on in â—â—eir way they have not been so mindful as they should to beg for a smile in their Journeies end which God make's account is a mercy worth asking and therefore we receive not because we ask not Jam. 4. 2. For remedy therefore ask that you may have now seek that you may then finde and all your life time be knocking Matth. 7. 7 hard at the gate of mercy that at your out-gate of this life an abundant entrance 2 Pet. 1. 11. may be administred unto you into the everlasting kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Have you ordinarily known the man who was much in prayer while he lived to be full of fears and anguish when he came die No those sweet and strong breathings blow away such darksome clouds and therby the setting Sunne shineth out brightly For prayer 1. Through mercy procure's it it can get any good thing at a good Gods hand and why not comfort in death nay then especially for then begin's a believers harvest when he reâ—â—'s the fruit of hiâ— forâ—â—â— laâ—â—â—â— Job 5. 26. Revel 14. 15. and hath oftentimes a â—ost â—ensiblâ— return of all hiâ—â—â—â—â—er prayers which before iâ—â—â—â—y be he thought God as well as himself had forgotten 2. As prayer thus impetrate's it so it naturally as it were trains us up to it for by constant acquaintance with prayer we come to more familiar acquaintance with Christ and so come to see and feel how happy it is to be near him which cannot but make us the more ready and desirous of getting out of the body Phil. 1. 23. 2 Cor. 5. 6. that we may be no longer absent from him and besides the happy soul which with the sweet bird is continually soaring upward and keepeth much aloft is so well acquainted with those approaches to Heaven that now when it fitteth on the dying mans lips it is ready on the wing to take its last flight as in that dark night very well knowing its accustomed way thither and having so often sent its prayers those winged messengers thither before-hand now with joy and singing mounteth up it self thither and therefore be much in prayer now if in death you would have an answer of peace 3. False heartednesse is another cause of faint-heartednesse in these animae deliquia the rotten quagmire quakes and sinks when trod on and so fearfulness we read surprizeth hypocrites Isa 33. 14. when death and danger layeth hold on them God then takes away their souls and their hopes together Job 27. 8. as else where their hope is said to be as the giving up of the ghost Miserable cap. 11. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 man if thy soul and thy hope goe out with the breath of the same dying groan But on the contrary by way of remedy Hezekiahs walking before God perfectly and with an upright heart Isa 38. 3. was the best stake in his hedge when the newes of death made all crack and so much truth sincerity as we have just so much peace comfort shall we have in dangers death and no more The Heathens under their Fables of Minos Aeacus Rhadamanthus hinted See Plato in Gorgia Hora mortis hora veâ—itatis to us that at death there will be a strict Scrutiny and however in our life time we have been judged by our selves and others with our cloths on yet then we shall all be judged naked then all vizards will be laid aside all black patches and beauty spots that covered foul sores will be pluckt off the pure heart only will be able to lift up their face without spot and be stedfast Job 11. 15 and not fear 4. Too much love of the world is another great cause of our as much fear of death when we are to leave it for fear ever presupposeth love and so much as I love any thing so much I am aggrieved afraid to part w th it with what crying is the child pluckt from the breast when it hath tasted of the sweetnesse of it and as yet skill's of no other nourishment things fast glued together are torn broken when violently pluckt asunder if thy cloth cleave to thy skin as it is a signe that there is some sore under it so it will make all smart when pluckt off and answerably if thy portion with them Psal 17. 14. be in this life thou art utterly undone when it is ended Job Cap. 29. 13 some-where speaks of dying in his nest but as Chrysostome observeth Nestlins are wont to be but weaklins and they that have feathered their nests in the world have minde to be on the wing to flie out of it O death how bitter is thy remembrance to him that Ecclus. 41. 1. liveth at ease in his possessions how sad a sight is the hand-writing on the wall to a Belshazzar in his cups and when Dan. 5. the rich man is dreaming of goods laid up for many years how dreadfull a sound in his ears was that Thou fool Luke 12. 12 20. this night c when in prosperity the destroyer cometh upon him Job 15. 21. It was a wise and Christian speech of Charles the 5t to the Duke of Venice who when he had shewn him the glory of his Princely Palace and Earthly Paradise instead of admitting it or him for it onely returned him this grave and serious memento Haec sunt quae faciunt invitos mori these are the things which make us unwilling to die and so sharpen deaths sting and make it more painful it is a double death to him who is alive to the world to part with it Whereas on the contrary again for the remedy if with Paul we were before hand crucified to the world Gal. 6. 14. and had it crucified to us and as Chrysostom descan'ts upon the place lay like two dead bodies one by another as there was no mutual desire or delight in each other when they lay together so there would be as little grief when they are parted asunder the world not caring for us and we as little for it and so by our parting no hurt done were we indeed strangers and pilgrims here we would not go home weeping were we and the world two at our parting there would not be a painful dissolutio continui sitting loose now would prevent such convulsion fits and rentings then 5. On the contrary too much carelesnesse of the things of this world makes some mens deaths more careful and themselves more fearful In particular I mean our neglect of a provident and timely setting our house in order when we are now leaving the world is apt to leave us in heaps and confusion It is expressed in Scripture as the dying mans task but Isa 38. 1. 2 Sam. 17. 17. 23. it would be much better if it were the living mans care that when we have made up our Accounts with men we might be more ready
ΘΑÎΑΤΟΚΤΑΣΙΑ OR DEATH DIS ARMED And the Grave swallowed up in Victory A Sermon preached at S. Maries in Cambridge Decemb. 22. 1653. At the publick Funerals of Dr. Hill Late Master of Trinity Colledge in that University With a short account of his Life and Death To which are added two Sermons more upon the same Text preached afterward in the same place By ANTHONY TUCKNEY D. D. Master of S. Johns Colledge in Cambridge I will ransome them from the power of the grave I will redeem them from death O death I will be thy plague O grave I will be thy destruction Hosea 13. 14. LONDON Printed for J. Rothwel at the Fountain and Bear in Goldsmiths-row in Cheapside And S. Gellibrand at the Ball in Pauls Church-yard 1654. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFULL my ever honoured Friend Mr. FRANCIS ASH Merchant and Governor of the Muscovia Company of the City of LONDON SIR THat I print this Sermon is not out of any compliance with the scribling humour of these times or from the least thought that by it I shall adde any thing to the Argument it treats of which from other abler mens labours may not be had with better advantage But only from the importunity of some friends whom I could not well deny and whose aim in it was the glory of God and the keeping alive the memory of That his faithful servant at whose Funerals it was preach'd But seeing that such as it is it must be Printed That I dedicate it to your self I have many great causes which although you be not yet I am desirous that others may take notice of Amongst them I may not without ingratitude omit your undeserved respects to my self But I must especially reckon your plain and single-hearted Candor and Integrity which the painted Pageants of many others now a dayes set off with a greater luster Your cordial love of Gods truth and of that good old Doctrine according unto godliness which those Worthies of God under whom you and I have been trained up preached and lived and died in the belief practice and comfort of to which you do well firmly to adhere whilst too many in this giddy Age are turned aside to vain janglings and 1 Tim. 1. 6 2 Pet. 2. â— pernicious errours Your fervent zeal for Christs Ministry and Ministers so that whom others despise you honour and whom the foot of pride even of the basest is ready to tread down and trample upon your humility and love endevour to uphold Witnesse that your great and for many years rarely parallel'd bounty in giving and that in your life time the large sum of very nigh three hundred pounds per annum to most pious uses viz. towards the maintenance Of poor Ministers Widdows Of a Lecture in London the place of your longest abode Of two Schools the one in the place of your Birth and the other of your Darby asâ—by de lâ— Zouch Education And especially of that happy Society of Emmanuel Colledge in this Vniversity on which you have been pleased to confer the greatest share of it That this plentiful showre of your bounty should be directed to fall on that fruitful Field which God all along hath so abundantly blessed was his good hand guiding yours to lay it on the head of that fruitful Ephraim That your favour to my self should in any measure incline your heart to that Colledge of which I was then an unworthy Member was your goodnesse so much to honour me But that which rendâ—eth both your self and your gift more highly valued and honoured by All is 1. The greatness of it making you a second Founder at least after their most pious Founder the greatest Benefactor that ever that Colledge had Like Solomons Clouds which when full Eccl. 1â— â— of rain empty themselves abundantly upon the earth herein you have obeyed Gods command in opening your hand Deut. 1â— 11. 1 Tim. 6 17. 1â— wide Followed his example who giveth to all richly Answered has expectation who requireth much where he hath given much Ten talents Luk. 12. 48. Matth. 25. 20. Deut. 26. 10. Prov. 3. 9 10. Math. 25. 24 25 26 27. c. where he hath given five As Soveraign Lord he will be acknowledged by all Something he expecteth from them on whom he hath bestowed least but much on whom more So that he who in this or the like kind doth nothing is an evil servant a practical Atheist thereby in true interpretation saying that he hath received nothing and he who having received much giveth but little doth but tell over again Saphira's lye in saying yea so much when it was much more that Acts 5. 8 9 10. made her doom very heavy whilest you whose pound hath gain'd ten pounds may comfortably expect to hear that blessed Euge Well done good and Lâ—k 19. 16 17. faithful servant And whatever others may think and say yet if Scripture may be Judge you have herein done the part of a good husband hereby making God your debtor who being eternal Prov. 19. 17. will have time enough to shew himself a true paymaster and a most plentiful rewarder of your bounty with his The prudent husbandman whatever else he is sparing of will not scant his seed-corn it seemeth you intend 2 Cor. 9. 6. Prov. 11. â—7 by sowing liberally to reap liberally thus you have done good to your self whilest you have withal honoured Prov. 3. 9. God our Nation and the whole Reformed Religion Papists boast much of their great good works but some of our Divines have truly Dr. Willet made it out by Induction of particulars that for their time and ability Protestants have equall'd and exceeded them and let your happy name be added and in fair letters written in that lovely Catalogue 2. The pious and religious Grounds and ends of giving it it was not in way of any Popish penance to expiate the guilt of some fouler crime which in those blind times built many of their Churches and Monasteries nor a Legacy bequeathed by the will of some cruel oppressor who after that in his life time by his exactions he had made many poor on his death-bed from sting of conscience is enforced to take care for the maintaining of some of them this was no such trucking either with God or man with the Papist to merit at Gods hands or with the vain-glorious Pharisee to blow a Trumpet to gain Math. 6. 2. Hos 12. 7. Joh. 2. 14. applause with men which is but to play the Merchant and money-changer in the Temple and in making up their last accounts to close up all former oppressions with a new kinde of usury your eye was more single did not look so asquint when it looked so favourably upon that Colledge but as you were pleased to build upon their honourable Founders religious foundation so you both had the very same pious intention He expresseth his in the Preface to his statutes in those
painful sting of death in the two former particulars then in this third is the very poison of it That as the sting of a Bee may be very painful but This is the Hornet and Scorpion This Scorpions sting in the tail as those Rev. 9. 10. in the end of our life is most deadly as they use to say Maximè mortiferi morsus bestiarum morientium the biting of a dying beast is most deadly the sting of death if dipt in the venome of Gods wrath is both intolerable and incurable That facies Hypocratica which Physicians speak of of a spent dying man looks very ghastly but no sight in all the world more dreadful than to see an awakened dying sinner as a Saul Judas Francis Spira c. conflicting with death and sin and the law and Gods curse and wrath altogether If in a dying houre in stead of Gods reviving smile the sinner meeteth with his deadly frown so that when death hath made his grave his sin like a massie grave-stone Isa 24. 20. lie heavy upon him how miserably is that poor wretch pressed to death and how deadly is that groan when you may hear him sighing out his soul with this saddest mone Oh! I am so sick that I cannot live and yet woful wretch that I am Dr. Harris so sinful that I dare not die Oh that I might live Oh that I might die O that I might doe neither At non sic abibunt odia Friend you shall doe both because you are a sinner you must die but because you die in your sin you shall live in torment to eternity 4. For that is the last and worst sting of death which thrusts the sword in to the hilts that it is such a sting quo mortales ex hac vitâ Del-Rio Adag pag. 250. expellens ad mortem secundam exstimulat that this first death when come if better care be not before taken will prick us on and thrust us into a second for so was the tenor of the first sentence In dying thou shalt die So that one death Gen. 2. 17. leadeth on to another the first to the second that whatever it be which the unpardoned sinner suffereth in the first death it is but the beginning Matth. 24. 8. Deut. 32. 22. of sorrowes the fire now kindled will burn to the lowest hell for so we read of death mounted on his pale horse and hell following him Rev. 6 8. and that was in the time of the See C. à Lapide in Hos 13. 14 Gospel and not onely of the Law that after death cometh judgement Heb. 7. 29. and that when the body returneth to the dust the spirit shall return unto God who gave it Eccles 12. 7. if not to him as a Father to be received into his bosome then as to a Judge to receive its everlasting doom and if as the Apostle saith the Devil hath the power of death Heb. 2. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Targum habet imperium mortis Grotius you may easily gather that with some death and hell are not farre asunder and although he helped the Heathen to put out of their mindes the dreadfulnesse of it by the dream of their Elysian fields as he doth the Turks now by that of their Paradise yet to an awakened sinner now at the point of death to bee but in danger of it as not knowing whither he shall go leaveth him at a woful losse but if as they say of the Molle he hath then first his eyes open and so cometh to see himself now on the brow of the the hill and from that precipice now certainly falling into the lake of fire and brimstone he giveth himself utterly lost for ever And thus in all these four respects we see that death hath his sting 2. And Hades or the grave hath 2. Prov. 30. 15. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 5. 24. 2 Kings 2. 11. 1 Cor. 15. 51. Immutatio illa species mortis erit Beza in Heb. 9. 27. or will have the victory it being that open Sepulchre which still crieth Give Give till it have swallowed up all for it is appointed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all men once to die Heb. 9. 27. even Enochs and Elijahs assumption and the change of those who shall be found alive at the last day being a kinde of death and an analogicall dissolution so that death having one age after another as it were mowed down the whole field of the world and as a last enemy having conquered all the great Conquerors of the earth and with them vanquished all else and still keeping the field will have thereby obtained a complete victorie 1. In thus bringing down all 2. So as never to have risen more as some conceive had it not been for Christ who as he is the Resurrection and the Life John 11. 25. so by him onely either as Head or Judge is the resurrection from the dead 1 Cor. 15. 21. 3. And yet further so as that the most of them that rise again shall presently sink down again into eternal death and so this sting prove's that worm which never dieth where the fire never goeth out Mark 9. 48. Igne quasi salietur vide Brugensem in locum Myrothec in John 3. 36. but where the sacrifice is salted with fire ver 49. burn's but consume's not fire being of a burning but salt of a preserving nature Perdit sed non disperdit cruciat ita ut nunquam perimat as Camero somewhere expresseth it So that to them the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will answer the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it will be both in victoriam and in perpetuum and so a signal and a final victory Now confider this ye that forget Vse Psa 50. 22. 1 King 14. 6. God for as the Prophet said to Jeroboams wife I am sent to you with heavy tidings this day if there be such a four-forked sting in death as we have seen in the former particulars then to you who are not as yet made partakers of the grace of 1 Pet. 3. 7. life here is matter of 1. Fear 2 Care First of Fear and O that the Vse 1 consideration of this sting might now prick your hearts kindly that the sting it self may not at last mortally wound them Seneca according to his surly Stoical Principle would perswade himself and others that it is ill to desire death but worse to fear it But the Word of God teacheth us that such as they have no cause to desire it but great cause heartily to fear it and that by reason of their fear of it they are all their life time subject to bondage Heb. 1. 15. Whence it is that 1. In their health and life they cannot endure their thoughts being fears seriously to think of it Like them who put far away the evil Amos 6. 3 4 5. 6. day and for that purpose chaunted to the sound of
Rom. 6. 14. From the beeing and inexistence of sin at death Heb. 12. 23. And from death it self which is left last as least hurtful at the resurrection 1 Cor. 15. 26. 54. and it is abundantly enough for our comfort that if not in this life yet at death or to be sure at that last day we shall have the full 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and perfect accomplishment of this great work when Christs rescue of us shall be compleat and death our last enemy shall be wholly and for ever swallowed up in victory And this is the first Negative Death hath not lost its sting so as that believers should never die 2. Nor so neither that at their death they should never feel any kind of smart and pain by the sting of it Isa 38. 3. You heard that Hezekiah then wept sore and you read partly how poor and partly what desperate shifts even Abraham Gen. 12. 12 13. 20. 2. 11. and David 1 Sam. 21. 12 13. and Peter Matth. 26. 70. 72. 74. three of the Scriptures greatest worthies the first famous for faith the second for valour the third for boldnesse in the cause of Christ were driven to through fear of it and sad instances of latter times have shown that when many secure obdurate sinners have died as you use to say like lambs some of the true sheep of Christs pasture have been then half worried by this evening wolf in such evenings these frogs of the insernal pit oft croak aloud and Belzebubs flies then swarm apace Satan when now to be cast out teareth most in Israels Mar. 2. 26. Exod. 14. 5 6 7 c. Exodus or out-gate from Egypt Pharaoh pursueth with all his Charets because if then once gone they will be out of his reach for ever the Devil cometh down with greatest wrath Rev. 12. 12. Deut. 25. 17. 18. because then he hath least time and when Israel is weak Amalek must fall on the Rear and do something now or never And hence it hath been that possibly you may have over-heard some dying Saints groans to have been very deep and seen their death-beds as Davids Couch watred and swimming with tears Especially Psal 6. 6. if Either guilt of sin be then charged on the conscience as not pardoned Or some defilement of sinne then discovered and aggravated if our faith then stumble our hearts will sink and fall and be much bruised against the gates of death a body of Rom. 7. 24 death will then lie very heavy on the weak sick man now hasting to his bodily death and that sin which so defile's him that he cannot with freedome and serenity of spirit at other times appear before God in duty will more abash him when now he is to appear before him in death to receive his doom And thus far for the Negative death hath not lost its sting but partly doth and partly may retain it as to true believers 2. But for the Affirmative so as that in this life at death and at the resurrection they may with Paul in the Text ask where is it For In the General it is but this outward life that death can seise on as our Saviour said of other enemies so may we of this our last enemy it can kill onely the body and after that hath Lu. 12. 4. nothing more that it can doe Obj. Or if you say that it was before granted that it can and sometimes doth sting their souls also Answ All I answer is that thanks be to God yet it is not mortally for on such the second death hath no power Rev. 20. 6. and then if they escape that second death this first to them is but Larva mortis as he calls it but a grim vizard of death in the Scripture account is reckoned for no death indeed for whosoever believeth in me saith our Saviour Iohn 11. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall not die for ever so in the Original which our last Translators not unfitly but as the Greek phrase will bear read it shall never die if not for ever faith construeth it never though I die temporally yet Scripture calleth it a sleep rather then death if I doe not die eternally This in the general But more particularly this sting of death is taken away from believers 1. In this life partly in justification and partly in sanctification for the Apostle in the words following the Text telleth us that the sting of death is sin and sin sting's us both in its terrifying condemning guilt binding over to punishment and in its enslaving power and pollution 1. Now the first wee are freed from in our justification there is then peace Rom. 5. 1. and no condemnation Rom. 8. 1. we are passed from death unto life 1 Iohn 3. 14. the destroying Angel passeth over and strike's not when the door-posts and lintel are first struck with the blood Exod. 12. 12 13. Luk. 2 29 30. of the Paschal Lamb. And how chearfully then doth old Simeon sing his Nunc dimittis when he hath got his Saviour in his arms and his eyes have seen Gods salvation There is no sting of death that he complaineth of the kisses of Christs mouth have sucked that out from a justified Believer and then although the shadow of death should sit on my eye-lids as they did on Iobs yet if Job 16. 16. I can but then discover the eye-lids of the morning but the first and least Job 41. 18. out-lookings of Heaven upon my soul in pardon and peace especially if broad day light and the more glorious shine of the Sunne Mal. 4. 2. of righteousnesse how painful soever deaths sting might otherwise have been my Phoebus is my Physitian so that there will be full healing under his wings and O death where is then thy sting 2. And as for the defiling pollution and enthralling power of sinne though it bee as painfull as the very guilt of it is as a prick in the flesh sting's deep and prick's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 12. 7. the very heart Acts 2. 37. yet a Believer in this life hath an healing plaister for this wound also from the spirit of grace in his sanctification and how quickly doth a clean wound heal with how little pain doth a formerly well-ordered body die and with how much lesse doth a soul not Philosophically purged but spiritually sanctified depart from this earthly tabernacle which is so subject to be foul and the very sweeping raiseth a dust our repentings not being without new defilings Death is not dolorous when my death and my sin do not meet but so part that when the one cometh the other is gone for ever and how doth the undefiled Dove which had before lien among the pots then shine and glister when now in her flight to Heaven the Sunne of righteousnesse shines on her wings which are covered with silver and her feathers with yellow gold That I
never any more trouble nor the Devil tempt 3. Nor which is a far greater word God frown which yet in the time of our life he seeth just cause sometimes to doe and to vail his face from us but then we come to live not by faith which admits of doubting but by 1 Cor. 13. 12. Rev. 22. 4. vision and that face to face that morning will be as 2 Sam. 23. 4. without clouds because we shall be above them and in nearest conjunction with the Jam. 1. 17. Father of Lights with whom there is no over shadowing whatever the loansom estrangments be that we meet with here yet when Lazarus is once dead he who was kept out of the rich mans Luke 16. 32. gates is then found in Abrahams bosome the place of warmest love And that most lively warmth most lively felt in this chill and dark evening of death in it there is light Zech. 14. 7. in grace as well as in nature the afternoon Sun is oftentimes very warm and the setting Sun shines out sometimes most gloriously So Oecolampadius making good the splendor of his own name now dying and that of an uncomfortable death viz. the plague could lay his hand upon his breast say hic abundè lucis est here here in this dark evening is abundant light then then in that gloomy shadow of death have humble Beleevers and oftentimes none more then they who before had been most sad and broken-hearted met with divinest raptures ravishments of Gods love with gloriousest shines and most pleasing smiles of his countenance and sweetest kisses of his mouth as the loving mother kisseth the sweet babe and so layeth it down to sleep So the Maimonid More Nevoch parte tertia cap. 51. ad finem Buxtorf Lexic Râ—bin ad vocem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem in Florileg Hebr. pag. 205. Jewish Masters expound that Deut. 34. 5. of Moses his dying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad â—s Jehovae as though God did take away his soul with a kisse and so of their 903 kindes of death which they use to reckon up this their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the death which commeth by such a kisse they say is omnium placidissima of all most pleasant and comfortable which they say also Moses and Aaron and Miriam only dyed of but many besides them through Gods mercy have at that time known what the kisses of Christs mouth mean And yet this both in Moses and Aarons deaths is to this purpose singularly remarkable that whereas you read of Gods bidding Moses to goe up to Deut. 32. 49. 50. Numb 20. 25 26. Heinsii exercit sacrae in Matth. cap. 16. mount Nebo and there die and of Aaron to go up to mount Hor and strip him of his garments die there you shall not finde in either places that ut capistrati ad mortem mali trahebantur that as Malefactours they were dragged to it as to an execution but on the contrary without the least reluctance they did as they were bid like me thinks well natured children although others of the Family sit up latter and it may be have greater provisions preparing for them yet without crying or the least whimpering make themselves ready and go up to bed when their Father bids them and well they might although others staid behinde and were to be entertained with Canaans milk and hony which they were cut short of seeing they were thus sent to bed with a kisse never to have the least appearance of a frown more 4. But might we here adde and never Ezek. 28. 12. sin more you may say this would seal up the summe complete all and leave of this sting neither mark nor remembrance Nor will this be wanting and therefore in the last place I shall be bold to add this too For as sin in this life had as to the Beleever lost its condemning guilt and dominion so in death it will be deprived of its beeing or inexistence indeed as long we shal here continue to dwell in these houses of clay it will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which will keep possession and have its dwelling in us Rom. 7. 17. but when our souls shall then be dislodged of our bodies this incroaching and troublesome Inmate shall once for ever be thrust out of doors from both bodies and souls together the death of our body delivering us perfectly from this body of death by which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it s controverted whether be meant this our mortal body or the body of sin which Rom. 7. 24. Docet non finiri hos conflictus quandiu mortale corpus circumgestamus quando corpus peccati aliquando exuemus Paraeus in locum is more deadly I grant the latter but would not exclude the former because both of them are put together as when Samson died the Philistines died also together with Judg. 16. 30. Vide Annotat in V. T. incerti Autoris Canta brig 1653. In Lev. 11. 25. See Mr. Cotton on Eccles 7. 1. him This some think was typed out by that in the Law where it is so often spoken of mens being unclean until the evening but more fully and plainly asserted in the New Testament where the souls of just men once got to Heaven are said to be made perfect Heb. 12. 23. Other places are brought by some to the same purpose as that Rom. 6. 7. He he that is dead is freed from sin which though meant of a death to sin in mortification yet alludes to what is in natural death as Interpreters agree upon the place and those expressions of Christs presenting us to himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faultlesse Jude 24. not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing Eph. 5. 27. which to our particular persons is done in death Ecles 12. 7. and that also 1 Cor. 15. 26. where death is said to be the last enemy which is to be destroyed which they conceive it could not be if sin should remain in us undestroyed after death but because these places may seem to be capable of a satisfying answer I wave them and content my self with that one before mentioned I Confesse some * See Mr. B. his vindiciae legis pag. 118. Divines of very great worth conceive it is not death but Cinerefaction that wholy rids us of sin i. e. that we are not wholy freed from it as soon as the soul is departed and the body is now dead but when it is turned into dust and ashes and this they would inferre from the instance of Lazarus who after he had been John 11. dead four dayes was raised up to life yet so as he died again which yet he should not have done if the Image of God had in his first death been perfected in him and so he wholly freed from sin To which I briefly answer 1. That it is no good way to prove that to be the ordinary and general course which God takes
and great changes use greatly to affect us and therefore the great change at the last day will make even the powers of Heaven to shake Matth. 24. 29. by which some understand the Angels of Heaven though they be safe enough so proportionably the day of our death being the day of our particular doom in which we have one of our last and greatest changes to be undergone and one of our most important tasks to be set upon and gone through with Wonder not if you should then see the wary busie thoughtful carefull soul trembling as for instance The parting of the soul and body so nearly united and so long acquainted and never yet severed is a very hard twitch The leaving of this world of men to goe now into the world of souls into that farre strange Country is a great change The pains and pangs of death with some are very strong so that possibly you have sometimes seen some of strong bodies yea and faith too though they had nothing else then to doe yet then finding it a work great enough to be able to die Our last accounts are then to be given up Eccles 12. 7. Luke 16. 2. and that is a very awfull businesse And this to a most glorious Lord and Judge whom we are then to appear before and if here we find a dread Majesty in his very smiles when he is on a mercy-seat now that he is on the Judgment seat his presence cannot but be very dreadful Remembrance of former sins though pardoned may make the dying mans pale cheeks blush And sense of present defilement and weaknesse though now dying with him may make the pure in heart shrink back from appearing before so pure an eye And those last conflicts with the world sin and Satan are oft then most fierce and violent and unlesse the Sun of righteousnesse do then more gloriously shine out upon us with his more enlightening and enlivening beams in this chill and gloomy shadow of death even the man of God may tremble and yet all this in these and the like cases but as an Isaacs trembling Gen. 27. 33. or a Moses his quaking Heb. 12. 21. Reverential holy comfortable and more awfull then fearfull 2. But farther then God helpeth and strengtheneth the best of us may then be subject to worse and more sinfull fears some of the causes wherof may be these to which I shall particularly subjoin their cures remedies 1. First a more generall cause of this fear of death is a secure carelesse neglect seriously beforehand to meditate of it and accordingly to prepare for it in time of life for so by comming suddenly and unexpectedly it puts all on heaps and confusion So suddennesse and fear for 5. ult in other cases are joined together Prov. 3. 25. and suddennesse of destruction coming upon any is a description of a most carefull and dolefull condition 1 Thess 5. 3. it is so here when in our life time we have not taken a due and timely estimate of the antecedents concomitants and consequents of death of all the evil that is in it and so have laid in no provisions of those cordialls and comforts that should antidote and sweeten it before we are aware of it or prepared for it to tast of it rendreth it that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cup of trembling the Heb. 2. 9. Zech. 12. 2 man unawares hath set his feet on a Bog and he and it tremble and quake and sink together like Nabal whose heart died before he did 1 Sam. 25. 37. And therefore the Prophylactick here is a frequent and thoughtful meditation of it and a dayly answerable preparation for it and so when it commeth it prove's lesse terrible Whatever the Philosophers meant by defining their Philosophy to be a meditation of their Metaphorical death I am sure that in plain terms the frequent and serious meditating of this death we now speak of is a great part of true saving Christian Divinity and if with Joseph of Arimathea we John 19. 41. would have our Sepulchres in our Gardens if thoughts of death did oft recurr in our best life especially if in every sicknesse disease and danger in which God knock's at our door Luke 12. 36. and tell 's us that he is coming wee could more livelily see deaths face and so grow more acquainted with it as Souldiers are wont we should at last be lesse afraid of it I protest by your rejoycing in Christ Jesus I die daily saith our apostle v. 31. of this Chapter a daily dying is joyned with a last days rejoycing and our continual putting our lives into our hands as Judg. 12. 3. Psal 119. 109. ready to offer them up to God will be a means willingly to part with them when God shall please to call for them a dying before hand in thought will make dying indeed lesse troublesom for how forcible and effectual would forethoughts of death be to make us to fear to sin and thereby not to fear to die whilest the eye of Faith hath before taken view of death in all the evil that any way is in it and of all that good which to a believer cometh by it But so as this meditation be accompanyed with an answerable preparation for otherwise as Solomon in another case saith he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow Ecles 1. 18. so here the more I know the more I fear and grieve whilest I know so much evil in it which then abides me and withal that all that good which may be in it I for my part shall fall short of With how much shaking doth the unripe apple fall off when a ripe one drops down without that trouble the Vine weepeth when the branch is cut off before the harvest and Isa 18. 5. the sowre grape is but yet ripening in the flowre but with what harvest joy shall we come to the grave when we shall be like a shock of ripe corn which commeth in in his season Job 5. 26. to which for a close of this let me adde what there followeth Lo this we have Ver. 27. searched it so it is and therefore hear and know it for your good 2. And because in this preparation for death praier is one special part of it therefore the neglect of prayer is one great cause of the anguish and and fear of it and so we finde that want of prayer is joyned with want of hope at such a time in the hypocrit Job 27. 8. with 9. 10. they that use not to look up to God to seek him before will then hardly finde him and then for the child in that dark entry not to have the Father by the hand wil be very terrible the true children of God may possibly be more to seek for their comfort at their deaths by reason of their lesse seeking it in their lives in that it oft falleth out that amongst their many and earnâ—â—â—uits for grace to carry them
to the day of 2 Chron. 26. 21. our death will make a very foul corpse and a body fouly distempered in life especially if the soul be found so in death will make deathbed-groanes more deadly strong bodies use to have strong pains in death John 8. 5. Numb 25. 8. 2 Sam. 17. 23. 18. 14. 15. 1 Sam. 28. 7 8 9. c. with 19. Matth 27. 5. and so have strong lusts especially if we be taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Zimri and Cozbi in the very act of uncleannesse Absalom and Ahitophel of rebellion if Saul consult the Divel this day and go to him the next and Judas by an untimely and woful death be suddenly brought before his Judge whilest he is yet reeking with the blood of his betrayed Lord and Saviour with what horrour and amazement must such needs appeare before the Judgement seat Joseph though Gen. 41. 14 under no such guilt yet being in the squalid condition of a prisoner shaveth himself and changeth his raiment when hastily brought out of the dungeon before Pharaoh an infinitely inferiour presence to that which we at death are to appear before And therefore here again the death of Christ applyed by faith proveth a Soveraign remedy for it is then safe drawing near to God when our hearts are sprinkled from an evil conscience Heb. 10. 22. and that is by the blood of Christ Heb. 9. 14. labour therefore in the way of mortification to be implanted into Christs death and Rom. 6. 5. this sweet fruit amongst others will spring out of his grave that what mortifieth sin will kill the fear of death which is caused by it 1. Partly as this daily practising of dying to sin will inure us with more ease to die to the world not onely whilest we live to be weaned from it but when God shal call in death willingly to leave it Lusts are members Col. 3. 5. and the content which a sinner taketh in them in his very life Isa 57. 10. dearer then his natural life and therefore it is that he is so often ready rather desperately to hazard it then not to gratifie and satisfie them he therefore who in a course of mortification hath done the greater will not stick at the lesse will not stick to part with his dear life who by the grace of Christ hath already parted with his dearer lust and so by continual loosing the tie of his soul and sin he may expect the last loose of his body and soul with more comfort 2. But mortification effecteth this more directly in that it properly and formally taketh away sin which is fomes morbi the very matter of the disease and of all these shaking fits in death and then as a sound and well ordered body dieth with little pain so a sanctified purged soul departeth with lesse anguish a great deal of grace in our life brings a great deal of comfort in death and why should I fear that which at once freeth me from sin which in this course of mortification is the cause of my greatest grief and perfect's grace which is the object of my chiefest desire what therefore now remaineth but that we labour to live holily that we may at last die comfortably and as they were Acts 9. 37. Luke 23. 56. Matth. 26. 12. wont to wash dead bodies and to anoint them for their burial so that we would do as much for our souls get them washed in the blood of Christ and daily more and more anointed and embalmed and perfumed with the graces of his Spirit So our deaths would not be more precious to Psal 116. 15. God then comfortable to our selves So with Asa we should be laid in our graves as in a bed filled with sweet odours 2 Chron. 16. 14. spices and what the Romans were wont to do in their Pageants at Herodian l. 4. the consecration of their dead Emperours would have more realty at our death and Funerals no Eagle as with them to carry the soul up to Heaven but our souls as the renewed Eagle would mount up out of such a bed of spices to those mountains of spices where Cant. 8. 14. Brightman Psal 16. 11 Matth. 25. 4 6 7. are pleasures for evermore O that we were once so wise as with those wise Virgins to get oil enough into our Vessels and then our Lamps will burn bright at midnight in this midnight of death and judgement when with them we shall either go to Christ or Christ will come to be married to us and then this shall be one strain of our marriage of our Triumphant Song O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Tibi Domini Jesu qui spes es viventium resurrectio mortuorum FINIS