continual readiness that which may furnish us abundantly with meditations in this kind It was a custome in former times for men to make their Sepulchres in their Gardens to mind them of death in the midst of the pleasures of this life This present Work may not unfitly be termed a Garden wherein whosoever takes a dayly walk may gather in the several beds thereof those wholsome flowers and hearbs which being distilled by serious meditation will prove water of life to a fainting spirit in some he shall find instruction in some incitation in others consolalion in all profit Here thou shalt find that Lethall Gourd sprung up by Adam his trausgression that makes all his posterity cry out There is Death in the Pot. There thou mayst gather Hearbs of Grace as a counterpoyson against the malignity of death in a third there is the spiritual Heliotropium opening with joy to the Son of Righteousness the hope of a blessed Resurrection Do the glittering shews of outward things make thee begin to over-fancy them here thou shalt find how little they will avail in death the consideration whereof will make them like that precious stone which being put into the mouth of a dead man loseth its vertue art thou over-burthened with afflictions here thou art supported in the expectation of a far more exceeding weight of glory art thou ready to faint under thy labours here thou shalt find a time of rest and of reaping doth the time seem over-long that thy patience begins to flag here thou hast a promise of thy Saviours speedy coming In a word be thy estate and condition what it will be here thou mayst have both directions to guide thee and comforts to support thee in thy journey on earth till thou arrive at thy Country in Heaven Certainly there is no man can sleight and undervalue so deserving a Work but he shall discover himself either to be ignorant or idle or ill affected especially when so judicious and learned men have thought it a fit concomitant for their several Labours which they have added for the accomplishment of it Therefore take it in good worth improve it for the good of thy Soul that being armed and prepared for death when it shall approach thou mayst have no more to do but to die and mayst end thy dayes in a stedfast assurance That thy sins shall be blotted out when the time of Refreshing shall come from the presence of the LORD Thine in Him who is the Resurrection and the Life H. W. THE TABLE THE Stewards Summons Page 1. TEXT LUKE 16.2 Give an Account of thy Stewardship for thou mayst be no longer Steward The Praise of Mourning Page 17. ECCLESIASTES 7.2 It is better to go to the House of Mourning then to the House of Feasting for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart Deliverance from the King of Fears Page 33. HEBREWS 2.14 15. 14. For as much then as the Children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil 15. And deliver them who through the fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage The Perfection of Patience Page 47. JAMES 1.4 But let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing A Restraint of exorbitant Passion Page 61. 2 SAM 12.22 23. 22. And he said while the Child was yet alive I fasted and wept for I said who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the Child may live 23. But now he is dead wherefore should I fast Can I bring him back again I shall go to him but he shall not return to me The Sting of Death c. Page 73. 1 COR. 15.56 The sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law The Destruction of the Destroyer c. Page 81. 1 COR. 15.16 The last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death The Worlds Losse and the Righteous Mans Gain Page 91. ISAIAH 57.1 And merciful men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come The Good-Mans Epitaph c. Page 107. REVEL 14.13 I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their Works do follow them The Christians Center c. Page 117. ROM 14.7 8. 7. For none of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself 8. For whether we live we live to the Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords The Improvement of Time c. Page 129. 1 COR. 7.29 30 31. 29. But this I say Brethren the time is short it remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none 30. And they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as if they rejoiced not and they that buy as though they possessed not 31. And they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away Security Surprized c. Page 143. 1 THESSAL 5.3 For when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape A Christians Victory or Conquest over Deaths Enmity Page 159. 1 COR. 15.26 The last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death The great Tribunal or Gods Scrutiny of Mans Secrets Page 171. ECCLES 12.14 For God will bring every work into Jungement with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evill A Tryall of Sincerity c. Page 181. ISAIAH 26.8 9. 8. Yea in the way of thy judgments O Lord have we waited for thee the desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee 9. With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early for when thy judgments are in the earth the Inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness The Expectation of Christs Coming c. Page 195. PHIL. 3.20 21. 20. For our conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ 21. Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself Christs Precept and Promise or Security against Death Page 211. JOHN 8.51 Verily verily I say unto you if a man keep my saying he shall never see Death The Young-mans Liberty and Limits c. Page 223. ECCLESIAST 11.9 Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the dayes of thy youth and walk in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these
conscience hath so wrought on thee that it hath stung thee for such a sin thou yet approvest thy self in it and thou wilt go on in thy pride still in such and such sins stil thou wilt do so do but know this that stand thou never so much upon thy resolution Death will certainly come and if he find thee in such a sin against thy conscience thou hast reserved in thy self a sting for Death Secondly a man shall know if Death come with a sting by this trial that Solomon giveth us in Ec. 11.9 Rejoyce oh young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the dayes of thy youth and walk in the wayes of thy heart and sight of thine eyes but know that for all these things God will bring thee to judgment If thou live a voluptuous life Death will certainly come with a sting Dives he lived a voluptuous life had he not a sting for it So others in Scripture did not their plentiful tables and voluptuous courses bring a sting on them A voluptuous life makes a sting for Death When a poor wretch is a dying and shall begin to reflect back on his life what have I done how have I lived so much time I have spent or mispent in apparel in vanity in eating in drinking in swaggering What comfort is this to his soul how can he answer this before God this is the very thing that will sting him at such a day when he can read nothing in his life but barrenness and unfruitfulness nothing that hath honoured God in all his life Certainly my brethren if there be an Epicurious voluptuous life this life will provide a sting for Death Alas you will say Is it so then we may fear that Death will seize on us thus for we confess we have gone on in a voluptuous life gone on in sin that our conscience hath condemned us for how shall we do to pull out this sting I would to God you were thus affected that you were convicted what a fearful thing it will will be if sin remain But wouldest thou have the sting of death pulled out before death come I. How shall I disarme it that I may look death in the face with comfort I. shall give you some wayes and means remember them and practise them First get but a part in Christ and the sting of death is gone thanks be to God saith the Apostle here that hath given us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ It is he that in the Revelation is said to have the keyes of Hell and of death they are under his command and subjection he is victorious over them he hath vanquished them so that if a man have Christ he hath victory and power over Hell and Death I told you in the beginning that that which giveth a sting to Death is the guilt of sin It is so and it is a fearful sting Now that which takes away the guilt of sin is Christ If Christ be mine I have enough to answer the guilt of sin Therefore the Apostle saith Death cannot separate from the love of God in Christ What shall then Indeed nothing it is not the guilt of his sins Christ hath satisfied from them So that if thou wilt have the sting of death out get faith in Christ if thou be not hidden in the clefts of that Rock in the blood of Christ if Christ be not thy Justification and thy righteousness what hast thou to answer the Justice of God you must die and stand before God and how can you stand before God in your sins you cannot without Christ why do you not then study more for Christ Why do you not labour for faith in him It will be your wisdom to labour earnestly to make sure of him if you have him the sting of death is gone Death cannot hurt a person that hath Chriâ—… Get faith in Christ therefore that is the first Secondly 〈…〉 would not have Death terrible and fearful to you labour for sincerity 〈◊〉 â—â—ethren it is a marvellous thing and yet the truth uprightness and sincerity 〈…〉 is an enabling grace All the particular things that we account particulaâ—â—â—â—â—â—wise they have not an inabling vertue in them Some persons have a great dâ—â—â— of learning and wit and many friends much riches and the like yet there cometh an occasion sometimes that puzzleth all these there cometh an occasion sometimes that a mans learning is of no use and natural parts and wit cannot help and riches cannot inable him What time is that The time of death the heart of a man is put to it at such a time and now these shrink nothing can inable a man agaiâ—â— fear so much as sincerity and uprightness When the Prophet Isaiah told 〈◊〉 from God that he must die he flieth to this Lord remember how I have 〈◊〉 fore thee with an upright heart and done that which was good in thy sight When Death cometh to a wicked voluptuous person and telleth him I am here come for thee thou must appear before God what can this man say Lord I have lived before thee a voluptuous proud wretched life I was a scorner of thy Word a contenâ—…er and persecutor of thy people a swearer c. What though perhaps he can say Lord I have heard so many Sermons I have been so much in conference and the like will this inable a man against the fear of Death No nothing but this that he hath a sincere heart that his heart is unmixed that sin is not affected in his soul that there is no sin that he would live in no duty that he wonld not do Lord remember I have walked before thee uprightly I say nothing will inable a man more against fear then sincerity and nothing disgraceth perplexeth the soul in an exigent more then 〈◊〉 It is sincerity that takes away the sting of Death The Apostle in Râ—…m 14. saith he No man liveth to himself but if he live he liveth to the Lord and if he die he dieth to the Lord whether we live or die we are the Lords Here is the comfort we are the Lords saith he How proveth he that We live unto him That is the work of a sincere heart A true Christian liveth not to himself but to Christ Now if thy conscience give thee this testimony I have lived unto Christ then whether I live or die I am the Lords the Apostle concludeth it So right is that of Solomon Riches availeth not in the day of wrath but righteousness delivereth from death Thy righteousness and sincerity delivereth thee not from dying but from death It takes away the sting and power of Death Death shall not be death to thee it is only a passage to thee Therefore remember as to get a part in Christ so to get a perfect and sincere heart and then the sting of death is gone But a hypocritical divided heart a heart and a heart that will
to dispaire Where is it It may be in thy heart of all thy complaining and thou maist have it for all these exclaymings against thy self Tell me when thou findest those corruptions whereof and for which thou speakest against thy self Dost thou allow them or not dost thou confesse them and lament them or not I confesse them indeed but with such a finall deal of sorrow Is it such a sorrow as draws thee to God and drives thee out of thy self such as makes thee to fall before him and judge thy self worthy to be damned and submit to his Justice Is it such a sorrow as makes thee confesse and then purpose amendment Such as makes thee cry to him for power and strength such as makes thee rest on him for ability Dost thou determine still still to amend that that still troubleth thee Dost thou still continue to fight with the lusts of thy flesh by the spiritual weapons that God hath ordained for thee I say to thee thy Repentance thy Faith thy New Obedience may be true though it be weak When a man hath a shaking Palsey hand it is a hand A sick weake man that lies crying oh oh that can scarse turn himself between the sheets is a man a living man A poor child that is new born and hath nothing that discovereth reason almost but the shape of a man that poor child is a reasonable creature Faith beginneth with weake apprehensions and faint leanings on Christ Deep godly sorrow and other parts of Repentance may begin many times with little And amendment of life begins sometimes at a low soundation at small sins If it be true and sincere and constant if thou go on and continue in a course of daily renewing thy Repentance and Obedience and Faith and stirring by Gods means to get the increase of these graces and to be upright and sincere in them thou art blessed in them notwithstaading thy weaknesse take comfort in a little and be thankful for it God will give more and the only way to get more is to take comfort in a good measure in what thou hast and the way to take comfort is to labour to increase these graces Let not the weak troubled seebled Christian be troubled in mind as if he had no grace because he hath but a little as if he did not at all keep Christs sayings because he keepeth them but a little He is a scholler in the School that beginneth at Christ-Crosse-row as we call it And he is entred into the Colledge that beginneth but in a low book with the first rudiments of Logick And he is a member of the Family that began to be an Apprentise but yesterday and comes not to a deep knowledge of his Art and Mistery but is glad to do sorry work Beleeve it brethren there may be great conceits of Repentance and beleeving and obeying that may make a man good in his own eyes and be altogether false There may be a small measure of Repentance but if one be humbled in the smalness of that measure and labour and desire and pray and begg for the increase of that measure and take pains to edisie himself in it by the means of God then it is true and upright and shall save him Therefore rejoyce It is not with the Covenant of Grace as it was with that of Works The Covenant of Works the Law required perfection of Obedience to all the things prescribed a man must not only love God but love God perfectly But the Gospel satisfieth it self with accepting truch of endeavour to the thing required If there be Repentance though it be not in the full perfection if thou beleeve though not with the fullest measure of beleeving If thou Obey though not in the highest degree of obedience this Gospel this sweet this favourable gracious Doctrine giveth thee consolation enough Go home therefore comforted in the beginnings and resolved to proceed and know that thou shalt enjoy that which Christ hath promised freedome from damnation thou shalt never see Death THE YOUNG MANS LIBERTY AND LIMITS OR GODS JUDGMENT ON MANS CARRIAGE SERMON XVIII ECCLESIASTES 11.9 Rejoyce oh young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the dayes of thy youth and walk in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into Judgement SOlomon in the conclusion of this Chapter is exhorting the sons of men to true Religion and the better to mould and frame them to the same he mindeth them of Death and Judgement without which there cannot be planted in us a right care and fear of God From the seventh verse to the latter end he hath to do with two forts of men First with those that were glued to this life and to the delights and pleasures thereof and he bringeth them in speaking thus Truly the light is sweet and it is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun verse 7. By light there we are to understand the light of the Sun shining on us while we enjoy this mortal life This many men suppose to be a very pleasant thing and they overmuch content themselves in the same These Solomon verse 8. refuteth by three Arguments The first is this that though a man live many yeares yet let him remember the dayes of darkness that is that a time of Death will come a time when our Sun will set and our light wil turn to darkness though we live never so long never so sweetly never so pleasantly though we enjoy the light of the Sun yet we should carefully remember that darkness abideth us Secondly faith Solomon those dayes are many His Argument is thus much Let a man consider with himself though he live many yeares yet notwithstanding the dayes and years of his life cannot be compared with the dayes and years of his Death a man is many more years under the ground in the Grave then above ground walking on the face of the earth Thirdly faith Solomon all that cometh 〈◊〉 vanity That is if a man may enjoy the light of the Sun and the pleasures of this life that makes his heartâ—…ight â—…ome yet all this is vanity there is no full contentment in these things but an emptiness in them all and no man knows how soon he may be bereaved of them Now in the words we have read Solomon hath to deal with the young man and he is altogether given to jollity and merriment he forgetteth God and the dayes of darkness and his latter end Well Solomon giveth him the bridle as it were and suffereth him to follow his own way by an Ironical concession or figurative speech declaring not what young men ought to doe but what their course is and what commonly they do Reâ—…ce 〈◊〉 young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the dayes of thy youth and walk in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but
Your Fathers where are they and the Prophets do they live for ever Zach. 1.5 God cuts off both the righteous and the wicked Ezek. 21.4 The righteous perisheth and the hhasidim the merciful men or the men of godliness are taken away Isa 57.1 Yea and often-times as Menander was able to observe it Whom God loves best he takes soonest An observation much like that in 1 King 14.12 13. That son of Jeroboam who only of that family had some good thing in him was taken away young But whether sooner or later their holiness frees not from death rich gilding upon an earthen pot keeps it not from breaking They are made of the same mettal of the same clay with other men The Apostles that brought the treasures of grace to the world were themselves Testacea vasa so Saint Hierome Vasa fictilia so Saint Gregorie but only earthen vessels 2 Cor. 4.7 clay in the hand of the potter Isa 64.8 And therefore all things in this respect come alike to all Eccl. 9.2 Vse 1. If such die then Death is not alwayes evil for sure it is not evil to them to whom all things work for good Rom. 8.28 The sting of it is gone And though it have not a pleasant look to entertain us with it is but as a rude Groom that opens the gate by which we must pass to a better place and to better company The godly have many advantages by death 1. Rest from their labours 2. A Crown when they have finisht the race 2 Tim. 4.7 8.3 Freedom from danger of sinning any more Rom. 6.7.4 Death frees from a possibility of further dying 2 Cor. 5.1 Let me die saith Seneca and what hurt comes by that I can be bound no more I can be sick no more I can die no more 5. They go presently to God While we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord We are willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 8. I desire to be dissolved to be with Christ Phil. 1.23.2 Tim. 4.6 We wrong death when we call it horrid it is sin which makes it to be so else it is but conceit There is often more pain in a tooth-ake then in dying Tears and black cloth and the tremblings of the guilty do disguise Death and make it look terrible He that said it was of all terrible things the most terrible was himself an Heathen and knew not what Christ had done to alter the property Once indeed it was uncouth and hideous but since Christ dyed it hath a more fair and pleasant face There can be no danger in that way which all the Saints have gone As Phocion said to one that by the same sentence of the Judges was to die with him Art thou not glad to fare as Phocion doth So are we not glad to fare as the holy Patriarks Prophets and Apostles have done and to go after them He that went this way the first of any man-kind was holy a Saint it was Abel whom God accepted We use to call those passages and Streights which have been first found and discovered by any by the names of the first Discoverers as the Streights of Magellanus and that a little lower Schouten Streight or Fretum le maire So if it may afford us any comfort for the passage let us call Death no longer Death but Abels streights Let us learn if not to love yet to contemne Death that so we may have the more easie conquest over all other hard things It was a bravery in Damindas an heathen which Christians should be ashamed to come short of When Philip had broke into Peloponesus and some Lacedemonians said They were likely to sustain much evil unless they could reconcile themselves to Philip Damindas said O Semi-viri quid nob is poterit acerbè accidere qui mortem contemnimus Ah poor spirited men what can be sharp or hard unto us who have learned to despise death it self Vse 2. Because Saints or holy men do also die let us make the best use of them while they are with us To benefit and profit our selves by our religious friends acquaintance neighbours and kindred When God raises up some man eminent for wisdome and a godly life he is set up as a light for the town or neighbour-hood to walk by Yet oft-times such as dwell neer are careless and neglect their benefit when strangers farther off draw neer unto the light and gain by it as we use to let our own books lie by and rather make use of such as we borrow to take notes out of them because we know not how soon they may be called for by the owners and presume that the other will still be in our keeping We should improve our good acquaintance and walk by the light while we enjoy it because many times the Sun sets and it is night in a neighbour-hood or a family when a good friend a good Parent or a good Master dyeth Remember Joash and Jehojada 3. The Death of Gods Saints is precious in Gods sight When David was opprest with griefe it seems he had such thoughts as these Surely man is res nihili a vain and worthless thing too low and too unworthy that God should take any notice of him or be careful of him But at last he overcame such thoughts when he had found the experience of Gods tenderness towards himself in particular and towards all his people and now resolves That God neglects not his as if he were not affected with their miseries but their souls lives and safeties are dear and tender unto him as a treasure which he will not carelesly lose or suffer men or divels to take away by force or treachery Their Death is pretious Jakar the word of the Text is in pretio fuit magni estimatum est God sets them at an high and dear rate The Septuagint renders it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Noun by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pretiosus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 probatus and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multi pretii God honours and accounts well and hath high thoughts of the sufferings of his See how the word is translated in other Texts 1. Honourable Isa 43.4 Jakarta Thou wert pretious in my sight thou hast been honourable 2. Much set by 2 Sam. 18.30 His name was much set by 3. Dear Jer. 31.20 An filius Jakkir presiosus mihi Ephraim Is Ephraim my Dear son 4. Splendid clear or glorious Job 31.26 Si vidi lunam Jaker pretiosam abeuntem The Moon walking in brightness Put all these expressions together and then we have the strength of Davids word The death of the Saints is pretious that is 1. Honourable 2. Much set by 3. Dear 4. Splendid and glorious in the sight of the Lord. God is so tender of his people that 1 He will not have them take wrong he orders their death
Apostle Rom. 8.15 a man is then said to wait for death when he is looking for it at every turn as a Steward waits for his Master when he continually expects his return when upon every voyce he hears or upon every knock at the door he saith oh my Master is come this is he that knocks So a man is said to wait for death when in every action of his life in every motion of his estate in every passage of his courses saith well I must die when though his bones are full of marrow yet I must die when though riches come in like a flood yet I must die when changes appear upon himself or others yet I must die I have no abiding here I am but a sojourner and a stranger as all my fathers were I must not enjoy my Wife for ever Children for ever Friends for ever Lands for ever these comforts for ever my life for ever it is but a lease which may soon expire I am but a steward and I must be called to an account such a one is gone before and I must follow after the writ of Habeas Corpus hath seized on him and for ought I know the next may be for me so when death comes I am ready to answer it as Abraham did his Son Isaac here I am it comes not upon me as a thief in the night when I am asleep and think not of him but as Jonathans arrow to David who stayed in the field and expected when it should be shot and then he rose up and embraced him Yee brethren faith Paul in 1 Thes 5.4 are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a theif ye are all the children of the light therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober This is the first thing that waiting imports Another thing it imports is a serious preparation for the day of our change for it is not a naked expectation of a change arising from the certainty of death but it is also a religious preparation improving the intrim of time for the best advantage for a mans soul before the day of change doth come which is here implyed in waiting Solomon calls it a remembring Eccles 12.1 Remember thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth whiles the evil dayes come not and the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them what is this remembring of the Creator but a care to know him a fear to offend him a study to obey him and when is that to be done Now now remember there must be a present acting of this Moses calls it a numbring of our dayes Psal 90.12 and more then that such a numbring as is joyned with an applying of our hearts to wisedome and the reason is because wisedome it directs to the choyce of such particular actions and works as tend to happiness so should a man after his serious consideration of death apply himself to such wayes and such actions by which he may comfortably close up his life with death it is a great point of wisdome to sute actions with their ends to sit and square the wood before we build the house to learn and discipline a troop before they go to battel to rig and trim and furnish the ship before we launch to sea this is preparation indeed Now this preparation for death consists in two things First in an undoing of that which unsits us to die Brethren he who is not fit to live he is not yet fit to die and that which ever masters the life will be of greatest force in death The Father spake it boldly on good grounds I am not ashamed to live nor afraid to die now that which unfits a man to die is sin it makes him find a bitter enemy of death Oh when this Kng of terrours shall present himself by thy bed side with his arrows in his hands I mean thy sins he will wound thee with infinite amazement and horrour the sting of death is sin faith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. Thou dost not prepare thy self for death if thou dost not undo thy sins which thou hast done in thy life the which consists First in a narrow search of thy sinfulness both of nature and practice Secondly in a secret humbling of thy soul for them Thirdly in an unfeigned repentance and forsaking of them Fourthly in a constant imploring and obtaining of mercy for them in the blood of Christ If thy soul doth give sin its discharge now death shall give thy soul a discharge hereafter Secondly in the qualifying our persons for the conquest of death there are three things by which we shall be able chearfully to meet and assuredly to conquer death First by having interest in the Lord Jesus the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God who hath given us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ If thou hast gotten Christ into thy arms by faith thou carriest thy peace strength and advantage both through life and death For we are â—…ove then conquerors through him that loved us saith the Apostle Rom. 8.37 And to me to live is Christ and to die is gain faith the same Apostle Phil. 11 21. If thou hast a good Christ thou maist be consident of a good death Secondly renewedness of our nature What Saint John spake of he Martyes as some conjecture Blessed and happy is he that hath part in the first 〈◊〉 on such the second death hath no power that say I of a person renewed by the sanctifying quality of Gods Spirit I happy is he he shall have power even over the first death The Spirit and the Bride saith come if a man hath gotten the heavenly Spirit which beautifies the soul with the ornaments of Grace as the Bride is with her ornaments he is a fitted person he may well say to Death come and to Christ come Lord Jesus come quickly Thirdly uprightness of conversation Righteousness delivers form death saith Solomon and the righteous hath hope in his death if a mans work be Christs service if he have a heart enclined to keep a good conscience in all things to keep himself exact to the rule and to walk with God Blessed is that servant which his Master when be cometh shall find so doing that man that hath looked to Gods Word to guide his life may confidently look up to Gods mercy to comfort him in death Remember O Lord saith Hezekiah Isa 39. how I have walked before thee intruâ—…h and with a perfect bea rt Now all this doth the waiting for our change import in the Text to wit a serious expectation of it first by undoing those sins of ours which else for eyer will undo us and by interesting our persons into Christ from whom we must likewise receive the Spirit to change our hearts and uprightness to form a new our conversation But then you will say
ΘΡΗÎΟΙΚΟΣ THE House of Mourning FURNISHED With DIRECTIONS for PREPARATIONS to MEDITATIONS of CONSOLATIONS at the Hour of Death DELIVERED IN LIII SERMONS Preached at the FUNERALS of divers faithfull SERVANTS of CHRIST By Daniel Featly Martin Day John Preston Doctors in Divinity Ri. Houldsworth Richard Sibbs Thomas Taylor Thomas Fuller And other Reverend Divines ECCLES 7.4 The heart of the wise is in the house of Mourning but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth Ambr. de obit frat Non amitti sed praemitti videntur quos sed non absumptura mors sed aeternitatas receptura est Seneca Ep. 77. Iter imperfectum est si in media parte aut citra petitum locum steterit vita non est imperfecta si honesta ubicunqque desieris si benè desieres tota est Newly Corrected and Amended with several ADDITIONS LONDON Printed by G. Dawson and are to be sold by John Williams at the Sign of the Crown in St. Pauls-Chruch-Yard 1660. TO THE CHRISTIAN READER THere is no man that can plead Ignorance to the universal Decree of God concerning the necessity of Mans Mortality It is appointed for all men once to die and every man can say as that wise Woman of Tekoaeh we are all as water spilt upon the ground There is no Age Estate Condition or rank of Men but have been foyled with that invincible Champion Death who riding up and down the World upon his pale Horse above these five thousand years hath with an impartial stroke laid all flat before him some in there Infancy 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 poor 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 himself their Mortality proves them to be men to themselves though they be as Gods to others and as Epictetus once told the Emperour That to be born and to die was common both to Prince and Beggar The sicknesses and miseries of this World have made the proudest Painims to confess with St. Peter to Cornelius Even I my self also am a mortal 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 cordial to fortifie the heart against this King of terrors or his harbingers the velvet slipper cannot sence the foot from the gout nor the gold ring the finger from a fellon the richest Diadem cannot quit the head-ach nor the purple Robe prevent a Fever Beauty strength riches honour friends nor any nor all can repeal that sentence Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Every fit of an Ague and every distemper of this frail constitution being as a light skirmish before the main battel of Death wherein weak man being vanquished is led captive to his long home and when once the lines of Mortality are drawn upon the face of the fairest mortal he becomes a ghastly spectacle how lovely soever before and the conclusion is Bury my dead out of my sight This inevitable necessity 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 again and when the time of their dissolution cometh their souls are rather chased out by violence then yielded to God in obedience Indeed to a wicked man Death is the beginning of sorrows it is a trap-door to let him down 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 approach of this Gyant with a smile being freed from the hurt of him by Him that is the Captain of the Lords Host who hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light so that the sting of it being plucked out and the suffering sanctified by Christ death is become to every Believer but a dark 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 happiness eternal 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 Basilisk before it approach and so avoid the danger of it Wretched is the estate of that man who when these spiritual Philistims the terrors of death make war upon him shall have just cause to say The Lord is departed from me the death of such a one will be like the sleep of a frantick man who when the malignant humor is concocted awakes in a greater rage than he lay down whereas to him that is wise to consider his latter end death is no way dreadful death may kill him but it cannot hurt him it doth free him from temporary misery but cannot hinder him from eternal felicity and as that noble Captain of Thebes who having gotten the victory over his enemies but withal received his mortal wound he made this his grand enquiry whether his weapons were safe or not whether his buckler was not in his enemies hands and when it was replied all was safe he died with a great deal of chearfulness and fortitude So when a Christian is to grapple with death his main care is that his Buckler of Faith and the Helmet of his Salvation his Hope that they be safe to guard his Soul and then he passeth not much what becomes of his outward man he dies in peace and confidence Now that we may be 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 mortality before us continually and in our own sensible approaches to the gates of death I say besides these and infinite more this ensuing Volumn with so much care and pains compiled by Gods blessing and our endeavours may prove no small furtherance in our Pilgrimage Each Sermon therein being as a several Legasie 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 Mortality are so many real Lectures that by a kind of dumb Oratory perswade us to expect our end but as they are transient so our thoughts of them vanish therefore it can be no small advantage to have in
and commands us to seek these are Armour of proof against all the blows of death he that hath them shall never be hurt of Death because he shall never taste of the second death he hath only to wrestle with the first Death and there is no terrour nor terribleness it that if a mans heart be secure by these Graces Faith whereby we depend on Christ and on him alone for grace and salvation bringing hope whereby we expect and look for salvation of our souls by his blood according to his promise and working charity whereby we love him for his goodness and his servants for his sake If it be charity not only of the lip to speak well but that that produceth wel-doing I say this is that makes us that death cannot separate us from Christ but the further we are from life the neerer we are to him for when this outward tabernacle of our house is dissolved we have a building with God eternal in the heavens and death to such a man is nothing but the opening of the door to let him out of the dungeon of the world and to place him happily in the Pallace of eternal blisse I pray enter into consideration how ye have behaved your selves in the course of your lives whether as Heathens or as Christians A man that takes no care to prepare for death though he come to the Church from Sunday to Sunday and partake of all Gods ordinances yet if the consideration of death be not so imprinted in him that it become a motive to him to labour for Faith and hope and charity and to endeavour to edifie himself in these graces he liveth as a Heathen or an Infidel and when death cometh to him it will do him more hurt then it will an Infidel because by how much God hath given him more means to escape and by neglecting those means as his sin is greater so shall his punishment be Secondly if ye have been careless for to prepare for this enemy Now be ashamed of it and sorrow for it let your hearts now smite ye and ake within you Oh foolish man or woman say I have lived twenty thirty forty fifty years and some more I have laboured against other enemies if men had any thing against me I would be sure to take order I have laboured for the things of this life for riches and friends and give my self leave for to enjoy pleasures and taken pains to doe good to my body but all this while it never came into my heart seriously to think I must die and after that comes Judgement that I must stand before Gods Tribunal and give account of my wayes I have not laboured to beware of Death and of sin nor to kill my corruptions I have not laboured to increase in Faith and hope and charity I have left my self unarmed against the last and worst enemy Oh what folly is this to live in the world many a long day and never to consider that there will be an end of all these dayes and the end of those the beginning of another life and a life that will be infinitely more miserable then this If this beloved have been any of your faults to be carelesly forgetful of your latter end not to consider of your departure hence if the world have so tempted you and pleasures have so enamoured you that you have forgotten your latter end blame your selves it is the greatest of all follies And that I may disgrace this folly and make you ashamed of it Consider a little That this is to be like children The Apostle biddeth us not to be like children in understanding but he that forgetteth Death and is careless to prepare for it is a very child A little one never thinketh he shall ever be a man himself and maintain himself and live in the world by his own labour or by that he shall have from his friends he careth for nothing butmeat and drink and sport and pastime we blame their folly andlaugh at it as rediculous and therefore by our diligence we prevent that ill that might else come upon them Is it not thus with many of you ye live and build houses and raise your names to be glorious and to make a fair shew in the world but to get grace and to get faith and hope and love and repentance none of your thoughts almost run that way scarce any of your thoughts are so bestowed Is not this to be children in understanding Again he is a foolish man that knoweth he shall meet an enemy and will not prepare If a man should hear of twenty or thirty thousand souldiers were gathered against the City and besieged it to destroy it He would not be so foolish and so simple then as to bestow himself in his trade and to follow his business and to give himself to merrimeut but he would get his weapons and he would look about him help to arm the City and to make it strong Why do ye not consider that your soul is as a City Death will come against it and batter you with sickness with pains and at last will certainly take it and if the soul be not prepared will carry it to Hell fire Why will you be so retchless and sensless to eat and drink and labour to grow rich to bury your selves in eatrthly labours and never think how to escape how Death may be kept out that will destroy soul and body I presume you are ashamed of this folly by this time I hope ye will go away with remorse and sorrow for so carelesly neglecting a thing of so great importance to be provided for In the third place therefore I entreat you begin this great work this day Consider if you have not begun the enemy lieth in wait for thee oh man or woman if thou be never so young thou maist meet with him before night if thou be old thou must meet with him ere long Prepare for him betime think what an enemy may encounter thee in the way If a man be to travel though he be not assured to meet with an enemy yet he will strive to get good company and weapon himself he will carry his sword something he will do that if a theef come to rob him he may be able to prevent the danger Beloved think that there is an enemy that way-laies us as we go along in the world one time or other he will be sure to come upon us therefore stir up your selves begin this day to prepare for this enemy How shall I prepare for Death I told you before it is not amiss in a word to repeat it Get Faith in Christ and Hope and Charity and repentance These will be means to prepare and help thee against Death Therefore if hitherto thou have not lament and bewail the sinfulness of thy nature and life Assoon as thou art out of this place get thee into a solitary room fall upon thy knees lament thy
sins the ilness of thy nature and carriage rehearse thy wayes as much as thou canst condemn thy self before God mightily crie for pardon in the meditation of his Son and never leave sobbing and mourning till he hath given thee some answer that he is reconciled And then strive to get faith in Christ call to mind the perfection of his redemption the excellency of his person and merits that thou maist repose thy soul on him that thou maist say though my sins be as the Stars and exceed them yet the merit of my Saviour and his satisfaction to the justice of God it is full in him he is well pleased and reconciled I will stay on him Lord Chiist thou hast done and suffered enough to redeem me and Man-kind thou hast suffered for the propitiation of the world though my sins deserve a thousand damnations yet I trust upon thy mercy according to the Covenent made in thy Word Thus when a man laboureth to cast himself on Christ to lay the burthen of his salvation and to venter his soul on him now he hath beleeved this Breast-plate Death is not able to thrust through And then labour that this faith may work so strongly that it may breed Hope a constant and firm expectation grounded on the promises of the Word that thou shalt be saved and go to Heaven and be admitted into the presence of God when thou shalt be separated from this lower world He that is armed with this hope hath a Helmet Death shall never hurt his head it shall never be able to take away his comfort and peace He shall smile at the approach of death because it can do nothing but help him to his kingdome And then labour for Charity to inflame thee to him again that hath shewed himself so truly loving to men as to seek them when they were lost to redeem them when they were captives and to restore them from that unhappiness that they had cast themselves into Oh that I could love thee and thy people for thy sake thou diddest die for them shall not I be at a little cost and pains to help them out of misery Thus if ye labour to be furnished with these graces then you are armed against Death those will do you more good then if you had gotten millions of millons of gold and silver As you have understanding for the outward man as you have care to provide for that top reserve and comfort life while you are here so have a care for the future world and that boundless continuance of eternity If a man live miserable here death will end it if he be prepared for death he shall live happily for ever but if a man live happily as we account it and die miserably that misery is endless Ye mistake beloved ye account men happy that abound in wealth and honour that have great estates I say ye mistake in accounting men happy that enjoy the good things of this life that can live in prosperity to the last time of their age possessing what they have gotten If such a man be not prepared for death Death makes way for a greater unhappiness after death For the more sin he hath committed the more misery shall betide him his life being nothing but a continued chain of wickedness one link upon another till he settle upon a preparation for Death And in the last place here is a great deal of comfort to those that have laboured to prepare for death though to them Death is an enemy yet it is an enemy that is utterly destroyed The Philosopher said that Death is the terriblest of all terrible things so it is to nature because it doth that that no other evil can do it separateth from all comfort and carrieth us we know not whether Death is terrible to a man that is unarmed for death but to the poor Saints that have bestowed their time in humiliation and supplication and confession that have daily endeavoured to renew their faith and hope and repentance Death hath no manner of terribleness in the world if it be terrible to a Christian at the first it is onely because he hath forgot himself a little he doth not bethink how he is armed If God have fitted his servants for death he hath done most for them if they have not riches yet they are fit for death if they have not an estate amongst men it mattereth not a whit if they be fit for Death if they be miserable here in torments and sickness when others have health it is no matter all these increase their repentance makes them labour for Faith and Hope and Charity whereby they are armed against Death Nothing can save us from the hurt of Death but the Lord Jesus Christ put on by Faith and that furnished with Hope and Charity If God give a man other things and not these graces Death is not destroyed to him But if he deny him other things and give him these graces he doth enough for him Death is destroyed to him His body indeed falleth under the stroke of Death as other mens but his soul is not hurt Death layeth him a rotting as the common sort but the soul goeth to the possession of glory and remaineth with Christ When he is absent from the body he is present with the Lord. Nay when the last day shall come Death shall be utterly swallowed up then the poor and frail and weak body that sleepeth in corruption and mortality shall be raised in honour and in immortal beauty and glory a spiritual body free from all corporal weaknesses that accompany the natural body it shall be made most glorious blessed even as if it were a spirit all the weaknesses that accompany the natural being of the body shall be baken away and it shall enjoy as much perfection as a body can and therefore it is called spiritual Therefore I beseech you rejoyce in the Lord if your souls tell you that you are armed against this death THE WORLDS LOSSE AND THE RIGHTEOUS MANS GAINE SERMON VIII ISAIAH 57.1 And merciful men are taken away none considering that the Righteous is taken away from the evil to come WHen I first began this Verse I did never think that all things would have been so sutable to the finishing of it as now I find they are For there is no circumstance that can be required to make a correspondency between a former and a latter handling but is to be found in the two surveyes I took upon this Text. The occasion of handling it now is the same that was before I began it at a Funeral and now at another Funeral I shall end it The place of handling the same as it was before I began the former part of the Verse in this very street at the other end of it Now I shall finish it at this And the time it is the same and every way answerable to that it was before It was begun in a time of Mortality seared
shall he no more As there shall be no more sorrow and pain so there shall be no more death and sin All tears shall be wiped from our eyes I will ransom them from the power of the grave and redeem them from death More then this This yet addeth to our comfort Christ will so destroy Death as be will not only subdue him for us but also reconcile him to us not only foil him as an Enemy but propitiate and make him our friend We have all our enemies subdued to us but some are so subdued that they are reconciled Death is one of them it is a reconciled as well as a subdued enemy Instead of bringing forth children for bondage it becometh a purchaser of our freedom it is so far from plucking us from Christ as rather it letteth us into Christ so far from being a loss as it bringeth gain so far from being a dammage that it is part of our Dowry therefore the Apostle reckoneth it as a prerogative as he saith that the world and life and Christ is ours so Death is ours Indeed if Death were not ours life were not ours for our only way to life now is by Death Such a friend is this Enemy become that it is a Bridge to pass to heaven the Chariot that we are took up to heaven in What we get of life toward life we lose in death but what we get in death toward life we never lose Now for the Application and conclusion of all Something I have to say by way of comfort and something by way of counsel First by way of comfort Against the fear of Death or against over-much sorrow for those that Death takes away It is true Death is an Enemy But to whom only to the wicked that are out of Christ to those that have no benefit at all by his Death and Resurrection and Ascension When Death cometh and findeth out these they may say as Ahab did to Eliah and more truly a great deal hast thou found me oh mine Enemy It is the worst Enemy they have in the world It is a cruel Sergeant that catcheth them by the throat and arresteth them for a debt that they are never able to pay It draggs them to the Jayl casteth them into the Dungeon to the chains of Darkness I have not a word of comfort to say to them They have no more comfort in Death then they have in Hell where though they shall lie in torments and pain they shall not have a drop of water to cool their tongue But to the saithful in Christ there is comfort upon comfort For though Death be an Enemy yet remember first it is a subdued Enemy Secondly a reconciled Enemy Thirdly and lastly an Enemy that one day shall not be at all It is a subdued Enemy that is one comfort The strength and sting of it is gone When a Bee hath lost his sting and is a Droan it can hurt no more So Death is a Droan to a Christian it hums and buzzeth it doth no hurt it cannot sting the sting is gone Against all those Enemies that I formerly told ye of that are attendants on Death here is comfort First it is true Death cometh with ill Harbingers it bringeth sicknesses and aches and pain but there is comfort against this For when God sendeth pain remember he promiseth to send patience too that he will put his hand under to help His left hand shall be under us and his right hand over us to catch us he hath promised comfort upon our sick beds to make our bed in our sickness We need not make such an Allegory as Ambrose doth this sweet flesh of ours the Bed of our soul it is under infirmities and weaknesses God helpeth us he makes our bed he saith to the sick of the Palsey Take up thy bed he turneth our bed in our sickness either he sends us health so some exponds it he turns the bed of sickness into a bed of health or God turneth our bed for us in our sickness that is he refresheth us giveth us ease when we lie upon our sick beds It is a Metaphor borrowed from those that attend sick persons that help to make their Beds easie and soft and turn them that they may lie at ease So God hath promised his children in the painfull time of sickness to make their Beds easie and soft to cause them to lie at ease by the Patience that he will give them Secondly it is true Death bringeth dissolution and dissolveth the frame of nature it separateth and divorceth those two loving companions the Soul and the Body But there is comfort in this For though it divorce the Soul and the Body yet it cannot destroy the soul and the body even the body is in the hand of god when it is rotting in the earth as the Soul is translated to heaven Again though they be separated yet it is but for a time one day they shall meet more joyful and glorious then ever before and after that they shall never be separated again Lastly though he separate the soul from the body and the body from the soul yet neither from Christ nor Christ from them Nay it is so far from separating that it helpeth to unite us to Christ as I said before the dssolution of those shall be the conjunction with him I desire to be dessolved and to be with Christ Thirdly it is true the horrour of the Grave attendeth Death and the putrifaction of this flesh of ours that must turn to corruptness it makes it terrible and fearful But there is comfort against this For after that time of putrifaction there shall be a time of restitution and though the worms devour this flesh of ours yet in thâ—… very flesh of ours we shall see God another day These eyes shall see him There is comfort in that that when God shall come to restore us with himself what the Grave hath cloathed with corruption he will cloath with glory these vile bodies he will make them like the glorious body of Christ without all corruption Fourthly it is true Death depriveth us of worldly friends of worldly imployments this makes it terrible Yet there is comfort against this Though we be deprived of worldly friends it carries us to heaven to better company to Angels to the spirits of just and perfect men to God the Judge of all to Jesus the Mediatour of the New Testament Nay besides one day he will restore again those very friends of which here we are deprived though we lose them for a time in heaven we shall meet again and there renew a perpetual league of society and love So though it deprive us of worldly benefits it cannot of heaven and those are better they are not pleasures of sin that last for a season but at the right hand of God that endure for ever So though it deprive us of worldly
before hand with the patient and quiet bearing and enduring of these many troubles and crosses that befall thee As Agamemnon first overcome the Lacedemonians by wrastling and then by fighting and Bilney first burnt his finger in the Candle that after he might the better endure the burning of his body at the stake So think with your selves If I cannot endure a little how shall I endure more If I cannot endure a light cross a small affliction do I murmur at that Am I impatient and repine at that How shall I bear the pangs of Death when they come Therefore let us inure our selves to a meek and quiet bearing of lesser stripes so we may be better able to endure heavier strokes Many of us lay out a great deale of care how to live in the world we had more need take care how to die when we shall leave the world Study the Art of dying That is the third Lastly that we may the better subdue Death that it may not be an Enemy too strong Learn before so to dispose of our selves and order our affairs that when Death cometh we may have nothing to do but to die Get all differences reconciled all doubts settled all reckonings ordered sequester our selves from all other avocations that nothing may interrupt us when that work is to go inhand with Put thy house in order saith God to Hezekiah I say so to every one of you First your outward house that which concerneth your worldly estate put that house in order What wouldest thou make thy Will and testament and be troubled about that when thou hadst more need to have that Will and testament confirmed that Christ hath made And then set thy soul and conscience thy inner house in order let not conscience be to seek then of any thing that concerneth thee for thy peace toward God and man Die thus and die happily Though Death be an enemy yet thou shalt not be hurt of it because it is subdued and at last thou shalt get the victory over it when thou shalt see it uttery destroyed And now as I have exhorted you to do this by way of counsel so yet a little further I crave patience that I may encourage you to do it by way of example By the example of this blessed servant and Saint of God for whose occasion you have given this meeting and I have preached this Sermon Give me leave to do by her as Mary Magdelen did by our Saviour Christ to break a box of Spiknard and pour it on her that I may anoint her for her burial Concerning whom though I could say a great deal yet knowing how well she was known to you I should not be afraid to say too much Yet on the other side because the night is farr spent and because she was sufficiently known to you although I speak but a little I shall speak enough She dwelt among you who is he that can speak ill of her who knew her but reported well of her The Apostle Saint Paul reduceth all the practical parts of Christianity to three heads Living soberly and righteously and holily The grace of God saith he hath appeared and teachth us to do all this She had learned to live soberly She was a pattern of sobriety Sober in her countenance in her diet in her apparel in her speeth in all her behaviour And the grace of God taught her to live righteously both in those things that concern the works of justice and those things that concern the works of mercy both are referred to righteousness For her justice I am perswaded she was exceeding careful in all her wayes to keep a good Conscience I am sure she was a woman very diligent and painful in her Calling she was truly one of those good house-wives that Solomon describeth in Prov. 31. and had studied that Chapter well and attained the practise of it she could never endure idleness in any there was no plague she said to idleness and that diligence in our Callings sets open a door to many blessings and shuts up the door to many tentations I may call her a discreet woman that was a crown to her husband so Solomon said a vertuous woman is He had a rich portion when God gave him her Houses and lands come by inheritance but a Prudent wife cometh of the the Lord. She was an excellent guide to her family to her servants Children she had none She had such children as S. Austin speaks of and he saith they are those children that women are saved by What children saith he Good works and those children she was full of She did the part of a Mother in bringing up her servants that were with her insomuch as she would say sometimes though they were none of her own children Behold here am I and the children that God hath given me And for works of mercy aswell as justice she was most open-hearted and handed not only to do according but beyond her ability alwayes ready upon every occasion to distribnte and administer to the necessities of the Saints and provoked and stirred others to the doing of the like Among her neighbours she lived unblameably A woman of a meek and quiet spirit and Saint Peter saith Such of God are much set by She was no tatler nor busie medler in other folks matters For Piety she was remarkable She shewed it both in her health and sickness In her health both publikely and privately In publike She was a religious frequenter of the ordinances on the Lords day and on the week dayes a diligent hearer and attender an exceilent rememberer one of the best Remembrancers that I have heard of And in private she was excellent for duties there both for the discharge of her own duty by giving ensample to others and many times by good and godly exhortations and instructions and daily by private reading and prayer she set apart some time for her self for private meditation In her sickness she was a spectacle for thousands to look on It pleased God to lay a long and heavy affliction upon her She had a Cancer in her breast that had been on her three years in the two last years she suffered a great deal of extremity as you may imagine by one thing that I shall say She was fain to endure a great deal of dressing with Corrasives and sharp medicines a great deal of cutting and searing and burning she was above fifty times burnt with hot Irons but Lord with what patience did she still endure it She would say It was no matter sanctified afflictions were better then unsanctified prosperity Apelles said when the picture of a beautiful woman was to be compleatly drawn he must borrow one part from one and another from another and put all together She had learned this She had looked on many good patterns in the Scripture and had drawn to her self an imitation of them all so that she was a perfect and
avoids the corruptions that are in the world through lusts But this looking for the second coming of Christ This Argument John the Baptist used to press upon his hearers the Doctrin of repentance because the king dome of God was at hand This is that upon which Saint Peter groundeth his exhortatoin unto the people Acts 3.18 Repent saith he and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord Therefore repent and return unto God do away your sins because there will a time of refreshing come and you had need then to be found in another hue in another state then in your old rotten withered condition and sinful lusts This is the Argument that the Aposte used to the Athenians to bring them from Idolatry to serve the living God because God hath appointed a time to judg the world in righteousness by that man whom ho hath ordained Even for that reason because God hath appointed a time to judg the world in righteousness therefore they should turne from their Idols to serve the living God There is nothing that doth so unbottome the heart nothing so shakes and looseneth a mans hold of sin and unrighteousness as the consideration of Christs coming to Judgment What will it boot me will the soul reason to keep my sins when Christ will come to judg me for my sins What shall I get by going on in a course of sin when I can look for nothing then but a sentence of wrath to be denounced against me This then is that that doth settle a man in a holy conversation in that respect Nay fourthly this is that also which quickneth a man to the practise of all holy duties in his place both in his general and particular Calling It is the very argument which the Apostle Saint Peter useth to stir us up to holiness of conversation Seeing saith he that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for the coming of the day of God wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat As if he should have said Look now about the whole world and see what it is that now can comfort you if you be such as go on in a course of sin It may be you will say I fear not much for I have many friends Yea but all these shall die It may be thou hast store of lands but all that shall be burnt with fire It may be thou hast many pleasures but then there shall be nothing but Judgment The coming of the Lord that shall then put an end to all these and turn the course of things the expectation thereof is a special means to take us off from a course of sin and put us on to a course of obedience to make us walk in another kind of fashion while we are in the world Therefore the Apostle Saint Paul when he would â—…ir up Timothy to the work of the Ministry what is the Argument that he useth I charge thee before Christ who shall judg the quick and the dead As if he should say there shall be an appearing before the Lord and therefore if thou wilt give thy account up with joy at that day I charge thee to look to thy Ministry So may I say to every man in his place I charge thee that art a Master of a Family look to the business of thy family to the salvation of the souls of thy people I charge thee that art a father or a mother to look to the salvation of the souls of thy children I charge thee that art a Christian to look to the salvation of thy own soul And how is the charge I charge thee before the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judg the quick and the dead Because there shall come a time when both thou and they shall be present before Christ at his appearing therefore if thou wilt have comfort in them and in thy self and in Christ be careful to do the duty that concerns thy place Looking for the coming of the Lord Jesus So then you see in this respect also there is nothing so forcible an Argument to settle a man in a holy conversation in a heavenly course as this for a man alwayes to look for the second coming of Christ Lastly there is nothing fixeth a man so constantly in a holy course as this Our conversation faith the Apostle is alwayes in heaven We alwayes walk on earth as those that aspire to heaven because we alwayes look for the coming of Christ Wert thou carefnl to serve God yesterday do it to day also it may be Christ may come now and take thee away by death to day and there is no preparation for judgment afterward Little children saith Saint John now abide in him that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming What is it that giveth a man boldness and takes away shame from him at the coming of Christ What is the reason that a man hath not that spirit of fear and trembling upon him that shall be upon the hearts of all those that go on in sin when they shall cry to the mountains to fall upon them but this that he hath continued in a holy conversation and constantly walked before the Lord with an upright heart I have finished my course saith the Apostle I have fought a good fight I have kept the faith hence-forth is layd up for me a crown of righteousness which Christ the righteous Judg shall give to me and to all them that love his appearing Still the servants of God have incouraged themselves to persevere in a holy course from the expectation of the coming of Christ that will give them a reward for their constancy in his service It is the Argument that the holy Ghost useth to the Church of Philadelphia Rev. 3.11 Hold fast that thou hast and let no man take thy crown As if he should say There is a time coming when Crowns shall be given but to whome to those that hold out that persevere in a godly course Be thou faithful to the death and thou shalt receive a crown of glory This is that I say that will make a man go on will make him that is good in youth be good in age also because whensoever he dieth he shall receive his Crown This will make a man that he shall not begin in the spirit and end in the flesh this will make him that having put his hand to the plough he will not look back because he no further looks for comfort in the appearance of Christ then he hath had care to walk on constantly in a good course Thus you see the point proved to you that a Christian soul hath a main benefit by his looking for the second coming of Christ
overcoming of all sin and by the vertue of Christ he shall prosper in this I beseech you therefore set your selves awork about this great business to get Repentance and Faith and New Obedience it is much more needful then sleep then meat then attire there is nothing in the world so requisite for thy welfare as these things Scrape thou riches together in the same quantity that Solomon did and ten thousands times more yet thou shalt see Death once within a hundred or half a hundred years Get wisdome yet thou shalt see Death after a few years Take pleasure with as much greediness as he did once when he forgat himself for a space yet thou shalt see death These things that the foolish world hunts after with so much earnestness of desire will not secure thee from the sight of the King of feares Death as Job calleth it But if thou once get Faith and Repentance and new obedience then thou hast obtained that that all the riches and honour and pleasures and learning or whatsoever seemeth desirable in the world will not help their possessors to What will you do brethren Grovel still on the earth and still be mad after back and belly Or will you now begin to think I must die I must shake hands with that dismal enemy pale-faced Death that is able to strike terrour into the strongest heart and amazement into the stoutest soul that is not well confirmed and if this Death find me destitute of true Repentance and Faith and New Obedience it will seize upon me and dragg me before the Judgement seat of God where I shall be Henced away with a malediction and curse and be forced to take my place with the Divel and his Angels in unquenchable flames Oh what shall I do then to secure my self from the great from the strong arme of death I will repent now I will begin Lord draw me help me that I may do it I will beleeve now Lord do thou work Faith that requirest it I will obey Lord inable me to preform such needful duties as thou commandest me Shall this be your practice when you come home Will you thus study to practise Repentance and Faith and Obedience and study to cry and call for it and use all your endeavour Or what will you do will you be as idle and careless as negligent and slothful in making after these graces as before Will you be as greedy of the transitory vanities of this life as in former times Oh abuse not the word of God If thou go out of the Church without a full purpose to apply thy self from hence forward either to begin or to proceed in the practise of the saying of Christ Cursed be thou in thy hearing cursed be that hour that thou hast spent and cursed be thy misbestowed labour thou dissembling hypocrite But if thou labour to practise this of Christ namely to keep his sayings the Doctrine of the Gospel to repent to beleeve and to obey blessed art thou in thy hearing and in thy doing and in thy obedience happy is the time and the place and all things that concur together to draw thee to so needful a work I pray Brethren set not your labour upon gold and silver and money and trash not upon the pleasures and delights and contentments of the world not on any other thing but mainly and principally above all things let your chief care be for Faith and Repentance and Obedience If you strive for these things earnestly and heartily and constantly as sure as the Lord is in heaven he will bestow them upon you and with them the benefit of benefits Freedome from Death And now I shall speak comfort to those few that are in the world that keep these sayings of Christ Let them be of good comfort if their capital enemy the King of fears and the King of Afflictions be held from a possiblity of doing them harm nothing can harme them He that Death cannot hurt paine cannot hurt poverty and disgrace cannot hurt nothing can hurt him You know if the King of an Army be reconciled to a place he will keep his Souldiers from spoyling and burning and destroying that place If Death be put out of power to do thee hurt and God be reconciled in Christ because thou keepest the saying of Christ nothing can hurt thee thou art the happiest man under the Sun Why should the poor sad afflicted grieved mourning lamenting Saints of God envie them that are rich and jolly and merry worldlings any of their pleasures and profits any of those things wherewith they like Idiots make themselves laugh at What hath not God given thee better things then he that thou shouldest murmure and whine and weep for want of them art thou still complaining for want of them Remember what Saint James faith Let the brother of low degree that is abased and dispised in the world rejoyce yea rejoyce with great boasting and glory in his Exaltation This is the exaltation of the Saints Christ writing his sayings in their hearts and inclining them through the operation of his Spirit and the powerful work of his Word to repent and beleeve hath freed them from the danger of Death and interessed them into eternal happiness and that blisse that no tongue can expresse nor no heart conceive This is thy happiness it is not to be rich or to be great for these cannot deliver the owner from the hurt of Death natural nor from the danger of Death eternal But to have Faith and Repentance and Obedience this is riches and exaltation for he that hath them shall not alone escape the Dungeon of eternal darkness but be advanced to the Palace of everlasting felicity The Saint is the happy man the penitent beleever and true practiser of Christian obedience he is the sole and only happy man under the Sun for whatsoever storme he suffereth in this present world he shall certainly escape Death and obtaine Glory Blesse God and bless thy self in God magnifie him rejoyce in him take comfort in thy lot and portion Death that devoureth Kings that destroyeth Emperours that conquers Captaines and men of valour shall not be able to approach thee for thy hurt for thou keepest the saying of the Lord Jesus Christ Rejoyce I say in this magnisie him that is the Authour of it and account thy self happy that thou hast receâ—…ed from him so excellent a gift as to be in some measure inabled to keep his saying Yea if it were so may some Christian heart object then I should esteem my self the happiest man alive â—… but alas where is this Repentance you describe where is this New Obedience in me that still still find my self captive and thral to passion to this and that and the other lust and divers corruptions Where is I say that Repentance when I find so much fin Where is that Faith when I find so much wavering and quaking so much aptness to distrust and almost
to the outward man if a man keep himself in order in regard of these thought is free and the Law doth not take hold of a man for his affections but the Law of God doth therefore you know that lusting after a moman in Gods account is reputed adultery the hating of a mans brother in his heart is accounted manslaughter he is accounted a murtherer that hates his brother so he that is angry unadvisedly you know what he is in danger of and that man is accounted guilty before God that cannot order his affections in regard of those unruly passions that are within him This I observe by the way God in Scripture takes especial notice of it and I am perswaded it is an infallible distinguishing character between an hypocrite and a sincere child of God an hypocrite labours to wash the outside he hath a demure countenance clean hands smooth language c. these things are good but he goes no further he makes no conscience of secret contemplative wickedness of the lusts of his heart and the thoughts of his mind these things he never enters into himself to mortifie But that man that is conscionable so walks with God as that a wrie affection an inward lust after somewhat that is evil troubles him and humbles him before God the vanity of his thoughts in secret cause him to mourn before God this is a sign of a man that walks before God and accounts God a Spirit that searcheth the hearts and tryeth the rains and therefore if ever we will approve our selves to God let our Religion be practical and reflect upon our selves and among other things upon our inward man to set that in order Secondly by way of instruction we see what happy men and women we might be if we were not our own foes if we could attain this pitch to live without fear that nothing should trouble us were it not a happy condition surely it is a thing feazable some Saints have attained it in a great measure you know David when Ziglag was taken his wives gone all the spoyl taken and the people were ready to stone him what did poor David he can incourage himself in the Lord his God notwithstanding this So it may be with a poor Christian his friends may forsake him perhaps the world is gone riches take to themselves wings it may be his body is crazy and all things are out of order yet this man can incourage himself in the Lord his God he can say to himself fear not Saith David though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death a doleful condition yet I will fear none ill Psal 23. And in another place though ten thousand should compass me in on every side I would lay me down and rest Though the Apostles were watched by souldiers laid in the stocks and for ought they knew the next day they should be brought to execution yet they sing as merrily and sleep as heartily as if they had been on a Throne and had been Kings in a Pallace Thus a good conscience will make a Christian happy if he be not his own foe but our hearts are intangled with the world and worldly things that for the most part we see not this priviledge But I leave that Next it may serve to reprehend and chide the most of us yea all in that we are distracted with fears unnecessary such as spend our spirits and consume our precious time such things as make our lives uncomfortable and dishonour God and our Religion and profession and all to no purpose Some things we fear a great while before we need perhaps that we need not fear at all One faith Lord what would become of me if I should loose my wife if I should loose my children or loose my estate What would become of me if the times should be hard if there should be a dear year I can scarse bring both ends together now Another faith what shall I do when I am old and cannot take pains for my living thus men fear a thousand inconveniences What need we meet evils half way what need we create to our selves such troubles sufficient for the day are the troubles of it But in regard of carnal fear all things make us afraid more then we need and the fear of ill oft-times perplexeth a man more then the ill it self that lights upon him And men of a melancholly disposition they frame to themselves such strange Chimera's Imaginations of things that perhaps shall never come to pass and so trouble themselves with a great deal of fear Thou art afraid of such and such losses perhaps thou maist die first and such things perhaps shall never befall thee labour to prepare thy heart before hand and then fear them not I will shew you the inconveniences of this briefly First of all these fears of losses and crosses and the like they often bring a great deal of ill to men nay it brings a great deal of ill as the natural event and consequent of it partly by the judgement of God Isa 66.4 I will bring their fears upon them And that that wicked men fear shall come upon them This is the way to bring ill upon them when men will needs be miserable is it not just with God they should The Romans will come and take away our Empire and so it was Saul was afraid that David should succeed him and so he did When men will not learn to live by faith it is just with God to bring that that they fear upon them because they dishonour him by unbelief In the second place it not only brings ill but it makes the heart unfit for ill when it comes In the fear of man their is a snare but in the confidence of the Lord there is a sure reward In the fear of man there is a snare what doth fear do It insnares a man it binds a man hand and foot and layes him flat before his enemy when he comes and then his enemy tramples upon him It so weakens the Spirits and disheartneth a man before it comes that when it comes he is no way able to bear it For the fear takes away all the joy and content that a man may take in the present good that he enjoyes at the hand of God that he cannot enjoy that because he fears I know not what ill that may come and then when that ill comes he is not able to bear it his spirit is so weak I might shew much hurt that this fear doth both to the soul and to the body of man To the body of man how doth it weaken and contract the Spirits and bring diseases and some times death it self Fear doth much hurt to the soul Naturally Spiritually Naturally it weakens a man in regard of the operations of his sonl that the body is not a fit instrument for the soul to work by It makes a man do divers things
with borrowed and received comfort but by this Because the state of Gods servants in respect of the spiritual quiet and satisfaction and contentment of heart is not alwaies alike but sometime they have abundance of joy that they seem to be as it were in heaven Sometimes they are perplexed with many disquiets and griefs that they seem to be cast down to the deep as it is said of the Marriners in Psal 107. what is the reason of this but that no flesh should glory in it self that every man might know that whatsoever he hath to make his life comfortable and pleasing to him it is from God that dispenseth it to men in that proportion as seemeth good to his own wisdome God will have us know that all the happiness of our spirits is in their union with the chief of spirits with himself and that when they are but a little separated from him when he doth but a little withdraw himself from them they are as a thing that is dead how shall we know that the branches have sap from the root that it is that that makes them flourish and grow but by this If you do but cut them off from the root they whither presently So it is with the spirit with the heart of man if God do but a little withdraw himself let sin but make a separation between God and man now a man is like a withered branch he hath nothing now to revive him because he is divided from the root At the least it is with him as it is with a tree in Winter though the sap remains in the root so though he remain in union with the root yet the moisture is gotten into the root it self and doth not now infuse it self into the branches I confess the servant of God that is once united to Christ shall never be separated the union it is now and alwaies shall be but nevertheless the sap and comfort of the Spirit it may remain in the head our life may be hid in Christ and may not appear in us at all And we are then in that estate as if we were branches cut off whereby it may appear that whatsoever life and comfort and strength of heart we had it was from Christ and by the influence and work of his Spirit And then for the time to come God doth it to prevent some distempers that might grow on the hearts of his servants if they should alwaies be in a like state of spiritual joy God doth it to prevent pride Paul was apt to be lift up with those revelations therefore a messenger of Satan was sent to buffet him And so it may be to prevent carnal confidence in the creature a man would begin to ascribe somewhat to himself to his present condition if it were alwaies thus with him you know what the Apostle Paul saith 2 Cor. 1.10 We received in our selves the sentence of death that we might not trust in our selves but in God that raised the dead look to what end Paul received the sentence of death to that end Gods faithful servants sometimes receive the very sence of death as it were and the sence of the destitution and want of all spiritual comforts for the present Why That they might not trust in themselves or in those habits of grace and comforts they have or in any creature whatsoever The work of Gods spirit in the regenerate soul it is but a creature a work of God and God will not have men trust in any such thing in what then In him that raiseth from the dead God will bring them to such a state that they shall seem as dead men as destitute of all spiritual comforts they have that they might trust in him that is able to raise them out of such a state as that that look as he is able to give life to the dead body so he is able to give comfort to the distressed soul that is at that time in the shaddow of death Secondly it comes sometimes from Satan and that is thus Satan wonderfully sets himself against the seed of the woman especially against the promised seed Christ he will alway be at his heel Gen. 3.16 and in his opposition against Christ he sets against the very glory of Christ among men and that is his kingdom he would not have Christ exalt his kingdom over men Now the kingdom of Christ consists as the Apostle speaks not in meat and drink but in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost If he cannot keep a Christian a true beleever from unrighteousness he will labour to interrupt his peace if he cannot keep him from the habit of peace peace in the grounds of it yet he will keep him from the exercise and effects of that peace from joy he will hinder that as much as he can that he may not have the sence of his blessedness he knows that spiritual joy strengthens a man to all spiritual duties and his endeavour is to weaken all the servants of Christ in all their services and therefore he doth at least labour against that with all his might that if they will needs go on yet nevertheless to propound and occasion as many things that may be troublesome to them and disquiet their hearts as he can And there are two principal wayes that I may but touch them whereby Satan wondrously prevails in this particular The one is by stealing out of their hearts those precious promises those comforts whereby the Word of God revives the soul You have forgotten saith the Apostle the consolations of God And the devil meets in man with two advantages to help him in the effecting of this First he turns the thoughts upon new objects and herein he doth diametrically and directly set himself against God in the way of his special providence that very thing that God in wonderfull wisdom hath wrought in the heart for the ease and comfort of man Satan makes it an occasion of trouble and that is this the variety of mans thoughts what is the reason that God hath framed the mind of man to change his thoughts continually and to have innumerable thoughts Certainly for the very ease of the Spirit of man for the very ease of the soul of man For if the mind should keep intent upon any one thought long it would so work upon that that it would weary it self out in working as we see men by excess of grief in particular cases grow to be phrensie and destracted and the like Now this aptness of the mind to run to variety of thoughts that God hath made for the ease of man Satan turns it as a help to hurt him A man shall run on into a world of business of temptations and distractions that shall draw him from the thought of those things that he hath heard for the relieving of his Spirit wherein God spake comfort to his heart that he may the better fasten those
all the Angels and Saints in Heaven the spirits of just men made perfect to Abrahams bosome to be with Christ Et quanta 〈◊〉 felicitas What greater happiness 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 eternal fellowship with God the father with Christ the Redeemer with the Holy Ghost the sanctifier The knowledg of this benefit of Death makes the face of it comfortable to Gods servants and causes them to strive with their own natural weakness 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 sin And else-where he stiles it Christs enemy the last enemy that he shall subdue is Death How should not death then be rather a day of misery to be trembled at then a day of happiness to be longed for To this I answer that we are to distinguish touching Death for it must be considered two wayes First as it is in its owe nature Secondly as it is altred by Christ in the first sence it is true that Death is the wages of sin 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 door opening out of this world into Heaven Now the godly look 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 we read of many that have prayed against death as namely first David Return O Lord faith he and deliver my soul oh spare me for thy mercies sake for in death there is no remembrance of thee Secondly Hezekiah when the message of death was brought to him Thirdly Christ himself Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me To all these I answer first touching David that when he composed that sixt Psalm he was not only grievously sick but also exceedingly tormented in mind for he wrastled and combated in his conscience with the wrath of God as appears by the first Verse of that Psalm therefore we must know that he prayed not simply against Death but against death at that time in asmuch as the coming of it was accompanied with extraordinary apprehensions of Gods wrath for at another time he tells us that he would not fear though he walked through the valley of the shaddow of Death And the like I say touching Hezekiah that his prayer proceeded not from any desperate fear of Death but first that he might do more service to God in his Kingdom And with such a kind of thought was Saint Pauls desire of dissolution mingled Secondly he prayed against Death then because he knew that his death then would be a great cause of rejoycing to evil men to whom his reformation in the State was unpleasing Thirdly because he wanted issue God had promised before to David that there should not fail a man of his seed to sit upon the throne of Israel so that his children did take heed to their wayes Now it was a great discomfort to him to die chidless for then he and others might have thought that he was but an Hypocrite in as much as God had promised issue to all those Kings that feared him and for this cause God heard his prayer and after two years gave him a son Manasseh by name And so I say the same touching our Saviour Christ that he prayed not against Death as it is the separation betwixt Body and Soul as appears by what the Apostle faith that he was heard in that he feared for he stood in our room 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 he feared and from this according to his prayer he was delivered But thirdly we see in most good men a fear of Death and a desire of life and I my self may some godly man say do feel my self ready to tremble at the meditation thereof and yet I hope I belong unto God I answer that there are two things to be 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 weak And as in all other good purposes there is a combate betwixt the flesh and the spirit so is there in this betwixt the fear of Death and the desire of Death sometime the one prevails and sometimes the other but yet alwayes at last the desire of Death doth get the victory Carnal respects do often prevail far with the best care of wise children and the like These 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 clearly the happiness into which their Death in Christ shall enter them do even sigh desiring to be clothed upon with their house which is from Heaven Here then is a good Mark 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 be most for the comfort of those that truly fear God I demand therefore of thee Dost thou know that the confident and comfortable expectation of Death is the work of the Holy Ghost in Gods servants Dost thou desire unfeignedly that the same may be wrought in thy heart Dost thou labour to know what happiness comes by Death to those that feare the Lord Dost thou grieve at thine own weakness to whom the thought of Death is sometime troublesome and unsavory Dost thou pray the Lord so to assure thee of his favour in Christ that death may be 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 these things shew that thou art Gods servant and that by Death the Lord will draw thee to a place of rest If these thoughts which I have now named be strangers to thy heart and thou dost not love to trouble thy self to study about Death it is an evil sign The servants of God are not wont to be so secure in matters of this quality And thus much for the first particular in the first general part the desire in the godly of death the second is their care for it the point thence is that It is the care of Gods servants to be alwayes so prepared for death as at what instant soever the Lord shall send it they
may be comfortably ready to entertain it So much may easily be gathered out of Simeons words here Nunc dimittis Now let thy servant depart He did not as it were take a day over in which and against which to be provided as though he should have said Lord now will I settle my self to make provision for my last end but even now Lord at this very instant if thou wilt Death hath been my ordinary meditation and if thou wilt now call me home to thee I am ready to depart As in the former point I shewed you how Saint Pauls longing agreed with Simeons Oh let thy servant depart faith Simeon I desire to be dissolved faith Paul So here I will shew you that there was the same care in respect of Death in Saint Paul as in Simeon Now if thou wilt faith Simeon I am now ready to be offered faith Saint Paul And else-where I did daily I am ever thinking upon death and daily making provision for my end This was holy Jobs mind All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait till my change come there was a continual expectation So teach us to number our dayes prayeth Moses that we way apply our hearts to wisdome And what wisdome did he wish he might apply his heart unto but this a holy care to make provision for another world seeing in this there was no continuance The same in effect the Authour to the Hebrews professeth touching himself and those that were like to him that they had here no continuing City but did seek one to come We know faith he here is no abiding we dwell in tents which must remove in houses of clay which will be broken therefore we desire to be ever ready for that place which is of more perpetuity And so much may be gathered from that which is upon record concerning Joseph of Arimathca he did not only make ready his Tomb in his life-time but in his garden his place of solace and delight and how could so good a man so often think on death without labouring and caring to be ever provided for the same and therefore our Saviour Christ compares his faithful servants unto those which daily wait for their Masters coming Now the reason which so much prevails with the godly in this particular and which ought to be of sufficient force with every one is first the certainty and uncertainy of death Morte nihil certius As sure as Death is an ordinary Proverb What man is he that liveth and shall not see death faith the Psalmist That all must die it is Heavens decree and cannot be revoked The thing it self we see is most certain yet for some circumstances most uncertain for first Tempus est incertum No man knows when he shall die in the night or in the day in Winter or in Summer in youth or in his latter age Secondly Locus est incertus None know where they shall die whether at home or abroad in his bed or in the field who knows but that he may die in the Church of God even while he is asleep at the Word Thirdly Mortis genusest incertum No man can determine how he shall die whether suddenly or by a lingring sickness whether violently or by a natural course These things the servants of God know full well and seriously weigh the same and that makes them to make conscience of continual preparation that whensoever or wheresoever or howsoever they die they may with comfort commend their souls into the hands of God as into the hand of a faithful Creatour Secondly they know the misery of being taken by Death unprepared put case a man should die as Ishbosheth lying upon his bed at noon or as Jobs children while they are seasting or that a man like the rich man in the Gospel should have his breath taken from him at the very instant having made no provision for another world what hope can there be that such a one should be saved They know thirdly that the time of sickness is the most unfit time for this business of preparation the senses are then so taken up with the pain of sickness that a man cannot think seriously upon ought else and besides it is not in our own power to turn to God when he will ordinarily God forgets those in sickness that forget him in health And it is commonly seen that that preparation for Death that begins but in sickness is as languishing and faint as is the party from whom it comes And although Vera poenitentia be nunquam sera yet sera poenitentia est raro vera Though I say true repentance be never too late yet late repentance is seldome true when men leave their sins because they can continue to practise them no longer what thanks have they or what can that repentance be These things work with Gods servants to study to be ever ready for the Lord not to delay preparation but to seek continually to be provided My exhortation hence shall begin with that speech of Moses Oh that men would be wise to understand this and that they would consider their latter end I would there were a heart in us to entertain this doctrine in our best thoughts I remember the Complaint of old that men had made a Covenant with Death and were at agreement with Hell Death indeed will make truce with no man but here is the meaning Evil men perswade themselves that they are in no danger of hell or of the grave Death will not come yet thinketh the oldest man and when it comes I hope I shall do well enough thinketh the most godless man Thus men couzen themselves with their own fancies and so Death steals upon them at unawares and becomes Gods Sergeant to arrest them and to carry them away to eternal condemnation Who amongst us is able to say truly and upon good ground as Simeon Now Lord if thou wilt now command Death to seize upon me welcome shall it be unto me I am even now ready to receive it How many are there that are extraordinary ignorant in the means how to escape the sting of Death How many extreamly secure that never in their lives yet thought earnestly upon this how they may die with comfort and end their dayes in peace How many prophane ones that set light by Death being apt to say like those Epicures Edamus c. Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die How many that do put all to a desperate adventure God made us and he must save us and we shall do as well as please God and there is an end How many are there whose hearts albeit they be in the house of God and in his presence are notwithstanding fraughted with malice with envy with worldliness with disdain with secret scorning repining at the Word which they hear with wearisomeness with spiritual sleepiness and security You
not your souls with these vain conceits with your Popish and carnal imaginations I say and testifie from this place that that man or woman which careth not to be taught out of Gods book cannot die like a Christian Who can teach thee the way to die well but God And where doth God teach but in the Scripture If our thoughts of Death if our provision and preparation for Death be not warranted and guided by Gods word it is all in vain Lord faith Simeon my desire of dissolution is according to thy Word my care to be prepared hath been ordered by thy Word he cannot die with comfort that cannot make the like profession And this may serve for the next general part the ground of this desire and preparation for Death it is Gods word Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart according to thy Word The third and last part follows the nature and quality of the death of the Righteous A departure in peace or a peaceable dismission Here are two things first a dismission secondly a dismission accompauied with peace The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated Let thy servant depart may well be Englished thus let thy servant loose Lord free me enlarge me set me at liberty Hence we learn that The servants of God do by Death receive a final discarge from all manner of misery This is evident out of the force of the phrase here used Simeon knew that so long as he lived his soul was as it were imprisoned in his body and in it he was held in bondage under the remnants of Original corruption subject to the assaults and temptation of Satan in continual and daily possibility to trespass and sin against Cod beside other afflictions and grievances in the body and estate but he had withal this knowledge and understanding of the nature of Death that it was an enlargement to the soul and a freeing of it utterly and finally from all those and the like incumbrances The same may be gathered from the phrase used by Saint Raul I desire faith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be dissolved and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read the time of my departure the words shew that there coms a liberty by death to the souls of Gods servants The phrase that Saint Peter useth is worthy our observation for this purpose First he terms death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the laying down of a burden and by that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the laying down of a burden and by that means the soul is lightned and eased Secondly he terms it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a going out from a place and condition of hardship The second book of Moses which relates the dyparture of the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage hath the same name Exodus As for the point it self namely that the death of the Righteous is to them a discharge from all misery the Scripture bears witness to it Blessed said he are the dead which die in the Lord even so faith the spirit that they may rest from their labours As long as they live here they are diversly troubled when they die their labours are at an end and they are received into rest Saint John tels us that in his vision he saw the souls of them that were slain lye under the Alter Now the Alter in the time of the law was a place of resuge and safety and thence it appears that by death the servants of God are est-soons received into a place of holy security where there is no expectation of any further misery They are said to be received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into Abrahams bosome into the fellowship of the same happiness with Abraham the Father of all true believers The Doctrine in the first place makes against those of the Church of Rome which maintain a place of torment even for the servants of God after this life where they must be tryed for a time before they can enter into Rest and happiness This place they term Purgatory the torment here they hold to be unspeakable far surpassing any torment which the wit of man is able to devise But this place among others is sufficient to overthrow this dotage for how were death to the Righteous a dismission a loosing a freedom from misery if there followed after it a torment of far greater extremity then at any time before was ever tasted of So that the death of the servants of God being as I have proved it to be an enlargment from misery certainly the soul is not bound in any new Prison whence it must expect and wait and pray for a second dismission In the next place this Doctrine makes much for the comfort of Gods servants the face of Death to the wicked is very dreadful the day of it is to them the beginning of sorrows their souls are instantly arrested by the damned spirits and kept in everlasting chains of darkness but to those that are the servants of God it is otherwise I may by way of allusion to the phrase of my Text compare their day unto that which happened unto Joseph in which he was brought out of prison to be Ruler over all the land of Egypt So is their death unto them a day of Bailment out of prison a day in which all tears shall be wiped away In which they shall have beauty for ashes and the oyl of gladness for the spirit of heaviness and the long white robes of Christs Rightcousness by which they shall be presented blameless unto God That day shall be to them even as was the day of escape to the Jewes a feast and a good day in which they shall see God as he is and know him as they are known of him But happily thou maist say how shall I know that the day of Death is the day of dissolution and this kind of dismission A very necessary quaere indeed this is for every man almost is ready to challenge to himself a part of this happiness and it is a matter presumed upon by many which shall never enjoy it I will therefore give you one certain mark by which we may know assuredly that the day of our death shall be to us a day of enlargment and of final discharge 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 sin hath seemed unto us the greatest burden and bondage They which have groaned and mourned under their own natural corruptions as it were under some heavy and tyrannous yoak or as the Israelites mourned under their Egyptian Task-masters to them only shall the day of death be a day of freedome If sin be not a burden to thee if thou dost not many times lament and even mourn to think how thou art carried captive unto evil if thou dost not with griese feel how thou art clogged with corruption
and the more difficult work and if I be able to do the greater I am able to do the less he that believes ix me faith Christ though before he were dead in trespasses and sins yet he shall live he shall live the life of grace Then followes the Fxplication and confirmation of the second member of the Proposition in these words Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die I am the life faith Christ for whosoever believeth in me and so is restord to spiritual life he shall never die he shall never die to speak properly for he shall never perish he shall never die this life shall never be taken from him neither here nor hereafter not here for he shall continue to live the life of grace not hereafter for though the body shall die yet this separation of the body from the soul it is not so properly a death as a passage to life a passage from the life of grace to the life of glory And this body also that is separated from the soul it shall be quickned again and shall be raised up to live for ever therefore he that believeth in me shall never die Thus you see the words expounded Now from the first member of this Proposition I am the Resurrection and the Exposition and confirmation of it in these words He that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live Hence the point of Doctrine I will observe is this that Jesus Christ is the Fountain and Author of all life He is able to give and restore life to those that are dead He is the Resurrection Now whereas there is a double death and a double Life and consequently a double Resurrection we must understand that Christ is the Author of both in this place we are not to exclude either Therefore we will endeavour to expound this general doctrine in these three particulars First Christ hath such a quickning power in him that he is able to raise up those dead bodies of his that now lie in the Grave Secondly Christ hath such a quickning power in him that he is able to raise up the soul that is dead in sins to a spiritual life Thirdly we will shew you why Christ as in this place so else-where doth express both the state of the faithful here and their estate after under the same phrase of speech he comprehends both under this term I am the Resurrection For the first of these Christ is the Author of life he hath such a quickning power in him that he is able to raise up the dead bodies of his out of their graves We will speak first of this Resurrection that is of the body though it be later in time Because that naturally we are more apt to conceive of the death and life of the body then of the death and life of the soul And secondly because that the understanding of this Resurrection of the body will give light to the understanding of the other of the soul And here first we will shew briefly what this Resurrection of the body is And then prove that Christ is the Author and the fountain of it First the Resurrection of the body is this when the soul that was actually separate from the dead body returns again to its proper body and being united to it the man riseth up out of the Grave with an immortal incorruptible body to lead a glorified life This it the Resurrection of the body Now that Christ is the Author of this Resurrection of the body it is evident For as Christ himself by his own power raised himself being dead in the Grave John 2.19 faith Christ destroy this Temple and in three dayes I will raise it again speaking of the Temple of his body And so again Joh. 10.18 I have power faith Christ to lay down my life and to take it up again so likewise Christ by his quickning spirit he will raise up the bodies of those that are now dead in the grave as we may see Joh. 5.28 29. Marvel not at this faith Christ for the hour is coming in which all that are in the grave shall hear the voice of the Son of man and shall come forth they that have done good to the resurrection of life c. In this regard Christ is called the first fruits of them that sleep For as the first fruits being offered to God did sanctifie the whole crop and the owner hereby was assured of the blessing of God upon all the rest so Christ is the first fruits of the dead and his Resurrection it is an assurance to the faithful of their Resurrection and the cause of it both an assurance a pledge of it and likewise a cause of it Therefore herein Christ the second Adam is opposed to the first Adam As the first Adam who was the root of all man-kind did communicate death and mortality to all those that spring from him so likewise Christ the second Adam by his Resurrection he conveyes life and a quickning power to all his members as we may see 1 Cor. 15.21.22 For since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead for as in Adam all die Adam he communicates death and mortality to all that spring from him even so in Christ shall all be made alive Christ he conveyes life to all his members and they are all quickned by his Spirit therefore Christ is called a quickning spirit 1 Cor. 15.45 The first Adam was made a living soul but the last Adam a quickning spirit not only a living but a quickning spirit And this quickning power and vertue Christ did manifest before his resurrection by raising up three from death namely by raising the Widdows son Luke 7. and Jairus his Daughter Luke 8. and Luzarus here in this chapter And at his resurrection also he manifested this his quickning power in that he rose not alone but raised the bodies of many of his Saints with him many of his Saints arose with him and as they rose with Christ their head so also they ascended to glory together with Christ their head and the resurrection of these it was an effect of the resurrection of Christ it was by the power of Christs resurrection Of these we may read Mat. 27.52 53. The graves opened and many bodies of the Saints that slept arose and came out of their graves after his resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared to many Thus you have the first conclusion proved that Christ is the Author of the resurrection of the body Now in the next place the second conclusion is this that Christ is the Author and Fountain of spiritual life also He is the Author of the Resurrection of the soul and the resurrection of the soul it is this when the Spirit of grace of which we were all deprived in Adam returns again to the soul of a natural man and so quickens the man that the man begins to
and yet there is none of his coming Wilt thou still retain thine integrity right Jobs Wife as she speaks to him wilt thou still retain thy trust to what purpose is it It is in vain to serve the Lord as those wicked ones speak in Malachy Now if Hope will come in and say notwithstanding all these things yet pass by bad report and good report be of Davids mind I will yet be more vile before the Lord that chose me before thee and thy fathers house and I will stand it out notwithstanding all the mockings of men Here is a manifest sign that there is Hope Thus you may seek to find this grace in your selves and you shall find it by many such kind of assaults as these which Faith meeteth withall Now as you are to find it so you are to fight against the hindrances of this Hope And the hindrances of a mans hope are sometimes slavish fear sometimes an impatient spirit and sometimes even Death it self and that is a tedious affront indeed that Hope meeteth withall First Fear a kind of passion and perturbation of the spirit of a man that makes his grief begin before his affliction comes upon him this same Fear hath a great deal of painfulness in it Where the fearful are they are shut our with the unfaithful and without shall be dogs with those that are subject to this fearfulness Now Hope cometh to a man and faith Though I sometime be afraid yet put I my trust in God and therefore I will not fear what man can do unto me I will not be danted with any kind of slavish terrour Hold out thou that faist thou hast faith and be not afraid of the Arrow that flies by day nor of the terrour by night Here is the hindrance of this hope taken away Then there is an impatient spirit that many times possesseth men An impatient spirit and a hopeful heart they are both as contrary as can be You shall have many a man so touchy that he cannot endure any delay he must have things come according to his own mind or he loseth his patience presently Oh but I will patiently wait for the Lord saith hope And here is the opposition that must be made for the maintenance of this hope against all kind of impatiency In patience possesse your souls The last hindrance is death The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death We have many enemies in this world our very life is a warfare but amongst all the fightings and combates we meet with in the world there is none comparable to this last single combate we must undergo with death it self this is a terrible assault that betideth the hopeful faithful man to know that notwithstanding all his faith and all his hope and all his love and all his patience what grace or vertue soever he hath else yet not withstanding he must go down to the grave make his bed in the darkness and lie down in the dust and when he hath fought all that he can yet not withstanding he must down he must yeeld he must take the foyl the fall in the body howsoever the soul escapeth Now here is a kind of dismaidment of hope But I will tell you how it is spoken of the faithful and so of the hopeful The faithful are said to endure as seeing him that is invisible how do they endure by the supply of hope for this hope is it that makes the faithful against all hindrances to fight it out so as that they would not be delivered as it is spoken in the Epistle to the Hebrews And shall death separate us from that we hope for No faith the hopeful man it shall not Yea so far he is from being unwilling to submit himself to this way as knowing it to be the way whereby he cometh to that he hopeth for as that he is very ready and greedy of death it is the way to that I hope for saith he therefore it is sweely spoken of an Ancient and you will acknowledge it to be a sweet sentence of that Father Saint Austin He that desireth to be dissolved according to that of the Apostle and to be with Christ Non patienter moritur He doth not die patiently See here is a faithful a hopeful man and yet doth not die patiently what would the Father say He liveth saith he patiently the very life he liveth putteth him to his patience when he cometh to die he dyeth pleasantly he goeth away with his hope and his hope is full of immortality And no more for that point The next thing I observe is concerning the Object of this hope and this is it that Christ is Object of the Christians hope We have hope in Christ Hear it in the general hear it in the speciall In the general 1. Tim. 1.1 Saint Paul he beginneth his Epistle with Christ our hope Col. 1.27 The riches of the mystery of Gods grace to the Gentiles is Christ in you the hope of glory Here is Christ our hope and Christ your hope in the general In the special hear it in Saint Paul hear it in the prophets and others Saint Paul to me to live is Christ to die is gain Christ is to me in life and death advantage living or dying I am Christs I have hoped in the Lord faith the Prophet David And God is my hope and hath been my help even from my youth This is the general song of the whole Church God is our hope and therefore the Prophet Jacob made an excellent Ejaculation in those blessings he gave his sons when he said Oh Lord I have waited for thy salvation Here was his waiting his hope for the salvation of God from the God of his salvation And so let him slay me if he will saith holy Job yet not withstanding I will still trust in him Thus the faithful have hope and their hope is in Christ No more of it for the enlargement of it It sheweth to us in the first place this Note that A Christians wings do mount him above all means What are his wings his hope Whither slyeth his hope It takes its flight up to heaven to God to the right hand of God to Christ there is his hope So then he that hath this hope being poor he flyeth not to riches for they make themselves wings and fly away from him Being weak he flyeth not to the arm of flesh for in man there is no hope nor no confidence to be put in Princes in the Ballance they are lighter then vanity it self faith the Psalmist Being sick he flyeth not to the Physitian he fleeth to these as the means not to rest in them to make it the main of his aim the scope of his hope he doth not fly thus to them but he goeth to God that commandeth all that worketh above all against all and without all
up all the sons of Adam shall be swallowed up it self into victory Till then we shall all go 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in our several rank and order take our last walk the way of all flesh and it is happy if we go it as Abraham did here in peace and a special blessing if we be gathered as he was to his Fathers in the Autumne of a good old age In which words we have two Acts of a Tragedy the former acted upon his Stage thou shalt go to thy Fathers the latter under the scaffold and be buried in a good old age None die better then they who have life in their hope and none live better than they who have death in their mind and thought especially if it be in the time of their health and bloom of their beauty and pride of their youth and top of their earthly happiness For this cause Joseph of Arimathes 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 Funeral and John surnamed the Almoner began his Sepulchre on the day he was Consecrated Patriark of Alexandria and it was the manner of the ancient Emperours at their Coronation feast to have several sorts of Marble shewed them to the end that they might choose one of them for their Tomb-stone and agreeable hereunto the interlineary gloss yeeldeth a reason why God commanded that the oyle wherewith the Kings were annoynted should be compounded with Cinnamon and other spices quod sit cinericii coloris because it is of the colour of Ashes or rather such mould 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 we have great cause to Bless the providence of our heavenly Father who in the midst of our Marriage feasts and many occasions of mirth and joy presents us with such sad spectacles as here we see to the end we should not exceed in our mirth or too far set our heart upon the pleasures and comforts of this life which like sticks under a pot after a blaze fall suddenly into ashes Let us learn from all the changes and chances of this mortal life not to sing a requiem to our souls here with the fool in the Gospel because we have wealth laid up for us for many years for if our riches take not their wings and fly away from us we shall be taken away from them we shall be arrested by Gods Bayliff Death and then we must go But thou shalt go Our observations from this Scripture ariseth from two springs 1. The manner 2. The matter The former divides it self into two Rivelets the latter into three In the former to wit the manner I observe 1. That these words were spoken to Abraham in a Dream when the Sun was going down a heavy sleep fell upon him 2. That they were spoken by way of Gracious promise In the latter to wit the matter I observe three blessings bestowed upon Abraham 1. A comfortable death Thou shalt go in peace 2. An honourable burial and be buried with thy Fathers 3. A seasonable time for both in a good old age First of the manner When the Sun was setting a deep sleep and dreadful darkness fell upon Abraham and God shewed him in a dream the misery and thraldome of his postetity in Egypt Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them and they shall afflict them 400. years vers 13. and lest at the sight hereof his heart should utterly have failed him and his bowels dryed up within him like a pot-sheard God cleareth the skie which was clouded with a smoak of a fiery furnass vers 17. and cheareth his heart reviving him with a promise of safety and peace for himself and of deliverance of his posterity also out of their grievous servitude after a certain period of years allotted for the promise of the growth and ripeness of the Amorites sins For dreams in general the great Secretary of Nature discovereth unto us that the Dreams of good men are better than the Dreams of bad and he will have his foelix or happy man to have a singular priviledge above other men even in his sleep And doubtless as a good conscience is a full feast in the day so it is a light banquet in the night for better thoughts and phantesies in the day beget better dreams in the night as the brighter colours in the Window when the Sun shineth cast clearer species intentionales or reflections from them on the Wall God is with his children as well in the night as in the day and he imparts his counsels and discloseth his secrets as well by dreams in the one as by visions in the other That prophesie of Joel I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams though it were fulfilled in the day of Penticost as Saint Peter instructeth us yet ought it not to be restrained to that day or the Apostles time only For it hath been verified in all after-ages and holdeth still for profitable and comfortable irradiations of Gods Spirit upon the soul by day and night though not for supernatural and prophetical revelations or not so frequent Dreams therefore as they are not with the Eastern people supertitiously to be observed so neither are they utterly to be neglected as idle and vain nocturnal phantasies The Poet could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jupiter sends Dreams and Ariflotle dreamed not when he wrote his exact discourse of Divination by dreams nor Artemidorus when he published his curious tract intituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judgment of Dreams for the experience of all times proveth that the Dreams of many men especially a little before their death have been very considerable When the window of the senses are shut the soul hath best leisure to look into her self and after sickness hath battered down the walls of the dark prison of the body in which she was close kept more light breaks in upon her and she seeth farther off then she could before and this is the meaning of the Platonicks in that their Apophthegme anima promonet in morte the soul looks out as it were neer death For this particular in my Text God is gracious to many of his children now adayes by Dreams or otherwayes to give them notice of their departure hence To some he maketh known the year to some the moneth to some the very day and hour when they shall go the way of all flesh And as here he fore-shewed Abraham his departure from hence per viam lecteum by the milky way as it were that is by a sweet and pleasant passage of a natural death in the autumn of his life so also in a Dream he
I was thirsty and you gave me drink I was naked and you clothed me I was sick and in prison and you visited me or an Allegory as Where the body is there the Eagles will be gathered or an Apostrophe as Hear O heavens and hearken O earth or an Exclamation Oh that they were wise then they would understand this Oh that my people would have hearkned io my voyce and that Israel would have walked in my wayes In other passages a conjunction and combination of many figures and ornaments of speech as in that Text of the Prophet Jeremy Is there no balm in Gilead no Physitian there Why then is not the health of my people restored In which one verse you may note four figures First an interrogation for more emphatical conviction Secondly a communication for more familiar instruction Thirdly an Allegory for more lively expression Fourthly an Aposiopesis for safer reprehension and the like we observe in our Saviours exprobration O that thou knewest in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace O Jerusalem Jerusalem which killest the Prophets and stonest those that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children as a hen doth her chickens and thou wouldst not Here is a posie of rhetorical flowers an Exclamation O si câ—…gnovisses a reticentia at least in this thy day saltem in hoc die tuo A repetition Jerusalem Jerusalem an interrogation how oft would I quoties volui And lastly an Icon or lively expression to the eye sicut galina congregat pullos suos As the hen gathereth her chickens under her wings Where are now our Anabaptists and plain pack-staff methodists who esteem of all flowers of Rhetorick in Sermons no better then stinking weeds and of all elegancies of speech then of prophane spells For against their wills at unawares they censure the holy Oracles of God in the first place which excell all other writings as well in eloquence as in Science doubtless as the breath of a man hath more force in a Trunk and the wind a lowder and sweeter sound in the Organ-pipe then in the open ayr so the matter of our speech and the theam of our discourse which is conveyed through figures and forms of Art both sound sweeter to the ear and pierce deeper into the heart there is in them plus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more evidence and more efficacie they make a fuller expression and take a deeper impression secondly where are our prophane criticks who delight in the flesh-pots of Egypt and loath Manna admire carnal eloquence in Poets and heathen Oratours and task the Scriptures for rude simplicity and want of all Art and eloquence It is true the Scripture is written in a style peculiar to it self the elocution in it is such as Lactantius observeth that it befitted no other books as neither doth that we find in other books befit it As the matter in Scripture so the form is divine nec vox heminum sonat which consisteth not in the words of mans wisdome but in the evidence of the Spirit Yet is there admirable eloquence in it and far surpassing which we find in all other writings Wherefore Politian the Grammarian who pretended he durst not touch any lease in the Bible for fear of defiling the purity of his language or slurring the gloss of his style is condemned as well by learned humanists as Divines And Theopompus who went about to cloath Gods word with gay and trim phrases of heathen Orators and Poets was punished by God with loss of his wits Thus have we viewed the form let us now have an eye to the matter our Lords conquest over Death and the Grave There are two things most dreadful to the nature of man Death and the Grave the one severeth the soul the other consumeth the body and resolveth it into dust the valiantest conquerours that with their bloody flags and coulors have struck a terrour unto all Nations yet have been afrighted themselves at the displaying of the pale and wan coulours of Death the most retired Philosophers and Monks who have lived in Cells and Caves under the ground yet have been startled at the sight of their Grave How much then are we indebted to our Christian saith that not only overcometh the world but also conquereth the fear of Death and the grave and dareth both in the words of my Text O death sting me if thou canst O grave conquer me if thou be able O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory In which words the Apostle like a Cryer calleth Death and the Grave into the Court and examineth them upon two Articles first concerning the sting of the one secondly concerning the victory of the other Will it please you then to fix the eye of your observation upon the parts of this Text as they are laid before you in terms of Law 1 A Citation 2 An Examination In the Citation upon 1 the manner of it 2 the parties cited 1 Death 2 Grave In the Examination 1 Upon the first Interrogatory put to Death touching the ledging of his sting 2 Upon the second Interrogatory put to the Grave touching the field of his victory First for the manner of Citing it is by an Apostrophe a figure often accurring in holy Scripture as in the book of Kings O Altar Altar O ye mount ains of Gilboa and of the Psalmes lift up ye gates and be ye lift up you everlasting doors and of the Canticles Arise O North and blow O South and in the Prophets O earth earth earth In imitation of which strings of rhetorick the Auncient Fathers in their funeral Orations many times turned to the dead and used such compellations as these audi Constantine vale Paula hear O Constantine farewel O Paula From which passages our advesaries very weakly if not ridiculously infers the invocation of Saints departed making weapons of plumes of feathers and arguments of ornaments and which is far worse Divinity of rhetorick and articles of faith of tropes of sentences By a like consequence they might conclude that hills and trees and the earth and gates and death and hell have eyes to look upon us or ears to hear us or that we ought to invocate them because the holy Ghost maketh such Apostrophes to them as the Fathers do to the souls of Saints newly departed out of their bodies Secondly for the parties here cited and called in their order first Death and then the Grave Death goes before the Grave because men die before they are buryed and the Grave is properly no Grave till it be possessed by a dead body before it is but a hole or pit O Death In Hebrew Maveth from Muth whence mutus in Latine is derived and mute in English because Death bereaveth us of speech and for a like reason the Grave is termed Domus silentii a house of silence In Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either
Christ for all Cui c. VICTORIS BRABAEUM OR THE CONQUERORS PRIZE A SERMON Preached at Rotheriffe at the Funeral of M ris Dorothy Gataker Wife to the Worthy and Reverend Divine Master Thomas Gataker B. D. SERMON XLVI Apoc. 14.13 So faith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works follow them THe longer a man enjoyeth the benefit of life the more cause he hath to desire death for cares grow with years and sins with cares and sorrows with sins and fears with sorrows which trouble the quiet and confound the musick and blend the mirth and damp the whole joy of our life so that he who spinneth the thred of his life to the greatest length gaineth nothing thereby but this that he can give a fuller and clearer evidence of the vanity of the world and yeild a more ample testimony to the misery of man during his abode in the flesh whom if we take at the best advantage of his Worldly happiness he must needs confess that he hath nothing of all that is past but a sad remembrance nor of that which is to come but a solicitous fear As after a great feast at which a man hath glutted his appetite nothing remaineth but loathsome and stinking fumes ascending from the stomack to the head and offending the brain so of all the pleasures of sin past nothing remaineth but a bitter tast in the conscience or rather to use Saint Bernards Metaphor amar a foeda vestigia foul and stinking prints left in the floar where he danced after the Devils pipe sorrow and shame for what he hath been and fear for what he shall be mingles and sours all the joy and delight in that he is And what is he at the best a poor tennent at will of a ruinous cottage of loam or house of clay ready to fall about his ears with a Grashoppers leap in a spot of ground His apparel is but stoln raggs his wealth the excrements of the earth his dyet bread of carefulness got with the sweat of his brows and all his comforts and recreations rather as Saint Austin tearms them solatia miserorum quam gaudia beatorum sauces of misery then dishes of happiness For albeit a good conscience be a continual feast and the testimony of the Spirit an everlasting Jubilee in the soul yet the most righteous man that breaths mortal ayr either by frailty or negligence or diffidence or impatience or love of this present life or suttlety of perswasions or violence of temptations so woundeth his conscience and grieveth the Spirit of grace that this feast is turned for a time into a fast and the Jubilee into an ejulate or howling All things therefore laid together the scorns of the World assaults from the flesh temptations from the Devil rebukes from God checks from conscience sensible failing of Grace spiritual dissertions with many a bitter agony and conflict with despair I cannot but perfectly accord with the Poet in his doleful note Foelices nimium quibus est fortuna peracta jam sua they are but too hapyy whose glass is well run out and with the Evangelist in my Text beati mortui blessed are the dead for they rest from their labours and their works follow them they rest from those labours which tie us that live and the works which we are to follow follow them A three-fold cable faith the wise man is not easily broken and such is this here in my Text on which the anchour of our hope hangeth 1 The testimony of Saint John Yea. 2 The testimony of the Spirit so saith the Spirit 3 A strong reason drawn from their rest and recompence they rest from their labours and they receive the reward of their labours they are discharged of their work and for their work If they were discharged for their work and not discharged of their work they could not be said blessed because their tedious and painful works were to return And much less happy could they be termed if they were discharged of their work but not for it for then they should lose all their labour under the Sun they should have done and suffered all in vain but now because they are both discharged of their work for they rest from their labour and discharged for their work for their works follow them they are most blessed The Spirit here taketh the ground of this heavenly musick ravishing the souls of the living and able to revive the very dead either from the labourers pay or the racers prize If the ground be the labourers joy for their rest and pay the descant must be this our life is a day our calling a labour the evening when we give over our death the pay our penny If the ground be the racers joy for their prize the descant may be this the Church is the field Christianity is the race death is the last post and a garland of glory the wager let us all so run that we may obtain Yea faith the Spirit We read in the Law and the Prophets Thus faith Jehovah the Lord in the Gospel Thus spake Jesus But in the Epistles and especially in the Revelation thus faith the Spirit now the Spirit speaketh evidently hear what the Spirit faith unto the Churches he that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit faith unto the Churches and the Spirit and the Bride faith come While Christ abode in the flesh he taught with his own mouth the Word of life but now since his Ascention and sitting in state at the right hand of his Father he speaketh and doth all by his Spirit By the Spirit he ordaineth Pastours furnisheth them with gifts enlightneth the understanding of the hearers and enclineth their wills and affections and so leadeth the Church into all truth In which regard Tertullian elegantly tearmeth the Spirit Christi Vicarium Christ his Vicar preaching in his stead and discharging the Cure of the whole World Secondly so faith the Spirit not the flesh the earth denies it but Heaven avereth it when a man removeth out of this World the flesh beholdeth nothing but a corps brought to the Church and a Coffin laid in the Grave but the spirit discerneth an Angel carrying the soul up to Heaven and leaving it in Abrahams bosome till the Father of spirits shall give her again to the body arrayed in glorious apparel There is no Doctrine the Devil the flesh and the World more oppose then this here delivered by the Spirit concerning the blessedness of the dead for all Atheists all Heathen all carnal men all Saduces and sundry sorts of Hereticks deny the Resurrection of the body and the greater part of them also the immortality of the soul A wicked and ungodly person believeth not his soul to be immortal because he would not have it so he would not that their should be another World because he can have hope of no good there having carried himself so
angry with the World they feel not the wrath of God therefore they conclude he is no God and as long as God holds off from punishing they hold off from praying His Judgments prove him a God when his Mercies cannot perswade the world so much Every man hastens to seek the Lord when he is angry his Justice terrifies us his Mercy hardens us his Goodness makes us to rebel his Anger teacheth us to pray we forget God when he is gracious and fly amain to him when he threatens Let us often think of the wrath of God and let the thought of it so far work upon us as to keep us in a constant awe and fear of God and let this fear drive us to God by prayer that fearing as we ought we may pray as we are commanded and praying we may prevent the wrath of God If our present sorrows do not move us God will send greater and when our sorrows are grown too great for us we shall have little heart or comfort to pray Let our fears then quicken our prayers and let our prayers be such as are able to avercome our fears so both wayes shall we be happy in that our fears have taught us to pray and our prayers have made us to fear no more Now is the time for us to pray before grief wax too strong for us for the time may come when we shall not be able to pray by reason of the sense and feeling of the wrath of God upon us Now our prayers in the time of health may be as Incense before the Lord as a sweet odour in the nostrils of God but if we neglect to offer up this Incense we must look for the Incense of Vengeance to fall down upon us Apoc. 8.5 If God take the Cenfer in his hand and fill it with the fire of his wrath then follows nothing but thundrings lightnings and terrible commotions in the Soul Vespasian Gonzaga gave for his Symbol three Flashes of Lightning the first did touch the second did burn the third did rend and tear in pieces The first affliction haply may lightly touch and affect us the second may scare us and stir up the fire of devotion in us but the third will prove so terrible as that it will tear asunder all our prayers so terrifie our spirits as that we shall not be able to pour out our complaints before the Lord or acquaint him w th our troubles The anger of God at the first may be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a little Cloud as big as a Mans hand but if we neglect it it may break out upon us with that fierceness violence as that it may interrupt our prayers and hinder the ascent of them to the Throne of Grace Therefore before the wrath of God break forth upon us let us seriously think of it and prevent it by our prayers Let a timely fear incite our prayers and quicken our devotion This holy fear will kindle an holy devotion in our hearts and as a watchful keeper of the heart shall suffer no thoughts to break forth but such as shall amount alost to Heaven As cold water makes the fire more fierce and vehement so does this fear make our prayers more earnest and servent And this is our first Observation The fear of Gods wrath drives us to our prayers and makes us the more importunate with God for mercy The second Conclusion now follows which ariseth from the Context after the prophet had given us a description of the wrath of God he pitcheth his next thoughts upon Death And this brings in our next Observation The wrath of God thought upon makes us to think of Death He that ruminates upon the wrath of God which he hath incurr'd by sin must needs think of Death the sad effect of sin When I remember how far I have provoked the anger of a just God by Sin I cannot choose but think of Death This was Jobs case who while he was under the wrath of God and felt not the comfort of the pardon of his Sins he did imagine there was no other way but death with him Job 7.21 Why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquities for now shall I sleep in the dust and thou shalt seek me in the morning but I shall not be As if he had said Deliver me O Lord from thy wrath and grant me the pardon of my sins otherwise I am but as a dead man before thee Solomon speaks of the wrath of a King Pro. 16.14 that it is as messengers of death Surely then the wrath of God may very well be a Messenger sent from God to put us in mind of Death If the Wrath of man be so fierce what is the wrath of God if the frown of a King strike a man dead what power is there in the looks of an angry God to bring us to nothing If the smoke of mans anger can do this what cannot the flame of Gods wrath do even consume us to very ashes Does the fear of Gods Wrath put us in mind of Death 1. This discovers our own guilt what a weight of sin lies upon our Souls otherwise what reason had we to tremble at the denunciation of Gods wrath against us if we were not conscious to our selves of a world of wickedness which harbours in our breasts Were we not privy to a masse of Corruption lurking within us the fear of death would never affright us A strong wind is able to shake and bend the strongest tree and the wrath of God will make the most godly man alive to quake and tremble Imagine the easiest death that is it cannot be but that Nature will have some struglings with it It is impossible to die such a death as shall have no pangs to attend upon it Thus it is even in the death of the greatest Saints there must needs be some strivings and wrestlings in the Conscience with the wrath of God The heart of no Christian is so far quieted and appeased at the hour of death as that all fear is banished out of it and a man hath not the least remembrance of sin and of the wrath of God due to sin lodging in his breast This holy fear is in the best of Gods children and proves as an excellent preparative for death He is best fitted for Death that meditates of tenof the wrath of God due to sin We see we have many occasions presented to us to put us in mind of Death we are never without some Watchword or other to beat the remembrance of Death into our thoughts David had Death ever in his eye Psal 119.109 My soul is continually in my hand like a Souldier he carried his life in his hand and was prepared for the next encounter and made ready for it In all the Judgments of God Death like the ashes which Moses sprinkled is scattered and cast over all our heads Death like
my dayes what it is that I may know how frail I am As if he had said Lord Give me grace to consider how little a time thou hast allotted me here that I may learn to die well As the Sea-man numbers the degrees of the Sun that he may the better provide himself to pass the AEquinoctial Line So ought we to number our dayes that we may the better prepare our selves to pass the last Line of Death God takes account of our very Hairs they are all numbred by God If God number our hairs for the discovery of his Providence towards us then the argument holds a pari that we should remember to number our dayes for the promotion of his glory and the furthering of our own eternal welfare Especially as many of us as are well stricken in yearts it concerns us most to account with our selves what dayes we have yet to run out A Traveller that is somewhat near the end of his journey is the most curious and exact in counting the miles which he is yet to go Even so the older we are the more careful ought we to be of the dayes that are yet behind and watchful of our time which yet remains to be spent in this Tabernacle of the flesh Are our dayes to come to be numbred Surely then the last day is to be thought upon even the last day of life which we shall see in this world We spend all the rest of our dayes the better when this last day is remembred by us David had this day ever in his thoughts to provide for it and he desired only to live to fit himself for that day Psal 39.13 O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more All dayes wait on this last Day and the spending of all the dayes of our lives tends only to the wise ordering of this last day All our dayes are well spent if we have made provision for this day Thou hast lived well all thy dayes if thy last day of life prove comfortable unto thee Let us live so as that we may have alwayes this day in our eye and the longer we live let us strive the more to fit and dispose our selves for death by the serious consideration and meditation of this last Day As a stone moves the faster to its Centre so let us the nearer we are to Death make the most hast to bid it welcome Are we commanded to have an eye to the time that is yet to come Why then this points out unto us the preciousness of our time what an high esteem and value we are to set upon the dayes that are to come and seeing we have made so light of the time that is past we must count the time that remains to be the more precious There is not an hour in the day not a minute of that hour but ought to be highly prized and valued by us Epictet us the Philosopher was of that esteem and account with all men as that a Candle which he had made of Earth only was sold for 3000 drachms Whatsoever value or price men set upon other thngs sure I am there is nothing we ought to prize at an higher rate than our time As we use to prize our Gold by grains so ought we to value our time by minutes every minute of our time ought to be as precious in our account as every grain of Gold We will not lose the least drachm of Gold neither ought we to ravel out the least scantling of time Nay the very drops of our blood ought not to be more precious unto us than the least scruples and particles of our time Every minute of our time well improv'd is an helping us forward to Eternity Therefore we ought to prize every moment of our time because Eternity bangs upon it The second Request which Moses makes to God is this That he would vouchsafe to teach him this one lesson to number his dayes An hard lesson indeed as hard as Pambo's was who was fifteen years a learning that one verse of David of guiding his Tongue Psal 39.1 I said I will take heed to my wayes that I sin not with my tongue But all the dayes of our lives will not be sufficient to learn this one lesson of numbring our dayes aright therefore we must fly to God to teach us to know our time It is from God that we learn how to compute our time the wise ordering and managing of our time is taught us by God David desired to know this of God Psal 119.84 How many are the dayes of thy servant 1. It is a piece of Art which none can teach us but God A man may know how to number his dayes but not how to guide his dayes A Fool knows not how to make use of a Clock nor an ignorant Christian how to spend his time aright unless God teach him Every man can tell how to count an Army and reckon what men there are in it but few know how to guide it and to rank the Souldery in right File and Order So it is easie for us to number our dayes to count how old we are how many years are gone over our heads but to order our dayes aright to know how to improve them to Gods glory and our own benefit this is beyond our Art and Skill and God only is able to instruct us and lead us in the right way wherein we ought to walk 2. It is from God that we are taught how to fit our selves for death We are unwilling to hear of the approach of Death and it is God that prepares us for the stroke of Death and makes us willing to die It is very unwelcome news to most of us to hear that we must die and be brought before God to give an account of our wayes and actions When the Apostle Paul reasoned with Felix of Death and Judgment he would fain have put off that unpleasing discourse till some other time Act. 24.25 Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee We count no discourse so unseasonable and distastful to us as for our Minister to put us in mind of Death there is time enough we think to consider of our latter end many years hence It is a lesson soon learnt and when we are fit for nothing else then it is soon enough to think of Death As slight as others make of this duty let us pray to God to teach us the right knowledge of our time that we may order our steps aright and so lead our lives as that we may provide for death and be ready to give up our account to God when he is pleased to summon us from hence It was a good prayer of David Psal 13.3 Lighten mine eyes lest I sleep the sleep of Death We have need of Gods direction and guidance in all our wayes that he would teach us
how to live and how to die while we live let us desire of God so to steer our course as that we may lead the lives of holy and devout Christians We desire to live and have we no desire to live well what 's this life without godliness what is it to live and to have our hearts all the dayes of our lives void of grace and piety Life without grace is like beauty in a woman without discretion Pro. 11.22 Non est vivere sed valere vita It is no life but a living death alwayes to live and to want health and strength which sweetens life and makes it comfortable So it is no life a Christian leads where there is a want of piety in the heart What is this to live unless we know how to live well and to make a right use of our time We must consider wherefore we live even to improve our time to the best advantage for the saving of our Souls otherwise we live like Beasts not like Men not like Christians These silly brutes live in time but know not the time in which they live so careless Christians run out their time but know not how to make use of their time they consume their time but they do not increase it Like Bankrupts that waste their stock but never seek to improve it We make a decoction of our time as water is boil'd away from a fourth part to a third and from a third to half so we waste and consume our time till we have no time left even till we come to the last minute of life why then while we have time let us pray to God to teach us to use it aright to give us grace to consider the time we spend that we may make the best improvment of it and as Esan did Jacob hold time by the heel and not suffer it to slip from us without giving a good account to God that we have imployed that time and space of life which is allotted us here for the advancement of Gods glory and the purchasing of our own Salvation We proceed to the third particular that we go to God by prayer to teach us the right use of our time in a right manner So teach us that is Teach us so efficaciously so powerfully so constantly as that we may attain to the true wisdome and knowledg of saving of our Souls We must pray to God to teach us effectually Psal 119.33 Teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes and I shall keep it unto the end We can know nothing of heaven unless the Spirit of God instruct us There is a great Light in us the Light of Nature and this light is enough to condemn us if we walk not according to this Light this Light of Knowledg imprinted by God in our hearts and by this Light all Heathens are condemn'd but this Light is not able to carry us half way to heaven The Light of Nature cannot save us but the light of Grace must bring us to the light of Glory Esther was fain to stand a loof off in the Court till the King reach'd forth his Golden Scepter to invite her nearer to him Nature only leads us to the outward Court of Heaven but Grace holds forth the Scepter to bring us into Heaven Nature like the faint heat of the Sun draws up the vapours but a little way it hath not strength enough to master our Corruptions but the heat and power of Gods grace is only able to dispel and vanquish them It is only the work of Gods Spirit to shew us the right way to Heaven and to guide us in that way All lies in the Grace of God and unless we are continually assisted and carryed on by his gracious Spirit we are never likely to come near the sight of Heaven We have indeed many helps and furtherances to carry us to heaven but none of these will avail us without God The word of God is constantly preach'd in our ears the Ministers of God are daily pressing us forward to heaven but what can the frail voice of man work upon the heart without the powerful influence of Gods holy Spirit We Ministers without God are but as Gehazi's staff laid upon the dead Child we are no wayes able to raise the Soul from the death of sin to the life of righteousness unless God first breath upon it and infuse the life of Grace into the dead heart of the sinner Let this teach us not to rest in our selves or any outward means for the purchasing of the joyes of heaven but place our whole trust and confidence in the living God What 's all the Light of Reason but darkness it self to bring us to the Light Everlasting All humane wisdome is but a false Light which will lead us in the end to the pit of destruction It is a good caution the Apostle gives us Col. 2.8 Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit If we follow the false Light of Reason it will deceive us and misguide us in our way to Heaven Natural Reason haply may see the heavenly Canaan afar off and have some stragling thoughts of the happiness of another world but it shal never be able to get possession of heaven The horns of this Altar shall never save any man that flies unto them As the light is hid under a bushel so nature is clouded and darkned with many mists of errour and cannot reach the sight of heaven In the second place let us fly to God by prayer that he would teach us effectually and shew us the right way to heaven Before we hear the Word of God let us fall upon our knees and beg of God to make it profitable and useful to our Souls What makes the word of God so ineffectual how come we to gain so little comfort by the preaching of the Word Is it not because we do not pray to God to open our hearts and make it useful to us that we may attend to the word of Truth and obtain Salvation by it The people before the Law was published to them were cleansed and sanctified by Moses to receive it Exod. 19.14 So ought we to Sanctifie our hearts by prayer and desire of God to purge our Souls of the many pollutions of our sins that we may gain a blessing by the Word of God and return with joy and comfort from the house of God It is prayer that makes the word of God profitable to our Souls it is like the Salt which Elisha threw into the waters to heal them So does prayer make the word of God beneficial to us and causeth us to relish the sweetness and comfort of it The heart is like that Book sealed with seven Seals which no man can open but God himself Therefore let us pray to God to open our hearts that we may receive instruction from the Word of God There is no man can teach us
Saints have right to eternal life by inheritance Vse 1. For Confutation Vse 2. For Consolation Vse 3. For Direction 1. 2. The fourth branch of the Text. All of all sorts have a right to eternal life Acts 10 34 Vse 1. For Admonition Vse 2. For Consolation general Particular 1 Tim 2.17 1 Tim. 2 21.12 Isa 49.23 Doctr. 1. The servants of God have a comfortable and willing expectation of death Proved Phil. 1.13 2 Cor. 5.8 c. The ground of the desire of death in the Saints Eccles 7.1 Rom. 7.24 Psal 120.5 Thilip 1 23. Exod. 34.23 Object 1. Rom. 6 23. 1 Cor. 15.26 Respons Death considerable two wayes Object 2. Psal 6.4 5. Isa 38.3 Math. 26.39 Respons Why some of the Saints in the Scripture have prayed against death Psal 23.4 Phil 1.23.24 1 Kings 8 25. Heb. 7.5 Object 3. Respons Two things consider able in a Christian Mar. 26.41 2 Cor. 5.2 Vse For Trial. Doct 2. A special care in the servants of God to be alwayes ready for death 2 Tim 4.6 1 Cor. 15.31 Job 14.14 Psal 90.12 Heb. 13.14 Luk. 12.36 Reas 1. Psal 89.48 1 Pet. 4.19 Reas 2. 2 Sam. 4.5.6 Job 1 19. Reas 3. Note Vse Deut 32.29 Esa 28.15 Job 28.14 How to be prepared for death 1 Tim. 5.6 Jo. 17.13 Doct. 3. Ignorant men can neither take comfort in nor be truly prepared for death Math 22.29 Psal 119 24 Psal 119 9 93 Vse Doct. 4. Death freeth Gods servants from all misery Phil. 1.23 2 Tim. 4.6 2 Pet. 2.14 2 Pet. 2.15 Rev. 14.13 Rev. 6.9 Luke 16.22 Vse 1. Consutation of Purgatory Vse 2. For consolation of the Saints Gen. 41.40 Rev. 21.4 Esth 8 17 1 Joh 3.2 1 Cor. 13.12 Quest Answ How to know whether the day of death be a discharge from all former and following miserles Doct. 5. The Saints at their going hence have a comfortable and peaceable debarture Psal 37.37 Prov 14.32 Gen. 49.33 Gen. 13.25.2 King 22.20 Reas 1. Rom. 8 9. Chap 16. Reas 2. 2 Tim 4.7 8. Isa 38 3. Ephs 22 10. Object 1. 1 Respons Joh. 7.24 The unqulet departure of many of the Saints cleared with the grounds thereof Eccless 9.2 Rev. 12.12 Mark 9.26 2 Cor. 4 6. Esa 54.8 John 13.1 Object 2. Respons The seeming-quiet departure of the wicked with the grounds thereof Psal 73.4 1 Sam. 25.37 Luk. 11.11 Excles 8.12 Esay 57.11 Vse Confutation of Purgatâ—…y Vse 2. Exhortation Gen. 3.19 Prov. 11.7 Job 27.8 2 Tim 4.7.8 Joh. 17.4 5. Psal 119.1.1 Sam. 2.20 Luk. 13.3.2 Thes 5.24 2 King 9.22 Heb. 10.24 Dan. 4.27 Parts of the Text. Doct. Jesus Christ the Fountain and Author of all life 1 Of the body Resurrection of the body what 1 Cor. 15.20 2 Of spiritual life 3 Why both comprehended under one term 1 In regard of the Analogie 2. 2 In regard of the connection Vse 1. Comfort 2 Against the death of the soul Object Answ Object Answ 2 Against the death of the body Quest Answ Difference in the Resurrection of the godly and wicked 1 In the cause 2 In the end Vse 2. Trial. Signs of the first Resurrection 1 Forsaking sin 2 Newness of life 3 Progress in both Vse 3. Exhortation direction Quest Answ All men must die 1 To manifest Gods truth 2 His power 3 Our benefit by Chrst 4 To conform us to Christ Rachel was 〈◊〉 Fruitful 3 Obedient 4 Her death Coherence Observat 1. Observat 2. Observat 3. Observat 4. Doctr. 5. There is a change in all that are in Christ as from death to life 1 The analogy between spiritual and natucal life and death 1 In general 1 A General change 2 The orderlyness of it 2 The Analogie in particular Death threefold 1 Judicial 2 Civil 3 Natural 1 Imperfect Simile 2 Newness of life expressed by life in three respects 1 The principle of life 2 The actions of life 3 The properties of life Appetite 2 Tropagation The order Observat Men first die to sin and then live to God Reason 1. From our union with Christ 2 From the cotâ—…ariety of them Vse 1. Conviction Vse 2. Exhortation No loss in dying to sin Not life 2 Not peace 3 Not esteem 4 Not wealth 5 Not pleasures Sin a needless thing 2 The gain by death to sin 1. Conclusion The faithful are hopeful Rom. 5 Definition of Hope 1 Pets 1 9. Rom 8 24 Vse 1 Trial of Hope Rom 4 18 Isa 21 16 Hab 2 3 Isa 8 17 2 Pet 3 9 Psal 73 9 Psal 102 13. 2 Pet 3 3. Iob 2 9. Mal 3 14 2 Cor 6 8 2 Sam 6 22 Vse 2. Hindrances of hope 1 Iohn 4.18 Rev 21 8. Psal 118 6. Psal 91 5. Psal 40 1. Luke 21 19.1 Cor 15 16 Iob 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 Iob. 13.15 Vse 1. Trov 23.5 Psal 146.3 Psal 62.3 Vse 2. Phil 3.8 Eccles 1. Isa 55.4 2 Cor. 1 20. Iohn 14 6 Iob 6 68 3. Conclusion This life-time is our hope-time Vse 1. Isa 55 6 1 Iohn 3 2 Vse 2. 2 Pet 1 8. 1 Thes 1 3 Heb 6 19 Psal 84 7 2 Per 3 18 1 Cor 7 20 Col 4 17 4. Conclusion Hope is no for the things of this life 2 Cor. 5.1 Isa 57.13 Vse 1. Vse 2. 5. Conclusion Our life is a misery Iob 14.1 1 Cor 7 29. Iam 4.14 Vse 1 Iohn 2 15. John 11 25. Psal 8 4. Vse 2. 6 Conclusion The hopeful are not miserable Vse 1. Vse 2. I am 5.11 Revle 14.13 Exod 33 20. Explication Rom. 12.2 I am 2.15 16. Heb 13 31 Rom 12 15. Mat 5. 2 Thes 3 10 1 Peâ—… 1 Division Doctr. 1. It is the duty of Christians to take the best opportunities of their life to do good A twofold opportunlty to be taken of doing good 1 The time of life Luke 16 9 Mat. 25.10 Objection Answ Objection Answ 2 Of outward estates Trov 23.5 Eccles 11 8. 1 Tim 6 17. Iob 13 15 16 17 18. Vse 1. Prov 3 28 Psal 78. Vse 2. Gen. 18.19 2 Sam 9.1 Doctr. 2. It is the duty of Gods servants to relieve others Deut 15.7 Eccles 11.4 Isa 58.7 2 Cor. 8 9. Heb 13 16. Iohn 15 19. Reason 1. Pro 3 26 27. Luke 16 9. Reason 2. Psal 41 1. Tsal 37 6. 1 Tim. 6 19. Vse Iames 5. Vse 2. Quest How to give so as to do good Answ 1 Give justly Eccles 11.1 2 Give wisely Psal 1 2 In respect of the quantity In respect of the quality 3 Give in simplicity Rom 11 8 Mat 6 4 Cive chearfully 2 Gor 8.6 The persons to whom good must be done 1 Generally to all Luke 10 Reason 1. Mala 2 10 Reason 2. 1 Iohn 4 20 Vse Object Answ 1 Sam 25 Object Answ Rom 12 Object Answ Eccles 11.1 Objection Answ Objection Answ Objection Answ Objection Answ Objection Answ Objection Answ Doct. 1. Doct. 2. 1 There are