naturall appetite and desire after all meanes that may preserve that life Wheresoever God gives life to any creature he gives also a desire to that creature to preserve that life it hath which is the best state of being Now it is so with a Christian all his desires are to preserve spirituall life and to increase it he rests not in what hee hath but labours to be more yet and to doe more yet to know God more to love God more to serve God better to live more fruitfully more profitably among men Hee delights in the actions of spirituall life therefore hee would strengthen those habites by all actions and industrie and indevour As new-borne babes saith the Apostle desire the sincere milke of the Word that yee may grow thereby No sooner is there life in a new-borne babe but there is a desire to nourish that life You see there is a naturall appetite even in the very trees that thrust their rootes downe into the ground to draw moysture below from the earth by an instinct to preserve that life they have in the stocke and in the branches So it is in every man that hath a spirituall life he puts forth with all industrie for all spirituall helpes according to that strength hee hath for the preservation of his spirituall life That is the reason why they are not content in the abundance of all outward things when they want spirituall helpes and that is the reason that they are not satisfied nor solace themselves in dead worldly company that is the reason their hearts rest not in things below because these are not the food of their spirituall life these are not the things that preserve that life that is in them Secondly as there is a desire of the preservation of life so there is a desire of propagation and transfusion of it to others as much as may be So you see those things that have but a metaphoricall life as we may say that are said to live by way of allusion and metaphor as the fire in the coale when it is said to liue in the coale it is for this reason because it is apt to kindle another It is so in a Christian wheresoever there is spirituall life there is a desire to communicate it with as many as it can And this you see in all the servants of God Philip calls Nathaniel Ioh. 1. 44. when he had gained the knowledge of Christ. And the woman of Samaria goes to call in the Citie when shee had gained the knowledge of Christ. When a man himselfe is united with the principle of life when he lives in Christ he desires that others may live in Christ too and this desire and indeavour to gaine many to Christ it appeares in their place and relation A Christian master that lives a spirituall life will labour that his servants under him may live the life of grace with him too A Christian Father will labour that his children may live to God as well as himselfe a Husband will labour to draw his Wife to Christ as himselfe is drawne and every one father and friend and acquaintance as much as in them lies by any advantage and opportunitie that is put into their hands they will draw others to Christ because there is life in them And this is not done out of faction out of a desire to make their partie strong as many in the world desire to strengthen their partie but as in living things there is a naturall desire to convey that life to others Parents beget not children out of faction to increase the partie but out of a naturall affection to convey the naturall life they have to others so Christians that they doe is out of spirituall affection out of simple love to the salvation of others out of a naturalnesse in their disposition to indevour that all may belike them As the Apostle Saint Paul wisheth that all that heard him were like him except those bonds So much for that you see how fitly the Apostle useth these termes of life and death to expresse the change of one that is in Christ when he turnes from sin to God Now we come to see the order wherein the Apostle expresseth them make account of this conclude of this that you were dead but are alive First you were dead to sinne and then alive to God These certainly are knit together but they are done in order so wee joyne both those points in one and that is thus much that All that are in Christ hee workes in them by his spirit in this order they first die to sinne and after live to God These two are inseparable but yet they are joyned in order that first men die to sinne and secondly live to God The Scripture expresseth this in fit similitudes Ephes. 4. 22. 24. saith the Apostle there Seeing you have put off the old man that is corrupt through deceivable lusts and put on the new man that after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse Here is the order there is not only an effectuall change but this is wrought in a method first putting off and then putting on Hee seemes to allude to apparell there that as a man that is cloathed with ragges hee puts not on ornaments and robes till he have put off his ragges as it is Zach. 3. when Iehoshua came before the Angell of the Lord with filthie garments with vile rayment saith the Lord take away those ragges and put upon him change of rayment Just thus God deales in the conversion of a man in the change of a man that is in Christ he takes away his filthy ragges first his love to sinne he is no more cloathed with them as he was wont he accounts them not ornaments as they were wont to doe but filthy clouts to which he saith Get yee hence he detests them and then hee is clothed with rayment then he expresseth the fruit of holinesse and righteousnesse Another expression there is Ephes. 5. 8. Yee were darknesse but now yee are light in the Lord walke as children of light There is not only a change of apparell that is from ragges to robes but of your state and condition you were in darknesse now yee are light Marke the order from darknesse to light That looke as it was in the Creation first darknesse covered the face of the deepe Gen. 1. all was without forme and voyd and then God said Let there bee light so now first there is a removing of the darknesse the soule was held in and now yee are light in the Lord so they come to walke as children of light Well this is is the expression of it in Scripture let us see the ground of it in reason It must bee so that in this order God proceedes in this effectuall change first to turne men from sinne and then to GOD first to die to ââ¦inne and then to live to God The first reason shall bee
it will be objected Wee find some men that did not die It is said of Enoch that he was translated that hee should not see death Heb. 11. 5. And of Elijah that he went up by a whirle-wind into heaven in a chariot of fire 2 King 2. 11. These men did not die To this I answer briefly Particular and extraordinary examples doe not frustrate generall rules God may sometimes dispence with some particular men and yet the rule remaine firme I say it may be so But secondly we answer They had that that was in stead of Death to them some change though they did not die after the manner of other men So at the end of the world it is said that those that are alive shall be caught up and changed in the twinckling of an eye there shall be a sudden and almost undiscernable unperceivable change which shall be to them in stead of death But it will be objected further There is a promise made in Ioh. 11. That those that believe shall never die To this I answer with that common distinction There is a twofold death which the Scripture calleth the first and the second death The first death is the death of the body that ariseth from a dis-junction and separation of the body from the soule And there is a second death that ariseth from the dis-junction and separation of the soule from God The first death is no death properly the second death is that which is truly Death and so they shall not die A man may have a body separated from the soule and yet not his soule separated from God nor himselfe from Christ. Who shall separate us from the love of God in Christ neither life nor death nor principalities nor powers c. Death you see shall not bee able to separate us from God it cannot separate the soule Nay it doth not separate the body from Christ the body remaineth a member of Christ as well while it is still in the grave as before God is not the God of the dead but of the living saith Christ Mat. 22. And therefore he proveth that even Abraham was not dead in that sense that they then tooke it but hee remaineth yet alive in as much as God was his God Abraham whole Abraham was Gods by vertue of Covenant so are all his posteritie the children of Abraham by faith in a spirituall sense they remaine with Christ and they are united to him as members to the head even when their bodies are in the grave So that I say they die not in that sense so as to have their soule separated from God though they die in the first sense that is to have their bodies separated from the soule But our Saviour in that place of Iohn speakes of the second of that death which is an everlasting separation of the soule from God As we say of wicked men that while they are alive they are dead so the Apostle speakes of the widow that lived in pleasures while she lived she was dead and the Church of Sardis had a name to live but she was dead This is true death indeed when that the soule of a man is separated and dis-joyned from God and from Christ And it is the state of every man by nature of every man under sinne though they walke up and downe and doe the actions of the living yet they are but dead men And as truly as they are said to be dead while they live so truly it may be said of the children of God that while they are dead they live as it is said of Abraham so it may bee said of all Gods servants they die not properly but remaine still in union with God and with Christ with God through Christ they are Christs and therefore Gods in him and therefore they die not Looke what the soule is to the bodie that is God to the soule the soule is the life of the body and God is the life of the soule they are still living men that have God the soule is alive even when the body lieth downe in the grave This shall serve for the opening of that they are not dead but alive they doe die in the first sense and in the common acceptation in respect of the separation of the body from the soule but they doe not die in the second sense in respect of the separation of the soule from God they doe not die eternally they doe not die properly Now briefly to make some use of this and to hasten to that I most intend to stand upon Is it so then that Death is the end of all men Let us make account of it for ourselves This seemeth but a plaine point and so indeed it is but I know there is nothing more usefull and I know there is nothing lesse regarded and lesse considered of seriously then this that we must die It is true wee all acknowledge it in the generall and every man the very worst the most ignorant and most prophane in the world will yeeld to this in the generall that all men must die and let a man come and tell them that they themselves must die they will grant it too but this is that that undoes us all we rest in generals and doe not seriously insist upon a serious application of it to a mans owne particular case and bring it home to a mans selfe to conclude thus I must die I may die soone this may be the last day of my life upon earth this may be the last time I may breathe this may be the last word that I shall speake the last action that I shall doe I know I must die and it may be I may die now This is that wee should principally intend and labour most after that when we reade the stories of the Scripture and see that Death is the end of all men that all must die and their houses must be houses of mourning to conclude the same for our selves All those worthies spoken of in Heb. 11. it is said they all died in faith I read such a man was a King but he died such a man was a Prophet but hee died such a man was Noble but he died such a one died in his youth such a one in his strength these died and I must die the same thing must be said of mee that is said of them I say let us not only say it but resolve and conclude upon it conclude for our selves that the same thing must be said of us that is said of all men All men must die we must die The benefit that floweth from it will be this First when a man bringeth it to his owne particular case it will make sinne more odious to him What is it that brought Death into the world what bringeth death upon us Sinne. By one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne and so death passeth upon all men for that
Let me have a place to burie my dead out of my sight It parteth father and child how unwilling soever they be see it in David and Absolom Oh Absolom my sonne would God I had died for thee and Rachel mourned for her children and would not be comforted because they were not It parteth the Minister and the people see it in the case of the people of Israels lamenting the death of Samuel and in the case of the Ephesians at the parting of S. Paul sorrowing especially when they heard they should see his face no more It parteth those friends who were so united together in love as if they had but one soule in two bodies see it in the separation that was made by death betweene David and Ionathan that were so knit together in their love that he bewaileth him Woe is mee for my brother Ionathan This is a necessary consideration for us that live that wee may learne to know how to carrie our selves towards our wordly friends and how to moderate our selves in our enjoyment of these worldly comforts Looke upon every worldly thing as a mortall as a dying comfort Looke upon children and friends as dying comforts Look upon your estates as that that hath wings and will be gone Looke upon your bodies that now you make so much of as a thing that must bee parted from the soule by death and that ere long See what advise the Apostle giveth 1 Cor. 7. 19. the time is short saith he therefore let those that marry bee as if they married not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it A man abuseth the world when he useth it beyond the consideration of the shortnesse of enjoying these things when hee lookes upon these things as things that hee shall enjoy alwayes But if we would use it aright looke upon things as things that we shall enjoy but for a short time This body that seemeth now to have some beautie in it yet it must die and be laied in the dust these friends that seeme now to haue some pleasure and delight in them yet I must die and be tooke from them this estate and wealth that now I set so much prize upon I must die and death will part me and it So I say lookeupon every thing as separable from us Moderate your affections likewise to them Vse them onely as comforts in the way as a traveller doth the pleasures of his Inne hee stands not to build himselfe houses against every pleasant walke he lookes upon he stands not to purchase lands and to lay them to every Inne he comes to lie at No he knowes that he is now but in his passage in his way he knowes that hee is not at home that is the place he is going to and after a time hee shall come thither So make account that you are not now at home it is death that must helpe you to your home Let this therefore take you off from all these things that are in the way It is a strange thing to see how Sathan besotteth and befooleth men They strive and labour to compasse many worldly things as if their happinesse stood in the enjoyment of them as if they should have their wealth and their comforts for ever What care is there amongst men to get wealth and many times lose their soules in getting the world Alas Death will part soule and body them and their wealth and all Doe wee not see this daily in the death of others before us such a one is dead where is his body now in the dust Where are his friends and his companions now Where is his wealth and his estate for which many flattered him and fawned upon him are they not all separated from him they have nothing now to doe with him he cannot dispose of one penny of his estate now it is left he knowes not to whom others now have the mannaging of it As now you can say this of others so there will a time come that other men will say the like of you I had such a friend but death hath parted him from me hee had such an estate but death hath parted him and his estate Let us therefore make this use of the death of others to conclude with our selves that there will be a parting of all those outward things that now wee are so apt to dote upon The third speciall thing considerable in the death of others that will be matter of profit and benefit to those that live and survive after them is the end and cause for which God sendeth Death abroad into the world with such a large commission that it goeth on with such libertie to every familie to every place that it seizeth upon every person What 's the reason of it You shall see in the severall deaths of men severall causes There is judgement and mercy sometime a mixture of both and sometime but of one of these Sometimes wee see an apparant judgement of God in the death of some A judgement of God upon themselves Thus the young Prophet that disobeyed the word of the Lord a Lyon met him in the way and slew him So those Corinths that did eate and drinke unworthily in the Lords Supper though they were such as were saved after yet neverthelesse for this very cause saith the Apostle some of them were sicke and weake and some slept they died they were judged of the Lord that they might not bee condemned with the world When you see death seizing upon men as an act of divine judgement of divine displeasure let it make you more fearefull of sinning against God lest you provoke against your selves the same wrath in the very act of sinne Sometimes againe it is a judgement of God upon others Thus God takes away divers of his servants because the world is not worthy of them And as this is an act of judgement upon the world so it is an act of mercie to them God in mercy taking of them away from the evill to come and from the evill present A judgement of God to others that are unworthy of them A mercie to themselves that they are tooke away from their owne evill from sinne from temptations from all the effects and fruits of sinne and taken away from the evill that is to come upon others An act I say of mercie to them So it was to the child of Ieroboam he should die and should not see the judgement that was to come upon his fathers house because there was found some good thing in him toward the Lord. So it was to Iosiah Hee should bee gathered to his fathers in peace and his eyes should not see all that evill which the Lord would bring upon Ierusalem and upon the inhabitants thereof An act of judgement to others Righteous and mercifull men are taken away and noman layeth it
unrepented of unpardoned unsubdued he will so order those offences that he will thrust them into his soule as so many poisoned Darts that will bring sorrow and anguish and vexation and destruction to all eternitie Ye may see then whether yee have any fitnesse to meet with this Enemie whether yee be in case to fight that battell that of necessitie yee must for Death as I told yee before is enevitable If yee have not Get alone betweene God and thy selfe and there call to mind the corruption of thy nature the sinnes of thy childhood of thy body of thy mind bring thy soule into his presence confesse thy sinnes with an endevour to breake thy heart for them and to be sorry for them mightily crying to him in the mediation of that blessed Advocate Jesus Christ that died on the Crosse to pardon and to wash thy soule in his bloud and to deliver thee from the pollution of thy sinnes Begge the Spirit of sanctification to beate downe those sinnes and subdue thy corruptions Bestow time to performe these exercises daily carefully present thy selfe before God thus to renew thy repentance and faith in Christ to make thy peace with God Labour to purge away the filthinesse of thy sinne and then whensoever Death commeth thou shalt find in thy selfe sufficient against it thou hast disarmed it But if yee spend your time in pursuing profits and pleasures and follow the vanities of this life and either yee doe not thinke of death or yee thinke of it no otherwise then a heathen man would have done to no purpose yee thinke of it to enjoy the world while yee live because yee know not how soone death will end the world and you if you play the Epicures in the thought of Death to annimate you to enjoy the outward benefits of this life to thinke of it to no purpose but only to talke and discourse now and then as occasion serveth then Death will find your soules laden with innumerable sinnes that repentance hath not discharged and undoubtedly it will bring eternall perdition Have yee thus disarmed Death But againe a mans selfe must be armed or else hee cannot incounter with his enemie What is our Armour against Death to keepe off that blow The Apostle in one word sheweth us these Armours when hee saith a Breast-plate of faith and love and the hope of salvation a Helmet If a man have got faith to rest on Christ alone for eternall happinesse and his soule filled with the hope of glory and salvation through him and then with love to him and his servants for his sake These three vertues will secure a man against all the hurt that death can doe Faith Hope and Charitie the Cardinall vertues that Christian religion requires and commands us to seeke these are Armour of proofe against all the blowes of death hee that hath them shall never be hurt of Death because he shall never taste of the second death he hath onely to wrestle with the first Death and there is no terrour nor terriblenesse in 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 looke for salvation of our soules by his bloud according to his promise and working charitie whereby we love him for his goodnesse and his servants for his sake If it be charitie not onely of the lip to speake 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 taber nacle of our house is dissolved we have a building with God eternall in the heavens and death to such a man is nothing but the opening of the dore to let him out of the dungeon of the world and to place him happily in the Pallace of eternall blisse I pray enter into consideration how yee 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 bee not so imprinted in him that it become a motive to him to labour for Faith and hope and charitie and to endeavour to edifie himselfe in these graces he liveth as a Heathen or an Infidell and when death commeth to him it will doe him more hurt then it will an Infidell because by how much God hath given him more meanes to escape and by neglecting those meanes as his sin is greater so shall his punishment be Secondly if yee have beene carelesse for to prepare for this enemie Now be ashamed of it and sorrow for it let your hearts now smite yee and ake within you Oh foolish man or woman say I have lived twenty thirty forty fifty yeares 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 given my selfe leave for to enjoy pleasures and taken paines to doe good to my body but all this while it never came into my heart seriously to thinke I must die and after that commeth judgement that I must stand before Gods Tribunall and give account of my wayes I have not laboured to beware of Death and of sinne nor to kill my corruptions I have not laboured to increase in Faith and hope and charitie I have left my selfe unarmed against the last and worst enemie 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 beene any of your faults to be carelesly forgetfull 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 hee that forgetteth Death and is carelesse to prepare for it is a very child A little one never thinketh hee shall ever bee a man himselfe and maintaine himselfe and live in the world by his owne labour or by that he shall have from his friends he careth for nothing but meat and drinke and sport and pastime wee blame their folly and laugh 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 yee live and build houses and raise
stand together they die and not die because their death is but a translation but a removing There are two persons two men in every penitent and godly man there is somewhat of a righteous man and somewhat of a sinner somewhat of the flesh and somewhat of the spirit so according to these two both lawes are kept the Law of commination that is kept thou shalt die the death there is the reward of sinne the law of promise that is kept thou shalt live for ever there is the reward of righteousnesse Mortalitie giveth the reward to sinne immortalitie to pietie Though they die they are but taken away The word implies these two things First it implies that their death is but a temporarie death Taking away is not a finall translation it doth not implie a nullitie Death though it cut the knot of nature yet not of grace It is true there is the sharpe Axe of Death there is no knot so Gordian but it will cut it asunder It is a great knot that was first knit betweene the body and the soule it cutteth that asunder It is a sure knot which is the Conjugal knot between man and wife it cutteth that asunder There is a naturall bond and union betweene Parents and children it cuts that asunder There is a civill union betweene friend and friend it cuts that knot asunder it takes one friend from another But there is the misticall union betweene the head and the members betweene Christ and the Church it cannot cut that knot asunder But looke as Christs body in the Grave it was not deprived of the Hypostaticall union so likewise the body of a Saint when it lies in the grave in corruption it is mellowing for immortalitie and eternitie yea then it enjoyeth the benefit of the misticall Union there is somewhat of a member of Christ that lies in the grave that dust that the body of a Saint is resolved into it is holy Dust because that misticall Union is not cut asunder Death cutteth not that knot It perfecteth the misticall Union in respect of the soule and it is but an interruption of the manifestation of the union in respect of the body it is never severed As the Husbandman hath some corne in his ground and some in his Barne the Corne in his ground is of no lesse value and account then that in his house and Barne Nay it is of more for that that is in his Barne shall not multiply so many bushels he putteth up and so many hee receiveth but that which is in the ground multiples therefore it is in as great account So it is with God There are many bodies of the Saints walking on the earth and those that are laid in the grave that are sowen as the Apostle saith for immortalitie The bodies of the Saints in the grave are of no lesse account with God then those which walke up and downe in the world and glorifie him with workes of pietie why the body is sowne to immortalitie there is still somewhat of Christ. That is the first thing it implies They are taken away it argues that their death is temporary Secondly it sheweth it is deliberate that their death is not sudden For there is a difference betweene these two to be snatched away and to be taken away Impenitent men when they are taken away in judgement they are snatched away in displeasure The godly man God takes him away removes him it is as gentle a word as could be used there cannot be a better word to expresse it in our translation then for God to take him away Iob and Moses expressed it so and so Isaiah here to shew that Death is never sudden to the mercifull and righteous man why because he is alwaies prepared It may bee sudden in respect of others but not to himselfe The stroke of Death may be the same to a righteous man as to an impenitent man they may both fall by the prevalencie of the same disease the same duration of sicknesse the same warning given them the same sympathy but there is a difference in regard of the suddennesse If it be a sudden stroke that overtakes an impenitent man then it is two wayes sudden even a premeditated death is sudden to him because he is not prepared sudden death commeth not to a prepared man because he lookes for it it may as I said be sudden to others but it is not to himselfe why because he expects Death he dieth daily hee dieth in his thoughts before hee dies in act he dies in meditation before he dies in passion I die daily saith the Apostle Death when it came to the Apostle it found him dying it could not come suddenly to him Death findes him setting open the dores therefore though it seeme sudden death it cannot be sudden because he is taken away the stroke of Death may be sudden but the issue of death is not sudden the stroke may be sudden to his body but not to his mind because he fitteth himselfe still for it There is the deliberation implied in the word his death is not sudden in that he is prepared God awaketh his heart to make him looke for it therefore when Death commeth though sooner or later it doth but take him it snatcheth him not away that is the meaning of the second The third word is the extent of this act from the evill to come that is a word that is not specified in the former part it makes both this and that the more full it makes a greater demonstration of Gods goodnesse hee is not only mercifull in taking away but he takes away from that that is evill hee takes from a bad estate to a better An evill that is present that is simply so an Evill for the time to come God takes righteous and mercifull men from both That I may lay a fit path for my proceeding in it Saint Austin devideth the nature of Evill well to those two heads there is the Evill of doing and the evill of suffering that is the evill of sinne and of punishment The first of these the Evill of sinne is opposite saith Aquinas to the increated good The second the Evill of punishment is opposite to the created good God takes away mercifull men from both these First from the Evill of suffering Two wayes he is tooke from that Hee is tooke away from the Evill of suffering that hee shall not see it and that he shall not undergoe it and endure it First that he shall not see it that he shall not bee a spectatour that is one part of taking away For righteous and mercifull men have tender affections and yearning bowels when they see Gods judgements extended over any place or person they sympathize with them they weepe with those that weepe and mourne with those that mourne God takes them from this sorrow and mourning It hath alwayes beene accounted one part of the happinesse of a godly man to be taken from
a glasse with good keeping may last as long as an earthen Pot but both brittle Now notwithstanding this Sex bee brittle and the weaker yet to be honoured and that upon this ground because partakers with Men and as well as Men of the greatest priviledge the grace of life Were this a meeting for the solemnization of a Mariage I might further descan upon this plaine-song that ariseth from the inference of Mens honouring of Women What have I said if it were a Mariage solemnitie surely howsoever here bee before our eyes the eyes of our bodies a visible object of mortalitie yet notwithstanding here is before us an invisible occasion of rejoycing as at a Mariage solemnitie to the eye of our soule understanding and faith for while here we live in the world Jesus Christ our Spouse hee hath his friends friends of the Bridegroome his Ministers and messengers that in his name come to us wooe us use all the meanes that may be to move us to accept of Christ for our Lord and Husband When a man accepts of this offer there is then the contract consummated in regard of the mutuall consent that passeth betweene the one and the other Christ having his Proxies here wee the Ministers being for him and every beleeving soule for himselfe This contract continueth so long as here wee remaine in this world when wee depart the body is laid in the Bride-bed quietly to rest and sleepe till the Bridegroome be pleased to come and awake his Spouse and it will be a blessed voyce that hee shall come withall Come yee blessed of my Father receive the kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the world As for the soule that goeth immediatly to Christ and is in his Fathers house with him the Spouse in that part with her Husband the Lord Christ enjoying an eternall inviolable communion and sweet societie But howsoever this is thus to the invisible eyes of the soule we now must looke upon the object here before us and answerably order our matter and therefore with this touch I let passe the inference and come to the substance of the Text. You heard the summe you heard the parts But wee must here proceed Huesteron and Proteron and cleane invert the order of the words as I hope your selves will discerne if you doe but well marke the order and method Life is in the last place Grace before it the right that commeth before it and the extent of that right before all I suppose therefore you will thinke that first it is meet to lay forth the priviledge it selfe Life and then to speake of the ground of it then of the right that we have and then of the Extent of that right and this order I purpose to follow First therefore concerning the Priviledge it selfe Life For brevities sake I forbeare to speake much of the divers acceptations of life and distinctions thereof as it is in the Creatour the onely true God Father Sonne and holy Spirit or as it is in the invisible and glorious creatures the Angels or as it is in men who are animated by a reasonable soule or as it is in those creatures that are guided only by sense Beasts Fowle Fish or otherwise as it is in Trees and Plants that come forth out of the earth having a vegetative life onely The life here meant is that wee call eternall life consisting in our communion with Christ our Spouse and this is a life proper to the Saints proper unto them because comming from the grace of God extended unto them alone proper unto them because they are heires of it And in this extent there is a restraint howsoever the extent bee in divers considerations yet a restraint a qualification onely beleevers onely sound true Christians to them it is proper And this life is to be considered either in the Inchoation and beginning thereof or in the consummation and accomplishment thereof In regard of the Inchoation of this speciall life of the Saints it is here begun in this world I now live saith the Apostle speaking even of this life by the faith of the Sonne of God And the Iust shall live by faith This life it is by Christs dwelling and living in us I now live yet not I but Christ liveth in me saith the Apostle in the place before quoted The other it is in the world to come and it is by a sweet feeling and fruition it is by our abiding with Christ and living with him in which respect saith our Lord Christ to the penitent beleever upon the Crosse This day the very day that he died shalt thou be with me in Paradise and so Saint Paul saith of himselfe I desire to bee dissolved and to be with Christ implying that upon the dissolution immediatly there is a fruition a communion with Christ And the same Apostle speaking of those Saints that shall be upon the earth at the very moment of Judgement when the dead saith he are raised then shall wee also that are alive and remaine be caught up together with them in the cloudes to meet the Lord in the ayre and so shall wee ever be with the Lord. Now then marke here you see the soule hath present communion with Christ upon the dissolution of the body and the body also shall have communion with him at the great day of the Resurrection of all flesh Now this life and communion with Christ is proper to the Saints by vertue of their union with Christ A misticall union For Christ the Sonne of God hee is life originally in himselfe for as the Father hath life in himselfe so hath hee given to the Sonne to have life in himselfe Hee is also Life communicatively communicating life unto us therefore hee is said to be the Bread of life and in this sence because hee is that Bread which commeth downe from heaven and giveth life unto the world The Use of this point my brethren is manifold I will but touch it First it doth instruct us in the great love and good respect that God beareth to us children of men that of his owne good pleasure hath written our names in the booke of life and hath sent his Sonne to purchase life for us and to bring us also to this life Behold what love the Father hath shewed to us in Christ Secondly this is a demonstration of the wofull plight wherein naturally men are in this world they may seeme to be of some account they have a life that is farre different from the life of Plants and also from the life of Beasts they have a reasonable soule to animate them Oh but this this is is not the life Naturall life indeed is a death compared to this life that is here noted to bee proper to the Saints which commeth by grace whereof wee are heires and therefore of all naturall men it may bee said as the Apostle saith of the wanton
this is a truth concernes you in particular Judge your selves so farre profited by the Word you heare as you can make good application of it to your owne estate and condition Whensoever men come to heare the Word they come to heare somewhat that concernes themselves therefore whatsoever wee say befalls them that are in Christ apply it your selves and make account this is my case if I bee in Christ. Fourthly hence we might note thus much also that When a man is in Christ there is a reall change There is an evident change from what hee was before hee was in Christ. For so the Apostle reasons now you are in Christ there is such a change as from death to life there is a mervellous great change in you If there bee not this change in you neither are you in Christ and all the hopes you build on of being in Christ they are without a foundation they are upon an imaginarie Christ not upon Christ that is yours indeed If you bee in Christ let it appeare in a change let us see how you are changed since you were in Christ from that you were before for this make account of conclude thus much for your selves that all that are in Christ are changed But fiftly and lastly hee expresseth wherein this change consisteth and hee makes choice of such termes as are most acquisite and fit for his purpose He would expresse this spirituall change and marke what expressions hee useth to manifest it by no lesse then life and death There is such a change when you are once in Christ from what you were before as there is between a man that was dead and is now alive or a man that was alive and is now dead and this is that that I will insist now upon wherein note these particulars First the Analogie and proportion the aptnesse and fitnesse of the termes wherein the Apostle expresseth the spirituall change of those that are in Christ how fitly they may be sayd to be dead and alive Secondly it is observeable in what order the Apostle expresseth these first dead and then alive Make account that the worke of Grace in the effectuall change in your hearts it proceeds in this order First you are dead and then alive dead to sin first and then alive to God Thirdly note the certaine connexion of these two together so there is not onely a certainty in the object but a certainty in the subject too not only a certaintie that those that are in Christ shall live but it is certaine to you make account of this make this conclusion for your selves build on it know it for your selves as he sayd to Iob it is certaine if you be in Christ you are dead with Christ and you shall live with Christ make account of this Lastly the efficient cause of this great change exprest in these termes it is Iesus Christ our Lord make account of this if you be in Christ there comes a vertue from Christ an effectuall working of Christ by his spirit in your hearts such a powerfull worke as will conforme you to Christ dead and to Christ risen that you shall be dead to sinne and alive to God not by any strength in your selves or any excellent endowment in your owne natures not by any naturall inclination and abilitie but through the vertue and power of Iesus Christ our Lord working in you Thus you have the Text opened Wee will speake first of the Analogie and proportion the agreement betweene the metaphors here used and the things exprest by them That which the Apostle would expresse is that there is a marvellous spirituall reall change in all those that are in Christ from what they were before Now let us see how fitly it is exprest in these words that he sayth you are dead to sinne and alive to God that hee choseth to expresse it by life and death Had it not beene fit to have sayd thus much you are changed in your dispositions in your inclinations in your intentions in your actions you are changed in your conversations you are other kind of men in the inclination of your hearts you bring forth other fruit you lead other lives then you were wont to doe But hee expresseth it here yet more fully that is by that that includes all these and if there be any thing more may be added it includes that too yee are dead and alive Then we will consider First generally how death and life expresse the state of them that are in Christ. Secondly consider them in their particular application how death expresseth the first part of a mans change in sanctification and life the second part First wee take them in generall and let this bee the point that A man that is indeed effectually changed by vertue of his union with Christ hee hath such a change wrought in him as in a dead and living man as in life or in death Now first take it in generall you know life and death they imply first a generall change when a man is alive or when a man is dead there is not a change in some part onely but in the whole So it is here when a man is effectually changed from what he was by vertue of his union with Christ. A member may bee dead and yet neverthelesse the man alive but if the man be dead there is a general change that goes throughout it possesseth every part every member so that now there is no member of him but death rules in it then hee is a dead man So it is in this when a man is dead spiritually there is not a change in some particular actions onely in some particular opinions onely there is not an alteration of some of his old customes onely but it is a generall change so it goes through the whole man It is a change in the understanding he judgeth things otherwise then hee was wont to doe And there is a change in the will the inclination of it is to other objects then he was wont to bee inclined to And thence there is a change in his intentions he propounds other ends to himselfe then he was wont So there is a change in respect of the whole the Word is the rule of all a mans actions There is a change from particular evills from one as well as another that when any thing is discovered to him to bee a sinne to bee a transgression of the rule hee is turned from it So likewise when any thing is discovered to him to be a dutie agreeable to the rule according to the will of God revealed in his Word hee is a vessell of honour prepared for it and that is it the Apostle especially means when he compares them to vessells and he describes them thus they are vessells of honour fit for the service of their Master prepared for every good worke So that now as the Apostle sayth there remaineth no more conscience of sinne That is
withereth and is fit for nothing but the Oven so it is with our lives Many expressions of the like nature might be added the Scripture is plentifull in these comparisons comparing our life to the Spiders webbe to a Weavers shuttle to the breath of a candle to a pilgrimage to a journey to the dayes of an hireling c. all of them things of a changeable and variable nature The second argument may be taken from the qualitie of our Natures and therein there are two things considerable both which imply a certaintie of death First our composition and matter whereof we are made wee are reared out of a mouldering and wasting principle our bodies are therefore stiled an earthly house 2 Cor. 5. 1. A house though of Iron will in time be cankered but a house of earth as it is most impotent against assaults so it is of its owne nature most apt and subject to dissolution And in this respect also they ar termed Tabernacles Now a Tabernacle you know is a thing of no perpetuitie made only to be soone set up and that in a mans passage and then asso one taken downe againe Secondly beside this there is in our nature sinne and corruption and this is it that doth put us to the sword and cause this deadly change this tares our lives with a continuall consumption The tree breedes the worme which will destroy the life of the tree wee in Adam gave leave to sinne and now it is that sin gives leave to death In the day that thou shalt eate thereof thou shalt surely dye Gen. 2. 17. and Rom. 5. 12. By one man sinne entered into the world and death by sinne and so death passed over all men in that all have sinned The shadow doth not so neerely attend the body of man as Death doth the body of sinne And Rom. 6. 23. the very wages of sinne is death God should doe that man wrong that hath hired out his soule all his dayes to sinne if he did not at night pay him with the wages of death The third Argument may be drawne from the certaintie of the Resurrection wee all beleeve the resurrection of our bodyes and and therefore wee must needes conclude a change of our bodyes for what is the Resurrection but life from death for the dead to heare the voyce of Christ and live What is it but a breathing in of the soule againe the lighting of the candle againe the body could never be raised if it were not first changed Thou foole saith Saint Paul 1 Cor. 15. that which thou sowest is not quickned except it dye The fourth Argument is from the infallibilitie of Gods decree it is appointed unto men once to dye and after death to come to judgement Heb. 9. 27. Thou mayest sooner expect that the course of the Heavens shall bee altered and the Center of the earth bee dislocated then that the purpose of God concerning mans mortalitie should bee reversed nay that may be for heaven and earth shall passe away but this shall never be not one jot of the word of God shall fall to the ground God hath purposed it and none shall disanull it nay he hath established his purpose with a word of confirmation Gen. 2. in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye As if hee should have said Doe not deceive thy selfe but build upon it I have spoken it and will not alter the thing that is gone out of my mouth as sure as thou livest if thou eatest thou shalt dye Thus you see the first assertion cleared unto you I will addresse my selfe now to the second of which briefly too and then make Application of them both together As there is a certaintie of our change so wee should alway waite till it doth come There are two things which I will here inquire of for the fuller illustration of this point First what this continuall wayting may import Secondly why there should be such a constant wayting for the day of our mortall change First this continuall wayting mainly imports two things one acertaine expectation of death for wayting is an act of Hope expecting something if wee doe hope for that wee see not then doe wee with patience waite for it saith the Apostle Rom. 8. 15. A man is then sayd to wayte for death when hee is looking for it at every turne as a Steward waites for his Master when hee continually expects his returne when upon every voice hee heares or upon every knocke at the doore hee saith oh my Master is come this is hee that knockes So a man is sayd to wayte for death when in every action of his life in every motion of his estate in every passage of his courses sayth well I must dye when though his bones are full of marrow yet I must dye when though riches come in like a flood yet I must dye when changes appeare upon himselfe or others yet I must dye 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 bee 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 bee for mee so when death comes I am readie to answer it as Abraham did his Sonne Isaack here I am it comes not upon mee as a thiefe in the night when I am a sleep and thinke not of him but as Ionathans arrow to David who stayed in the field and expected when it should bee shot and then hee rose up and embraced him Yee Brethren sayth Paul in 1 Thes. 5. 4. are not in darknesse that that day should overtake you as a theife ye are all the children of the light therefore let us not sleepe as doe others but let us watch and bee sober This is the first thing that wayting 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 interim of time for the best advantage for a mans soule before the day of change doth come which is here implyed in wayting Solomon calls it a remembring Eccles. 12. 1. Remember thy Creatour in the dayes of thy youth whiles the evill dayes come not and the yeares draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them what is this remembring of the Creatour but a care to know him a feare to offend him a studie to obey him and when is that to bee done Now now remember there must bee a present acting of this Moses calls it a numbring of our dayes Psal. 90. 12. and
that That hee dispense faithfully wisely Who saith the Lord in that 12. Luke 42. is a faithfull and wise steward whom his Lord shall make ruler over his houshold c. Gods stewards yee see must in their dispensations bee faithfull and wise First they must be faithfull Fidelitie appeares in this when they have a right End and a right rule to walke by What is the End and rule of a faithfull steward in all his dispensations in the house of his Master His Masters credit and his Masters will His masters honour and his Masters command So it must be in the house of God If wee would bee faithfull in our places let Gods glory be our end and his Word our rule That is let a man consider what God in his Word commands him in such a place in such a qualification having such indowments such parts such abilities and let him dispense these by that rule according to that command to the glory of God that gave them him Thus was Moses a faithfull steward faithfull as a servant in all the house of God so the Apostle saith of him Heb. 3. 5. His Masters glory was his end and therefore when once hee saw his Master dishonoured by Idolatrie hee could not then containe himselfe but his Anger waxed hot though hee was the meekest man upon earth And his Masters will was his rule therefore hee came downe from the mountaine with the Tables in his hand that it might appeare what he made his guide and direction in all his cariage amongst the people and wee shall find that in all the doubts of the people either in matter of Command or punishment hee alwayes sought direction from God Hee is no faithfull servant that doth not doe this Secondly As hee must be a faithfull steward in dispensing so hee must be wise in his dispensing too What is the wisdome of Gods stewards Not the wisdome drawne from the writings of Machivile or the wisdome of the World or of the flesh for that is enmitie against God not drawne from the rules that politicians walke by But that wisdome that is drawne out of the Scriptures the word of God The word of God saith the Apostle is able to make the man of God wise to salvation this is the wisedome that Gods servants must expresse and manifest in dispensing of their gifts they must be made wise by the Word they must seeke wisedome from the Word the rule of Wisedome from the Examples in the Word of those that were guided by the spirit of Wisedome if they would be wise stewards They must compare the precepts of the Word and the practise of the Saints together see what God commandeth in such a place in such a condition see what Gods servants that are gone before have done in such a condition Marke how Abraham and Iob and others of Gods Saints have imployed their wealth and authority it was for the releeving of the poore for the furtherance of Gods glory for the ease of those that were opprest Marke how Nehemiah bestirred himselfe for the sanctifying of the Sabbath for the furtherance of Gods worship Marke againe how S. Paul as a Minister watched against the wolves and how hee spends himselfe to the uttermost for the Church of God Marke how Abraham as a master of a familie governed his familie teaching and commanding his children and his houshold to walke in the way of the Lord Marke how other of Gods servants have imployed their gifts As Sampson all his strength for the Church and so Solomon all his wisedome and whatsoever gift any of them had they acknowledged that the talents that were committed to them were for God and for the service of his Church for the furtherance of his glory in the particular places that hee had set them in I say if men would be wise stewards they must doe thus But I cannot stand upon this lest I bee prevented in that which I most intend in that that followeth Yee have heard who is the Steward It is Every one that hath received any abilitie from God to doe him seruice God expects that he should imploy that abilitie in his service Wee come now in the second place to consider the reckoning which every man must make the account that every man must give of his stewardship And that as yee haue heard is the second point of Doctrine that offers it selfe to us out of the first part of the Text viz. That all Gods stewards must give a reckoning one time or other unto God As every man in the world is Gods steward so every steward must give an account In opening of this I will shew yee two things First I will shew yee what time of Reckoning God hath with his stewards Secondly I will shew yee why God judiciously proceedeth in this manner called a reckoning or an account For the first There are two times of reckoning that God will have with his stewards The first in this life The second after death First hee calleth them to account in this life while they live on the earth and that two wayes By his Word Rodde First by his Word hastning every man to an Account by the Gospell and the Doctrine of repentance This course God himselfe tooke with Adam called him to account for his cariage in the garden Adam saith he where art thou who told thee that thou wert naked hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat Afterwards when God sent his Prophets into the world they tooke the same course so Elijah when hee came to Ahab hast thou killed and also taken possession as if hee should have said know that God hath found out thy sinne and now calleth thee to a reckoning So Iohn Baptist when hee came to the Pharisees and those hard-hearted sinners hee calleth them to a reckoning oh generation of vipers who hath warned yee to flee from the wrath to come So Peter called those three thousand soules in the 2. Acts to a reckoning for crucifying of Christ him saith hee who is the Lord of life yee have taken and with wicked hands have crucified and slaine And because there are many that like the Adder stop their eares at the voyce of the Charmer and if God speake but in his Word they passe it by as Elihu in Iob saith God speakes once yea twice yet man perceiveth it not therefore when the Word doth not prevaile God calleth them to a reckoning by his rodde Micha 6. 9. Heare the Rodde and him that appointeth it that is God hath appointed scourges and afflictions for men to awake them to hearken to the voyce that calleth them to a reckoning Now afflictions are outward or inward corporall or spirituall God sometimes calleth men to an account by corporall afflictions Hee smiteth man as he saith with paines upon his bed and the multitude of his
the world and therefore goe about it now Reckon with others also for workes of mercie what thou hast beene wanting in to thy brethââ¦en thou hast lived thus long in a plentifull estate what hast thou done with thy estate Iesephus reckons up three severall tenths that were expected and exacted of the Iewes Wouldest thou bee lesse liberall now in the time of the Gospell then they were under the Law Is God lesse mercifull or hath he lesse interest in thy estate Thou hast so many thousands What hast thou done out of this to releeve the poore or to set up those in a course of traffique and trade that want a stocke Beloved you cannot if you looke about you want objects of mercy and meanes to further your reckoning at the day of the Lord. And if you would bee faithfull stewards to God say thus I have beene thus much behind-hand in paying the due I owe to the poore to the Church c. I will pay it while I live and if that bee not enough when I die I will pay it But I hasten That is the second thing Let every man reckon thus with his owne heart The third thing is the daily exercise of repentance upon the sight of your former evils God now saith the Apostle calleth all men every where to repentance because hee hath appointed a day in which hee will judge the world in righteousnesse Let this then stirre us up to repentance God expects that men should judge themselves now Fourthly If you would stand at that great day of Iudgement when there shall bee such an exact reckoning Interest now your selves in Christ. There is no way to escape the judgement to come but by making peace with the Iudge now There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus This was prefigured in the Mercie-seate that was to bee compassed about with the wings of the Cherubins all covering the two tables of the Testament one Cherubin to looke toward another shewing us thus much that there is no covering of ovr transgressions committed against the commandements of God the tables of the Testimonie but by the great Mercie-seate the Lord Iesus Christ upon whom the Fathers of the times before Christ and Beleevers since looke expecting the covering of the guilt of their sinnes from the wrath of God by no other meanes but by this propitiatorie or Mercie-seate that covereth the Arke of the Testimonie Lastly it serveth also for instruction in another point that is To teach us to lead a holy conversation This use the Apostle Peter made of the Doctrine of the day of Iudgement Seeing saith he that wee looke for these things what manner of persons ought wee to bee in all holy conversation and godlinesse Alas beloved little doe you know whether this be the last Sermon that many of you may heare whether this be the last day wherein God will ever call upon you to repent and amend your lives There shall be a fearfull dissolution and destruction of all things that you see There shall be a naked appearance made before the Iudge at that day of reckoning let every man therefore say within himselfe How shall I stand at that time at that Iudgement All our care should bee that of the Apostle Pauls Whether wee be absent from the body or present in the body wee labour that wee may bee accepted of the Lord Whether wee live a day longer or die this day before the morrow that wee may bee found acceptable before the Lord. And for this cause saith hee in another place because there shall bee a resurrection from the dead both of the just and unjust I exercise my selfe to have alwayes a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men Looke to it in your places and in your hearts that you may have a good conscience void of offence toward God and men for the time shall come that nothing in the world shall stand you in stead but a good conscience and if then when the bookes are opened it be found that your reckonings are even and the accounts cleare betweene you and your Master by obedience and repentance by workes and by faith happie shall that servant bee whom his Master at that day shall find so doing The last Vse is a use of comfort to all the servants of God Let them quietly and cheerefully suffer that portion of miserie and affliction that the Lord dealeth out unto them Let them not grudge at the prosperity of ungodly men or at the varietie of changes that themselves are exposed unto because there is a day of reckoning and account when all things shall bee made even The Apostle Saint Iames exhorteth Christians to patience upon this very ground because the day of the Lord draweth nigh If therefore you see wicked men prosper and bring their enterprises to passe bee not troubled at the matter A man doth not much envie an enemie that is now in prison though hee have some good cheare there though hee have some friends that come and see him there because hee knowes hee is but a prisoner and hee shall be brought out at the Assizes and then hee shall bee righted The world is the common jayle whereinto Adam was cast after hee had sinned and wee are all prisoners in this prison-house the enemies of Gods glory and of his Church and people they cannot escape out of this prison here they are tied Gods chaines are upon them and he will bring them to an account before his Iudgement seate and that before all men and Angels With these things let us comfort and support our selves A word concerning the present occasion Yee have heard that all men are Gods Stewards yee have heard that God hath a time wherein hee will call all his stewards to an account the fore-runners of this great account shall bee in this life and after death when God strikes men downe by death it is that they may bee brought into his presence and there receive the sentence either of absolution oâ⦠condemnation as I shewed you before concerning the soule of man in that intelectuall manner receiving the sentence It is appointed to all men once to die and after that the Iudgement You have now a spectacle of mortalitie before you one of Gods stewards tooke away and called by death to give up his account Concerning whom it cannot bee expected that I should say much orany thing at all specially by those that know both the condition of his living and of his dying For his living It was not in the Citie but for the most part it was from us in the Countrey For his dying Hee was here but a day or two before hee was taken hence Hee came to the Citie in the extremitie of his weaknesse and it tooke him with some violence as the nature of that disease the stone is There was much expression expected from him but it pleased God to make a sudden
all have sinned This I say is it that will make sin odious to a man it will make a man looke upon sinne as a deadly evill A man will avoid an infectious disease that is mortall and deadly and pestilentiall and the like Why because it is deadly it is as much as his life is worth The same is sinne it is that that brought death upon all man-kind and will bring it upon thee When doth the creature forfeit his beeing to the Creator but when he doth not use it in the service and for the glory of the Creatour God hath given the creature a beeing for himselfe I have forfeited my beeing when I glorifie not God with it that man forfeiteth his wit his memorie his strength his time his life and all that he is or hath when he doth not imploy them in Gods service to Gods glory Now sinne is that that makes us deny the service and glory we owe to God sin is that that makes a forfeiture of our lives and all unto him Here is the first thing God hath given the creature a beeing for himselfe he preserveth the creature in beeing for himselfe when the creature therefore sinneth it forfeiteth its life and beeing to the Creator This makes sinne odious Secondly this is it that declareth the wonderfull justice and truth of God Hee said to Adam in the beginning assoone as ever he had fallen hee should die and we find it true on him and all his posteritie for Adam stood and represented the person of all men before God that one man was all men in him all men were under the sentence of death And we see it is true to this day Wee find God true in this let this make us beleeve his word in every thing else He hath beene as good as his word he hath declared his justice and his truth in the death of all man-kind upon the sin of Adam he will declare it in every thing else in every promise in every threatning in every passage of his word let us giue him the glory of his truth as we find it in this Thirdly it is advantageous very much for our selves as a meanes to prepare us for death the better When a man seriously concludeth Death is the end of all men then if I reckon and account my selfe amongst men it will be my end too and it may be my end now And we shall see what use Iob makes of this All the dayes of my appointed time I will waite till my change shall come I make account a great change will come such as hath beene upon all my fathers before me so it will come upon me I will make account of it and therefore I will waite all my dayes So should we make account every day that this may bee the day of my change in every thing you doe make account that your change may begin then in that very action and this will be a meanes to make you waite for your change make you prepare for death It is that that Drusius noteth of Rabbi Eleazer that he gave this counsell and advise that a man should be sure to repent one day before he died Hee meant not that a man should deferre his repentance till it did evidently appeare that Death had seized upon him But because a man may conclude if it be possible I may live to day it is probable I may die to morrow therefore I will repent to day Doe it now and doe not delay it till to morrow This is that we are to doe to account of every day as that which may be the day of our change and so to carrie our selves in all our actions and occasions as if wee should have no more time to doe our worke And this is especially to be observed in three things First in matter of sinning be carefull to amend sinne every day labour to mortifie sinne this day as if thou shouldest have no more dayes to mortifie it in take heed of sinning now as if thou shouldest die now Some we see have beene taken away in the very act of sinne Ananias and Saphira were taken away in the very act of sinning when they were telling a lie to the Apostle they died Zimri and Corbie were slaine in the very act of uncleannesse Corah and his company they died in the act of murmuring and resisting of God and his ordinances and ministers Let a man now reason with himselfe these were taken away in their sinnes it may be my case aswell as theirs if I be found in sinne That is the first Secondly bring it home to this particularalso in another case and that is in redeeming of the opportunities of the time of our life Besides the generall time of life there be certaine opportunities certaine advantages of time that the Scripture calleth seasons be carefull to redeeme them though you may enjoy your lives yet you may have none of these such as are seasons of glorifying God seasons of doing good seasons of gaining good to a mans selfe be carefull therefore I say to mannage those opportunities and advantages of time so that you may glorifie God Whether you eate or drinke or whatsoever you doe doe all to the glory of God Which way soever you may most advance Gods glory and promote his worship which way soever yee may promote the cause of God drawing men to God and incouraging them in the wayes of God which way soever you may bee usefull employ your selfe at that time the present time because you must die and you may die now you may have no more opportunities to doe it in And so likewise in all advantages wherein men may doe good to men Exhort one another while it is called to day and while you have time doe good unto all Doe all the spirituall good and all the outward good that you can while you have seasons to doe good Happy is that servant that his Master shall find so doing when he commeth leading a fruitfull and profitable life So doe good to your owne soules while you have time pray while you have time to pray heare the Word while you have time to heare it exercise repentance while you have time to repent perfect the worke of mortification while you have time to mortifie your corruptions doe your soules all the good you can by the advantages of all the ordinances of all the opportunities that God hath given you This is the end of all men it hath been the end of good and bad before and it shall be the end of good and bad now men must die their houses will be houses of mourning therefore mannage the time in doing all the good you can that God may be glorified men may be benefited and your owne soules furthered That is the second thing Lastly in the manner of your conversation consider the time that you have to doe every thing in Will a man be found idleing in
is represented to him his owne state what we are they were once the time was that they converst with men as we doe that they spake for Gods glory upon earth as we doe and what they are now we shall be there will come a time when our workes shall cease as theirs doe when we shall be in the place of silence as they are I say it confirmeth to us the former certaintie and assurance of our death when we see others fall before us And there is great profit and benefit that ariseth out of this This is necessary to awaken mens drowsinesse and to quicken up mens dulnesse to a serious consideration of that that is so usefull to themselves A man would wonder that in the Wildernesse where so many thousands died for the hand of God was out against them for their murmuring and rebellion and they were destroyed by the destroyer as the Apostle speakes 2 Cor. 10. that there Moses should pray Lord teach us to number our dayes that wee may apply our hearts to wisedome though they had a sight of so many dying before them and that continually yet they needed to bee stirred up to pray that God would teach them to make use of it So it is with us Wee have seene not only one or two die before us but there was a time not long since and you cannot forget it wherein the destroying Angel did walke at libertie about the Citie and kill thousands in our streets yet when so many died what securitie was there even among those that lived insomuch that after a while the sicknesse grew common and usuall and so unregarded Have we not need then as much as ever Moses had in the Wildernesse to crie to God to teach us to number our dayes that wee may apply our hearts to wisedome Nay much more now when there is scarce one or none in comparison of those multitudes that were swept away in that visitation we have need of such helpes as these are and to joyne our prayers with them too that we may be stirred up to a serious application of it to our selves That 's the first thing it is necessary for living men to take to heart the death of those that are departed that they may see and be brought seriously to thinke of the certainty of their owne death Secondly therein also wee see the nature of death what the proper worke of it in the world is It is of singular use too The nature of death the proper worke of it is to disunite to separate to dis-joyne things here you have the soule separated from the body the estate separated from the man the man separated from his friends and all by Death First I say yee have the body separated from the soule and this is a usefull consideration The soule and the body while they keepe together in a man they may be helpfull and usefull one to another the time will come when they must be separated Alas the not considering of this is the cause of those great errours that are in the lives of men that they bestow so much time upon their bodies that they so much minde the present things of this life and their outward welfare as if they had no soules at all to regard as if there never should bee a separation of body and soule one from another What is the reason that there is all that care tooke for food for the body for apparell for the body for health for the body and such an utter neglect of the soule but because that men doe not dreame doe not thinke of a time of separation of a time of dis-junction of a time of parting these two All the worke of a mans life should now be to make a good use of the faculties of his soule that the body may be happy by it the soule will draw the body after it to its owne estate Now they are together if they joyne now in sinne after their separation there shall come a time when they shall be joyned in punishment if they joyne now in the service of God after they have beene separated a while by death there will come a time when they shall be againe joyned in glory and happinesse That is the first There will bee a separation of soule and body therefore make good use of them while they are together let the body be serviceable to the soule by all its senses and members let the soule rule and order the body by its understanding and affections c. that both body and soule may bee made blessed in an eternall conjunction together after death and in an everlasting union in the sight of God Secondly Death makes a separation betweene a man and all his outward estate in the world The rich man in Saint Luke 12. thought not upon this Soule thou hast much goods layed up for many yeares hee thought his soule and his goods should never have parted therefore take now thine ease saith he See what the end of it was Thou foole saith the Lord this night they shall fetch away thy soule and then whose shall these things bee The time is comming that these things shall bee none of thine they shall bee another mans they shall be some bodies else they shall be taken from thee How necessary is this consideration to take off mens affections from the world and to stirre them up to use their wealth and their estates while they have them so as may make for the glory of God A time shall come that they shall not have it to use that nothing shall be left them but a bare account to be given up Give an account of thy stewardship Luke 16. The maine businesse is now to be done while a man and his wealth are together while a man and his estate continueth together to use it to Gods glory otherwise it will be a woefull and heavy parting when death shall come to make a separation The young man went away sorrowfull when Christ would have his wealth from him because he had great possessions How sorrowfull will a man goe out of the world when he hath a great deale of wealth but he hath not prepared his account he cannot give up a reckoning of his getting of it of his using and imploying of it It is necessary therefore I say that men take to heart the death of those that die before them that when they see the bodies and soules of men parted men and their estates parted they may learne how to use their bodies and soules themselves and their estates while they are yet joyned together Thirdly Death doth not only part a mans body and soule a mans selfe and his wealth but it parteth a man from his friends from all his worldly acquaintance from all those that he tooke delight in upon earth Deathmakes a separation betweene husband and wife see it in Abraham and Sarah though Abraham loved Sarah dearely yet Death parted them
to heart they consider not the causes wherefore God takes away those good men A Land a Kingdome a State a People a place is much weakned when those that are righteous and mercifull men when those that stand in the gappe and use their endevours to prevent judgements are taken away The house will certainly fall when the pillars are removed They are the people of God only that hold up a state that hold up the world Assoone as Noah is put into the Arke presently commeth the deluge upon the World Assoone as ever Lot was got up to Zoar presently the Lord rained downe fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah Assoone as ever the mourners are marked presently commeth the destroying Angell upon the rest Beloved when wee see those that are mourners for the evils of the times and places where they live tooke away we should lay it to heart and consider it as a signe of Gods displeasure as a signe that hee is a going and departing when he takes away his jewels as a signe that he is a comming to judge the world when hee beginneth to separate to take to himselfe his owne Certainly as soone as ever that number of the elect shall bee accomplished when the company of those that God hath determined to eternall life shall be fulfilled when the sheepe of Christ that are yet to be brought into his fold are gathered together when the fulnesse of the Gentiles is come in and the nation of the Iewes added then the world shall bee burnt with fire and the day of Iudgement shall come nothing shall hinder that generall destruction that shall be the end of all things here below As it is with the generall Iudgement of the world so with particular Iudgements upon Nations when God takes away his people when the Saints goe out of Ierusalem to Pila then commeth the sword of the enemie upon Ierusalem when God drawes out his owne people presently commeth judgement upon the rest It is good to observe Gods method and order that he takes in governing of the world at this day that in the death of the servants of God wee may consider our owne time that wee may prepare for those evils that are a comming and for those greater judgements that are hastning Thus you see what use may bee made of laying to heart the death of others God is much glorified thereby For all his attributes are seene in all his workes and the glorifying of God is a declaring of God to be as glorious as hee hath revealed himselfe to be in his attributes which is by shewing of them forth in his workes When men can see the wisedome the justice the power the mercie the truth the soveraigntie of God and all in the death of others then they glorifie God in taking to heart the death of others You see likewise what good commeth to a mans selfe by laying to heart the death of others He sees thereby the certainty of his owne death He sees the nature of death and what the proper worke of it is viz. to separate betweene him and all those outward comforts all those props and staies whereupon his heart rested too much on earth in the daies of his vanitie And lastly he sees the end and cause why God sendeth Death into the world sometime in judgement that men should take heed of sin sometime in mercie in mercy to the men themselves and in mercy also to those that live that they seeing the servants of God lodged up before the tempest may learne to feare and to hide and secure themselves under Gods speciall providence who can either hide them amongst the living or the dead in the worst times Now let us conclude with some application to our selves In the first place it serveth for the just reproofe of that great neglect that is in the world at this day that men lay not to heart the death of others I wish that this were only the sinne of worldly men I know to a worldly man it is of all things the most unpleasant thought that can be to thinke of death hee cannot endure to heare this they shall fetch thy soule from thee It is as unpleasant to him as it is to a bankrout to heare of a Sergeant comming to arrest him as unpleasant as it is to a malefactour to heare of being brought before the Iudge And that is the reason why men in the time of feasting cannot endure such discourses at their Tables as might put sad thoughts of death into them oh these are to melancholy thoughts Yea but in the meane time it is thy folly thy want of wisedome Hee that was guided by the spirit of wisedome and had now bought some wisedome at a deare rate by wofull experience of his former follies hee now seeth that it was farre better to goe to the house of mourning that is seriously to consider of that which men account the most ordinary cause of mourning that is the death of others and of themselves then to goe to the house of feasting that is to sport a mans selfe in the pleasures of the world and to give libertie to a mans selfe to all manner of delights But I say I wish that this were their fault onely and that it may die with them But it is too much the fault of Gods owne people Moses is faine to pray for Israel in the Wildernesse where they saw so many die before them that God would give them wisedome to number their dayes And Ministers have still the same cause to pray for the people and Christians to pray one for another that God would give them wisedome to lay to heart the death of other men Have you well considered of Death when you can only discourse that such a one that was profitable in his instruction is dead such a one by whom we have had good in conversing with is dead such a one that was young and likely to live many yeares longer is dead What of all this this is but idle and emptie discourse What use makest thou of this to thy selfe dost thou gather from thence the certaintie of thy owne death Dost thou consider what Death will doe to thee when it commeth how that it will separate betweene thee and all things in the world as it hath done them Dost thou consider for what cause God sendeth Death abroad into the world Dost thou consider this with thy selfe as thou oughtest to doe This is an act of wisedome This is that wee call due consideration when the soule reflects upon it selfe it is their case now and it will be mine and mine in the same manner therefore it is good for me to set my accounts straite with God When thou accompaniest another to the grave dost thou conclude thus with thyselfe the very next time that any death is spoken of it may bee mine or as Saint Peter speakes to Saphira after the death of Annanias The feet of those that have buried
but how he carried himselfe in the world And truly this is the great Question that every man should put to his soule I must out of the world how have I lived when I was in the world had GOD any glory by mee had men any good by me have I furthered my account against the day of reckoning that I may give it up with joy it makes no matter how I goe out of the world I am sure if my life have beene serviceable to God and beneficiall to men my departure shall be for gaine and advantage it is for a better world Thus much shall serve briefly for the opening of these words and for that that is appliable from them For the present occasion a word Funerall Sermons are not intended for the praise of the dead but for the comfort of the living Therefore I have chosen such an argument to handle at this time as might bee of use and profit to you that live Besides that I am in particular and by particular order debarred of speaking any thing concerning our deceased Sister though I might have spoken much and that very usefull to you The best use that you can make will bee this to consider the life that shee led amongst you Shee was a patterne and example of holinesse of a wise and upright carriage in her wayes follow her in that Marke the Godly and upright man the end of that man is peace There was none that knew her but upon good assurance are perswaded of her happinesse now Would you then have the same happinesse after take the same course that shee did be much in prayer and dependance upon the ordinances and in fellowship with the servants of God be profitable in doing good profitable in receiving good mannage the opportunities and times well that God giveth you as she did gaining much in little she did much worke in a short space let that be your care and then this will be your comfort in the end Thus if you make this use of the death of others before you you shall prepare for your own death and that shal be only a passage for you to Eternall life FINIS DELIVERANCE FROM THE KING OF FEARES OR FREEDOME FROM THE FEARE OF DEATH PSAL. 55. 4. My heart is sore pained within mee and the terrours of death are fallen upon mee PROV 3. 25. Bee not afraid of sudden feare LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. DELIVERANCE FROM THE KING OF FEARES OR FREEDOME FROM THE FEARE OF DEATH SERMON III. HEBR. 2. 15. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and bloud he also himselfe likewise tooke part of the same that through death hee might destroy him that had the power of death that is the divell and deliver them who through the feare of death were all their life-time subject to bondage IN these words that I haue read to let passe other parts of the Chapter the Apostle sets downe the humiliation of Christ with the fruit of it His humiliation in his Incarnation and death The fruit of it in subduing him that had the power of death and delivering those that were kept under the feare of death in bondage all their life At this time we will speake onely of the last part the fruit of Christs death in delivering those that were kept under the feare of death The persons that are kept under this feare are said to bee the children Gods owne children those for whom Christ died yet they were kept under the feare of death and that not at some particular time when tentation had got some speciall advantage over them but it was a trouble and a burden to them all their life long and that not a small burthen or an easie trouble but such as kept them as in bondage The words you see are easie There are two points that arise from them First that Gods children those for whom Christ died are many times held strongly under the feare of death Secondly that Christ by his death freeth them from those feares I shall onely insist at this time principally on the first That Gods owne children the Children that were partakers of flesh and bloud it is taken either for the humane nature or the infirmities of that nature even these children were held under the feare of death I will shew the grounds of it The feare of death in the children of God ariseth either from some causes without or from somewhat within them From without them and so the feare ariseth from God an act of his providence upon his children Or from Sathan a worke of his malice These are the causes from without For the first God in his providence and that in his speciall and fatherly providence whereby he doth order all things for the good of his children for the present increase of their grace and the fitting them for glory hereafter Hee I say in his providence ordereth it thus that they shall be kept many of them a great while under the feare of death and this he doth for speciall good ends The first is to humble them Adam as soone as he had sinned against God as his fall was by pride he would haue had a higher condition then he was in so when God would bring him backe againe he beginneth first to humble him and how doth he that Dust thou art saith he and to dust thou shalt returne he sheweth him that he was a dead man by sinne and so would have the meditation of death to humble Adam and in him all his posteritie after him So David when he desired that some meanes might worke upon his enemies for their good he prayeth Put them in feare that they may know that they are but men He doth not onely pray that mortalitie might be presented to them but so presented that it might leaue an impression of feare upon their affections that they might know what they are that they have not their beeing or the power of subsisting in themselves but that they must looke for it above themselves to him that hath the issues of life and death in his owne hande And this is necessarie that all the servants of God should bee kept humble by some meanes or other The Apostle Paul you see he had attained a great measure of grace yet he standeth in need of something to humble him therefore the messenger of Sathan was sent to buffet him that hee should not bee exalted above measure that he might be kept humble God intendeth to raise up his children to a glorious estate therefore as men lay a low foundation when they intend to erect a high building so God layeth the foundation of all grace and comfort in his servants in humiliation therefore he will not onely have them mortall but he will have them apprehend their mortalitie and dying condition with feare that they may be humbled by this feare That is the first thing Secondly God aymeth at the
strengthning of faith in his servants While a man lookes to sense and is upheld by sensible comforts there is not that exercise of faith now every grace is strengthened by exercise that God therefore may have faith exercised and so strengthned in his servants he will expose them to the feare of death The Apostle Paul found this wee received faith he the sentence of death that wee might not trust in our selves but in him that raiseth us up from the dead Hee doth not onely say thus we acknowledge this to be a truth that we must die but wee received the sentence of death received it as a man receiveth a sentence of death from a Judge received it so as it made some impression upon our hearts received it with some inward sense with some inward feare which was a violent worke such a worke as knocks us off of all holds and takes us off from all sensible and visible props and humane supports and makes us to see nothing in the creature to doe us that good we looke for to make us eternally happy therefore we were taught saith he not to trust in our selves if a man trust any he might trust himselfe first yea but wee are dying and cannot enjoy our selves long therefore wee trust in him that raiseth us up from the dead Thirdly another end that God aymeth at in holding his servants many times under the feare of death is that hee may make them more watchfull and holy in the course of their lives This our Saviour expresseth under two parables the one of the Virgins that were to watch for the comming of the Bridegroome they knew that he would come but they knew not when therefore they were alwayes to keepe their watch with oyle in their lampes And the other of a Master that left Talents with his servants he told them that hee would come but hee told them not when that they might be sure to employ them to the best advantage And the Apostle Peter raiseth an exhortation to this purpose on this very ground Since saith he that all these things must bee dissolved what manner of persons ââ¦ght we to be in all holy conversation and godlinesse looking for and hastning to the appearance of our Lord Iesus Christ. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ will come but hee hath concealed the particular time of his comming that wee might alwayes keepe our watch and be prepared for him whensoever he commeth Now this is necessary for all the servants of God for they are apt to be secure and to be carried away with worldly businesse and delights and to neglect that which concernes their eternall good and therefore God will affect them with the feare of death that they may be stirred up to more watchfulnesse and holinesse in a godly course of life Fourthly God doth it that by the feare of Death they may be better prepared for death that it may not come upon them as a stranger that they never thought on before that it may not come as an armed man upon them therefore is it that God will have them not onely to have thoughts of it but feare of it feare you know is an affection that quickneth a man to action keepes him to a constant observing of God Iehosaphat when God did not onely bring a multitude of enemies upon him but also sent the report of them to him and that in such a manner as he might be affected with feare What did all this worke in him The text saith Iehosaphat did seeke the Lord with all his heart and proclaimed a fast in Iudah and provided such other defence as was necessarie he saw nothing but feare and danger in the creature Wee know not what to doe with this great company that commeth against us this set him aworke to seeke the Lord with all his heart and to make other provision against them So the Lord will have his servants apprehend death as an Armed enemie comming upon them that they may be better prepared to receive it that they may get evidences of comfort and assurance of heaven and so may be fitted upon good grounds to entertaine death with joy when it commeth And this the servants of God have need of because if there be not somewhat to quicken to this there are other things enough to pervert them from it and then when men are most weake and full of paine and wearinesse the divell takes advantage to cast them off from all comfort so that at the least they shall die uncomfortably if not miserably if they be not prepared before-hand to receive Death and have gotten assurance and evidence of a better condition afterward Thus you have the first thing that is Gods act and for what reasons hee keepeth his servants in this bondage of the feare of death Againe secondly another cause from without is from the malice of Sathan His maine aime is to keepe men from a Christian course altogether if that cannot be done his next worke is to make men goe on as uncomfortably in it as he can possibly therefore he will present them with as many feares as may be and because that this is that that nature most abhorreth for it is the most naturall desire of man to preserve his beeing I say because nature most abhorreth this this dissolution and destruction of it selfe therefore he striveth to affect them with the feare of death especially and above all other I say this is Sathans malice Saint Paul when he came to Macedonia that he might doe the worke of the Lord with lesse diligence and comfort saith he Wee had feares on every side horrors within and terrors without It was Sathans devise that the Apostle might doe the worke of the Lord with lesse strength and comfort to afflict them with as many feares and horrors as he could And he hath the same malice still and still getteth much advantage of men making men to goe on with lesse comfort in a godly life adorning their profession of religion lesse with unchearfull walking because they have beene held under the feare of death These are the causes that are from without Secondly there are some causes from within from the seruants of God themselves And these causes whence the feare of death ariseth are either naturall or sinfull First the naturall causes of it are The apprehensââ¦on of Death as a thing contrary to nature and according to the strength of mens apprehension so is there feare Now Death in this naturall respect is fearefull to every man whether we consider the object or the subject the thing or the person in whom it is we shall find a naturall cause of this even in the servants of God First for the object looke upon Death it selfe it hath all that in it which makes it a fit object of feare There bee three things which makes a thing the object of feare which makes a thing affect the heart
is called in the Scripture and then there is nothing so comfortable and desirable as death it selfe to the servants of God So wee see David in the 23. Psal. Though I walke through the valley of the shadow of death I will feare none ill for thou Lord art with mee And so the Apostle Saint Paul triumpheth over all things Nothing shall separate ãâã from the love of God in Christ neither principalities nor powers nor life nor death nor things to come nothing shall doe it the Apostles faith now was out of conflict it had got the field the day of Sense and now he lookes on Death with comfort So that I say in that measure that Faith workes in that measure feare of death ceaseth Secondly it may be objected But we see the servants of God are said to love the appearance of our Lord Iesus Christ and the Apostle Paul is said to desire to bee dissolved and to bee with Christ How can these stand with the feare of death under which Gods servants are held To this I answer briefly Gods servants must be considered in their desires two wayes First in their generall desires Secondly in a particular state wherein they are In their generall course their desire is most for the appearing of Christ they most desire to be with him as best for them but take them in some particular state wherein they are lesse provided and lesse fitted and prepared then they may be at a stand in their desires they may have the feare of death in them As a wife her generall desire is for nothing so much as for the presence of her husband yet she may be under some particular unfitnesse there may be something or other in the way that she would not have him come in at that instant though her desire be for nothing so much as for his company So it may be the case of the servants of God they may say sometimes Lord spare mee a little before I goe hence to strengthen my faith to perfect my repentance and holinesse to doe some particular worke and the like David considered this that there was something that he might doe that he had not done and that he would faine doe before he went and so Hezekiah and the rest of the servants of God The point is cleare I come to the Application It shall be a word of exhortation to cut of otheruses and that is this To stirre up the servants of God that if they be disposed to distempers under which they are held that they are afraid to die that therefore they labour by all good meanes to shake off the feare of death Why Consider and note well those two things that are in the Text. The first is this that it is an uncomfortable state to be held under the feare of Death you see it is called a Bondage here and that is enough to show the uncomfortablenesse of it he saith by the feare of death they were held in Bondage all their life long Now the feare of Death is a bondage principally in these two respects first because it is with them as it is with a Bond-slave A Bond-slave is afraid to looke on him that hath the command of him he apprehendeth him as no friend therfore he doth not love to looke on him so it is in this case when a man lookes upon Death as a thing that is no friend to him he cannot abide to looke on him every thought of Death is a presenting of death to him and it is a miserable bondage when a man cannot present Death to himselfe without feare Secondly there is this in it that makes it a bondage it holdeth downe the spirit of a man A bond-slave you know is bound with fetters and chaines in his captivitie so that he hath neither freedome of spirit nor freedome of action So it is with a man that is held under the feare of Death he cannot doe what he would he cannot rejoyce in God he cannot delight in the apprehension of glory to come he cannot entertaine a thought of parting with things present with that securitie and comfort of heart that he should doe and all because this feare as the fetters bindeth his hands and his feet and keepeth him in bondage This is the first thing the feare of death to be held under it it is an uncomfortable state Secondly as it is uncomfortable so it is possible that the servants of God may be free from these feares under which they are held We see the text sheweth it Christ came for this end that having destroyed him that hath the power of death that is the divell hee might deliver those that for feare of death were held under bondage Did Christ come for this end then it is possible to bee had for certainly Christ would not lose his end he came for this was his end not onely to deliver them from eternall death but also from the feare of temporall death It is possible therefore The servants of God have found it and therefore you shall see them brought in insulting and triumphing and glorying over Death Oh death where is thy sting oh Grave where is thy victory thankes be to God that hath given us victory through Christ our Lord When they looked upon Death through Christ they looked on it without this feare the sting and power is tooke out the very nature of it is changed and it is made now every way beneficiall I say it is possible for we are regenerate and begotten againe to a lively hope to an inheritance immortall and undefiled and in what measure the hope of heaven is in the heart of man in that measure the feare of death falleth in that heart now it is possible that we may attaine this fulnesse of hope and therefore it is possible that we may be freed quite from the feare of Death This may suffice by way of motive A word or two by way of direction If this be possible to be had how shall the servants of God get it you see some of Gods servants are held under the feare of death and that all their life long how shall we be freed from this feare I should now orderly take up the particulars laid downe as causes and shew that by these it is cured as for instance Doth God doe this for this end that he may humble a man then the more humble thou art the lesse thou shalt be in the feare of Death for God layeth these feares upon men to humble them therefore labour for perfect humiliation and thou shalt perfectly ridde these feares out of thy heart as we see plainly the servants of God the more humble they have growne the lesse carefull they have beene of life and the lesse fearefull of Death And so those servants of God that have beene brought to deny themselves and to renounce all their worldly expectation and advancements they have alwayes beene ready to
crazie body or a full well-fed body is a hindrance to the soule because of that tie that is betweene the body and the soule and the spirit so there is a simpathy the soule is affected some what in this sense But it is not so then the soule shall bee loosed from the body and so freer for spirituall actions then now it is The soules under the Altar they crie How long Lord holy and just wilt thou not revenge our bloud upon them that are upon the earth The soules of Gods servants you see then are glorified when they are out of the body and therefore shall glorifie God more perfectly and enjoy God more freely and fully then now while their soules are in these mortall bodies And at that very instant when the soule of Gods servant is carried out of the body to heaven it more perfectly injoyeth Christ and is more sensible and more fit to answer the love of Christ to him then ever when it was in the body So then here is a cessation of baser actions and imployments to give place to more noble and heavenly and excellent actions wherein the soule shall bee employed in heaven There is then no losse of actions neither Againe there is no losse of company This is a thing that troubleth men husband and wife to part friends to part But we lose no company by death howsoever we lose the company of men that we cannot assure our selves are friends indeed for of all the friends we speake of in the maine point when they come to be tryed there are few to be found to be friends But then we goe to them whose love is perfect that you may be sure of and have the truth of their love Againe how little comfort nay how little have you company with those friends you desire Is not much part of our life spent without any fight of our friends is not halfe of it spent in sleep in the night and the other halfe in businesse and pleasure Alas how little time have we to enjoy our friends we rest on But then we shall perfectly enjoy them when there shall be no need of sleepe when there shall be perfection of love and freedome from distraction and imployment when the servants of God shall fully and freely and sweetly and comfortably enjoy one the other Abraham and Isaac and Iacob and the meanest of the Saints shall meet in the expression of love in such a perfection as we cannot speake of And this is certaine you shall goe to many Who can tell the dust of Iacob Now you have some one or two or three or a few men or women that you account friends and dote much upon but then you shall have ennumerable company a world of friends of men and women multitudes they cannot be numbred they are as the starres of heaven for number I say there is no losse of company by this meanes Againe you shall lose no pleasures by death it may be you shall lose some few sensuall bruitish pleasures a few mixed corrupt pleasures pleasures that have the mixture of sorrow and feare in them that imbitters them to the soule of a man but it shall not be so then you shall be freed from imperfect pleasures and have perfect ones at Gods right hand for evermore pure pleasures Againe you lose no necessary convenience neither the rich man loseth no riches by death he loseth his money doth he lose his riches therefore No The Angels are rich but they have no money the Saints are rich they want nothing but they have no money It may be thou losest a child thou shalt find a Father it may be thou losest a weake friend that loveth not long or it may be not so truly as thou thinkest he doth and thou findest friends that are many and perfect and pure in their love that love with a perfect heart And what then are all those losses when you enjoy that which shall make the soule happy for ever Thus I say you should rectifie your opinions concerning Death looke upon it aright have true apprehensions of it Get an intrest in Christ and looke on death through him get faith and then all these things that I haue spoken shall be your advantage so the Apostle concludeth Christ is to us in life and in death advantage If we live he is gaine to us in life and if we die he is advantage to us in death And death is reckoned amongst the speciall favours and priviledges Christ hath given to his Church All are yours what all life and death things present and things to come all are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods So we see that Death is amongst the priviledges that Christ hath given his Church therefore rectifie your opinions concerning Death make good that I spake before and you shall find this good that I now speake And for the last the unacquaintance with Death let not that trouble you none come from the dead to tell you what is done there but looke on the servants of God before and when they die and you shall find enough how they apprehended Death when they have looked on it in the glasse of the Gospell Looke upon them before death Iacob being to close up his dayes with blessing of his children Lord saith hee I have waited for thy salvation Hee looked upon Death through Christ the Saviour of the world that he should bee saved by him and though it be true that there is a further meaning for the Tribes in those words of Iacob yet this was proper to Iacob himselfe hee looked upon Death now approching as that that he was delivered from and set into that freedome purchased by Christ. So old Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seene thy salvation Iacob accounted it his salvation old Simeon a departure from a worse place to a better from worse company and comforts to a better A change for the better still and a departing in peace Againe secondly looke on the servants of God in death see what they have said too Iosiah a man that was upright in heart he went to the grave in peace he was gathered to his fathers in peace that he should not see the evill that should come upon his people here is all it was but a peaceable taking of him away from a more troubelous condition if he had lived longer Beloved he died in warre yet it is said he was gathered in peace he had inward peace with God though he failed in that particular action And the Apostle in the 2 Cor. 5. 4. This is our desire that wee may bee clothed upon not that we would be unclothed but clothed upon that mortalitie may bee swallowed up of life A strange speech he counteth death life to him he counteth the death of this life to be the death of mortalitie by laying aside this earthly tabernacle as he saith in
love but besides that there is a course of affection that floweth naturally and kindly from the Father to the child as it is with those rivers that fall downward they fall more vehemently then those that are carried upward so the more naturall the affection is the more vehement it expresseth it selfe in the motion to such objects Now when the Father expresseth his affection to his child this is more vehement because it is more naturall there is more strength of nature in it I cannot stand upon this only a word by way of inference and application to our selves First are naturall parents thus to their children Then here is a ground of faith for the children of God that he is pleased to stile himselfe by the name of Father and to receive them into the adoption of sonnes and daughters This was Davids expression of God As a father hath compassion of his children so hath the Lord on those that feare him And the Prophet Isaiah expresseth it fully In all their affliction hee was afflicted and the Angel of his presence saved them in his love and pittie hee redeemed them and bee bare them all the dayes of old hee bore them upon his wings This giveth confidence and boldnesse to Gods children in making their requests knowne to him This was it that incouraged the Prodigall I will arise and goe to my father and say Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee c. God saith S. Bernard alwayes grants those petitions that are sweetned with the name of father and the affection of a child I should hence speake somewhat to children to stirre them up to answer the love of their Parents but other things that follow forbids me any long discourse of this Secondly here is Davids pietie expressed in this Who knoweth whether the Lord will bee gracious to mee Hee exprest not only the Pittie and affection of a naturall father to a child but pietie also arising from the sense of his guilt Hee was guiltie of sinne and by sinne he had brought this sorrow upon himselfe and therefore who knoweth whether the Lord will bee gracious to me in sealing to me the pardon of my sinne this way in adding this mercy as a further assurance of his love in granting me the forgivenesse of my sinne God had told him by Nathan that his sinne was pardoned though he told him the Child should die it may be by the same mercy he will release me from this sentence of death upon my Child whereby he released me from the guilt of my sinne before Here I say is the sense of his owne sinne The point I note hence is That Parents in the miseries that befall their children should call their owne sinne to remembrance All the sorrowes and sicknesses and paines and miseries that befall children should present to Parents the remembrance of their owne sinne It was the expression of the Widow of Sarepta to the Prophet Eliah Art thou come to call my sinnes to remembrance and to slay my childe Shee saw her sinne in the death of her Child So I say in all the afflictions and crosses that befall children the Parents should call to remembrance their owne sinne But some men will here say There seemeth to be no need of such a course for God hath said plainly That the child shall not die for the sinne of the Parent And after God cleareth his owne waies from inequalitie and injustice by that argument The sonne shall not beare the iniquitie of the father Therefore what reason is there that Parents should call their sinnes to remembrance in the miseries that befall their children I answer Though he say the child shall not die for the Parents sinne yet we must understand it a right for what doth hee meane by the sinnes of the Parent And what doth hee meane by death By sinnes of the Parent he meaneth those sinnes that are so the parents as that the children are not at all guiltie of those sins then the children shall not die By Death he meaneth as the word signifieth the destruction of nature So death shall not befall the child for that sinne that himselfe is not guiltie of But how then come little children to die before they have committed any sinne actually was this for their owne sinne or for the sinne of their Parents I answer for their owne sinne they die for the soule that sinneth it shall die and all children have sinned they brought sinne into the world and sinne brought death as the Apostle speakes therefore death reigneth over all even over those that have not sinned according to the similitude of Adams transgression that is that have not sinned actually as Adam had done yet neverthelesse they die because they have sinne upon them they have the corruption of nature In sinne they were borne and in iniquitie their mother conceived them and the wages of sinne is death therefore they die for their owne sinne But what if temporall judgements and afflictions befall them is this for their owne sinne or for the sinne of their Parents I answer for both both for their owne and for the sinne of their Parents for as death so all the miseries of this life are fruits of originall sinne which is an inheritance in the person of every child by nature as soone as it is borne but yet if the sinne of the Parents be added to it that may bring temporall judgements There are many instances and examples of this how God hath visited upon the posteritie of wicked persons the sinnes of their Fathers according to that threatning in the second Commandement And this you shall see either in godly children of wicked parents or in ungodly children of godly Parents Suppose a man leave a great deale of wealth to his children and have one that feares God amongst them it may please God to lay some losse or crosse upon him to the undoing of him he may utterly be impoverished and beggered and deprived of all that meanes that his father left him by unrighteousnesse Hee getteth an heire and in his hand is nothing saith Solomon that is God deprived him of all that estate his father left him by unrighteousnesse Now I say here is a judgement upon the father and yet a mercy upon the child A judgement upon the father that all that he hath laboured for that which hee lost his soule for should bee vaine should come to nothing and not benefit his posteritie as he thought Yet it is a mercy to the childe to the child of God He by this meanes is humbled it draweth him from the world Nay when God emptieth him of these things that were unrighteously gotten he giveth him it may be an estate another way wherein he shall see God his Father provide for him without any indirect and unlawfull courses So sometimes the very shame and reproach that falleth upon wicked children here it is a
greater worke to doe to prepare for my owne death God in the death of this man speakes to me to prepare for my owne And then to glorifie God by submission to his will make it appeare that thou acknowledgest a power in God to dispose of thy house to doe every thing by patiently resting in his will And yet this comfort is added though children be tooke away that they shall not returne in an earthly manner yet they shall in a better manner Parents are contented to part with their children for a time for their preferment Children though theyare very young that are commended by the prayers of the godly Parents into the hands of God these whose hearts God hath inlarged and quickned fervently and faithfully to pray in the behalfe of their children they may rest in this assured that they shall meet at the Resurrection in a better manner their children shall be better preferred then if they were on earth and shall be raised up to perfection Here you see there is not a tooth bred in a child without a great deale of paine and every tooth cost some paine but this mortall bodie shall put on immortalitie and this corruption shall put on incorruption This weake body shall be made strong weake children strong without paine Death endeth these things and the Resurrection shall present him in a perfect measure of strength in a glorified estate So much for this text and for this time FINIS THE STING OF DEATH OR THE STRENGTH OF SINNE ROM 5. 12. By one man sinne entred into the world and by death sinne ROM 7. 9. When the Commandement came sinne revived and I died LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. THE STING OF DEATH OR THE STRENGTH OF SINNE SERMON VI. 1 Cor. 15. 56. The sting of Death is Sinne and the strength of Sinne is the Law SOlomon telleth thus that there is a season for every thing there is a time to bee borne and a time to die These two are the two great seasons of all men we are as sure to die as we are sure we have lived and every degree of our life is but a steppe to our death Every man of us hath but a part to act here in the world when wee have done that that God hath appointed us we are drawne off from the Stage by Death You will say this is a hard condition for so Noble a creature as Man is to be folded up in the grave for so faire a beautie as the life of man is to be closed up in eternall darknesse that Man should turne to the acquaintance of dust and wormes and make his habitation with rottennesse and loathsomnesse that Death should have the victorie of so excellent a Creature it is a hard condition The Apostle thinkes not so he thinkes otherwise Death saith he ver 54. is swallowed up in victorie As if he should say It need not trouble you to thinke so of Death the condition of it is not so strange and hard as men take it to be It is swallowed up in victory If a man have a strong enemy to deale with it might trouble him but it is no great matter to deale with a conquered enemie Christ hath overcome Death hath conquered that strong enemie Death is swallowed up in victory Therefore Saint Paul in the precedent and subsequent verses of this Chapter seemeth to insult and triumph over Death Oh Death saith he where is thy sting oh grave where is thy victorie As if he should say before Christ came and conquered thee Death thou wert victorious so it was there was a sting in it before Christ sweetned the Grave there was something that was terrible in the Grave but now because Christ is come and hath gotten the victory over the one and sweetned the other therefore Saint Paul breakes forth thus into an insultation and triumph But how can this be Why doth the Apostle thus triumph The reason is insinuated in the verse I have read to you the sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law But this is the occasion of trouble to Christians No it is not thankes bee to God that hath given us victory through Iesus Christ our Lord As if he should say I will shew you the reason of my triumphing over Death there was a sting in Sinne and Sinne is the sting of Death and the Law is the strength of sinne but Christ hath tooke away sinne and hath satisfied the Law sinne being taken away Death cannot hurt me the Law being satisfied Sinne cannot prejudice me This was the cause of the Apostles and in him of every Christians insultation over Death The words I have read containe two parts First the sting of Death Secondly the strength of Sinne. First the sting of death is sinne Secondly the strength of sinne is the Law If there were no law there would bee no sinne and if there were no sinne there would be no death Sinne is the transgression of the Law and sinne is the sting of death I shall only at this time insist upon the first of these from whence I shall deliver that which if it please God to accompany with his Spirit may be usefull to you The proposition shall be the very words of the Text Sinne is the sting of death This Proposition I would not have you understand in this sense only that death came in by sinne meerely in a habit though that be true too But understand it in this sense That all the horrour and terriblenesse of Death all the power and rage it hath whatsoever makes it fearefull to a man it receiveth it all from sinne It is sinne that armeth Death against a man if Death have any weapons against a man Sinne puts those weapons into the hands of Death if Death have any poyson against a Christian the sinne of that person putteth that poyson in it Death may bee considered two wayes either as Christ hath made it or as we make it Death as Christ hath made it is a medicine to a Christian a passage and entrance to happinesse it is a day of redemption and refreshing and so we need not be afraid of it Death as we by sinne have made it is the Pale horse Saint Iohn speakes of in the Revelation it is as a fearfull arrest to the debtor it hath a sting in it and so it is fearefull But that I may open this point more profitably wee will enquire into these particulars First what death the Apostle speakes of here Secondly of what sinne he speakes of Thirdly in what respect sinne is called the sting of death And then we will make the use and application of all this First of what death doth the Apostle here speake of that sinne is the sting of For answer hereunto there is a double death corporall and spirituall Corporall death is the privation of the soule when the soule is severed from
the body Spirituall death when God and grace are severed from the soule The Text speakes of the corporall death Sinne is not the sting of the spirituall death for the spirituall death is sinne it selfe And here I will not contend with any man if he be full of enquirie but I will distinguish two parts of spirituall death and I grant in one of them is this sting In spirituall death therefore there are two parts or two degrees The first is called the first death That I take to bee the death of the soule in sinne The second part is when soule and body are for ever closed up in Hell And in this part sinne is the sting And remember this by the way Sinne is not onely a sting now but it will be a sting to men in Hell the sting the deadlinesse the extremity of punishment that is in Hell it is received all from sinne for the damned in Hell when they come there as they cease not to sinne so the sting of sinne ceaseth not to be with them and it may be delivered by conjecture I thinke Hell were no Hell if there were not the sting of sinne there So then you see what death the Apostle speakes of principally of corporall death but it may be extended to the second part of spirituall death for there sinne continueth and so the sting remaineth The next question is what sinne the Apostle speakes of when he saith the sting of death is sinne This is not a time to stirre controversies therefore those ancient controversies and such as are lately stirred up about originall sinne how farre it is the sting of death I let them goe In a word to let you see what sinne is the sting of death remember this Sinne may be considered two wayes either as it is intire untouched uncrushed Let that sinne be what it will be whether it be originall onely or whether it be any actuall sinne streaming from originall whether it be a sinne of ignorance or knowledge whether it be of pleasure or of profit A sinne immediatly that respecteth God or immediatly respecteth our neighbour whatsoever the sinne be if it bee not touched if it bee not crushed if it scape uncontrouled if it be in its native power and keepes in his kingdome if it rule in a man that sinne will certainly be the sting of Death Euery sinne vertually is the sting of death there is an aptitude in every Sinne. But in the event that Sinne proveth the sting of death that is untouched uncontrouled Not every sinne in the event proveth the sting of death but that Sinne that liveth in us or rather that Sinne that we live in that ruleth in us that we affect and love this is the Sinne that putteth a sting into death That very sinne that thou lovest and likest so much and pleadest for that sinne will make death terrible Secondly Sinne may be considered as it is galled and vexed and mortified in the Soule When a man setteth upon the root of Sinne and the way of Sinne and falleth a crucifying the body of Sinne and the members of it I say howsoever there bee divers motions and stirrings of Sinne in the soule yet if these be disavowed disaffected and mortified if there be a crucifying vertue passe over them if they come not within the judgement to approve them or within the affections to embrace and like them if they come not to be a mans trade and way and walke but fall within the improbation of the judgement to disavow them and the misliking of the affections to sorrow for them These shall not be the sting of death whatsoever the motions are But these untouched unmortified sinnes these are the sting of death Now these are the sting of death in a double respect First in respect of the guilt Secondly in respect of the corruption First they are a sting in respect of guilt Every Sinne remaining unsatisfied for remaineth with his guilt and when Sinne is not satisfied for there is the sting of death When the sinner hath nothing to oppose to the justice of God for the sinne he hath committed if the Sinne be in the booke of God uncrossed bee a debt there not blotted out by the blood of Christ if Christ have not satisfied for it if the sinner have not part in him as we shall heare anone then Sin is the sting of death And then secondly they are a sting in respect of the corruption and filthinesse of Sins unmortified Those filthy sinfull motions those depraving qualities inthy soule that thou likest and practisest in thy conversation they give thee up into the hands of Death to execute his Sting upon thee And therefore you that applaud your selves in Sinne and will goe on in Sin doe so But know this when thou commest to the full strength of thy Sinne let it be what it will when Death commeth it findeth the strongest weapon it hath in thy sinne the very power of thy sinne armeth Death against thy soule No man is more obnoxious and open to the sharpest dart of Death then that man that will goe on in Sinne. So you see what Sin is spoken of that is the sting of death that Sin is the sting of Death that a man loveth and doteth on The third Question is in what respect Sin is the sting of Death First by way of Eminencie because that then the sting of Sin beginneth most sensibly to worke in a man Not but that Sin hath a sting before Death but then the deluded sinner feeles his sinne there be divers times that Sin can sting a person before that but then howsoever the sinner hath deluded himselfe and the word of God and the world he can delude them no more Death then most ordinarily fixeth his sting in the soule and makes the sinner feele the smart of his sinne There be three times wherein Sinne can sting a man Before death At death After death Before Death God sometimes letteth loose the conscience of a man even of the most resolved sinner of him that beares himselfe up aloft in his owne eyes in scorne and contempt of the ministrie of the Word sometime I say God singleth out such a person and rippeth up all his heart strikes his Arrowes into his very soule and stings his conscience so irresistably that he knoweth not which way to turne from the wrath that boyleth in his soule And it is one thing to deale with the Minister and another to deale with God When God strikes his Arrowes of uengeance into the soule of a sinner then such a one is stung indeed this God doth sometimes before death Nay sometimes God stingeth the consciences of his owne children for sinne David cries out hee roared for the disquitnesse of his spirit his bones were broken he was sore vexed Lord how long saith he If there be such deepe disquiet by reason of this sting in the consciences of good persons
tell me then what is the disquiet that springeth from sinne in a Cain in a Iudas when it meets with a dispairing disposition Thus you see Sin hath this time to sting and therefore thinke not that Sin will never sting till death sometimes Sinne stingeth a man before death Another time is at death When Death commeth and arresteth a sinner in an Action from God seizeth on a person that is under the power of Sin on one that is in his sinnes untouched howsoever he behaved himselfe in his life-time yet then the very name of Death breakes his heart it apaleth him and then it stings such a person It is appointed beloved for all of us once to die Death will one day arrest every man but when Death appeareth before a man that hath not a part in Christ that is under the power of his sinnes when it commeth to a Belshazzar it makes his very joynts to smite one against another it is a sting to him amidest all those sweet morsels his sinnes which he so much affected and so earnestly pursued it is as a very poyson to him nothing is a poyson now to us but sinne only but then at the time of death sinne is a poyson indeed Lastly Sinne can sting not onely before and at but after death Both at the day of Judgement and after At the day of Judgement Is not the conscience of a sinner thinke you stinged and his spirit deeply affected by reason of the great wrath of God that is to be poured out when he shall cry to the mountaines to cover him when he shall call to those insensible creatures that are not able to lend him that courtesie to crush him to nothing Make this our owne case thinke of it it will be our case as it is appointed for us all to die so we must all come to judgtment And after the Judgement when the sentence goe you cursed is past the sting of Sin ceaseth not no the worme for ever gnaweth in Hell It were a happinesse for a sinner if he might onely heare the sentence if this worme might not still gnaw his conscience but then this is his burthen Sin shall sting him for ever This is the first respect in which sinne is called the sting of death because then Sinne stingeth more emminently and sensibly Secondly it is called the sting of death in respect of the metaphor the Apostle aludeth unto it is taken from the sting of a Serpent and so Sinne is a sting in a double respect First in respect of the fearefulnesse and then in respect of the hurtfulnesse of it First in respect of the fearefulnesse It is Sin that makes Death fearefull to a man Indeed I confesse that in the best Christian though Christ have pulled out the sting of death yet there are naturall grudgings and shruggings As to a Serpent though the sting be pulled away yet there are some abhorrings and dissikes in a man But then how terrible is Derth when it commeth in compleate Armour as it doth against a person in whom Sinne remaineth in its full power it must needs then be terrible See the difference betweene two persons the one is afraid of every one he meeteth the other is not what is the reason the one is greatly indebted and ingaged the other is free So it is with a Christian and another man the one cannot heare of Death but his heart breakes hee is full of feare and horrour the other heareth of Death and is onely somewhat affected in the hearing of it but not possessed with that feare as is the other what is the reason the sting of death remaineth in one and not in another Sin therefore is a sting in that respect Secondly it is a sting in respect of hurtfulnesse The sting of the Serpent is a hurtfull thing it poysoneth the vitall parts it takes away life it selfe All the evill that commeth to us by death commeth by sinne Man need not complaine of the ilnesse of the prison so much as of his owne folly that he ingaged himselfe in debt whereby he is cast into prison Why complainest thou of the misery in Hell rather labour to breake off thy sinnes that are the cause of all that miserie all the hurtfull qualitie and miserable condition that befalleth a person in Death and Hell is for Sin the eternall separation of the soule from God and all punishment that followes after in Hell are the fruit of mans sinne Hell had not beene Hell without Snne it is Sin that causeth it to become hurtfull Thus I have explained these inquiries Now I come to make Use and application and so conclude the Point The first Use of this point shall be this If Sin be the sting of death let it be our wisedome to get this sting pulled out in the time of our life Oh that this people were wise saith God then would they consider their latter end If you were wise that heare mee this day you would consider that Death will come and if it be not taken away before-hand with a sting upon the soule My brethren we have many enemies to deale with even now at this very instant but there is yet an enemie as the Apostle saith The last enemie to bee subdued is Deaeh he his behind and here is the difference betwixt Death our last enemie and some other of our enemies some other of our enemies cannot be subdued but by their presence but let me tell you this Death is such an enemy as is never subdued but by his absence thou canst never overcome Death in death thou must not reserve this combat till thou come to the field but thou must overcome this enemie before he commeth thou must overcome him in thy life How is that Pull out the sting of him now then Death is conquered How will you disarme the tongues of malicious slanderous persons and deprive them of their viperous speech by an innocent life So how will you take away the sting of death watch against Sin take away sinne and you take away the power from Death set upon Sin and Death is overcome so much sinne as is now dead so much is Death conquered I beseech you seriously consider these particulars First that it will not be long ere Death knocke at these dores of ours these houses of clay must shortly be ruinated wee must certainly be resolved into dust What is this life of ours but as a ship that is driven by a gale of breath When the breath of man ceaseth the ship lieth in a dead calme Man goeth to his long home saith Solomon and the mourners follow in the streets Death is our long home wee all are the mourners wee follow in the streetes This dead carcasse is an example that leads us to our home and a sermon to tell us that we must follow we follow now in a charitable expression but we shall follow one day in paying of the
same debt Looke overall the times of the world and the dispositions of persons looke over learning and folly greatnesse or poorenesse find me a man that escaped Death Die we must and we have need to have this much pressed upon us for it is a hard matter to beleeve that we must die that I must be the man that must die common notions of Death are granted but that I must die and lie in the dust and stand before God it is a hard matter to beleeve this And consider this secondly that Death will be terrible to thee if he knocke and find a sting in thee Thou that now wilt not be reclaimed from swearing Alas what will become of that blaspheming soule of thine when Death shall come and find a sting of blasphemy in thee How darest thou thinke of giving up that swearing soule of thine to the Judge of heaven and earth Thou unrighteous person that wilt not sanctifie the Lords day how darest thou give up that unholy soule of thine to the holy God Dost thou thinke to have an eternall rest in heaven and wilt not give God a rest here So I might say for all kind of sinners Thinke of this take heed lest Death find a sting in thee for all the sting that Death hath it findeth in thy selfe looke to it thy condition will be fearfull if Death come and find Sin unmortified unrepented of in thee God will certainly bring thee to judgement for every thought and word and action Thirdly consider this that naturally we are so tempered that if Death come he shall find his weapons and strength in us in every man of us I meane considered naturally But how shall I know whether Death when he commeth shall find a sting in me or no I will only give you two tryals you shall know it thus First if thy conscience now sting thee for some approved sinne if thou repent not Death will assuredly meet thee with a sting that approved sinne of thine will be the sting of death Conscience will sting a man either for the act done or for the approbation of the act if conscience sting a man for his approbation of a sinfull qualitie or for a sinfull course if a man continue in that course surely that will be the sting of death to his soule therefore looke to thy selfe perhaps thou art convicted of such a sinne perhaps thy conscience hath so wrought on thee that it hath stung thee for such a sinne thou yet approvest thy selfe in it and thou wilt goe on in thy pride still in such and such sinnes stil thou wilt doe so doe but know this that stand thou never so much upon thy resolution Death will certainly come and if he find thee in such a sinne against thy conscience thou hast reserved in thy selfe a sting for Death Secondly a man shall know if Death come with a sting by this tryall that Solomon giveth us in Eccles. 11. 9. Rejoyce oh young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheare thee in the dayes of thy youth and walke in the wayes of thy heart and sight of thine eyes but know that for all these things God will bring thee to judgement If thou live a voluptuous life Death will certainly come with a sting Dives hee lived a voluptuous life had he not a sting for it So others in Scripture did not their plentifull tables and voluptuous courses bring a sting on them A voluptuous life makes a sting for Death When a poore wretch is a dying and shall begin to reflect backe on his life what have I done how have I lived so much time I have spent or mispent inapparell in vanitie in eating in drinking in swaggering What comfort is this to his soule how can he answer this before God this is the very thing that will sting him at such a day when he can reade nothing in his life but barrennesse and unfruitfulnesse 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 feare that Death will seize on us thus for we confesse we have gone on in a voluptuous life gone on in sinne that our conscience hath condemned us for how shall we doe to pull out this sting I would to God you were thus affected that you were convicted what a fearfull thing it will be if sinne remaine But wouldest thou have the sting of death pulled out before death come 1. How shall I disarme it that I may looke death in the face with comfort I shall give you some wayes and meanes remember them and practise them First get but a part in Christ and the sting of death is gone thankes bee to God saith the Apostle here that hath given us victory through our Lord Iesus 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 hee hath vanquished them so that if a man have Christ he hath victorie and power over Hell and Death I told you in the beginning that that which giveth a sting to Death is the guilt of sinne It is so and it is a fearfull sting Now that which takes away the guilt of sinne is Christ. If Christ be mine I have enovgh to answer the guilt of sinne 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 sinnes 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 bloud of Christ if Christ be not thy Justification and thy righteousnesse 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 sinnes you cannot without Christ why doe you not then studie more for Christ Why doe you not labour for faith in him It will be your wisedome 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 Christ. Get faith in Christ therefore that is the first Secondly if you would not have Death terrible and fearfull to you labour for sincerity My brethren it is a marvellous thing and yet the truth uprightnesse and sincerity of heart it is an enabling grace All the particular things that we account particular otherwise they have not an inabling vertue in them Some persons have a great deale of learning and wit and many friends much riches and the like yet there commeth an occasion sometimes that puzzleth all these there commeth an occasion sometime that a mans learning is of no use and naturall parts and wit cannot helpe 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 shrinke nothing can inable a man against feare so much as sincerity and uprightnesse When the Prophet Isaiah told Hezekiah from God that he must die he flieth to this Lord remember how I have walked before thee with an upright heart and done that which was good in thy sight When Death commeth to a wicked voluptuous person and telleth him I am here come for thee thou must appeare 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 contemner and persecutor of thy people a swearer c. What though perhaps he can say Lord I have heard so many Sermons I have beene so much in conference and the like will this inable a man against the feare of Death No nothing but this that he hath a sincere heart that his heart is unmixed that sinne is not affected in his soule that there is no sinne that hee would live in no duty that he would not doe Lord remember that I have walked before thee uprightly I say nothing will inable a man more against feare then sinceritie and nothing disgraceth perplexeth the soule in an exigent more then hypocrisie It is sinceritie that takes away the sting of Death The Apostle in Rom. 14. saith he No man liveth to himselfe but if hee live hee liveth to the Lord and if hee die hee dieth to the Lord whether wee live or die wee are the Lords Here is the comfort wee are the Lords saith he How proveth hee that Wee live unto him That is the worke of a sincere heart A true Christian liveth not to himselfe 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 righteousnesse delivereth from death Thy righteousnesse 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 onely 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 hypocriticall divided heart a heart and a heart that will sting a man That is the second Thirdly wouldest thou have the sting of death pulled out now Then mortifie thy sinnes now doe it presently Remember what Saint Paul saith but I thinke hee speakes it in respect of afflictions I professe by our rejoycing in Christ Iesus I die daily If it be meant of afflictions yet it should be verified of us in respect of sinne die daily to sinne and then the sting of death is gone Oh beloved our condition will be sad and discomfortable when at once we must enter into the field with Death and Sinne he that dieth daily to Sin hee hath nothing to doe with Death when it commeth Death may come to such a party but it cannot hurt him he may rest quietly when it commeth And observe it so much sinne as thou now sparest so much sting thou reservest for Death and is it not folly in a man to spare sinne that giveth a sting to Death But now as a man is to crucifie every sinne let me put in this caution and remember this advise As the sting of every sin is to be pulled out so pull out especially the sting of that Sin that now stingeth thy conscience that now lieth upon thy conscience for if it worke now it will worke fearfully at death Death doth not lessen the work of sin but inrageth it God wil then present and set thy sins in orderbefore thee perhaps God hath brought thee here to day to heare this Word getthee home and set thy soule in order The love of Sin and the feare of Death seldome paââ¦t and where Sinne is much loved Death will there be much feared Death is never more terrible then where sin is most delighted in Therefore crucifie sinne if thou wilt have the sting of death taken away It may be thou thinkest it is a troublesome worke but remember that those sinnes which thou now so much delightest in and lovest and livest in will then prove the sting of death to thee If a man would spend his time in the mortification of sinne when death commeth he should have nothing to doe but to let his soule loose to God and to give it up to him as into the hands of his most faithfull Creatour and Redeemer And is it not an excellent thing for a man to have nothing to doe with Death when it commeth Lastly here is a use of comfort If it hath pleased God to give any of us the grace to pull out the sting of death it is a great comfort But Death is approching you will say Oh but Death is disarmed the sting of it is taken away what a singular comfort is it then to you that Death is comming Indeed all the comfort that the soule is capable of is this that the sting of death is tooke away Now when Death commeth upon such a man it doth but free him from all that state of miserie hee is in here from all that extremitie of condition that he is put into from all those diversities of occasions pressing occasions of tumbling about in the world Death doth but put an end to all And which is an excellent comfort to a Christian Sin is ended with Death what afflicteth the soule of a Christian but that hee carrieth about him a body of sinne and of death This was a trouble to Saint Paul and is to every true Christian Now when Death commeth there is an end of this Body of sinne thou shalt never sinne more thou shalt never grieve the Spirit of God more thou shalt never be clogged with such imperfections and infirmities in dutie that death that commeth to thee shall passe thee to the fruition of eternall glory and what canst thou desire more then to be happy in eternall glory with God FINIS THE DESRVCTION OF THE DESTROYER OR THE OVER THROVV OF THE LAST ENEMIE PSAL. 9. 6. O thou Enemie thy Destructions are come to a perpetuall end ISAIAH 25. 8. Hee will swallow up Death in victorie LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. THE DESTRVCTION OF THE DESTROYER OR THE OVER THROW OF THE LAST ENEMIE SERMON VII 1 COR. 15. 16. The last enemie that shall bee destroyed is Death DEath is a subject that a Christian should have in his thoughts often and neither the hearing nor thinking nor speaking of it can be unseasonable for any place or person We have heard that the life of Philosophers is nothing but a meditation of Death and certainly the life of a Christian much more should abound in
such meditations No man can live well till he can die well Hee that is prepared for Death is certainly freed from the danger of death neither is there any so fit a way to bee ready for it as to be often minded of it Therefore I have made choice at this time to speake of this verse wherein ye see the Apostle declareth and leadeth us to treat of foure things First that there is a Death Secondly that this Death is an enemie Thirdly that this enemie is the last enemie Lastly that this least enemie shall be destroyed A word or two of each of these parts First Death is Yee know that well enough your eyes shew it you daily our senses declare it so plainly that no man is so senslesse that knoweth it not It is agreed upon by all Only for your better furtherance to make use of this point let us acquaint you with that which nature will teach yee concerning Death Secondly with that which Scripture will teach you above and better then Nature Nature sheweth yee concerning Death first what it is And then Secondly what Properties it hath It telleth us this That Death is an absence from life a ceasing from beeing when one was beeing to be thrust as it were out of the present world and be cast some where This is all that Nature informeth us concerning the Essence and beeing of Death Death is a dividing of us from this life and from the things of this life and sends us abroad we know not where Secondly Nature teacheth us three Properties concerning Death One that it is universall It hath tied all to it high and low rich and poore Death knockes at the Princes pallace as well as at the poore habitation of the meanest man It is a thing that respects no mans greatnesse it regardeth no wealth nor wit nothing Death takes all before it That Nature teacheth too Secondly Nature teacheth that Death is inevitable If a man would give all the world he cannot thrust it out of dores It takes whole Armies aswell as one man It scorneth to bee resisted by the Phisitians there is no words no meanes to escape it It is such an enemie as we must grapple with and it will conquer This Nature teacheth Againe Nature teacheth that death is uncertaine A man knoweth not when Death will come to him or when it will lay hold on him or by what meanes it will fetch him out of the world It may fetch him out of the world at any time or in any place and by such occasion as it is impossible for any wit to thinke of before This is in substance all that Nature teacheth And the knowledge of this it is for good use aswell to remember and consider it as to understand it But now I goe on to tell yee what the Scripture teacheth concerning Death for that giveth a perfecter and larger information of the thing then the dimme light of Nature The Scripture then over and above that which Nature sheweth telleth us concerning Death these things First it sheweth better what it is and then It sheweth whence it commeth and what are the causes of it Thirdly it declareth the consequences what follow upon it And lastly and bestly it telleth us the remedie against the ill of Death In all which Nature stumbleth and can doe little or nothing First the Scripture telleth us what it is It letteth us know that it is the disolution of a man not the annihilation It doth not make him cease to bee but takes asunder a while the soule from the body It carrieth the one to the earth and the other to another world so that both continue to bee though they be not united as before The word of God teacheth us that he hath created the world as it were a house of three Stories The middle is this present life where we be And there is a lower place the Dungeon a place of unhappinesse and destruction There is a higher place a pallace of glory According as men behave themselves in this middle roome so Death either leadeth them downe to the place of unhappinesse or conveyeth them up to the pallace of glory and blessednesse This Nature is ignorant of but the Scripture is plaine in The rich man dieth and his soule is carried to Hell the poore man when he died his soule was advanced to Heaven So that Death is nothing but the messenger of God to take the soule out of the body and to convey it to a place of more happinesse or more miserie then can be conceived Secondly the Scripture acquaints us further with the cause of death Philosophers wondred since nature desireth a perpetuitie and continuance of it selfe that man should be so short a time in the world The Scripture endeth this wonderment and tels us that man indeed was made immortall to continue for ever and should not have died but sinne came into the world and by sin death Death is the mother of sinne and of all miserie that by little and little draweth to death I say sinne the first sinne of our first Parents whereby they transgressed that most easie and equall mandate about eating the forbidden fruit That transgression that was the treading under foot the covenant of workes and the disanulling of it that sinne let in Death at a great Gappe and now it triumpheth and beareth rule over all the world Nature cannot tell which way in the world a man should die so soone and that hee that is the Lord of all creatures should bee inferiour to a great number of them in length of life But the word of God unridleth this riddle and telleth us that God made man that hee might and should have lived for ever but Sinne comming and comming in the person of the first man it brought death and made all men mortall and when sinne entred Gods curse came and that working upon us poore and miserable creatures it is the cause that we cannot continue long here It was equall that death should follow sinne for since God made man to obey his will when man had unfitted himselfe for Gods service it was reason that he should have a short continance of life for the longer he endured the more he would abuse himselfe Yee see then two things that the Scripture teacheth concerning death The third thing it sheweth is what followeth after death and that is plaine It is appointed for all men once to die and after death commeth judgement Nature never dreamed of judgement after Death but the Scripture telleth us there is a Judgement after Death Judgement what is that Judgement yee know is a calling of a man before Authoritie a looking into his wayes a considering of his actions a finding out whether hee be a sinner an evill doer and if hee find him so to passe sentence according to his evill deeds When God hath tooke the soule from the body hee takes the soule first
and after both soule and body and presents them before his owne Tribunall and there searcheth into every mans life ransacks his conscience lookes deepe into his conversation and inquireth into his secrets openeth his actions and whole carriage from his infancie to his last breath and findeth out the things that hee hath done and passeth sentence according to that he hath done This Judgement hath two degrees First assoone as a man dieth No sooner is the soule separated from this case as it were the bodie but instantly it is presented before the Lord Jesus Christ and there he passeth sentence either that it is a true beleever a godly liver a person united to Christ that walked as becommeth the Gospell of Christ and then it receiveth glory and joy and blisse for the present more then tongue expresse Or else it findeth against him that he was a sinfull man a wicked man a hypocrite a dissembler one that named Christ with his tongue but did not depart from iniquitie nor live according to the Gospell of Christ and then he is delivered up to Sathan to bee hurried downe to Hell and there to suffer the wrath of God according to the desert of so great wickednesse This particular judgement passeth upon every soule assoone as it leaveth the Body Then followeth the great universall Judgement when soule and body shall be reunited and stand before God every particular man that ever hath beene is or shall be every man shall appeare in their owne persons their whole lives shall be laied open all secret things shall bee made knowne for God saith the Apostle shall judge the secrets of all hearts by Iesus Christ according to my Gospell This is the third thing that the word of God informeth us concerning death that nature could never doe The last that is the best the Scripture giveth us a remedie against the ill of Death It is a pittifull thing to heare of mortallity and sicknesse if there were not a good Potion or Phisicke prescribed to escape the ill of it To heare tell of Death and so tell as the Scripture saith that it is a going to another world of weale or woe and not to heare of a remedie it is wofull tydings and would wring teares from a hard heart But the Scripture makes report of death not onely tollerable and easie but comfortable and gladsome to a Christian heart for it sheweth by whom and by what meanes we may infallibly and certainly escape all the hurt that Death can doe Nay by what meanes we may order our selves so that Death may be beneficiall to us What is that In one short word It is Christ I am the resurrection and the life hee that beleeveth in mee shall never see death Hee meaneth to hurt himselfe Againe This is the message that God hath given us life and this life is in his Sonne And Hee that hath the Sonne hath life Our Saviour Jesus Christ came into the world as the Apostle telleth us that hee might destroy him that had the power of death and so set them at libertie that all their life-time were in bondage under the feare of death And Saint Iohn saith Hee came into the world to destroy the workes of the divell which are sinne and death So that now Death hath lost his sting because Christ overcame it in dying hee slue Death and was the death of Death this man Christ God and Man hee offered himselfe to his Father as a Sacrifice for the sinnes of the world and dying a cursed death upon the Crosse so satisfied the justice of God on the behalfe of all those that are in him that death can doe them no harme It is nothing else but a passage to eternall blessednesse Oh blessed be the name of God that hath beene pleased to provide so perfect a remedie against so mortall an enemie and to lay it open so clearely and plainly in the Gospell Yee have heard of those things that I thought to put yee in mind of concerning Death and so I have done with the first point The second is That Death is an enemie Therefore the Apostle Paul telleth us of a certaine sting it hath Oh Death where is thy sting It is an armed enemie it commeth as a Serpent with a sting that entreth into a mans soule putteth it to extreame perplexitie if he takes not order to disarme this enemie An enemie yee know is a person that setteth himselfe wilfully to hurt a man may hurt his neighbour either through indiscretion or unadvisednesse against his will or hee may lay waite to doe him hurt intending mischiefe and seeking to performe somewhat that shall bee injurious to him Wee call not him an enemie that we receive a little hurt from against his will contrary to his purpose and intention but he that studieth and beforehand desireth to be an enemie Now Death as we may say studieth our hurt in all extremitie before-hand There is but two sorts of hurt that can come to a man One is to deprive him of that which is beneficiall and comfortable to robbe him of all that is contentfull to him in this life As when a company of Foes breake into a Nation they burne their goods and spoile their houses and robbe and take away all that is comfortable to them so much as they can Death is such an enemie It desireth to bereave a man of that necessarie contentment hee hath When it meeteth with a learned man it takes away all his learning at one blow assoone as he is dead hee ceaseth to bee a great scholler It commeth to a rich man and robbes him of all his goods at one blow too though he have millions Death causeth all to be another mans When it commeth to a King it pulleth him beside his Throne takes his Crowne off his head and casteth both him and it into the dust hee is king no longer when hee is dead And so in all the benefits of this life it takes away the pleasure and contentments of a man it takes away the husband from the wife and the wife from the husband it divideth children from Parents and Parents from children all the benefits that this life afford death strippeth a man of them all and turnes him naked out of the world just as hee came hee must goe and carry nothing in his hand Death will not admit him to take one farthing or any thing else with him So he is an enemie for hee spoileth us of whatsoever is desirable in this life But he is an enemie also in inflicting a great deale of ill upon men So death bringeth torment for the present It is a terrible thing to wrestle with it makes a man bleed and sweat as it were No man can incounter with death but he feeleth anxietie and vexation of body and minde unlesse hee have comfort from above to enable him to wrestle with it but in his owne proper nature it is so furious
an enemie that it doth not cease till it hath dragged the soule into the presence of God and after from his Tribunall to the torment of eternall fire in Hell That succeedeth death for naturally of its owne nature it tendeth to the destruction of man because it is a fruit of sinne and therefore must needs be the perdition and overthrow of the soule For sinne bringeth destruction in regard it makes God angrie with us and separateth from him and by consequence from all manner of comfort and in regard it separateth from him it bringeth all manner of ill his wrath his hatred and ill will the greatest of all Death I say properly and of it selfe intendeth and seekes to draw all those that it layes hold on to a state of everlasting unhappinesse therefore it is an enemie So you see the second point opened The third is that Death is the last enemie after which there shall bee no more But I must tell you to whom it is the last not to all For there are a generation of men that shall feele death to be the least of enemies and in a manner the first But to the Saints and those that are prepared for death and those that will use the remedie to these and these alone death is the last enemie after once they have grappled and fought and encountred with this enemie they are at peace and rest as he saith Happy are they that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours There is no more toyle and miserie to a good man after death And why Because death seperateth sin from his soule as well as the soule from the body and so taking away the cause of unrest it must needs take away miserie and unhappinesse it selfe Indeed properly Death doth it not but the Lord Iesus Christ by death For it pleaseth him when his servants leave this world then they are fit to enter into a place of happinesse in another world which they could not be except they were freed from sin Death is the daughter of sinne and with a happy patricide as it were at once it destroyeth it selfe and sin and therfore it takes away all misery because it takes away all sinne Therefore it is the last enemie because it killeth the worst of our enemies for when we are dead there shall be no more enmitie betweene God and us and so no more enemy This is the third point The last is that this enemie shall bee destroyed A thing is destroyed abolished when it selfe ceaseth to be and is tooke out of the way and when all the ill effects that it would produce and effect or hath are removed So the Lord Jesus Christ abolisheth Death he destroyeth it that it shall never againe be knowne in the world or felt by his servants and he preventeth all those evill effects that it would worke in the soule for eternitie and removeth all the ill effects of it that it hath wrought on their bodies for the present time Death takes away a mans goods for the present Christ abolisheth that he giveth everlasting substance in heaven Death takes away friends Christ abolisheth that hee sends us to heaven where we have more friends and better Death brings the body to rottennesse and corruption it laieth it in the dust turnes it to putrifaction Christ abolisheth that at the Resurrection it shall rise againe in glory How that is done the Apostle tells us in the end of this chapter The body shall be laid in the dust a weake and feeble a mortall and naturall body but it shall bee clothed with immortalitie This mortall shall put on immortalitie this corruptible shall put on incorruption then shall bee fulfilled that saying Death is swallowed up in victorie But this is also limited it shall bee destroyed to whom To those that use the remedie those that partake of Christ those that have put on him that is the Resurrection and the life Thus I have laid before your eyes briefly these foure things that the Apostle leadeth us to treate of concerning death That it is That it is an enemie That it is the last enemie And that it shall be destroyed Now I desire to apply this and to make use of it First I shall be bold to play the Examiner to search each conscience a little Brethren let the word of God enter into your soules Yee heare that there is a death and that this death is a sore and bitter enemie and yee heare that to some sort of men it is the last enemie that ever they shall encounter with and bee freed from all the hurt of it it shall be utterly destroyed Now doe so much as discend every one into himselfe and inquire what care there hath beene to prepare for death to make use of the remedie against death what time and paines hath beene bestowed to seeke to get that that is the only meanes to escape the Dart of this enemie and that that is the only cause to procure this enfranchisement to the soule from that that else will destroy all A man hath not fitted himselfe to encounter with his enemie when hee lookes after wealth and followeth the pleasures and contentments of this life these things will doe no good they will be rather a burthen to the heart and vexe the soule and increase the mischiefe laying more sin upon the soule and giving death darts to pierce the soule with But when is a man fit for death and who may encounter with this enemie with safetie I will tell yee That man that takes the greatest care to disarme death of his weapons to arme himselfe with defensive weapons against death If an enemie come upon a man with good weapons in his hand and find him altogether unweaponed it is hard for a naked unarmed man to deale with him it is hard for a man that never thought of it before to fight with one that is skilfull at his weapons Death I told yee is an enemie and an enemie that is skilfull in his weapons and the weapon of death it is our owne sinne Death bringeth nothing with it to hurt a man It findeth with us and in us that whereby to hurt us So many corruptions as are in thy heart so many weapons So many idle words so many bad deedes so many swords to pierce thy heart Death maketh use of those weapons it findeth in our selves and with them hee destroyeth and killeth and brings us to perdition Now what have yee done beloved to disarme death what care have yee taken to breake sinne apieces that it may not be as a sword ready drawne for the hand of death when it commeth as Arrowes in a Bow to shoot at you when Death laieth hold on you That man that hath tooke no care to overcome sinne in the power of it and to get himselfe free from the guilt and punishment of it is unfit for death If death come upon him and find his offences
while wee are here though wee doe see the face of God in the Mirrour or glasse of the Gospell yet because wee are absent from him as he is objectum Beatificans Because here the teares are not all wiped from our eyes and we have not yet a full rest from our labours nor a full reward for our services Therefore our Bessednesse here it is nothing to speake of in comparison of that Blessednesse which we shall have hereafter when the soule is separated from the body and is with the Lord. Therefore saith the Apostle I desire to be dissolved and to bee with Christ and this quoth hee it is melius it is better Better Yea it is multo melius it is much better Yea it is multo magis melius you must beare with Saint Pauls incongruitie of speech it is much more better to bee with him If our hope were only in this life of all men beleevers the children of God were most miserable But the hope of our immortall life is the life of this mortall There was some little glimpse of this light even amongst the Gentiles such as did beleeve the immortalitie of the soule One of the heathen Poets could say No man is blessed till death Cressus the Lybian a man happy in his great achievements asked Solon Pray quoth he tell mee what man dost thou thinke happie Hee named one to him Tellus a man that was dead But quoth he whom else dost thou thinke happy Hee named two brethren more that did a worke of pietie to their Mother it were too long to tell you the particular storie and they were dead I thinke them happy quoth he Cressus began to bee angrie that hee himselfe should not be thought a happy man Am not I happy Oh quoth he I take thee for a great king but I account thee not happy before death Cressus grew to miserie and then he cried out Oh Solon Solon c. Here we have a word a voyce from heaven and the Word confirmed by the Spirit and we have testimonies of Scripture and we have some little glimpse of this light from the Gentiles yet notwithstanding flesh and bloud will not be perswaded of this that dead men should be happy that there is a happinesse in death There are many things they have against it First say they Death is an enemie It is very true Death is an enemie the Apostle calleth it so The last enemie that shall be destroyed is Death And say they it is a terrible enemie It is very true and of all terrible things the most terrible yea and nature abhorreth it exceedingly See it in any creature that liveth Marke if every creature would not use legges wings hoofes hornes tuskes beakes or whatsoever thing it is wherewith God and nature hath armed it to preserve life Solomon saith it but he saith it in the person of a carnall man as he doth many things by Metaphors in his booke of Ecclesiastes That a living dogge is better then a dead lyon Sathan is a lyar and the father of lies but yet notwithstanding that word of his was a truth Skin for skin yea all that a man hath will hee give for his life Vita dum super est benè est said Moecenas when he lay grievously sicke of the Gout So long as life remaines it is well enough You have one man that liveth in extreame povertie eateth no bread but the bread of affliction yet hee would live You have another man that carrieth about him a diseased body the arrowes of God sticking fast in him and the venome of them drinking up his spirits by some sicknesse yet he would live You have another man that hath a rotten name that stinkes while he liveth yet he would live still Yea and not only wicked men doe make many base shifts to live they have their portion in this life no wonder therefore they doe it but even Gods best children that looke for a better life then this when this is ended are not willing to part with this life if they could keepe it Doe you not remember how David pleaded for life Oh let me live that I may praise thy Name oh spare mee a little before I goe hence and bee no more Hezekiah turneth his face to the wall and wept oh shall the grave give thankes unto thee or shall the dead celebrate thy praise No Vivens it is the living it is the living that must praise thee as I doe this day I know indeed that sometime you shall find some of Gods children wishing for death Iob My soule hath chosen strangling and death rather then my life Lord I pray thee saith Moses kill mee out of hand and let mee not see my wretchednesse Elijah when hee fled from Iezabel for his life Lord quoth he take away my life for I am not better then my fathers Hee was not willing that Iezabel should take away his life but he would have God to take it away You know Ionah his pettish moode that he was in when hee would deeds thinke to know what was better for him then God himselfe doth Lord take I beseech thee my life from mee for it is better for me to die then to live These men of God they were sonnes of men they had their passions as other men have and passion was never good judge betweene life and death I know againe that there is a question made by Iob Wherefore is light given to a man that is in miserie and life to the bitter in soule Such a man I confesse that hath bitternesse of soule he may happily seeke for death as for treasures and be glad when hee hath found the grave But let God be but pleased a little to allay that bitternesse let him but lap up that bitter pill in sugar a little and then he will like life well enough Why doe we all this while goe from my Text Surely there be so many voyces upon earth against it that if there were not a voyce from heaven to say Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord we should scarce beleeve it But then if the dead be blessed why doe wee not die that wee may be blessed There is such a like Question of Scipio in that same booke of Tullies Somnium Scipionis Scipio asked his Father when his father had told him of those glories that the soule enjoyed in immortalitie Why saith he doe I tarry thus long upon the earth why doe not I hasten to die The schollers of Eugesius when they heard their Master dispute of the immortalitie of the soule went and laid violent hands upon themselves that they might go to that immortalitie And so Cato Vticensis after he read Platoes books of the Immortalitie of the Soule made away himselfe Many such examples there have beene And I find often-times in your bills many that have laid violent hands upon themselves some that cut their owne throats and
in a carnall and sinfull security wee see then so many of us at least that are children of the light and of the day what cause we have to be awakened and to doe that for others which they will not doe for themselves to bee more earnest in prayer more frequent in humbling our soules for our owne sinnes and theirs that God may lay aside and cast away his judgements and displeasure that either are feared or lie upon us It is not a fearfull thing that when the Lyon roareth the beasts of the Forrests tremble Yet the God of heaven roareth against the world at this day and the proud hearts of men doe not tremble before him Shall the beasts of the Forrests bee afraid of the Lyon more then the poore wormes of the earth of the mighty God of heaven and earth But this is the horrible Atheisme and infidelity that is in the hearts of men that they beleeve not Gods power and justice nor his threatnings I beseech you let every man be exhorted to stirre up his soule to this businesse to awaken himselfe in his owne particular person Consider that there are others that are awake that may bring you sorrow enough bee you awakened to prevent those miseries Sathan is awake to tempt you Bee sober and watchfull saith Saint Peter for your adversary the divill goeth about seeking whom hee may devoure Sathan is busie and watching to make you his prey watch you therefore that you enter not into tentation Your owne Corruptions are alwayes awake The concupisence and depraved disposition of the soule it is awake still to further every evill motion to draw you aside by its tentations Therefore saith the Apostle I beseech you abstaine as pilgrims and strangers from fleshly lusts that warre against the soule Doe as men in warre when they know that they have a waking enemie against them they will be sure to keepe their Watch. Beloved you cannot but know that your corruptions are awake you may perceive it in your sleepes and dreames take heed that you bee not found in a spirituall sleepe that corruption prevaile not over you Besides these the enemies of the Church are awake Heretiques are awake every where to bring men from the faith to pervert the faith of many oh be awake to prevent those Besides others are awaken to ransack houses to destroy Cities oh be awake that you may bee at peace with the Lord of Hosts the God of Armies that hath all power in his hand to keepe you safe Againe secondly consider the evill of this security you are in of this disposition of heart when you cry peace peace to your selves in the middest of Gods displeasure It is an evill disease a spirituall lethargie That disease we know in the body it takes a man with sleepe and so he dieth Oh how many are in this spirituall lethargie in this deepe sleepe of sinne at this day the Lord awaken them It is the more dangerous because it is a senslesse disease A disease that takes the senses from the soule and diseases we know that take away the senses are dangerous for it is not only a signe that nature is overcome by the disease but besides it draweth men from seeking for cure Thus it is with the spirituall lethargie it shewes not only that sinne hath prevailed in the heart that it hath overcome grace and thereupon you have yeelded unto it to your pride and covetousnesse and vanity as those that are subdued under a disease but it hindreth you from seeking the meanes to escape out of it Thou saist saith Christ to the Church of Laodicea that thou art rich and needest nothing and that was the reason shee sought not to Christ. It is our condition we have knowledge enough therefore we care not for the ordinances of God Wee have faith enough and therefore wee care not for increasing it though none of us say thus with our tongues yet most of us beleeve thus with our hearts As David saith of the ungodly man the wickednesse of the wicked saith in my heart So may I say the neglecting of the ordinances the carelesnesse of men in the use of the meanes of salvation saith in my heart that there is abundance of securitie that they are in a spirituall lethargie that leadeth to death As it is an evill disease so it causeth much evill It is that which driveth away the Spirit of God It is the counsell of the Apostle Grieve not the Spirit quench not the Spirit When wee neglect the motions of the Spirit the Spirit withdraweth it selfe Doth not your owne experience tell you this Consider a little what motions you have had how God by the checks of your consciences sometime by secret incitements as it were a spurre upon your hearts hath moved you to dutie and to leave your sinnes How have these moved you you have had purposes it may be to performe these duties to walke in the wayes of God to please him in all things the neglect of these purposes hath driven away the Spirit it may be God now leaveth you to finall hardnesse Againe it letteth in Sathan When the uncleane spirit is driven out hee goeth about seeking rest and finding none at last hee returneth from whence hee went and findeth the house swept and garnished and he entreth in and bringeth seven spirits more worse then himselfe Alas how many men are there that for a fitt in some particulars have altered their course and have thought to become new men yet rushing upon former occasions and temptations to sinne they have growne secure and carelesse and now Sathan hath gotten stronger hold of them with seven spirits worse Nay this is that that drives away Christ and the comfortable influence of his Spirit in the heart The Church in Cant. 5. was asleepe was in a spirituall slumber and Christ goeth away Shee seekes him whom her soule loved but shee could not find him I speake now to those that were awake and are now asleepe their hearts it may be are awake but they walke not with that watchfulnesse and humility of spirit before the Lord as they ought therefore now they are heavy and destitute of the comforts of the Spirit Well they may thanke themselves Christ hath hid himselfe to teach them to be more watchfull And to conclude This is the cause of positive Judgements You know what came upon the old world and upon Sodome and Gomorrah for their securitie And likewise of future Judgements it is that which casteth men from heaven to hell That servant that saith in his heart my Master deferreth his comming and therefore hee eates and drinkes with the drunken what is the issue of it Hee shall have his portion given him with hypocrites where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Mat. 24. Here is enough I suppose to awaken you Whensoever the heart of man is held downe with secure
a man had but alwayes some one before him as a witnesse he would not venture upon many things that hee now doth If a malefactour should see the Judge before him if the child had alwayes his fathers eye upon him or the servant had alwayes his Master sitting about him and above him though there are many that are unjust servants yet neverthelesse hee would serve him at least with eye-service Now set your selves in the eye of God that sees you in the darke heares you in your most secret whisperings knowes every action of your life and every circumstance of those Actions This will be a meanes to keepe thee from security I will adde but one more which is the sixth Consider thy latter end The night is now comming upon us If it were told any of us that this night thou shalt die as it was told the rich man in Luke 12. Thou foole this night shall they take away thy soule I thinke there is none that heareth me this day but hee would certainly keepe waking this night But it is not bodily waking we plead for but spirituall waking a waking from sinne a waking to repentance And we tell you that Death is now at the dore ready to seize upon you Wee speake not only to you that are aged that are at the brinke of the grave but we speake also to you that are young Death may seize upon you and strike you this night be awakened now to repentance I remember what God said to the Church of Sardis Bee watchfull and strengthen the things that remaine That Church was asleepe as many of us are at this day God commeth to awaken you now as he did them that that little goodnesse you have left may bee renewed and confirmed You that are quite out of the way of grace and goe on in a course of sinne fit now downe and humble your soules get into a secret corner wherein you may confesse those many provocations whereby you have provoked God all your dayes and resolve to amend if the Lord spare you Begin now delay it no longer it may be the last night the everlasting night to you take this warning now therefore be awakened to repentance This is that the Scripture calleth upon so much Eccles. 11. Rejoyce O young man in the dayes of thy youth and let thy heart cheare thee in thy youth and walke in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all this thou shalt come to Iudgement As if he should say You that are in the middest of your delights that solace your selves in the middest of the abundance of the earth which you enjoy that sport your selves in the pleasures of this world know that there will come a Judgement day see therefore now what will best answer God then Since the end of all things is at hand saith the Apostle let us bee sober and watch Wee know not how neere the end of the world is wee know indeed it shall not bee yet because Antichrist must bee destroyed and the Jewes called before that day come but neverthelesse certainly thy end is neere thy day thy particular death and that is the time of thy particular judgement may be sudden It is appointed for all men once to die and after that commeth the judgement That is the particular Judgement that commeth upon Death so I say this may be the night of thy death and the morning may be the day of thy particular doome Iudge your selves now that you may not bee judged of the Lord It was the use that the Apostle made even to good men For this cause saith he many are sicke and weake and many sleepe that is they are dead what then If wee would judge our selves wee should not bee judged of the Lord. So say I to you judge your selves now bring your selves as prisoners before the Barre arraigne your selves as malefactours before the Judge bring out the particular bills of inditement against your selves whereby you have provoked God yet there is mercie the day of grace and opportunity of repentance and turning unto God yet lasteth therefore doe it now I might adde many other helpes to this purpose but these shall suffice at this present Wee have an example before our eyes enough to warne us of this Here is an example of Death which should teach us now to awaken our selves and not to liue securely as men that dreame of a long life for many yeares Here is a young man dead tooke away in the prime of his time in the beginning of his dayes his sicknesse though it held him not long yet it was somewhat violent How know you what a short time you have though you are now young or if you live longer what sicknesse you may have it may be you may be deprived of your reason and senses therefore now while health and reason and sense while these Warning Sermons are afforded take time and make use of time lest your securitie make good this Text upon you When they shall say Peace Peace then sudden destruction commeth upon them as travaile upon a woman with child and they shall not escape FINIS A CHRISTIANS VICTORIE OR CONQVEST OVER DEATHS ENMITIE ROM 8. 37. Wee are more then conquerours through him that loved us HOSEA 13. 14. I will ransome them from the power of the Grave I will redeeme them from death O Death I will bee thy plagues O Grave I will bee thy destruction LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. A CHRISTIANS VICTORIE OR CONQVEST OVER DEATHS ENMITIE SERMON XIII 1 COR. 15. 26. The last enemie that shall be destroyed is Death IT could bee no Paradox to declare that every man hath more enemies in the world then friends both wicked and godly There is no question of it But it is true also that so long as a mans wayes please God hee can make his enemies his friends Of all the enemies men have the spirituall are the worst for they are common continuall enemies Common enemies I call them because they are every mans enemies Others though they bee enemies to some they are friends to others these to all Continuall because their warre is never at an end Other enemies we may have truce with now and then pauses and breathing times leasure given us when we have done one skirmish to make ready for another from these there is no intermission nor rest not for a moment wheresoever or whatsoever we are about it may be said to us as Dalilah said to Sampson Up Sampson thy enemies are upon thee The three principall of these yeeknow are commonly reckoned up to be The Divell the World and the Flesh. But the Apostle telleth us of a fourth which hee calleth our Last enemie the enemie which shall last of all assault us the other will leave assaulting us when we are in this world this when we are leaving the world mustereth up his forces against
us sometimes holding us long play as the house of David did the house of Saul till our strength be wasted and spent sometimes dispatching us with a sudden stroke as Absolom did Amnon when our hearts are merry within us This enemie Death the very sound of his name is like the name of Honiades to the Turkes dreadfull to some the very dreame of it dreadfull as Nebuchadnezars dreame was to him it troubled him and the image of it made him tremble and quake But though the hearing of an enemie may cause disturbance yet withall to heare that this enemie is overcome and destroyed the newes of that may cheare us Behold this is the newes that the Text bringeth It telleth us of an enemie indeed but it telleth us withall of the destruction of this enemie Death is the common enemie of man-kind It is our last enemie we may thinke it none of the least because it is the last yet here is the destruction of it Oh thou enemie thy destruction shall come to a perpetuall end It is already destroying and as it is the last so at the last it shall be destroyed Those are the two points that I am to treat of of an Enemie and of the destruction of this Enemie The Enemie is Death and the Last Enemie as the Text calleth it the last that shall assault us In that yee may note two things Its Qualitie and Its Ranke First its nature and qualitie An Enemie Secondly its order and ranke in what ranke it is Fyled not in the Fore-front of the battell but it commeth behind in the Reare it commeth in the end of the Armie when all other enemies have given over and setteth upon us at the last Secondly here is the destruction of the enemie that is the Milke and honey of the Text. Death though it bee an Enemie though it be a killing enemie it shall not bee a conquering enemie Hee that subdueth all our Enemies for us will in time subdue them to us And who he is the Apostle telleth you in the verse before the Text Christ our Lord Hee shall reigne till hee hath put downe all his enemies under his feet And as all His so all ours too both those that are Enemies to him and to his death Among the rest he will destroy that also As it is the last with which we shall be assaulted so it is the last that shall be destroyed There are three points of observation wee have here lying before us First that Death is an Enemie Secondly that Death is our last Enemie Thirdly that as Death assaulteth us last so at last it shall bee destroyed I begin with the first of these That Death is an Enemie And an Enemie indeed it is one of the Divels regiment The Divell he is the Generall of the Armie when hee brought sinne into the world he brought Death into the world Sinne drawes Death after it as the Needle drawes the thread First I will shew yee what kind of Enemie it is Secondly wherein it appeareth to be an Enemie First what kind of Enemie Death is A common secret spirituall continuall Enemie First a Common Enemie Common to all mankind The charge it hath is not like that upon the Aramites fight neither with small nor great save onely with the King of Israel Great and small King and Keisar all are markes that this aimeth at one killing weapon or other it hath for them all like Ishmael The hand of him is against every man The young and the old the strong and rich and noble and wise and holy none can scape none can keepe out of Deaths reach What man is hee that liveth and shall not see death Yee will object to me peradventure Those that shall live at the comming of our Lord at the end of the world shall not see Death I had thought I confesse to have stood a little upon this points discussion but I must not I have many things to say In a word therefore First these are but a few and a few make not a generall Secondly though these die not the ordinary naturall death but as Elijah and Enoch shall bee translated up to heaven yet in their translation and assumption they shall suffer a mutation and change which shall be in stead of Death Their change is a kind of Death to them as our death is a kind of change to us Therefore wee may account it a common Enemie to man-kind for as the Scripture saith It is the way of all the earth And the Grave it is the house appointed for all living It is a common Enemie and it is the more dangerous for that Secondly it is A secret Enemie And it is the more dangerous for that Secret Traytours are worse then open enemies these may be prepared against because we know them those may surprize us unawares because wee see them not nor suspect them Poore Uriah carrieth Death in his bosome so wee carry death about us though like a Moth it lie and fret in the garment and we see not when it eateth nor can certainly determine the time when it will grate asunder the thread of our life What man living can divine when and how and where Death will seize upon him it is not for any to determine such a thing it lieth so secret hee cannot find it out What a sort of diseases wee are subject to you may imagine how many Nay yee cannot imagine how many when the very eye as some Occolists observe hath above sixtie diseases What a many casualties there are every moment when as oft as wee step over the threshold wee cannot tell whether ever wee shall come home againe The fire saith Death is in me and the Water saith Death is in mee the earth we tread on hath Death in it the Ayre we breath in that which wee continually take in and put out at our nosethrils hath death in it Death dwelleth with us in our houses it walketh with us in the streets It lieth downe with us in our beds It is wrapped about us in our clothes that sticke to us Benhadad is slaine in his Bed Amnon at his Table Zachariah in the Temple Ioab at the Altar The disobedient Prophet is torne with a Lyon The unbeleeving Prince is trod to Death in the croude Abimelech slaine with a Mill-stone and Pyrrhus with the fall of a Tyle Adrian is choaked with a flie Victor is poisoned with Wine And one of the Emperours with the bread he recived in the Sacrament Thus Death waiteth every where and yet wee spie it not It is a secret Enemie and therefore the more dangerous Thirdly it is a spirituall Enemie And it is the more dangerous for that Spirituall I call it First because it is invisible for the spirits are invisible they cannot be seene Such an enemie is Death though we must all feele it yet wee cannot see it were it any way discernable we might
thinke of some way how wee might shift and shun it but it is beyond the kenne of our eyes we are no more able to see that then the Ayre being therefore out of sight it is out of our reach we know not how to grapple with it we know not with what weapons to encounter it And a Spirituall Enemie I call it because though it seize on the body it strikes at the soule By Gods decree the death of the soule is a concommitant of the death of the Body and were it not by Gods mercy reverst they would still come like lightning and thunder and strike both together Againe it is a spirituall enemie because it fighteth against us in the strength of sinne It commeth armed with a Sting the sting of death is sinne Some make question whether if Adam had never sinned he should ever have died But me-thinkes the Apostle Saint Paul putteth it out of qustion By one mans disobedience sinne came into the world and by sinne death All those Death 's that S. Austin reckoneth up First when the soule is deprived of God separated from him Secondly when the body is separated from the soule Thirdly when the Soule is separated from the body and from God and suffereth torments for a time Lastly when the soule is separated from God and rejoyned to the body to suffer torments eternally All these are the recompence and reward of sinne Therefore Death comming and being an Enemie thus armed whatsoever kind of death it be we may well say it is a spirituall enemie and the more spirituall the more dangerous Fourthly and lastly it is a continuall Enemie And it is the more dangerous for that It laies hold of us in the wombe and never leaves us till it hath brought us to the Grave Beloved wee doe not only die when we die but all the time we live assoone as wee begin to live we begin to die As Seneca saith Every day wee die because every day some part of our life is gone As a Candle it is no sooner lighted but presently it begins to waste as an houre-glasse it is no sooner turned but presently the sand begins to runne out So our life it is no sooner breathed but presently it begins to vapour out As the Sea what it gaineth in one place it loseth in another so our life what we gaine one way wee lose it in another looke what is added to it so much is tooke from it the longer a man liveth the lesse he hath to live Death doth by us as Iacob did by Esau catcheth us in the wombe and never leaveth us So wee see it is a Common a Secret a Spirituall a Continuall Enemie Next we are to consider How and wherein Death sheweth it selfe an Enemie What Death deserveth at our hands to bee thus accounted and feared Fearfull and terrible it is that is certaine So Aristotle It is the most terrible of all terribles Bildad in Iob calleth it the King of terrours What doth Death bring with it to make it fearfull I answer Death hath sundrie concomitants and companions that attend it that make it a formidable Enemie First the Harbingers that come along with it Sicknesses and diseases infirmities old age and difficulties These are all fearfull to nature and through feare of these Death keepeth men all their life in bondage They make our lives as it were a life rather like a life then a life indeed So that howsoever the Apostle said in another place as it were dying and Behold wee live There Death hath the tanquam and life the Ecce yet here we may say as it were living and behold wee die here life hath the tanquam and Death the Ecce Life is but as it were a life it is but the shadow of a life that man walketh in Man walketh in a vaine shadow and disquieteth himselfe in vaine It is true it lighteth not on all alike some it commeth on as a Lyon and breaking their bones from morning to evening it makes an end of them to others it is as a Moth in the garment secretly in their lives by degrees insensibly pining and consuming them Howsoever what Harbinger soever it bringeth it visiteth us with many touches and twitches before it come falling pell-mell thicke and three-fold on us when they come In respect of these it may be said to be an Enemie Secondly the dissolution that Death bringeth For it dissolveth the frame of nature It divorceth and separateth the soule from the Bodie those two companions that have lived so lovingly together and perhaps have lived a long time together This is another thing that makes Death looke like an Enemie Friends and companions that have lived long together are loth to part wee see in experience old folke commonly are more loth to part when they are old then when they are young Now there is none neerer then the soule and bodie there is none have lived so long or so loving it must needs be tedious for these to part and be an affliction and vexation when neither the body can longer retaine the fleeting soule or the soule longer sustaine the drouping body Therefore in respect of this also Death being the cause of this no marvell though nature reluctate and we looke upon it as on the face of an Enemie Thirdly the horrour of the Grave The men of Darknesse as Iob calleth it the place of oblivion the pit of stinch and rottennesse this is another thing that nature shrinketh and relucts at For there we must burie out of our sight that that once was the delight of our eyes as Ezekiel said by his wife And though it were never so lovely before yet it quickly becommeth loathsome Our Beds must be made in darknesse where corruption and wormes must be the Mattresse and Coverled to lie under us and spread over us Thou shalt say to Corruption thou art my father and to the worme thou art my mother and my sister That bodie of thine that God in the wombe so wonderfully made that thou all thy life-time peradventure hast delicately cherished lapped in Silke in Furre pampered with sweet wines Death as a proud Tyrant will set his foot upon it and throw thee downe to the horrid dungeon where thy flesh shall putrifie and thy bones rot and the beauty of it though sometime it were as the Rose and the Lilly of the field shall soone become as loathsome as the dung in the streets This is another thing that makes the face of Death dreadful and terrible when we thinke of such privations and annihilations as these thaâ⦠wee shall come from a beeing to no beeing These cannot but make Death looke with the face of an Enemie Fourthly The losse and deprivation of all worldly contentments and worldly imployments that is another thing that makes Death terrible and fearfull to us Looke whatsoever contentment wee tooke in any thing here we must bid
it farewell then Farewell to all to profits and pleasures and honours we shall carrie none of them away with us None of our pompe and glory shall descend after us as the Psalmist saith Farewell to all the gold and silver we have gathered together to all the goodly lands wee have purchased to all the stately houses we have built to all the pleasant gardens and orchards wee have planted to all the sports and pastimes we have had to all our merry consorts wee have kept company with to all our Jewels and wardrope to our dauncing and feasting and musicke Death pulleth us from all these and layeth us levell with the Dust It mingleth shovels and Scepters together It makes rich and poore the Prince and the Peasant alike I shall see man no more All relations we have now shall be broken off then betweene Husband and Wife Parents and children Master and servants neighbour and neighbour friend and friend wee shall dwell apart with our selves and not so much as shake hands one with another All the services and imployments wee are tooke up with here shall cease then there shall be no frequenting of the Exchange no exercising of Trade no bearing of Office no working in our Calling Death is the night that no man can worke in and Death is the place of silence where all affaires are cut off Where there is no worke nor invention nor wisedome nor counsell as Solomon saith in the booke of the Preacher Oh saith good Hezekiah I shall see the Lord no more in the land of the living There is no more service to be done to the Lord nor no more in the Church in that manner as it is now there is no exercise of Religion no Word no Sacraments no Fasting no Almes no Preaching no Prayer no Confession and thankes-giving The Corse cannot praise thee the Grave cannot give thankes they that goe downe into the pit cannot honour thee Oh Beloved how carefull and active and vigilant and diligent should this make us to be when wee consider it for the well improving of that time that wee have lent unto us and for the well-discharging of those places and offices and duties that are now laid upon us Considering that Death is an enemie that will cut us off from all affaires and bereave us of all opportunities of receiving or doing or performing any service to God at all either in Church or Common-wealth Fiftly and lastly Conscience of sinne and certaintie of iudgement and uncertainty of salvation for brevities sake I put them together these things come along with Death and make the face of Death terrible and fearfull Conscience of sinne first of all For Sinne it is the sting of Death And which of us is there that doth not arme Death with that sting Who can reflect on the passages of his life but he shall find it as full of sinne as the Leopard of spots Wee find nothing in sinne now but oblectation and delight and therefore wee hide it under our tongue and hugge it in our bosomes Oh but when Death commeth once it thrusteth these things out and oh the horrour and anguish that the poore conscience is tormented and made to smart with Againe with conscience of sinne certainty of judgement that is another dreadfull Arrow in Deaths quiver After Death commeth judgement And wee must all appeare before the judgement seat of Christ to receive according to what wee have done in our bodies First the particular judgement that passeth upon the soule it shall never be reverst for as the Tree falleth so it lieth And then the Generall judgement when the Body and Soule shall both bee wrapped up in the same condemnation Oh who can dwell with devouring fire with those everlasting burnings And then lastly The uncertaintie of our future estate For how many thousands bee there that die that cannot tell what becommeth of them when they die but they must sing that Farewell to their soules as Adrian to his My poore wandring soule whether art thou going What will become of thee Death then being accompanied with such an Armie of Terrours as these the Apostle might well call it as it is in the Text An Enemie That is the first thing Secondly we are to consider how it is called the last Enemie For two reasons First because it is the last that shall assault us So Caietan Secondly because it is the Last that shall bee destroyed So the common streame of interpreters It is the Last Enemie that shall assault us And here I have to note two things First that while wee live in the world we have more Enemies in the world For when there are some last there must bee others going before If Death bee the last Enemie there are some others beside I we have so God knoweth Enemies on every side Without us within us The Divell he is an Enemie to us and vollies of tentation hee hath to discharge against us So many tentations so many Enemies The World is an enemie to us An enemie when it seemeth a friend When it smileth it betrayeth it kisseth and killeth On the right hand it hath prosperitie to allure on the left hand adversitie to affright in every corner wicked counsell and company and example to seduce and insnare us Lastly our owne flesh is an enemie It is a Serpent wee carry in our bosomes The Divell is a serpent in Hell the world is a Serpent in our hand the flesh is a Serpent in our bosome Wee carry it with us where ever wee goe It is a con-naturall concorporate Enemie All our other enemies could doe us no hurt if it were not for that if this enemie that cohabiteth with us did not combine against us Know who everthou art there is no Enemie like thy selfe thy selfe is the worst enemie of all All the sparkes that flie out of Sathans engines could never sindge a haire of our heads if our flesh were not as tinder All the windes that blow in the foure corners of the world could not make shipwracke of us if our flesh were not a treacherous Pilot. Death that gnaweth the thread of our soule and body asunder could not separate them or them from God if the flesh did not whet the teeth of it and sharpen it with a sting So then we see we have a great many Enemies more to encounter us besides Death some without some within Therefore how should this teach us circumspect walking to behave our selves wisely in every thing as David when he knew Saul was his Enemie and had an eye upon him to doe him mischiefe How should it teach us to pray with David Lord teach mee thy way and lead me in the right path because of mine enemie That is one thing I have to note Againe another thing I have to note If Death be the last enemie then in all probabilitie it is like to be the worst Of the Divels regiment
it is I told yee before Hee is the Generall of the Armie And beloved beleeve it the Divell is very politique and subtile in marshalling his forces hee will not place his best Souldiers in the forefront of the battell but keepes them in the Reare he puts them behind that when all the rest have wearied and tired us they should set on us afresh He is so cunning a disputant that he reserveth the best arguments for the last A cunning Gamester that plaies his best play at the last A cunning Archer that shootes his best shaft at the last So since Death is the last Enenie it is like to be the sorest Now the sorer we are like to find him the carefuller we should be to arme against him alwayes to put our selves in a readinesse that whensoever he commeth hee may find us weaponed that if it were possible we might be alwayes doing as if wee were dying it being the height of the perfection that any soule can attaine to as the heathens themselves well observed for a man to spend every day as if it were his last day That is one reason why the Apostle here calleth Death the last enemie because the last is like to be the worst Againe another reason As it is the last by which wee are assaulted so it is the last that shall bee destroyed That the Apostle principally meant here as Interpreters commonly understand it When he saith the last enemie that shall be destroyed is Death hee meant that Death is the Enemie that shall be destroied last And this leadeth me to the last point I propounded to speake of That Death is an enemie and the last enemie and at last shall be destroyed It shall be destroyed that is one thing Who undertakes the doing of it Our selves In likelihood Death is more likely to destroy us then we it But as it is said of the seven-sealed booke in the Revelation when there was none in heaven or in earth or under the earth that was able to open it the Lion of the tribe of Iudah prevailed to open the booke So the Lion of the tribe of Iudah prevaileth to destroy this enemie that none in heaven or in earth or under the earth but only he is able to destroy Hee saith of him as David of Goliah when hee defied the host of Israel and all men ranne away Let no mans heart faile him So saith the sonne of David The Lord of David let no mans heart faile him I will goe to fight with yonder Philistim Oh Death I will be thy death It is spoken in the person of Christ whom Saint Peter calleth the Lord of life Hee subdueth all Enemies and it is he that will destroy Death hee will not leave him till he have trod him under foot But when will Christ doe this Wee see Death playes the Tyrant still it killeth and spoyleth as fast as it did his sickle is in every ones harvest as fast as the corne growes up hee cuts it downe he leaveth not an eare standing How long Lord how long before this that the Apostle tells us of will be At last His meaning is at the generall day of the Resurrection when the end of the world shall come then Christ shall destroy him And he bringeth it in the rather to assure the Corinths of that that some of them doubted of namely that there should be a Resurrection For unlesse the dead should arise how can Death be destroyed But Death shall be destroyed therefore it is out of question that the dead shall rise againe But what comfort have we in the meane time if Death be not destroyed till then if till then it play the domineering Enemie No not so neither Wee have comfort enough in that that Christ hath already done Though it bee not already destroyed yet it is already subdued It is not only subdued but disarmed and not only so but captivated and triumphed over Hee subdued it when he died in suffering death he overcame Death hee beat him in his owne ground at his owne weapons in his owne hold hee disarmed him When he rose againe then he spoyled him of his power and tooke his weapons away and triumphed over him in the open field When he ascended into heaven then hee carried those spoiles with him in token of conquest as Sampson tooke the Gates of Gaza on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill Christ by Death tooke the sting of Death away by his Resurrection hee tooke the strength of Death away by his Ascension hee tooke away the hope of Death for ever conquering or prevailing more finally at the last Judgement hee will take away the name and beeing of Death so that it shall never bee more remembred but mortality shall be swallowed up of life I Christ hath done this for himselfe perhaps but what is this to us Nay Christ hath done it not only for his owne victorie but he hath given us victorie hee is not only a conquerour but hee hath made us conquerours thankes be unto God that hath given us victorie In a word Christ hath and will doe by Death as hee doth by our sinnes he hath subdued them already at the last hee will utterly destroy them sinne and Death both of them are already subdued at last they shall be abolished and destroyed that they shall be no more As there shall bee no more sorrow and paine so there shall be no more death and sinne All teares shall be wiped from our eyes I will ransomethem from the power of the grave and redeeme them from death More then this This yet addeth to our comfort Christ will so destroy Death as hee will not only subdue him for us but also reconcile him to us not only foile him as an Enemie but propitiate and make him our friend Wee 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 enemie In stead of bringing forth children for bondage it becommeth a purchaser of our freedome it is so farre from plucking us from Christ as rather it letteth us into Christ so farre from being a losse as it bringeth gaine so farre from being a dammage that it is part of our Dowrie therefore the Apostle reckoneth it as a prerogative as hee 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 Enemie become that it is a Bridge to passe to heaven the Chariot that wee are tooke 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 counsell
uncertaine and obscure yet from the secreâ⦠revelation of Gods Spirit the Saints in some measure know how it will be with them after death Wee know though our earthly tabernacle be destroyed wee have a building given us of God All these things are helpes to give us comfort against the feare of Death and those Enemies that Death comes attended with that though it be an Enemie yet it is a subdued Enemie Secondly it may comfort us to consider that Death is not only a subdued but a reconciled Enemie of an Enemie it is made to bee a friend it is so to all the faithfull such a friend as they have not a better in the world It is most certaine the wicked have not a worse enemie in the world then Death and the godly have not a better friend so yee should see if I had leisure to shew you on the one side from what labour and care and miserie it helpeth to free them and on the other side to what comfort and rest and peace and joy it helpeth to bring them Lastly it may comfort us to consider that as death is an enemie a subdued enemie a reconciled enemy so it is an enemie that at last shall be destroyed The time shall come when Death and Hell shall be cast into the lake of fire the meaning is I thinke they shall be shut up in the bottomlesse pit where they shall only have leave to exercise their power on the Divell and damned reprobates that lie there in torments Death on the one side still gnawing of them that they ever die and yet Hell on the other side still preserving of them that they shall everlastingly live But the godly and the faithfull shall have their part and portion given them in the resurrection to life where they shall never ââ¦ast of death more What the Apostle saith of Christ is true of all those that are in Christ when they are once dead they shall die no more Death hath no more dominion over them But I cannot inlarge these comforts Yet Beloved I have a word or two of counsell I pray hearken to it Birefly thus Christ though he have overcome and destroyed both death and sinne for us for ever yet notwithstanding he will have us exercised also in subduing and overcomming them Christ hath not so fought for us but he will have us also fight for our selves as hee hath overcome death so must we for our parts that wee may have the comfort of that that Christ hath done Death being an enemie to us we must prepare and arme our selves against it that it may not be an Enemie too strong And for your better direction take these few heads First Remember that Death is the wages of sinne It is sinne that lead Death into the world it is in respect of that that Death is an Enemie to us and were it not for that it would bee no Eenemie at all Now then beloved if yee will not die in your sinnes let your care be to die to sinne labour to have sinne die in thee and then thou shalt not die in that When thou hast committed drunkennesse or prophanenesse c. thinke with thy selfe this is pleasant and sweet now but how will this tast another day when I shall come to lie upon my death-bed and my soule shall set on my pale lips ready to take her flight and bee brought before the Judgement seat of Christ What fruit will these things bring then What comfort and peace and joy will it procure to the conscience then Oh saith Abner to Ioab knowest thou not that this will be bitternesse in the end It will be as gall and wormwood therefore if yee would not have Death be bitter then let not sinne bee sweet now part with sinne betime That is the first Secondly learne to walke humbly with God betime and betime put your selves in a way of repentance and new obedience take heed of dallying with God and procrastinating and putting off the time What is the reason why a sort die as Plinie saith some doe that are stung with the Serpent Colemion some laughing some raging some soââ¦tish and secure others hoping some dispairing They have not beene carefull to walke with God while they lived because they wanted care then they want comfort now They that remember not God in their life saith S. Austin it is just with God to forget them in death The Apostle S. Peter would have us looke for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse But never looke thou to dwell in that heaven where righteousnesse dwelleth except righteousnesse dwell in thee And he exhorteth us that wee be found of God in peace at that day that is sweet and comfortable indeed but remember Peace and holinesse goe together if we would be found of God in peace wee must be found of him in holinesse Walke in holinesse and uprightnesse and then peace shall kisse thee on thy death-bed Marke the upright and just man the end of that man is peare Thirdly the better to subdue Death be willing to meditate and thinke oâ⦠of Death learne the Art of dying practise the way of it betime learne to die daily How shall we doe that I will shew you Consider we have many little deaths to undergoe in the world as we have many delights Learne to inure and acquaint thy selfe before hand with the patient and quiet bearing and enduring of these many troubles and crosses that befall thee As Agamemnon first overcame the Lacedemonians by wrestling 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 thinke with your selves If I cannot endure a little how shall I endure more If I cannot endure a light crosse a small affliction doe I murmure at that Am I impatient and repine at that How shall I beare the pangs of Death when they come Therefore let us inure our selves to a meeke and quiet bearing of lesser stripes so wee may be better able to endure heavier stroakes 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 wee shall leave the world Studie the Art of dying That is the third Lastly that we may the better subdue Death that it may not be an Enemie too strong Learne before so to dispose of our selves and order our affaires that when Death commeth wee may have nothing to doe 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 worke is to goe in hand 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
whether it be good or bad LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ralph Mabbe 1639. THE GREAT TRIBVNALL OR GODS SCRVTINIE OF MANS SECRETS SERMON XIIII ECCLESIAST 12. 14. For God will bring every worke into judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be Evill DEath and judgement are two subjects about the meditation of which our thoughts should every day bee conversant wee should every day be thinking of those two dayes Every day upon the day of death because there is no day wherein death may not befall us And every day upon the day of Iudgement because as the day of Death leaveth us so the day of Iudgement findeth us We had an occasion like to this not long since Then you may remember I discoursed of Death considered as an enemie I shewed you what kind of enemie it is it is a common enemie a secret enemie a spirituall enemie Now at this time having the like occasion I thought it not amisse for me to discourse of that that commeth immediatly after Death that is Iudgement The Apostle saith Heb. 9. 27. It is appointed to all men once to die and after Death commeth Iudgement And it is that that Solomon mindeth us of here in the words of my Text which he addeth as a reason to that grave advice he gave in the verse before going Having discoursed at large in this booke concerning the vanity of all earthly things and the vexation among those things that are under the Sunne he telleth us where it is best for us to set up our rest that is in learning that one lesson Feare God and keepe his commandements for this is the totall all that God requireth That we might the rather be stirred up to hearken to this counsell hee telleth us that whether we doe or no the day will come that we shall be called to an account when God will bring every one of us to Iudgement and take a tryall of every worke we have done and of every secret thing whether it be good or evill In handling of these words we have two things in generall that Solomon speakes of First the Person Iudging Secondly the things Iudged The Person Iudging is God And there I will speake First of the Iudge And then of the Iudgement The things that God bringeth to Iudgement and tryall hee telleth us first every worke every thing be it never so secret And then a more particular resolution those things that are good and those things that are evill God will bring every worke to Iudgement and every secret thing whether it bee good or whether it be evill I begin with the Person judging And here first of the Iudge himselfe God shall bring to judgement God essensially meant all the Persons in the God-head Father Sonne and holy Ghost For all concurre in this worke being as the Schoole-men say Opus ad extra It is one of the Externall workes of the Godhead and it is an Axiome in Divinitie that the Externall workes of the Godhead are not to be divided It is true there are certaine internall workes of the Godhead that are said by the Schooles to bee divided incommunicably proper and peculiar to every Person as it is proper to the Person of the Father incommunicably to have his Beeing of himselfe Of the Sonne to be begotten of the Father And it is the property of the Holy Ghost incommunicably to proceed from both But those workes that they call Externall that is those workes by which the power and wisedome of the Godhead are externally made manifest to the creature such as creation preservation redemption those equally and indifferently proceed from all the Persons not from one in parcular but from all in generall and this of Iudgement is one For as they all concurre in the creating of us so they shall in the judging of us all of them shall co-operate together in the executing of justice and mercy Justice in the damnation of the wicked and mercy in the salvation of the godly You will object peradventure that the Scripture seemeth to speake otherwise though Iudgement here be attributed essensially to God in some places it is attributed personally to Christ Hee shall judge the quicke and the dead and therefore oftentimes it is called in the Scripture the Ivdgement seat of Christ as 2 Cor. 5. 10. Againe sometimes this worke of Judging is appropriated to the Saints Know yee not that the Saints shall judge the world 1 Cor. 6. 2. and by and by againe Know you not that we shall judge the Angels verse 3. How shall we reconcile these when it is said Christ and the Saints shall judge I answer This threefold doubt is reconciled by a threefold distinction God is said to judge if wee respect the Authority of Jurisdiction Christ is said to judge if we respect the Promulgation of the sentence The Saints are said to judge if wee respect the Approbation The power and right are equally given to all three Persons but the particular Execution is given to Christ the Approbation of what Christ doth is ascribed to the Saints As at our common Courts of Assize here one is set upon the Bench as Judge and others are joyned in commission with him as Accessories the Judge only pronounceth the sentence and they that sit in Commission with him ratifie and approve his sentence that he pronounceth so at that day Christ shall sit upon his Throne as Iudge the Saints they shall joyne as Commissioners Christ he alone pronounceth the sentence upon every one that is summoned there to the tryall but then his Apostles and Saints that are joyned in commission with him for such honour have all his Saints they shall ratifie and approve and give attestation to the sentence that he pronounceth and say Amen to the condemnation of the wicked So that the difference is easily reconciled and we see how God and Christ and the Saints are said to judge The Authoritie is Gods The Execution Christs The Approbation the Saints The Apostle in Rom. 2. 16. makes the point plaine hee telleth us that God shall judge by Christ In that day God shall judge the secrets of all hearts by Iesus Christ So Christ himselfe Ioh. 5. The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all power to the Sonne Hee hath given him power to execute judgement as he is the Sonne of man Why to him For this Reason That his second comming may be in glory to make amends for his first comming in humilitie Christ at his first comming into the world he came meanly and homely at his second comming hee shall come triumphantly and gloriously Before he came like a Lambe then he shall come like a Lyon Before in the forme of a servant then in the forme of a Lord. Before Pilate sate upon the Bench and Christ stood as a malefactour but then Pilate shall stand at the Barre as a Malefactour and
so freeth men from the latter as they never come neere it and so freeth them from the former as they never dread to be under the power of the latter And the first Death of the outward man which is the separration of the Body from the Soule it is no Death if it separate not both from God which it can never doe if a man keepe the sayings of Christ therefore though his body that keepeth the sayings of Christ bee tooke from his soule yet he seeth not death so as to have any hurt by it hee feeleth no ill by it nay it is good to him for it is a passage from miserie to rest and felicitie Thus yee have these words as faithfully interpreted to you as I know how And now I will make proofe of this Doctrine thus explicated namely that thus to keepe Christs sayings to know and follow the Doctrine of the Gospell is the only sure way to escape the danger and hurt of Death Saint Peter acknowledgeth as much when he said to the Lord Jesus Christ that hee had the words of eternall life then he that keepeth them is certainly safe against the hurt of Death So the Angell speakes to the Apostles whom the Pharisees had imprisoned when he brought them forth of Prison he biddeth them speake to the people the words of this life since Christs Doctrine is the word of life it must needs follow that the keeping thereof is a per a perfect Antidote against the poyson of Death And Saint Peter when he gave an account to the rest of the Apostles and the brethren of Iudea of his going to the Gentiles he saith that an Angel appointed Cornelius to send for him that he might speake words to him whereby himselfe and his family should be saved and those words which cause a man to be saved you know will give him freedome enough from Death Thus I have proved the point by expresse Texts and there are two reasons of it The first is delivered by the Apostle Saint Iohn in his first Epistle and second Chapter where hee saith let that abide in you which you have heard from the beginning that is the Doctrine of the Gospell which Christ taught his sayings if that remaine in you you also shall continue in the Sonne and in the Father Hee that hath fellowship with the Sonne and with the Father can never see Death for God is the fountaine of life therefore those that are one with him and continue in him cannot see Death no more then he can be overwhelmed with darknesse that is where the Sunne shineth fully no more then the body can bee dead as long as it hath communion with the soule so those in whom the word of Christ remaineth and stayeth they are assured that they shall remaine with the Father and the Sonne and therefore being united to that that is life God the Father and the Sonne it is impossible that ever they should be hurt by the first or ever at all taste of the last Death Againe the Word of Christ freeth him in who it remaineth from the power and hurt of finne bringing to him remission of sinnes and sanctification And being free from sinne the cause of Death it is easie to conjecture that hee shall bee freeed from Death itselfe Let a mans Debt be satisfied and let the favour of the Prince be obtained and a Pardon granted the Prison shall never hold him long he shall not be brought to the place of Execution but when his guives are knocked off he is set at libertie so when we have obtained power against sinne by the powerfull worke of the Spirit of God which alwayes at the same time doth bend the heart of man to rest on Christ for salvation and heartily to indevour to walke before him in holinesse and righteousnesse when I say wee are thus freed from the power and guilt of sinne it is impossible that Death should lay hold upon us as his prisoner to carry us to the dungeon of Hell and to hold us under the wrath of God and that fiery indignation of his that causeth Hell to bee Hell Therefore certainly the words of Christ are an undoubted truth and we must rest upon them without all distrust and wavering that hee that keepeth his saying shall never see death and that the knowledge and beleeving and obeying the Doctrine of the Gospell is the only sure way to escape the hurt and ill of Death it selfe Let us now make some Application of this Doctrine to our soules First to stirre us up to a right hearty thankfulnesse unto Almighty God that is pleased to cast our times and dayes into that age and those places where the Doctrine of the Gospell this Saying of our blessed Saviour is so clearely and plainly and evidently laid open to you and frequently and earnestly prest upon your soules where the Lord commeth to declare unto you the way to life where he scoreth you out a path that will bring you quite out of the clutches and danger of Death this is the happinesse of our present Age and place where wee live and this whole kingdome too The grace and mercie and favour of our loving God hath so disposed of us that wee doe not live in times of Paganisme and darknesse where there was no newes of Christ that wee live not in places of Popish darknesse where the Doctrine of the Gospell is so mixed and darkned with tricks and devises of their owne that they cannot see Christ clearely It is our happinesse I say that wee doe not live in those places and times where either Paganisme or Poperie with their darknesse covered Christ from us and caused us that we could not clearely see or heare him and so not keepe his sayings But now grace is offered light is tendred to us wee may be saved wee may escape the danger of damnation if the fault be not solely and wholly in our carelesnesse and wilfulnesse and neglect and abuse of the meanes that God hath afforded us The heathen men that have not heard of Christ cannot possibly attaine to life as farre as we can Judge by the Scripture And it is very difficult for the Papists that heare so darkely and are told of the Doctrine of the Gospell with so many sophistications to come to be saved But for us that have the Doctrine of the Gospell so plainly and carefully taught us and revealed unto us wee may be saved and may easily see the way to obtaine salvation So we goe beyond them in happinesse Oh blessed be the name of the Ever-living God that beside the peace and plenty and other temporall benefits wherewith hee hath crowned this unworthy Nation of ours hee hath added this blessing of blessings this King of favours to give us so cleare a revelation of the Doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ alone Blessed bee his name and let your hearts say Amen to this thanksgiving and let it
to this world and one that hath no further expectation then of things below Give me What A possession of buiall First A Possesson Hee would have it so conveyed as no man might make claime of it but that it should be for him and his for ever Therefore it was as it were a Church-yard that he begged such a one as was capable and had sufficient scope and roome for his whole Posteritie in the time to come in times of trouble and persecution for in this place were the Fathers and those Patriarches though we reade not of their Buriall in this place in the booke of God many of them yet notwithstanding it is likely that all the Patriarches had their bodies conveyed to this place and that the great ones in Egypt that so demeaned themselves that they had favour from the Court were brought to this place For these and himselfe and his present Familie about him whom it might please God to strike with Death he knew not how soone the holy Father desired a place separate that there might bee no mingling of the select people of God with those that were without God in the present world as the Apostle saith Now for this there is no distinction in our time for Christ being made the Corner stone hath made both walls one the Jewes and Gentiles being built upon himselfe all this difference is taken away But at that time it was fit to maintaine a distinction to keepe a note of difference As God set a marke upon the flesh of Abraham and upon the houses of the Isralites in Egypt so they kept this in all points even in their very Graves that a difference might be maintained betweene the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent to the uttermost Give mee a possession a burying place Here is the end why he would have this Possession A strange kind of Possession a thing that every one is borne to no man will denie this we say the land in the Church-yard is every mans every man is borne to that land Behold such a land such an inheritance this Father commeth to begge He hath not a foot of ground in all the whole land no place to dwell in but by their leaves no place to feed on but with their consent he is content thus to possesse to have it upon their hand to haue his house upon their liking and his field and grasse upon their affection and content to be gone and depart upon their bidding but when it commeth that his dead must be buryed there is no dislodging then no removing then that is a Possession he makes not other things his Possession but useth them in a transitorie manner So that the holy Ghost would teach us this that a mans Grave is his strong hold his Possession And indeed there is no Possession so durable and certaine as the Grave all the lands and all the meanes that a man hath in this world it may in the course of time either by the misguidance of the partie or the succession of prodigalls be made away that he that hath had full possessions may not have a foot of land to call his owne so Possessions are alterable sometime one mans sometimes anothers and againe anothers no man knoweth whose because they are still removing But when a man is possest of his Grave that is a long Possession that Lease is time out of mind and it holdeth to the comming of Christ to Judgement Though there be a sort of covetous men in the world that care not for lucre and gaine to remove dead bodies to make men pay deafe and yet presently when the memory of that payment is gone in this base respect to remove them from their naturall rest and to put new bodies in their roome Though this I say be practised by some yet notwithstanding the Lord hath ordered this that a man should have his Grave for ever and that all Christian men should know that they have no such true inherent possession sticking to them and they to it as the Grave Thus the great God bringeth us to life by death making us possesse the Grave here for a time and after possesseth us with life and glory and joy in the highest heavens Behold Abraham see how he beginneth to possesse the world by no land pasture or earable Lordship the first thing is a Grave So every Christian must make his resolution The first houshold-stuffe that ever Seleucus bought in Babylon was a Sepulchre stone a stone to lay upon him when hee was dead that he kept in his garden So we should begin to make that our chiefe utensill it should teach every Christian much more to be mortified so to the world as to bee settled upon nothing for a Possession so as the ground where his flesh shall rest in hope till the Lord revive him and give him his Spirit againe A strong kind of entrance this holy man made into the holy Land that the first thing hee takes possession of should bee a place of buriall for the dead Even so wondrously God useth to worke the promised seed it came of the dead wombe of Sarah and accordingly it is in this great and famous Historie that out of these dead ones the Lord takes such a firme possession of this Land that when foure hundred yeares were come about there was such a quicke issue that it drove all the Inhabitants out of the Land for out of Sarah that was now dead and Abraham and the Patriarches that were interred in his Cave out of their dead loynes the Lord raised a living issue of six hundred thousand footmen besides women and children that came under the conduct of Ioshua and discomfited the Captaines of the Land ââ¦d tooke possession The gracious God out of dead and poore things in the world raiseth strengeth and Majestie that those that they trampled upon and accounted as dead men the Lord made out of them such a living stocke that all the power of Canaan was not able to hold up and make head against them they were such a powerfull Armie but hid themselves in Caves and became as dead men to give place to these dead men Here is the wonderfull great glory of the Almightie out of meere nothing to worke all things and as he made all things that are seene out of nothing for by faith we learne that things that are seene were made of things that are not seene so he still continueth to lay his foundation in basenesse and humilitie in a ridiculous manner to flesh and bloud yet out of that hee bringeth large and infinite majestie and glory such as no man can aspire in his thoughts to thinke sufficiently of Give mee a burying place to bury my dead Behold he calleth here Sarah his dead he calleth her not Wife though it is said after in the Text that Abraham buried Sarah his wife yet that is in respect of the time of her life when they lived together and
in respect of the former societie and converse they had but now he speakes to the point she is no more his Wife but his dead It is translated by all in the Neuter Gender not my dead shee but my dead simply in the Neuter gender as a thing which now had not so much relation So it is true when men and women are severed by Death they are no more man and wife but one anothers dead For as the Apostle saith Doe you not know that as long as a man liveth his wife is subject to him and shee must not converse with another So likewise for men againe but when God dissolveth the contract by Death then as she is free for another man so she is no more his Wife so long as she was alive upon the ground she was his Wife but now when she is to goe into the ground he calleth her his dead but not his Wife The substance and summe is this That Matrimonie is Gods blessing for present use of mankind for the propagating of the Species to continue the seed of man to the worlds end that there may be still a generation to praise God their Creatour and so being a temporall thing ordained for the office of this life it ceaseth when Death commeth there is nothing but Death and that which Christ speakes of in the Gospell can make a separation when Death commeth all relations cease and a wife is no wife and a husband is no husband Behold out of thâ⦠the infinite love of God in Christ that hath made all things all unions and contracts hath made all to be void but his owne for our Lord Jesus in life and death is our Husband our Lord our Master our Father as well in the one as in the other whereas by the intercourse of Death all things are dissolved two of the best friends that are may part upon discontent and body and soule must part at Death and Husband and wife the Symboll of Christ and his Church must part one from another yet when all societies and contracts part Christ doth not part from us but he is in the Grave as well as in the highest heavens our Husband and Lord and Spouse and wee are his Church still we keepe the same relation and as strong bonds in death as in life My Dead Yet notwithstanding though she was not Abrahams Wife yet she was Abrahams dead This must teach a man after he is freed by Death from the combination and contract yet that there is a care remaining to the Dead a love to that though not as to a Wife the respects of Man and Wife are carnall and fleshly Death commeth and cutteth downe the flesh therefore cutteth off that respect too but because she was dead and there was such bonds betweene them formerly therefore a man is bound to lament and sorrow for his dead as Abraham did here to love the memorie of the dead to speake well of the dead when occasion serveth to commend them for their vertues to use the friends of the dead as farre as is in their power with all courtisie to bee good to the children of the Dead those that the Mother hath left and not to cast them into the hands of a furious woman a new Wife that neither careth for dead nor living but to have a speciall regard to the bonds and familiaritie and that spirituall acquaintance that God made in this life and so to be good to all that come of that issue for their sakes Let me bury my dead Lastly it followeth why hee would burie his dead Out of my sight A strange thing Out of my sight Was his griefe so aggravated as hee could not still behold her face or was it necessary that the carkasse it selfe must be conveyed away must it needs be that the body being now no way amiable but noisome must be conveyed out of a mans sight The best friend in the world cannot endure the sight of a dead body it is a gastly sight especially when it commeth to that dissolution that the parts begin to have an evill savour and smell as all have when they are dead then to keepe themselves in life and health it is necessary to avoid them to burie their dead out of their sight And what so sweet a sight once to blessed Abraham as Sarah What so sweet a spectacle to the world as Sarah The great Kings of the world set her as a Parragon and shee came no where but her beauty enamoured them shee was a sweet prospect in all eyes every man gazed on her with great content to see the beautie of God as in so many lines marked out in the face of Sarah Yet now she is odious every eye that looked upon her before now winkes and cannot endure to looke upon her shee must bee taken out of sight Oh bethinke your selves of this you that take pride in this fraile flesh that pranke up your selves to make you gracefull in every eye you that studie to please the beholders you that are the great Minions of the world you that when age beginneth to purle your faces begin to redeeme your selves with paintings thinke of this Mother Sarah the beautifullest woman in the world is loathsome to her husband her sweetest friend therefore I beseech you in the feare of God leave these fooleries and vaine fancies remember what danger Sarahs beauty cast her into though it were a great gift of God yet shee had better have beene without it then to have that hazard of soule and body that shee was brought to by Abrahams travels and necessitie and know it that your best beauty is to please the eye of God to looke beautifull in his sight for the sight of God is never weary the sight of men will bee weary of you the best friends you have will loath to see you dead you will then be grisly in the eyes of men but the eye of God it is all one even in the dust and nothing can make you so ill-favoured but God will like you therefore labour to please Gods eye that never ceaseth nothing will make him alter his affection whereas the eyes of men this life is so full of foule alterations as the least sicknesse bringeth an abomination unto them I see the time prevents me I will speake a little to the present occasion We have here a depositum a gage a pawne of a deare Sister of ours a woman knowne to you all to be of a holy Christian conversation a neighbour full of peace and quiet and of good workes according to her calling Shee was also in the spirituall part a woman of a very good inclination loving the Word of God curious and attentive in the hearing of it Shee was much delighted in it and desired to communicate the knowledge she had in the Scriptures to others and to speake of it as often as occasion permitted By this studie it pleased the Lord to worke a constant and lively faith in
and douleia to little purpose doe it roundly enough and the people in their practice But wee give them their due and as much as themselves would be willing to receive as wee gathered from the behaviour of the Angell that was sent to Iohn Apoc. 19. 10. But in the meane time while they make a thriving trade of the flattering of the Dead they neglect and abuse the living Saints not only writing a Dele in their Indices expurgatory upon the testimonie of Pius or Prudens given by some more ingenuous men of theirs to some of our Divines in particular but also traducing the whole estate of our reformed Churches for schismaticall and hereticall Use 4. If there be some Saints of God here let us choose to be of their acquaintance and keepe their company because they doe best of all know the way to heaven and it is good to goe safely that journey by direction of the best and most skilfull guides lest we misse it in those places where the way turnes or where the path is not so well beaten as the other Roade 2. Gods Saints doe also die The Death of his Saints Holinesse frees not from death Abel Noah Abraham Moses David the Prophets the Apostles the Fathers are all dead Your Fathers where are they and the Prophets doe 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 mercifull men or the men of godlinesse are taken away Es. 57. 1. Yea and often-times as Menander was able to observe it Whom God loves best hee takes soonest An observation much like that in 1 King 14. 12 13. That sonne of Ieroboam who only of that family had some good thing in him was taken away young But whether sooner or later their holinesse frees not from death rich gilding upon an earthen pot keepes it not from breaking They are made of the same mettall 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 Es. 64. 8. And therefore all things in this respect come alike to all Eccl. 9. 2. Use 1. If such die then Death is not alwayes evill for sure it is not evill to them to whom all things worke for good Rom. 8. 28. The sting of it is gone And though it have not a pleasant looke to entertaine us with it is but as a rude groome that opens the gate by which we must passe to a better place and to better company The godly have many advantages by death 1. Rest from their labours 2. A Crowne when they have finisht the race 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. 3. Freedome from danger of sinning any more Rom. 6. 7. 4. Death frees from a possibilitie of further dying 2 Cor. 5. 1. Let mee die saith Seneca and what hurt comes by that I can bee bound no more I can bee sicke no more I can die no more 5. They goe presently to God While we are at home in the body wee are absent from the Lord Wee are willing rather to be absent from the body and to bee present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 6. 8. I desire to bee dissolved to bee with Christ Phil. 1. 23. 2 Tim. 4. 6. Wee wrong death when we call it horrid it is sinne which makes it to be so else it is but conceit There is often more paine in a tooth-ake then in dying Teares and blacke cloth and the tremblings of the guilty doe disguise Death and make it looke terrible Hee that said it was of all terrible things the most terrible was himselfe 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 faire and pleasant face There can bee 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 dye with him Art thou not glad to fare as Phocion doth So are wee not glad to fare as the holy Patriarkes Prophets and Apostles have done and to goe after them Hee that went this way the first of any man-kind was holy a Saint it was Abel whom God accepted Wee use to call those passages and Streights which have beene 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 learne if not to love yet to contemne Death that so wee 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 sustaine much evill unlesse they could reconcile themselves to Philip Damindas said O Semi-viri quid nobis poterit acerbè accidere qui mortem contemnimus Ah poore spirited men what can be sharpe or hard unto us who have learned to despise death it selfe Use 2. Because Saints or holy men doe also die let us make the best use of them while they are with us To benefit and profit ourselves by our religious friends acquaintance neighbours and kindred When God raises up some man eminent for wisedome and a godly life hee is set up as a light for the towne or neighbourhood to walke by Yet oft-times such as dwell neere are carelesse and neglect their benefit when strangers farther off draw neere unto the light and gaine by it as wee use to let our owne bookes lye by and rather make use of such as we borrow to take notes out of them because we know not how soone they may be called for by the owners and presume that the other will still be in our keeping Wee should improve our good acquaintance and walke by the light while we enjoy it because many times the Sunne sets and it is night in a neighbourhood or a family when a good friend a good Parent or a good Master dyeth Remember Ioash and Iehojada 3. The Death of Gods Saints is precious in Gods sight When David was opprest with griefe it seemes hee had such thoughts as these Surely man is res nihili a vaine and worthlesse thing too low and too unworthy that God should take any notice of him or bee carefull of him But at last he overcame such thoughts when hee had found the experience of Gods tendernesse towards himselfe in particular and towards all his people and now resolves That God neglects not his as if hee were not affected with their miseries but their soules lives and safeties are deare and
terrestriall the other so noble the one so ignoble the other so magnanimous the one so abject the other These Saints they did duly consider that our life it is but a Pilgrimage that this whole world is but a Diversorie or Inne to refresh us for a while that it is a warfare all things within us without us our enemies that this body is but a Tabernacle a Tent a Cottage an earthen vessell a Gourd the scabbard the prison of the soule more brittle then glasse decaying mouldering of itselfe though it bee preserved from eternall injuries of ayre or weather they saw the vanitie the vacuitie the emptinesse of the things of this life their affections were alienated estranged and divorced from the world they had by watchings fastings grovelings on the ground teares and groanes scoured off the drosse of their soules and made them polished statues of pietie they had made up their accounts betweene God and themselves and had sued out their pardon for their defects and failings and had that seated in their consciences they did penetrate the cloudes with the eye of faith and did see the immense good things layd up for them in heaven with which being ravished and impatient of cunctation and delay they desire to be vested in the possession of them though it were with the deposition of their house of clay which they did beare about them Of these things they had not a bare conjecture but a certaine knowledge For wee know ver 1. that if our earthly house of this tabernacle bee dissolved wee have a building not made with hands eternall in the heavens from this full perswasion did arise this heavenly affection in this wee groane earnestly But alas how different is our disposition from this heavenly temper how pale how wanne is our countenance at the mention of Death at the least summons of our last accounts as vinegar to our teeth as smoake to our eyes as a sudden dampe to our lights as an horrid cracke of thunder in the middest of our jollities so is the mention of Death If any aske the reason of this it is too manifest Want of judgement what is the true good of the sonnes of men Want of apprehension of the happinesse of the Saints Want of faith in God of Union with Christ our soules never make any holy peregrination from the body and seate themselves with Angels and Archangels and trace the streetes of New Ierusalem wee anticipate not the joyes of the life to come by devout meditations and contemplations wee have not our conversation in heaven from whence wee looke for our Redeemer Our soule thirsteth not our flesh longeth not after the living God The reason of this is wee hang upon the teats of the world like babes and children we suck venome out of it to our soules wee walke upon our bellies as uncleane beasts ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã wee jutte against God and offend him our accompts are not streight and even therefore wee are afraid at the appearance of our Saviour and of our citation to appeare before his Tribunall wee groane when wee heare of death wee groane not that we may dye this is our condition and are not these different one unto another Doth not this staine the verdure of our countenances and cover us with shame and confusion to observe so manifest a declination of the fervor of the Spirit That you desire this heavenly temper I doubt not I should offer violence to Charitie the Queene of Graces if I should thinke otherwise For this cause many of you are strict in the performance of holy duties agreeable and convenient to this sacred time That your devotions may attaine a happy end let mee lend you an helping hand whilst I discourse these words which even now sounded in your eares In this wee groane earnestly c. Which I will resolve into three propositions 1. That wee are strangers in this life without our house 2. That the Saints desire their true and proper house 3. The intention of their desire In this wee groane c. That wee are strangers doe not the sacred Oracles declare our conversatinn our politie is in heaven saith the Doctor of the Gentiles Our life it is hid up with Christ Col. 2. Wee are fellow Citizens with the Saints of the houshold of God Ephes. 2. Doth not the chiefe of the Apostles intreat us as Pilgrims and strangers to abstaine from fleshly lusts which fight against the soule and doe not these and the like demonstrate unto us that a Christian lives with men yet abovemen in earth yet in heaven bound yet free deteyned with us yet farre above us living a double life one manifest the other Hid with Christ one contemptible the other glorious one naturall the other spirituall that his Parentage is from heaven that his Treasure is in heaven that his heart is in heaven that his roote is fastened in the everlasting mountaines though his branches are here below that his dwelling is in heaven though his peregrination be here on earth and did not these Oracles tell us thus much yet are there not enforcing arguments to convince us of this Truth Are not they strangers that are out of their proper place and are not Christians while they are here out of their place Is this world made for Man an Arke of travell a Schole of vanitie a Laborinth of errour a Grove full of thornes a Meadow full of Scorpions a flourishing garden without fruit a fountaine of miserie a river of teares a feigned fable a detestable frenzie and is this the place of man What meanes the fabricke of our body lifted up to heaven our hands eyes head upward but to shew us as Chalcidius the heathen man observed that our Progenitors are from heaven that our place is in heaven Every place is adequate to the thing placed in it is this world adequate to man are not his desires infinitely extended beyond the same Every place hath a conseruing vertue in it Doth this world preserve man well may it minister a little food to this beast of ours which we carry about us but can it afford the least favorie morsell to the soule it were to be wished that it did not poyson contaminate and defile the soule so that the safest way for the soule is to flie from the world as from the face of a Serpent Is this world the place of man why doth our tender Mother the Church assoone as wee come into the world snatch us out of the world and as soone as wee breathe in the ayre bury us by Baptisme in the Grave of Christ and assoone as we move in this world consigne us with the signe of the Crosse to fight against the world and all the pompes of the same and are not wee strangers Are not they strangers that have different lawes and divers customes and another Prince to rule and command them You have heard of the Prince of the ayre and the Lawes of the
vapours from a malecontented spirit Did they not account these afflictions their Justs and Barriers and Turnaments and exercises of honour and chivalrie at which Angels and Archangels were present with their Euges and approbations God himselfe the chiefe Spectator and rewarder of these exercises they themselves tryumphing and boasting in their tryalls with the impresse of the Apostle on their shields of faith Wee are perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall bee able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus They were more Eagle-eyed by the strength of grace to pry into the nothingnesse of the creature then all the Philosophers by the strength of nature they did mortifie and crucifie and keepe under the body with the lusts thereof and more truly detest the corruption of the outward man then any Platonist whatsoever but were these the grounds the rise of this celestiall affection nothing lesse to see God to enjoy God to dwell with him to converse with him to be bee dissolved to be with Christ these transported their affections not the emptinesse of the things below but fulnesse of things above not the basenesse of earthly things but the glorie of celestiall things not the miseries of this life or of this crazie vessell but the happinesse of the life to come they had but a glimpse of this strange light darted into their soules and the whole world was darknesse unto it they had a gust of sweetnesse cast into the palate of their soules and all things else were bitter and unsavorie Christ was placed in the summitie and height of their soules and the desire of the full fruition of him caused that fainting that earnest longing in their spirits You will say if this be so what will become of the greatest part of Christians who are afraid to die who are so farre from groaning to depose this Tabernacle that they groane at the least intimation of dissolution It is true that all men receive not this saying neither is it for every one to attaine to this perfection As there are two sorts of faith so there are two forts of Christians there is a strong faith and a weake faith and there are strong Christians and there are weake Christians the strong Christian is willing to dye and patient to live the weake Christian is willing to live and patient to dye hee goes when God calls but he could wish that God would deferre his calling hee hath good hopes of heaven but he desires a little more to enjoy the earth he loves God more then all yet his affections are not fully taken off from all hee is not perplexed with the feares of Hell yet hee is not ravished with the joyes of Heaven hee hath much strength but knowes it not as many a Spectator of a prize is better able to performe it then he that undertakes it but either through faintnesse of heart or ignorance of his owne strength dare not put it to the hazard but had rather commend another mans valour then trye his owne whereas a strong Christian a man growne in Christ sends a challenge to this Gyant Death singles him out as a fit object of his valour grapples with him not as with his match but as his underling insulteth over him setteth his foot on the necke of this King of terrours and by conquering him captivates with great facilitie all other pettie feares of ignominie povertie and the like which therefore are dreadfull because they tend to Death the last the worst the end the summe of all feared evills this is the unconquerable crowne of Faith this is the glory of a Christian this is the Diadem of honour wreathed about his Temples advancing him above all other men whatsoever But you will say may a man desire death Is this now a question what meanes the agony of the Apostle I desire to bee dissolved and to bee with Christ. What meanes the earnest longing of the Spouse Apoca. 22. The Spirit saith come and the Bride saith come and let him that heares say come What meanes her fainting in the Canticles I am sicke of love let him bring mee into his chamber Let mee see his face I am sicke unto death Let mee dye lest I dye that I may see him for ever What meanes the character of a true Christian As many as love the appearance of the Lord which cannot be without death What meanes the incredible contempt of death in ancient Christians insomuch that it was a received Maxime with the Heathen Omnis Christianus est contemptor mortis What meanes the heroicall encouragement of old Hilarion Egredere anima egredere quid times Goe out my soule goe out why tremblest thou What meanes the words of old Simion in the flames Thus to die is to live What meanes the rapture of Saint Chrysostome that hee would thanke that man that would kill him as transmitting him more speedily to those unconceivable Joyes What meanes this groaning and thirsting in my Text Doe not these demonstrate that it is lawfull to desire death Not simply in it selfe or for it selfe it is the separation of those two whom God hath coupled it is a cessation of being it is an evill of punishment the daughter of sinne to desire it simply were to desire evill which is abhorrent to nature much lesse ought wee to hasten our death by violent meanes Let their memories bee buried in perpeturall silence as the botches and ulcers of Christianitie who out of impatience have perpetrated this heinous sinne a sinne against God and man against nature against grace against the Church against the common-wealth against all things The Heathen man could say that we are the possession of God to be disposed of by him not by our selves the body is the structure of God the worke of his hands the Tabernacle which hee hath made and not to be removed or to bee taken downe but by his command while we live we may advance the glory of God the good of others wee may impeople heaven make up the ruines of Angels to hasten our death were to envie this glory to God this good to others In that distraction of our Apostle betweene two good things his owne glory and the good of others you know which way the scales inclined to the good of others as if he had said Let my glory be deferred so Gods glory be increased let my joy be increased let my joy be suspended so the joy of Angels and of the Court of heaven be intended by the conversion of sinners Nay more this is a small thing Let me be an Athema so Israel be blessed let me be blotted out of the booke of life so thousands bee inserted let the bowels of Christ be streightened to me so they bee enlarged to others this is life indeed this is the end of our life this will comfort
losses and after all the ennumeration of his imaginarie gaine so much by usurie so much by extortion so much by fraudulent dealing the totall summe is collected to his hand What is a man profited whence the observation might be this that When the gaine of the world is attended with the losse of the soule the overplus will be just nothing The bargaine is such as that there is nothing gotten by it That is too sparing an expression it is short of Christs meaning who conceales the worst and refers it to our own collection for by the way it were a happinesse to be nothing it were profitable for the damned but this comes neerest Christs meaning it is a losse unredeemable and such as the world cannot countervaile when a man for the gaining of the world forfeits his soule Let us see it in some particulars First if it be a man that glories in the resplendancie of his fortunes and blesseth himselfe in magnifying his estate a Commander of Kingdomes and Nations an ingrosser of preferments and dignities yet First Death will attache him there is no carrying it away hee must of necessitie take his leave of his Mammon and then whose shall all these things bee for which he hath lost his soule Who gaines by the smallnesse of the Epha the greatnesse of the shekle the refuse of the wheate Where is the man that gloried in his abundance and store and thought himselfe the only happy man saith the Prophet David I went but by and hee was gone I sought him and his place could not be found There is a lively expression that illustrates it Ier. 17. As the Partridge gathereth young that shee brought not forth so hee that getteth riches and not by right shall leave them in the middest of his dayes and at his end shall be a foole What not before Yes he was alwayes a foole but then by conviction his owne conscience shall call him so by the confession of his owne tongue which shall call him so by the proclamation of just men they shall proclaime him so Loe this is the man that tooke not God for his strength but trusted in the multitude of his riches and strengthened himselfe c. Secondly having lost his supposed good hee loseth the fruition of God the chiefe good the countenance of the beatificall presence the fellowship and melodious harmonie of the glorious Angels his place and portion with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the kingdome of heaven And all proportionable to his owne deservings In his life-time he refused God being dead God refuseth him he turned his face from the poore and needie God in his affliction eternally turnes his face from him A losse so exceeding great that whosoever descends deepest in the meditation of it yet he shall be at a losse and to seeke for a full definition of it For as Chrysostome truly affirmes Though a man tell thee of tenne thousand hells all is one in comparison of this miserie to bee discarded of blessednesse and glorie and to bee hated of Christ. But if this be so what shall we say to further miserie having lost the chiefe good he receives his punishment with hypocrites and unbeleevers in the dungeon of extreame ill A place where there is nothing but horrour of conscience and desperation a companie of affrighting divels and with all this weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth In stead of merriment and joviall laughter and sââ¦urrulous lascivious songs and wasting and abusing the creatures of God nothing but weeping and gnashing of teeth So that having come into the chambers of death and closed in the straites of the grave the man like the hedge-hogge leaves the apples behind him and only reserves the prickles of a wounded spirit in that sentence of Babilon As much as shee hath gloried her selfe and lived deliciously so much torment give her Lastly that that is the hell of hells that nothing may be wanting to his deserved woe he is out of hope of all gracious meanes of deliverance he must never looke for the revokation of Gods sentence though with Esau he seeke it with teares hee must never looke for mittigation of his horrour though hee begge with the unmercifull glutton for one drop of water The date of repentance is out the day of grace will never dawne againe the justice is implacable the fire unquenchable the worme unsatiable and all continuall without intermission for ever-more O! bottomlesse depth of horrour oh unexpressible torment of a forsaken soule what greater miserie saith devout S. Bernard then alway to be wishing for that which shall never be and for the removing of that that shall never cease to bee Therefore the summe is this Hath the covetous exchanged his soule for riches the ambitious for honours hath he lost it for the riches of Cressus the power of Alexander the Empire of Augustus the glory of the whole world yet in consideration of The end of his life losse of his God extremitie of his paine eternitie of all What is a man profited Now then for fome application and to draw toward a conclusion suffer the word of exhortation brethren and captiuate your thoughts to the obedience of Jesus Christ. You especially whom God hath blessed above others concerning the enjoyment of outward temporall things If ever you bee desirous to escape the direfull slaughter-house of Hell to escape those burnings and those everlasting yellings while you have time bethinke your selves of some saving course to flie from the wrath to come And now in time cast up your accounts take heed lest for the love of this present world you lose your God the life of your soules There is a way that seemes right to a man saith Solomon but the end of it is the manifold wayes of death Some Babilonish garment some Naboths Vineyard some sweet preferment but if the meanes be unlawfull if it disturbe conscience and prejudice the glory of God and occasion the destruction of thy soule then say What shall I doe when God shall rise up and when he shall visit what shall I answer This will be the reckoning of fooles at the last What hath pride profited us and what hath riches brought us Surely the gaine will bee no other then what Promethius is fabled to have had by Pandora's boxe a place to be tormented Or what Hercules got by Dianira's garment Such will be the finall issue of all Mammonists that live amongst Christians and under meanes of better reformation and more sanctification in their wayes I say this will be the finall issue The worme of despaire alway gnawing and never dying and the flames of eternall Tophet never to bee extinguished Therefore in such a case if thou tell me thou knowest what thou dost and what thou gainest Let me tell thee thou little knowest thy dammage and what thou hast lost Alas what are the goods of this life when they are compared with
evill one of another saith the Apostle That that commonly wee call the sinne of detraction Aquinas saith wee are guiltie of two wayes either reporting of another that evill wee should not or in not reporting of him that good wee should in the one wee offend when wee doe either accuse him of that ill that hee is not guiltie of at all or aggravate against him that ill that hee is guiltie of making it appeare greater then it is in the other we are guiltie when we doe cut off all the good parts in a man as if they were nothing at all at least when wee extenuate that worth and goodnesse that is in him making it appeare lesse then it is From this the Apostle disswades us by three arguments First because they that doe this they doe wrong the Law hee that speakes evill of another speakes evill of the Law for the Law would have us love Secondly they that doe this they doe wrong God they take Gods office out of his hands when they take upon them to judge others for he is the only Judge and none else for he is the only Law giver that is able to save us and to destroy us Thirdly and lastly they wrong their brethren when they censure and judge their brethren beyond their commission they take upon them more then they have authoritie as if hee should say you exceed your Commission in this you take that upon you that you have no warrant for Thus against the rash judging of others Then against vaine confidence in our selves this the Apostle strikes at too at a confidence out of which a man prefixeth unto himselfe what he will doe this day and to morrow what he will doe this yeare and the next yeare what hee will buy and sell and gaine Goe to now saith the Apostle you that say thus among your selves to morrow you will goe to such a Gitie and tarry there a yeare and buy and sell and get gaine This is a foolish confidence and the Apostle indeavours to reprove and suppresseit By way of Correction By way of Direction His Correction is drawne first from the ignorance of the persons that make such accompts as these you say you will doe thus and thus to morrow you shew your ignorance you know not what shall be to morrow Secondly by the uncertaintie of the thing they reckon upon then which nothing is more uncertaine nothing so uncertaine as that is therefore it is not to be reckoned upon Consider saith the Apostle what is your life you talke of doing this and that to morrow What is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little while and then vanisheth away His directing Argument is in the next verse where he teacheth us how we should speake of things future and things present Of things future not to speake too peremptorily of them but with condition if wee live and if God will And then for things present not to rejoyce boastingly in them for there is nothing here to bee boasted of or rejoyced in The thing that I have selected for this present time and occasision to discourse upon is only that argument of the Apostle wherein the shortnesse and uncertaintie of our life is represented the Apostle sets it forth to us by way of question and answer First he puts the question What is your life as if he should say it is a thing not worthy the reckoning of Build upon nothing to bee done to morrow upon so vaine a foundation as that is and to shew the uncertainty of our life he comparatively describes it and sets it forth he saith it is like a vapour that appeareth for a little while and vanisheth away According to the methode that the Apostle hath laid downe so shall my discourse goe on and first I will say something of the question he layeth downe And then I will say something of the words of the Text. First to let us see what a poore uncertaine thing wee trust to when we build upon life the Apostle throwes out this question Your life saith he what is your life Where first the Apostles phrase he speakes in is worthy to be observed your life not ours yours that make such accompts and reckonings as these promise to your selves what you will doe in following your worldly businesse and increase your worldly gaine What is your life The life of worldlings the Apostle would secretly taxe as some Expositers collect noting a difference and disparitie betweene Christians in their wayes and worldlings in theirs worldlings are altogether for this life and the things of this life they never dreame of any other to come Post mortem nihil c. as the Epicure in the Poet. Death that is an anihilation and after death there comes nothing Therefore all their projects and practices draw downewards they project for a worldly life their buyings and sellings and markettings and profits these are the things they minde and seeke after all the thought of their hearts are bent upon these cares all the dayes of their lives are spent upon these things but there is another manner of life that Christians looke for there is a life hid with Christ in God they know there is another life to come after this therefore their hearts are set upon other manner of objects They are not such as have their affections set upon the world they make not accompt of themselves as men of this world Plato being asked the question what countrey-man he was he said hee was a citizen of the world a Christian is not so he is no citizen of the world but a citizen of heaven therefore it is said Wee have our conversation in heaven Phil. 3. 10. The Greeke word properly signifieth Citizens or Burgeses therefore Saint Ierome in his Epitaph upon Neapotian renders it so and Beza pertinent to the sense though not proper to the Text Wee carry and behave our selves like Citizens or Bourgeses or freemen of Heaven they have all their affections all their thoughts and desires bent that way if they can obtaine that they have as much as they desire to crowne their wishes withall they care for no other buying but of the truth they feare not selling but of their soules they wish no gaine but heaven And indeed this life doth only deserve to be called a life this life which the Saints which Christians live The life that they live to God and this life is that that must prepare them for a better life the life in heaven Of any other life but this wee may aske the question in the words of the Apostle What is it what is it It deserves not so much as the name as he saith though in name it be a life indeed it is a death but pretermit the disparitie and difference betweene lives some are comparatively and other simply considered The life simply considered is the subject of the Apostles question What is your life Questions alway in the
of our life may be the more easie considering the shortnesse of it so the shortnesse of our life may be the lesse grievous considering the miserie of it for if God should lengthen out many mens lives what would it bee but a lengthening of their miserie But our life it is but a little while therefore let us indure it with comfort And as it serves for comfort so for instruction for if the life we live in here be but for a little while then learne to bestow this little time of life that we spend here as profitably and as faithfully as we can both for the receiving and doing of good Thou that livest now under a good Magistrate under a good Minister under a good Father under a good Master gaine all the good thou canst now for peradventure they shall live nay certainly they shall live but a little while and when their life is once quenched thou knowest not what light thou maist have to walke by And for our selves since our life is but a while let us be carefull to doe all the good we can be stirring betimes while wee have opportunitie let us doe good to all It is the madnesse of the Epicures because they shall live but a while they will live onely to themselves Let us eate and drinke because wee shall die tomorrow and that is the reason they die as beasts because they care not to live as men When they sing out their first canto we will fill our selves with pleasure the burden of the song must bee that wee have wearied our selves with sinne And it is the folly of the Mammonists considering that they have not long to live to put off the doing of all good till they die whereas the rule of Christ is to worke while wee have day for shortly the night will come when no man can worke They contrary put off all their worke till night all the day their charitie sleepes and doth nothing as one said wittily that that men give then they give of other bodies then their owne for they give that that they can keepe no longer and though it be said to bee given by their Will and Deed it is rather their Deed then their Will for if they could have their will it should never bee their Deed they would rather be possessers of it themselves then that others should be their Executors but be exhorted to doe workes of charitie and other good workes while you have time while you may make your owne eyes your overseers and your owne hands your executors while you have opportunitie doe good to your selves and others and the rather because you know not how long opportunitie will be afforded or tooke from you For what is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little while Thus of the first circumstance wherein the resemblance consists the shortnesse of abiding The next is the suddennesse of departing It appeares for a while and then vanisheth away And here my discourse must be like a vapour short it suddenly vanisheth away that is the nature of a vapour â for as there is no matter to give it a fixed foundation so when it appeareth for a little it soone dissolveth and vanisheth awayto nothing and such a vapour is the life of man it is gone suddenly it is gone before wee be aware and when it is gone there is no memorie of it remaines no print of it how suddenly and quickly in a moment in the twinckling of an eye have many been deprived both of breath and life as one would put out a candle or tread out a snuffe It is true sicknesse is one common Bailiffe that arests men at the suite of Death but many a one hath beene made the prisoner of Death that was never arested at the suite of Death yee know Abell was murthered in the field Ely broke his necke from the chaire Absalon was snatched up in an Oke the disobedient Prophet was slaine by a Lyon the disobedient Prince was trodden to death in a crowde Abimelech was slaine by a peece of a milstone Pope Adrian was choaked with swallowing a flie Pelus slaine with the fall of a tile Such is our life as a vapour as the sand of an houre-glasse ever spending and ever running out as Gregorie hath it in his Moralls Looke how many dayes a man addes to his life so many steps hee takes to his death So Ieremie to Heliodorus wee are ever dying for we every day change when I am writing this all the points of my penne spends a point of my life nay while we are hearing this Sermon we are passing on I will make a little Vse of it and then I have done First make the Vse the Apostle doth to them that build upon futuritie and thinke they may do what they list you that thinke you wil do to day and to morrow what you list Oh saith the Apostle what reason have you to build on to day and to morrow when yee know not what a day will bring forth We may not promise our selves life for to morrow much lesse may we do as the foole in the Gospel promise years when we cannot assure our selves of a moment of life if wee might assure our selves of a moment of life in which it might be said it were impossible to die we might possibly be immortall and not die at all but as Ambrose saith corruptible is not so capable of incorruption but since it hath beene subject to fall till it doth fall it is ever declining there is no building nor trusting to uncertaine futuritie we must not rest and trust on those things which are to come but only upon God and speake conditionally of them not absolutely referre the successe and disposing of all things to come to the will and good pleasure of God remembring what our life is so make lesse accompt of our life and of our selves and all Secondly seeing our life is so vanishing let us ever prepare for death for sudden death because life is vanishing Thou knowest not in what houre thy master will come Therefore every houre we should so bestow our selves that our Master may find us at worke For this two things are requisite First ever thinke of death death cannot be sudden to that man that ever thinkes of it Secondly be carefull to lead a godly life the goodnesse of the life consists not in the long continuance of it but in the well imploying of it it may be any mans case to live well it can be no mans to live long our comfort is though our life bee momentarie yet notwithstanding this very moment of time is enough to gaine to us here-after eternitie and how much better is a short time well spent for the purchasing of eternall happinesse then a short time ill spent for the purchasing of eternall miserie your life is momentarie yet eternity depends on it if it be spent ill eternall miserie if well we are eternally happy
crazie and all things are out of order yet this man can incourage himselfe in the Lord his God he can say to himselfe feare not Saith Daved though I walke in the valley of the shadow of death a dolefull condition yet I will feare none ill Psal. 23. And in another place though ten thousand should compasse mee in on every side I would lay mee downe and rest Though the Apostles were watched by souldiers layd in the stocks and for ought they knew the next day should be brought to execution yet they sing as merrily and sleepe as heartily as if they had beene on a Throne and had beene Kings in a Pallace Thus a good conscience will make a Christian happy if he be not his owne foe but our hearts are intangled with the world and wordly things that for the most part wee 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 feares 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 feare a great while before wee neede perhaps that we neede not feare at all One saith 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 deare yeare I can scarse bring both ends together now Another saith what shall I doe when I am old and cannot take paines for my living thus men feare a thousand inconveniences What neede wee meete evills halfe way what neede wee create to our selves such troubles sufficient for the day are the troubles of it But in regard of carnall feare all things make us afraid more then we neede and the feare of ill oft times perplexeth a man more then the ill it selfe 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 passe and so trouble themselves with a great deale of feare Thou art afraid of such and such losses perhaps thou maiest die first and such things perhaps shall never befall thee labour to prepare thy heart before hand and then feare them not I will shew you the inconveniences of this briefly First of all these feares of losses and crosses and the like they often bring a great deale of ill to men nay it brings a great deale of ill as the naturall event and consequent of it partly by the judgement of God Esay 66. 4. I will bring their feares upon them And that that wicked men feare shall come upon them This is the way to bring ill upon them when men will needs bee 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 succeede him and so hee did When men will not learne to live by faith it is just with God to bring that that they feare upon them because they dishonour him by unbeliefe In the second place it not onely brings ill but it makes the heart unfit for ill when it comes In the feare of man there is a snare but in the confidence of the Lord there is a sure reward In the feare of man there is a snare what doth feare doe it insnares a man it binds a man hand and foote and layes him flat before his enemie 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 beare it For the feare takes away all the joy and content that a man may take in the present good that hee enjoyes at the hand of God that he cannot enjoy that because hee feares I know not what ill that may come and then when that ill comes he is not able to beare it his spirit is so weake I might shew much hurt that this feare doth both to the soule 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 selfe Feare doth much hurt to the soule Naturally Spiritually Naturally it weakens a man in regard of the operations of his soule that the body is not a fit instrument for the soule to worke by It makes a man doe diverse things rashly and inconsiderately and divers things out of incogitancie that hee knowes not what he doth he is unfit for holy duties unstable in all his wayes As he is thus in regard of his place and calling so in regard of the duties of Gods service he cannot doe these with a quiet heart with a peaceable spirit while he is possest with these feares You shall see almost all the sinnes in the world come from this feare What was the reason that Abraham and Sarah did equivocate was it not feare in that particular of men more then God and so they put God upon a miracle to preserve Saraahs chastitie in the case of Abimeleck What was the reason that Aaron yeelded to make an Idoll for the people of Israel and so joyned in Idolatry with them he was afraid of the people that they might doe him some hurt he durst not trust God with his preservation So Peter denyed his Master out of feare What is the reason that a Minister doth not sometimes reproove sinne that a Magistrate doth not sometimes reforme that that is amisse It is slavish feare they will not trust God to maintaine them in his owne cause What is the reason that many servants lye c. it is out of a slavish feare of their masters And so in regard of the things of the world men are inordinately afraid that they shall loose somewhat they possesse and therefore they take indirect courses Still this slavish feare and horrour and distrust of God it is almost the cause of all sin as wee may observe in the world This being so prejudicall in the last place let us fence our hearts against this feare By this meanes we shall honour Religion and make our lives comfortable incourage other Saints of God and draw people to like Religion when it yeelds such sweet contentment to the soules of men For doe but once againe muster together all our enemies and see if we have cause of feare For our spirituall enemies Will any man feare a wounded foe for the Lord God hath wounded Satan and trampled him under our feet and brought us as Ioshua did his Captaines to set our feet upon the necke of principalities and powers that through the mightie power of God wee are more then conquerours and shall we feare such an enemie as this Shall we
23. For the wages of sinne is death but the gift of God is eternall life through Iesus Christ our Lord. THe latter part of this Chapter from the 12. Verse to the end is spent in a grave and powerfull dehortation of the faithfull from securitie in sinne against which the Apostle useth sundry arguments That which he presseth most is drawne from the severall ends to which sinne and righteousnesse doth leade men The end of sinne is death vers 21. therefore that is not to bee served The end of of righteousnesse is life everlasting vers 22. therefore that is to be imbraced Because there is now difference in the manner of the proceeding of these two ends death comming from sinne as from the meritorious cause but life from righteousnesse another manner of way therefore the Apostle addes this epiloge and conclusion in the last verse plainely shewing and more clearely expressing the manner of them both for the wages saith hee of sinne is death but the gift of God is eternall life through Iesus Christ our Lord. In which words we have a description of a twofold service Of sinne in the former clause And of God or righteousnesse in the latter And how both these are rewarded The one with death it payes us well And the other with life which is bestowed by the free gift of God through Christ. These are the two parts the two generall points that we are to consider First the wages of sinne is death saith the Apostle Of sinne That is of the depravation and corruption of our nature and so consequently of every sinne that being not onely it selfe sinne but the matter and mother of all sinne when sinne hath conceived it bringeth forth death when sinne is put forth whereby he signifieth the generall depravation and corruption of our nature from whence all sinne flowes So it is here The wages The word in the originall signifieth properly victualls because victualls was that that the Roman Emperours gave their souldiers as wages in recompence of their service but thence the word extends to signifie any other wages or Salary whatsoever The wages of sinne is death by death here is signified and meant both temporall and eternall death especially eternall death for it is opposed to eternall life in the next clause of the sentence therefore that is that that is principally meant The wages of sinne is death that is eternall death This for the exposition of the tearmes The point to bee observed from this first part of the Text is this that Death is as due to sinne as wages to one that earnes it To such a one wages is due in strict justice if a man have a hyred servant he may bestow a free gift on him if he will if he will not he may choose but his stypend or his wages he must pay him unlesse he will be unjust for it is the price of his worke and so is due to him that he cannot without injustice withhold it After such a manner is death due to sinne the very demerrite of the worke of sinne requires it as being earned God is as just in inflicting death upon sinners for their sinnes as any man is in paying his labourer or hired servant their wages for this is the generall plaine scope of the Apostles words here So in the beginning God appointed Gen. 2. 17. where hee told Adam concerning the forbidden fruite in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death As if hee should have sayd when thou sinnest death must be thy wages The same is repeated Ezek. 18. 20. where it is sayd The soule that sinneth shall die expressing the wages of sinne it is death that is the recompence of sinne if sinne have his due then death must follow So the Apostle had shewed before in this Epistle Rom. 5. 12. that by one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne so death went over all men for as much as all men had sinned All had sinned therefore all are payed with death And Saint Iames shewes the consequence and connexion betweene these two the worke and the wages he tells us Iam. 1. 15 that when sinne hath conceived it bringeth forth death All these places are evidences that death by Gods ordinance by his appointment is the due of sinne as due to it even as wages is to a hyred servant or one that hath earned it What death is it that is due to sinne Both temporall and eternall death I say both deaths concerning both which the truth is to be cleared from some doubts It was the Pelagians errour to thinke that man should have dyed a naturall death though he had never sinned so they thought that the naturall temporall bodily death was not the wages of sinne Contrary to the Apostle in the placâ⦠I spake of Rom. 5. where hee makes that death that goes over all men which must needes bee naturall death to enter by sinne sinne brought in death no sinne no death at all But it may be objected when God told Adam in the day that he eate the forbidden fruite he should die the death he meant not temporall death there as the event shewes for such a death was not inflicted upon Adam in the day that hee sinned for after he sinned he lived still in the world naturally hee continued living many yeares after I answer notwithstanding all this Adam may bee sayd to die a naturall death as soone as he sinned because by the guilt of his sinne he then presently became subject to it and God straight way denounced upon him the sentence of death therefore it may bee sayd he straite way dyed As a condemned person is called a dead man though he be respited for a time Besides the Messengers and Sergeants of death presently tooke hold of him and arrested him for sinne as hunger and thirst and cold and diseases daily wasting of the naturall moysture to the quenching of life Indeede God suffered him that the sentence was not presently executed so to commend his owne patience and to give to Adam occasion of salvation the promise of Christ being after made and he called to repentance by that meanes to attaine a better life by Christ then he lost by sinne It is objected againe Christ redeemed us from all sinne and all the punishment thereof but he did not redeeme us from bodily death from temporall death for the faithfull wee see dye still even as others doe therefore it is concluded by some that temporall death is not the wages of sinne for then when wee were free from sinne by Christ wee should bee freed from that Our answer to this is that Christ hath freede all his elect not onely from eternall but even from temporall death though not from both in the same manner From temporall death first in hope of which the Apostle speaking 1 Cor. 15. saith The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death meaning temporall death at last then it shall be destroyed mortall shall put on immortality as the Apostle speakes but in the meane time it is destroyed in hope though it remaine indeede and must be undergone even of the faithfull in this life How be it to them Christ hath changed the nature of it and now they no longer undergoe it as the wages of sinne but for other causes As first the exercise of their graces their faith and hope and patience and the rest all these are exercised as in other afflictions so even in the death of Gods Children Secondly the totall remoovall and riddance of the reliques of sinne from which they are not freed in this life but when they die then all sinne is taken away for as at the first sinne brought death into the world so to the faithfull now death carries it out againe Thirdly their entrance into heaven and to bee at home with the Lord from whom wee are absent as long as wee are at home in these bodies Fourthly to prepare their bodies for renewing at the last day that is done by death for as a decayed Image or statue must first be broken that it may be new cast so these bodies of ours must bee broken by death that they may be cast into a new mold of immortalitie at the generall resurrection But here as some sinne remaines so death remaines though wee be in Christ yet wee are still in that estate wherein it is appointed to all men once to dye Thus even temporall death is left to the Children of God to bee undergone before they come to heaven It is left to them I say and that justly in respect of the remnants of sinne yet they undergoe it no other way but for their owne good and benefit How ever temporall death in its owne nature to an unbeleever is the wages of sinne And as temporall so eternall death for when God told man that in the day hee sinned he should die the death he meant not onely temporall but eternall death he meant that principally as I shewed before in that the Apostle opposeth it to eternall life in the next clause of the sentence Now Christ hath freede all beleevers actually from eternall death But how eternall death should be the wages of sinne may be doubted because betweene the worke and the the wages there must be some proportion that seemes not to bee betweene sinne and eternall death for sinne is a finite a temporall thing committed in a short time and that death is eternall Now to punish a temporall fault with an eternall punishment it seemes that it is to make the punishment to exceed the fault and that is against justice But for answer to this doubt wee must know that however sinne considered in the act and as it is a transcient action it is finite yet in other respects it is infinite and that in a threefold consideration First in respect of the object against whom it is committed for being the offence of an infinite Majestie it deserves an infinite punishment for wee know offences are reckoned of for their greatnesse according as the greatnesse of the person is against whom they are committed If hee that clippes the Kings coyne or deface the Kings Armes or counterfeit the broad Seale of England or the Princes privie Seale ought to die as a traytor because this disgrace tends to the person of the Prince much more ought he that violates the law of God die the first and second death too because it tends to the defacing of the Image and the disgracing of the person of God himselfe who is contemned and dishonoured in every sinne Secondly sinne is infinite in respect of the subject wherein it is the soule of man Seeing the soule is immortall and of an everlasting substance and that the guilt of sinne and the blot together staine the soule as a crimson and skarlet die upon wooll and can no more be severed from the soule then the spottes from the Leopard it remaines as the soule is eternall and as that is everlasting so sinne is infinite in durance and continuance and deserves an infinite wages and punishment which is eternall death Thirdly it is infinite also in respect of the tie betweene the desire and indeavour of an impenitent sinner for his desire is to walke on still in sinne and except God cut off the line of life never to give over sinning but he would runne on infinitely committing sinne even with greedinesse And it is reason that as God accepts the will for the deed in godlinesse so hee should punish the will for the deed in wickednesse if wee sinne according to our eternitie in our will and purpose to sinne God will punish us according to his eternitie it is just that they that would never bee without sinne if they might have their owne will should never be without punishment Thus we see eternall death is the wages of sinne though sinne be committed in a moment though it bee a transcient action in it selfe yet it is just with God to give it the wages of eternall death So you see Death both temporall and eternall is the wages of sinne Wee come to the Use of the point being thus declared First it teacheth us contrarie to the Doctrine of the Church of Romeâ⦠that originall lust and concupiscence in the regenerate is a sinne for how else should God be just in inflicting temporall death upon infants that are regenerate actuall sinnes they have none and iâ⦠they have no originall sin neither then God should inflict the wages of sinne where there were no sinne which cannot be because there is no iniquitie with God Therefore certaine it is that after regeneration this originall lust though the guilt of it be taken away yet as sinne it remaines the substance of it still remaines and will as long as we live in this world For it is in us as it is well compared as the I vie is in the wall which having taken root so twines and incorporates it selfe that it can never bee quite rooted out till the wall be taken down so till body and soule be taken asunder by death there will be no totall riddance of Originall corruption and the depravation of our nature it is still in us as appeares by the temporall death even of the best Saints of those that are most sanctified in this life it shewes there is remainders of corruption in them still for if there were not sinne there would not be the wages of sinne there would not be death if there were not sinne Secondly the Use of it is to take away a fond Popish distinction of mortall and veniall sinne they teach some sins to be veniall that is such sins as in their owne nature deserve not death whereas the Apostle here speaking of all sinne in generall hee saith the wages thereof is death
And how can it be otherwise when all sâ⦠is the transgression of the Law as Saint Iohn defines it and all transgression of the Law deserves and is worthie of the curse which is both the first and second death for Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the booke of the Law to doe them There is no sinne then but it is worthy of death therefore there is no such veniall sin as they dreame of We denie not but that some sins are veniall and some mortall in another sence not in respect of the nature of the sin but of the estate of the person in whom the sins are so we say all the sins of the Elect are veniall because they either are or shall be pardoned And all the sins of reprobate persons are mortall because they shall never be pardoned It is the mercy of God and not from the nature of the sins that makes them veniall for otherwise every sin in it selfe considered be it never so small is mortall for if it worke according to its owne nature it workes death of body and soule It is a foolish exception that they bring against it that thus we make all sins equall and that we bring in with the Stoicks a paritie of sin because we say all are mortall It is a foolish cavill for it is as if one should argue because the Mouse and the Elephant are both living creatures that therefore they are both of equall bignesse Though all sins be mortall they are not all equall some are greater and some are lesser according as they are extended and aggravated by time and place and person and sundrie other circumstances Suppose one should be drowned in the middest of the Sea and another in a shallow pond in respect of death all were one both are drowned but yet there is great difference in respect of the place for depth and danger So there is great difference in this though the least sin in its owne nature be mortall as the Apostle saith here the wages of it is death Thirdly seeing the wages of sinne is death it should teach us what Use to make of death being presented before our eyes at such times as this hereby wee should call to remembrance the grievousnesse of sin that brought it into the world by the wofull wages wee should bee put in mind of the unhappie service Had there not beene sin there would have beene no death upon the death of the soule came in the death of the body first the soule died in forsaking God and then the body died being forsaken of the soule the soule forsooke God willingly therefore it was compelled unwillingly to forsake the body This is the manner how death came into the world by sin therefore death must put out sin That housholder when he saw tares grow among his wheate hee said to his servants the envious man hath done this So whensoever thou seest Death seize upon any say to thy selfe sinne hath done this this is the wages of sinne and if man had never sinned we should have seene no such thing Fourthly this must deterre us from sin since it gives such wages Indeed the manner of sin is for the most part if not alwayes to promise better but it is deceitfull and this is the wages it payes thee The wages of sinne is death The word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã translated wages some take it quasi ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of the evening because wages are paid in the evening So the morning of sin may be faire but the evening will be foule when the wages come At the first sin may be pleasing but remember the end the end of it is death Like to a fresh River that runs into the salt Sea the streame is sweet but it ends in brackishnesse and bitternesse Or like to Nebuchadnezzars Image the head was gold but the feet were of clay Or sin may be compared to that Feast that Absalom made for Amnon there was great cheare and jollitie and mirth for a while but all closed in Death in bloudshed and murther It deales with men as Laban dealt with Iacob hee entertaines him at the first with great complements but used him hardly at the last Or as the Governour of the feast said Ioh. 2. All men in the beginning set forth good wine and then that which is worse so sinne gives the best at the first but the worst it reserves for the last This should keepe us from every sin though it seemes never so pleasing and never so sweet to us remembring that the worst is still to come Wee reade that when the people saw that Saul forbad them to eate though they were exceeding hungrie yet not one of them durst touch the honey for the curse though they saw it so the pleasures of sin may drop as honey before our eyes but we must not adventure to taste of them because they are cursed fruit and because of the wages that will follow Never take sinne by the head by the beginnings as the greatest part doe but take it as Iacob tooke Esau by the heele looke to the extreame part of it Consider thy end and thou shalt not doe amisse Iezabell might have allured a man when having painted her face shee looked out of the window but to looke upon her after shee was cast out eaten of dogges and nothing remaining but her extreame parts her scull and the palmes of her hands and her feet it could not be but with horrour so sinne may allure a man looking only on the painted face in the beginning but if a man cast his eye upon the extreame parts it would then affright and deterre him for the wages the end of it is death What a world of people runne blindly and desperatly on they turne to the race of sinne as the horse to the battell without feare as if the Psalmists Tremble and sinne not were rather sinne and tremble not Whereas we have great cause every one to tremble at the least motion of sinne in our selves to which so dreadfull and wofull wages is due Lastly for this point so many of us as have repented and have already left the service of sin we must hence learne as to be humbled in our selves considering what danger and miserie we have escaped so to be more thankful to Christ that hath freed us from so wretched wages due to our sins and that by taking the whole punishment upon himselfe For we must know beloved that the best of us by nature are children of wrath as well as others the stypend that we have earned is eternall death and surely it hath been payed to us nothing could have kept it from us but only the satisfaction of Christ comming betweene Gods justice and us Thinke we then if we can what miserie it is that wee have escaped as many of us I meane as be in the state of grace we have escaped
death the hurt of temporall death we have escaped eternall death What is that a separation from the blessed presence and glory of God destruction of body and soule for ever unutterable torments companie with the Divell and his angels and the route of reprobates darknesse blacker and thicker then that of Egypt Weeping and wayling and gnashing of teeth in the infernall lake that worme that never dyes and the fire that never goeth out This is the wages of all sinne and that it is not rendred to all sinne and to all sinners the cause is only this that the payment hath beene already exacted of Christ in the behalfe of all true beleevers therefore in their owne persons they are discharged how infinitely are wee bound in thankfulnesse to him and how carefull should wee be to walke worthy of it resolving never to returne to the service of sinne againe but to make it our whole studie that wee may please and honour such a Redeemer that hath redeemed us from such miserie as this that wee may please him for we had deserved eternall death as well as others and hee hath not only freed us from that that wee had most worthily deserved but most freely also bestowed that upon us that we could never deserve for so it followes in the next point The gift of God is eternall life through Iesus Christ our Lord. That is the second thing to bee considered the reward of the service of God You have heard of the reward the wages of sinne Now the reward of the service of God is eternall life it is called life There is a twofold life belongs to men The one is naturall and is common to all good and bad in this world The other spirituall proper to the faithfull begun by the union of God and the soule and maintained by the bond of the spirit and this life hath three degrees The first is in this life unto death and it begins when wee begin to believe and repent and come to a saving knowledge of God and of his Sonne Jesus Christ as it is said This is eternall life to know thee to be the very God and whom thou hast sent Iesus Christ Ioh. 17. 3. The second degree is from our death to our resurrection for in that time our soules being freed from our bodies are withall free from all sinne originall and actuall Thirdly after the Resurrection when body and soule shall bee reunited wee shall have immediate communion and fellowship with God and so enjoy a more perfect and blessed life then ever we could here And this spirituall life with all the three degrees of it is the life here spoken of especially the last degree the perfection of it in heaven It is called eternall life because it shall never end For a thing is said to be eternall three wayes First which hath neither beginning nor end so God alone is eternall and none but he Secondly which hath no beginning and yet shall have an end so Gods decree is eternall for it never had a beginning yet when all things decreed are fulfilled it shall have an end Thirdly which hath a beginning but never shall have end and so the life of Gods Saints had a beginning as all created things have butit shall never have an end and this eternall life it is called here The gift of God through Iesus Christ our Lord. Because wee cannot deserve it but it is given and bestowed on us freely for Christ. So then the point of observation from the latter part of the words is this that Our salvation it is the free gift of God given us onely for the merits of Christ. For observe I beseech you the Apostles words when hee had sayd The wayes of sinne is death hee doth not adde and say but the wages of righteousnesse is eternall life but he calls that the gift of God To make us understand saith Damascene that God brings us to eternall life meerely for his owne mercie not for our merits orelse surely the Apostle would have made the later part of the sentence answerable to the former But here perhaps some may aske why eternall life should not be the wages of righteousnesse as well as death the wages of sinne I answer because there is not the same reason betweene sinne and righteousnesse For first sinne is our owne it merits it but rigteousnesse is none of our owne it is the holy Ghosts and it is due to God Then againe sinne is perfectly evill and so it deserves death but our righteousnesse inherent is not perfectly good it is imperfect in this life and nothing that is imperfectly good can merit as wages eternall life therefore the Apostle makes such a manifest difference between them he calls death the wages of sin but eternall life the gift of God it is the free gift of God through Christ. Indeed eternall life some times many times in Scripture is called a reward But there is a reward of mercie as well as of justice Nay God is sayd sometimes to reward his children injustice How is that Though the reward come originally from mercy yet accidentally it comes to be justice thus because God hath tyed himselfe by promise to reward now promise is debt from a just man Thus the Lord may be accounted a debtor How saith Saint Austin as a promiser if hee had not promised eternall life otherwise hee owes us nothing at all much lesse eternall life which is so great a thing Yet it may be doubted how eternall life is the free gift of God seeing it is given for the merits of Christ as it is here exprest the gift of God through Iesus Christ our Lord that is for the merits of Christ now a man that gives a thing upon merit hee gives it not freely I answer it is free in respect of us whatsoever Christ hath done we did not merit it If it be replyed Christs merits are made ours and wee merit in him and so it cannot be free I answer this reason were of force if wee our selves could procure the merits of Christ for us but that we could not doe but that also was of free gift Ioh. 3. God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that he that beleeves in him should not perish hee gave him freely of free gift so that though eternall life be due to us by the merits of Christ yet it is the free gift of God I wil stand no longer in proving the truth of the Doctrine I come to the application and use to conclude with the time First it serves to confute our adversaries of the Church of Rome in the point of merit They looke for heaven and eternall life as wages wee see the Apostle teacheth us otherwise that eternall life is not given in that manner but another manner of way It is not given as wages it is the
survivers and attendants upon this sad occasion but in these administrations hee intendeth his peoples profit as wee may see in the case of Iob the Lord takes away all his children but saith the Apostle yee have heard of the patience of Iob and have seene the end of the Lord hee was no looser in the conclusion but God returned at length all into his bosome againe nay double In a word for this very purpose it is even for their profit for alas it is not Gods owne benefit hee seekes after but his peoples in all his administrations that they live that they doe that they suffer that they dye their death is in order to their gaine as the Apostle saith to me to live is Christ and to die is gaine To make some application of this and so to proceede First let us here take occasion as many as are the called of God according to his purpose and implanted in this glorious relation of children to a father let us learne to advance his name and according to his name let his prayse be in all the Congregations of the Saints Truely as Moses sayd once their Rocke is not as our Rocke So may wee say other fathers are not as this Father our Father is set for the good and profit of his children The divell is a father so our Saviour speakes you are of your father the divell hee hath children and he studieth nothing so much as that they may live all their daies in pleasure striving to leade his followers altogether in pleasant paths But alas hee hath no ayme at their profit it is their losse hee seekes and therefore at last hee makes them pay full deare for all their pleasure and content But now God hee is a wise Father and in all his dispensations to his children though they seeme for the present unpleasant hee hath an ayme at their profit Let this be for his prayse Secondly let us labour to beleeve this that God in all his dealings and administrations towards us hath an eye to our profit How hard soever the condition be that he putteth us into if he take from us the desire of our eyes the delight of our hearts our liberties our estates our children yet be perswaded of this that God doth it for my good and benefit And thirdly labour to reape the fruit and benefit that God aymeth at and intendeth and would have us receive from all his administrations When we are called together to give attendance upon the preaching of the Word then thinke what am I come hither for is it not for my profit would God have me trifle out my time surely the Lord would never have singled out a day of seven for himselfe but that hee might likewise make his people partaker of spirituall advantages and heavenly benefits and therefore I lose a day and never heare well except I heare to profit And thus what I say of this Ordinance I might likewise speake of the rest before named And so for this present occasion the Lord now you see is pleased to call us to the house of mourning Was it thinke yee the purpose of God that wee should meet together here in a customarie complimentall manner to doe things in a common garpe only to eate together and drinke together No the Lord calleth us to a house of mourning for our profit that we might consider the end of all men and that wee that are living might lay the thing to heart And for you that are in present distresse in regard of this particular affliction reckon upon this that God hath done this for your profit labour yee therefore to reape the fruit of it bee not so much poring upon the affliction and altogether complaining of the bitternesse of the cup but follow on after the profit and benefit that God intendeth you thereby And let every one labour to improve all administrations of God to this purpose that as he in them all intendeth our good so let us pursue after the benefit Secondly let it instruct us further concerning our dutie even to walke worthy of such a God as many of us as are in relation to him as children to a Father and servants to a Master How should this first of all winne us over to such a Father to such a Master and to make it our highest ambition to be the people of such a God the children of sucha Father that is devoted to the profit and advantage of his children and servants This is the gracious goodnesse of God he takes pleasure in the prosperitie of his servants their profit is his pleasure Let us therefore walke worthy of such a Father of such a Master And seeing he intendeth our profit and that wee cannot profit him let us labour to walke in all well-pleasing Wee cannot profit him let us labour to please him Lastly here is a word of instruction for Ministers wee should in this case as those that are intrusted with the sacred ordinances of God labour to put on the minde of God so the Apostle we have saith he the mind of Christ. Wee in the course of our Ministerie as God aymeth at his peoples profit so should wee not ayme at our owne praise and at our profiting by them but that we might profit their soules O blessed Preaching when people profit by our preaching when they are by that increased in knowledge in love in faith in every grace Such a Preacher was Saint Paul I please all men saith he 1 Cor. 10. ult but how not seeking mine owne profit but the profit of many that they may bee saved Oh labour to preach profitably that our people may thrive under our ministerie This is that which God aymeth at and this is that which we should ayme at too And thus I have done with the first and more generall proposition arising from the words of Text. I come now to the second and more particular thing that we are to consider hence and that is that As God graciously setteth himselfe to procure his peoples profit in all his administrations so this is that hee aymeth at in all the afflictions and chastisements he exerciseth them withall It is no pleasure for him to be lashing and whipping his people to hold them under such sharpe discipline it is for the profit of his children so the Text expresseth it but he for our profit Which first of all implieth that Afflictions and chastisements are a meanes conducing to the profit of those that undergoe them A point plaine in the Text and the Scripture abundant in the proofe of it and the experience of the Saints in a plentifull manner confirming it It is good for mee saith David that I have beene afflicted And Ioseph giveth this honourable testimonie of God The Lord saith he hath caused mee to be fruitfull in the land of my affliction and thereupon giveth his child a name suteable Afflictions and chastisements they
the Holiest and dearest servants of God are exercised with and divers of these doe make them many times mourne exceedingly and to cry one while O wretched man that I am and to groane out another while Woe is mee that I am constrained to live in Mesech and to have my habitation in the tents of Kedar of all these miseries Death is the end to Gods servants And so also it is an entrance into happinesse for albeit their bodyes rot in the Grave and bee laid up in the Earth as in Gods store-house untill the last day yet the soule forthwith even in an instant comes into the presence of the ever-living God of Christ and of all the Angels and Saints in Heaven the spirits of just men made perfect to Abrahams bosome to bee with Christ quanta haec felicitas What greater happinesse It was much that Moses obtained to see the back-parts of God but how much greater favour is it to see him face to face to have eternall fellowship with God the Father with Christ the Redeemer with the Holy Ghost the sanctifier The knowledge of this benefit of Death makes the face of it comfortable to Gods servants and causes them to strive with their owne naturall weaknesse that so they may even long for their day of dissolution But now against this point divers Objections may be alledged For first the Apostle Paul sayes that Death is the wages of sinne And else-where hee stiles it Christs enemie the last enemie that hee shall subdue is Death How should not death then be rather a day of misery to bee trembled at then a day of happinesse to bee longed for To this I answer that wee are to distinguish touching Death for it must be considered two wayes First as it is in its owne nature Secondly as it is altered by Christ in the first sence it is true that Death is the wages of sinne and the very suburbs and the gates of hell But in the second taking of Death it ceases to be a plague and becomes a blessing inasmuch as it is even a doore opening out of this world into Heaven Now the godly looke not upon Death simply but upon Death whose sting and venome is plucked out by Jesus Christ and so it is exceeding comfortable But then secondly it is objected that wee reade of many that have prayed against death as namely first David Returne O Lord saith he and deliver my soule oh spare mee for thy mercyes sake for in death there is no remembrance of thee Secondly Hezekiah when the message of death was brought to him Thirdly Christ himselfe Father if it bee possible let this cup passe from me To all these I answer first touching Daââ¦d that when he composed that sixt Psalme hee was not only gââ¦vously sicke but also exceedingly tormented in mind for he wrestled and combatted in his conscience with the wrath of God as appeares by the first Verse of that Psalme therefore wee must know that hee prayed not simply against Death but against death at that time in asmuch as the comming of it was accompanied with extraordinary apprehensions of Gods wrath for at another time hee tells us that hee would not feare though hee walked through the valley of the shadow of Death And the like I say touching Hezekiah that his prayer proceeded not from any desperate feare of Death but first that he might doe more service to God in his Kingdome And with such a kind of thought was Saint Pauls desire of dissolution mingled Secondly hee prayed against Death then because he knew that his death then would be a great cause of rejoycing to evill men to whom his reformation in the State was unpleasââ¦ng Thirdly because hee wanted issue God had promised before to David that there should not faile a man of his seed to sit upon the throne of Israel so that his children did take heed ãâã their wayes Now it was a great discomfort to him to die childlesse for then he and others might have thought that he was but an Hypocrite inasmuch as God had promised issue to all those Kings that feared him and for this cause God heard his prayer and after two yeares gave him a sonne Maââ¦asseh by name And so I say the same touching our Saviour Christ that hee prayed not against Death as it is the separation betwixt Body and Soule as appeares by what the Apostle saith that hee was heard in that hee feared for hee stood in our roome and became a Curse for us it was the Curse of the Law which went with Death and the unspeakable wrath and indignation of God which hee feared and from this according to his prayer he was delivered But thirdly wee see in most good men a feare of Death and a desire of life and I my selfe may some godly man say doe feele my selfe ready to tremble at the meditation thereof and yet I hope I belong unto God I answer that there are two things to bee considered in every Christian Flesh and Spirit Corruption and Grace and the best have many inward perplexities at times and doubtings of Gods favour Now it is a truth which our Saviour delivers that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weake And as in all other good purposes there is a combat betwixt the flesh and the spirit so is there in this betwixt the feare of Death and the desire of Death sometime the one prevailes and sometimes the other but yet alwayes at last the desire of Death doth get the victory Carnall respects doe often prevaile farre with the best care of wife children and the like Thââ¦se are their infirmities but as other infirmities die in them by degrees so these also at last are subdued and the servants of God seeing clearely the happinesse into which their Death in Christ shall enter them doe even sigh desiring to bee clothed upon with their house which is from Heaven Here then is a good Marke by which we may know our selves to be Gods servants viz. by the state of our thoughts and meditations touching Death I will so deliver it as may bee most for the comfort of those that truly feare God I demand therefore of thee Dost thou know that the confident and comfortable expectation of Death is the worke of the Holy Ghost in Gods servants Dost thou desire unfeignedly that the same may bee wrought in thy heart Dost thou labour to know what happinesse comes by Death to those that feare the Lord Dost thou grieve at thine owne weaknesse to whom the thought of Death is sometime troublesome and unsavourie Dost thou pray the Lord so to assure thee of his favour in Christ that death may bee desired before it comes and welcome when it is come Dost thou when thou hearest this speech of Simeon wish that thou wert able to use the like words with the like resolution Surely
from all both former and following miseries and that is this If in the time of our life here our being subject to corruption and sinne hath seemed unto us the greatest burden and bondage They which have groaned and mourned under their owne naturall corruptions as it were under some heavy and tyrannous yoke or as the Israelites mourned under their Egyptian Task-masters to them only shall the day of death be a day of freedome If sinne be not a burden to thee if thou dost not many times lament and even mourne to thinke how thou art carried captive unto evill if thou dost not with griefe feele how thou art clogged with corruption and hindred by it from doing the good which thou shouldest certainly death will bee to thee the beginning of thy thraldome and after it thou shalt be a perpetuall bond-slave unto Sathan in the kingdome of eternall darknesse Marke this all yee that take delight in evill to whom it is a pastime to doe wickedly and who seeke rather how to satisfie then how to suppresse your owne corruptions who repute it a kind of happinesse to follow the swinge of your owne Iusts and to have libertie to doe as your owne hearts doe lead you when you dye this shall be your reward even a most miserable and endlesse captivity under Sathan him have you served in the lusts of sinne while yee lived his slaves shall you be without hope of releasement world without end This is the right Application of this Doctrine death is a day of enlargement to the godly it is a dismission The next particular is that it is a dismission accompanied with peace the lesson we are taught hence is that The servants of God have at their going out of the world a comfortable quiet and peaceable departure Thus Simeon here hee prayed for no other thing but that his end might be as the end of the Righteous is ever wont to bee even a departure hence in peace Hence is that generall rule of the Psalmist Marke the perfect man and behold the upright man for the end of that man is peace Agreeable whereunto is that of Solomon that the righteous hath hope in his death And memorable to this purpose is that which is storied of old father Iacob shewing unto us the quiet end of the Righteous Hee gathered up his feet into the bed and so gave up the Ghost It was the blessing promised to Abraham that he should goe to his fathers in peace And the same was made to good Iosias There is a twofold reason hereof First the assurance which they have of the favour of God in Christ. This must needs breed quietnesse when I am perswaded in my soule and conscience that all cause of danger after death is removed and that God is and will be gracious unto mee in his Sonne What cause of feare is here left what occasion of perplexitie If any man shall doubt whether the servants of God have this assurance I prove it thus that all of them first or last have it in some good measure If any man saith the Apostle have not the Spirit of Christ hee is none of his Hence it necessarily followes that all that are Christs have the Spirit of Christ but now the office of the Spirit is to beare witnesse with our spirit So that all that are the Lords as they are endued with Gods Spirit so they feele this Spirit bearing witnesse to their soules of this Adoption Secondly the comfortable Testimonie of their owne consciences touching their former care to glorifie God by a Religious and godly conversation Hence came Saint Pauls peace I have saith he fought the good fight I have kept the faith Therefore I am sure there is laid up for mee a Crowne of life Hence Hezekiahs I have walked before thee oh Lord in truth and with a perfect heart Not that they doe ground their hope upon the desert of their fore-ranne courses but because they know good workes to bee the way and doe understand by the Scripture that a holy life here is the first fruits of a glorified life hereafter Thus we see the truth of this point and the reasons upon which it is grounded Now here some may object first Wee see many worthy men that have made a great and an extraordinary profession of Religion in their lives and which have also carried themselves unblameably yet to give appearance of much angiush and perplexitie and even of a kind of despaire in their death How can wee say then that all good and holy persons have a peaceable departure I answer first Wee ought to remember the Rule our Saviour gives not to judge according to the outward appearance It is a very weake argument to say that this or that man dyeth without peace because to the standers by hee makes not shew of peace Certaine it is that as a man may have peace with God and yet himselfe for a time by reason of some tentation not feele it so a man being sicke or going out of the world may feele it and yet others that behold him cannot perceive it Secondly wee must know that these outward unquietnesses which doe many times accompany sicknesse doe happen as well and as ordinarily to good men as to the most wicked such as are ravings idle-talkings and strange accidents in the body in this sence all things come alike to all God hath made no promise in Scripture that those that serve him shall be freed in their deaths from violent sicknesses Therefore these things must not bee thought to be any abridgement of their peace Thirdly wee must consider that with the best servants of God Sathan is most busie when his end is neerest and when hee is as it were out of all hope of prevailing The red Dragon in the Revelation had greatest wrath when he knew his time to bee short When the evill Spirit was commanded once to come out of the child then it rent him sore Now these temptations though for the time they be very violent and extreme so that the party may hapily utter out some words and speeches of dispaire yet be they no finall prejudice to the inward peace Interrupt they may but utterly quench it they cannot because the power of God is made perfect through weaknesse And so even in death Sathan receives the greatest foile when hee thinkes to get the greatest victorie Thus then I answer in one word The peace of Gods servants at death is not ever in the like measure felt by them but yet it never dieth in them they which behold their death doe not alwayes see it yet they themselves sooner or later are sure sweetly and secretly to feele the same My reason for my assertion is grounded first upon that of the Apostle God commands light to shine out of darknesse Hee brings his servants to Heaven by the gates of
yeares yet it is but a naturall life a life full of miserie a life exposed to many vexations and disquiets a life that hath so many troubles in it that men in the best estate of health wish sometimes that they were dead through disquiets and troubles and yet for the preservation of a troublesome life if you were sure of that you would lose a member I know when we come and speake of renouncing your former wayes your covetousnesse and prophanenesse and pride and vanitie and wickednesse in any kinde wee speake of cutting off of hands of members of the bodie they are so deare therefore Christ saith If thy hand offend thee cut it off if thine eye offend thee pull it out it is better to goe to heaven with one hand then to hell with both This I say I know you apprehend it a hard lesson there is no life no Christ without such a death to sinne Yet it is a truth and a necessarie truth for you to know and therefore consider it and that seriously what you lose If we come and perswade you to cut off some usefull member yet you yeeld to that for a naturall life you will cut off a hand that is as usefull as any member of the body but we bid you cut off superfluous members those needlesse members the members of sinne that will be your death Wee would have you but to be rid of the Ulcer that is all we would have you deprived of to preserve spirituall life and to live to God If I were to speake for a naturall life it were but temporall it were but upon conjecture but we speake for a life upon certaintie When wee perswade you to die to sinne that you may live to God wee assure you that this will certainly follow on it you shall live to God if sinne die in you and we speake not only upon certaintie but for eternitie too you shall doe it for eternitietoo you shall doe it for eternitie it is not a life that ends Nay wee speake for a life wherein there is true happinesse that hath no mixture of miserie to make you wearie but a life that hath perfect peace and joy a life that hath blessednesse begun and shall have blessednesse perfected in heaven this life we perswade you to live Consider now what we say if there were more you shall live to God the more you die to sin Skin for skin saith Iob and all that a man hath he will give for his life but if it be such a life as this to live to God a spirituall life what to live as the Angels doe that live with God! to live as the Saints in Heaven that live in the fruition and sight of God wherein they are blessed such a life we perswade you to A life infinitely above this if this life had all the contentment the earth could give it it were not worthy to be compared though a man might live a thousand yeares in the confluence and abundance of all prosperitie it were not to be compared with one moment of the happinesse of the spirituall life that we shall live in for all eternitie with Christ. Now consider take things and compare them together here is such a particular sinne that I was given to to pride to covetousnesse to prophanenesse to wickednesse of this sort or of that sort if I goe on in it I die eternally I lose God and heaven and my soule and happinesse what shall I get by this when I have done it I gratifie Satan I destroy my soule I have lost my selfe and am undone for ever And what a madnesse is this for a man to venture the eternall ruine and destruction of himselfe and that for a thing of nothing for that that will make him miserable now and more miserable eternally Consider and know to whom I speake I speake to yon that have heard the Word and many times received the Sacrament What did you when you received the Sacrament was it not a pledge to you of your interest in Christ and of your union with him and that Christ is as truely united with you as that you ate and dranke Now let it appeare make you account whatsoever you were before make you account reckon ye goe not by guesse and say I hope it will be better with mee then it hath beene no but reckon conclude make accompt I must be another man I may not be what I was I must leave those things that are ill I must apply my selfe to another course Indeed I walked in a way of enmitie to the wayes of God in estrangement from God in worldly wicked wayes but it must not now bee so I must make account now that Christ is mine I am now dead to sinne and therefore dead to sinne that I may live to God if there bee any life of grace in me it will appeare by my death to sinne I must must make account of this I must doe this and this is the best way of making a right use of the Sacrament Why are men as bad after the Sacrament as before because they reckon not they make not account for themselves that they are dead to sinne Make account you have received life from Christ and you must act that life and now set your selves to it reason with your owne hearts why doe I thus and thus As Ezra reasons Ezra 9. 13. Lord since thou hast kept us from being beneath for our iniquities should wee sinne more So consider hath the Lord kept me from hell and admitted me to his Table where he hath spoken peace to mee hee hath spoken reconciliation in Christ shall I returne to sinne against him certainly he will be more angrie now then ever he was before the sinnes that I commit now will bee greater then all the sinnes I have committed hitherto for now I sinne against more grace and against greater mercie for God hath againe renewed the Covenant of peace whereas he might have cast me off for my former breach and shall I provoke him againe hath the Lord washed mee and shall I defile my selfe againe God forbid Reason with your selves I must not be as I was it is not for mee to doe as others that know not God and that are not in Covenant with God or as I was wont to doe before I know what it is to bind my selfe in covenant to receive the Sacrament I must be in another fashion and course of life then ever I have beene Therefore when temptations come to sinne for you must not thinke to be rid of all motions and temptations to sinne and whensoever there comes new temptations not to conclude you have received the Sacrament in vaine say not so but rather say now comes the tryall this is that whereby God will trie what fruit comes of the cost and paines and mercies he hath bestowed on mee here is a messenger sent for fruit If I can withstand the commands of sinne and resist the motions
that he is very ready and greedy of death it is the way to that I hope for saith he therefore it is sweetly spoken of an Ancient and you will acknowledge it to be a sweet sentence of that Father Saint Austin Hee that desireth to bee dissolved according to that of the Apostle and to bee with Christ Non patienter moritur Hee doth not die patiently See here is a faithfull a hopefull man and yet doth not die patiently what would the Father say Hee liveth saith he patiently the very life he liveth putteth him to his patience when he commeth to die hee dieth pleasantly he goeth away with his hope and his hope is full of immortalitie And no more for that point The nex thing I observe is concerning the Object of this hope and this is it that Christ is the Object of the Christians hope We have hope in Christ. Heare it in the generall heare it in the speciall In the generall 1 Tim. 1. 1. Saint Paul he beginneth his Epistle with Christ our hope Col. 1. 27. The riches of the mysterie 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 generall In the speciall heare it in Saint Paul heare it in the Prophets and others Saint Paul to mee to live is Christ to die is gaine Christ is to me in life and Death advantage living or dying I am Christs I have hoped in the Lord saith the Prophet David And God is my hope and hath beene my helpe even from my youth This is the generall song of the whole Church God is our hope and therefore the Prophet Iacob made an excellent Ejaculation in those blessings he gave his sonnes 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 hee will saith holy Iob yet notwithstanding I will still trust in him Thus the faithfull 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 doe mount him above all meanes What are his wings his hope Whether flyeth 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 poore he flyeth not to riches for they make themselves wings and flye away from him Being weake hee flyeth not to the arme of flesh for in man there is no hope nor no confidence to bee put in Prinââ¦s in the Ballance they are lighter then vanitie it selfe sayth the Psalmist Being sicke hee flieth not to the Physitian he fleeth to these as the meanes not to rest in them to make it the maine of his aime the scope of his hope hee doth not flie thus to them but hee goeth to God that commandeth all that worketh above all against all and without all means and sanctifieth all these means Therfore wel sayth the poore man God is my help and the sick man God is my health and the weak man God is my strength and the blinde man Christis my light and even the dead man the distrest man God is my life the good man Christ is my Hope and the happie man Christ is my love And so it is to Christ that the wings of a mans Hope doth lift him up This is the first It sheweth us that the wings of Hope that is in the faithfull soule lifteth him up above all meanes No more of that Secondly observe in this object the very Crowne of a Christians comfort I say the Crowne of all his comfort and that commeth onely from this object of his hope For what is there in all the World that can comfort a man indeed besides this much lesse compared with this Begin where you will when you have gone round about you will conclude with that of the Apostle I count all things but losse and dung in comparison of Christ and all things to bee vanitie and vexation of spirit as the Preacher saith Put the case thou art a sicke man or a sicke woman and I finde thee much affected afflicted dejected cast downe in thy selfe I would faine give thee some comfort now I tell thee of the vanitie of this present life therfore being content I tell thee of the hope of a better life I tell thee of the joyes that are to be revealed I tell thee of the promises of God which hee will make good to thee if thou wilt trust in his mercie I tell thee of all the sure mercies of David as they are called and all this while I have told thee nothing at all to comfort thee till I come to this the object of this Hope which I have in hand and that is Jesus Christ in whom all Gods promises are Yea and Amen and till thou canst learne this lesson of life concerning the Lord Jesus thou hast learned nothing come and learn this and my life for thine thou art then happy He is the Way the Truth and the Life the Way and Truth and Life it selfe and whether shall I goe from thee Lord thou hast the words of eternall life I have done with that Point and so passe on to the third Wee have Hope wee have Hope in Christ wee have Hope in Christ in this life This life-time then is our hope-time that is it you learne hence Here we have the feed of Hope but the harvest of Hope that is hereafter when wee shall have in re what now we have in spe as ordinarily wee speake when wee shall have in possession what now wee haue in expectation then there will bee no more use of this Grace there hope shall cease Now it is indeed in this life time that wee sow the seedes of Prayer that wee plant the roots of Faith that wee water all of them with our hope when our joy shall spring up when the end and fruit of our faith shall come when the possession of our hope shall appeare then we have done with hope hope serveth no longer then therefore it is now in this life Hope shall end for the action of it understand that aright as Faith shall but it shall never end for the object of it that end shall last still and rest ever Now then in the interim this is the Prophets and this is the Princes and this is the Peoples posse I wayte and I wayte too and I trust the Lord over all Now is your posse time as I may call it now is the seed time wherein we sow the seeds of love of joy of hope wherein we sow the seeds of sobrietie and innocencie and chastitie and charitie and all manner of vertues whatsoever now is the time Is this so then here is the
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 happinesse so should a man after his serious consideration of death applie himselfe to such wayes and such actions by which hee may comfortably close up his life with death it is a great point of wisedome to sute actions with their ends to fit and square the wood before wee build the house to learne and discipline a troope before they goe to battell to rigge and trimme and furnish the shippe before wee launch to sea this is preparation indeed Now this preparation for death consists in two things First in an undoing of that which unfits us to dye Brethren hee who is not fit to live hee is not yet fit to dye 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 dye now that which unfits a man to dye is sinne it makes him finde a bitter enemie of death Oh when this King of terrours shall present himselfe by thy bed side with his arrowes in his hands I meane thy sinnes hee will wound thee with infinite amazement and horrour the sting of death is sinne saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. Thou dost not prepare thy selfe for death if thou dost not undoe thy sinnes which thou hast done in thy life the which consists First in a narrow search of thy sinfulnesse both of nature and practice Secondly in a secret humbling of thy soule for them Thirdly in an unfeigned repentance and forsaking of them Fourthly in a constant imploring and obtainig of mercie for them in the bloud of Christ. If thy soule doth give sinne its discharge now death shall give thy soule a discharge hereafter Secondly in the quallifying our persons for the conquest of death there are three things by which wee shall bee able cheerefully to meet and assuredly to conquer death First by having interest in the Lord Jesus The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law but thankes bee to God who hath given us victorie through our Lord Iesus Christ. If thou hast gotten Christ into thy armes by faith thou carriest thy peace strength and advantage both through life and death For wee are more then conquerours through him that loved us sayth the Apostle Rom. 8. 37. And to mee to live is Christ and to die is gaine sayth the same Apostle Phil. 1. 21. if thou hast a good Christ thou mayst bee confident of a good death Secondly renewednesse of our nature What Saint Iohn spake of the Martyrs as some conjecture Blessed and happie is he that hath part in the first resurrection on such the second death hath no power that say I of a person renewed by the sanctifying qualitie of Gods Spirit I happie is hee hee shall have power even over the first death The Spirit and the Bride sayth come if a man hath gotten the heavenly Spirit which beautifies the soule with the ornaments of Grace as the Bride is with her ornaments hee is a fitted person hee may well say to Death come and to Christ come Lord Iesus come quickly Thirdly uprightnesse of conversation Righteousnesse delivers from death sayth Solomon and the righteous hath hope in his death if a mans worke be Christs service if hee have a heart enclined to keepe a good conscience in all things to keepe himselfe exact to the rule and to walke with God Blessed is that servant which his Master when he commeth shall find so doing that man that hath looked to Gods Word to guide his life may confidently look up to Gods mercie to comfort him in death Remember O Lord sayth Hezekiah Isa. 39. how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart Now all this doth the wayting for our change import in the Text to wit a serious expectation of it first by undoing those sinnes of ours which else for ever will undoe us and by interesting our persons into Christ from whom we must likewise receive the Spirit to change our hearts and uprightnesse to forme a-new our conversation But then you will say Why must there be such a wayting for this these grave clothes are too sadde for the freshnesse of our life and would you have us be like the mad-man in the Gospell who lived among the Sepulchres Nay I beseech you let us consider and settle our thoughts a little and you shall be stayed with reason there are many strong Arguments and reasons why we should thus waite both by expectation and preparation First it is the maine errand of our life God did not send us into this world to sinne and to adorne our selves with the creature but to bring him some honour and then to dye the factor is not imployed to take his pleasure abroad but to doe his Masters worke and then to returne home Tertullian confesseth he was a great sinner and therefore borne to repentance therefore doth God give us life as the Master allowes the servant a candle to worke by that we may repent of our sinnes and get our hold in Christ and worke out our salvation and doe the great businesse of beleeving to be good and to doe good and so by Death to goe up to heaven Secondly death is but once and that needs to bee well done which can be but once done if there might be another space after death a second edition to correct the faults and escapes of the former then a present and speedie preparation were not altogether so necessarie but saith the Apostle It is appointed for all men once to dye and after death to come to judgement Heb. 9. 27. no more but once Wee usually shadow out Death with an houre-glasse A fit Embleme but that when an houre-glasse is runne out it may bee turned againe but this once out can be set up no more thou shalt never live to amend thy errours in dying O then how needfull is it before-hand to prepare for Death Thirdly when death hath done with thee then God will begin with thee thou must once die and after this come to Judgement Heb. 9. 27. To judgement what is that thou must bee presented before the holy and just and great God who is the Judge of the quicke and the dead and with all that thou art and with all that thou hast done there must appeare then before him all the courses of thy life all the bent of thy affections all the secrets of thy heart shall then be pulled in peeces and opened and all thy workes and all thy words shall bee exhibited scann'd and surveyed and that with severity and righteousnesse how say you then is it not fit to be preparing for Death to fit thy soule to reforme thy heart and life wilt thou
be presented before Gods severe Judgement-seat with Usurie in thy baggs with bribes and oppression in thy hands with a scumme of holinesse in thy mind with uncleannesse in thy members with drunkennesse in thy mouth with swearing in thy tongue O Lord I tremble to thinke of it Fourthly the soule when it is once gone by Death can never be recovered any more the tree may be cut and that may grow againe the shippe may be lost and the wealth laboured up againe but if the glasse be broken in peeces it cannot bee made whole againe the soule of man is but one and the losse of that one is the losse of it for ever when death hath closed up thy eyes thou shalt never have opportunitie to pray more to weepe more to humble thy selfe more to fast more Never any Prophet or Apostle shall come unto thee in the Name of God more after death all the Ordinances cease unto thee for ever and all the space of returning shall cease unto thee for ever thou shalt not lye a fewyeares in flames of wrath and then get leave to come out and take a better course O no if once there then for ever there this life is the time of mercy and space of repentance but when Death shall deliver thee up to be judged by the Lord thou must stand for ever to his sentence therefore as Christ spake Agree with thine adversary while thou art in the way lest the Iudge deliver thee to the officer and hee cast thee into prison I tell thee thou shalt not depart thence till thou hast paid the last mite Luk. 12. 58. And get oyle into your lampes before the doore be shut Fiftly consider it will be as much as thou canst doe to doe the worke of Death when Death doth come therefore prepare and get all thy other worke done before For my Beloved consider three things First Conscience usually is most active at the time of death a man that could withstand and silence it in his life yet when hee comes to dye he shall heare his voyce and perhaps not bee able to stand under the bitter inditements and manifold accusations of it then it will spread the booke of thy life before thee and then and there thou shalt see thy sinnes as gastly presented as if they were so many wounds newly made Secondly thy patience will bee tryed with varietie of paine interruption of sleepe every place will be a thorne to thee and every action a burden Thirdly thy faith may be tryed to the utmost if thou lookest to thy Wife her teares may trouble thee if to thy Children their cryes may perplexe thee ifto thy friends they may bee discomforters to thee and will Satan let thee alone all this while will he let him lye downe in comfort who would not scarce let him live an houre in peace oh what a victory would it be if hee could at the last make thee cast a way thy confidence it is true he cannotattaine it but he may desperately attempt it Why brethren who knoweth the power of those sharpe temptations which may then beset him Verily all the holinesse which we have attained already all the duties we have performed already we may then looke on them with teares and cry out O why no sooner why no better why no more then all the strength of thy faith will be little enough to support thee Will there then be a change befall even all the sonnes of men Then to make some Use and Application of what hath beene said to ourselves First build no Tabernacls here Wee have here no abiding Citie And brethren saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 7. 29 30 31. The time is short it remaines that they that have wives bee as if they had none and they that weepe as though they wept not and they that ââ¦oyce as though they rejoyced not c. Why this thirst for riches there will bee a change why this unwearied seeking after the things of this life as if thy soule were to goe into a barne or a bagge and there tumble it selfe for ever Thou foole this night may thy soule bee taken away and whose possessions shall then thy carefull and only gettings bee the glasse will be broken and all the wine will flye abroad though thou hast with much eagernesse grasped the world in this life ââ¦et in death thy hands must open themselves and let it goe thou must not hold the world above thy life nor thy life beyond the day of death no wee cannot alway have that which we desire wee must certainly part with what we most esteeme of Secondly what comfort is this to a good soule If wee had hope onely in this life saith Saint Paul wee of all men are most miserable 1 Cor. 15. Death is a happy change to a holy person First it is a change which shall put a period to all his changes in this life his outward condition how ofâ⦠doth it change sometime by joy and sorrow sometime by comfort and miserie by health and sicknesse by abundance and want but when Death comes all sorrow shall flye away for ever thou shalt never bee more troubled with a sick body with a sad estate with common losses but the change of a temporall life shall set thee in a full and settled possession of an heavenly His inward condition how oft doth it change sometime free anon distressed now a sweet view of heaven anon darkned with feare now rejoycing in Christ anon buffeted with Sathan now blessing God for grace anon distracted with the insolent workings of remaining corruptions but when Death comes then comes a change of all this it will release thee for ever of sinne and Sathan after death sinne shall be a burden no more and Sathan shall be a tempter no longer but thou shalt be as happy as thou canst desire and shalt enjoy thy God and thy Christ without feare or trouble in glory in felicitie in eternity all the cruell insolences of tyrants shall come short of thy soule thou shalt be above their malice and beyond thy selfe Secondly it is a change and no worse then a change just as Ioseph changed his garments and went into Pharaoh so thou shalt put off thy body and goe into glory put off thy mortality and goe into immortalitie Oh whatterrour to wicked men a day of change will befall them Why didst thou say Oh David there is no bands in their death and they are not in changes like other men Verily I should have checked thee hadst thou not recanted it presently thy selfe Psal. 73. 4. 17. 18. 19. and reported it to us that they are set in slipperie places and are brought into desolation and cast down into destruction in a moment and utterly consumed with terrour Good Lord what a change is that to them they judged with insolent and unrighteous judgement the Children of God now but death will change this the unjust steward
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 plaine pack-staffe methodists who esteeme of all flowers of Rhetoricke in Sermons no better then stinking weedes 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 doubtlesse as the breath of a man hath more force in a Trunke and the winde a lowder and sweeter sound in the Organ-pipe then in the open ayre so the matter of our speech and the theame of our discourse which is conveyed through figures and formes of Art both sound sweeter to the eare and pierce deeper into the heart there is in them plus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 carnall eloquence in Poets and heathen Oratours and taske the Scriptures for rude simplicitie and want of all Art and eloquence It is true the Scripture is written in a style peculiar to it selfe the elocution in it is such as Lactantius observeth that it befitteth no other bookes as neither doth that wee find in other bookes befit it As the matter in Scripture so the forme is divine nec vox hominum sonat which consisteth not in the words of mans wisedome but in the evidence of the Spirit Yet is there admirable eloquence in it and farre surpassing which we find in all other writings Wherefore Politian the Grammarian who pretended he durst not touch any leafe in the Bible for feare of defiling the puritie of his language or slurring the glosse of his style is condemned as well by learned humanists as Divines And Theopompus who went about to cloath Gods word with gay and trimme phrases of heathen Oratours and Poets was punished by God with losse of his wits Thus have we viewed the forme let us now have an eye to the matter our Lords conquest over Death and the Grave There are two things most dreadfull to the nature of man Death and the Grave the one severeth the soule the other consumeth the body and resolveth it inâ⦠dust the valiantest conquerours that with their bloody flags and colours have strucke a terrour unto all Nations yet have beene affrighted themselves at the displaying of the pale and wan colours of Death the most retired Philosophers and Monkes who have lived in Cells and Caves under the ground yet have beene startled at the sight of their Grave How much then are wee indebted to our Christian faith that not only overcommeth the world but also conquereth the feare of Death and the grave and dareth both in the words of my Text O death sting mee if thou canst O grave conquer mee if thou bee able O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victorie 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 victorie of the other Will it please you then to fixe the eye of your observation upon the parts of this Text as they are layd before you in termes 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 Interrogatorie put to Death touching the ledging of his sting 2 Upon the second Interrogatorie put to the Grave touching the field of his victorie First for the manner of Citing it is by an Apostrophe a figure often accurring in holy Scripture as in the booke of Kings O Altar Altar O ye mountaines of Gilboa and of the Psalmes lift up ye gates and bee ye lift up you everlasting doores 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 rhetoricke the Auncient Fathers in their funerall Orations many times turned to the dead and used such compellations as these audâ⦠Constaâ⦠ãâã Paula heare O ãâã farewell O Paula From which passages our adversaries very weakely if not ridiculously inferres the invocation of Saints departed making weapons of plumes of leathers and arguments of ornaments and which is farre worse Divinitie of rhetoricke 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 looke upon us or eares to heare us or that we ought to invocate them because the Holy Ghost maketh such Apostrophes to them as the Fathers doe to the soules 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 dye before they are buried and the Grave is properly no Grave till it bee possessed by a dead bodie 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 tearmed Domus silentii a house of silence In Greeke ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã either quasi ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã from ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or quasi ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã snpple ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã either from a word signifying to stretch because death stretcheth out the bodie or from words signifying to tend upwards because by death the soule is carried upwards returning to God that gave it In Latine Mors either quasi ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã our fatall portion or as Saint Austine will have it a morsu because the biting of the Serpent caused it The letter or word is but like the barke or rinde the sense is the juyce yet here wee may sucke some sweetnesse from the barke or rinde From the hebrew Muth we learne that our tongues must bee bound to their good behaviour concerning the dead we must not make them our ordinarie table talke or breake jeasts upon them much lesse vent our spleene or wreake our malice on them wee must never speake of them but in a serious and regardfull manner de mortuis nil nisi bene From the Greeke ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as it is derived from ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã mutando Ï tenuem in Î aspiratam wee must learne to extend our hands to the poore especially neare death which stretcheth out our bodies and to send our thoughts ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to the things that are above whether if wee dye well the Angells shall imediately carrie our souls From the Latine mors so tearmed quasi ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã
ãâã or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã divido wee are to learne to bee contented with our lot and beare it patiently considering first that wee brought it upon our selves secondly that wee gaine this singular benefit by it that our miserie shall not bee immortall O Death to which Death speaketh the Apostle for the Scripture maketh mention of the first and second death and Saint Ambrose also of a third The first Death with him is the death of nature of which it is sayd they shall seeke death and not finde it The second of sinne of which it is said the soule that sinneth shall dye the death The third of grace which sets a period not to nature but to sinne The Death here meant is the first Death or the Death of nature which the Philosophers diversly define according to their divers opinions of the soule Aristoxemis who held the soule to bee an harmonie consequently defined Death to bee a discord ââ¦len who held the soule to be Crasis or a temper Death to be a distemper Zeno who held the soule to bee a ââ¦ire Death to bee an extinction Those Philosophers who held the soule to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is as Tullie interpreteth it continuam ââ¦tionem Death to bee a cessation The vulgar of the Heathen who held the soule to bee a breath Death to be an expiration Lastly the Platonickes who held the soule to be an immortall spiriâ⦠Death to bee a dissolution or seperation of the soule from the bodie and this is two fold 1 Naturall 2 Violent 1 Naturall when of it selfe the naturall heate is extinguished or radicall moisture consumed for our life in Scripture is compared and in sculpture resembled to a burning lampe the fire which kindleth the flame in this light is naturall heate and the oyle which feedeth it is radicall moisture Without flame there is no light without oyle to maintaine it no flame in like manner if either naturall heate or radicall moisture fayle life cannot last 2 Violent when the soule is forced untimely out of the body of this Death there are so many shapes that no Painter could ever yet draw them Wee come but one way into the World but we goea thousand out of it as wee see in a Garden-pot the water is powred in but at one place to wit the narrow mouth but it runneth out at 100 holes Dye Some 1 By fire as the Sodomites 2 By water as the old World 3 By the infection of the Ayre as threescore and ten thousand in Davids time 4 By the opening of the earth as Corah Dathan and Abiram Amphiraus and two Cities Buris and Helice Some meet with Death In 1 Their Coach as Antiochus 2 Their chamber as Domitian 3 Their bed as Iohn the Twelfe 4 The Theater as Caligula 5 The Senate as Caesar. 6 The Temple as Zenacherib 7 Their Table as Claudius 8 At the Lords-Table as Pope Victor and Henry of ãâã Death woundeth and striketh some With 1 A pen-knife as Seneca 2 A stilletto as Henry the Fourth 3 A sword as Paul 4 A Fullers beame as Iames the Lords Brother 5 A Saw as Isaiah 6 A stone as Pyrrhus 7 A thunderbolt as Anustatius What should I speake of Felones de se such as have throwne away their soules Sardanapalus made a great fire and leaped into it Lucretiâ⦠stabbed her selfe Cleopatra put an Aspe to her breast and stung therewith dyed presently Saul fell upon his owne sword Iudas hanged himselfe Peronius cut his owne veines Heremius beate out his owne braines Liciniusââ¦oaked ââ¦oaked himselfe with a napkin Porââ¦ia dyed by swallowing hot burning coales Haââ¦ibalââ¦ked ââ¦ked poâ⦠son out of his ring Demosthââ¦s out of his Pen c. What seemeth so loose as the soule and the bodie which is plucked out with a haire driven out with a smââ¦ll frayed out with a phancie verily that seemeth to be but a breath in the nosthrills which is taken away with a ââ¦ent a shadow wââ¦ch is driven away with a scare-crow a dreame which is fââ¦yed away with a phansie a vapour which is driven away with a puââ¦e a conceit which goes away with a passion a toy that leaves us with a laughter yet griefe kild Homer ââ¦hter Phileââ¦on a haââ¦e in his milke Fabius a flye in his throat Adrian a smell of lime in his nosthrills Iovian the snuâ⦠of a candle a Child in Plââ¦e a kerââ¦ll of a Raison Anacyeon and a Icesickle one in Martial which caused the Poet to melt into teares saying O ubi mors non est si jugulatis aquae what cannot make an end of us if a small drop of water congealed can doe it In these regards wee may ãâã the affââ¦ive in my ââ¦xt into ãâã ãâã and say ââ¦uly though noâ⦠in the Apostles sense O Death where iâ⦠not thy sting ãâã wâ⦠see iââ¦ââ¦st ouâ⦠in ãâã in our ãâã in ãâã apparell in our breath in the Coââ¦t in the. Countrey in the Ciâ⦠in the Field in the Land in the Sâ⦠in the chamber in the Church and in the Church-yard where we meet with the second partie to bee examined to wit the Grave O Grave ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In the language of Ashdod it signifieth one thing but in the language of Canaan another The Heathen writers understand by it First the first matter out of which all things are drawn and into which they are last of all resolved So Hippocrates taketh the word in his Aph. Secondly the ruler of the Region of darknesse or prince of Hell so Hesiod taketh it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Hes. op dies Thirdly the state and condition of the dead or death it selfe so Homer taketh it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In the language of Canaan it is either taken for the place of torment of the damned And in hell he lift up his eys being in torments and seeth Abraham afarre off and Lazarus in his bosome Secondly for the Grave and that most frequently in the Seventie Interpreters as namely I will goe downe into Hââ¦des to my sonne that is the Grave and let not his hââ¦ie head goe downe into Hades that is the grave in peace and in death there is ãâã rââ¦berance of thee and who will give thee thankes in Hââ¦es that is the Grave and what man is hee that ââ¦veth and shall not see death and shall bee deliver his soule from the hands of Hades that is the Grave and Hades that is the Grave cannot praise thee Death cannot celebrate thee and so it must bee here taken For though Hell in regard of the Elect bee conquered yet it ââ¦rnally possesseth the reprobaââ¦e men and Devills neither ãâã ãâã bee destroyed at the day of Judgement oâ⦠emââ¦d but in ââ¦ed rather and repleââ¦ed with the boââ¦es of all the damned whose soules are there aââ¦eadie But Hades that is the Grave shall lose aâ⦠ãâã ââ¦ptives and prisoners for the eââ¦h
and sea shall cast up ãâã their dead Wee have the parties to bee examââ¦ed let us now here the Articles upon which they are to bee examââ¦ed First Death is to answer to this ãâã where is thy sââ¦ng these words may bee understood ââ¦o maââ¦r of wayes 1 Actively 2 Passively 1 Passively where is thy sting that is the sting thrust out by Deatâ⦠ãâã which ãâã the ãâã of Death is ãâã other then the present sence of the desert of death and guilt of conscience ãâã a dreadâ⦠ãâ¦ã take away this ãâ¦ã for sinnâ⦠ãâ¦ã no ãâ¦ã ââ¦is Saints and ãâ¦ã of a punishment of sinne a remedie against all sinne of a short and fearefull cut to eternall death a faire and safe draw-bridge to eternall life 2 Actively where is thy sting that is the sting which causeth and bringeth Death In this sense the sting of death is sinne non quem mors fecit sed quo mors facta est peccato enim morimur non morte peccââ¦mus as Saint Austine most accutely and eloquently Sinne is sayd to bee the sting of Death as a cup of poyson is sayd to bee a potion of death that is a potion bringing death for wee dye by sinne wee sinne not by death sinne is not the off-spring of death but death the off-spring of sinne or as the Apostle tearmeth it the wages of sinne And it is just with God to pay the sinner this wages by rendring death to sinne and punishing sinne with death because sinne severeth the soule from God and not onely grieveth and despightfully entreateth but without repentance in the end thrusteth the spirit out of doores And what more agreeable to Divine justice then that the soule which willingly severeth her selfe from God should bee unwillingly severed from the bodie and that the spirit should bee expelled of his residence in the flesh which expelleth Gods grace and excludeth his Spirit from a residence in the soul This sting of death is like the Adders two forked or double for it is either originall or actuall sinne originall sinne is the sting of death in the day thou eatest of the Tree of knowledge thou shalt surely dye and as by one man sinne came into the World and death by sinne and so death passed upon all men for that all had sinned Secondly actuall sinne is the sting of death the soule that sinneth it shall dye the sonne shall not beare the iniquitie of the father nor the father the iniquity of the sonne the righteousnesse of the righteous shall bee upon him and the wickednesse of the wicked shall bee upon him Howbeit if wee speake properly originall sinne as it is a pronesse to all sinne so it maketh us rather obnoxious to death then dead men but actuall sinne without repentance slayes out-right Adam did not die the day hee eat the fruit but that day became mortalis or morti obnoxius guiltie of death or liable to it originall sinne alone maketh us mortes but actuall mortuos dead men The Devill like to a Hornet sometimes pricks us onely but leaveth not his sting in us sometime he leaveth his sting in us and that 's farre the more dangerous He is pricked only with this sting who sinneth suddenly and presently repenteth but he who the Devil bringeth to a habit or custome insinne in him hee leaveth his sting Now wee know what the sting is let us enquire where it is The answer is if wee speake of the reprobate men or Devills it remaineth in their consciences if wee speake of the Elect it is plucked out of their soules and it was put in our Saviours bodie and there deaded and lost for hee that knew no sinne was made sinne for us to wit by imputing our sinne to him and inflicting the punishment thereof upon him That wee might bee made the righteousnesse of God in him for the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes were wee healed who his owne selfe bare our sinnes in his owne body on the tree Athanasius representeth the manner of it by the similitude of a Waspe losing her sting in a Rocke Vespa acculeâ⦠fodiens petram c. as an angry Waspe thrusteth her sting into a rocke cannot pierce or enter farre into it but either breaketh her sting or loseth it all so Death assaulting the Lord of life and striving with all her might to sting him hurt not him but disarmed her selfe of her sting for ever The first interrogatorie is answered wee know where Deaths sting is let us now consider of the second interrogatorie concerning the victorie of the Grave O grave where is thy victorie If the Grave as shee openeth her mouth wide so she could speake shee would answer My victories are to be seene in Macpelah Golgotha in all the gulphs of the Sea and Caves and pits of the Earth where the dead have beene bestowed since the beginning of the world My victorie is in the fire in the water in the earth in all Churnells and Caemitaries or dormitories in the bellies of fish in the mawes of beasts in holy shrines Tombes and sepulchres wheresoever corpses have beene put and are yet reserved Of all that ever Death arrested and they by order of divine Justice have beene committed to my custodie never any but one escaped whom the heaven of heavens could not containe much lesse any earthly prison he might truly say and none but he O grave where is thy victorie all save him I keepe in safe custodie that were ever sent to mee Yet may all that die in Iesus and expect a glorious Resurrection by him even now by faith insult over the Grave for Faith calleth those things that are not as if they were it looketh backward as farre as the Creation which produced all things at the first of nothing and as farre forward to the resurrection which shall restore all things from nothing or that which is as much as nothing Faith with an eye annointed with the eye-salve of the spirit seeth death swallowed up into victorie and the earth and sea casting up all their dead and upon this evidence of things not seene triumpheth over Death and Hell saying O Death where is thy sting O Hell where is thy victorie Wee have spoken hitherto of Death and the Grave let us now heare what they have to say to us Death saith feare not mee the Grave Weepe not immoderately for the dead Death bids us die to sinne the Grave Burie all thy injuries and wrongs in the pit of oblivion both say to us flye sinne and neither of us can hurt you both say to us Give thankes to him who hath given you victorie over uâ⦠both the sting of death pricks you not but if you die in the bosome of Christ rather delights and tickles you Death is no more Death but a sleepe the Grave is no more a grave but abed Death is but the putting off of our old rags the Grave is the Vestrie
the ââ¦er words of the Prophet I will ãâã them ãâã ãâã ãâã of the grave I will redeeme them from death hee that will redeeme them from death can in no sââ¦se bee sayd to bee the cause why they die but why they die not Besides both hee and Iarcht stumble at the same stone to wit the word debââ¦ica which they derive from dever signifying verbâ⦠or causa whereas they should have derived it from dever signifying pestâ⦠or a plague Thirdly for Saint Ierome his translation though it differ somewhat from the originall yet it is no Antithesis to the Text but an elegant Antanaclasis or at least a Metonymie generis pro specie mors pro peste I will bee thy death for I will bee thy plague Fourthly for the translation of the Septuagint which Saint Paul most seemeth to follow because writing to the Gentiles who made use of that translation and understood not the originall hee would not give them any offence nor derrogate from it which was in great esteeme among all in regard of the aââ¦tiquitie thereof and it stood the Christians in those dayes in great stead to convince the unbeleeving Jewes It well agreeth with the Analogie of faith and the meaning of the holy Spirit and the Hebrew letter also will beare it for Ehi as Buxtorphius the great Master of the holy tongue out of David Kimchi observeth signifieth ubi where as well as ero I will bee and a venemous sting and pestis the plague differ but little so that although the words in the originall seeme to bee spoken by an affirmation but in Saint Paul and the Septuagint by an interrogation in the one by a commination inthe other by an insultation yet both come to one sense and containe an evident prophesie of Christ his conquest over Death and Hell I have plucked away the thorne and now I am come to blow the flower and open the leaves of the words O Death I will bee thy plagues that is I will take away from Death the power of destroying utterly and from the Grave the power of keeping the dead in it perpetually If wee take the words as spoken by way of insultation ô mors ubi est aculeus tuus O Death where is thy sting thus wee are to construe them as a hornet or serpent when his sting is plucked out can doe no hurt to any other but soone after dyeth it selfe so Death is disarmed by Christ and left as good as dead for as David cut off Goliahs head with his own sword and Brasidas ran through his enemie with his owne speare so Christ conquers over Death by death in as much as by his temporall death hee satisfied both for the temporall and eternall death of them that beleeve in him And as hee conquered Death by his death so hee destroyed the Grave by his buriall for suffering his bodie to bee imprisoned and afterwards breaking the gates and barres of the prison hee left the passage open to all his members to come out after him their head These sacred and heavenly mysteries are shrined in the letter of this Text for although the Prophet speaketh to the Isralites and maketh a kinde of tender unto them of redemption from temporall death and deliverance from corporall captivitie yet to confirme their faith therein hee bringeth in the promise of eternall redemption from whence they were to inferre if God will redeeme us from eternall how much more from temporall death if hee will deliver us out of the prison of the grave how much more out of common Gaoles What though our enemies have never so great a hand over us what though they exceed in their crueltie and put us to all extremitie and doe their worst against us their crueltie cannot extend beyond death nor their malice beyond the Grave but Gods power and mercie reacheth farther For he can and he promiseth that hee will revive us after wee are dead and raise us after we are buried he will plucke deaths sting out of us and us out of the bowells of the Grave Death hath not such power over the living nor the grave over the dead as God hath over both to destroy the one and swallow up the other into victorie For therefore the Sonne of God vouchsafed to taste death that Death might be swallowed up by him into victorie Although Death swallow up all things and the Grave shut up all in darknesse yet God is above them both therefore when wee are brought to the greatest exigent when nothing but death and torments are before us when we are readie to yeeld up the buckler of our faith and breath out the last gaspe of hope let us call this Text to mind O Death I will bee thy plagues neither Death nor the Grave shall be my peoples bane because I will bee both their bane and change their nature which destroyeth all nature For to all them that beleeve in mee Death shall not be a posterne but a street doore not so much an out-let of temporall as an in-let of eternall life and though the grave swallow the bodyes of my Saints yet it shall cast them up againe at the last day Thus the words yeeld us singular comfort if wee take them as a commination and they afford as much or more if we take them as Saint Paul and S. Chrysostome do by an insultation As a man offering sacrifice for victorie and full of mirth and jollitie he leapes and tramples upon Death lying as it were at his mercie and sings an Io Poean a triumphant song wherewith Gerardus a great friend of Saint Bernards breathed out his last gaspe of whom hee thus writeth In the dead time of the night my brother Gerard strangely revived at midnight the day began to breake I sent for to see this great miracle found a man in the very jawes of death insulting upon death and exulting with joy saying O death where is thy sting Death is not now a sting but a song for now the faithfull man dyeth singing and singeth dying And so having plucked away the prickles and opened the leaves by the Explication of the letter I come now to smell to them and draw from thence the savour of life unto life Ero pestes tuae ô mors As Saint Ierome writeth of Tertullian his Polemmicall Treatises against hereticks ââ¦uot verba tot fulmina Every word is a thunder-bolt so I may truly say of this verse quot verba tot fulmina So many words so many thunder-bolts stricking Death dead by the light whereof wee may discerne three parts 1. The menaced or partie threatned Death 2. The menacer or partie threatning I. 3. The judgement menaced plagues 1. The menaced impotent mors Death 2. The menacer Omnipotent Ego I. 3. The judgement most dreadfull pestes plagues 1. First of the partie menaced Death Christ threatneth destruction to none but to his or his Churches enemies But here he threatneth Death Death therefore must needs be an enemie and so the Apostle tearmeth
it the last enemie that shall bee destroyed is Death For albeit Death by accident is an advantage as oftentimes an enemie doth a man a good turne which occasioned that excellent Treatise of Plutarch wherein he sheweth us how to make an Antidote of poyson and a good use of other mens maââ¦ice yet is it in it selfe an enemy alwayes to Nature and to grace also it sets upon the elect and the Reprobate the beleever and the Infidell the penitent and the obstinate but with this difference it flyes at the one with a deadly sting but at the other without a sting the one it wounds to death the other it terrifieth and paineth but cannor hurt But there being divers kinds of death which of them is here meant Death is a privation and privations cannot bee defined but by their habits that is such positive qualities as they bereave us of for instance sicknesse cannot be perfectly defined but by health which it impaireth nor blindnesse but by sight which it destroyeth nor darknesse but by light which it excludeth nor death but by life which it depriveth us of Now if there bee a fourefold life spoken of in Scripture viz. 1. Of nature 2. Of sinne 3. Of grace 4. Of glory There must needs be a foure-fold death answerable thereunto 1. The death of Nature is the privation of the life of nature by paâ⦠soule and bydy 2. The death of sinne is the privation of the life of sinne by mortifying grace 3. The death of Grace is the privation of the life of grace by reigning sââ¦ne 4. The death of Glory is the privation of the life of Glory by aiâ⦠and finall exclusion from the glorious presence of God and the kingdome of heaven and a casting into the lake of fire and brimstone prepared for the divell and his angells Of Death in the first sence David demandeth who is hee that liveth and shall not see death and shall hee deliver his soule from the hand of hell Of Death in the second sense Saint Paul enquireth how shall wee that are dead to sinne live any longer therein Of Death in the third sense Saint Paul must be meant where he rebuketh wanton Widowes Shee that liveth in pleasure is dead while shee liveth Of Death in the fourth sense Saint Iohn is to bee understood Blessed is hee that hath part in the first resurrection for on such the second death hath no power Saint Austin joyneth all these significations and maketh one sentence of divers senses hee is dead to death that is Death cannot kill hurt or affright him who is dead to sinne And another of the Ancients makes a sweet cord of them like so many strings struck at once hee that dyeth before hee dyes shall never die hee that dyeth to sinne before hee dyeth to nature shall never dye to God neither in this world by finall deprivation of grace neither in the world to come of glorie Of these foure significations of Death the first and last fort with this Text for that the first is to bee meant it is evident by the consequence here O grave I will be thy destruction And by the antecedents in Saint Paul When this corruptible shall put on incorruption c. And that the second is included may bee gathered both from the words of Saint Iohn And Death and bell were cast into the lake of fire and of our Saviour I was dead and I am alive and have the keyes of Hell and of Death And so I fall upon my second Observation viz. the Person menacing I the second person in Trinitie our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The word here used Ehi is the same with that we reade Exod. 3. Ehi Ashur Ehi I am that I am and if the observation of the Ancients be current that wheresoever God speaketh unto man in the old Testament in the shape of man or Angell we are to understand Christ for that all those apparitions were but a kind of preludia of his incarnation then the Person here threatning can bee no other then he besides the word Egilam in the former part of this verse being derived from Gaal signifying propinquus fuit or redemit jure propinquitatis pointeâ⦠to our Saviour who by assuming our nature became our Alic by blood and performed this office of a kinsman by redeeming the inheritance which we had lost But we have stronger arguments then Grammaticall observations that he who here promised life to the dead and threatneth plagues to Death was the Sonne of God the Lord of quick and dead for the same who promiseth to redeeme from the Grave threatneth to plague Death but we all know that Redeemer is the peculiar style of the Sonne as Creator is of the Father and Sanctifier of the Holy Ghost tu redemisti nos thou hast redeemed us to GOD by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and Nation To the redemption of a slave that is not able to ransome himselfe three at least concurre the Scrivener who writeth the Conditions and sealeth the Bonds the partie who soliciteth the businesse and mediateth for the captive and layeth downe the summe agreed upon for his ransome and the person in whose power the captive is and who accepteth of the ransome Which of these is the Redeemer you will all say he that is at the cost of all so it is in our redemption from spiritual thraldome the holy Spirit draweth the condition and sealeth the bonds the Father receiveth the ransome the Sonne both mediateth for the ransoming and layeth downe the summe For we were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but the pretious blood of Christ as of a Lambe without blemish hee tooke part of our nature that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the divell and deliver them who through the feare of death were all their life time subiect to bondage Hence we gather that hee that destroyed Death must die but to affirme that the immortall and eternall Spirit of God expired is blasphemie and to say that the Father suffered is heresie longagoe condemned in the Patro-passions we conclude therefore with the Apostle that the second Person Christ Jesus hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortalitie to light by the Gospell And so I fall upon my last Observation the judgement here mentioned Devorica 3. Thy plagues there is no tittle or iota in holy Scripture superfluous some mysterie therefore lyeth in the number plagues in the plurall not plague in the singular which I conceive to be this that Christ put Death to many deaths and foyled and conquered it many wayes first in himselfe secondly in his members First in himselfe by destroying sinne the sting of Death Secondly by breaking the bonds thereof in his powerfull Resurrection wherwith it was impossible that hee should be
my glorie Wicked men see his glory what priviledge then betweene them and the godly It is true indeed wicked men see the glory of Christs person and they shall see and feele the glory of his justice but the godly see the glory not onely of his person not onely of his justice but the glory that no wicked man ever shall see the glorie of his Mercie and goodnesse and grace here is the difference God getteth himselfe glory upon Pharaoh in drowning of him but God getteth himselfe the glory of his Mercie in Israel in saving them in the bottome of the Sea so the godly they see the glory not onely of the person of Christ and that is infinite and surpasseth apprehension but they see the glory of his Mercie of his eternall goodnesse and they see it so as to bee like him to be translated into that glory to get a part and share of it as much as they are capable of they make themselves all glorious with his glory and shine with his brightnesse and beauty Alas brethren all the sight we can get of Christ in this world it is like the sight of the blind man that Christ cured hee bad him looke up and lift up his eyes and he saw men walking as trees an imperfect sight so wee have here but an imperfect glimpse of Christ we see him through a glasse through the Word and Sacraments and these meanes that he hath appointed an imperfect sight till Christ give us a cleere sight and makes us see perfectly and this is in the day of his returne All the sight and vision of Christ in this life it is but to see him in a glasse saith the Apostle as in a looking-glasse but then we shall see him face to face wee shall see him as he is What difference there is betweene the shadow in a glasse and the face it selfe so much difference there is betweene the sight of Christ here and hereafter when we shall see him as he is when we shall see him with open face and not in a mirrour Therefore let this incourage us and stirre up our hearts to expect and waite for the comming of Christ with vehement and daily prayers with fervencie of spirit with the Church and the Bride and the Spirit to say Even so Amen Come Lord Iesus FINIS The coherence Devision of the words Propos. 1. Every man in the world is Gods Steward Proved 1. By what every one receiveth from God 2. By what God expects from every one Psal 24. 1. mââ¦n doe not waste his goods 2. That they doe not abuse them to ill ends Luke 19. 27. Iames 4. 3. 3. To doe him Homage Acts 10. 33. 3. To returne him fruit Matt. 21. 33. Vse Two things required of a Steward 1. Dispensation Rom 1. 3. 4. Rom. 1. 14. 1 Tim. 5. 8. 2. Right ordering of his dispensations Luk. 12. 42. 1. Faithfully Heb 3. 5. Exod. 32. 19. 2. Wisely Rom. 8. 7. 1 Tim. 3. 17. Gen. 18. 19. Propos. 2. All Gods stewards must give an account Two dayes of reckoning 1. In this life By the Word Gen. 3. 11. 1 King 19. Mar. 3. Acts 2. By the Rod. Iob 33. 14. Mic. 6. 9. Iob 33. 19. 1 Cor. 11 30. Psal. 31. 5. 2. After this life A necessitie of a day of judgement 1. In respect of God his decree Acts 17. 31. Isa. 46. 10. His honour Eccles. 3. 16. 2. In respect of the Saints 2 Thes. 1. 5. For the manifestation of their innocency For the reward of their workes Mal. ãâã 1â⦠18. 3. In respect of the wicked For the manifestation of Gods righteous proceeding against them Rom. 2. 5. For the persecting of their punishment Why God is said to call all men to an account 1. Because he will proceed in particular Job 27. 18. Jam. 5. 1 2 James 4. 3. Mat. 16. Mat. 5. 22. Mat. 15. 19. 2. Because he will proceed by method and order Psal. 50. Psal. 51. Rom. 7. A direction in the exercise of repentance 3. Because he will proceed by books Dan. 10. Rev. 20. Ioh. 12. 48. Ier. 17. 1. 4. Because God will exact of every one according to what he hath been trusted with Luke 12. 48. Vse 1. For confutation Atheists in the Church 2 Pet. 3. Vse 2. For instruction 1. Not to judge others Rom. 14. 10. 1 Cor. 4. 5. 2. To judge our selves here A twofold reckoning to be made here 1. Reckon with our selves Jer. 8. 6. Lam. 3. 39. Psal. 4. 2. Reckon with others 2 Sam. 12. 3. Acts 20. 26. Iames 5. 3. 3. To Exercise daily repentance Acts 17. 31. 4. To get an interest in Christ. Rom 8. 1. Exod. 25. 21. 5. To lead a holy conversation ãâã Pet. 3. 11. 2 Cor. 5. ãâã Acts ââ¦6 15 16. Vse 3. For Comfort James 5. Heb. 9. 27. The Coherence The meaning of the words The devision of the words Obser. 1. The death of others is a just occasion of Mourning Gen. 23. 2. Gen. 27. 41. Gen. 50. 10. 2 Sam. 25. 1. Zach. 12. 10. John 11. Act. 20. 38. Reas. 1. Reas. 2. Ier. 5. 3. Vse Object Answ. A twofold distemper in mens affections 1. 2. 1 Thes. 4. 13. Deut. 14. Observat. 2 Death the end of all men Iob 3. 14. Zach. 1. 5. Reas. 1. In regard of Gods decree Heb 9. 27. Reas. 2. In regard of the matter whereof men are made Job 13. 12. Reas. 3. In regard every man in him hath the cause of death Object Hââ¦b 11. 5. 2 King 2. 11. Answ. 2. Obiect Joh. 11. Answ. Rom. 8. 38. Matt. 22. Vse 1. Make account of it for ourselves The benefit of the particular application of death to a mans selfe 1. Sin will be made more odious Rom. 5. ââ¦1 2. The truth and justice of God will bee the more acknowledged 3. Death will be the better prepared for Job 14. 14. Three things wherein there is to be a particular application of death to a man 1. In matter of sinning Acts 5. 2. In redeeming of the time of life 1 Cor. 10. 35. Heb. 3. 13. Gal. 6. 10. 3. In the manner of our conversation Vse 1. In respect of the death of others 1. To moderate our mourning for the death of others 2. To improve the life of others Obser. 3. It is the duty of the living to lay to heart the death of others Reas. 1. 1. God is glorified by it Psal. 28. 5. Reas. 2. Our selves are benefited by it 2. Thereby we come to see the certainty of death 2. Thereby we come to see the nature of death The proper worke of death 1. To separate the body from the soule 2. To separate a man from his estate 3. To separate a man from his friends Gen. 23. 2 Sam. 1. 9. 1 Cor. 7. 19. 3. Thereby we come to see the end and cause of death 1 King 14. 13 2 Chro. 34. 28 Isa. 57. 1. Ezek. 9. 4. 5. Vse 1. For reproofe of the genetall neglect of this duty Vse 2.