serious and pensive to think this is but the Pattern of what must befall themselves and that all this must shortly be acted upon them that they now see done unto others But since this Day presents us with no such Solemnity some perhaps may wonder that I have chosen this Text and Subject of Mortality to treat upon Indeed Custom hath made it almost improper to preach of Death without a Funeral and to speak to Men of their last End and Dissolution without setting before their Eyes an Example of it Look well therefore one upon another what are we all as it were but so many Corpses so many Spectacles of Mortality rather to be numbred among the Dead than among the Living every Day and Hour wears away part of our Lives and so much of them as is already spent so far are we already dead and buried This present moment is the longest measure of our Lives what is past is dead to us and what is to come is not yet born how soon God may put a final Period to our present state how few times more our Pulses may beat and this busie Breath in our Nostrils return to us again we know not so frail and so uncertain are our Lives that this may be truly a Funeral Sermon to some one of us before the close of it Since then we are all of us thus subject to the stroke of Death it can never be unseasonable to warn you that you be not surprized and taken by it unprovided In the Words now read you have the great Statute-Law of Heaven that Law that God hath passed upon all the Chil-of Men and that is That it is appointed to them once to die Now that I may make way to press upon you the serious consideration of your own Mortality let me briefly mark out some things that tend to the Explication of the Words And First In that the Proposition is laid down in the Text indefinitely It is appointed unto men it is that which is equivalent to an Universal and reacheth to all men It is appointed to all men once to die We read of two only in the whole Book of God that were exempted by an extraordinary Grace and peculiar Priviledge from this great Law of Dying and they were Enoch and Elias Of Enoch it is said Gen. 5.24 That he walked with God and he was not for God took him And of Elias it is said 2 Kin 2.11 That he went up by a Whirlwind into Heaven The great God after a strange and unusual manner tackt their temporal and eternal Life together making their Time run it self into Eternity without any period or interruption The Apostle also tells us 1 Cor. 15.51 52. That all shall not die to wit at the last Day at the last appearing of Jesus Christ there shall be a World full of Persons that shall not taste of Death All shall not die but all shall be changed in a moment in the twinckling of an Eye These are exempted and being excepted it is certain all the Generations of Men from the first Creation to the last Consummation of all things are all appointed by God unto Death Secondly All must die once All must die once but Believers do not die the second Death There is frequent mention made in Scripture of the first and second Death The first Death is the separation of the Soul from the Body The second Death is the separation of the Soul from God As the Union of the Soul and Body is the Life of Man so the Union of God with the Soul is the Life of the Soul Now Believers do not die this second Death Rev. 20.8 for on such as the Apostle speaks the second Death hath no power They are still united unto God after an unconceivable and ineffable manner As when Christ lay in the Grave though his Soul was truly separated from his Body yet both Soul and Body were hypostatically united to the Godhead so also though the natural Union between a Believer's Soul and Body be dissolved by Death yet both Soul and Body continue mystically united unto Christ even in their separation one from another It is not therefore this second but the first Death that all are appointed unto The Hand of Death must untie those secret and sweet Bands those vital Knots that fasten Soul and Body together must fall asunder one day in every Man All Men must die because Death is the punishment of Sin Thirdly It is appointed unto every Man to undergo this first Death It is decreed and ordained by God and that not upon the Account of any natural Necessity but for the Punishment of Sin The Apostle tells us plainly That by Sin Death entred into the World Death therefore is not so much a Debt due to Nature as a Debt due to the avenging Justice of God for though Man at first was created in pure Nature yet was he also created in a deathless State and Death siezeth upon us not as we are Men but as we are Sinners liable to the Curse of the Covenant of Works containing in it that Threatning In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die It is true Adam even before he sinned had in him the contemperation of the same contrary Qualities that we now have and so at least had also the remote Principles of Death but yet it is probable that he was created with such a Priviledge that he might by his own Will sway and over-rule the Jars and Discords of his elementary constitution and continue himself in Life as long as he should continue himself in Obedience however whether it was so or otherwise yet certain it is that Death came into the World as the punishment of Sin So then it is not primarily Man's Nature but Man's Sin and the Curse of the Law taking hold of him that brought in this necessity of dying Sin is not only the Sting but the Cause of Death and it gives it not only its Terrour but it s very Being also And therefore it is somewhat remarkable that among all the Creatures in the World Man only is termed Mortal most certain it is that other Creatures decay and perish as well as he yet among all perishing things Man only hath that wretched denomination of being Mortal and there is good reason for it since he alone of all perishing things being created immortal voluntarily subjected himself unto Death and by his own Fault brought upon himself that Name of Mortal as a Brand of perpetual Infamy And thus now I come to the Subject that I intend to insist upon and that is The Unavoidableness and Certainty of Death To go about to prove this were to lose so much time every one grants he must die All other Questions about Man are answered by Peradventures If it be demanded Whether such an Embryo shall see the Light What 's the Answer but perhaps it shall perhaps it shall not If it be
observe these following particulars First Consider this that we and all Mankind were in Adam not only as in our common Parent from whom we received our Being but as in our Common Head Surety and Representative from whom we were to receive either our well or our ill Being he was the Head of the Covenant both he and we were Parties in the Covenant he obeying we obeyed and he sinning we transgressed what he did as in this publick capacity was not alone his Personal Act but it was ours also Now what Right Adam had to Indent for his Posterity and to oblige them to the Terms of the Covenant I have long since opened to you on another occasion and I shall therefore pass it by now Secondly The Threatning annexed to the Covenant of Works was Death In the Day thou Eatest thereof says God thou shalt surely Die Gen. 2.17 Now there is a Threefold Death that by the violation of this Command Man was subject unto A Temporal Death onsisting in the Miseries of this Life and at last a separation of the Soul from the Body An Eternal Death consisting in the everlasting separation of the Soul from God and a Spiritual Death consisting in the loss and separation of God's Image from the Soul And upon Adam's Sin this Threefold Death was Threatned namely Temporal Spiritual and Eternal Of these Three the Spirituaâ— Death was presently inflicted upon Man's Fall consisting in the separation of the Image of God from the Soul Man waâ— immediately deprived of that Holiness and perfect Righteousness wherein the Image of God did consist Then Thirdly Observe No Action can be Holy that doth not flow from the Image of God in the Soul as from its principle Every Action is sinful that hath not the Glory of God for its end now no Action can have the Glory of God for its end that hath not the Image oâ— God for its principle and therefore Man being despoiled of this Image of God there is no Action of any Man in the state of Nature but what is sinful and corrupt And hence it is that in Regeneration God again stamps his Image upon the Soul not indeed so perfectly as at Man's first Creation but yet in such a degree as doth thorough Grace enable him to Act Holily and in some measure according to the will of God Fourthly Though Man be despoiled of the Image of God and cannot Act Holily yet he is a busie and active Creature and must and will be still acting he hath an active Nature and he hath active Faculties still left him though the Image of God that should make those Actions Holy is justly taken from him And here at last we have traced out the true cause of that strong propension that there is in all Men unto Sin While the Soul enjoyed the Image of God it sought especially to do all in reference unto God but now that it hath lost that Image it cannot any longer raise up its Actions to a suitableness to the Will of God and therefore now it sinks them and seeks only to please its own Carnal Desires and Appetite Take the whole resolution of it in Two or Three Words The Nature of the Soul makes it prone and inclined to Act for it is a busie active Creature and if it Acts it must Sin because it hath not the Image of God to raise its Actions to a Holy and Divine conformity to the Will of God and therefore now to be prone to act is to be prone to sin and this is the true ground of that strong Propension that is in all Men to that which is evil and sinful Quest But You will say if this proneness to sin be from the loss of God's Image how comes it to pass that those who are renewed again according to the Image of God do still complain of this strong proneness and propension to sin Answ To this I answer that those of fallen Mankind to whom God is pleased to restore his Image in regeneration accordingly as this Image is more or less perfect so is this proneness to sin more or less strong but because the best are but in part renewed therefore this sinful proneness is but in part destroyed in the best Grace weakens it but Grace doth not quite remove it and therefore the holiest Christian hath and shall have as long as he lives in this World ' cause to complain with the Apostle Romans 7. 23. I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind there is a carnal sensual inclination in him strongly swaying him to sin contrary to the bent and inclination of his renewed part and therefore he shall have cause still to cry out with the Apostle Oh wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death because the Image of God is but in part restored in him therefore there is partly also an inclination in him to sin Yea but you will say possibly this inclination in the best Christians may be to smaller and lesser sins Object but it cannot be thought that a Child of God who is renewed again according to the Image of God should have a strong proneness and inclination to those foul sins that the wicked of the World lie in To this I answer Answ the most that Grace doth in the best of God's Children in this life is to weaken and lessen that natural propension that is in a Child of God to every sin but not to destroy that Propension to any one sin at all no not to the foulest and vilest sins The Old Man in this life never loseth one limb though it be weakned and consuming away in his whole body Take a Child of God that before his Conversion had a strong Propension to any sin suppose what sin you will though never so foul and horrid the same Propension still remains It is not indeed so violent and raging as it was but there it is it is abated and overcome by Grace but still there is the same proneness to sin it may be a Christian is not so sensible of this Propension to sin not so frequently as formerly he hath but yet the experience of the best sometimes can inform them that even to the worst sins and most horrid temptations they find a faction and party in their hearts to promote them and it is as much work as Grace can do to subdue and quell these great sins I now come to enquire into the grounds and reasons why God should suffer this proneness to sin to continue in his dearest Saints and Children after their Conversion and Regeneration possibly some may think it would have been far more conducible to God's glory as well as their own peace and comfort if God had at once at their first Conversion utterly destroyed all the seeds and remainders of corruption in them and at first made them as perfectly holy as they shall be at last hereby God would not have been so
Christian account Death among his Gains for it is the Hand of Death that draws the Curtain and lets him in to see God face to face in Heaven that Palace of inestimable Pleasure and Delight where the strongest Beams of Glory shall beat fully upon our Faces and where we shall be made strong enough to bear them Neither doth Death bring any detriment to our Bodies since they shall be new moulded at the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.53 when this Mortal shall put on Immortality and this Corruptible put on Incorruption when these dull Lumps shall become impassible as the Angels subtle as a Ray of Light bright as the Sun nimble as Lightning Who is there that hath hopes of Heaven that would have this Law of Death reversed Who would be confined to live always a wretched Life here on Earth that Sin and Sorrow share between them A holy Soul cannot but long and be impatient in breathing forth Desires after the kind Office of Death to deliver it into so great and incomprehensible a Glory crying out earnestly with the Apostle Phil. 1.21 I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all Now of what great concernment this Subject of Man's Mortality is Of what concernment the thoughts of Death are God by his Providence since I last spake in this Place hath sadly evinced and by a near Instance hath confirmed what I then Preached unto you of the Frailty and Uncertainty of this present Life Happy were it for us if either Sermons or Examples might awaken us to a serious Consideration that we our selves also must shortly die and it may be as suddenly Are we not all subjected to the same Attack Hath not God's Hands kneaded our Bodies out of the same clay and may not his Fingers crumble them again into the same dust Certainly the Cords of our Tabernacles may be as easily unloosed and cut asunder as theirs I have read of a great Emperour that to engrave upon himself the deeper Apprehensions of his own Frailty and Mortality caused his own Funerals to be solemniz'd while he was yet living laying himself down in his Tomb weeping over himself as his own Mourner If there were any advantage in this to prepare him to die at last really by dying thus first in an Emblem we may almost daily have the same There 's not a Funeral of any of our Relations or Acquaintance that we are called to give our Attendance upon but by serious and solemn Reflections upon our selves we may make it our own and if by beholding others nailed up in their Coffins laid down in their cold Graves covered over with Earth that they may become a Feast for Worms if now we reckon our selves among the number of them we shall not be very much mistaken for this is only but a few days to anticipate what shall shortly be our state and condition This Advantage we our selves may make of the Death of others to look upon it as a resemblance at least of our own What is the Language of every Grave we see open its mouth to receive into it the dead Body of some Neighbour or Acquaintance but only this That we also are mortal and perishing There 's not a broken Skull or a rotten Bone that lies scattered about the Grave but hath Death and Mortality written upon them and call loudly upon us to prepare our selves to take up our Abode in the same darkness and corruption with them and if upon every such sad occasion we do not make a particular Application thereof unto our own selves we not only lose our Friend's Lives but their very Deaths also And yet in this Affair that might be of great advantage to us we are exceeding faulty for the reflections we make on the death of others are usually very impertinent and make no lasting impressions upon us When Death comes and mows down our Acquaintance and Relations round about us the Reflection that we usually make is more upon the Loss that we have sustained by their Death than upon the Example they are thereby made to us of our own Frailty and Mortality and thereby as God by his Providence hath deprived us of the Comfort we had in their Lives so we deprive our selves of the Instruction and Benefit we might have by their Death Or if some extraordinary Circumstance that appears in the Death of others strikes us into serious Thoughts of our own yet usually they are but short-liv'd and fleeting for a while it may be we think of humane frailty and the mutability of our present State but these Thoughts soon wear off and we return to the same Vanity and wretched Security as before for such dying Meditations of Death are usually very unprofitable It is with most men as it is with a Flock of Sheep that graze fearlesly till the Shepherd rusheth in among them and lays hold of one of them for the Slaughter and this presently frights them making them leave their Food and run scattering about the Field but no sooner is the Tumult over but they flock together again and feed as securely without Thoughts of death or danger as before So truly is it with most men when either the report is spread abroad that such or such a person is dead and it may be suddenly by some sudden and unexpected stroke or when they are called to visit some dying Person where they behold departing Pangs distorted Eyes quivering Limbs wan and ghastly Corpse the Image of Death in all its lively terrours if they have any Remainders of natural Tenderness it must needs strike them into Pensiveness to think that one day this must be their own Case and that therefore it behoves them to be in continual preparation for this last and dreadful Change But no sooner is the Dead interr'd and the Grave fill'd up again but all these sage and serious Thoughts vanish and they return to the same excess of Sin and Pleasure as before This is the brutish Folly and Sottishness of most men But Oh why should not men always keep alive vigorous thoughts and meditations of Death Are they not always alike mortal Are they not as much subject to the Arrest of Death at other times as when they see Examples of Mortality before their Eyes The Law stands still in force unrepealed in Heaven That it is appointed unto all Men once to die Indeed it fares with such as these as ordinarily it doth with Malefactors that fear not the Penalty of the Law till they see it executed upon others Let us therefore act rationally as Men and as long as we are in danger be kept by that danger prepared to entertain that which we know is irreversibly appointed unto us But now besides this general Appointment of God That all shall die there is a particular Appointment that reacheth to every particular Circumstance of Man's Death the time when the manner how we shall die These are unalterably determined in God's
Lives in pursuing such vain things from which we may be snatcht before we can cast another look at them Sowre Death will soon convince us that all is but vanity and vexation of spirit that we here set our eyes and hearts upon And therefore Vse 2 Secondly Seeing by the appointment of God we must all shortly die let us be perswaded to be always in a readiness and preparation for it Our Souls are Immortal and must live for ever and when our Bodies die and fall into the Dust they immediately enter into an Estate that is for ever unalterable Directions to prepare for Death Now here I shall only lay down a few directions and so conclude First Wean your Hearts from an inordinate love of the World Get hearts weaned from the World Death must and will pluck you from it and oh it will be a violent rending if your affections be glewed to it Consider that all things in this present World are fading and perishing but your precious Souls are ever living and Immortal be not therefore unequally yoaked joyn not your ever-living Souls to dying comforts This is a tyranny worse than that which was Exercised by those of old who tied living Bodies to dead Carkasses Oh! what a sad parting hour will it be to thee when thou shalt go into another World and leave behind thee all that thou countest good in this how wilt thou protract and linger and wishly look back again upon all those precious vanities and dear nothings and follies that here thou placedst thy happiness and contentment in But now when the heart sets loose from all these things with what satisfaction shall we be able to Die accounting what we lose by Death to be no great matter because what we gain thereby will be infinitely more to our advantage Secondly Repentance must not be deferred upon hopes of long Life Would you be prepared for Death beware then that you do not defer your Repentance one day or hour longer upon any presumption of the continuance of your Life Death depends not upon the warning of a sickness God doth not always afford it but sometimes he doth execution before he Shoots off his warning Piece why may it not be so with you however it is possible your sickness may be such as may render you uncapable of doing your last good Office for your Soul But if it should be otherwise yet this I am sure of it is the unfittest time in all your Life to be then casting up your Accounts when you should be giving of them up to have your Evidences for Heaven then to clear up to your Souls when you should produce and shew them for your support and comfort Live every day as if it were your last Thirdly Live every day so as if every day were your last and dying day and the very next day allotted to you unto Eternity if it be not so it is more than any of us know and since we have no assurance of one day or hour longer it is but Reason and Wisdom to look upon every day as that which may prove our very last Be constant in the exercise of a holy life Fourthly Be constant in the Exercise of a Holy Life and always doing of that that you would be content Christ should find you doing when he comes to Summon you before his Bar. Think with thy self if thou wer 't now upon thy sick Bed and hadst received the Sentence of Death and sawest thy Friends stand mourning round about thee but cannot help thee what would be thy thoughts and thy discourse then Why let the same thoughts and the same discourse fill up every day and hour of thy Life for thou knowest not whether now this moment thou art not as near Death as if thy Friends and Relations yea and thy Physicians also dispaired of thy Life and had given thee over for Dead Fifthly and Lastly Get an assurance of a better Life Labour to get an assurance of a better Life and this will prepare you for a temporal Death When you and all things in the World must take leave of one another and part forever than to have the sense of the Love of God of an interest in Jesus Christ and the sight and view of your own Graces these will bear up your Heart in a dying hour these things are Immortal as your Souls are and will enter into Heaven with you and abide there with you to Eternity O whom will it not comfort to think that Death will change his Bottle into a Spring though here our Water sometimes fails us yet in Heaven whither we are going we shall bath our selves in an infinite Ocean of Delights lying at the breasts of an infinite Fountain of Life and Sweetness Whoever hath such an assurance as this is cannot but welcome Death embracing it not only with contentment but with Delight And while the Soul is strugling and striving to unclasp it self and to get loose from the Body it cannot but say with Holy Longings and Pantings Come Lord Jesus come quickly THE GREAT EVIL and DANGER OF Little Sins IN FOUR SERMONS ON St. MATTH V. 19. Whosoever therefore shall break any one of these least Cammandments and shall teach Men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven By EZEKIEL HOPKINS late Lord Bishop of London-Derry LONDON Printed by E. H. for NATHANAEL RANEW at the King's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1693. THE GREAT EVIL and DANGER OF LITTLE SINS FROM St. MATTH V. 19. Whosoever therefore shall break any one of these least Commandments and shall teach Men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven AMongst those many Points that our Saviour handles in this his Sermon on the Mount An Introduction one is the Stability and Permanency of the Moral Law the Obligation of which he affirms to be as perpetual as Heaven and Earth Verse 18. Verily verily I say unto you till Heaven and Earth pass one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled This Assertion Christ lays down in opposition to the common and corrupt Doctrine of the Scribes and Pharisees the Jewish Teachers who by their Traditions sought to make void the Law of God Now says Christ unless they can remove the Earth and rowl up the Heavens and carry the World without the World it is but a vain Attempt for it is decreed in Heaven That till Heaven and Earth pass not a tittle of the Law shall fail but all shall be fulfilled As it is in this lower World notwithstanding it is maintained by a continual flux and vicissitude by the perpetual change of one being into another one corrupting and another rising up in a new form and shape out of its Ruines and yet not the least dust of Matter is or can be consumed but the same Matter and the same Quantity still continues which were at first created
they who thus argue and who thus act never knew what a sweet and powerful Attractiveness there is in the sense of pardoning Grace and Love to win over the Heart from the practice of those sins that God hath forgot to punish Pardoning Grace engageth to Love God Secondly This should engage us to Love that God who so loved us as freely for his own sake to forgive us such vast Debts and such multiplied sins This is the import of that Speech of our Saviour he loveth most to whom most is forgiven him And hence it is and you may commonly observe it That none are such great Lovers and Admirers of free Grace as those who before Conversion were the vilest and most flagitious Sinners Thirdly Pardoning Grace should teach us to forgive others Since God doth so freely pardon us let this teach us and prevail with us to pardon and forgive the offence of others This is that the Scripture doth urge as the most natural Inference of this Doctrine of God's pardoning Grace Thus the Apostle Ephes 4.32 Be ye kind to one another tender-hearted forgiving one another as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you And say not as ignorant People are wont to do I will forgive but I will never forget for God doth forgive and forget too I will blot out your transgressions and I will remember your sins no more Your sins against God are Talents others Offences against you are but Pence and if for every trivial Provocation you are ready to take your Brother by the Throat and wreak your wrath and revenge upon him may you not fear lest your Lord and Master to whom you stand deeply indebted should also deal so with you for far greater Crimes than others can be guilty of against you and cast you into Prison until you have paid the utmost most Farthing especially considering that you pray for the forgiveness of your own sins as you do proportionably forgive the sins of others Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And thus I have opened and demonstrated unto you the former part of the Doctrine That the Grace of God whereby he blots out and forgives sin is absolutely free I am now in the next place to prove that it is infinitely glorious Now this I shall endeavour to do by considering pardon of sin in the Nature of it in the Concomitants of it and in the Effects and Consequences of it From all which it will appear both how great a Mercy it is to us and how great a Glory it is to God that he blots out and forgets sin And First Let us consider the nature of pardon of sin what it is And this we cannot better discover than by looking into the Nature of sin Sin therefore as the Apostle describes it is a Transgression of the Law Now to the Validity of any Law there are Penalties literally expressed or tacitly implyed which are altogether necessary The guilt contracted by the transgressing of the Law is nothing but our liableness to undergo the Penalty threatned in the Law and this guilt it is two-fold the one is intrinsical and necessary and that is the desert of punishment which sin carries always in it The other is extrinsical and adventitious by which sin is ordained to be punished These two things are in every sin Every sin deserves Death and God hath in his Law ordain'd and threatned to inflict Death for it Question Now it being clear That Pardon and Remission of Sin is nothing but the removal of the guilt of sin the Question is Whether it removes that guilt that consists in the desert of punishment or that which consists in the voluntary appointment of it unto punishment or both Answer To this I Answer Pardon of sin doth not remove the intrinsical desert of punishment but only the adventitious appointment and ordination of it unto punishment flowing from the Will of God who hath in his own Law threatned to punish sin Remission doth not make that the sins even of Believers themselves should not deserve Death for a liableness to the penalty of the Law in this sence is a necessary consequent upon the Transgression of the Law But because God in the Covenant of Grace hath promised not to reward his Penitent Servants according to the evil of their doings therefore Pardoning Grace removes this guilt of sin arising from God's Ordination of it unto punishment As now suppose a Traytour should accept of the proffer of a Pardon the guilt of his Treason ceaseth not in the inward nature of it but still he deserves to be punished but this Obnoxiousness of his through the Prince's Favour and Appointment is taken away and so that guilt ceaseth So the Repenting Sinner every sin he commits deserves Death but upon his believing in the Lord Jesus Christ this liableness unto Death ceaseth being graciously remitted to them by God Now the Scripture sets forth this Pardon of sin in very sweet and full Expressions It is called a covering of sin Psal 32.1 Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven and whose sin is covered Though our covering of our sins is no Security from the inspection of God's Eye who clearly beholds the most hidden and secret things of Darkness yet certainly those sins that God himself hath covered from himself he will never again look into so as to punish for them Nay yet farther as a ground of Comfort Pardon of sin is not only called a covering of our sins from God's sight but a covering of God's Face and Sight from them so we have it Psal 51.9 Hide thy face from my sins and blot out mine iniquities It is a casting of our sins behind God's back as a thing that shall never more be regarded or look'd upon so it is expressed to us Isaiah 38.17 Thou hast in love to my soul says good Hezekiah when a Message of Death was brought to him by the Prophet cast all my sins behind thy back It is a casting of them into the depth of the Sea from whence they shall never more arise either in this World to terrifie our Consciences or in the World to come to condemn our Souls so we have it in Micah 1.19 I will cast all their Iniquities says God into the depth of the Sea It is a scattering of them as a thick cloud so it is called Esay 44.22 I will scatter their sins as a cloud and their iniquities as a thick cloud And in the Text it is called a blotting out and a forgetting of sin I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own sake and will not remember thy sins a blotting out to shew That God will never read his Debt-Book against us and a forgetting it That we may not fear that God will accuse us without-book Now these and such like Expressions with which the Scripture doth abound do very much illustrate the Mercy of God in pardoning of sin and I
of it received into the Body of Christ and now God's Righteousness will not suffer him to punish them again in their own Persons whom he hath already punisht in their Surety Imagine what Affliction thou canst Art thou pinched with Want and Poverty Doest thou sustain Losses in thy Estate in thy Relations Art thou tormented with Pains weakned by Diseases and will all these bring Death upon thee at the last Yet O Soul if thy Sins are Pardon'd here is nothing of a Curse or Punishment in all this Justice is already satisfied by Christ's bearing the Curse of the Law for thee Come what will come it shall not hurt thee Afflictions are all weak and weaponless they are only the Corrections of a Loving Father for the manifestation of his Holiness and for thy Eternal Gain and Advantage Very sad is the Condition of Guilty Sinners for whether they know it or not there is not the least Affliction not the least Gripe or Pain not the least slight or inconsiderable Cross but it is a Punishment inflicted by God upon them for the Guilt of their Sins God is now a beginning to satisfie his Justice and these are sent by him to Arrest and Seize on them he now begins to take them by the Throat and calls upon them to pay him what they owe him Every Affliction to them is part of Payment and is exacted from them as part of Payment O the vast and infinite Sums of Plagues that God will most severely exact from them in Hell where they shall pay to the utmost Farthing There is not the least Calamity that befals Wicked and Unpardon'd Sinners but carries the Venom of a Curse in it and is inflicted by God upon them in order to the Satisfaction of his Justice on them which compleat satisfaction he will work out upon them in their Compleat Torments in Hell So much for this Time and Text. FINIS BOOKS Printed for Nathanael Ranew at the King's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard NEwly Printed the Works of Josephus with great Diligence Revised and Amended according to the Excellent French Translation of Monsieur Arnauld D' Andilly Also the Embassy of Philo Judaeus to the Emperour Caius Caligula never before Translated with the references of the Scriptures a new Map of the Holy Land with divers Copper-Plates serving to illustrate the History The Principles of Christian Religion with a large Body of Divinity Methodically and Familiarly handled by way of Question and Answer for the use of Families with Immanuel or the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God by the most Reverend James Vsher late Arch-Bishop of Armagh To which is added in this Seventh Edition Twenty Sermons Preached at Oxford before his Majesty and elsewhere with an Alphabetical Table never before extant The Life of the most Reverend Father in God James Vsher late Arch-Bishop of Armagh With a Collection of Three Hundred Letters between his Lordship and most of the Eminentest Persons for Piety and Learning in his time both in England and beyond the Seas Published from Original Copies under their own Hands Practical Preparation for Death the Interest and Wisdom of Christians the Folly and Misery of those that are negligent therein with Directions for the performance thereof how the Fears of Death may be overcome with Consolations and Comforts against the Death of Friends and Relations Proper to be given at Funerals The Glory and Happiness of the Saints in Heaven or a Discourse of the Blessed State of the Righteous after Death largely described with a Resolution of several Questions and Cases of Conscience relating thereunto A Present for Servants from their Ministers Masters or other Friends proper for the instructing of them in their particular Duties By Richard Mayo
born and it be asked Whether it shall live and grow up to Age Why perhaps so perhaps otherwise If it grow up to Age and Enquiry be made Shall it be rich or shall it be poor honourable or despised learned or ignorant What 's the Answer Only perhaps it shall perhaps not But if it be asked Whether it shall die The Answer now is Yes it is certain without any Peradventure there is no doubt at all of this It is appointed by God for Men once to die And therefore though Physicians have written Books of preserving of Health yet never any wrote Books of avoiding of Death We need no other proof of Man's Mortality but only to search into the Records of the Grave there lie Rich and Poor Strong and Weak Wise and Foolish Holy and Prophane the Rubbish of ten thousand Generations heaped one upon another and this Truth that all must die written indelibly in their Dust That therefore that I shall do shall be in an Applicatory Way to make some Reflections upon the brutish Stupidity of Men who though they know themselves Mortal yet thrust from themselves the Thoughts of Death and neglect due Preparations for it Men live in the World as if they were arbitrary of their own Time as if they should never die and come to Judgment Oh the beastly Sottishness of Men who though they see Multitudes cut down daily by the hand of Death round about them yet they live carelesly and presumptuously as if they were priviledged Persons and Death durst not touch them Should we make Enquiry into the Causes of this gross Stupidity and Sottishness perhaps we should find it to proceed from some of these following Reasons why men put off the thoughts of Death Because they are drown'd in the affairs of the World First The generality of men are so immers'd and drowned in the Affairs and pleasures of Life that all serious thoughts of Death and preparations for it are swallowed up and devoured by them Their minds are taken up about other things and their time spent upon other matters like an heap of Ants that busily toil to gather in their Provision not regarding the foot that is ready to tread upon them so is it with most men they are taken up with impertinencies and vain things One contrives how he may melt away his days in Luxury and Pleasure and with variety of invented Delights imp the wings of time that in their apprehensions makes but slow hast that so their days and hours may roll away the faster these are such Prodigals of their time and lavish it away at that rate as if their stock would last as long as Eternity it self Some are busily climbing up the sleep ascent of Honour and Dignity and are so taken up in seeking after promotions and new Titles that they forget their old stile of mortal creatures Others are plotting with the Fool in the Gospel how they may grow rich and lay up goods for themselves for many years as they fansie when yet they know not but God may take away their Souls from them this very night and what then remains to them of all that they have thus greedily scraped together O vain and foolish men are these the things you set your hearts upon must the World drink up all your thoughts and Death that shortly will snatch you from all your enjoyments here below be forgotten by you Secondly Men put off their preparation for Death because they look upon it as a far off Men put off the thoughts of Death and their preparations for it because they generally look upon it as a far off This is the greatest sottishness in the World and yet most men are too guilty of it Those that are young and in the prime of their Days if it be askt them what they think of Death they will readily Answer that they think they ought of right and course to live till they are aged And they that are aged will tell you their weaknesses and decays are not so many or so great but they may well weather away a few more years Those that are healthful and strong think surely they need not prepare for dying till God by some sickness sends them a summons and those whom God is pleased to vouchsafe a summons by Sickness and Distempers alas they think that it is yet possible for them to escape from them again And thus all are ready to thrust Death from them and to put the Evil Day a far off And though God hath told out to them but a few days or hours yet they liberally and bountifully reckon upon Years and Ages as if their time were not in God's hands but their own It is a true saying that usually the hopes of a long Life is the Cause of an Evil Life Suppose now that every one of us knew for a certainty that our lives must run out with the Glass that is before us that at the end of the hour God would strike us all dead upon the place should we not all of us have more lively apprehensions of Death and Eternity than ever yet we have had should we not pour out our Souls before God requires them from us in holy Affections and fervent Prayers should we give scope to the gaddings of our Thoughts and the vanity of our Hearts should we think of such a vain Pleasure or such a worldly Employment if God now from Heaven should speak audibly to us and bid us give an account of our Stewardship for we must be no longer Stewards no certainly it is impossible that men should thus behave themselves And why Sirs is it not so with you always for ought you know that Film and Bubble that holds your Lives may be now a breaking your Graves may be ready to be digging and the last Sand in your Glass may be now a running however certain it is it cannot be long before it will be so with all of us Did we but seriously consider by what small pins this frame of Man is tacked together it would appear to us to be no less than a Miracle that we live one day yea one hour to an end Thirdly The thoughts of Death being terible makes men put off their preparation for it Men generally put off the thoughts of Death and their preparation for it because of those frightful terrors and that insupportable dread that such apprehensions bring with them Death is that which above all things Humane Nature most abhors Oh! to think of the separation of those near and dear companions the Soul and Body of the debasement dishonour and horrour of the Grave that there we must lie in a Bed of stench and rottenness under a coverlet of Worms crawling upon us consuming and mouldring away to dust in oblivion and forgetfulness Oh! these are too sad and Melancholy Thoughts for the Jovial World to entertain and dwell upon But though the consideration of these things are very unwelcome yea
very dismal unto the minds of sinners yet is there far worse behind then all this still and that which carries in it far greater terrour and amazement and that is the sin that deserves Death and the Hell that follows it for as the Apostle says 1 Cor. 15.56 the sting of Death is sin And it s no wonder that Men who are conscious to themselves of condemning guilt dare not think of standing before the dreadful Tribunal of God and Death now is God's Serjeant to Arrest them and to bring them thither they cannot bear the thoughts of Eternal Vengeance and prepared Torments to be for ever inflicted on them by the Almighty Power of an incensed God and therefore it is no wonder that they put far from them the thoughts of Death because their Consciences tell them that that Day whensoever it comes will be to them an Evil Day Many more Reasons might be given of this brutishness of men in putting off the thoughts of Death and preparations for it but these shall suffice The next thing that I shall do shall be to lay down some Considerations that may fore-arm Christians against the Fears and Terrours of Death Considerations to arm men against the fears of Death and make them willing to submit unto this law of Dying unto which God hath subjected all men And First The soul is immortal and parting with this it enters into a better life If the Soul be immortal as certainly it is and that parting from this it enters upon a better Life than this we may well then be contented to Die upon that account No man says a Roman Author thinks Death is much to be avoided since Immortality follows Death I am very sensible how hard a task it is to perswade men to be willing to Die but yet let me ask you if you are believers for in this I speak only unto such what is there in Death that is so terrible to you I know it is monstrous and full of horrour if we consider nothing but the Corruption of the Flesh the gastly paleness the stiff cold and grim visage the distorted Eyes and trembling Limbs of Dying Persons And afterwards think of the stench and filthiness of the Grave and lastly the dissipation of the visible part of Man All these Considerations make Death very terrible and full of horrour to us But now he that shall consider after all this his spiritual invisible part what can he see in Death that is not very desirable to him the Body rests from its labours and the Soul enjoys its reward in Heaven If you are hereby taken away from conversing with men yet the Soul is elevated to an acquaintance with Angels that is still alive in its own Nature the Soul lives for ever being placed above the common Arrests of Death We find to this purpose after that God had tryed the patience of Job by the loss of all his substance and afterwards of all his Children also he restores to him double whatever he had taken from him Job 42. â—0 so we read in the Holy Story the Lord gave unto Job twice as much as he had before Now whereas at first Job had three thousand Camels God restores to him six thousand whereas before he had seven thousand Sheep God restores to him fourteen thousand and so of all the rest double the number of what he lost But when God comes to recompence to him the loss of his Children which doubtless were of far greater value than all the rest whereas he had seven Sons and three Daughters God restores to him the same number again not double in these as he did in all the rest And wherefore did God double his Camels his Sheep and his Oxen and not his Children why the Reason was because his Children were not so dead as were his Camels and the rest of his brute Creatures their Souls remain'd Immortal and Entire still after Death So that God in giving Job seven Sons and three Daughters did double them notwithstanding though he gave him no more than he had at first So here though we Die yet Death doth us no injury our better part survives and if we are Believers it survives in such unconceivable Joys as that all the pleasures of the World are but Misery and Wretchedness compared to them A Christian's Hope cannot be accomplished but by dying Secondly The whole Life of a Christian is founded upon a Hope that cannot be accomplished but by dying And if so that Mans Mistake must needs be inexcusable who abhors that which alone can bring him to the possession of his Hopes and Desires Christians what is it that you hope for Is it not to arrive at Glory with an innumerable Host of Angels and the Spirits of just Men made perfect to see God and to rejoyce in him at a nearer hand than you now do here below to be for ever blessed in the close Embraces of the sovereign Good And what other way is there of obtaining this but only by dying Death is now made to us an In-let to Glory the very Gate to Heaven It is therefore unreasonable to fear that which is the only way to obtain that we hope for Death is a quiet sleep Thirdly This Death though so much dreaded is no other than a quiet Sleep So the Scripture often represents it to us under the Notion of Sleep Them that sleep in Jesus shall God bring with him Sleep is the natural resemblance of Death Sleep and Death are very near a-kin When we are asleep we see not we hear not all our Senses are lock'd up from the enjoyment of any worldly Delights we take no comfort in our Friends in our Riches or Estates all these are cancell'd out of our Minds and what more doth Death do than cancel these things out of Men's Memories And yet the weary Labourer lays himself down with contentment to take his Sleep until the Morning and why may not we also lay down our selves with the same peace and contentment in our Graves to take our Rest and Sleep until the Morning of the Resurrection Indeed the Sleep of Death is different from natural Sleep since that deprives us of natural Light but this Sleep of Death brings us to the vision of true inaccessible Light What then is there in death that we should stand in dread of it Why should that be feared by those for whom the sting of it is already taken out Such may safely take this Serpent into their bosoms for though it hiss at them yet it cannot wound or hurt them nay instead of wounding them it is reconciled to them and become one of their party The Apostle therefore reckoning up the Inventory of a Christian reckons this among them 1 Cor. 3.22 Whether Life or Death all is yours And in another place he tells us Phil. 1.21 That to him to live was Christ and to die was Gain And well may a
guilty in the general though in particular he knew not what they were now in this Verse he prays that God would keep him from Sins of Presumption The Connexion of these two Requests is somewhat remarkable and may afford us this pertinent and profitable Observation Doctr. That Sin is of a growing and advancing Nature From Weakness to Wilfulness from Ignorance to Presumption is its ordinary course and progress The Cloud that Elijah's Man saw was at first no bigger than a hand 's breadth and it threatned no such thing as a general Tempest but yet at last it overspread the face of the whole Heavens Why so truly a Sin that at first ariseth in the Soul but as a small Mist and is scarce discernable yet if it be not scattered by the breath of Prayer it will at length overspread the whole Life and become most tempestuous and raging and therefore David as one experienced in the deceitfulness of Sin doth thus digest and methodize his Prayer First against secret and lesser Sins and then against the more gross and notorious as knowing the one proceeds and issues from the other Lord cleanse me from my secret faults and this will be a most effectual means to preserve and keep thy Servant from Presumptuous Sins and this Observation may be gathered from the connexion of the two Requests But I shall not insist on that The Words are a most sincere and affectionate Prayer and in them are observable First The Person that makes it and that is not a vile notorious Sinner one that used to be overcome by presumptuous Sins but David a Man after God's own heart eminent for Holiness and Piety Keep back thy Servant says he from presumptuous Sins Secondly The Request and Petition it self and that is that God would keep him not from Sins of common Frailty and daily Infirmity such as no Man's Holiness can exempt him from but from Sins of Presumption from daring and ranting Sins such as one would think that no Man that hath the least Holiness in him could ever commit Keep back thy Servant from presumptuous Sins In this Petition two Things are evidently implied First That strong propension that there is in the best to the worst Sins Were it not so what need David pray for restraining-Grace Keep back thy Servant Lord my Corruptions hurry me with all violence into the greatest Sins they perswade they force they drag they draw they thrust forward and now now I am going and yielding but Lord with-hold me put a curb and check upon these violent and head strong Corruptions of mine keep back keep me back from presumptuous Sins Secondly It implies that utter impotency that the best lie under to preserve themselves from the foulest sins without the special aid and assistance of divine Grace My Heart it is not in my own hands my Ways are not at my own dispose I cannot stand longer than thou upholdest me I cannot walk longer than thou leadest me if thou withdrawest thine everlasting Arms from under me I shall stumble and fall and tumble headlong into fearful Precipices into vile Impieties into Hell and Perdition it self and therefore Lord do thou keep me do thou by thy Omnipotency supply my Impotency by thy Power keep me from what mine own Weakness will certainly betray me unto Keep back thy Servant from presumptuous Sins These two Things are implied and couched in the Petition it self Thirdly In the Text we have the Reason also why David prays so earnestly against presumptuous Sins Which Reason carries in it the Form of a distinct Petition by it self Keep back thy Servant from presumptuous Sins let them not have dominion over me but yet it may be well understood as a Reason of the foregoing Request therefore Lord keep me from presumptuous Sins lest by falling into the commission of them I fall also under the power of them lest by prevailing upon me they get dominion and sovereignty over me And in this Reason also we have a hint of the incroaching nature of Sin still from the allowance of little and secret Sins it proceeds to the commission of gross and presumptuous Sins and from the commission of these it proceeds to dominion over him and therefore if we would not be Slaves to our Lusts and Vassals to the Devil we had need all of us to pray with David Lord keep us from secret Sins lest they break out into open and presumptuous Sins and Lord keep us from presumptuous Sins lest they get dominion over us Now from the Words thus divided and opened several useful Observations may be raised As First From the Petition it self we may observe these Two Doctrinal Points First That in the very best Christians there is great proneness and inclination to the very worst Sins David himself prays for restraining Grace to keep him from presumptuous Sins Secondly Observe It is not our own Doct. 2 Power but only Divine Grace that can preserve us from the most horrid and vilest Sins Those Sins that we now abhor the very thoughts of yet were we but left to our selves and were but Divine Grace abstracted from us even those Sins we should commit with all greediness And then from the Person who makes this Prayer and Request unto God observe Thirdly That Because the strongest Doct. 3 Christians are too weak of themselves to resist the greatest Sins therefore they ought continually to implore the aid and assistance of Divine Grace David though a strong and mighty Saint yet durst not trust himself alone to grapple with a Corruption or a Temptation and therefore in the sense of his own Weakness he prays the Lord to keep him Keep thou thy Servant And then Lastly from the Reason Keep me from presumptuous Sins lest they get dominion over me or let them not get dominion over me Observe Doct. 4 That The frequent Commission of presumptuous and daring Sins will subject the Soul to the reigning Power and Dominion of Sin But I shall not handle each of these by themselves but give you the Sum and Substance of them all in one and so prosecute that which is this Doct. That The best Security the best of God's Children have from the Commission and from the Dominion of presumptuous Sins is only their own servent Prayers and God's Almighty Grace In the Prosecution of this Doctrine I shall endeavour to shew you when it is that a Man is guilty of presumptuous Sins and wherein the Nature of such Sins consists First Then a Sin is presumptuous when it is committed against the powerful Dictates of a Man 's own Conscience and against the clear Convictions of the Holy Ghost When Conscience is awakened in Conviction and rings aloud in Men's Ears the ways thou livest in are grosly sinful the end of them is Hell and Death thou wadest through the dearest Blood of thine own Soul if thou goest on seest thou not how Guilt dismally stares thee in the Face Seest thou not how the Mouth of
them there we see our own heart unbowell'd and there we can discern what our selves are at the cost of other mens Sins What says the Wise man in Prov. 27 19 As in water face answereth unto face so doth the heart of a man to a man It was the proud Pharisee's boast Lord I thank thee that I am not as other men are Extortioners Vnjust Adulterers or a this Publican as it is in Luke 18. Yes believe it you and I and all yea the best of us all we are even as others are the vilest Sinners are the truest Glasses to represent to our view what our Hearts are their wickedness gives in a true Inventory of what lies locked up in our Breasts there we have the same Vipers knotting and sprawling within that crawl forth in others Lives there is Rancour and Malice and Hatred and Slaughters and Adulteries and the whole Spawn of all those black Sins that have made Men either infamous in Story or mighty in Torment and that we have not yet out-sinned all the Copies that ever were set us that we have not yet discovered some new unknown wickedness to the World is not because our inclination to Sin or our stock of Corruption fails us but because God's Grace either preventing or renewing fails not Where then is the Christian that hath not cause to go mourning to his Grave can you blame him to see him sad and disconsolate when he hath no less Reason for it than a Heart brim-full of Sin Certainly that Man neither loves God nor his own Soul that can hear that there is in him such a violent propension to injure the one and ruine the other without exclaiming with the Prophet Woe is me for I am undone because I am a Man of an unclean heart and of polluted Lips It is but just yea it is all the reason in the World that while our hearts continue to be fountains of Sin our heads should continue to be fountains of Tears That Proneness that is in God's Children to Sin should make them long for Heaven Thirdly Is there in the best a strong proneness to the worst Sins what cause have we then to long and breath after Heaven For not till then shall we be free from it In-dwelling Sin hath taken a Lease of our Souls and holds them by our own Lives it will be in us to the last gasp and as the Heart is the last that dies so also is that Corruption that lodgeth in it but yet die it must and die it shall And this is the comfort of a Child of God that though he brought Sin with him into the World yet he shall not carry it with him out of the World God hath so wisely ordered and appointed it that as Death came in by Sin so also shall Sin it self be destroyed by Death As Worms when they creep into their holes leave their Slime and their Dirt behind them Why truly so is it with a Christian when he dies he leaves all his Slime all his Filth and Corruption at the mouth of the Grave and his Soul gets free from that Clog and mounts up into the bosom of God and there alone is it that it shall no more strive and struggle against sinful Propensions and Inclinations there shall it be eternally fixed and confirmed not only in Glory but in Holiness also we shall there be out of the reach of Satan's Temptations We read indeed that sometimes the Devil appears before God as an Accuser but we never read that he comes there as a Tempter we shall no more feel the first risings and steamings up of Corruption there no more shall we cast kind glances upon our Sins nor have hovering Thoughts towards them O blessed Necessity when the Soul shall be tied up to one all-satisfying Good when it shall have as natural a proneness and ardour to delight in God as to love it self and to delight in its own happiness And who then would desire to linger any longer here below and to spin out his wretched Life wherein Sin and Sorrow shall have the greatest share here the best of us are in perpetual Combates and Quarrels betwixt Sin and Geace the one will not yield and the other cannot Corruption that compells one way and Grace commands another Haste therefore O Christian out of this Scuffle make haste to Heaven and there the controversie will be for ever decided there shalt thou no more live in fear of new sins nor yet in sorrow for old sins but all sorrow and sighing shall flee away all tears shall be wiped from our eyes and all Sin shall be rooted out of our hearts and we shall be perfectly holy even as the Angels themselves are A Proneness in us to Sin should make us â—â—â—ful to avoid occasions of Sin Lastly Is there such a strong proneness in the best to the worst Sins this then should teach us carefully to avoid all Temptations to Sin and whatever may be an occasion to draw forth that Corruption that lies latent within us Wherefore is it that one Petition of those few that Christ taught his Disciples was that God would not lead them into Temptation but because he knew there is in all of us sinful Natures that do too too well correspond with Temptations And he knew that if we were brought into Temptations it is very seldom that we are brought off from them without Sin Were we as free from inherent Sin as Adam was at first or were we confirmed in Grace as the Saints in Heaven now are we might then repell all Temptations with ease and therefore our Saviour whose Nature was spotless by an extraordinary conception and whose Holiness was secure to him by an unspeakable Union of the Godhead he tells us in John 4.13 The Prince of this World came and found nothing in him The Devil came to tempt him but because he found nothing in him therefore he could fasten nothing upon him no Temptation could enter because there was no Corruption to receive it and therefore when he tempted Christ he only cast fiery darts against an impenetrable Rock a Rock that will beat them back again into his own face but our Corruptions have made us combustible Matter that there is scarce a Dart thrown at us in vain when he tempts us it is but like the casting of Fire into Tinder that presently catcheth our Hearts kindle upon the least Spark that falls like a Vessel that is brim-full of Water upon the least jogg runs over Were we but true to our selves though the Devil might knock by his Temptations yet he could never burst open the everlasting Doors of our Hearts by force or violence but alas we our selves are not all of one heart and one mind Satan hath got a strong party within us that as soon as he knocks opens to him and entertains him and hence is it that many times small Temptations and very petty occasions draw forth great Corruptions as