be lamented And the danger of the world in respect of the losse of a godly man First the losse of a godly man that is a great punishment that God sendeth on a place there is a great losse to those that survive The losse of their example they shine as lights there is a Taper a Candle taken away Yee rejoyced to walke in his light saith Christ to the Iewes concerning Iohn there was a light not only of Iohns Doctrine but of his example whereby those that heard him walked There is the light of grace set up in the life of the Saints of God they are as a Taper to guide us in
Chap. 6. 14 15. They heale the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly saying peace peace when there is no peace Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination Nay they were not ashamed neither could they blush therefore they shall fall among men that fall at the time that I visit them they shall bee cast downe saith the Lord. Marke The Prophets cry peace It had beene well done of the Prophets to cry peace to those Israelites that in truth were at peace with God but they cry peace to them to whom there was no peace What then Did the people reforme did this make those that before were rebellious against God come in and accept of the conditions of peace and forsake their sinnes and turne to God No such matter nay though their sinnes were reproved by Ieremiah and other faithfull Prophets yet they were not ashamed when they had committed abomination and they could not blush they stood it out they remained in their impenitency Well what of this Therefore saith the Lord they shall fall amongst them that fall in that day at that time they shall be destroyed they shall bee cast downe they shall cease to be a people at least they shall cease to be men prevailing above other people In the first of Zephaniah vers 12. yee have the Lord saying there that he will visit Ierusalem with lights and search it with candles What to doe to find out the men that are frozen on their dregges that are settled on their lees that say in their heart the Lord will not doe good neither will hee doe evill Why will the Lord visit Ierusalem with lights to find out these men Hee meeteth with the conceit that such men as these have they thinke as the Atheists in Iob that God is circled in the clouds and seeth not the things below or as those in this Prophesie of Zephanie that said The Lord sees not neither doth hee regard Why doth he not so Because hee wants light Well then saith the Lord I will bring candles to see with and visit Ierusalem with lights and whosoever hee spies out amongst all the sinners in Israel hee will be sure to meet with those that say The Lord sees not that are settled on their dregges that secure themselves under false perswasions they shall not escape his wrath Gods greatest quarrell is against those men that flatter themselves as if God did not take notice of their sinnes hee will surely punish those it is for their sakes why hee will bring candles to search Ierusalem with It was so with Babylon in Isa. 47. 8. 9. The Lord observeth her boasting I am saith shee a Queene I sit as a Lady I shall neither see losse of children nor widowhood Marke now what God saith Heare now this thou that art given to pleasures and dwellest carelesly both these shall come upon thee losse of children and widowhood all thy props and all thy staies shall bee taken from thee yea and that in one day in a moment when thou least thinkest of it suddenly thou shalt be husbandlesse and childlesse Nay it is that which the Lord speakes of Romish Babylon in the 18 Revel 7. Shee had heard of the pride and boasting of old Babylon and shee would faine be like it I sit as a Queene saith shee too and am no widow and shall see no sorrow shee stands upon her outward pompe and glory as worldly-minded men doe specialally when they come to greatnesse and eminencie Well what will the Lord doe Therefore verse 8. shall her plagues come in one day death and mourning and famine and shee shall bee utterly burnt with fire for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her Thou saist I sit as a Lady I shall see no change Well saith the Lord it shall be indeed a famous Church for something even for such judgements as shall fall upon it aboveall other places there shall bee famine and death and burning Yea and it shall be done when all outward meanes that should bring this to passe seeme to faile and when Babylon shall seeme to advance her selfe like a Queene above all other Churches when there is nothing but strength and might on her side then shall God doe it for strong is the Lord that judgeth her Hee bringeth in this strong is the Lord to answer an objection It shall bee done for the Church even then when the advers partie thriveth most then when it may be seene to be Gods owne worke then when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 off from selfe-confidence then when men have noâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eyes on but God then will God doe this for his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith plainly that Babylon shall be burnt with fire and at 〈◊〉 a time when it appeares that it cannot be done except hee put his strength to the worke Thus yee see the securitie of a People or Nation or Kingdome it is an infallible signe of judgement falling upon it And it must be so and there is great reason for it If we either consider the causes of security whence it commeth or the concommitants that accompany it or the fruits and events of it it must be that great judgements must be fall men and places when they are under this carnall securitie First looke to the causes Whence is it that men that are not at peace with God yet flatter themselves that they shall doe well It proceedeth from that unbeliefe 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 sinne should certainly fall upon the head of the sinner durst they goe on in a course of sinning against God Durst they adde drunkennesse to thirst one wickednesse to another No certainly In that measure a man hath faith in that measure he feareth God and his judgements that hee hath threatned See it in Noah Heb. 11. By faith Noah being warned of God moved with feare prepared an Arke Hee beleeved that God was faithfull that had threatned a judgement upon the world he beleeved the word of God that commanded him to provide an Arke for the safetie of him and his house and therefore hee feared the Deluge to come and prepared an Arke So likewise Iosiah when he read the booke of the Law and saw what was threatned against the sinnes of the people his heart melted within him and why because hee 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 sinnes wherein the people had continued so long a time Nay it is made a description of a beleever in Isa. 61. That he is one that trembleth at Gods word On the other side what
so freeth men from the latter as they never come neere it and so freeth them from the former as they never dread to be under the power of the latter And the first Death of the outward man which is the separration of the Body from the Soule it is no Death if it separate not both from God which it can never doe if a man keepe the sayings of Christ therefore though his body that keepeth the sayings of Christ bee tooke from his soule yet he seeth not death so as to have any hurt by it hee feeleth no ill by it nay it is good to him for it is a passage from miserie to rest and felicitie Thus yee have these words as faithfully interpreted to you as I know how And now I will make proofe of this Doctrine thus explicated namely that thus to keepe Christs sayings to know and follow the Doctrine of the Gospell 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 hee had the words of eternall life then he that keepeth them is certainly safe against the hurt of Death So the Angell speakes to the Apostles whom the Pharisees had imprisoned when he brought them forth of Prison he biddeth them speake 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 per 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 Iudea of his going to the Gentiles he saith that an Angel appointed Cornelius to send for him that he might speake words to him whereby himselfe 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 Iohn in his first Epistle and second Chapter where hee saith let that abide in you which you have heard from the beginning that is the Doctrine of the Gospell which Christ taught his sayings if that remaine in you you also shall continue in the Sonne and in the Father Hee that hath fellowship with the Sonne and with the Father can never see Death for God is the fountaine of life therefore those that are one with him and continue in him cannot see Death no more then he can be overwhelmed with darknesse that is where the Sunne shineth fully no more then the body can bee dead as long as it hath communion with the soule so those in whom the word of Christ remaineth and stayeth they are assured that they shall remaine with the Father and the Sonne and therefore being united to that that is life God the Father and the Sonne it is impossible that ever they should be hurt by the first or ever at all taste of the last Death Againe the Word of Christ freeth him in who it remaineth from the power and hurt of finne bringing to him remission of sinnes and sanctification And being free from sinne the cause of Death it is easie to conjecture that hee shall bee freeed from Death itselfe 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 libertie so when we have obtained power against sinne by the powerfull worke 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 walke before him in holinesse and righteousnesse when I say wee are thus freed from the power and guilt of sinne 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 bee Hell Therefore certainly the words of Christ are an undoubted truth and we must rest upon them without all distrust and wavering that hee that keepeth his saying shall never see death and that the knowledge and beleeving and obeying the Doctrine of the Gospell is the only sure way to escape the hurt and ill of Death it selfe Let us now make some Application of this Doctrine to our soules First to stirre us up to a right hearty thankfulnesse unto Almighty God that is pleased to cast our times and dayes into that age and those places where the Doctrine of the Gospell this Saying of our blessed Saviour is so clearely and plainly and evidently laid open to you and frequently and earnestly prest upon your soules where the Lord commeth 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 happinesse of our present Age and place where wee live and this whole kingdome too The grace and mercie and favour of our loving God hath so disposed of us that wee doe not live in times of Paganisme and darknesse where there was no newes of Christ that wee live not in places of Popish darknesse where the Doctrine of the Gospell is so mixed and darkned with tricks and devises of their owne that they cannot see Christ clearely It is our happinesse I say that wee doe not live in those places and times where either Paganisme or Poperie with their darknesse covered Christ from us and caused us that we could not clearely see or heare him and so not keepe his sayings But now grace is offered light is tendred to us wee may be saved wee may escape the danger of damnation if the fault be not solely and wholly in our carelesnesse and wilfulnesse and neglect and abuse of the meanes that God hath afforded us The heathen men that have not heard of Christ cannot possibly attaine to life as farre as we can Judge by the Scripture And it is very difficult for the Papists that heare so darkely and are told of the Doctrine of the Gospell with so many sophistications to come to be saved But for us that have the Doctrine of the Gospell so plainly and carefully taught us and revealed unto us wee may be saved and may easily see the way to obtaine salvation So we goe beyond them in happinesse Oh blessed be the name of the Ever-living God that beside the peace and plenty and other temporall benefits wherewith hee hath crowned this unworthy Nation of ours hee hath added this blessing of blessings this King of favours to give us so cleare a revelation of the Doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ alone Blessed bee his name and let your hearts say Amen to this thanksgiving and let it
of sinne in the cause of it And when we feele sorrow thinke here is a harbinger of death I feele paine in me ere long I must surrender to the stroake of Death And as oft as wee see spectacles of mortalitie to reade a lecture of Death And when we lay our selves downe in our beds thinke of Death And upon all occasions come to the house of mourning and thinke of Death If the Serpents sting bee plucked out a man may handle it hee is shie at the first but after finding it cannot hurt him he feares it not So we have cause to thanke God for death as well as for other things thus farre because hee hath changed the nature of it and made it a sweet passage to another life And then though God take Children or friends or goods or any thing in this world hee will be our exceeding great reward hee will be All in all to us here and hereafter FINIS THE RIGHTEOUS JUDGE OR THE RULE OF IVDGEMENT GEN. 18. 25. Shall not the Iudge of all the world doe right ROM 2. 12. As many as have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. THE RIGHTEOUS IVDGE OR THE RVLE OF IVDGEMENT SERMON XXVIII IAM 2. 12. So speake yee and so doe as they that shall bee judgedby the Law of Libertie VPon the like sad occasion I have already handled something out of these words The last thing that I came to was that In the day of judgement God will call both the words and actions of men to account He will bring their words and their actions to judgement not onely their workes 2 Cor. 5. 10. God will bring every worke to judgement and so Eccles. 12. Hee will bring every thing to judgement whether good or evill But besides that hee will bring every word to judgement too even the very vaine words of men of every idle word men shall give account Matth. 12. 36. And the very rash and passionate speeches of men what they speake in passion and repent not of even those passionate speeches that they thought might have easily beene passed by He that cals his brother foole shall be in danger of hell fire Matth. 5. 22. Then much more those evill speeches against God Iude 13. 14. He shall come with thousands of his angells in judgement against all those that have spoken against him They have spoken against God they have reviled him he shall judge them for all their evill and cursed speakings against him saith the Apostle They in fury and madnesse fell to evill and cursed speaking and slighted God and despised him therefore he shall come in great glory with thousands of his Angels to make it appeare that he is more glorious then they thought him to be and he will now stand for the vindicating of his honour and the manifesting of his glory in such a terrible appearance at that day Against all those that speake evill and against all their cursed speakings against him saith the Text evill speaking against God is cursed speaking Because it exposeth a man to a curse it leaves him under a curse that shall appeare at that day to bee just against him so wee see God will bring both words and workes to judgement at that day And the reasons are First because the Law of God binds men in their speeches as well as in their actions I say the Law that shall judge them doth now binde them in their very speeches as well as in their actions You have two commandements expresly taking notice of the words of men The third commandement of the words of men cercerning God he that takes the name of God in vaine he will not hold him guiltlesse And then the ninth commandement of the words of men concerning men Thou shalt not beare false witnesse against thy neighbour Now God that hath made a Law to bind and to order men in the matter of speech certainly he will judge men by that Law You know that Kings and Princes and Parliaments and Kingdomes they make not Lawes in vain but they are the directions wherby the judges proceed in their course of judgement upon malefactours So I say Gods Law it is not in vaine it is not a bare direction onely to us in point of obedience but also the expresse rule whereby Christ himselfe will proceede in matter of judgement Againe secondly there is great reason that words as well as actions should be brought to judgement because God and men are injured by words as well as by actions First concerning God you reade of some Psal. 73. that set their mouthes against God and against heaven Indeede they can doe no more hurt to God then a man that shoots an Arrow at the Sunne can hurt the Sunne by shooting at him but in their intention they set themselves against God in as much as their tongues are set against him And in Levit. 24. 11. The word there translated to blaspheme it is in the originall that the man stabbed God or did pierce God hee offered a kinde of violence to the holy name of God Such sinfull speeches as are forbidden in the third Commandement and doe concerne the name of God or any of his attributes or ordinances any thing that is spoken against them or without due reverence and respect to them they are there sayd to bee a stabbing of God in the Hebrew phrase or a piercing of God a wounding of God doing some violence to God himselfe Now I say when such wrong and injury is done to God shall not God take a time to right himselfe of those that injure him Secondly it is an injury done to men You know it is a common thing in Law to have actions against men for speeches they make speeches actions they make them lyable to the penaltie and censure of the Law for speeches So the Law of God proceeds according to the very speeches of men whereby they have discouraged his servants in any kind at any time in any duty of Religion and course of his worship or whereby they have brought an ill report on it As those spies did upon the Land therefore they might not bee suffered to goe into the Land So I say when men bring an evill report upon the duties of godlinesse they shut themselves out of the kingdome of God So likewise when men make that which is straight become crooked It is sayd of Simon Magus that hee perverted the straight wayes of God that is hee did as much as lay in him to make the straight wayes of God to seeme crooked that as a man that puts a stick in the water though it bee straight when it is put in yet it seemes crooked when it is in So when a man puts colours and shewes upon good actions and courses as if they were folly and indiscretion and unadvised and hypocrisie and vaine or whatsoever is ill this is
23. For the wages of sinne is death but the gift of God is eternall life through Iesus Christ our Lord. THe latter part of this Chapter from the 12. Verse to the end is spent in a grave and powerfull dehortation of the faithfull from securitie in sinne against which the Apostle useth sundry arguments That which he presseth most is drawne from the severall ends to which sinne and righteousnesse doth leade men The end of sinne is death vers 21. therefore that is not to bee served The end of of righteousnesse is life everlasting vers 22. therefore that is to be imbraced Because there is now difference in the manner of the proceeding of these two ends death comming from sinne as from the meritorious cause but life from righteousnesse another manner of way therefore the Apostle addes this epiloge and conclusion in the last verse plainely shewing and more clearely expressing the manner of them both for the wages saith hee of sinne is death but the gift of God is eternall life through Iesus Christ our Lord. In which words we have a description of a twofold service Of sinne in the former clause And of God or righteousnesse in the latter And how both these are rewarded The one with death it payes us well And the other with life which is bestowed by the free gift of God through Christ. These are the two parts the two generall points that we are to consider First the wages of sinne is death saith the Apostle Of sinne That is of the depravation and corruption of our nature and so consequently of every sinne that being not onely it selfe sinne but the matter and mother of all sinne when sinne hath conceived it bringeth forth death when sinne is put forth whereby he signifieth the generall depravation and corruption of our nature from whence all sinne flowes So it is here The wages The word in the originall signifieth properly victualls because victualls was that that the Roman Emperours gave their souldiers as wages in recompence of their service but thence the word extends to signifie any other wages or Salary whatsoever The wages of sinne is death by death here is signified and meant both temporall and eternall death especially eternall death for it is opposed to eternall life in the next clause of the sentence therefore that is that that is principally meant The wages of sinne is death that is eternall death This for the exposition of the tearmes The point to bee observed from this first part of the Text is this that Death is as due to sinne as wages to one that earnes it To such a one wages is due in strict justice if a man have a hyred servant he may bestow a free gift on him if he will if he will not he may choose but his stypend or his wages he must pay him unlesse he will be unjust for it is the price of his worke and so is due to him that he cannot without injustice withhold it After such a manner is death due to sinne the very demerrite of the worke of sinne requires it as being earned God is as just in inflicting death upon sinners for their sinnes as any man is in paying his labourer or hired servant their wages for this is the generall plaine scope of the Apostles words here So in the beginning God appointed Gen. 2. 17. where hee told Adam concerning the forbidden fruite in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death As if hee should have sayd when thou sinnest death must be thy wages The same is repeated Ezek. 18. 20. where it is sayd The soule that sinneth shall die expressing the wages of sinne it is death that is the recompence of sinne if sinne have his due then death must follow So the Apostle had shewed before in this Epistle Rom. 5. 12. that by one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne so death went over all men for as much as all men had sinned All had sinned therefore all are payed with death And Saint Iames shewes the consequence and connexion betweene these two the worke and the wages he tells us Iam. 1. 15 that when sinne hath conceived it bringeth forth death All these places are evidences that death by Gods ordinance by his appointment is the due of sinne as due to it even as wages is to a hyred servant or one that hath earned it What death is it that is due to sinne Both temporall and eternall death I say both deaths concerning both which the truth is to be cleared from some doubts It was the Pelagians errour to thinke that man should have dyed a naturall death though he had never sinned so they thought that the naturall temporall bodily death was not the wages of sinne Contrary to the Apostle in the placâ—… I spake of Rom. 5. where hee makes that death that goes over all men which must needes bee naturall death to enter by sinne sinne brought in death no sinne no death at all But it may be objected when God told Adam in the day that he eate the forbidden fruite he should die the death he meant not temporall death there as the event shewes for such a death was not inflicted upon Adam in the day that hee sinned for after he sinned he lived still in the world naturally hee continued living many yeares after I answer notwithstanding all this Adam may bee sayd to die a naturall death as soone as he sinned because by the guilt of his sinne he then presently became subject to it and God straight way denounced upon him the sentence of death therefore it may bee sayd he straite 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 tooke hold of him and arrested him for sinne as hunger and thirst and cold and diseases daily wasting of the naturall moysture to the quenching of life Indeede God suffered him that the sentence was not presently executed so to commend his owne patience and to give to Adam occasion of salvation the promise of Christ being after made and he called to repentance by that meanes to attaine a better life by Christ then he lost by sinne It is objected againe Christ redeemed us from all sinne and all the punishment thereof but he did not redeeme us from bodily death from temporall death for the faithfull wee see dye still even as others doe therefore it is concluded by some that temporall death is not the wages of sinne for then when wee were free from sinne by Christ wee should bee freed from that Our answer to this is that Christ hath freede all his elect not onely from eternall but even from temporall death though not from both in the same manner From temporall death first in hope of which the Apostle speaking 1 Cor. 15. saith The last enemy that shall be
ΘΡΗÎΟΙΚΟΣ THE HOUSE OF MOVRNING FVRNISHED With Directions for Preparations to Meditations of Consolations at the houre of Death DELIVERED IN XLVII SERMONS PREACHED AT THE Funeralls of divers faithfull servants of Christ. By Daniel Featly Martin Day Richard Sibbs Thomas Taylor Doctors in Divinitie And other Reverend Divines ECCLES 7. 4. The heart of the wise is in the house of Mourning but the heart of fooles is in the house of mirth Ambr. de obit frat Non amitti sed praemitti videntur quos sed non absumpturamors sed aeternitas receptura est Seneca Ep. 77. Iter imperfectum est si in media parte aut citra petitum locum steterit vita non est imperfecta si honesta ubicunque desieris si benè desieres tota est LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for R. M. and are to be sold by Iohn Bellamie and Ralph Smith at the signe of the three golden Lyons in Corne-hill neere the Royall Exchange 1640. TO THE CHRISTIAN READER THere is no man that can plead ignorance to the universall Decree of God concerning the necessitie of Mans mortalitie It is appointed for all men once to die and every man can say as that wise woman of Tekoaeh wee are all as water spilt upon the ground There is no Age Estate Condition or ranke of men but have beene foyled with that invincible Champion death who riding up and downe the world upon his pale Horse above these five thousand yeares hath with an impartiall stroke laid all flat before him some in their Infancie have proved what it is to die before they knew what it was to live others in the strength of Youth some in their Old age rich and poore high and low of all sorts young men may die old men must die even those that are stiled Gods and that by no fawning Sycophant but by God himselfe their mortality proves them to be men to themselves though they be as Gods to others and as Epictitus once told the Emperour That to be borne and to dye was common both to Prince and Beggar The sicknesses and miseries of this world have made the proudest Painims to confesse with St. Peter to Cornelius Even I my selfe also am a mortall man so that experience as well as Scripture concludes what man is he that liveth and shall not see death There are no ingredients in the shop of Nature that are sufficiently cordiall to fortifie the heart against this King of terrors or his harbingers the velvet slipper cannot fence the foote from the gout nor the gold ring the finger from a fellon the richest Diademe cannot quit the head-ach nor the purple Robe prevent a Fever Beauty strength riches honour friends nor any nor all can repeale that sentence Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne Every fitt of an ague and every distemper of this fraile constitution being as a light skirmish before the maine battell of death wherein weake man being vanquished is led captive to his long home and when once the lines of mortalitie are drawne upon the face of the fairest mortall hee becomes a ghastly spectacle how lovely soever before and the conclusion is bury my dead out of my sight This inevitable necessitie however it be confessed and acknowledged of all yet lamentable experience teacheth that in the Christian world most men so live as though they should never die and at length they so die as though they should never live againe and when the time of their dissolution commeth their soules are rather chased out by violence then yeelded to God in obedience Indeed to a wicked man death is the beginning of sorrowes it is a trap-dore to let him downe to the everlasting dungeon of Hell but the children of God though they cannot scape the stroke yet they are freed from the sting of death they can play upon the hole of this aspe without danger and welcome the grimmest approch of this Gyant with a smile being freed from the hurt of him by Him that is the Captaine of the Lords Hoste who hath abolished death and brought life and immortalitie to light so that the sting of it being plucked out and the suffering sanctified by Christ death is become to every beleever but a darke entry to the glorious Pallace of Heaven Now as it is Gods tender mercy to his children that their conflict and misery should be temporary but their perfect happines eternall so it should be their care in this little space of time alotted them whereupon their everlasting condition depends so to provide that they may live happily where they shall live eternally and since we cannot escape death to prepare for it that we may get the sight of this Basiliske before it approach and so avoid the danger of it Wretched is the estate of that man who when these spirituall Philistims the terrors of death make warre upon him shall have just cause to say The Lord is departed from me the death of such a one will bee like the sleepe of a franticke man who when the malignant humour is concocted awakes in a greater rage then he lay downe whereas to him that is wise to consider his latter end death is no way dreadfull death may kill him but it cannot hurt him it doth free him from temporary misery but cannot hinder him from eternall felicity and as that noble Captaine of Thebes who having gotten the victory over his enemies but withall received his mortall wound he made this his grand enquirie whether his weapons were safe or no whether his buckler was not in his enemies hands and when it was replied all was safe he died with a great deale of cheerefulnes and fortitude So when a Christian is to grapple with death his maine care is that his Buckler of faith and the helmeâ—… of his salvation his hope that they be safe to guard his soule and then he passeth not much what becomes of his outward man hee dies in peace and confidence Now that wee may bee fitted to encounter with this last enemy besides the manifold helps which God hath reached to us in his word in the passages of his providence in the frequent examples of mortalitie before us continually and in our owne sensible approaches to the gates of death I say besides these and infinite more this ensuing Volume with so much care and paines compiled by Gods blessing and our endeavours may prove no small furtherance in our Pilgrimage Each Sermon therein being as a severall Legacie bequeathed by those upon the occasion of whose deaths they were preached as by so many Testators who themselves have made a reall experiment of mortality and left these for our instruction that survive them It is true the dayly examples of mortaltie are so many reall Lectures that by a kinde of dumbe oratorie perswade us to expect our end but as they are transient so our thoughts of them vanish therefore it can bee no small adâ—…ntage to have in continuall readines that
the departure of men out of this world and secondly he saith the living will lay it to his heart hee speakes of such an end of men as is opposite to the life of men In a word By the house of mourning he meaneth a house wherein some one is dead which giveth occasion to the parties that dwell there of sorrow and mourning for their departed friend It is better to goe to such a house By the house of feasting hee meaneth not onely such a house wherein there is feasting but also all manner of abundance as commonly men shew their wealth in feasting By the end of all men he meaneth that which the Schooles calls the end of termination Now there is a twofold end of termination as they speake either Positive or Privative A Positive end as a point is the end of a lyne and an instant is the end of time because the lyne resolveth it selfe into a point at last and all time resolveth it selfe at last into an instant A Privative end and that is that that causeth a cessation of beeing that is the end of action wherein all the worke and invention and enterprizes of a man cease Of such an end here he speakes such an end of a man as that he ceaseth to be as he was upon earth and ceaseth to doe as he did upon earth By laying to heart he meaneth more then a bare knowing or a bare observing and taking notice of things There is to be understood here a serious pondering an often considering of it as it is said of Marie Shee layed those sayings to heart and so Iacob hee layed the sayings of Ioseph to heart It is such a serious considering and pondering and discussing of every thing as they may bring it to some use may draw some fruit and benefit out of it to themselves So that the summe and substance of the words is thus much It is a better thing for a man to bee conversant about the thoughts of death and to take hold of all occasions that may bring the serious consideration thereof into his heart then to delight himselfe in those worldly pleasures and sensuall delights wherein for the most part men spend their lives The reason is because there is some benefit that ariseth thereby to the inward man some advantage gained to the soule whereas by the other there is none at all there is much hinderance and hurt but no furtherance and benefit The words then you see consist of a Proposition And a proofe or confirmation of that Proposition The Proposition It is better to goe to the house of mourning then to goe to the house of feasâ—…ing The Confirmation or proofe of it is double first because this is the end of all men secondly because the living will lay it to his heart This latter part is that which I purpose most to insist upon In the former Hee calleth the house wherein any one dies the house of mourning It is better to goe to the house of mourning Where you see That the Death of men with whom we live is a just occasion of mourning to some The holy Ghost would not have described the house wherein a man dies in this manner if there were not some equitie and justice in mourning upon such an occasion For hee speakes not here as I conceive only with reference and respect to the common custome of naturall and worldly men but with respect to the naturall disposition and affection that is in the heart of man and the equitie of the thing There should bee mourning and there is in it a just occasion when men are taken away by death When Sarah died the text saith that Abraham came to mourne for Sarah and to weepe for her And Esau when he speakes of the death of his father Isaac he calleth the time of his death the time of mourning the dayes of mourning for my father are at hand So Ioseph when his father was dead it is said that hee mourned for his father seven dayes When Samuel was dead all the Israelites were gathered together and lamented him When Iosiah was dead there was such a great lamentation for him that it became a patterne of excessive mourning In that day there shall be a great mourning in Ierusalem as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon Our Saviour Christ when he looked upon Lazarus hee wept because he was dead And those Ephesians this was it that broke their hearts they sorrowed most of all for the words which S. Paul spake that they should see his face no more I need not stand upon the proofe of the point There is great reason for it First if we respect men in their usefulnesse to others There is no man but is of some use and so farre as a man is usefull to another there is just ground of mourning for the losse of such a one Therefore David he mourned for the death of Saul though he was a wicked man because he was usefull in his time by way of gouernment And as there is more usefulnesse so there is more cause of mourning as we see in the death of Samuel and Iosiah and others Secondly because when those that are usefull are taken away a man seeth some effects partly of his owne guilt and partly of Gods displeasure Of his owne guilt If those die that are evill that he did not doe them that good that he might while they lived he did not converse so profitably as he might have done to further their spirituall good If they be good and gracious that he received not benefit by them that he did not mannage the opportunities as he might have done to have made that use of their societie and conference of their prayers and spirituall helpes of all those gifts and endowments that they had And as in the defect so likewise in the excesse there is guilt When a man idoliseth the creature too much and trusteth too much to the arme of flesh when he setteth too great a price upon men he may apprehend the displeasure of God taking away his brother that was as it were a curtaine that stood betweene God and him taking away those that hid God from his eyes Vpon these occasions and grounds the servants of God have reflected upon themselves seeing the death of others that are neere and deare unto them and have drawne from thence matter and cause of mourning Nay it is a thing that the Lord lookes for Thou hast smitten them and they have not grieved When God takes away any that are usefull to us there is a smiting and a correction in it even to those that live to those that were intimate and inward with him and God expects that men should mourne and grieve for it I briefly note this for I intend not to stand upon it against that Stoicall Apethy that stupiditie I cannot say whether it have seized on the spirits
the market-place when hee should be working in the Vineyard Would you be feasting when God would have you mourning you shall see some that have beene taken away when they little thought of it Belshazzer he was in his feasts and then commeth the sentence of death against him and other the like examples you may see in the Scripture Consider therefore the particular actions that you doe whether they bee such as hold agreement with the state of a dying man So for the manner of doing holy duties Would you be found praying perfunctorily and carelesly Would you be found comming to the Sacrament unprepared What though you doe 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 sicke and weake and many sleepe they slept they were dead for this even because they came unworthily to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Would you therefore bee 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 nor too dolefull to any man Wee would not have our friends to bee in another condition in their birth then others wee would not have them have more fingers or more members then a man and would wee have them have more dayes Let this serve as a briefe 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 usefull 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 then the death and losse of our friends the guilt upon a mans conscience that hee hath not made that use of them while they were alive that he might have done let us therefore make the death of our friends 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 thinke you if they had alwayes hardned themselves against his ministrie before Thinke with your selves seriously here is such a Minister such a Christian friend 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 friends are tooke away we may have cause to thanke God that we have had communion and comfort of their fellowship and societie 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 principall reason why it is better to goe 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 hee lay to his heart That that is the end of all men hee shall lay the death of 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 to consider and make use for themselves of the death of others You see the Text is cleare for the point And there is good reason why it should be so First in respect of the glory that commeth to God Secondly in respect of the good that commeth to our selves by it First God is glorified by this when wee lay to heart the death of others there is a dishonour done to God when wee slight the death of others good or bad It is a dishonour to God to slight any of his actions this is one of Gods workes in the world the death of men this is a thing wherein Gods hand is seene he saith to the sonnes of Adam Returne The spirit returneth to God that gave it It is hee 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 seene much in these workes and it is a great dishonour to God when men doe not consider the workes 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 workes of the Lord. The actions of Princes and great men upon earth every man considereth of them and weigheth them It is that wherein wee give God the glory of his wisedome and of his truth of his power of his justice of his mercy of his soveraigntie and dominion and Lordship over the whole earth when wee labour to draw to a particular use to ourselves the workes 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 speakes here of the death of men in generall and he saith of all men that their death shall bee laid to heart by the living Secondly as there is reason that we should take to heart the death of others in respect of the glory that commeth to God thereby so in respect of ourselves also much benefit commeth to ourselves by laying to heart the death of other men There be three speciall 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 nature cause and 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 workes 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 owne condition and as it were in a glasse there
Let me have a place to burie my dead out of my sight It parteth father and child how unwilling soever they be see it in David and Absolom Oh Absolom my sonne would God I had died for thee and Rachel mourned for her children and would not be comforted because they were not It parteth the Minister and the people see it in the case of the people of Israels lamenting the death of Samuel and in the case of the Ephesians at the parting of S. Paul sorrowing especially when they heard they should see his face no more It parteth those friends who were so united together in love as if they had but one soule in two bodies see it in the separation that was made by death betweene David and Ionathan that were so knit together in their love that he bewaileth him Woe is mee for my brother Ionathan This is a necessary consideration for us that live that wee may learne to know how to carrie our selves towards our wordly friends and how to moderate our selves in our enjoyment of these worldly comforts Looke upon every worldly thing as a mortall as a dying comfort Looke upon children and friends as dying comforts Look upon your estates as that that hath wings and will be gone Looke upon your bodies that now you make so much of as a thing that must bee parted from the soule by death and that ere long See what advise the Apostle giveth 1 Cor. 7. 19. the time is short saith he therefore let those that marry bee 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 hee lookes upon these things as things that hee shall enjoy alwayes But if we would use it aright looke upon things as things that we shall enjoy but for a short time This body that seemeth now to have some beautie in it yet it must die and be laied in the dust these friends that seeme now to haue some pleasure and delight in them yet I must die and be tooke from them this estate and wealth that now I set so much prize upon I must die and death will part me and it So I say lookeupon every thing as separable from us Moderate your affections likewise to them Vse them onely as comforts in the way as a traveller doth the pleasures of his Inne hee stands not to build himselfe houses against every pleasant walke he lookes upon he stands not to purchase lands and to lay them to every Inne he comes to lie at No he knowes that he is now but in his passage in his way he knowes that hee is not at home that is the place he is going to and after a time hee shall come thither So make account that you are not now at home it is death that must helpe 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 soules in getting the world Alas Death will part soule and body them and their wealth and all Doe wee 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 doe with him he cannot dispose of one penny of his estate now it is left he knowes 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 hee 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 wee are so apt to dote upon The third speciall 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 libertie to every familie to every place that it seizeth upon every person What 's the reason of it You shall see in the severall deaths of men severall causes There is judgement and mercy sometime a mixture of both and sometime but of one of these Sometimes wee 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 eate and drinke 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 sicke and weake and some slept they died they were judged of the Lord that they might not bee 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 fearefull of sinning against God lest you provoke against your selves the same wrath in the very act of sinne Sometimes againe 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 mercie to them God in mercy taking of them away from the evill to come and from the evill present A judgement of God to others that are unworthy of them A mercie to themselves that they are tooke away from their owne evill from sinne from temptations from all the effects and fruits of sinne and taken away from the evill that is to come upon others An act I say of mercie to them So it was to the child of Ieroboam 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 Iosiah Hee should bee gathered to his fathers in peace and his eyes should not see all that evill which the Lord would bring upon Ierusalem and upon the inhabitants thereof An act of judgement to others Righteous and mercifull men are taken away and noman layeth it
to heart they consider not the causes wherefore God takes away those good men A Land a Kingdome a State a People a place is much weakned when those that are righteous and mercifull men when those that stand in the gappe and use their endevours to prevent judgements 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 Assoone as Noah is put into the Arke presently commeth the deluge upon the World Assoone as ever Lot was got up to Zoar presently the Lord rained downe fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah Assoone as ever the mourners are marked presently commeth the destroying Angell upon the rest Beloved when wee see those that are mourners for the evils of the times and places where they live tooke away we should lay it to heart and consider it as a signe of Gods displeasure as a signe that hee is a going and departing when he takes away his jewels as a signe that he is a comming to judge the world when hee beginneth to separate to take to himselfe his owne Certainly as soone as ever that number of the elect shall bee accomplished when the company of those that God hath determined to eternall life shall be fulfilled when the sheepe of Christ that are yet to be brought into his fold are gathered together when the fulnesse of the Gentiles is come in and the nation of the Iewes added then the world shall bee burnt with fire and the day of Iudgement shall come nothing shall hinder that generall destruction that shall be the end of all things here below As it is with the generall Iudgement of the world so with particular Iudgements upon Nations when God takes away his people when the Saints goe out of Ierusalem to Pila then commeth the sword of the enemie upon Ierusalem when God drawes out his owne people presently commeth judgement upon the rest It is good to observe Gods method and order that he takes in governing of the world at this day that in the death of the servants of God wee may consider our owne time that wee may prepare for those evils that are a comming and for those greater judgements that are hastning Thus you see what use may bee made of laying to heart the death of others God is much glorified thereby For all his attributes are seene in all his workes and the glorifying of God is a declaring of God to be as glorious as hee hath revealed himselfe to be in his attributes which is by shewing of them forth in his workes When men can see the wisedome the justice the power the mercie the truth the soveraigntie of God and all in the death of others then they glorifie God in taking to heart the death of others You see likewise what good commeth to a mans selfe by laying to heart the death of others He sees thereby the certainty of his owne death He sees the nature of death and what the proper worke of it is viz. to separate betweene him and all those outward comforts all those props and staies whereupon his heart rested too much on earth in the daies of his vanitie And lastly he sees the end and cause why God sendeth Death into the world sometime in judgement that men should take heed of sin sometime in mercie in mercy to the men themselves and in mercy also to those that live that they seeing the servants of God lodged up before the tempest may learne to feare and to hide and secure themselves under Gods speciall providence who can either hide them amongst the living or the dead in the worst times Now let us conclude with some application to our selves In the first place it serveth for the just reproofe of that great neglect that is in the world at this day that men lay not to heart the death of others I wish that this were only the sinne of worldly men I know to a worldly man it is of all things the most unpleasant thought that can be to thinke of death hee cannot endure to heare this they shall fetch thy soule from thee It is as unpleasant to him as it is to a bankrout to heare of a Sergeant comming to arrest him as unpleasant as it is to a malefactour to heare of being brought before the Iudge And that is the reason why men in the time of feasting cannot endure such discourses at their Tables as might put sad thoughts of death into them oh these are to melancholy thoughts Yea but in the meane time it is thy folly thy want of wisedome Hee that was guided by the spirit of wisedome and had now bought some wisedome at a deare rate by wofull experience of his former follies hee now seeth that it was farre better to goe to the house of mourning that is seriously to consider of that which men account the most ordinary cause of mourning that is the death of others and of themselves then to goe to the house of feasting that is to sport a mans selfe in the pleasures of the world and to give libertie to a mans selfe to all manner of delights But I say I wish that this were their fault onely and that it may die with them But it is too much the fault of Gods owne people Moses is faine to pray for Israel in the Wildernesse where they saw so many die before them that God would give them wisedome to number their dayes And Ministers have still the same cause to pray for the people and Christians to pray one for another that God would give them wisedome to lay to heart the death of other men Have you well considered of Death when you can only discourse that such a one that was profitable in his instruction is dead such a one by whom we have had good in conversing with is dead such a one that was young and likely to live many yeares longer is dead What of all this this is but idle and emptie discourse What use makest thou of this to thy selfe dost thou gather from thence the certaintie of thy owne death Dost thou consider what Death will doe to thee when it commeth how that it will separate betweene thee and all things in the world as it hath done them Dost thou consider for what cause God sendeth Death abroad into the world Dost thou consider this with thy selfe as thou oughtest to doe This is an act of wisedome This is that wee call due consideration when the soule reflects upon it selfe it is their case now and it will be mine and mine in the same manner therefore it is good for me to set my accounts straite with God When thou accompaniest another to the grave dost thou conclude thus with thyselfe the very next time that any death is spoken of it may bee mine or as Saint Peter speakes to Saphira after the death of Annanias The feet of those that have buried
but how he carried himselfe in the world And truly this is the great Question that every man should put to his soule I must out of the world how have I lived when I was in the world had GOD any glory by mee had men any good by me have I furthered my account against the day of reckoning that I may give it up with joy it makes no matter how I goe out of the world I am sure if my life have beene serviceable to God and beneficiall to men my departure shall be for gaine and advantage it is for a better world Thus much shall serve briefly for the opening of these words and for that that is appliable from them For the present occasion a word Funerall Sermons are not intended for the praise of the dead but for the comfort of the living Therefore I have chosen such an argument to handle at this time as might bee of use and profit to you that live Besides that I am in particular and by particular order debarred of speaking any thing concerning our deceased Sister though I might have spoken much and that very usefull to you The best use that you can make will bee this to consider the life that shee led amongst you Shee was a patterne and example of holinesse of a wise and upright carriage in her wayes follow her in that Marke the Godly and upright man the end of that man is peace There was none that knew her but upon good assurance are perswaded of her happinesse now Would you then have the same happinesse after take the same course that shee did be much in prayer and dependance upon the ordinances and in fellowship with the servants of God be profitable in doing good profitable in receiving good mannage the opportunities and times well that God giveth you as she did gaining much in little she did much worke in a short space let that be your care and then this will be your comfort in the end Thus if you make this use of the death of others before you you shall prepare for your own death and that shal be only a passage for you to Eternall life FINIS DELIVERANCE FROM THE KING OF FEARES OR FREEDOME FROM THE FEARE OF DEATH PSAL. 55. 4. My heart is sore pained within mee and the terrours of death are fallen upon mee PROV 3. 25. Bee not afraid of sudden feare LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. DELIVERANCE FROM THE KING OF FEARES OR FREEDOME FROM THE FEARE OF DEATH SERMON III. HEBR. 2. 15. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and bloud he also himselfe likewise tooke part of the same that through death hee might destroy him that had the power of death that is the divell and deliver them who through the feare of death were all their life-time subject to bondage IN these words that I haue read to let passe other parts of the Chapter the Apostle sets downe the humiliation of Christ with the fruit of it His humiliation in his Incarnation and death The fruit of it in subduing him that had the power of death and delivering those that were kept under the feare of death in bondage all their life At this time we will speake onely of the last part the fruit of Christs death in delivering those that were kept under the feare of death The persons that are kept under this feare are said to bee the children Gods owne children those for whom Christ died yet they were kept under the feare of death and that not at some particular time when tentation had got some speciall advantage over them but it was a trouble and a burden to them all their life long and that not a small burthen or an easie trouble but such as kept them as in bondage The words you see are easie There are two points that arise from them First that Gods children those for whom Christ died are many times held strongly under the feare of death Secondly that Christ by his death freeth them from those feares I shall onely insist at this time principally on the first That Gods owne children the Children that were partakers of flesh and bloud it is taken either for the humane nature or the infirmities of that nature even these children were held under the feare of death I will shew the grounds of it The feare of death in the children of God ariseth either from some causes without or from somewhat within them From without them and so the feare ariseth from God an act of his providence upon his children Or from Sathan a worke of his malice These are the causes from without For the first God in his providence and that in his speciall and fatherly providence whereby he doth order all things for the good of his children for the present increase of their grace and the fitting them for glory hereafter Hee I say in his providence ordereth it thus that they shall be kept many of them a great while under the feare of death and this he doth for speciall good ends The first is to humble them Adam as soone as he had sinned against God as his fall was by pride he would haue had a higher condition then he was in so when God would bring him backe againe he beginneth first to humble him and how doth he that Dust thou art saith he and to dust thou shalt returne he sheweth him that he was a dead man by sinne and so would have the meditation of death to humble Adam and in him all his posteritie after him So David when he desired that some meanes might worke upon his enemies for their good he prayeth Put them in feare that they may know that they are but men He doth not onely pray that mortalitie might be presented to them but so presented that it might leaue an impression of feare upon their affections that they might know what they are that they have not their beeing or the power of subsisting in themselves but that they must looke for it above themselves to him that hath the issues of life and death in his owne hande And this is necessarie that all the servants of God should bee kept humble by some meanes or other The Apostle Paul you see he had attained a great measure of grace yet he standeth in need of something to humble him therefore the messenger of Sathan was sent to buffet him that hee should not bee exalted above measure that he might be kept humble God intendeth to raise up his children to a glorious estate therefore as men lay a low foundation when they intend to erect a high building so God layeth the foundation of all grace and comfort in his servants in humiliation therefore he will not onely have them mortall but he will have them apprehend their mortalitie and dying condition with feare that they may be humbled by this feare That is the first thing Secondly God aymeth at the
strengthning of faith in his servants While a man lookes to sense and is upheld by sensible comforts there is not that exercise of faith now every grace is strengthened by exercise that God therefore may have faith exercised and so strengthned in his servants he will expose them to the feare of death The Apostle Paul found this wee received faith he the sentence of death that wee might not trust in our selves but in him that raiseth us up from the dead Hee doth not onely say thus we acknowledge this to be a truth that we must die but wee received the sentence of death received it as a man receiveth a sentence of death from a Judge received it so as it made some impression upon our hearts received it with some inward sense with some inward feare which was a violent worke such a worke as knocks us off of all holds and takes us off from all sensible and visible props and humane supports and makes us to see nothing in the creature to doe us that good we looke for to make us eternally happy therefore we were taught saith he not to trust in our selves if a man trust any he might trust himselfe first yea but wee are dying and cannot enjoy our selves long therefore wee trust in him that raiseth us up from the dead Thirdly another end that God aymeth at in holding his servants many times under the feare of death is that hee may make them more watchfull and holy in the course of their lives This our Saviour expresseth under two parables the one of the Virgins that were to watch for the comming of the Bridegroome they knew that he would come but they knew not when therefore they were alwayes to keepe their watch with oyle in their lampes And the other of a Master that left Talents with his servants he told them that hee would come but hee told them not when that they might be sure to employ them to the best advantage And the Apostle Peter raiseth an exhortation to this purpose on this very ground Since saith he that all these things must bee dissolved what manner of persons â—…ght we to be in all holy conversation and godlinesse looking for and hastning to the appearance of our Lord Iesus Christ. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ will come but hee hath concealed the particular time of his comming that wee might alwayes keepe our watch and be prepared for him whensoever he commeth Now this is necessary for all the servants of God for they are apt to be secure and to be carried away with worldly businesse and delights and to neglect that which concernes their eternall good and therefore God will affect them with the feare of death that they may be stirred up to more watchfulnesse and holinesse in a godly course of life Fourthly God doth it that by the feare of Death they may be better prepared for death that it may not come upon them as a stranger that they never thought on before that it may not come as an armed man upon them therefore is it that God will have them not onely to have thoughts of it but feare of it feare you know is an affection that quickneth a man to action keepes him to a constant observing of God Iehosaphat when God did not onely bring a multitude of enemies upon him but also sent the report of them to him and that in such a manner as he might be affected with feare What did all this worke in him The text saith Iehosaphat did seeke the Lord with all his heart and proclaimed a fast in Iudah and provided such other defence as was necessarie he saw nothing but feare and danger in the creature Wee know not what to doe with this great company that commeth against us this set him aworke to seeke the Lord with all his heart and to make other provision against them So the Lord will have his servants apprehend death as an Armed enemie comming upon them that they may be better prepared to receive it that they may get evidences of comfort and assurance of heaven and so may be fitted upon good grounds to entertaine death with joy when it commeth And this the servants of God have need of because if there be not somewhat to quicken to this there are other things enough to pervert them from it and then when men are most weake and full of paine and wearinesse the divell takes advantage to cast them off from all comfort so that at the least they shall die uncomfortably if not miserably if they be not prepared before-hand to receive Death and have gotten assurance and evidence of a better condition afterward Thus you have the first thing that is Gods act and for what reasons hee keepeth his servants in this bondage of the feare of death Againe secondly another cause from without is from the malice of Sathan His maine aime is to keepe men from a Christian course altogether if that cannot be done his next worke is to make men goe on as uncomfortably in it as he can possibly therefore he will present them with as many feares as may be and because that this is that that nature most abhorreth for it is the most naturall desire of man to preserve his beeing I say because nature most abhorreth this this dissolution and destruction of it selfe therefore he striveth to affect them with the feare of death especially and above all other I say this is Sathans malice Saint Paul when he came to Macedonia that he might doe the worke of the Lord with lesse diligence and comfort saith he Wee had feares on every side horrors within and terrors without It was Sathans devise that the Apostle might doe the worke of the Lord with lesse strength and comfort to afflict them with as many feares and horrors as he could And he hath the same malice still and still getteth much advantage of men making men to goe on with lesse comfort in a godly life adorning their profession of religion lesse with unchearfull walking because they have beene held under the feare of death These are the causes that are from without Secondly there are some causes from within from the seruants of God themselves And these causes whence the feare of death ariseth are either naturall or sinfull First the naturall causes of it are The apprehensâ—…on of Death as a thing contrary to nature and according to the strength of mens apprehension so is there feare Now Death in this naturall respect is fearefull to every man whether we consider the object or the subject the thing or the person in whom it is we shall find a naturall cause of this even in the servants of God First for the object looke upon Death it selfe it hath all that in it which makes it a fit object of feare There bee three things which makes a thing the object of feare which makes a thing affect the heart
and apprehension of it it causeth feare and terrour Secondly it commeth in others and generally in all from weaknesse of nature which in some is more then others according to their different constitutions and educations so the rich many times are more fearefull of Death then the Poore because they have more to lose so likewise voluptuous persons are more fearefull of Death then those that are more temperate because by voluptuousnesse they have dis-joynted and weakned their spirits So young men many times are more fearefull of Death then those that are old as we see in the storie Iudg. 8. 20. Iether the sonne of Gideon when he should have killed Zeba and Zalmunna the Text saith Hee was afraid because hee was a young man but Gideon that was elder did it willingly as a man better accustomed and experienced with observations of changes and varieties of accidents amongst men We shall see the servants of God themselves have discovered this weaknesse of spirit specially upon sudden apprehensions of things Abraham upon the sudden and violent apprehension of Death was put to asinfull shift I thought faith he the feare of God is not in this place and they will slay me for my wives sake therefore I said this is my sister So Samuel when God sent him to anoint David he discovered this weaknesse If Saul should know what I am a doing he will slay me therefore hee desired to have some other message under the colour whereof he might put Saul off So Peter out of a sudden apprehension of death and feare of it he denyed his Master This weaknesse of spirit is in man naturally Further there is another thing that causeth this naturall feare and that is the unacquaintednesse men have with Death there is somewhat in this matter that is strange to men notwithstanding they heare and see many die before them daily they heare things spoken of by the Minister and they reade the Scripture and many excellent comforts but who hath seene these what becommeth of these men they see Death the strict Porter of the world let men out of the earth but he locks the dore of the Grave upon them and none commeth backe againe to tell what is done in that place of silence to tell what is become of men when they are in the Grave how they speed in that world of soules there is no man returneth from the dead to report these things to them Now this affecteth the naturall man nay all men naturally are affected with the fearefull apprehension of death because they know not what will come after as the naturall man speakes in Ecclesiastes When Ioram set out a watch-man to see what was abroad and spied an Armie comming he sent a servant but Iehu biddeth him goe behind him he sendeth another and hee goeth behind him still saith he I see the men goe but they come not backe the Text saith hee was afraid Make ready the Chariot saith Ioram If this be the issue that men goe but never come backe againe it is high time to looke about us Certainly beloved such are the apprehensions of death Wee see men saith the naturall man goe downe to the Grave and not come backe againe wee see that a man ceaseth to bee and to doe those actions that we doe when we are upon the earth therefore let us consider the matter more seriously When the Captaine of the fifty that came to the Mount to Elijah saw the two former Captaines and their companies consumed saw that they were all dead that they ceased to bee but he saw not what became of them afterward therefore he commeth with feare to the Prophet and intreateth him that his life might be precious in his sight All strange things we know affect men and every thing as it is more strange so it more affecteth man naturally Let there but come a beast out of the Wildernesse assoone as ever he commeth unto a man and seeth him he flieth from him because he is not used to the sight of man it is strange to him but now take a beast that is brought up in the pasture in the field he will come to a man without feare because he is used to the sight of him So it is here Death is apprehended as a strange thing as a thing that a man never knew by experience Men have seene thus much that people have died but they never heard of any that came backe againe to tell them how it fared with them after death This I say that men should goe to the place of silence and have all matters hushed all things kept secret downe there there commeth no report thence this affecteth men with feare These are the naturall causes Secondly there are other causes within that affect men with the feare of death and those are sinfull causes First the want of the feare of God and as this is lesse so the feare of Death is more therefore we shall find that wicked men that cast off the feare of God in their lives they are slavishly held under the feare of death this you shall see in those examples of Belshazzar a man that set himselfe with a high hand against God went on in a contemptuous course against God and prophaned the holy vessels when there was a hand writing upon the wall some terrible thing presented to him his knees smote together hee could not hold his joynts still And so Felix a man that lived without the feare of God when he heard of judgement and other things the text saith he trembled and so likewise Cain and divers others I need not stand on it It was one of the Judgements threatned in part 28. Deut. Because thou dost not feare the Lord thy God therefore wheresoever thou goest thou shalt find no ease neither shall the sole of thy foot have any rest but the Lord shall give thee a trembling heart and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee that is thou shalt be in continuall feare of death and thou shalt feare day and night and shall have none assurance of thy life in the Morning thou shalt say would God it were Even and at even thou shalt say would God it were morning because of the feare of thine heart wherewith thou shalt feare and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see This is this is the first thing Secondly another thing is this when mens hearts are too much glued to the world and marke it according as there is worldly affections and worldly-mindednesse in the hearts of Gods servants so the feare of Death is more in them according to the strength of the one is the feare of the other What is it that disquieteth men ordinarily and makes them that they cannot think of Death with comfort but this now they must lose their company part with all their friends when they die once Hezekiah complained of that I shall see man no more saith he with the
is called in the Scripture and then there is nothing so comfortable and desirable as death it selfe to the servants of God So wee see David in the 23. Psal. Though I walke through the valley of the shadow of death I will feare none ill for thou Lord art with mee And so the Apostle Saint Paul triumpheth over all things Nothing shall separate 〈◊〉 from the love of God in Christ neither principalities nor powers nor life nor death nor things to come nothing shall doe it the Apostles faith now was out of conflict it had got the field the day of Sense and now he lookes on Death with comfort So that I say in that measure that Faith workes in that measure feare of death ceaseth Secondly it may be objected But we see the servants of God are said to love the appearance of our Lord Iesus Christ and the Apostle Paul is said to desire to bee dissolved and to bee with Christ How can these stand with the feare of death under which Gods servants are held To this I answer briefly Gods servants must be considered in their desires two wayes First in their generall desires Secondly in a particular state wherein they are In their generall course their desire is most for the appearing of Christ they most desire to be with him as best for them but take them in some particular state wherein they are lesse provided and lesse fitted and prepared then they may be at a stand in their desires they may have the feare of death in them As a wife her generall desire is for nothing so much as for the presence of her husband yet she may be under some particular unfitnesse there may be something or other in the way that she would not have him come in at that instant though her desire be for nothing so much as for his company So it may be the case of the servants of God they may say sometimes Lord spare mee a little before I goe hence to strengthen my faith to perfect my repentance and holinesse to doe some particular worke and the like David considered this that there was something that he might doe that he had not done and that he would faine doe before he went and so Hezekiah and the rest of the servants of God The point is cleare I come to the Application It shall be a word of exhortation to cut of otheruses and that is this To stirre up the servants of God that if they be disposed to distempers under which they are held that they are afraid to die that therefore they labour by all good meanes to shake off the feare of death Why Consider and note well those two things that are in the Text. The first is this that it is an uncomfortable state to be held under the feare of Death you see it is called a Bondage here and that is enough to show the uncomfortablenesse of it he saith by the feare of death they were held in Bondage all their life long Now the feare of Death is a bondage principally in these two respects first because it is with them as it is with a Bond-slave A Bond-slave is afraid to looke on him that hath the command of him he apprehendeth him as no friend therfore he doth not love to looke on him so it is in this case when a man lookes upon Death as a thing that is no friend to him he cannot abide to looke on him every thought of Death is a presenting of death to him and it is a miserable bondage when a man cannot present Death to himselfe without feare Secondly there is this in it that makes it a bondage it holdeth downe the spirit of a man A bond-slave you know is bound with fetters and chaines in his captivitie so that he hath neither freedome of spirit nor freedome of action So it is with a man that is held under the feare of Death he cannot doe what he would he cannot rejoyce in God he cannot delight in the apprehension of glory to come he cannot entertaine a thought of parting with things present with that securitie and comfort of heart that he should doe and all because this feare as the fetters bindeth his hands and his feet and keepeth him in bondage This is the first thing the feare of death to be held under it it is an uncomfortable state Secondly as it is uncomfortable so it is possible that the servants of God may be free from these feares under which they are held We see the text sheweth it Christ came for this end that having destroyed him that hath the power of death that is the divell hee might deliver those that for feare of death were held under bondage Did Christ come for this end then it is possible to bee had for certainly Christ would not lose his end he came for this was his end not onely to deliver them from eternall death but also from the feare of temporall death It is possible therefore The servants of God have found it and therefore you shall see them brought in insulting and triumphing and glorying over Death Oh death where is thy sting oh Grave where is thy victory thankes be to God that hath given us victory through Christ our Lord When they looked upon Death through Christ they looked on it without this feare the sting and power is tooke out the very nature of it is changed and it is made now every way beneficiall I say it is possible for we are regenerate and begotten againe to a lively hope to an inheritance immortall and undefiled and in what measure the hope of heaven is in the heart of man in that measure the feare of death falleth in that heart now it is possible that we may attaine this fulnesse of hope and therefore it is possible that we may be freed quite from the feare of Death This may suffice by way of motive A word or two by way of direction If this be possible to be had how shall the servants of God get it you see some of Gods servants are held under the feare of death and that all their life long how shall we be freed from this feare I should now orderly take up the particulars laid downe as causes and shew that by these it is cured as for instance Doth God doe this for this end that he may humble a man then the more humble thou art the lesse thou shalt be in the feare of Death for God layeth these feares upon men to humble them therefore labour for perfect humiliation and thou shalt perfectly ridde these feares out of thy heart as we see plainly the servants of God the more humble they have growne the lesse carefull they have beene of life and the lesse fearefull of Death And so those servants of God that have beene brought to deny themselves and to renounce all their worldly expectation and advancements they have alwayes beene ready to
die Saint Paul was growne humble and the Lord had prevailed upon him kept downe his spirit from being exalted above measure and now saith he my life is not deare to mee he was content to lay downe his life and all when he was humbled Beloved pride in some outward excellencies or other setteth a man above his place therefore when a man is tooke off from all that puffes up the spirit of a man he will be content to lay downe any of those things even life it selfe if need be Againe secondly Doth God doe it to strengthen faith in a man then the more thou strengthenest faith the more thou shalt be freed from these feares you know faith lookes upon Christ as the proper obiect of it and the more a man interesteth himselfe in Christ the more by Christ hee is freed from the feare of Death Christ hath redeemed us from the Grave and from Death and therefore when by faith hee lookes upon Christ and through him upon Death hee lookes upon that as a thing made instead of poison a medicine in stead of a destroyer a Saviour and deliverer as a meanes to free him from the bondage of sinne and miserie and afflictions c. Thirdly Doth God doe this that he may make men more holy and watchfull in their course then certainly the more thou canst purge out thy sinne in the course of thy life the lesse thou shalt feare death The sting of Death is sinne then if thou wilt have Death comfortable let thy life be conformable to Gods rule and word or else every sinne will present it selfe in death before thee specially those sinnes thou allowest thy selfe in will make Death as bitter as Hell Fourthly Doth God doe it for this end that he may make thee better prepared for death Then the more thou art prepared for Death before hand the lesse thou shalt feare it when it commeth upon thee it will not come as a stranger but thou wilt be ready to receive it as one with whom thou art acquainted already It is a great matter if men could learne this wisedome to die daily that is be every day imployed as dying daily I meane for the manner of your carriage not for the matter for the substance of the dutie If a man were sure to die this day he would lay aside all businesse and set himselfe to be prepared for judgement and would lay aside the use of any other comforts and delights But that is not the meaning but this that we carry our selves in businesse every day as if Death should seize upon us in that businesse that we might be found well-doing that is when a man followeth his earthly businesse with a heavenly mind when he keepeth to the rule of righteousnesse and truth in his ordinary calling when he is doing or receiving good in his company when he useth his pleasures and recreations as the whet-stone to the Sithe to make him fitter for God I say when thus we doe things to a right end and in a right maner if Death now should seize upon us in such an action it should find us well-doing And this is that we perswade you to if you would have death comfortable and not terrible be so imployed as that your actions may be good both for matter and forme that you are now about because Death may strike you in such an action But I cannot stand on these particulars Againe for the causes in our selves If you would be freed from the terrours of Death then rectifie your apprehensions and opinions of Death thinke of it as it is as it is I say to beleevers to those that are in Christ. It is not the destruction of nature and so a naturall Ill as you account it It is rather a cure of nature for assoone as ever we live we are dying and all our life it is but a living death a continuall decaying and dying Now when death commeth it putteth an end to all the decayes of nature and setteth all right againe It is but asleepe and sleepe it is not a destruction but a helpe of the bodie and that which inableth to vigour and strength and fitnesse to action Againe it is not the destruction of any part of a man the body it selfe is not destroyed indeed it is in the Grave but it is in the grave as in a bed of peace They shall come and rest in their beddes saith the Prophet The grave is but as a bed wherein the body lies asleepe and no man you know is troubled with feare that hee goeth to bed The grave is but as Gods chest to keepe in all his Treasure whereof the bodies of his servants are apart precious to him even in the grave in death Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints and God will open this Cabinet and the Chest of the Grave in the great day of the Resurrection and bring the body out againe and then it shall be as good as ever it was nay I say not onely as good but much better too for our vile bodies shall bee made like the glorious bodie of Christ. Phil. 3. No man when he goeth to bed thinkes much to have his old cloathes taken off that they may be mended and made better against morning When we sleepe in the Grave it is no more but this the garment of the soule the body the old apparell that is taken off that it may be made better and a more glorious body this is all we lose nothing by it but our estates even our bodily estate is bettered by it And for the Soule Death doth not destroy that neither for know this the soule liveth for ever the bodie indeed returneth to the Earth as it was but the soule returneth to God that gave it The soule I say liveth that is the thing that Christ himselfe proveth in 22. Mat. Abraham is alive why so For God is not the God of the dead but of the living for God said I am the God of Abraham c. How can this be that God is the God of Abraham and yet he is dead Indeed he is dead if wee looke to the separation of the soule and body in the cessation of bodily actions but if we looke to the better part of Abraham his soule that continueth the ever-living God hath made an everlasting Covenant with him and therefore he dieth not Againe it is not onely not the destruction of nature but not of your actions neither Death doth not destroy them neither Indeed there is a cessation of bodily actions but it is that the body may have better strength and be the fitter instrument of holinesse after But for those actions of the soule that depend not upon the body they are as perfectly done when we are dead as when we are alive and better too When a man liveth upon the earth you see his soule is much hindered by the body A distempered sicke
some that hung themselves I pray give me leave a little to speake upon this Saint Austin tells me of five causes for which persons doe usually lay violent hands upon themselves The first is this Some doe it to avoide some shame or some dishonour or miserie or beggerie that shall befall them Thus did Achitophel when he saw that his counsell was defeated hee went home and hanged himselfe Thus have many done to avoide shame and dishonour Alas poore wretches While they seeke to escape temporall punishment they runne into eternall like our fishes in the Proverbe Out of the frying-pan into the fire into hell fire where the worme dieth not and where the fire never goeth out Secondly some have done it to avoide the terrours of a guiltie conscience Thus Iudas troubled in conscience after hee had betrayed Christ he went and hung himselfe Poore wretch He had more need he had lived that hee might have healed that sinne of his by repentance This is not a way to expiate thy sinne this is a way to increase it Iudas when he killed himselfe hee killed as wicked a man as was upon the earth and yet hee shall answer to God as well for that nocent bloud of his owne that he spilt as hee shall for the innocent bloud of the Son of God that he betrayed Thirdly wee find some that have done this to avoide some vilanie that they feared should bee offered them As for example Pelagia a noble Ladie that we reade of in Ecclesiasticall stories when shee was followed by some barbarous souldiours that would have abused her she speaking nothing but never a villaine of them all shall touch me threw her selfe over a bridge and drowned her selfe Some of the Fathers doe little lesse then commend her for this Saint Augustine condemnes her so should I. For why should she that had done no hurt doe hurt to her selfe why should she to escape the hands of the Nocent lay violent hands upon her selfe that was innocent Our chastitie of body is not lost when the chastitie of our mind remaineth inviolated Fourthly Some have done this to purchase to themselves a name of valour Rasis in the booke of the Machabees did thus And if there were no other thing in the world to shew that booke to be Apochriphall Scripture this is enough in that the Author of that booke commendeth Rasis for it It is not valour for to flie a danger it is valour to beare it If any example can bee alledged to this purpose that of Sampsons may But Saint Austin hee answereth The Spirit of God secretly commanded him to doe it And wee may verily beleeve it for if the Spirit of God had not commanded it yea and assisted him in it too hee had never done that he did in pulling downe the house upon himselfe and the Philistims Lastly some have done it or they might have done it because Blessed are the dead Some will die that they may be blessed Poore wretches They that deprive themselves of this life may not looke for a better when this is ended I will not judge particulars I leave them unto God But in the generall considering that life is Gods blessing it is hee that giveth it and it is hee that must take it away Considering that man is not lord of his owne spirit Considering that God hath set us here in our stations and we may not move out without leave from our Generall Considering that we are set here to serve God and we must serve him as long as he will and not as long as wee will Or specially considering that God hath forbidden us to kill others therefore forbidden us much more to kill our selves therefore surely except Gods mercie bee greater then I can give warrant for they that die thus die eternally And wee had need beseech God with all earnestnesse of spirit to keepe us from such a fearfull temptation as this for they that die thus die not in the Lord and therefore cannot bee 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. 26. 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 becommeth 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 againe Say to Archippus looke to the ministerie that thou hast received In Domino that is for the Lord for the Lords service for his worke 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 Greeke 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 Iudicious Beza to whose judgement I attribute much in translations hee readeth it so Blessed are the dead qui moriuntur 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 farre from making a question that they set it downe as a Rule Injuriam facit Martyri qui orat pro Martyre A man doth wrong to a Martyr that prayes for a Martyr their blessednesse is so sure for Hee that loseth his life for my sake and the Gospels shall find it saith Christ. If he loseth a temporall life he shall find an eternall If he lose a life accompanied with sorrow hee shall find another life that is with joy such joy as cannot bee 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 precious death that hath both a good life before it and a good cause comming next The Martyrs 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 treason and some for sowing of sedition some for absolving subjects from
a man had but alwayes some one before him as a witnesse he would not venture upon many things that hee 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 neverthelesse hee would serve him at least with eye-service Now set your selves in the eye of God that sees you in the darke heares you in your most secret whisperings knowes every action of your life and every circumstance of those Actions This will be a meanes to keepe thee from security I will adde but one more which is the sixth Consider thy latter end The night is now comming 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 foole this night shall they take away thy soule I thinke there is none that heareth me this day but hee would certainly keepe waking this night But it is not bodily waking we plead for but spirituall waking a waking from sinne a waking to repentance And we tell you that Death is now at the dore ready to seize upon you Wee speake not only to you that are aged that are at the brinke of the grave but we speake 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 Bee watchfull and strengthen the things that remaine That Church was asleepe as many of us are at this day God commeth to awaken you now as he did them that that little goodnesse you have left may bee renewed and confirmed You that are quite out of the way of grace and goe on in a course of sinne fit now downe and humble your soules get into a secret corner wherein you may confesse 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 Eccles. 11. Rejoyce O young man in the dayes of thy youth and let thy heart cheare thee in thy youth and walke in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all this thou shalt come to Iudgement 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 world know that there will come a Judgement day see therefore now what will best answer God then Since the end of all things is at hand saith the Apostle let us bee sober and watch Wee know not how neere the end of the world is wee know indeed it shall not bee yet because Antichrist must bee destroyed and the Jewes called before that day come but neverthelesse certainly thy end is neere thy day thy particular death and that is the time of thy particular judgement may be sudden It is appointed for all men once to die and after that commeth the judgement That is the particular Judgement that commeth upon Death so I say this may be the night of thy death and the morning may be the day of thy particular doome Iudge your selves now that you may not bee judged of the Lord It was the use that the Apostle made even to good men For this cause saith he many are sicke and weake and many sleepe that is they are dead what then If wee would judge our selves wee should not bee judged of the Lord. So say I to you judge your selves now bring your selves as prisoners before the Barre arraigne your selves as malefactours before the Judge bring out the particular bills of inditement against your selves whereby you have provoked God yet there is mercie the day of grace and opportunity of repentance and turning unto God yet lasteth therefore doe it now I might adde many other helpes to this purpose but these shall suffice at this present Wee 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 liue securely as men that dreame of a long life for many yeares Here is a young man dead tooke away in the prime of his time in the beginning of his dayes his sicknesse 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 sicknesse 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 securitie make good this Text upon you When they shall say Peace Peace then sudden destruction commeth upon them as travaile upon a woman with child and they shall not escape FINIS A CHRISTIANS VICTORIE OR CONQVEST OVER DEATHS ENMITIE ROM 8. 37. Wee are more then conquerours through him that loved us HOSEA 13. 14. I will ransome them from the power of the Grave I will redeeme them from death O Death I will bee thy plagues O Grave I will bee thy destruction LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. A CHRISTIANS VICTORIE OR CONQVEST OVER DEATHS ENMITIE SERMON XIII 1 COR. 15. 26. The last enemie that shall be destroyed is Death IT could bee no Paradox to declare that every man hath more enemies in the world then friends both wicked and godly There is no question of it But it is true also that so long as a mans wayes please God hee can make his enemies his friends Of all the enemies men have the spirituall are the worst for they are common continuall enemies Common enemies I call them because they are every mans enemies Others though they bee enemies to some they are friends to others these to all Continuall because their warre is never at an end Other enemies we may have truce with now and then pauses and breathing times leasure given us when we have done one skirmish to make ready for another from these there is no intermission nor rest not for a moment wheresoever or whatsoever we are about it may be said to us as Dalilah said to Sampson Up Sampson thy enemies are upon thee The three principall of these yeeknow are commonly reckoned up to be The Divell the World and the Flesh. But the Apostle telleth us of a fourth which hee calleth our Last enemie the enemie which shall last of all assault us the other will leave assaulting us when we are in this world this when we are leaving the world mustereth up his forces against
thinke of some way how wee might shift and shun it but it is beyond the kenne of our eyes we are no more able to see that then the Ayre being therefore out of sight it is out of our reach we know not how to grapple with it we know not with what weapons to encounter it And a Spirituall Enemie I call it because though it seize on the body it strikes at the soule By Gods decree the death of the soule is a concommitant of the death of the Body and were it not by Gods mercy reverst they would still come like lightning and thunder and strike both together Againe it is a spirituall enemie because it fighteth against us in the strength of sinne It commeth armed with a Sting the sting of death is sinne Some make question whether if Adam had never sinned he should ever have died But me-thinkes the Apostle Saint Paul putteth it out of qustion By one mans disobedience sinne came into the world and by sinne death All those Death 's that S. Austin reckoneth up First when the soule is deprived of God separated from him Secondly when the body is separated from the soule Thirdly when the Soule is separated from the body and from God and suffereth torments for a time Lastly when the soule is separated from God and rejoyned to the body to suffer torments eternally All these are the recompence and reward of sinne Therefore Death comming and being an Enemie thus armed whatsoever kind of death it be we may well say it is a spirituall enemie and the more spirituall the more dangerous Fourthly and lastly it is a continuall Enemie And it is the more dangerous for that It laies hold of us in the wombe and never leaves us till it hath brought us to the Grave Beloved wee doe not only die when we die but all the time we live assoone as wee begin to live we begin to die As Seneca saith Every day wee die because every day some part of our life is gone As a Candle it is no sooner lighted but presently it begins to waste as an houre-glasse it is no sooner turned but presently the sand begins to runne out So our life it is no sooner breathed but presently it begins to vapour out As the Sea what it gaineth in one place it loseth in another so our life what we gaine one way wee lose it in another looke what is added to it so much is tooke from it the longer a man liveth the lesse he hath to live Death doth by us as Iacob did by Esau catcheth us in the wombe and never leaveth us So wee see it is a Common a Secret a Spirituall a Continuall Enemie Next we are to consider How and wherein Death sheweth it selfe an Enemie What Death deserveth at our hands to bee thus accounted and feared Fearfull and terrible it is that is certaine So Aristotle It is the most terrible of all terribles Bildad in Iob calleth it the King of terrours What doth Death bring with it to make it fearfull I answer Death hath sundrie concomitants and companions that attend it that make it a formidable Enemie First the Harbingers that come along with it Sicknesses and diseases infirmities old age and difficulties These are all fearfull to nature and through feare of these Death keepeth men all their life in bondage They make our lives as it were a life rather like a life then a life indeed So that howsoever the Apostle said in another place as it were dying and Behold wee live There Death hath the tanquam and life the Ecce yet here we may say as it were living and behold wee die here life hath the tanquam and Death the Ecce Life is but as it were a life it is but the shadow of a life that man walketh in Man walketh in a vaine shadow and disquieteth himselfe in vaine It is true it lighteth not on all alike some it commeth on as a Lyon and breaking their bones from morning to evening it makes an end of them to others it is as a Moth in the garment secretly in their lives by degrees insensibly pining and consuming them Howsoever what Harbinger soever it bringeth it visiteth us with many touches and twitches before it come falling pell-mell thicke and three-fold on us when they come In respect of these it may be said to be an Enemie Secondly the dissolution that Death bringeth For it dissolveth the frame of nature It divorceth and separateth the soule from the Bodie those two companions that have lived so lovingly together and perhaps have lived a long time together This is another thing that makes Death looke like an Enemie Friends and companions that have lived long together are loth to part wee see in experience old folke commonly are more loth to part when they are old then when they are young Now there is none neerer then the soule and bodie there is none have lived so long or so loving it must needs be tedious for these to part and be an affliction and vexation when neither the body can longer retaine the fleeting soule or the soule longer sustaine the drouping body Therefore in respect of this also Death being the cause of this no marvell though nature reluctate and we looke upon it as on the face of an Enemie Thirdly the horrour of the Grave The men of Darknesse as Iob calleth it the place of oblivion the pit of stinch and rottennesse this is another thing that nature shrinketh and relucts at For there we must burie out of our sight that that once was the delight of our eyes as Ezekiel said by his wife And though it were never so lovely before yet it quickly becommeth loathsome Our Beds must be made in darknesse where corruption and wormes must be the Mattresse and Coverled to lie under us and spread over us Thou shalt say to Corruption thou art my father and to the worme thou art my mother and my sister That bodie of thine that God in the wombe so wonderfully made that thou all thy life-time peradventure hast delicately cherished lapped in Silke in Furre pampered with sweet wines Death as a proud Tyrant will set his foot upon it and throw thee downe to the horrid dungeon where thy flesh shall putrifie and thy bones rot and the beauty of it though sometime it were as the Rose and the Lilly of the field shall soone become as loathsome as the dung in the streets This is another thing that makes the face of Death dreadful and terrible when we thinke of such privations and annihilations as these thaâ—… wee shall come from a beeing to no beeing These cannot but make Death looke with the face of an Enemie Fourthly The losse and deprivation of all worldly contentments and worldly imployments that is another thing that makes Death terrible and fearfull to us Looke whatsoever contentment wee tooke in any thing here we must bid
dignitie of thy soule iâ—… 〈◊〉 the breathing of God the Image of God he created it with 〈◊〉 Word redeemed it with his Sonne and in whomsoever his gâ—…e abides he will crowne it hereafter with his glorious presence What then remaines but that we esteeme our soules accordingly as God values them Let us not with the unhallowed voluptuous in these times make lords of our bodyes and slaves of our soules Let us not spend our dayes in providing for the lusts of the flesh Let us not in affectation of faire possessions of able servants of hopefull sonnes and good friends content our selves with bad soules A mans soule is himselfe saith Plato And O wretched wight saith Saint Austin how hast thou deserved so much ill of thy selfe as among all thy goods to be only thy selfe bad O remember the sublimitie of thy precious soule thou knowest not what a precious pearle thou hast in thy body like the hidden treasure in the Gospell it is of greater worth than the whole field I say not as he did know that thâ—…â—…ast a God in thee yet know that in that better part of thy nature thou art like to God for he hath given thee a soule of his owne breathing and stamped it with the impresse of his owne Image 〈◊〉 created it capable of the fruition of his owne presence in endlesse glorie In the consideration whereof walke worthily of this precious divine inspiration Thy Soule is a spirit let thy thoughts bee spirituall Thy Soule is immortall let thy meditations be of immortalitie and renounce thy body and good name â—…d gifts of the world for the gaining of thy soule For what shall it profit a man to gaine the whole world and to lose his owne soule So much shall serve to be spoâ—…n of the first point the surpassing excellencie and dignitie of the soule it is valued and prized here above the whole world Now the next is the possibilitie that a man may lose his owne soule The mention whereof causeth me to remember 〈◊〉 passage betweene Christ and his Disciples Mat. 24. Thâ—…â—…ples point Christ to the stately buildings of the Temple but they were soone damped when Christ told them that after a while there should not a stone bee left upon a stone So perhaps you are takeâ—… with admiration at the former part of the discourse concerniâ—…g the excellencie of mans soule but are damped to consider â—…at a man may lose it It is a substance immortall in respect of the being of it but defiled with sinne it is adjudgeable to death in regard of the well-being and a possibilitie so to die is nothing repugnant to the immortalitie of the soule The damned spirits they are alwayes dying anâ—… aâ—…e never dead they are alwayes deprived of Gods comfortable presence and are never released of their hellish torments As the Apostle saith in another case as dying and yet behold they live as living and yet behold they die The soule expiring is the death of the body and God forsaking is the death of the soule But you will say how is it possible The question is soone resolved if wee ponder the causes of death A thousand mortall maladies there are to kill the body and there are a thousand deadly diseases to destroy the soule There is no sinne so small but in the rigour of Gods justice and in its owne nature it may damne the soule When God in the beginning stated man in Paradise hee gave him a speciall caveate about the tree of knowledge he gives him a command thus In the day thou eatest thou shalt die What for bare eating No beloved but for the sinne for transgressing so small a Commandement of so great a God Sinne alone makes a separation betweene God and the soule and causeth the death of the soule The soule that sinnes the same shall die It may teach us that for the time that we live in this world there is nothing easier then to sinne There is a tree of Life and a tree of Knowledge and by eating of the tree forbidden commeth death there is a way of felicitie and a way to destruction there is a God of salvation and a ghostly enemie and by adhering to the principalitie of sinne a man may lose his owne soule Is it possible then that a man may lose his soule that is so precious and have we not great reason to try and to suspect our selves touching our standing towards God Is there not a maine necessitie to seeke the meanes to preserve us in the compasse and seales of grace It is lamentable to consider how in bodily diseases men can open their griefe and seeke for helpe and send to some learned Physitian Wee can goe to some noble learned counsell in case of law But alas the soule lies wounded in the way overladen with the grievances and pressures of sin distracted with the affrightings of a troubled conscience as if there were no balme in Gilead no Physitian there as if there were no Minister to afford helpe There is no seeking abroad a Lyon is pretended to bee in the way and Solomons sluggard folds his hands to sleepe O let not these things be so Be not as the horse and mule that have no understanding Neglect not the helpes of your preservation in grace but be continually watchfull with suspition and jealousie and abstaine from fleshly lusts that fight against your soules The Poet could say Theeves rise by night to robbe and kill and steale and wilt not thou wake to save thy soule God for the most part saith Saint Chrysostome hath alotted to nature all by twos two hands two eyes two feet two eares eares eyes hands feet two of all that if we chance to mayme one we can helpe to relieve the necessitie of it by the other but hee hath given us but one soule if we lose that what shift shall wee make for another soule a piercing contemplation if wee had grace to consider it Therefore O my soule tender thy selfe as my owne happinesse if thou be translated to heaven the body in time shall come thither this corruption shall put on incorruption this mortall shall put on immortalitie Againe if thou be haled with the fiends to the nethermost hell the body in time shall be â—…ormented with thee It is altogether just with the righteous God that they that meet in sinne should also consort in suffering Save thy selfe and save all and by wofull consequence lose thy selfe and lose all For what is a man profited if hee gaine the whole world and lose is owne soule So much for the second point the possibilitie of losing a mans soule Come we to the third the compossibilitie of outward prosperitie he may lose his soule in gaining the whole world In the diversitie of opinions concerning the chiefe good some there were that placed it in riches others in honours and how ever they differed in their judgements yet both agreed in this
and the arme of flesh their portion that they must relie upon here is a reed that will either breake or pierce a mans hand No wonder that this man feares in all occasions and extremities because he forsakes the Lord and cleaves to the creature But that man that lives by faith is without feare As Peter when hee began to sinke saith Christ Why dost thou feare O thou of little faith The reason he did sinke was feare and why did hee feare because his faith failed him he did not lay hold upon God and Christ. Lastly let us remember to order our selves aright in regard of our love and this will keepe us from inordinate feare For we must conceive that love is the fountaine of all other affections we love things and therefore we desire them if they be absent and wee rejoyce in them if they be present and wee feare the losse of them to be abridged of them Now let us order our love aright in regard of the things of this world and wee shall never feare much for it is the observation of S. Austin we feare to lose somewhat that we have attained or not to enjoy somewhat that we desire so it ariseth from love somewhat that wee love and afect we are afraid of the losse of it and this is the cause of feare Now in regard of wealth a man is afraid hee shall not have enough he shall not have a competencie it is because hee loves the things of the world too much A man is afraid of Death why because he loves his body too much A man is afraid hee shall lose his children or his friends what is the reason he loves them too much too inordinatly Wee should labour to love them only in and for God and then we shall not be afraid of the losse of them but shall be content to bee disposed in them and in ourselves as God shall see convenient in his heavenly wisedome A word for the occasion and that I will dispatch in a word You know the occasion of our meeting at this time and in this place it is to performe this last rite to the body of a Child that God hath taken lately to his mercie You see how Almightie God is pleased to dispose it sometimes even oft-times from the Cradle to the Grave out of the swadling-bands to the winding-sheete God will have it so sometimes and when it is so wee must lay our hands upon our mouthes and bee content with the will of God For those that are Parents let all learne this lesson not to dote too much upon their children not to be enamoured too much upon such flowers you know how soone God takes them away before you be aware It is not their witt or their comelinesse or agilitie and nimblenesse or healthy constitution or any thing that can award them from the stroake of death when God sends it Therefore learne to love them in and for God for his sake and you shall have no cause to feare the losse of them or grieve immoderately when they are taken away why because they are all alive still to God and this tender Babe is not lost he is but sent before he is alive still in the presence of God the soule still lives and the body shall live and is in Gods account Christ hath the charge of it and will raise it at the last day That man can lose no friend that loves his friend in and for God because they live with God and he shall enjoy them at the last day Againe as we may mourne for the losse of our friends and children or else we were without naturall affection so we must rejoyce that they have gained as we have lost them as they are taken from us so they are taken from the evils of the world from a great deale of sinne and miserie and what that might have beene the Lord only knowes therefore wee have cause to bee thankfull And beloved be thankfull too if God spare any if hee take one he might have taken all and prepare for it too be thankfull for them that are left And remember labour betimes to instruct your children in the feare of God let it be the first thing we infuse into them as soone as they be capable namely the elements of Christian Religion holy and heavenly things why because they may bee taken away before we are aware It may be wee have but a little time but a few opportunities to doe good to them I tell you what our conscience will tell us else that wee have not beene so carefull to instruct our children as they have beene capable And this will cut sore and lie heavie on our conscience and therefore let us doe it betimes Not only to prevent the Divell and his temptations but because you see how suddenly they may bee taken away from us in a moment So Children should be admonished to learne to know the Lord God in the dayes of their youth how soone that evill day may come we know not that the wise man speakes of therefore betimes while yee haue opportunitie doe it And for our owne part let us learne this First when God croppes such flowers that rise in the budde when he takes away such Children be thankfull to God that hee hath given us a longer time that he hath enlarged our dayes and prolonged our yeares that hee hath given us such a great deale of space and opportunitie to glorifie him here to doe him service in the land of the living to get evidence of our Calling and election and to get assurance of our peace with him Let us praise God for the length of our dayes a blessing of God in it selfe and a blessing to us if we improve it Againe every one remember if Children doe die old men must die any man may die For if Death strike such as doe but begin to live then we that have lived long it is time and reason to expect death and not to feare it I speake not this as if we should be slavishly afraid of death while we are so our lives are not comfortable What is the reason that we feare it inordinatly because we love our lives wee love our bodies and the world inordinatly and not in and for God And then by the continuall spectacles of mortalitie let us bee acquainted with death A vizour and apparition to a Child scarres him and he runnes from it at the first but at last he growes throughly acquainted with it and feares it not so it is in regard of death many men will not indure to heare of death they will not indure to thinke of it they will not indure to heare a Funerall Sermon or to come to the house of mourning to be put in mind of their latter end Death is a strange vizour to these men and women they are afraid of it and runne from it but if we did oft thinke of it as oft as we thinke
the Holiest and dearest servants of God are exercised with and divers of these doe make them many times mourne exceedingly and to cry one while O wretched man that I am and to groane out another while Woe is mee that I am constrained to live in Mesech and to have my habitation in the tents of Kedar of all these miseries Death is the end to Gods servants And so also it is an entrance into happinesse for albeit their bodyes rot in the Grave and bee laid up in the Earth as in Gods store-house untill the last day yet the soule forthwith even in an instant comes into the presence of the ever-living God of Christ and of all the Angels and Saints in Heaven the spirits of just men made perfect to Abrahams bosome to bee with Christ quanta haec felicitas What greater happinesse It was much that Moses obtained to see the back-parts of God but how much greater favour is it to see him face to face to have eternall fellowship with God the Father with Christ the Redeemer with the Holy Ghost the sanctifier The knowledge of this benefit of Death makes the face of it comfortable to Gods servants and causes them to strive with their owne naturall weaknesse that so they may even long for their day of dissolution But now against this point divers Objections may be alledged For first the Apostle Paul sayes that Death is the wages of sinne And else-where hee stiles it Christs enemie the last enemie that hee shall subdue is Death How should not death then be rather a day of misery to bee trembled at then a day of happinesse to bee longed for To this I answer that wee are to distinguish touching Death for it must be considered two wayes First as it is in its owne nature Secondly as it is altered by Christ in the first sence it is true that Death is the wages of sinne and the very suburbs and the gates of hell But in the second taking of Death it ceases to be a plague and becomes a blessing inasmuch as it is even a doore opening out of this world into Heaven Now the godly looke not upon Death simply but upon Death whose sting and venome is plucked out by Jesus Christ and so it is exceeding comfortable But then secondly it is objected that wee reade of many that have prayed against death as namely first David Returne O Lord saith he and deliver my soule oh spare mee for thy mercyes sake for in death there is no remembrance of thee Secondly Hezekiah when the message of death was brought to him Thirdly Christ himselfe Father if it bee possible let this cup passe from me To all these I answer first touching Daâ—…d that when he composed that sixt Psalme hee was not only gâ—…vously sicke but also exceedingly tormented in mind for he wrestled and combatted in his conscience with the wrath of God as appeares by the first Verse of that Psalme therefore wee must know that hee prayed not simply against Death but against death at that time in asmuch as the comming of it was accompanied with extraordinary apprehensions of Gods wrath for at another time hee tells us that hee would not feare though hee walked through the valley of the shadow of Death And the like I say touching Hezekiah that his prayer proceeded not from any desperate feare of Death but first that he might doe more service to God in his Kingdome And with such a kind of thought was Saint Pauls desire of dissolution mingled Secondly hee prayed against Death then because he knew that his death then would be a great cause of rejoycing to evill men to whom his reformation in the State was unpleasâ—…ng Thirdly because hee wanted issue God had promised before to David that there should not faile a man of his seed to sit upon the throne of Israel so that his children did take heed 〈◊〉 their wayes Now it was a great discomfort to him to die childlesse for then he and others might have thought that he was but an Hypocrite inasmuch as God had promised issue to all those Kings that feared him and for this cause God heard his prayer and after two yeares gave him a sonne Maâ—…asseh by name And so I say the same touching our Saviour Christ that hee prayed not against Death as it is the separation betwixt Body and Soule as appeares by what the Apostle saith that hee was heard in that hee feared for hee stood in our roome and became a Curse for us it was the Curse of the Law which went with Death and the unspeakable wrath and indignation of God which hee feared and from this according to his prayer he was delivered But thirdly wee see in most good men a feare of Death and a desire of life and I my selfe may some godly man say doe feele my selfe ready to tremble at the meditation thereof and yet I hope I belong unto God I answer that there are two things to bee considered in every Christian Flesh and Spirit Corruption and Grace and the best have many inward perplexities at times and doubtings of Gods favour Now it is a truth which our Saviour delivers that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weake And as in all other good purposes there is a combat betwixt the flesh and the spirit so is there in this betwixt the feare of Death and the desire of Death sometime the one prevailes and sometimes the other but yet alwayes at last the desire of Death doth get the victory Carnall respects doe often prevaile farre with the best care of wife children and the like Thâ—…se are their infirmities but as other infirmities die in them by degrees so these also at last are subdued and the servants of God seeing clearely the happinesse into which their Death in Christ shall enter them doe even sigh desiring to bee clothed upon with their house which is from Heaven Here then is a good Marke by which we may know our selves to be Gods servants viz. by the state of our thoughts and meditations touching Death I will so deliver it as may bee most for the comfort of those that truly feare God I demand therefore of thee Dost thou know that the confident and comfortable expectation of Death is the worke of the Holy Ghost in Gods servants Dost thou desire unfeignedly that the same may bee wrought in thy heart Dost thou labour to know what happinesse comes by Death to those that feare the Lord Dost thou grieve at thine owne weaknesse to whom the thought of Death is sometime troublesome and unsavourie Dost thou pray the Lord so to assure thee of his favour in Christ that death may bee desired before it comes and welcome when it is come Dost thou when thou hearest this speech of Simeon wish that thou wert able to use the like words with the like resolution Surely
from all both former and following miseries and that is this If in the time of our life here our being subject to corruption and sinne hath seemed unto us the greatest burden and bondage They which have groaned and mourned under their owne naturall corruptions as it were under some heavy and tyrannous yoke or as the Israelites mourned under their Egyptian Task-masters to them only shall the day of death be a day of freedome If sinne be not a burden to thee if thou dost not many times lament and even mourne to thinke how thou art carried captive unto evill if thou dost not with griefe feele how thou art clogged with corruption and hindred by it from doing the good which thou shouldest certainly death will bee to thee the beginning of thy thraldome and after it thou shalt be a perpetuall bond-slave unto Sathan in the kingdome of eternall darknesse Marke this all yee that take delight in evill to whom it is a pastime to doe wickedly and who seeke rather how to satisfie then how to suppresse your owne corruptions who repute it a kind of happinesse to follow the swinge of your owne Iusts and to have libertie to doe as your owne hearts doe lead you when you dye this shall be your reward even a most miserable and endlesse captivity under Sathan him have you served in the lusts of sinne while yee lived his slaves shall you be without hope of releasement world without end This is the right Application of this Doctrine death is a day of enlargement to the godly it is a dismission The next particular is that it is a dismission accompanied with peace the lesson we are taught hence is that The servants of God have at their going out of the world a comfortable quiet and peaceable departure Thus Simeon here hee prayed for no other thing but that his end might be as the end of the Righteous is ever wont to bee even a departure hence in peace Hence is that generall rule of the Psalmist Marke the perfect man and behold the upright man for the end of that man is peace Agreeable whereunto is that of Solomon that the righteous hath hope in his death And memorable to this purpose is that which is storied of old father Iacob shewing unto us the quiet end of the Righteous Hee gathered up his feet into the bed and so gave up the Ghost It was the blessing promised to Abraham that he should goe to his fathers in peace And the same was made to good Iosias There is a twofold reason hereof First the assurance which they have of the favour of God in Christ. This must needs breed quietnesse when I am perswaded in my soule and conscience that all cause of danger after death is removed and that God is and will be gracious unto mee in his Sonne What cause of feare is here left what occasion of perplexitie If any man shall doubt whether the servants of God have this assurance I prove it thus that all of them first or last have it in some good measure If any man saith the Apostle have not the Spirit of Christ hee is none of his Hence it necessarily followes that all that are Christs have the Spirit of Christ but now the office of the Spirit is to beare witnesse with our spirit So that all that are the Lords as they are endued with Gods Spirit so they feele this Spirit bearing witnesse to their soules of this Adoption Secondly the comfortable Testimonie of their owne consciences touching their former care to glorifie God by a Religious and godly conversation Hence came Saint Pauls peace I have saith he fought the good fight I have kept the faith Therefore I am sure there is laid up for mee a Crowne of life Hence Hezekiahs I have walked before thee oh Lord in truth and with a perfect heart Not that they doe ground their hope upon the desert of their fore-ranne courses but because they know good workes to bee the way and doe understand by the Scripture that a holy life here is the first fruits of a glorified life hereafter Thus we see the truth of this point and the reasons upon which it is grounded Now here some may object first Wee see many worthy men that have made a great and an extraordinary profession of Religion in their lives and which have also carried themselves unblameably yet to give appearance of much angiush and perplexitie and even of a kind of despaire in their death How can wee say then that all good and holy persons have a peaceable departure I answer first Wee ought to remember the Rule our Saviour gives not to judge according to the outward appearance It is a very weake argument to say that this or that man dyeth without peace because to the standers by hee makes not shew of peace Certaine it is that as a man may have peace with God and yet himselfe for a time by reason of some tentation not feele it so a man being sicke or going out of the world may feele it and yet others that behold him cannot perceive it Secondly wee must know that these outward unquietnesses which doe many times accompany sicknesse doe happen as well and as ordinarily to good men as to the most wicked such as are ravings idle-talkings and strange accidents in the body in this sence all things come alike to all God hath made no promise in Scripture that those that serve him shall be freed in their deaths from violent sicknesses Therefore these things must not bee thought to be any abridgement of their peace Thirdly wee must consider that with the best servants of God Sathan is most busie when his end is neerest and when hee is as it were out of all hope of prevailing The red Dragon in the Revelation had greatest wrath when he knew his time to bee short When the evill Spirit was commanded once to come out of the child then it rent him sore Now these temptations though for the time they be very violent and extreme so that the party may hapily utter out some words and speeches of dispaire yet be they no finall prejudice to the inward peace Interrupt they may but utterly quench it they cannot because the power of God is made perfect through weaknesse And so even in death Sathan receives the greatest foile when hee thinkes to get the greatest victorie Thus then I answer in one word The peace of Gods servants at death is not ever in the like measure felt by them but yet it never dieth in them they which behold their death doe not alwayes see it yet they themselves sooner or later are sure sweetly and secretly to feele the same My reason for my assertion is grounded first upon that of the Apostle God commands light to shine out of darknesse Hee brings his servants to Heaven by the gates of
milke and honey The like deliverance the Lord hath wrought for thee therefore bee thankfull and make thy thankfull acknowledgement with the Psalmist Psal. 115. Not unto us but to thy Name give the glorie And then desire God as he hath by his mercie brought thee to the Kingdome of grace so by his power to preserve thee to the Kingdome of glorie And desire Christ as he by his quickning Spirit hath made thee partakers of the first Resurrection to the life of grace so to make thee partaker of the second to the life of glorie FINIS DEATH IN BIRTH OR THE FRUITE OF EVES TRANSGRESSION GEN. 3. 16. Vnto the woman hee said I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children REVEL 12. 2. And shee being with child cryed travailing in birth and pained to be delivered LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. DEATH IN BIRTH OR THE FRVITE OF EVES TRANSGRESSION SERMON XXXVI GEN. 35. 19. And Rachell died IT is a statute law of God that all both men and women must die The causes for which it pleased Almightie God to leave the bodies even of his dearest children under the power of Death to be returned to dust are many First for the manifesting his truth according to that ancient threatning mentioned Genesis 3. 19. Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne Secondly for the manifestation of his power that by death hee may translate his chosen servants to life Sinne it was that brought Death into the world and God will shew his strength in this that Death shall be the utter abolishment even of that very thing which brought it first upon us and made us all lyable to it If there had not beene Sinne there should not have beene Death and now God will that in those that are his the Kingdome and being of sinne shall utterly be destroyed the head of Goliah shall be cut off with his owne sword and sinne shall bee extinguished by that which it selfe first procured Thirdly God subjects his children to this course that by it they may the better conceive what inestimable benefit they reape by Jesus Christ. When they doe thinke upon death as it is an enemie they cannot chuse but feare it Nature affecting a continuation and preservation of it selfe cannot chuse but loath and abhorre it Now then if Death being changed be so fearefull well may wee conclude that it would have exceeded in terrour if it had continued as at the first it was that is a gate and passage to everlasting torment in hell fire If the very sight of the Serpent afright us now the sting is out what would it have done if the sting had still remained Hereby then Almighty God would have us learne how deepely we stand ingaged to him for his mercie who by his Sonne Jesus Christ hath freed us from so great miserie Lastly the law of Death seizeth upon the very elect children of God that they may bee thereby made conformable to their head Christ Hee was as the wheat-corne which except it fall into the ground and die abideth alone Death was his passage the same must bee ours also The way of the tree of life is kept with the blade of a sword shaken under the stroake whereof we must first come before wee can hope for any entrance into Paradise as we see here it is sayd of Rachel she dyed And Rachel dyed I will not stand upon any division of the words but will God willing unite them together at this time in this discourse I conceive it is not altogether impertinent in the handling of these words of my Text to shew you the occasion of Rachels death what shee was and for what shee stands recorded in the sacred Scriptures Rachel was one of Labans Daughters and one of the Wives of Iacob Questionlesse shee was a good woman though in somethings faulty But the imperfections of the holy people of those times are neither to bee blazed abroad as though wee tooke pleasure in discovering their shame nor to bee followed neither as though by their doing this or that were a sufficient plea for us that were to draw bloud not milke out of the breasts of the sacred Scriptures and is a thing which for my own perticular were the cause never so just I doe from my soule abhorre and detest First of all then shee is recorded to have beene fruitfull by whom Iacob had two sonnes Ioseph and Benjamin and by her and Leah his other wife God accomplished his promise that Hee made to Abraham that his seed should be as the starres of Heaven which teacheth us that The fruitfulnesse of the wife is to bee reckoned as a blessing and to bee earnestly sought by prayer from Almighty God It is that blessing which God promiseth to the man that feares him and puts his trust in him That his Wife should bee as a fruitfull Vine and his Children they shall stand as Olive branches round about his table Psal. 128. 3. And in the precedent Psalme Loe Children are an heritage from the Lord and the fruite of the wombe are his reward happie is the man that hath his quiver full of them In former times barrennesse was accounted for a shame and reproach When God would punish Abimilech about Abraham and Sarah his Wife it is sayd that hee closed up all the wombes in the house of Abimilech Gen. 20. 18. And when God would blesse Iobs last dayes more than his first hee gave him seven sonnes and three daughters as an addition to his happinesse and as so many emblems of his grace and favour towards him In the rehearsing of the lives of the Fathers before the Flood you shall finde especially in Gen. 5. sundrie times thus such and such a one lived so many yeares and begate sonnes and daughters What was the blessing upon the first couple was it not this bee fruitfull and multiply Gen. 1. 28. What blessing gave the friends of Rebecka at her departure was it not this bee the mother of thousands and millions Gen. 24. 60. What was the manner of Gods blessing the Iewes after their returne from the captivity was it not this that their streets should be full of boyes and girles Zech. 8. 5. This being so it may serve for a two fold Use First it discovers the wretchednesse of their fault who grudge and repine at the increase of children as a burthen Some there are that prescribe to God how many children hee should bestow upon them and would set him downe a stint that they would not by any meanes have him exceed which argues a most miserable and a most faithlesse minde For whence is this feare of increase before it come and whence is this repining at it when it is come but from some distrustfull opinion or other that they conceive either of their inabilitie to maintaine them c Let me say
of this sweetnesse of mercie as a precious oyntment and become good examples unto others and improve the gifts and abilities which God had given them to the same purpose Shee was not onely mindfull of those at home but her goodnesse extended to the Saints abroad And not in respect of Nature onely because they were come into the Countrey where shee was borne I speake now of those that live in distresse and exile of the Palatinate and Germany but in respect of Grace Shee was wondrous industrious and laborious to procure all the meanes that might bee to send over to helpe them and even refreshed the bowells of the Saints that I may truly say the loynes of the poore blessed God for her in many places In what place hath shee lived and hath not left a savour behinde her nay almost in what company hath shee conversed but this particular dutie hath been as a precious oyntment to sweeten the conversations of all that were about her and to worke in their mindes a vertuous intention and propensenesse to this dutie Beloved here you have her in her carriage and example What shee was in her behaviour towards her Husband and her Children I need not speake there are enough can witnesse it shee carried her selfe as became Wife to him and a helper of the servants of Gâ—…od with prayers and desires and often provocations and incitings that way But for her Children shee seem'd to undergoe a second travaile with them till Christ were formed in them being full of earnest desires and petitions for the working of Grace where it was not begun and for the perfecting thereof where it was newly entred Shee rejoyced exceedingly in any expression of good and more for that of Grace then any other inclination or respect Beloved this was obvious and common to all and any man might take speciall notice thereof dayly and observe it constantly In her servants as there appeared the mere grace in any so much the more respect she extended towards them In the poore as shee perceived the more grace in any the more reliefe they received from her c. 〈◊〉 say nothing what in all this shee suffered those that were acquainted with her disease know what paines shee under-went in respect of her bodie and with what patience shee submitted to the hand of God in all things And many know the wrong shee endured from the World for her desire and care to doe good when she obtain'd opportunitie Some thought her over-bold some to busie others thought her proud and vaineglorious because of her often frequenting of company and speaking openly for the provoking of others to the exercise of goodnesse The Lord smite their hearts that are guilty of mis-judging that which wee are to suppose in respect of her forward disposition is this Shee was naturally of a free spirit which being sanctified with Grace and sharpned with love and zeale for the glory of God made her the more resolute and familiar in frequenting good company not to magnifie her selfe by their societie but that her continuall conversation with them might give her the better occasion to incite and stirre them to goodnesse Let those that are guiltie of misprision leave to censure her Vertues and convert them into an example for themselves to walke in if they doe not the neglect will loade their soules with more woe for such contempt then shee hath received joy for her labour What concern'd her in her sicknesse briefly I have not much to say in that they which were about her dayly know more then I can relate Shee did not onely expresse a satisfaction and assurance of heart that her reconciliation was made with God in Christ but besides that a willingnesse and desire to bee dissolved for that reason that shee might hee with Christ. A Minister that was with her asking how shee that had a Husband and Children enjoying an estate and 〈◊〉 other comforts could be willing to forgoe so many blessings and exchange them all for death She from that inward sence and perswasion of Gods love to her in Christ concluded my Husband is deare and my Children are deare to me but Christ is dearer Therefore I am willing to forgoe Husband and Children and all the contents you can number in this life that I might live with Christ to partake of greater felicitie then this world can afford me And now the Lord Jesus hath received her into his owne protection and satisfied her expectation with the performance of his love But wherefore have wee spoken all this what that wee might adde any praise unto the dead no But to quicken those that are living and incite them to the like dutie Some may thinke it impossible there should be such activenesse in doing of good and such unweariednesse in performing of the acts of mercy and where say they shall we find such an example you have it before your eyes and know that examples will rise in judgement against you and condemne you as well as precepts If you follow them not while they invite you The Text saith Doe good to all especially to the houshold of faith And here is an example before our eyes of one who tooke her time and opportunitie to doe good to all especially to them of the houshold of Faith Goe thou and doe likewise FINIS DEATH PREVENTED OR MORTALITIE CHANGED LAM 3. 58. O Lord thou hast pleaded the causes of my soule thou hast redeemed my life JOB 33. 29. 30. Loe all these things worketh God oftentimes with man to bring backe his soule from the pit to bee enlightned with the light of the living LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. DEATH PREVENTED OR MORTALITIE CHANGED SERMON XL. JOB 14. 14. All the dayes of my appointed time will I waite till my change come THis Booke of Iob comprehends the History of a good man and of his many tryalls Though goodnesse deliver from Hell yet it privildgeth not from temptations or crosses yea the more eminent Holinesse is many times the more it is exposed to sharpe and manifold assaults Iob is set upon on all sides he found the Divell a sore enemie and his great estate a suddaine shipwrack his Children in a moment crusht to peeces Hee had but three Points of Land to looke at in this troublesome sea and every one of them seemed rather to augment then to lessen the storme His Wife whose breath should have sweetned and eased his griefe was an impatient vexation His friends whose counsells and compassions should have beene an easie harbour and tender reliefe they became his bitter and censorious judges Yea his God who by his owne testimonie hee served and feared with singular uprightnesse and whose bowells are ever tender and compassionate to such and upon whose gracious acceptance hee thought to quiet and anchor his troubled spirit yet anon he seemed not onely a stranger but an enemie and this went deepe that even Mercie it selfe seemed cruell and
teste dolet Her portion of sorrow like Benjamins is five times more then any others whose losse of a Husband and such a Husband is invaluable Secondly the qualitie of the Mourners is not slightly to be passed by debetur iis religiosa mora for not only great store of the Gentrie and Commons but some also of the Nobilitie the chiefe Officers of the Crowne and Peeres of the Realme not Religion only and learning but Honour and Justice also hath put on Blackes for him thereby testifying to all men their joynt-respect to him and misse of him And if any prompted by Iudas shall object against this Solemnitie and prolixe ceremonie ut quid perditio ista To what serves this waste might not the money have been better expended in charitable almes to the reliefe of very many poore I answer in the words of our Saviour Haec oportet facere illa non omittere Those workes of charitie they spake of ought to be done and these of decent Rites and ceremonies not to be left undone the rule of the Apostle Let all things be done decently and in order is a warrant as well for the due Exequies of the dead as Obsequies of the living if all things must be done decently and in order in the State and Common-wealth much more in the Church whose embleme is Acies ordinata an Armie marshalled in excellent order with Banners displayed and if all things in the Church must bee so carried then Funeralls as well as Nuptialls Burials as well as Christnings and if so then ought they to bee celebrated not after the preposterous manner of some in the night as workes of darknesse but in the day as works of Pietie in honour of them who have received the inheritance of Saints in light not penuriously and basely but nobly and liberally where the quality of the dead requireth it and the estate will beare it Howbeit I confesse that as Magnificence is alwayes a vertue so prodigalitie is a vice and one of those master-vices which hath gotten a great head in this Kingdome and a Garland upon it Yet to doe the dead right though luxurie bee guiltie of the death of many yet the dead are no way guiltie of this superfluirie they neither order it nor are sensible of it neither is the prodigalitie under the weightie burden whereof the Land groaneth so much seene in blacke clothes as in Silkes and Velvets cloth of Gold and Tissue not in Jeat as in Pearle and precious stones not in building Marble Sepulchres for the dead as Marble houses for the living not in armorie as in luxurie not in pendants as in attendants not in Funeralls as in Nuptials Maskes and Pageants Court entertainments and Citie feasts at which if Vitellius or Apicius were bidden they would condemne themselves for too much frugalitie What Seneca spake of time solius temporis prodigi sumus cujus unius honesta est avaritia wee are lavish of our time of which covetousnesse is onely commendable we may invert and with truth confesse we are frugall for the most part in those things I meane the service of the living God and offices of pietie to the dead wherein not only bounty but magnificence also is most commendable If any bee otherwayes minded and repine and grudge at this last honour to the dead and comfort to the living I shall use no other reproofe of him at this present then a like to that of Constantine recorded in Eusebius Goe to Acesias who art so precise and holdest none worthy to keepe pace with thee fac scalam ascende solus in coelum Make a ladder and climbe up alone upon it to heaven so let these men make them a Bere like the new-found Chariots in the Low-countreyes that runne of themselves without a driver and let them be carried alone in it to their long home Let no Mourners follow them nor eye pittie them or shed teare for them Nec enim lex justior ulla est But let them who have lived in credit die in honour let them who in their life time did many good offices to the dead after they are dead receive the like offices from the living Out of which number envie it selfe cannot exempt our deceased brother Of whose naturall parts perfected by Art and learning and his Morrall much improved by grace I shall say nothing by way of amplification but this that nothing can bee sayd of them by way of amplification All rheâ—…oricall exaggeration will prove a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diminution of them In summe he was a most provident housholder loving Husband indulgent Father kinde Landlord and liberall Patron So kinde a Landlord that when his Tennants were behinde with him hee was so farre from suing them or putting them to trouble to extort his due from them that instead of receiving from them hee lent great summes unto them by the good employment whereof they were enabled to recover themselves and pay him So liberall a Patron hee was that hee not onely freely bestowed all the Benefices that fell in his gift but was also at all the charge of institution induction composition first-fruits and whatsoever burthen fell upon the Incumbent Such patterns of Patrons wee may rather wish then hope for after him what shall I need to adde more concerning him whose birth was illustrious his education liberall his Patromonie great his Matches sutable his life exemplarie and his death coÌ„fortable Single vertues wee meet with in many but such combinations as were in him such affabilitie in such gravitie such humilitie in such eminencie such patience in such tryalls such temperance and moderation in such abundance as we have just cause to blesse God for in him so we have great cause to pray for in others of his Ranke In his tender yeares hee was set as a choyce Plant in the famous Nurserie of good learning and Religion the Universitie of Oxford where living as a Commoner in Corpus Christi Colledge under the care and tuition of Doctor Sebastian Wenfield hee very much thrived and grew above his equalls both in grace and in knowledge gaining to himselfe as much love as learning After hee was removed from thence hee fell into very great troubles as well before as after the death of his Father but the Lord delivered him out of all These crosses and afflictions served but as Files to brighten those gifts and graces in him which shined afterwards most brightly in his moresetled estate and eminent employments being chosen Deputie Lievetenant in Wiltshire Commissioner in three Shires Foure times High-Sheriffe and often knight for the Shire in Parliament in all which places of important negotiations and great trust hee so carried himselfe that all men might see in all his actions hee had a speciall eye to the Motto in his Escouchion Ieay bonne cause for with Mary hee alwayes chose the good part and stood up for the truth which hee confirmed with his last breath You have heard what
mellis cera mortuum circùm linere to use Waxe for want of Honey and vulgar oyle in stead of precious balme my best Apology is that I prayed heartily with Moses that God would send the message I am to deliver by him by whom hee should send But hee will make choice of his owne instrumenâ—…s and sometimes of set purpose hee will make use of the weake and ignoble the more to shew his power through the infirmitie and glorie through the ignoblenesse of the meanes The Walls of Iericho shall fall with a noyse onely and this noyse shall not bee the shrill and sweet sound of silver Trumpets but the harsh and hollow sound of Rams hornes and even from this disappointing of the chiefe Actour in this mournfull Scene and taking a Novice in his roome you may gather this flower as it were by the way and strew it with others upon the Hearse that wee cannot resolve or certainly build upon any thing in this World we are sure of nothing not so much as of the Tombe wee shall bee layd in not of our winding-sheet not of our grave-clothes not of our Mourners not of our Preacher Wee are not sure of our Tombe-stone for when Ioseph of Arimathea hewed out a Tombe-stone out of the Rocke hee intended it for himselfe yet was hee not layd there but our Saviour in it We are not sure of our grave cloathes and winding-sheet for Heliogobalus the Emperour provided himselfe of rich furniture in this kinde and moreover in case he should come to a violent end or be forced to make away himselfe hee kept by him golden fetters and silken ropes and made a Bath of Rose-water to drowne himselfe in yet none of all these were made use of at his miserable death an dignominious burial in a laystall Nay a man is not sure that his sâ—…nne shall cover his flesh for Zisca his skin was plucked off after his death and a Drumme made of it Lastly a man is not sure of his Bearers or Mourners nor the Preacher who shall make his Funerall Sermon as you learne to your costs this day For that excessive speech of Saint Ierome abasing himselfe in comparison of Roffinus will prove defective in expressing the difference betweene him whom you heare and whom you should heare I shall thinke my selfe happie if I can but tread in any of his steps or imprint but one of his notes in your heart Which that I may doe the better I have borrowed his characters I meane the words of that Text which he chose as best befitting this occasion wherein we see that performed to one of the sonnes of Abraham which was long agoe promised to the Father of the faithfull that he should goe to his Fathers in peace and bee buried in a good old age The hand of a dead man stroaking the part cures the Tympanie and certainly the consideration of death is a present meanes to cure the swelling of pride in any for in this lâ—…fe many things make oddes betweene men and women as birth education wealth alliance and honour but Death makes all even respice sepulchra saith Saint Austin Survey mens graves and tell mee then who is beautifull and who is deformed all there have hollow eyes flat noses and gastly lookes Nireus and Thersites cannot bee there distinguished tell mee who is rich and who is poore all there weare the same weede their winding-sheete Tell mee who is noble and who base and ignoble the wormes claime kindred of all tell mee who is well housed and who ill all there are bestowed in darke and dankish roomes under ground If this will not satisfie you take a sive and sift the dust and ashes of all men and shew me which is which I grant there is some difference in dust there is powder of Diamonds there is gold dust and brasse pinne-dust and saw-dust and common dust the powder of Diamonds resembles the remaines of Princes gold dust the remaines of Noble-men pinne-dust the remaines of the Tradesman saw-dust the remaines of the day-labourer and common dust the remaines of the vulgar which have no qualitie or profession to distinguish them yet all is but dust At a game of Chesse wee see Kings and Queenes and Bishops and Knights upon the board and they have their severall walkes and contest one with the other in points of State and honour but when the game is done all together with the Pawnes are shuffled in one bagge in like manner in this life men appeare in different garbes and take divers courses some are Kings some are Officers some Bishops some Knights some of other rankes and orders But when this life like a game is done which is sometimes sooner sometimes later all are shuffled together with the many or vulgar sort of people and lye in darknesse and obscuritie till the last man is borne upon the earth but after that Erunt ipsis quoque fata sepulchres the Grave which hath swallowed up all the sonnes of Adam shall be swallowed up it selfe into victorie Till then wee shall all goe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in our severall ranke and order take our last walke the way of all flesh and it is happy if wee goe it as Abraham did here in peace and a speciall blessing if we be gathered as hee was to his Fathers in the Autmne of a good old age In which words we have two Acts of a Tragedie the former acted upon his stage thou shalt goe to thy fathers the latter under the scaffold and bee buried in a good old age None die better then they who have life in their hope and none live better then they who have death in their mind and thought especially if it be in the time of their health and bloome of their beautie and pride of their youth and top of their earthly happinesse For this cause Ioseph of Arimathea is supposed by many to have set his Sepulchre in his Garden as it were to sawce his sweetest pleasures with the sad thoughts of his Funerall and Iohn surnamed the Almoner began his Sepulchre on the day he was Confecrated Patriarke of Alexandria and it was the manner of the ancient Emperours at their Coronation feast to have severall sorts of Marble shewed them to the end that they might choose one of them for their Tombe-stone and agreeable hereunto the interlinearie glosse yeeldeth a reason why God commanded that the oyle where with the Kings were annoynted should bee compounded with Cinonion and other spices quod sit cinericii coloris because it is of the colour of Ashes or rather such mold as is digged out of Graves to put them in mind that very day in which they were made gods upon earth that they should die like men In which regard wee have great cause to blesse the providence of our heavenly Father who in the midst of our Mariage feasts and many occasions of mirth and joy presents us with such sad spectacles as
and the Resurrection the new dressing and richly embroydering them Enough hath beene said to convince us that Death which before was like a Serpent armed with a deadly sting is now but like a silly flye that buzzeth about us but cannot sting Yet as long as there is sinne in us we cannot but in some degree feare Death and as long as naturall affection remaines in us take on for them that are taken away Neither doth Christian religion plucke out these affections by the roote but only prune them All that my exhortation driveth unto is but to moderate passion by reason feare by hope griefe by faith and nature by grace Let love expresse it selfe yet so that in affection to the dead we hurt not the living Let the naturall springs of teares swell but not too much overflow their bankes let not our eye be all upon our losse on earth but our brothers gaine 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 speciall ornament his Wife a carefull Husband her Children a most tender Father the poore 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 hee bequeathed certaine summes of money for a stock to those Parishes wherein hee formerly lived and to the poore of this twentie pounds to be distributed at his Funerall Many shall find losse 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 Hee loved the habitation of Gods house and the place where his honour dwelleth Hee was just in his dealings and sougâ—…t peace all his life and 〈◊〉 iâ—… hee forgot nothing so easily as wrongs and though hâ—… eâ—…oyed the blessings of this world in abundant measure yet he joyed not iâ—… them his heart was where his chiefe treasure â—…ay in heaven he foretold his owne death and the manner thereoâ—… â—…hat 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 discourse was of the kingdome of God and the â—…ers of the life to come When the pangs of death came upon â—…im hee praâ—…â—…ost earnestly and desired if it so stood with God good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be â—…d yet uttered no speech of impatiencie but being 〈◊〉 â—…ow he did answered that he was in Gods hands to whom hee committed his soule as his faithfull Creatour and so died as quietly as he lived wherefore sith he lived in Gods feare and died in his favour and shall rise againe in his power though the losse of him be a great cut unto us as the losse of their children were to Pericles and Horatius Pulvillus yet as the one hearing of their death as hee was at a solemn sacrifice kept on his Crowne the other as hee was at a dedication held still the pillar of the Temple in his hand till the whole Ceremonie 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 immediatly following my Text Thankes bee unto God who hath given unto our brother and will give unto us all victorie over Death and the Grave yea and Hell too through Iesus Christ c. FINIS FATO FATVM OR THE KING OF FEARES FRIGHTED AND VANQVISHED SERMON XLIIII HOSEA 13. 14. O Death I will bee thy plagues THE Rose is fenced with pricks and the sweetest Flowers of Paradise as this in my Texâ—… are beset with thorns or difficulties which after I have plucked away the holy Spirit assisting mee I will open the leaves and blow the flowers in the explication of this Scripture and in the application therof smell to them and draw from thence a savour of life unto life The thorne groweth upon the diversâ—…tie of Translations for Rabbi Shelamo Iarchi reads the words ego ero verba tua ô mors I will bee thy words O Death Aben Ezra ero causa tuae mortis I will bee the cause of thy death Saint Ierome ero mors tua ô mors O Death I will bee thy death O Hell I will bite thee and hee conceiveth that when our Saviour descended into Hell and his flesh in the Grave saw no corruption hee spake these words to Death and Hell O Death I will bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that thou mightest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by my death O Hell I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…d 〈◊〉 thee which devourest all things in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The 〈◊〉 â—…nder the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ô moâ—…s 〈◊〉 wheâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tâ—… indictâ—… what hast 〈◊〉 to say agaâ—… the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God Saint Paâ—…l ubi stimulus tuâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Death where is thy sting that is sayth Saint Austine where is sinne wherewith wee are stung and poysoned Is not this Chius ad Choum doe not these Translations 〈◊〉 well agree as harpe and harrow neither can it bee answered to salve the repugnancie and solve the difficultie that 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 marginall note upon the 1 Cor. 15. 55. â—…ds us to this versâ—…n Hosâ—…a and wee finde no other place in all the Scriptures of the old Testament to which the Apostle should allude buâ—… this And although Carvin endeavouring to untie this Gordiaâ—… knot saith â—…orily that it is evident that the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. doth not alledge the testimony of the Prophet to confirme any Point of Dâ—… delivered by him yet Calvin his evidence for it seemes to mee obscure and inevident his satis constat minime liquet for the expresse words of the Apostle 1. Cor. 15. 53. 54. 55. are for this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortalitie so when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortall shall have put on immortalitie then shall bee brought to passe 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 wee say then hereunto With submission to those who out of better skill in the originall and upon more exact examination of all Translations may bring them to a better accord for the present I thus resolve First that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his translation is utterly to bee rejected for it is like the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 egge that hath no 〈◊〉 what sense can any man 〈◊〉 out of these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will bee thy words O Death unlesse wee helpe them with our English phrase I will 〈◊〉 thy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to goe packing with his fellow Rabbin for his inâ—…ion is a manifest contradiction to
the â—…er words of the Prophet I will 〈◊〉 them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the grave I will redeeme them from death hee that will redeeme them from death can in no sâ—…se bee sayd to bee the cause why they die but why they die not Besides both hee and Iarcht stumble at the same stone to wit the word debâ—…ica which they derive from dever signifying verbâ—… or causa whereas they should have derived it from dever signifying pestâ—… or a plague Thirdly for Saint Ierome his translation though it differ somewhat from the originall 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 bee thy death for I will bee 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 originall hee would not give them any offence nor derrogate from it which was in great esteeme among all in regard of the aâ—…tiquitie thereof and it stood the Christians in those dayes in great stead to convince the unbeleeving Jewes It well agreeth with the Analogie of faith and the meaning of the holy Spirit and the Hebrew letter also will beare 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 bee and a venemous sting and pestis the plague differ but little so that although the words in the originall seeme to bee spoken by an affirmation but in Saint Paul and the Septuagint by an interrogation in the one by a commination inthe other by an insultation yet both come to one sense and containe an evident prophesie of Christ his conquest over Death and Hell I have plucked away the thorne and now I am come to blow the flower and open the leaves of the words O Death I will bee thy plagues 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 wee take the words as spoken by way of insultation ô mors ubi est aculeus tuus O Death where is thy sting thus wee are to construe them as a hornet or serpent when his sting is plucked out can doe no hurt to any other but soone after dyeth it selfe 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 enemie with his owne speare so Christ conquers over Death by death in as much as by his temporall death hee satisfied both for the temporall and eternall death of them that beleeve in him And as hee conquered Death by his death so hee destroyed the Grave by his buriall for suffering his bodie to bee imprisoned and afterwards breaking the gates and barres of the prison hee 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 Isralites and maketh a kinde of tender unto them of redemption from temporall death and deliverance from corporall captivitie yet to confirme their faith therein hee bringeth in the promise of eternall redemption from whence they were to inferre if God will redeeme us from eternall how much more from temporall death if hee will deliver us out of the prison of the grave how much more out of common Gaoles What though our enemies have never so great a hand over us what though they exceed in their crueltie and put us to all extremitie and doe their worst against us their crueltie cannot extend beyond death nor their malice beyond the Grave but Gods power and mercie reacheth farther For he can and he promiseth that hee will revive us after wee are dead and raise us after we are buried he will plucke deaths sting out of us and us out of the bowells 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 victorie For therefore the Sonne of God vouchsafed to taste death that Death might be swallowed up by him into victorie Although Death swallow up all things and the Grave shut up all in darknesse yet God is above them both therefore when wee are brought to the greatest exigent when nothing but death and torments are before us when we are readie to yeeld up the buckler of our faith and breath out the last gaspe of hope let us call this Text to mind O Death I will bee thy plagues neither Death nor the Grave shall be my peoples bane because I will bee both their bane and change their nature which destroyeth all nature For to all them that beleeve in mee Death shall not be a posterne but a street doore not so much an out-let of temporall as an in-let of eternall life and though the grave swallow the bodyes of my Saints yet it shall cast them up againe at the last day Thus the words yeeld us singular comfort if wee take them as a commination and they afford as much or more if we take them as Saint Paul and S. Chrysostome do by an insultation As a man offering sacrifice for victorie and full of mirth and jollitie he leapes and tramples upon Death lying as it were at his mercie and sings an Io Poean a triumphant song wherewith Gerardus a great friend of Saint Bernards breathed out his last gaspe of whom hee thus writeth In the dead time of the night my brother Gerard strangely revived at midnight the day began to breake I sent for to see this great miracle found a man in the very jawes of death insulting upon death and exulting with joy saying O death where is thy sting Death is not now a sting but a song for now the faithfull man dyeth singing and singeth dying And so having plucked away the prickles and opened the leaves by the Explication of the letter I come now to smell to them and draw from thence the savour of life unto life Ero pestes tuae ô mors As Saint Ierome writeth of Tertullian his Polemmicall Treatises against hereticks â—…uot verba tot fulmina Every word is a thunder-bolt so I may truly say of this verse quot verba tot fulmina So many words so many thunder-bolts stricking Death dead by the light whereof wee may discerne three parts 1. The menaced or partie threatned Death 2. The menacer or partie threatning I. 3. The judgement menaced plagues 1. The menaced impotent mors Death 2. The menacer Omnipotent Ego I. 3. The judgement most dreadfull pestes plagues 1. First of the partie menaced Death Christ threatneth destruction to none but to his or his Churches enemies But here he threatneth Death Death therefore must needs be an
For reproofe 1. Of the excesse of sorrow for dead friends Judg. 8. 24. Gen. 3â—… 30. 2. Of the rash censuring of the manner of others death Luke 13. 4. Eccles. 9. 2. Vse 3. For instruction Luke 2. 29. Observat. Gods children are subject to the feare of death The outward causes of the feare of death 1. God 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. 1 Pet. 3. 11. To prepare them for death 2 Chro. 20. 3. 2. Sathan 2 Cor. 7. 5. The inward causes of the feare of death 1. Naturall In respect of the object it selfe 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. 20 1 Sam. 16. 2. Inward causes sinfull 1. The want of the feare of God Deut. 28. 65. 66. c. 2. Inordinate love of the world Isa. 38. 11. Eccles. 9. 3. Want of the assurance of Gods fauour Luk. 16. Mar. 6. Rev. 6. Isa. 33. 14. Obiect 1. Answ. Psal. 42. Exod. 14. 11. Psal. 23. Object 2. Answ. Vse For exhortation To be under the feare of death an uncomfortable estate The feare of death a bondage in two respects 2. It is possible to be freed from the feare of death Meanes to be freed from the feare of death 1. Humilitie 2. Faith 3. Watchfulnesse 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. 26. What it is to let patience have her perfect worke Rom. 15. 13. Collos. 1. 11. What is meant by intire and wanting nothing 1 Sam. 20. 6. The parts of the text 1. A duty exhorted to 2. An Argument to inforce it Conclus 1. Conclus 2. Conclu 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. Luk. 21. 19. Reas. 3. No dutie can be rightly performed without patience Not Prayer Matth. 15. 2 Cor. 12 Not hearing Luk. 8. 15. Rev. 3. 10. Heb. 10. 36. Iam. 1. 21. Reas. 4. Heb. 10. 36. Heb. 12. 1. Conclus 2. A 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. Luk. 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 Wâ—…ies how men increase impatience in themselues 1. By aggravating their afflictions Lam. 1. 12. 2. By giving liberty to their passions 3. By refusing comfort Gen. 37. 34. 4. By looking only on afflictions present not on mercies Est. 5. 13 5. By looking on the instrument and not on God Psal. 55. 12. 13. Psal. 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 exhortation How to exercise patience in present crosses 1. Consider God the orderer of all conditions Therefore give him the glory of his soveraignty 1 King 20. 3. Job 1. 21. 1 Sam. 3. 18. 2 Sam. 1â—… 25 Of his wisedome Of his mercy Lam. 1. Ier. 45. 5. 2. Consider the desert of sinne Dan. 9. Ezra 9. Lam. 3. 3. Consider the comfortable fruit of affliction borne with patience Rev. 3. 10 How to exercise patience in Gods delaying of mercies 1. Consider that delayes are not denials 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 cariage during his childes sicknesse Meaning of the Words 1 Cor. 8. 8. Rom. 14. 17. Davids Fast a religious fast Davids tears proceeded not from a naturall but from a spirituall principle Gen. 32. Hose 12. Isa. 38. 2. The reason of Davids carriage Gods absolute sentence implies conditions Isa. 38. Jonah 3. 4. 1 Sam. 15. Verse 35. Chapt. 16. 1. Numb 14. Vse 1. For instruction Jer. 18. 7. Vse 2. For incouragement Ezek. 33. 10. 11. Gen. 3. Joel 2. 12 13. Observe first Davids pitty Matt. 15. 22. Comfort to Gods children Psal. 103 Isa. 63. 9. 2 Observe Davids piety Parents in their childrens miseries should remember their owne sins 1 King 17. Object 1. Deut. 24. 16. Ezek. 18. 20. Answ. Obiect 2. Answ. Rom. 5. 14. Quest. Answ. Pro. 31. 1 Sam 2. 29. chap. 3. 12. 13 Vse 1. To Parents The sinnes that bring judgements upon mens posterity 1 2 3 Vse 2. To children 2. Davids carriage when his child was dead The reasons of it 1 2 3 4 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 Eccles. 12. Observation from the third reason Observation from the fourth reason Eccles. 3. 2. Coherence Division Propos. Sin is the sting of death A double consideration of death 1 2 What death is here meant Corporall death Principally Two parts of spirituall death What sinne is the sting of Death Sinne two wayes considered Sinne unmortified proves the sting of death 1. In respect of the guilt 2. In respect of the filth How sinne is said to be the sting of Death Sin stings before death At death After death At the day of Judgement After the judgement Sinne makes death fearful Sinne makes death hurtfull Vse Eccles. 12. How a man shall know whether Death shall come with a sting to him Eccles. 11. 9. How to get the sting of Death pulled out 1. Get a part in Christ. Rev. 1. 18. Rom. 〈◊〉 2. Get sincerity of heart Isa. 38. Rom. 14. 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. Universall 2. Inevitable 3. Uncertaine The Scripture teacheth 1. What death is 2. What are the causes of death 3. What are the consequences of death Heb. 9. 27. The particular judgement The generall Judgement 4. What is the remedy against the evil of death 2. Death is an enemie 1. Depriving a man of all that is beneficiall 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 〈◊〉 Get death disarmed now 2. Get armour against death Vse 2. For reprehension Vse 3. For Exhortation Vse 4. For comfort The division of the Text. 1 2 The first part of the Text. The meaning of the words 1. Of the subject Mercifull men 1 Ioh. 4. 20. Rom. 12. 18. 2. Of the predicat they perish Eccles. 3. Observation 3. Of the extent from the evill to
Deut. 30. 6. Jer. 32. 4. Obiect Answ. 2. Sam. 3. 1. Obiect Answ. Luk. 20. 3â—… 36. 2. Against the death of the â—…odie Rom 8. 10. 1 Cor. 15. 49. Quest. Answ. Difference in the Resurrection of the godly and wicked 1. In the cause 2. In the end Joâ—… 5. 29. Luke 20. 36. Vse 2. Tryall Signes of the first Resurrection 1. Forsaking sin 2. Newnesse of life Collos. 3. 1. 3. Progresse in both Rom. 6. 4. Vse 3. Exhortation direction Quest. Answ. Joh. 5. 28 29. 〈◊〉 Cor. 15. 52. Joh. 6. 63. Deut. 26. 5. Psal. 115. All men must die 1. To manifest Gods truth Gen. 3. 19. 2. His power 3. Our benefit by Christ. 4. To coÌ„forme us to Christ. Rachel waâ—… 1. Fruitfull Psal. 128. 3. Gen. 20. 18. Gen. 5. Gen. 1. 28. Gen 24. 60. Psal. 107. 41. Deut. 28. 12. Psal. 104. 28. 1 Sam. 2. 6. Act. 16. 14. Gen. 30. 22. Gal. 6. 16. Luke 1 50. 3. Obedient Gen. 31. 11. 2 Sam 6. 23. Philem. 1. 2 4. Her death Coherence Observ. 1. Rom. 3. 18. 2 Cor. 5. Observ. 3. Observ. 4. Doct. 5. There is a change in all that are in Christ as from death to life 1. The analogy betweeene spirituall and naturall life and death 1. In Generall 1. A Generall change 2 The orderlynesse of it Rom. 12. 2. 2. The Analoin particular Death three fold 1 Iudiciall Ezek. 36. 3. 2. Civill 3. Naturall 1. Imperfect Simile Newnesse of life expressed by life in three respects 1. The principle of life Joh. 6. 63. Gal. 2. 20. Joh. 15. 1. Ephes. 2. 1. 2. The actions of life 3. The properties of life Appetitâ—… 2 Propagation Joh. 1. 44. The order Observ. Men first die tosin and then live to God Eph. 4. 22. 24. Zach. 3. Eph. 5. 8. Gen. 1. Rom. 6. 4. 5. 6. Reason 1. From our union with Christ. 2. From the coÌ„trarietie of them Vse 1. Conviction Ier. 5. Vse 2. Exhortation 1 Pet. 2. 24. No losse in dying to sin 1. Not life 2 Not peace 3. Not esteeme 4. Not wealth 5. Not pleasures Sin a needlesse thing 2. The gaine by death to sin Ezra 9 13. 1 The scope The partâ—… 1 Conclusion â—…he faithfull are hopefull Rom. 5. Definition of Hope 1 â—…et 1. 9. Rom. 8. 24. Vse 1. Tryall of Hope Rom. 4. 18. Isa. 21. 16. Hab. 2. 3. Isa. 8. 17. 2 Pet. 3. 9. Pâ—…l 73. 9. Psal. 102. 13. 2 Pet. 3. 3. Iob. 2. 9. Mala. 3. 14. 2 Cot. 6. 8. 2 Sam. 6. 22. Vse 2. Hindrances of hope 1 John 4. 18. Rev. 21. 8. Psal 118. 6. Psal. 91. 5. Psal. 40. 1. Luke 21. 19. 1 Cor. 15. 16. Job 17. 13. Heb. 11. 27 Heb. 11. 35. Phil. 1. 23. 2. Conclusion Christ the object of hope Phil. 1. 21. Psal. 38. 15. Psal. 71. 5. Gen. 49. 18. Job 13. 15. Vse 1. Prov. 23. 5. Psal. 146. 3â—… Psal. 62. 3â—… Vse 2. Phil. 3. 8. Eccles. 1. Isa. 55. 4. 2 Cor. 1. 20. Iohn 14. 6. Job 6. 68. 3. Conclusion This life-time is our hope-time Vse 1. Isa 55 6. 1 John 3. 2. Vse 2. 2 Pet. 1. 3. 1 Thes. 1. 3. Heb. 6. 19. Psal. 84. 7. 2 Pet. 3. 18. 1 Cor. 7. 20. Col. 4. 17. 4. Conclusion Hope is not for the things of this life 2 Cor. 5. 1. Isa 57. 13 Vse 1. Vse 2. 5. Conclusion Our life is a miserie Iob. 14. 1â—… 1 Cor. 7. 29 Iam. 4. 14. Vse 1. 1 John 2. 15. 2. Iohn 11. 25. Psal. 84 Vse 2. 6. Conclusion The hopefull are not miserable Vse 1. Vse 2. Iam. 5. 11. Reve. 14. 13. Exod. 33. 20. Explication Rom. 12. 2. 1 Jam. 2. 15 16. 2. Heb. 13. 3. Rom. 12. 15. Mat. 5. 3. 2 Thes. 3. 10. 1 Pet. 1. Division Doct. 1. It is the dutie of Christians to take the best opportunities of their life to doe good A twofold opportunitie to be taken of doing good 1 The time of life Luke 16 9. Mat. 25. 10. Obiection Answ. Obiection Answ. 〈◊〉 Of outward estates Prov. 23. 5. Eccles. 11. 8. 1 Tim. 6. 17. Job 31. 15. 16 17 18. Vse 1. Prov. 3. 28. Psal. 78. Vse 2. Gen. 18. 19. 2 Sam. 9. 1. Doct. 2. It is the dutie of Gods servants to relieve others Deut. 15. 7. Eccles. 11. 1. Isa. 58. 7. 2 Cor. 8. 9. Heb. 13. 16. Iohn 15. 29. Reason 1. Pro. 3. 26. 27. Luke 16 9 Reason 2. Psal. 41. 1. Psal 37. 6. 1 Tim. 6. 19. Vse 1. Iames 5. Vse 2. Quest. How to give so as to doe good Answ. 1 Give justly Eccles. 11. 1. 2. Give wisely Psal. 1 12. In respect of the quantitie In respect of the qualitie 3. Give in simplicitie Rom. 12. 8. Mat. 6. 4. Give chearefully 2 Cor. 8. 6. The persons to whom good must be done 1. Generally to all Luke 10. Mala. 2. 10. Reason 2. 1 Iohn 4. 20. Vse Obiect Answ. 1 Sam. 25. Obiect Answ. Rom. 12. Object Answ. Eccles. 11. 1. Objection Answ. Obiection Answer Obiection Answer Obiection Answ. Obiection Answ. Obiection Answ. Doct. 1. Doct. 2. 1. There are some poore of the houshold of faith Mat. 25. James 2. 1 King 4. 1. Rom. 15. 26. Luke 16. Reason 1. 〈◊〉 Cor. 8. 9. Mat. 8. 20. Reason 2. 1 Pet. 2. 11. Reas. 3. Luk 9. 53. Reason 4. Jam. 5. Heb. 11. Vse 1. Heb. 10. Vse 2. Job 1. Vse 5. James 2. Doct. 2. The houshold of faith especially to to be regarded Psal. 16â—… 1. Phil 1. Reason Reas. 〈◊〉 Mat. 15. Vse 1 Chro. â—…9 Prov. 19. 17. Psal. 〈◊〉 Prov. 311 Parts of the Text. Doct. 1. A change wil befall all the sonnes of men Death a change and why so termed The change by death must befall all men Reason 1. Reas. 2. Reas. 3. Reason 4. Doct. 2. 1. 1. What it is to waite for death Wherein the preparation for death consists 1 In freeing our selves from sin in our life time How that is done 2. In having our persons qualified How that is done Why we must wayte and be prepared for death Reason 1. Reas. 2. Reas. 3. Reason 4. 5. 1. 2. 3. Vse 1. Vse 2. 1 2. Vse 3. Vse 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proâ—… in Eccles. Agâ—…oscere nolumus quod ignorare non possumus â—…ypr de Mortal Vid. Vit. Orig. praefix operib Infans nondum loquitur tamen prophetat Serm. de bono pat Cic. primo tusc. In Eccles. chap. 12. 1. The Scope 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cupressus â—…u neria 2 The Coherence Seneâ—… in limine mort is viâ—… sunt avidissimi Aristot. de long breu vitae Cic. de senâ—…ctute 1. 2. The sense Que. 1. Que. 2. Que. 3. Que. 4. Sol. 1. Sol. 2. Sol. 3. Et strepitus iste perdurat quousque pondus idâ—…st ponderosuÌ„ corpus ad terram pervenerit sed corpore in terram projecto statim cessaâ—… tumultus Destructor vit par 4. c. 2. The division The Doct. Quotidiè morimur quotidiè enim demitur aliâ—…ua pars vitae Bern. in