to my Text These all dyed in Faith In the beginning of this Most Excellent Chapter the holy Apostle describeth Faith by three several Effects The first is That it procreates and begets a sure and certain hope of things promised by Almighty God ver 1. The second is That by Faith men please God ver 2. The third is That we believe things to humane reason incredible ver 3. Which done he illustrates and brighteneth the said Effects by Examples prompted out of the Sacred Book of God And first of all he produceth some Believers who flourished before the Flood as Abel Enoch Noah ver 4 5 6 7. to prove both the second and third effect the second by Abel and Enoch the third by Noah Afterwards he descends to a second Class of Examples reckoning up such ancient Fathers as lived after the Flood before Israel went down into Egypt Abraham I mean Isaac Jacob and Sarah to confirm the first Effect ver 8 9 10 11 12. Having explained the said Examples he super-adds an Amplification which beginneth with the words of my Text declaring that the forementioned ancient Patriarchs and Believers were both most certain in their Hope and constant in their Expectation of the Impletion of the Lord's Promise which he had made unto them For they dyed in Faith saith he such was their constancy And thus you may see the coherence of these words with the former Two things we may note in the Text it self which is a Sacred Narration 1. Qui. 2. Quid. That is 1. Who they be that are spoken of 2. What is spoken 1. Who All these And who be these I answer We may understand * Eagnejus in loc either Abrabraham Isaac Jacob and Sarah living after the Flood for of such he spake before †Defuncti sunt omnes isti quipest diluvium fuerunt vel omnes praeter Enochum translatum Dionys Carthus in locum or all those Patriarchs which lived both before and after Enoch excepted 2. What is spoken of all these That they dyed in Faith Where observe with me again two things 1. Quod. 2. Quomodo Or 1. That they dyed 2. How they died 1. They Dyed This puts me upon Death Aphilosopher called Secundus being asked of the Emperour Trajan What Death was described it thus Death is an eternal sleep he should have said a long sleep the dissolution of our bodies the fears of rich men the desire of poor men an mevitable event an uncertain Pilgrimage a Robber of Mankind the Mother of sleep the passage of Life the departure of the living and a dissolution of all thus he But we may more briefly term it a departed breath enlivened at first by breath cast upon it Thus they dyed and yet they were very good gracious and most eminent Saints for Death favoureth none but like a cruel Mower cuts down flowers even the fairest and goodliest the very best and Holy Men I mean which are the very Stars of the Earth as well as common grass ordinary and common men I mean in the spacious and capacious field of the world Doct. 1. Good Men then as you see must die like other men Death like those merciless and inexorable Creatures Fire and Water spareth none * Omnia sub leges Mors vocat atra suas all must away both good and bad This is the point which I will 1. Confirm and fortifie 2. Vindicate 3. Explicate 4. Apply I. I 'll confirm it 1. By Scripture 2. By Experience 3. By Reason 1. By Scripture which is full of such sad Examples as will sufficiently evince the truth of this Assertion Pervolve but the 5th chapter of Genesis and you shall find that all those good Patriarchs that lived before the Flood dyed as well as other wicked and ungodly men And then search for those that lived in succeeding Ages besides those whom my Text makes mention of as Joseph Moses Aaron Samuel David Josiah Hezekiah Isaiah c. and you shall find them all dead Acts 7.15 2. Nay do you but ask Experience what is become of such holy and heavenly men and women as you knew in your time and it will tell you they are all dead or if you will * August l. de Nat. et grat view but the Graves and Monuments that are in this Church and Church-yard and they will affirm the same 3. But I suppose that some of you do rather wonder why it should be so than doubt whether it be so seeing the truth of this assertion is so manifest and apparent and therefore understand 1. Reas That when Adam fell it was not the man that fell but mankind Rom. 5.19 so that all both good and bad must therefore taste of deaths cup as it is written Wherefore as by one man Sin entered into the World and Death by Sin so Death passid upon all men for that all have sinned Rom. 5.12 2. Reas It is a favour afforded by Nature Quod gravissimum fecit fecit commune ut crudelitatem fati consolaretur aequalitas That she hath made that common which is most grievous that so Equality might solace the Cruelty of that fate which is altogether inevitable And 3. Reas That which thou sowest is not quickned except it die 1 Cor. 15.36 So that the Godly cannot be raised according to the order and method which God hath decreed ordained in his Wisdom for their entrance into his heavenly Kingdom unless they be first by Death dissolved and like seed sown and interred in the ground from which they were first extracted To this purpose also is that 1 Cor. 15.50 Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God that is †Calvin in loc our Bodies as now they are corruptible unless they die and so be changed being raised again by the Power of God and made incorruptible 4. Reason God's Word must needs be verified Now God hath said In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Gen. 2.17 So that even the best must needs die one way or other that God may be true but eternally they cannot die because Christ dyed for them to exempt them from that Death Rom. 5.10.21 they must needs die temporally though they neither can nor shall be under the tyrannizing power of Death eternally 5. Reas The Godly are compounded of Elements as well as others And there is a Rule in Philosophy That whatsoever is made up of Elements must be dissolved again into the same for Composition is a beginning of a Combate a Combate of a Separation a Separation of a Solution so that needs they must die as well as others 6. Reas Christ himself the eternal Son of God died a temporal Death to bring them to everlasting Life John 3.16 and therefore how unreasonable a thing would it be if themselves should be exempted from that Death of the which he himself tasted shall the Physitian taste of a bitter cup for the Patients sake and shall not the Patient also himself
evidently seen of all The Fourth Prosecution Now for Application 1. Use This may inform us of the Greatness of the Wrath of God against Sin seeing that the very best cannot be exempted from Deaths Tyranny which God's flaming Wrath against and for Sin hath subjected us all unto It is almost 6000 years agone that Adam sinned by eating of the forbidden Tree and yet could not all this length of time make him forget that one Offence no no Manet alta mente repostum judicium Paridis said Virgil in another case and we may say as much in this The Lord remembers that Sin still and keeps his Anger against it still so as that no intervening Grace or Goodness in the holiest person can make him let go his Wrath or remit his first Mulct or Penalty Death I mean once menaced and decreed and yet as Moses complained once Psal 90.11 so may we now Who knoweth or understands considereth and believeth as Luther in Dutch rendreth the Original the power of thine Anger though we be even consumed by it ver 7. Wherefore in the first place let us learn and lay to heart the Power of the Lord's Anger for you see by Moses's complaint that scarce any knoweth it or considereth of it Whereupon it cometh to pass that Sin is 1. So slighted as it is in your Judgements 2. So embraced in your Affections 3. So multiplied in your Conversations because you do not once seriously consider the Powerfulness and Greatness of God's Wrath by which we are consumed one by one the very best not exempted The Second use Must godly Men who are like precious Wheat die like other men Then woe to the Ungodly which are but Chaff for what will become of them if God so deal with the green wood what will he do to the dry if he be so severe against his own for that old sin of Adam how rigorous then will he be against Aliens if they that are reconciled unto him by the death of his Son yet must taste of Deaths cup what will be the end then of you that are yet unreconciled Certainly my tongue is not able to express that unutterable and unspeakable Wrath which will most certainly seize on you unreconcil'd Adulterers Boasters Idolaters Lyars Cozeners and on you fierce proud envious worldly and covetous Men and Women for you must taste of a double Death the first and the second Rev. 21.8 Now how fearful and formidable the very first Death is you know all who ever saw a man unmann'd and laid in the dust to putrifie and to be meat for Worms whereby you may easily conceive how dreadful needs must be and will be both when one after another as it were shall require your souls as it is written Luke 12.19 20. Thou fool this night they shall require thy Soul from thee as the Original hath it Mark They shall require it and who be They but the first and the second Death as I conceive one seconding the other O think on this double Death all ye Drunkards and Fornicators Swearers Usurers Epicures Gurmands Atheists and Hypocrites and imagine in what a woful plight your Souls will be when those two Deaths shall so require them and they shall be forthwith thrown and cast into that formidable Lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone which is the second Death Rev. 21.8 Lamentable was the case of the Men of Sodom when suddenly they saw and felt both Fire and Brimstone dropping down from Heaven upon their Bodies but infinitely more grievous woful and deplorable will be your condition then when these your immortal Souls shall begin to feel in a moment after their departure that ever-during Fire and Brimstone which the Lord in his Fury will rain upon them in that infernal Pit for as the †Bonavent Brevis cap. 6. pag. 7. peccant Spirit or Soul of man subjects it self to the baseness of sin perverting the Dignity of its Noble Nature so the order of God's Justice requireth that it as well as the Body should burn in the very dregs of worldly bodies corporeal Fire and Brimstone I mean which never shall be quenched This will be the Catastrophe of all your sports and delights and profits of your sinful Life It was a witty saying of a learned man That Marriage was a short and sweet song but that it hath a long and doleful close So of all the Pleasure we take in sin we may truly say that it is a Song short for the time and sweet for tune as long as it lasteth for it runneth much upon Quavers and Semiquavers of Mirth and Jubilation but the time suddenly changeth and the tune is altered for then followeth without rest the Sarges and Songs of sorrow and lamentation which cannot be measured by any time or uttered by any humane tongue Hence when one who had lived but a lewd and ungodly life was departing as one * Doctor Hill in his Direction to dye well p. 123. relates it of him he cryed out even in this World most lamentably O lamentable Destiny O infinite Calamity O Death without Death O those contiual Cryings which shall never be hearkened unto our eyes can see nothing but sorrowful Spectacles and intolerable Torments our ears can hear nothing but Wo Wo without end woful O thou Earth why dost not thou swallow O ye Mountains why do not ye cover us from the presence of the Judge How far do the Torments of Hell exceed all the tortures of this Life O ye bewitching Pleasures of this World how have ye led us blindfolded to the Horrors of Hell Wo wo for ever unto us who without hope are cast from the Favour of God so that after ten thousand years we might be delivered O that in any time we might have an end But it cannot be Our Temporal Pleasures have Eternal Pains our Mirth is now turned into Mourning and we are cast into Everlasting Fire Thus he I do not speak this to drive you to desperation but to perswade you to an alteration that you may change your Estates and Lives for better praying God All-powerful to turn you that you may be turned from your sins and he from the fierceness of his Wrath and so consequently may not come into that woful woful place of Torments which shall never have an End The Lord touch your Hearts that you may consider both your own Misery and this blessed Remedy and so may flie from that wrath which is to come The Third use If the Godly must die like other men then let every one of us that is Godly be more mindful of his own death then usually the very best are and let him make his particular application to himself Then I also must die as well as other men and moulder away into rottenness and dust see Deut. 23.29 Plato that Princeps Philosophia or Prince of Philosophy saith There is Nulla Salutatis Philosophia no wholsom Philosophy sed perpetua Mortis Meditatio but
for Satan will then be sure to muster them up before your face when he cometh up with you to have his last bout with you being indeed the craftiest and subtilest Adversary you have Rev. 11.12 Brethren what I tell you now of this Adversary before you come to die the Dying have found by experience and confessed it as an infallible truth O God said the Earl of Essex at the point of death and Judge of all men thou hast let me know by warrant out of thy Word that Satan is then most busie when our end is nearest Moriantur ergo ante te vitia tua Let thy sins die therefore before thee that when thou art dying they may not so torment thee 7. Mortifie your sins by degrees one after another for then your conquest will be far more easie than if you should set upon all at once Nam virtus unita fortior For united Forces are ever stronger If you take a bundle of Arrowes you cannot easily break them but take one by one and you shall burst them quickly It is proportionably so with your sins which are like Arrowes piercing the very soul 1 Tim. 6.9 10. and therefore take one and one and break them by degrees and then it will be an easie matter for you to burst the necks of all your sins in time that is as you are tempted now to one then to another being bent nevertheless against all in the purpose of your hearts 8. You must make this account that you can never attain to a well-grounded and comfortable assurance of everlasting Bliss to be enjoyed after death unless you may see the death of your sins in a competent sort before you no no for he that will live when he dyeth must die while he liveth die I mean to sin and to the world Gal. 6.14 and therefore what certainty can you have of such a life if you be not sure of a such death 9. On the contrary perswade your selves that dying after the death of your sins you may be sure you shall die as Conquerours nay shall live most certainly and be new born rather than forlorn Like valiant Epaminondas who dying after the conquest and slaughter of his enemies said to his victorious Souldiers (a) Nunc Epaminonda vascitur quia sic moritur Valer. Max. Now Epaminondas is born because he dieth after this manner Die die therefore before you die that you may be sure you shall not die but live when you die which the Lord in mercy grant unto you 2. As the Patriarchs Heb. 11.4 8. so must you correspond with the Will of God in all good things Particularly 1. As Abel offered and offered a more acceptable Sacrifice than Cain Heb. 11.4 so must you offer and offer more acceptable Sacrifices and Services to God than others that is you must pray fast sing read hear visit speak and give c. in a better manner than common prophane and civil men and hypocrites which you must transcend 2. As Abraham being commanded to go into a strange Countrey went he knew not whither so must you go even about those many strange duties unto which God leads us as he sent him to a strange place As for instance 1. The Duty of Reconciliation Mat. 5.25 2. The Duty of not resisting Evil ver 26 3. The Duty of suffering evil men with patience ver 39 4. The Duty of loving our Enemies ver 44 5. The Duty of labouring after that Perfection which is in God himself ver 48. 6. The Duty of not carking and caring so much for the things of this life Mat. 6.25 7. The Duty of entering into the narrow Way which leads to Life Mat. 7.13 With none of these we may dispence but we must put our selves upon them all being called thereunto by that great God and Saviour who can command all 3. As Abraham being in a strange Countrey dealt justly paying for what he bought and purchased most exactly For the sacred Story relates that he weighed his Silver to Ephron for a burying-place that it might not want anything Gen. 23.16 so must you 1 Thes 4.6 As he instructed his houshold in the fear of God Gen. 18.19 so must you Ephes 6.4 5. As he was liberal expressing so much by his ready and chearful entertaining of strangers for he sate in his Tent door at noon which was dinner time looking out for strangers whereas some will rather hide themselves from strangers Gen. 18 1. so must you Heb. 13.1,2,16 6. As Isaac was wont to exspatiate and to walk out into the field to meditate Gen. 24 63 so let us in like manner duly and dayly either at home or abroad John 1.8 1 Tim. 4.15 More particularly let us meditate on these four last things 1. Death 2. Judgment 3. Heaven 4. Hell 7. As those antient Believers who dyed in the Faith did what they did in Faith and by Faith Heb. 11.4,8 c. so do you for whatsoever is not done in Faith is sin Rom. 14.23 Quest If you ask me How must we do things in Faith Answ Believing 1. That God will assist you as he hath promised you Ezek. 36.27 2. That he will accept of your good Deeds in and for Christ in whom he is well pleased Matth. 17.5 3. That he will graciously reward you Heb. 11.6 Of these three Acts of Faith together with your good Works make a Confection like that of 1st Stacte 2ly Onicha 3ly Galbanum and 4ly pure Frankinsence which after the art of the Apothecary was to be made in the time of the Levitical Law Exod. 30.34 35. that it may yield a sweet savour unto the Lord who takes delight in Faith which must be the chief ingredient in so sweet a composition The Second Principle You must make comfortable provision for the day of Death like Marriners who against a long and troublesom Voyage provide sundry strong and Cordial Waters which may strengthen them when they navigate over the great Ocean and meet with grievous Storms and Tempests Quest If you demand what I mean by this Comfortable Provision Answ Such seasonable and sutable Sentences as shall be able to support your fainting Hearts in that last and forest conflict as Hos 13.14 Luke 12.32 23.43 Rom. 14.7 8. 1 Cor. 15.41 42 43. 2 Cor. 5.1 2. 2 Tim. 4.7 8. Rev. 14.13 Rev. 21.2 3 4 5 7 8. These precious Cordials being well digested will make us even long for Death and cause us to be chearful in Death Like a Kings Son who being sent for to come home from a far cold and barren Countrey into which he was formerly banished to take possession of a most rich most spacious and most flourishing Kingdom left him by his Father cannot but take his journey and go on in his way with much rejoycing For so we are but sent for when we must die to come away from the barren and uncomfortable soil of this world to be enstated in the most Glorious and Capacious Kingdom
2. Grieve the Spirit that should comfort them Whereas careful providers for death rather 1. Blow up the good motions and workings of the Spirit as much as in them lyeth by their careful and holy walking and applying of the Lord's Promises so that needs they must feel more joy and comfort then others that do not so even as one that bloweth up Coals doth feel more heat then he which suffers them to go out 2. Please the Spirit of God and cherish his motions by their conformity to his Nature in that they labour to be as Spiritual as possible they may and so consequently to partake of his Nature so as that the Spirit being pleased and cherished cannot but please and cherish them again as they please and cherish him for if we that usually are very unkind and ungrateful yet cannot but be kind to those that be kind to us and make much of them as they make much of us how much more will that most kind and holy Spirit of God chear up those that cherish him and make much of them as they make much of him See Acts 9.31 how therefore they that walked in the fear of the Lord are also said to walk in the Comforts of the holy Ghost 2. Such are most fit for comfort and joy For 1. The muchness of Grace which is in them and procedeth from them cannot but be evidently seen and observed by them and cause them to joy in it and to be even exceeding glad for it like a man that hath and finds a treasure that was hid in his field see Mat. 13.44 Now the finding of such a Treasure will chear up the heart 2. The enlargment of their holy desires and endeavours cannot but procure joy which is an Laetitia quasi latitia enlargement of the Heart Psal 119.32 and is given to holy and careful walkers as a gracious remuneration from God Psal 97.11 3. Holy walkers and careful providers for death cannot but attain to a most happy consecution of that good which they desire even the enjoying of Christ by Faith a cognition or knowledge of the same consecution which is * Delectatio requirit consecutionem boni convenientis et consecutionis cognitionem Tho. Aquin. 1.2 q. 32. a. 1. required unto delectation as well as the consecution it self so that they cannot but rejoyce more or less sooner or later with that joy which is called Unspeakable and full of Glory 1 Pet. 1.7 8. or at least with a lesser degree of joy if God for causes best known to himself be pleased to suspend and to deny that higher degree of rejoycing 4. They are in a manner in Heaven already and Heaven is in them in that they mind nothing almost but Heaven as I shewed that men ought so to do so as that they cannot but joy in that which is so full of joy enjoying the very same objective Happiness with the Saints in Heaven though not the same subjective Happiness as not being yet capable of it for if he that is but in a Goldsmiths shop cannot but receive some splendor from the Gold that is in it how much more shall they that mind nothing but Heaven and so have their conversation in Heaven partake also more or less of that Joy Blessedness which is in Heaven and which the true Believer seeth as it were and beholds by his Faith and seeing admireth and admiring in a manner possesseth for by Hope we are saved already saith the Apostle Rom. 8.24 * Arist 2. Rhetor 11. Aristotle saith expresly That Admiration is the cause of Joy and Delectation because it maketh us hope that we shall acquire something which is delectable and joyful And therefore conceive ye what Joy the vision taking possession of Heaven it self which is so rare and so full of admiration must needs cause in a truly serious savingly believing mind For your greater delight and encouragement I 'll here set down some of those triumphant passages which some careful Providers for Death have uttered to this purpose a little before they were by Death unmanned I feel a light said * Fox Justus Jusbery one of Christ's blessed Martyrs which refreshes me with joy far above that which I am able to express desiring nothing more now then to be dissolved and to be with Christ So Adolphus Clarebachius Martyr at his death I believe there is not a merrier heart in the world at this instant than mine And for my part said Mr. Deering as concerning death I feel such joy of spirit that if I should have the sentence of lise on the one side and the sentence of death on the other side I had rather chuse a thousand times seeing God hath appointed the separation the sentence of death than the sentence of life So Mr. John Holland a fruitful Minister of God's Word having the day before he dyed continued his Meditation and Exposition upon Rom. 8. for the space of two hours or more said on a sudden O stay your reading what Brightness is this that I see have ye lighted any Candles No said one it is the Shunshine Sunshine said he No it is my Saviours Shine Now farewel world welcome Heaven the Day-Star from on high hath visiced my heart O speak it when I am gone and preach it at my Funeral for he spake to a Minister c Mr. Leigh in his Sermon intitled The Souls Solace against Sorrow p. 17. who relates it God deals familiarly with men I feel his Mercy I see his Majesty whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell God he knows but I see things unutterable O what a happy change shall I make from night to day from darkness to light from death to life from sorrow to solace Thus joyful holy Walkers and true Believers have been at their departure and therefore be ye perswaded to trace their steps and to follow as ye ought those most needful Directions and Rules which were formerly delivered that so living and so dying by with and according to Faith you may also be mounted as the said Believers were upon the wings of Joy and feed as they did on those ravishing and transcendent Comforts which God like Manna is wont to rain down upon his holy Walkers in this men devouring Wilderness the World I mean from which God in mercy bring us all in the end of our dayes to a World of Joy and Glory which shall never have an end Amen Soli Deo Gloria FINIS