need not slavishly to fear death I know nature is averse to and trembles at dissolution and the pure and holy nature of Christ did with submission to his fathers will decline suffering and feare dying and it is sufficient for the servant that he be as his Master A naturall ordinate moderate feare of death a Christian may have but yet he doth not slavishly feare death or hell he knows the one cannot hurt him and the other hath nothing in him a haire of his head shall not fall to the ground and not so much as the smell of hell fire shall ever passe on him Christians have no need to fear death it can let it do its worst but kill the body it cannot cast body or soule into hell fire and wherefore then should Christians feare it the shell the body may in death be broken or worm-eaten but the kernell the soul that is untouched the wormes cannot touch that Besides death is a hiding place or Sanctuary to Christians for a time till all the sore calamities of this miserable world are overpast and men in distresse do not fly from but to places and cities of refuge Againe they may look on death as a period of all evill as a forerunner as an in let to all blessednesse a darke entry leading them to the father of lights they find death in the Inventory of their good things 1 Cor. 3.21 22. For all things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world Revel 14.13 or life or death Even so saith the Spirit Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. Alacres accedunt ad mortem tanquam ad aerumnarum terminum melioris vitae exordium Corn. Alap They approach death cheerfully as the end of their troubles and the beginning of a better life How unhappy were Christians if they could not dye they would not live alway It is enough say they with Elijah a little altered take away our lives 1 King 15.4 that we may be better with our fathers nay that we may be ever with the Lord which is best of all Vitam habent in patientia mortem in desiderio they are patient of life or content to live but desirous to dye Of old it was grown to a kind of Proverb soli Christiani mortis contemptores Christians were the men who contemned death In the Martyrologie we find Justus and Pastor the one of seven the other of nine yeares of age offering themselves to Martyrdome for Christ A godly man dies willingly though at the stake saying with the first Martyr Stephen Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Act. 7.59 but t is observed by some that the rich fool dyed unwillingly this night saith the text do they require thy soul of thee he would not dye but he must Luk. 12.20 gr Farther Christians are freed by Christ and by his dying from the slavish feare of death and hell or temporall and eternall death For 1 Christ hath destroyed him that had the power of death i. e. the Devill non quod personam aut substantiam diaboli destruxerit annihilârit sed quia ejus regnum imperium destruxit Corn. Alap He hath not destroyed or annihilated the person or substance of the Divell but he hath destroyed his Kingdome and Empire Christ hath despoyled the Devill of that right or power which he sometimes had by permission or sufferance from God to tempt and torment them by reconciling them by his death unto God Now since Christ hath made our peace with God the Devils power to tempt us in this life is much limited and restrained if we be in Christ and his power to torment us after death is totally abolished He hath delivered us from the power of Satan Act. 26.18 from the power of darknesse Col. 1.13 Ita prostratus est saith Calvin speaking of the Devill ut pro nihilo habendus sit ac si nullus foret the Devill is so vanquished as if he signified nothing now as if there was no Devill at all as to believers And Christ conquerd the Devill beat him out of his Kingdome and Empire which he sometimes had over us his Subjects with his own weapon he slew him as it were with his own sword hostem suis ipsius armis confecit Christus saith Beza Christ by death overcame him that had the power of death when he hung upon the crosse See Colos 2.15 Ephes 4.8 he spoiled principalities and powers and when he ascended up on high he led captivitie captive and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them The Devill first got his power to torment us with death temporall and eternall and with the fear and horror of both by tempting us to sin and by that meanes tyrannized over man putting him to death cruelly and malitiously but now Christ became sin for us our sins were laid upon him and he died for our sins and by his death overcame the Devill the great Leviathan did bite at the flesh of Christ or his humane nature sed captus fuit hamo Divinitatis but he was caught by his divinity as with a hook yea the divine power of Christ is such a hook in his nostrills that he can and will hinder him from tyrannizing over and tormenting as formerly he did those that are Christs And truly the Devil hath justly forfeited his power for his malice against Christ and his presumption in setting upon Christ the Captain of our salvation when he once appeared but in the Similitude of sinfull flesh 2. Because Christ hath destroyed the power and dominion of Sin he hath by his death taken away the condemning power and purchased the Spirit to destroy the commanding power of Sin in his so that sin shall no more raigne in our mortall bodyes Sin shall no more have dominion over us since Christ dying for sin hath condemned Sin in the flesh 3. That Christ hath delivered true Christians from the feare of Death appeares in that he hath freed them from the damning power of the Law the strength of sin as to its condemning power is the Law but Christ in this regard as to those that are Christs hath nayled the Law to his crosse yea the law was not made for a righteous man sayth the Scripture 1 Tim 1.9 and such are justified persons by the death of Christ Farther t is said against such there is no law Gal. 5.23 and that we might be yet delivered from all our tormenting feares hear what the Apostle Paul sayth Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ 4 In that Christ by his death hath abolished death to the godly I had all-most said Name and Thing he hath taken away the sting of death he hath beat out the teeth of this evill and venemous beast Death came with open mouth upon Christ like a roaring Lyon as he went down that way but Christ hath slaine the Lyon and now out of the eater comes meat and out of
A CORDIALL AGAINST THE FEARE of DEATH Delivered in a Sermon before the Vniversity of OXFORD May 28. 1654. By THOMAS HODGES B. D. Rector of Souldern in Oxfordshire OXFORD Printed by H. H. for Thomas Robinson 1659. To his much Honoured Friend Mr WALTER PELL of Aldermanbury in LONDON Merchant SIR SHould I be blamed for Printing this single Sermon I desire the great and Universall concernment of the Subject here treated on the seasonablenesse of it at all times especially in these sickly times after the observation of three generall Fasts for the diseases and mortality in severall parts of the Nation together with the eminency of the Auditory to which for the main it hath been Preached namely the two Universities successively may be my Apology for adventuring it to the presse And if you should admire my confidence in this manner of addresse to you I pray you be pleased in part to charge it upon your own account and to assure your selfe that your late civilities and favours to me and respects for me have encouraged me to this undertaking And if the observation hold good elsewhere which I lately heard from a Neighbour Mr Wilde of Ayno Minister at a Funerall Sermon namely that God in this visitation seemed especially to levell at aged persons having taken away 10 persons of his parish in one yeer all of them about or above threescore yeers old when you shall number your own daies and behold your own face in a glasse and see how the fields are already white unto the harvest and consider how the very streets you walke in might in some measure be paved with the skuls of those who have dyed since you first lived in the City though you should censure the Preacher as impertinent yet may you judge the Sermon here presented not altogether improper T is true indeed the mention of Death is an unpleasing note in the eares of those usually who are full of the comforts of this life I have heard or read of a King who upon pain of death forbad any to mention Death in his presence and of a great Queen who was highly displeased with a favourite for preaching a Sermon minding her how age had furrowed her face and besprinckled her haire with its meal but I hope you have better learned Christ and sure I am dare talke of death and touch this harsh key your selfe and will not therefore I perswade my selfe judge me your enemy meerly because I tell you the truth Now Sir whilst I preface this Sermon to you I desire I may Preach to my selfe and to all that read this Epistle whether old men or maidens young men or children Let us get oyle in out lamps before the Bridegroome comes and all things ready for death before death comes for who now so young so strong so good but there are younger and stronger and better already in their graves The Jewes have a proverb there are skulls of all sizes in Golgotha and the Apostle John tells us he saw the dead small and great stand before God Rev. 20.11 12. Let us not then put farre from us the evill day but consider that some sudden blast may blow out the Candle as well as it may goe out in the socket Physitians say there are 300 diseases incident to the body of man but if we escape all other diseases old age that incurable disease reckoned one of the three messingers of Death will creep upon us ere we are aware if we do not think of it Oh! that we could as we dye daily so get our selves more ready for death daily Let us meditate often how the two axes of time day and night are continually chopping at the root of the tree of every mans life and how some fruits are blown off the tree whilst in the bud or green aswell as some others fall off when they are ripe and how some flowers of the field are trod down or crop'd by man or beast aswell as others stand and wither till they be cut down 1 Let us know that death is the wages of sin and forasmuch as all have sinned it is a Statute enacted by the Parliament of Heaven that all must dye once so t is ordinarily for it is thought Lazarus dyed twice and those who shall be found alive at the day of judgment shall not dye at all but be changed Now if death be our wages let us Consider that wages may be payd in any lawfull coyne gold silver or brasse in any place the house street or field at any houre of the day or watch of the night as the master pleaseth and so Death may be inflicted diverse wayes and manners at any time and in any place Further know we that t is a solemn thing to dye because after death the Iudgment Eternity treads on the heels of death so that there 's no place here for a second Error 2 Let us often think of Death T is observed that Beasts cannot think of dying le ts shew our selves therefore men meditate of it not put far from us the day of Death that may be a meanes to make us secure for we read that the wise virgins slumberd as well as the foolish whilst the bridegroom delayed his coming and t is observed that God therefore keeps secret from us the day of death and judgment that men should watch alway and be ever prepared 3 Though we think of death which the beasts cannot doe yet let us not slavishly feare it but therein endeavour to be as the Angels of heaven who though they understand Death yet doe not feare it being out of the reach of it Consider we may that the sting of Death which is sin is taken out and our death is the Death of Death to us that out of this eater comes meat and out of the strong out of the bitter comes sweetnes Indeed if we looke upon death as the punishment of sin as the dissolution of the most excellent creature on earth as the parting of two old friends and intimate acquaintance the soul and the body as an end and period of service to God and man in the Church and comonwealth on earth so t is rather terrible than desirable yet again if we consider that t is a period to sin and sorrow an inlet to glory a dark entry to a lightsome palace no other than the Portall or entry into the house of God and the gate of heaven to the godly and that death is ours for our benefit and advantage as well as life that our death is precious in Gods eyes and that when we are dead and our vile bodies in the dust when the wormes are spread under them and the wormes cover them even then are we Gods Jewels when we are dissolved then are we like gold melted in the furnace precious in the eyes of the owner thereof Le ts consider that we goe to our friends and acquaintance who are gone before us to heaven yea we goe to God
doth invite the Devill to come to us timor attrahit ad se daemonas And surely it was not without all cause that Vives said Nulla est miseria major quà m metus Burton There is no greater misery then feare No greater misery no rack or torture like it saith another 2. But then to feare all our life time that aggravates the misery and bondage that makes our lives life we use to say is sweet bitter as death yea it causeth some to chuse although they make an ill choice death rather than life The day-labourer waits for the even and then he shall rest the servant for the end of the yeer the Apprentice for his year of Jubile when he is to go out free and the forethought of liberty sugars the bitter cup of servitude to them But alas to be under the terrible bondage of feare without any hopes or expectation of freedome or of redemption all our life time this is a burden which neither we nor our Fathers were ever able to beare Nay in death it selfe I say not that the servant is free from this master when a man dies he rather feeles the evill which he feared than is freed from it And although we must say blessed is he that feareth God alway the Lord of life with a filiall child-like ingenuous feare yet we may say miserable is he that feareth death alway that hard master that cruel tyrant with a servile and slavish feare And so I come to the third and last degree of the bondage 3. To feare Death all our life time is a burden and bondage which is intolerable Under the word Death I shall comprehend with the generality of interpreters not onely temporall death which is the separation of the soule from the body but eternall death also which is the separation of both soul and body from God everlastingly Now to feare death alway is a terrible bondage quid miserius est aut fingi potest said one quam metu mortis perpetuo trepidare Death is cal'd by the Philosopher the terrible of terribles the most terrible evill that can be by Job the King of terrors Joh. 18.14 T is the feare of Kings as well as mean men and t is the King of feares and those who slavishly feare death are the veryest bondmen in the world qui metuunt mortem illi servi sunt ac servili conditione non autem ingenui neque filii Rolloc in loc and so Theoph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that feare death are the servants of death Not onely his servants we are whom we obey but his servants and vassals we are whom we feare and the little finger of the feare of death will be heavier than the loynes of all other feares and tyrants whatsoever The feare of other evills chastiseth us with whips this with scorpions Death is an evill a great evil and an unavoidable evil and therefore terrible It is usherd in and accompanied and followed with a black guard and train of feares the way and walke of death is very low and darke we read of the valley of the shadow of death Psal 23.4 and in this valley there is too a Lyon yea many legions of roaring Lyons waiting for their prey continually yea certainly many thousands if not millions of men who have gone downe this way have been sore wounded yea cruelly slaine here have lost their lives and their soules here But more particularly death will appeare ghastly and formidable if we consider 1. That it has a venomous and deadly sting t is an old serpent and has a poysonous sting the sting of death is sin and that is terrible Sin is the edge of the sword of this deadly enemy t is the poyson of the Dragon t is a greater enemy to us than death than the Devill than Hell it selfe If sin was not there we should not die or we should not need to feare Death we might easily shake off this viper into the fire and rid our hands of it as Paul did of the viper Act 28. and feel no harme but therefore death is death indeed and hell hell indeed because t is the wages of sin 2. Death will appeare terrible if we consider who impowers death primarily who hath the absolute and supream power of life and death and from whom death originally hath his Commission and that is God The Lord killeth and maketh alive he bringeth down to the grave and raiseth up 1 Sam. 2.6 And truly God is a consuming fire God the supream judge of all the earth and who cannot erre in judgment hath passed sentence upon us according to his holy just and righteous Law and t is deaths part but to be an executioner to execute upon us the judgment written The avenging justice of Almighty God commands death to seize upon the sinner and to teare him in sunder like a Lyon yea to come hissing upon him like a dragon with the sting of vengeance in the mouth of it morcem intellige cum ira Dei conjunctam qualem necesse est extra Christum esse saith Beza T is the justice and wrath of Almighty God which commissionates death to kill Psal 90.11 and destroy and take the spoyle and of Gods wrath t is said according to our feare so is thy wrath our feares may be aboue the wrath of men but the wrath of God is greater then our feares 3. Death is terrible if we consider who has the power of death i. e. not so much a delegate power such as Kings Magistrates have as a power by consequence let us call it so such as an Executioner or an hangman hath over condemned persons to put them to death and that is the Devil v. 14. The Devil may be said to have the power of death either 1. As a tempter who seduceth us to sin James 1.15 and so brings us to death Sin being finished bringeth forth death Theophylact tells us the Devil got the power of death how 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so he i. e. peccatum est fortitudo roburque mortis he got it by Sin Sin is the strength and power of death Or 2ly As an Accuser of us unto Almighty God and urging the Law against us before God continually soliciting pressing this Iudge to doe iustice upon us urging God as the Nobles and Courtiers did Darius against Daniel Daniel 6.12.13.15 that he might be cast into the Lyons den so he that we might be cast into hell the den of the roaring Lyon and out of which we have no hope of deliverance Or 3ly he may be said to have the power of death sicut carnifex habet imperium rotae patibuli as an executioner hath power of the wheel or gibbet therewith to torment men not whom and how he pleaseth but condemned malefactors according to the direction and appointment of the Iudge thus the Devil hath the power of death and surely t is a