the Creation and the Flood there was not a Coarse to be seen it may be in two or three hundred years they were then so long lived but now with us many hundreds dye and depart this world every year nay every week seeing then others dye so fast what reason have we to think our friends should be exempted or why should we be so full of grief Quid admirationis meretur res si scissum est quod eratscissile liquefactum quod eratliquesi si id crematum est quod erat ustile si id periit quod ita natum est ut possit perire Plut de consol 185. seeing death is so common a thing What wonder is it to see trees consume with age wax melt soluble things dissolved or to see frail mortals die that are born so that they cannot but dye is this any matter of wonder But that which should especially qualifie our grief is from my text and the doctrine delivered Death is a thing to be desired then not overmuch lamented we should I say desire and do desire it as oft as we say the Lords Prayer Thy Kingdome come Therefore let us turn our sorrow for the death of our friends into a desire of being with them in restand peace when Gods good will and pleasure is Vse 3 Is death a thing desirable see here then the difference between the true Christian and the worldling As it is with women some have living births and in their time they will come forth others have dead births and they stir not but dye and lye still in the womb so is it with men some are dead and they desire to lye here still others have living births are new born Christians and they cry out with Paul Oh miserable man that I am who shall deliver me Rom. 7.24 they would fain be delivered they long to be with Christ to enjoy his desired presence As a man that hath sores and ulcers on his body and his shirt begins to cleave thereto with what pain is it puld from his back Even so is it with worldlings whose affections are glewed to the earth they are haled and puld from it when they are to dye as Joab was from the horns of the Altar Oh death how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that lives in his pleasures It is the King of terrours to such men when the thought of it comes into their minds how doth it amaze and trouble them Solomon describing such a man saith All his dayes Ecclus. 41.1 Eccl. 5.17 Foaming anger with or in his sicknesse Pemb. in loc Invenitur aliquis qui malit inter supplicia tabescere perire membratim toties per stillicidiam amittere ani mam quà msemel exhalare Sen. 450. Epist he eateth in darknesse and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sicknesse because he is loth to depart unwilling to leave this world As it was with the Gibeonites they were content to be hewers of wood drawers of water rather then depart from the tents of the Israelites So these men had rather do any thing here endure any drudgery then depart out of this world had rather consume in the midst of torments have their souls drop away in drops and all the members of their bodies perish one after another then dye and leave the world Object Oh Sir but life is sweet Answ What life do you mean for this we live here hardly deserves the name of life for how can we call that life where heat scorcheth cold pincheth meats and drinks make us dull and heavie fasting weakens us humours swell us up old age buckles us together shrinks our sinews wrinckles our skins dimms our sight ratling phlegme rises up and choaks us and at last death seizeth upon us What a life is this Oh vita non vitalis Oh wretched life that tendeth to death Let us therefore be in love with that life which death brings us unto for that is life indeed The Apostle saith Our life is hid with Christ in God the Saints aspire after this life and they have their affections wafted up to heaven and this to them is all in all When Christ is here present sometimes in his ordinances what comfort do they find herein But how much greater will it be hereafter when we shall see him as he is As a woman is glad of a Letter from her husband but more desirous of the company of her husband so it may comfort us a little that we hear from him and that God sends his Ministers and servants to us as Paul sent Timothy to the Thessalonians 1. Thes 3.2 to comfort us concerning our faith that he is pleased to give us his holy word which is as it were a letter sent us from heaven Oh but how much greater will our joy and happinesse be when we shall be with Christ enjoy his desired presence and follow him wheresoever he goeth Now then what terrour do we find in death or for what need we to fear it for it shall then come to us as an officer comes to an heir giving him possession of an inheritance So death is no more but Gods officer to bring us into the possession of the Kingdome of Heaven Vse 4 Therefore in the last place let it teach us to labour to get Pauls desire let us desire thus that we may desire death It s a great heighth this and God sometimes will not give his children so great a desire as at other times therefore labour thou to come to this which that thou mayst the better do consider these helps to further thee herein First because contraries are oft cured by contraries too much love of this bodily life Dulcedo divini amoris carnalis amoris suavitatem procul expellit Divinae dilectionis fervor internè ardens affectiones omnes externas quasi paleas absumit Comp. sper doct 198. with the love of the spirituall life too much affecting of earthly things with the love of heavenly therefore raise up thy self to consider the excellency of heaven and heavenly things and then earthly things will seem lesse as a man on the top of a high mountain or tower sees men below like crowes I remember a pleasant relation in Scipio's dream how that when he as he thought was taken up into heaven amongst his friends Paulus and Affricanus and they shewed him the motion of the Planets and the greatnesse of the Celestiall Orbs he cast his eyes down upon the earth which seemd but like a Tennis-ball searching to find out the place where his kingdome lay it was so small he could scarce discern it But as he was thus poaring on the ground Coelestia semper spectato illa humana contemnito Affricanus puls him by the sleeve and bid him mind heavenly things and not to regard earthly for what is it saith he to have a name upon earth say thou hadst Carthage and all Numantia yet
THE CHRISTIANS DESIRE SHEWING How and for what Causes a man may desire Death By WILLIAM HOUGHTON Preacher at Bicknor in Kent Vt prima desideria sanctorum antiquae legis in primo Christi terminabantur adventu sic quoque modo desideria sanctorum novae legis in secundo Christi adventu qui perfectam nobis beatitudinem conferet desinent August HINC LVCEM ET POCVLA SACRA ALMA MATER CANTA BRIGIA LONDON Printed by Roger Daniel for Samuel Cartwright at the Signe of the Bible in Duck-lane 1650. TO The Right VVorshipfull Sir EDWARD WORTLEY and his Religious Lady my honoured Friends Right Worshipfull DEsires are the truest effigies of the mind If a man be Heavenly he hath heavenly desires if outward things terminate his desires he hath but an earthly mind and no more then what Paul calls the spirit of the world 1 Cor. 2 12◠Such mens desires the Psalmist speaks of when he saith Who will shew us any good that is matter of gain and profit Isa 26.8 But the godly mans desire is thus set forth Psal 73.23 The desire of our soul is towards thy name and to the remembrance of thee There is none that I desire upon earth besides thee The worldlings desire is to live many dayes and years upon earth the godly mans desire that Christ may be in him while he is here Luk. 12.29 and that he may be with Christ when he departs hence and these as Paul himself determines are the best desires Worldly desires at last give no satisfying content to a mans soul but these are satisfying desires those are oft frustrated and come to nothing but of these it is said God will fulfill the desire of them that fear him When a whole Kingdome is in a shaking condition the desires of many must needs fail 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 12.28 but the Christians desire is upon a Kingdome that cannot be shaken My end and aim in sending abroad this Sermon is to 01 increase these holy desires in as many as shall read it It is but a plain and unpolisht piece such as it is I present it to your hands as a small return of thankfullnesse for those many favours I have received from you hoping it will find the better acceptance because I have known you many years and that your desires are set on the best things Praying for your prosperity and for all that have relation to you I rest Yours in the Lord Jesus William Houghton Philip. 1.23 Desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all PAul as you may see in this Chapter stands at a certain doubt with himself whether he should live or die live he would that he might glorifie God die to be with Christ The words contain in them two things 1. Paul's desire to be with Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Having a desire c. 2. The reason of it because it is best of all The Greek is most emphaticall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is farre better or as if one should English it Much more better Luke 2.29 Simeon desired to die because he had seen the Lords Christ Paul here that he might see Christ and be for ever with him Simeon's word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is no materiall difference between them Vid. Sculter Exercit. 156. The former according to the mind of the learned signifies a dimission to be fairly dismist and suffered to depart the latter to be let loose as mariners when they let loose and lanch forth Or it may signifie to return as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 12.36 When he will return from the wedding The first sense may imply thus much that the body is the souls prison wherein it is kept till it be sent forth and suffered to depart The second addes chains or coards wherein it is held till it be let loose The third that this life is a place of exile and the soul herein a pilgrim till it return to God that gave it But not to stand straining of metaphors when he saith He desired to depart or be dissolved it is as much as if he had said That he desired to die Now consider who it was that thus desired death Paul a most zealous man the Spirit of God calls him an elect vessel Chrysostome an heavenly man or if ye will saith he an earthly Angel yet he seeks death he desires to be dissolved We see then Act. 9.15 Doct. That all must die the best that are the greatest and holiest must taste of death young men die as well as old we see short graves as well as long rich men die as well as poore It is said in the Gospel that the beggar died and presently it is added the rich man also dyed Luk. 16.22 And wise men die as well as the foolish nay Psal 49 10. holy men too Adam is called the son of God Abraham the friend of God Luc. 3.38 Moses the man of God the Virgin Mary the mother of God Jam. 2.23 David was a man after Gods own heart John Baptist Psal 93. tit a burning and shining light yet they are all dead and gone Luc. 1.43 and descended into the slimy pit as the Prophet calls it so that howsoever there may be a difference here amongst men yet then Abierunt obierunt all shall be alike Reason 1 For first thus hath God decreed Statutum est saith the Apostle It is a Statute-law a thing decreed in the high Court of Heaven Heb. 9.27 and must needs stand fast what is there determined Reason 2 Secondly God doth fufter this even the best and holyest to taste of death because he will have them conformable to their head even Jesus Christ who died for us Reason 3 Thirdly because of the mortality of men and the nature of their condition here on earth all men are of one matter the godly are not made of one matter and the wicked of another but all of one common matter the dust of the earth according to that Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return though while we live here one be higher then another yet then there is an equality as it is in casting account one counter stands for a thousand another for an hundred but put them together into the bag and one is no better then another or as it is in a play one bears the person of a King another of a Knight another of a Beggar and very busie they are but when the play is done every man goes to his own place Thus it is with men one may stand here in a higher room then another but death makes him equall with the meanest and if yee look into the same grave after twenty or thirty years you shall find no difference between the dust of a King and a beggar Reason 4 Lastly this comes to passe because of
cannot thy name fly over this Caucasus nor swim over this Ganges Thou seest how small a thing the earth is and that sea pointing to the Atlantick which ye call the great sea and the main ocean which though it have so great a name thou seest how small a thing it is This was but a Philosophers dream yet 'c is pleasant to consider how far those men went Let us that are Christians seriously consider the excellency of heaven and vanity of earthly things let us mount aloft upon the wings of divine contemplation and our mindes being there all things here below will be as nothing to us Seek those things saith the Apostle that are above or on high What where the Orbs and Planets are No higher then so Col. 3.2 where Angels and Arch-angels are No higher yet where Christ sits on the right hand of God Oh if the soul of any here present were with Paul rapt up into the third heavens to be there but one hour to see what he saw how would he be ready to trample these things under his feet as vile and despicable he would count them trash in comparison of Jesus Christ as dung to that pearl It may be said all this is but matter of speculation therefore in the second place Give thy self to the practise of mortification desire to have all things mortified unto thee then thou wilt not care so much for them Offer what yee will to a dead man he regards it not So let us labour to get our affections whether covetous or pleasurable mortified and we shall not care for these things Mortifie therefore your members which are upon earth fornication uncleannesse inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousnesse Col. 3.5 Indeed this mortification of all evil affections is a hard work for as it is with men that have strong bodies and suffer violent deaths you see what a lamentable conflict there is what strugling between life and death and when you think the man quite dead a good while after he gives a great sigh or groan nature then gathering all her strength to withstand death flying as it were in the very face of death either to vanquish or to be overcome Even thus it is if we go about to take away the life of our dearest lusts they will gather all the forces they can either make of themselves or the devil and the world can supply them withall to stand before them and defend them that we may not come at them but if for all that we break through and smite them so that we give them their deaths-wound yet they will gather strength again and rise up to hurt us and do us a mischief afterwards Oh 't is hard 't is hard and many a Christian is forced even with tears in his eyes to cry out to heaven for help when he is at this work yet this yee see is that we are * Gal. 5.24 Rom. 6.6.8.13 calld to that which every regenerate man and woman sets himself to and he who hath in good earnest set himself to it and endeavoured the mortifying of his sins will not be afraid of death but rather see great cause why he should desire it whatsoever pains it brings he is provided for it and may say thus Oh death I regard not any sting thou canst sting my body withall for sin thy worst sting wherewith thou wouldest sting my soul to death is in some measure mortified and subdued by the power of Gods Spirit that conflict thou art now about to bring upon my body will be but short to that I have endured in my soul these so many years Oh welcome death come do thine office I have been endeavouring a long time the death of my sins and something through the power and mercy of God I have done though not so much as I would come lend me thy hand to finish this work I have oft smote my sins thinking to lay them in the dust yet they have risen again one stroke now of thy hand will cause them to dye that they shall never rise up any more Thirdly let us think oft and consider what our condition is while we are here subject to sin and misery do what we can we cannot so mortifie sin that it shall not be in us Non hîc sumus sine peccato fed exibimus sine peccato Aug. its true the old man hath received his deaths wound in every regenerate man and is bleeding out his life by degrees and at death shall quite expire and bleed his last but not till then Paul saith of himself I find a law in my members warring against the law of my mind who shall deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7.23 24. or oh that I were delivered from it There will be a body of sin and death in us so long as we carry this body of earth and flesh about us this is plain then as long as we live here we shall sin and what Christian desires to live to sin and to offend God! Oh ye that love the Lord hate sin saith the Psalmist hate that which is evil We should therefore desire it for this cause Psal 97.10 Fourthly let us oft look at death Plato said that the life of a Philosopher should be nothing else but a meditation of death much more the life of a Christian It was a custome amongst the Greek Emperours a Stone-cutter came to the Emperour on the day of his Coronation presented divers stones before him and desired to know of him which of those stones he would have for his Sepulchre And I have read of a people who at their feasts were wont to drink to one another out of dead-mens skuls to mind them of death Joseph of Arimathea who brought the Gospel hither into England he had his sepulchre hewn out of a rock Joh. 19.41 standing ready for him in his garden So let us when the world seems to crown us with its chiefest delights then remember death when we eat and drink think we see death on our tables when we are in our private Gardens then also let us take a turn with death and let us act death before it comes As a man that would fain fall asleep shuts his eyes draws the curtains layes his head to the pillow and so composeth himself to sleep so do thou oft think with thy self in what manner death will surprise thee look at it before it comes and it will be the easier when it comes And lastly as we must look at it so we must also look beyond it indeed it is a terrible thing to look at death but cast thine eye now beyond it and there will be no terrour in it Think of Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how it will be far better with us then then now in regard of Place Company our Bodies and our Soules But indeed as I noted to you before that glory is unspeakable As the Queen of Sheba said of Solomons glory She heard a great deal yet not half of it was told her the same may we say of eternall happinesse that we cannot declare half of it unto you meditate we may and ought of that glory yet this we must know that we come exceeding far short This therefore should make us go with as great desire to the grave as they use to go to a marriage because then we shall be married to Christ Jesus And as Travellers when the day is well spent and the Sun grows low come chearfully into their Inns at night so should we to this common Inne of Death FINIS
sinfull corruptible frail and rotten tabernacle of our body shall be taken down for no other end but that by a blessed and glorious resurrection it may be restored advanced to perfect firm incorruptible and celestiall glory Lastly for our souls how shall those two faculties thereof understanding and will Soul be then enobled How perfect the operation of them Our understandings shall be wonderfully irradiated for the present they are blind and ignorant let a man be never so studious and labour for knowledge with all his strength yet all he knows is but the least part of what he is ignorant For now we see through a glasse darkly 1. Cor. 13.12 but then face to face now we know in part but then we shall know even as we are known The soul having been never so little a while in heaven shall get more knowledge then here it hath done in twenty or thirty years For we shall then see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.2 So for our wills what a sweet conformity shall there be between them and the will of God! We shall then follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth Rev. 24.4 Now we follow him too but 't is but lamely and 't is not wheresoever he goeth because as we follow Christ so the Devil follows us with his temptations whereby we are drawn aside and go astray Oh but then it shall not be so but our wills shall be wholly conformable and obedient to his blessed will we shall follow him wheresoever he goeth I have set before you the crown of life I have truly though imperfectly and very briefly described the nature of our future happinesse All is true that hath been said yet all that hath been said is nothing to the greatnesse of it You must remember that of the Apostle The glory that shall be revealed in us Rom. 8.18 it cannot be comprehended by us no not by the most enlarged understanding but hereafter it shall be revealed in us And this was it made Paul so desirous of his dissolution as Chrysostome brings him in speaking thus I have tasted of the joyes of heaven Chrys to 5. ad pop Antioch hom 5. therefore delay is tedious to me I have had the first-fruits of the spirit therefore I desire the whole harvest I have been caught up into the third heavens and have seen the glory which is unutterable I have beheld the splendor and glory of the court of heaven Oh I have learnt I have learnt what good things I want the fruition of staying here for this cause I sigh and groan within my self desiring to be dissolved To summe up all we see what reason there is to make us desire our dissolution whether we respect outward and bodily evils or spirituall evils the Devil and our own corruptions joyning with him and because our sanctification is imperfect here The world is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dusty squalid filthy place no marvell if the feet of our affections be still gathering soyle while we are walking in it And lastly because our condition hereafter shall be far better then now it is free from sin and misery death will bring us to a far better estate both for place company body and soul even to such happinesse as eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor heart conceived We can say no more 1 Cor. 2.9 but we shall know more when Christ shall say to us Enter into thy Masters joy it cannot enter into us Mat. 25.21 therefore we shall enter into it and be filled with it Now for application of this Doctrine Death is a thing that may be desired I desire saith Paul to be dissolved and to be with Christ Vse 1 First I may from hence shew you the dotage of the Papists concerning Purgatory they say mens souls must have a purgation there before they come to heaven and the pains of that place some of them say are as sharp as the pains of hell save onely that they are not so lasting With what comfort then can a man desire death to go to such a place Nay I have heard of some whom this doctrine hath distracted and they have fallen mad at the very thought of it Secondly Christ tells the good thief Luc 23.43 to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise And I will saith he that those whom thou hast given me be with me Joh. 17.24 where I am I hope they dare not say that Christ is in Purgatory he is not in limbo Heb. 8.1 but in olympo not in purgatorio but in empyreo at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens there is he in glory and he will have us to be where he is the text is plain Thirdly the Scripture tells but of two places mens souls go to when they depart hence heaven and hell the beggar dyed and his soul went whither to purgatory no but 't was presently received into Abrahams bosome Luc. 16 22. that is into heaven and saith the Text the rich man also dyed and was buried and whether went his soul to hell the Text speaks plainly The rich man dyed and was buried and in hell stayed no where by the way but down to hell he went immediately So in Matthew he shall set the sheep on his right hand the goats on his left at his right hand is the kingdome of heaven at his left hand everlasting fire he that is not on his right hand shall surely be on the left therefore he that goes not into the kingdome of heaven shall doubtlesse go to hell and fire everlasting the Scriptures tell not of any third place Lastly the close union of death and Christs presence overthrows this dream of theirs I desire saith Paul here to be dissolved and to be with Christ there is no Medium between them But enough of this Vse 2 In the second place it may teach us how to take the death of our friends 1 Thes 4. Weep not saith the Apostle as men without hope these tears are unprofitable they do our friends no good but they may do us hurt Consider the necessitie of death it cannot be avoided all must dye 't is a debt our parents brought upon us and must be paid whensoever it shall be required and think likewise of the commonnesse of death 't is as common a thing for men and women to dye as to be born and to go out of the world as it is to come into the world why then should we wonder more at the one then at the other Anaxagoras when one came and told him his son was dead Spatio annorum 2256. comprehenditur aetas quatuor partium qui à mundi exordio hucusque vixerant Nam c. Bucolch chron 224. made him this Answer I knew my son was mortall as soon as I had begot him I knew he should die Death now in our dayes is a very common thing indeed in the time between