On the contrary what ever specious pretexts may be drawne and held out by the wicked yet their desires are after such things only from which they cannot hope or expect any thing but Gods everlasting wrath though the one dares not doe so much evill as he desires for feare of shame or punishment The other cannot doe so much good as he desires for want of power yet according to the prevalency of his affection this way or that way such is the man in the Scriptures estimate either righteous or wicked 4. Delight 4. Hereupon followes delight when we rest in the fruition of that good wherunto our desires have carried us This both in Scripture and natures expression is called life What is life not the conjunction of soule and body for then they in hell should not be said to die the death but a conjunction of the soule with that it loves and joyes in and this also hath a most inward relation to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ethic. l. 2. c. 3. and main influence upon all the actions of life Joy is the rule of life such is the life as is the delight whether it be good or evill 'T is joy to the just to doe judgment but a pastime to the wicked to do wickedly 5. 5. Endevour This drawes the indevour puts sinewes into the hand makes strong and active in doing and suffering for that we love this is called the life of the hand Isa 57.10 They were industrious to bring about their idol worship they compassed their designe not without much difficulty got their living by their hands Vita actuosa est mors quiâ—ta Life is in action so much as we do so much we may be said to live what time is spent vainly idly is to be accounted death a man without hands is a man without life an unactive heavie sleepy drone is dead while he is alive Now then summe up all these and take them in one view and you have a full description of this notion To LIVE That which is a mans love his care desire delight the bent of his heart the imployment of his hand is his life Thus thus Christ is To live to a godly man his love is drawn out after Christ alone his care only for the things of Christ his inward and secret plots and projects are only spent for the setting forward grace and the glory of Christ the maine streams of his desires are after the inlargement of Christs Kingdome he has no other delight then in the service of Christ no other object of his imployment but Christ and his glory That this is so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might be made appeare in a full induction of the Saints practices in all ages but I shall content my self with this only instance in the text 't is fully home to all the forenamed particulars Take a view of S. Paul in his love how deare was Christ in his Church to this good man As a nurse cherishing her children as a father exhorting comforting charging them So was he among the beleeving Thessalonians 1 Thess 2.7.11 How did his love to Christ carry him to a kind of spirituall distraction and heavenly ecstasis Phil. 2.17 1 Thess 2.8 that he was not only willing to be offred up as a drink-offering on the service of the Churches faith not only ready to impart with the Gospell his own soule to them but could wish himself were accursed from Christ Rom. 9.3 2 Cor. 11.28 that Christ might be glorified in the salvation of his brethren Where was his care on what did he spend his thoughts but about the Churches night and day praying preaching Christ into them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 15.20 This was his ambitious care Never a proud Courtier did so study his preferment cast about his plots how to rise as he how to gaine souls to Christ how to inlarge the territories of his Masters kingdom No lesse careful was he parta tueri where he had planted Churches to confirme build them up for this cause he could not forbeare visiting them in person sending to them on all occasions 1 Thess 3.1.5 Lest the tempter should have tempted them and his labour been in vain His desires how eager how affectionate were they after Christ in his members longing after them Phil. 1.8 Coloss 1.29 striving as one in an agony for them that he might present them perfect in Christ Jesus And was not Christ in his Gospell his only delight the doing of the work of Christ fulfilling his ministery building up the body of Christ This Act 20.24 this was his joy which he prefers to life it selfe yea counted himselfe then 1 Thess 3.8 and so far only to live as this work did go on and prosper As for his endevours never any that the Scripture sets forth or story mentions that lived more if life be in action 1 Cor. 15.10 Heare himselfe professing I laboured more abundantly then they all And did not all his actions carry this inscription in the forehead FOR CHRIST if you follow him in his travels you shall see him from Jerusalem to Illyricum round about filling soules with the Gospell of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 15.19 Miraculum hominum Look on him at his handy-craft he wrought with labour and travel night and day what was to be seen here also but Christ in his wayes 1 Thess 2.8 9 Church glory he laboured with his hands that he might be an ensample of diligence and industry in the calling to the inordinate walkers 2 Cor. 11.7 9 to prevent the scandall of the weak the calumnies of the malignant lest they should say that he preached for his belly or for gain he therfore laboured that he might make it appeare 2 Cor. 12.14 he sought not theirs but them not their goods but their soules Thus were his actions But what were his suffhrings no other then the dying of the Lord Jesus We are fooles for Christs sake 1 Cor. 4.10 2 Cor. 4.11 Delivered to death for Iesus sake with such like expressions And lest any might thinke Paul herein to be singular he tels us all that are Christians indeed do and ought thus to live Rom. 14.7 8. none of us if we have as wel the Spirit of Christ in us as the Name of Christ upon us but wee live to the Lord make Christ and his praise the supreame end of our living preferring his honor above our own wel-fare willing to abase our selves that we may exalt Christ bringing forth all our fruit to him thus do all beleevers And els where he tels us there is great reason it should be so which leads me to the demonstration of this truth which I will briefly dispatch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. That this is so that every godly man lives to Christ consecrates all his life to Christ wil easily appeare if we consider that
I Have perused this Sermon intituled Deaths advantage and finding it to be sound and judicious pious and profitable I License it to be Printed and published JOHN DOWNAME DEATHS ADVANTAGE OR A SERMON PREACHED AT THE FUNERALL OF THAT Noble and Valiant Gentleman Colonell WILLIAM GOULD High Sheriffe of Devon By order of Parliament and late Commander of the Fort and Island in Plymouth By STEPHEN MIDHOPE Mr. of Arts. REVEL 14.13 Write Blesse are the dead which die in the Lord from hence-forth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their workes do follow them LONDON Printed by L. N. for FRANCIS EGLESFIELD and are to be sold at the Marigold in Paul's Church-yard 1644. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVL SIR JOHN BAMPFIELD BARONET THE WELL-DESERVING AND Honoured Commander of the Fort and Island in Plymouth Grace and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ NOBLE SIR THAT there is a life above that of sensuall pleasure the Heathen by the twy-light of Nature could discerne who thought him not worthy the name of a man that spent a whole day together in sensuall pleasure reckoning such amongst beasts in humane shape but that there is a life of faith as far above that of reason as it is above the life of sense that comming from God returnes to him againe moves by higher principles and to higher ends acts all for the honour of the great God aymes in all at the setting up of Christ and making him glorious before the world this is such a dark and hidden path that had we not the fiery Pillar of Gods truth to cleare it to us together with a cloud of many witnesses especially in these last dayes that have beaten it out before us whose life is not in carnall pleasure nor civill transactions no nor yet in philosophicall speculations who lay out all their strength are ready to exhaust all their bloud from Christ and his truth we must have been for ever ignorant of it This is not to be found in the Schoole of Socrates nor in the pit of Democritus What those Masters of morality groped after in the darke but could never reach viz. the right way of living I have adventured to present to your and the publique view in this poore and plaine Sermon which I confesse hath no other argument to procure either your view or patronage but this one that it hath the Name of Jesus Christ in it the want whereof when Austin espied after conversion in Tullies Booke abated the heat of his delight which he once took in it When you meet with weaknesses may you be pleased to Remember that not any selfe-forwardnesse or over-valuing hath obtruded these unpolished Meditations into the publique light but my willingnesse to put a stop if it may be to the false and slanderous aspersions on the dead that I perceive have already cankered the hearts and mouths of many and to raise though upon the ruines of my own credit a monument of deserved praise to him to whose fidelity and resolution in the cause of Christ the Kingdome stands so much indebted to this day And now Noble Sir these rude Notes being forced to looke abroad whither shall they run for shelter but to you Surely your right is greatest to them as succeeding the man in his honour and intrustments as well as in his holy activity for the publique good But I perceive by Austin Retr lib. 1. cap. 2. who repented him that he attributed more to Theodorus to whom he wrote a booke though otherwise he were a godly man then was meet that it is easie to over-lash in the commendation of a good man Only this therefore let me name without flattery to give the world an accompt of my choise Your love to Christ in his Ministers and members your constancy in sticking to his Cause with the losse of friends and lands in these back-sliding and forwardnesse in acting for him in these bleeding times doe more then satisfie me that I have found a Patron sutable to my subject Wherefore praying your favourable construction and acceptance of this poor mite I commend you to the Lords grace who double the spirit of his deceased servant on you make you high and Noble in all your ends faithfull and constant in all your instruments couragious and valiant in all your undertakings for Christ and his truth Remember Sir riches honours high places may make you great not gracious not happy they passe away daily and often much faster then they came I 'le ad deum copiosus ille opulentus adveniet cui astabunt misericordia patientia charitas fides Lactant. lib. 7. c. 27. and if they tarry with you to your last yet then must you leave them to others as they are now left to you We shall carry nothing with us but a life spent in and for Christ Worke apace then be diligent to take in and put off as much as you can for your Masters advantage that you may go richly laden to the Haven at the last and when you have fulfilled your time receive the crowne of righteousnesse and glory for which he prayeth who is yours Devoted to serve you in all Gospell offices STEPHEN MIDHOPE DEATHS ADVANTAGE PHILIPPIANS 1.21 For me to live is Christ and to dye is gaine THE Text is a compendious expression of S. Paul's scope in life and hope in death The inference is thus After salutation and gratulation from the 1. verse to the 12. he proceeds for the better incouragement of the beleeving Philippians to boldnesse and constancy in the profession of the Gospell and fellowship with Christ and his Church to declare unto them 1. His present estate in bonds and the good God had wrought out thence from the 12. verse to the 18. 2. His hope of the like for the future verse 19 20. viz. I not only have had and now have but I shall still have great cause of rejoycing in my sufferings For 1. I know what-ever the adversaries worke against me all through the helpe of your prayers and assistance of the Spirit of God shall still turne to my salvation 2. I know likewise that Christ shall be hereby glorified in my body which whether it be by life or death by living to him or dying for him 't is all one to me For to me to live c. The words are diversly rendred by Interpreters The Syriack reades them as do our English Translators so all the Ancients so Erasmus with others Calvin and after him Beza render them thus Christ is in life and death advantage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supplying the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the sense will be 'T is indifferent to mee whether I live or die for having Christ I must be a gainer by both estates for 't is Christ alone that makes me happy in life and death For my part as I take no pleasure in dissenting from such eminent lights so I dare not
easily depart from the simplicity of the words of the Holy-Ghost without manifest reason especially having the consent of all Antiquity I do therefore approve our English Translation so the sense is plaine and sweetly agrees with the precedent and following verses 1. With the fore-going words vers 20. According to my c. viz. this is that I ayme at heartily look and hope for that Ghrist be magnified if so 't is all one to me whether I live or die for this is my maine scope in living my very life to glorifie Christ by professing preaching loving his Gospell and suffering affliction for his Name and if I die now in my bonds besides that I shall seale his truth with my bloud this will turne to my great advantage in that being dissolved I shall be with Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non connectit sed insert Sicut in illo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heinsius in locum John 15.16 2. As sweetly doth this agree with the following verses which I reade thus But if to live in the flesh this be the fruit of my labour What then shall I choose I wot not For I am in a strait c. What fruit the conversion of soules that 's the only fruit of the ministry for that end were the Apostles sent So then if I live I shall have an occasion of bringing forth fruit to God by my ministry And what then shall I choose for to abide in the flesh is better for you Why because this is the fruit of my life to preach Christ and win soules to him and I have destined my whole life thereunto there 's his TO ME TO LIVE IS CHRIST but better for me to be dissolved Why because then I shall be with Christ There 's his AND TO DYE GAINE In these short words of the Text you have described the life and death of a true Christian in a double proposition his life by its object and end Christ. His death by its consequent and concomitant Gaine The necessary combination of these Christ with Life and Gaine with Death is intimated in the manner of enunciation which though it be not substantiall and formal but causall only and per concomitantiam as Logicians speake yet it is as like it as may be his life was so wholly devoted to Christ spent on Christ that Christ and nothing but Christ was to be found in his heart and wayes his gaine so inseparably conjoyned with his dissolution glory so sure to follow at the heeles of death as if there had been no difference betweene them but that Death had now put off with its sting its nature also and were now become not a privation but advancement of his being not a losse of life but a gainfull addition of glory Not to detaine you longer from that I principally intend from the propositions thus briefly explained arise two maine points of truth which I shall desire severally to open and then for a close joyntly to apply 1. Doctr. The maine object of a godly mans employment is Christ and his glory Or Christ is the life of a true Christian. 2. Doctr. A life truly Christian ever ends in a happy and gainfull death For explication of the former of these two termes must have some light here 1. Christ. What is carried in that 2. To live How Christ is life to a Christian 1. Christ is not here simply and absolutely considered in his person Act. 9.5 natures c. but Christ in his relations As Paul once lived against Christ so now he lives Christ in his Church Kingdome Gospell wayes ordinances Christ that is the magnifying of Christ by preaching his Gospell serving his Church building up his body obeying his will doing suffering for his Name So much is evident to an observant eye from the context as hath been already opened 2 How this is called his life For the fuller understanding whereof we must note 1. More generally Every thing is evidenced to live by its operation Sum. 1. q. 18.2 that is most proper to it As the life of a Plant consists in this that it receives nourishment and growth Of a beast in sense and motion Of men in reason and working according to reason So that the life of a man stands in that which he delights most in which he most intends Now there are not only naturall faculties in men inclining them to sutable operations but also superadded principles as habites vertuous or vicious inclining them to some kind of actions as it were naturally and making them delightfull to them Hence by way of similitude that operation that is delightfull to man in which he takes pleasure to walk to which he directs his course is called his life Hence some are said to live a voluptuous others a worldly life their thoughts and study are all on the world all their care is for it their delight wholly in it 2. But more particularly there is a life of the heart and of the hand 1. Love 1. Of the heart where the first weight and springing of the soule is love that so joyns the soule and its beloved that it lives as it were and enjoyes it self Non ubi animat sed ubi amat not in the body where it breathes but in that which it loves 2. 2. Care Hence for love is a commanding passion the mind the thoughts are imployed about that which the soule loves Lord saith David how I love thy Law Psal 119. al the day long is my study in it And this is set down as a characteristicall difference betwixt the life of a married and unmarried person by the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.32 Esay 32.6.8 the one careth for the things of the world the other for the things of the Lord And by the Prophet betwixt the life of the wicked and the godly the heart of the one works iniquity he devises wicked devices the other devises liberall things 3. 3. Desire Reinolds of Passions Hence also ariseth desire that is the wing of the soule whereby it moves and is carried to the thing which it loves as the Eagle to the carkasse to feed it self upon it and to be satisfied with it And this the Scripture holds forth as the very best character and truest lineament that can be drawn of the life of God and of the world Actions may be over-ruled by ends but desires are alwaies genuine and natural Pro. 11.23 The desire of the righteous is only good but the expectation of the wicked is wrath What-ever other defects may attend his actions this is an inseparable character of a pious soule that the maine streame of his desires the course and current of his heart is to God and goodnesse though he cannot shew himselfe in doing as he would yet hee desires good because it is Christ in whom is good and nothing but good Hag. 2.7 after whom are drawn all the affections and inward longings of his soul
every life hath plinciples according to the nature of it leading it to things sutable Now where the life of Christ is that new nature hath new principles by which they are acted that carry them to Christ to set out his glory lift up his Name There is an excellent expression for this Phil. 2.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Germane godly men have their hearts so plincipled that they are carried by a natural instinct I mean of a new nature to Christ his Church to do al the service they can unto them So that as things that worke naturally worke necessarily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nyssen so there is a kind of necessity put upon them the love of Christ which is the life of the new nature constrains them they can do nothing against the truth but for the truth 2 Cor. 13.8 2. That this should be so justice requires it 1. Is it not Christ that hath made us and not we our selves Job he hath powred us out like milke by him we were curdled like cheefe and have we not our new being from him Ephes 2.10 We are Gods workmanship created in Christ Jesus and so he may challenge our hearts and lives as his own jure creationis by the right of creation as the Author of them Whither should the rivers run but into the sea from whence they come Eccles 1.7 Eccles 12.7 Hebr. 9. and shall not the spirit of man return unto God who gave it The naturall spirit by a statute law at death the gracious Spirit by the law of Love all along even unto death 2. He hath redeemed and bought us at a deare rate his own bloud and therefore we should glorify him with our lives for we are not our own c. 3. 1 Cor. 6.20 He hath rescued and delivered us as spoiles out of the hands of our enemies and therefore we are become his servants and owe our lives to him as our Patron and Deliverer Servus quiae in bello servatus Rom. 6.18.7.6 4. Besides in Baptisme we devoted our selves wholly to him and so by right of sale or covenant our lives are his 5. And lastly in point of gratitude and thankfulnesse we have the whole life of Christ first and last both here and in heaven laid out for us He had no businesse here on earth but for us To us a Child was borne 2 Cor. 5.14 15. He had not dyed but for us For us a Son is given When he rose 't was for our justification And now he is in heaven he lives for ever to intercede for us Now then we cannot but judge this to be most equall that we live spiritually in the fruition of his grace and participation of his Spirit that had our lives by his benefit that have the improvement of his whole time for us should not live hence-forth unto our selves but to him who dyed for us and rose again He lived wholly unto us therefore we are bound if we will not be unthankfull to live wholly to him In manners we would reciprocate with men how much more with God Hitherto of the first point Now of the second more briefly which was 2. Doct. A life truly Christian ever ends in a happy and gainfull death Quest. Is not death poena damni do we not lose by death all that the devill promised Christ the world and the glory of it body goods wife children dear companions pleasant friends that turnes to dust these all shake hands and leave us at the grave how then can it be gain Answ Yes For it is a change we lose none of our comforts but exchange them to our great advantage 1. The soule changes its rags reliques of corruption for white robes of spotlesse purity Heare Paul complaining in life of a body of death Rom. 7.24 â— Cor. 5.4 groning under his burden whilest in this tabernacle of clay The leprosie is so deepe wrought into the walls of this house that scrape off what we can 't will never quite out till the house of the body be broken down and dissolved And must not that needs be a gainfull change that brings us to an end of living here and sinning for ever 2. It changes all its guilts griefs for perfect holinesse and everlasting peace 2 The body its gaine is only privative for present it s freed from all miseries and calamities of life it gaines only rest for a time Isa 57.2 the full gain of the body is adjourned to the resurrection when it shall be made like unto Christs glorious body True the soule also till then sustaines some losse called the paines of death Acts 2.24 understand not paines of sense but losse 1. Of the company of the body its old and deare companion 2. It comes short of the glory that shall be revealed Yet as Evagrius bequeathed three hundred pound to the poore in his will but tooke bond of the Bishop for repayment in another life with an hundred-fold advantage and next night after his death appeared to him delivered in the bond cancelled as fully discharged So surely brethren one day in the presence of God will make amends abundantly abundantly for all the losses that come by death to soule or body For this we have not an uncertaine story but the truth of Christ mortality shall be swallowed up of life that is destroyed brought to nothing so swallowed up as there will be no more remembrance or thought of it he that drinkes of this new wine in Gods Kingdome will forget his losse of bodily comforts and remember his sorrow no more 3 It s a change of state also This life is a state of imperfection now we see as in a glasse darkely love coldly hope faintly but then this imperfection shall be exchanged for perfection cleare vision full comprehension everlasting fruition 4 Of campany Paul here lived among false brethren that sought to betray him beasts at Ephesus that sought to devour him death takes Paul from all these and puts him out of their reach into the armes of Christ But what may we think of the violent death of Saints by the sword of the persecutour such was Pauls condition at this time in chaines in the mouth of the Lyon that he seemes to poynt at such a death as this Certainly its true of such a death much more the Millinaries have a conceit of a previous glory a glory before glory that martyrs shal injoy with Christ here on earth grouÌ„ded on that Rev. 20. Rev. 20.4 5. 4.5 to which I only say a day will declare it The Schoolemen talke of an Aureâ—la Martyrum a Coronet on the crowne of righteousnesse that the righteous judge shall give to them that suffer death for his name Matth. 5. Truth it selfe hath told us that great shall be their reward that suffer for righteousnesse sake and I doubt not but the greater the suffering the greater will be the glory Reason
I need adde no more for confirmation of so plaine and confessed a truth I shall touch only the ground which is the justice of God 2 Thess 1.6 seeing this is a righteous thing with God saith Paul as the Saints endevours do gaine to God so in justice he will see they be gainers by him againe Matth. 25.20 Not here for if in this life only we had hope c. therfore it must needs be hereafter Non si male nunc olim sic erit Ill here and hereafter too with the Saints it cannot be how then shall the judge of all the world do right Verily there is a reward for the righteous that 's not here given the day of this life is a time of working sweating suffering when the evening of death comes then comes the peny of eternall blisse Now for the application of all that hath been said 1 Then by your life you may judge what gainers you are like to be by your death If you can truly say I have not lived to my lusts they are death to me the deadnesse of my heart the hell of my soule Nor to the world I take not thought for the things of it I use it as if I used it not rejoyce in it as if I rejoyced not looke on all the things therein as impertinent to the main businesse of my life reserve the intentions of my soule the cheife of my strength for Christ Quia nomen Jesu non erat ibi as Augustine once said he loved Tully nothing so well after his conversion because the name of Jesus was not there so you can relish nothing farther then it hath reference to Christ if Christ be not injoyed in them honoured and exalted by them you looke on all as dead things If you have written on all the roomes of your soules as sometimes we find on doores where the Court hath been For the Prince So on your hearts For Christ Your minds to meditate on his word your affections to love and delight in his service hands to act tongue to speake to and for him O then happy are you When death comes it shall not spoyle you of your life but you shal be able to say as dying but behold wee live 2 Cor. 6.9 Though death be the losse of all other things to you it cannot be the losse of life you shall have more life in Christ then in your selves more of that by losing this Death is gaine to me why saith Chrysistome because I shall hereby have more knowledge of Christ my life more familyar converse more intimate fellowship with him this is all the hurt death shall do you to send you sooner to your life and free you from this that is not so fit for you But if you have lived to your lusts if your life be only carnall sensuall you can relish your meat sleepe and walke and talke that 's all your life to eate drink snort and sport Or only rationall you can discourse transact businesse yet continue strangers to the life and power of godlinesse Or only worldly you do all for the world in reference to your gaine honours make Christ himselfe come behind the ewes Religion a very lackey to your coveteousnesse ambition c. if you be active only about sense and reason and lust and gaine the life of holinesse not so much as sought after Christ and his glory Church and truth not regarded well may you be gainers by your life through sordid and wretched courses but this I tell you all that you are like to gaine by your death you may put into your eye and weep it out againe yea death will bring with it the greatest losse I say not of heaven that it may be you little regard but of all that you now count gay your gold your god death will take you by the sleeve as Gregory did once the Emperour Anastatius Psal 49.17 and tell you Sir this silken cassack this scarlet coat you shall not carry hence with you One sayd he was willing to dye but he feared theeves that had beleagured the passages in the ayre as he was to passe to heaven Doubtlesse if Christ be not your life if you have only lived the life of pride covetiousnesse wantonnesse c. death as the divils mercilesse sargeant catchpole will seize upon you take you by the throat and by a writ of firmâ ejectione turne you out of house and home strip you at once of all that you counted precious and dragge your froward and untoward soules to the lowest hell 2 Suffer I beseech you a word of exhortation would you be gainers by death let Christ be a gainer by your life make this your maine designe your only imployment to set up Christ in your owne and the hearts of others to advance his Gospel inlarge his Kingdome Let Ministers be burning lights spending themselves in giving light to the church of Christ not seeking their owne but the things of Christ Let Magestrates be as watchmen to keepe and defend the Spouse of Christ Cant. 3.3 Revel 12.16 as the earth helped the woman against the dragon to crush all the seedes of rebellion and opposition that ayme at the overthrow of the Gospell of Christ 2 Chron. 30 22. ◠Chron. 34.33 as Hezekiah speaking comfortably to the Levites that teach the good knowledge of God as good Josiah making the people to serve the Lord compelling them to come in that Gods house may be full And you Captaines of the Lords host and all you that fight his battles let this be the inscription on your weapons of warre as Alphonsus once had on his shield pro lege pro grege so you for Christ and his Kingdom for his Church and his Gospell All you christians Revel 14.1 let the name of Christ be written in your foreheads in all your hearts as they say t' was in the heart of Ignatius in golden letters let all your thoughts affections desires and endeavours be truly christian labour in a heavenly ambytion the advancement of the honour of your Masters Kingdome be valiant in your places and stations for his truth and Gospell This is truly to live to live only to and for Christ this the only life till we come to live with Christ in heaven for ever Here is al that can make a life comfortable the worldlings Trinity is truly here and here only to be found 1 This is the only honourable life called the divine nature the image life and glory of God 2 Cor. 8.23 2 Cor. 8.23 they that live to the benefit of the Church are the glory of Christ 2 True pleasure is to be found only here To live a life of carnall pleasure 1. Is to live a base life Epicures are spots vile persons in the Scriptures and natures account 2. A vaine life Ecle 2.2 a challenge to all the most cunning inventours of pleasure to tell if they can what
true good is in it 3 A dead and deadly life Sensuall pleasure deads the heart to God the fountaine of life and leads to the chambers of eternall death Hos 4.11 Prov. 9.18 But now to have Christ for the Alpha and Omega of our lives while others are sunke in the dregs of the world to worke up to God to moove to Christ as our only center acting all we doe for the glory of his name How sweet a life must this needs be carrying with it a spirituall heavenly glorious joy as farre above all carnall delights as glory is above shame heaven above hell Archimedes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If Heathens found such sweetenesse some in philosophicall speculations others in famous atcheivements for the good of their country which were but the exercises of a rationall morall life What sweetnesse then must that soule needs finde that lives in Christ acts for the honour of Christ every such action being an exercise of the life of God and a seede of glory 3. The only gainefull life Godlinesse is profitable for all things 1 Tim. 4.8 makes a gaine of all trades with Gods talents and gets ten for one a gaine of all estates sicknesse losses the greatest gaine of the greatest losse TO DYE IS GAINE These are my brethren adventuring times and men hazzard farre persons states lives and all and what to get Some their Helena of lust Others their Dagon of superstition they plead fight for Baall Others to get a name by doing exployts Others drive a trade of these warres building their houses with blood All would gladly attaine to the end but the most of men weary themselves in vaine not knowing the way Eccles 10.15 Would you have highest honour lasting pleasure truest gaine know all these interests of yours are wrapt up in Christ if you make him a gainer you cannot loose you need goe no farther then the magnifying of Christ in your flesh for the ground of all your honour comfort happinesse here and hereafter Quest. Answ But how may I be enabled thus to live 1 Learne that lesson of selfe-denial well Selfe and Christ cannot agree together a man 's owne things and the things of Christ are ever in competition and St. Paul makes them incompatible in this respect none can seeke both their owne things Philip. 2.21 and Christs together not their owne case not their owne praise nor their owne profits with the things that are Jesus Christs A man will never looke to Christ in any thing vntill he have learned to looke beyond himselfe in all Now because this is a hard saying Consider 1 The end of our being is nor Selfe but Christ marke what a high end the Apostle sets up 1 Cor 10.31 Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the glory of God which he inforceth by his owne practice in the last verse Even as I seeke not my owne profit but the profit of many that they may be saved where note againe the antithesies selfe honour selfe profit and the profit of the Church and glory of Christ although they are compatible and may be conjoyned in the event yet in the endevour they cannot he that makes his owne advantage his maine end can neither seek the profit of the Church nor the glory of Christ 2 This is very profitable 1. For security 2. For improvement you have Christs owne words in plaine assertions for both 1. That this is the best way to secure whatsoever you are willing to deny your selves in for Christ be it credite estate life any thing truth it self assures you Joh. 12.25 Mark 8.35 if in comparison or competition with Christ we can be willing not only to lay downe and lose but even hate the dearest things of this world when they stand in the way of the publique cause of Christ and Religion as now God calls us to lay downe our estates lives and all for his truth it may be he will not take them from us but save them for us and continue them to us but if he do veleat vita pereat pecunia as once said that virgin Martyr let them take all the goods in our houses children of our flesh blood in our veynes all we are sure to save all to life eternall we shall have more life in Christ then in our selves as hath been sayd more riches in him then in the world even vnsearchable riches that can never be stollen away never be exhausted 2. for improvement we have a promise for this also Matth. 19.29 if we can beleeve it Every one that hath forsaken houses or brethren c. never any that tryed but he found God a good paymaster sweet experience have many of Gods plundered suffering Saints in these evill dayes of his giving in good measures of this precious truth into their bosomes heaped up and pressed downe and running over 3 This is most comfortable in life and death when we can looke backe on our lives wholly layd out for Christ 2 Cor. 1.12 and say with St. Paul This is our rejoycing that in Simplicity and godly sincerity not in fleshly wisedome we have had our conversation in the world not in policy to bring about our owne ends but as the sincere servants of Christ for the good of his Church and as this is the comfort of his life so when a man shall come to lye on his death bed he may comfortably pleade it with God and man With man as Frederick the godly said to his friends standing about his sicke bed Hitherto I have lived for you now let me live for my selfe With God as Nehemiah that was full of self-deniall you see how he was inboldned to put his God in minde to thinke on him for good according to all that he had done for his people Heb. 5.14 19. So St. Paul when the time came that he should dye you see he that had lived only to Christ preached not himselfe but the Lord Jesus driven no ends of his owne sought not his owne advantage but the profit of the Churches as he was full of self-deniall in life so he ended his dayes full of comfort 2 Tim. 4.7 when he had done his worke saith he I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth is layd up for me the Crowne of righteousnesse Contrarily self-livers as they decline the true end of their being making themselves their owne end Selfish in all So they crosse their owne profit and comfort in life and death Many thinke now in these perillous times to save their owne stake by sparing from the cause of Christ they will have something to live on which way soever the world goe No this is the way to lose all truth it selfe hath told us whatsoever it be we are loath to lose for Christ be it state persons lives at length we shall lose that Matth 16. â—4 Luke 9.23 and
selves and soules too No lesse uncomfortable will the estate of self-livers be at the last True many do very much blesse themselves while they live in their heaped up and reserved stores and men may prayse them while they do well unto themselves but marke the sad catastrophe He shall go to the generation of his fathers Psa 49.18 19. they shall never see light they are shut out from the least glimps of comfort after death but what comfort have they in death Man being in honour understandeth not inebritated with present comforts or distracted with worldly cares they apprehend not the true scope of life and end of their being to direct their indeavours after that but drowne themselves in the cares and pleasures of life as if they had been borne only thereunto thus they live but how dye they like the beast that perish as in other respects so especially in this there is no regard had of the death of a bruit beast doth God take care for oxen living or dying no more care takes he for selfe-seeking men that that dyes let it dye will God say Zach. 11.9 Rom. 14.7 that that is to be cut off let it be cut off they lived to themselves and therfore let them dye to themselves Let all self-seekers Gallioes in the matters of Christ know as little as they care for God and his cause in life so little will he regard them in death but will say unto them goe unto the gods whom you have served do you come to me and commend your soules to me go to your lusts these were your lords in life to those you offered your service gave up your hearts see if they can now save you in the day of your trouble Cold comfort to a drooping dying soule yet this wil be the forlorn and cast off condition in death of a selfe-seeking life the greatest self-seekers wil prove the greatest self-losers at the last 2 Get the life of Christ in you If Christ be in you you cannot but live to him Quest. Answ But how may this be done I can hardly stay to tell you briefly this is effected on Gods part inwardly by his Spirit outwardly by his Word On our part only by beleeving so farre as any man knows Christ and beleeves in him 1 Joh. 5.11.12 so farre he lives in Christ God gives us life in his Sonne and faith takes it there is no difference betwixt beleeving and having in the language of the holy Ghost The stung Israelites looking on the brazen serpent though but with a squint weake yet a pitifull wishly eye were healed he that but looks on Christ in the Gospell earnestly fastning his minde on him reaching out his soule after him a broken selfe-denying heart affectionately desiring that Christ may come and live there cannot go off empty but while we are thus beholding Christ in the myrrour of the Gospel we are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Cor. 3.18 To clear this mystery yet a little more life is in the will and affections to love is to live now the Gospell is the ministry of love and therefore of life Would you have life goe not to mount Sinai Galath 4.24 Psal 133.3 that gendreth to bondage and works feare but goe to mount Sion there the Lord hath commanded a blessing of love and life for evermore Hebr. 12.18 19 20. That which keeps many in a state of strangenesse from the life of God is that they look on God as on a terrible Judge offended with them his wrath kindled ready to consume them in their transgressions this amazeth fils with confusion perplexity and feare they looke upon the Law as impossible to be kept charging duty without giving any strength to performe written in letters of blood threatning wrath and curse and death to the disobedient this makes men ready to flye in the face of God or to flye from him willing to give all the world if they had it to be free of the terrours of the Lord and challenge of conscience upon so fearefull a sentence as the law pronounceth against them they desire to heare no more of God to have no more to doe with him seeing Justice only in God and no mercy impotency in their natures to fulfill the law an vtter impossibility to helpe themselves by any thing they can doe or to doe any thing better then they have done no drawing neare to God for them think they But when they come to mount Sion see the goodnesse and mercy and tender compassion of God toward them see the covenant of grace and the blood of sprinkling that their sinnes shall be forgiven and nature cleansed and they inabled by the spirit for keeping the new covenant in such a manner as God requires and will accept this melts the heart renders it pliable to God begets a disposition of love to God which the Scripture calls the new life 3 Get your hearts filled with the graces of Christ They are all springs as it were living principles in abling and inclining to live to God 1 Cor. 13. Especially labour to get your soules filled with the love of Christ love is bountifull 't will make a man thinke nothing too much to be done for Christ no zealous and godly walking no reading hearing humbling confessing no duties too much whereby Christ may be exalted and it selfe expressed yea love will make a man not thinke his life too deare for Christ and his Gospell I count not my life deare unto my selfe that I might finish my course c. Act. 20.18 so he so in effect this noble Colonell whose funeralls we now solemnize he was of Saint Pauls spirit he thought nothing too much too deare to be layd out for Christ his Church and you He might truly say with our Apostle I am willing to spend and to be spent for you and I think go on although the more I love the lesse I am beloved of you I intend not any portraiture of him if I did or he needed my attestation I could tell you of his sweete temper mildnesse to admiration yet resolutions gallant and vigorous in all publique expeditions not fearing to take the lyon by the beard nor turning his back to the sword I could tell you of his gentlenesse to all indulgence to the Gospell best Ministers meeknesse in packing up injuryes to himselfe digesting without the least perturbation harshest carriages as if with St. Paul he tooke pleasure in reproches persecutions for Christ and his cause yet was he impartially active in punishing malignants against the cause of Christ therein another Moses indeede he was of a very sweete humble self-denying frame Concerning his last service in these parts it being his owne choyce and desire to do worthily in Ephratah be serviceable in his owne countrey I must professe as St. Paul once of his Timothy I know no man like minded