to see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living St. Paul was ravished with the assurance of life after death his note ever after was to be dissolved * Phil. 1.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I desire to be dissolved or resolved into my first Principles or to be discharged or released out of the prison of my body that I may presently be with CHRIST my Saviour in Heaven in rest and in blisse View Annot in Philip. Now a word or two of my third Doctrin and I shall make Application A Change will come and we must daily expect it We are all desirous of Change Adam would be changed 3 Gen. He had enough Wisdome he would be as wise as his Maker And * 2 Sam. 15. Absolom would be changed hee would sit in his Fathers Throne and of a Subject become a Soveraign Solomon would have change of Wives 1 K. 11.3 700 whom he solemnly married The Israelites would change Samuel for Saul 1 Sam. 5.8 And the food of Angels for the flesh-pots of Aegypt 11 Numb 4,5,6 Men affect alterations choppings and changes but we seldome or never remember the great Change of which the Apostle speakes 3 Phil. 21. Who shall change our vile bodies or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beza Annot the body of our vilenesse that it may like unto His glorious body or the body of his glory We never think of this Change O the glorious estate that a child of God shall be transchanged into this corruptibilitie and mortalitie shall be changed into incorruptibilitie and immortalitie But I will fall Application upon the Application of these Points Application being the Life of Doctrines The use in gerall that we are to make of all this precedent Discourse is to prepare for Death and Dissolution We read in Solomons distribution of times that * Eccl. 3.2 there is a time to be borne and a time to die but of no time to live as if our Birth bordered upon our Death and our Cradles stood in our Graves That Death therefore may not surprize you as it did that wicked * Adversus omnia pericula me munivi praeterquà m adversus mortem amp c. 1. Seriously Caesar Borgia think upon it 1. Seriously 2. Rightly 3. Seasonably 1. Seriously 1. Doe it Seriously this doe by laying it to heart * 7 Eccl. 2. This is the end of all men and the living will lay it unto heart to the very heart of our heart We must not lay it to our Eyes to gaze upon it nor to our eares to heare of it nor to our tongues onely to discourse and talke of it O such a one is dead such a one is gone to his long home but we must apply it to our hearts ruminate it in our minds rivet it in our memories ponder it in our meditations suffer it to make a deep impression in us And that for these reasons * Qui considerat qualis erit in morte semper fit timidus in operatione Lud. Gra. Tit. Morb. He that thinks seriously of his death will be very circumspect in his deeds Men will not be such traders in Sin such drinkers in of Inqiuity Religion and the Waies of GOD will not be so slighted set before thine eyes the picture of Death A serious thought of thy Death will help to drive evill thoughts out of thy heart Mortem cogitare est vitiis omnibus renunciare ' Twiâ—l divorce thee from the Vvorld 't will alienate thy affections from things earthly this pricketh in the right veine 2. The thought of Death will make you lessc worldly you will not be such drudges to the world Now thou art like a Mole over head and eares in earth anon comes Death like a Mole-catcher and takes thee up The * Luke 12,19,20 Rich man had Goods for many years but not many years for his Goods Death will turne thee empty into thy Grave as Carriers turne their horses into a dirty Stable with a gaulled back and thee perhaps with a gaulled Conscience Now thou mayst state it and stout it out but shortly death will make thee stoop Now you may feed your unsanctified desires but you shall have at length your full deserts 3. Thinke of thy death and it will take thee off from all thy unjust dealings VVe should not have so many Oppressours there would be lesse wrongs in the world A heavy Judgement hangs over mens heads because of oppression and violence Nay thy Conscience will one day rebuke thee at thy death it will trouble thee * In Barons Wars I have read of a Great man in this Land by whom a poore VViddow was exceedingly wronged and put from her house and home and constrained to make an old Oake her best harbour But when he came to die he was so affrighted that in horrour of mind he often exclamed O the Widdow under the Oake O the Widdow under the Oake In the midst of your Ruling remember your Reckoning He that thinks upon his death seriously will be afraid to get his goods wrongfully 4. To think of Death will greatly humble thee nothing so powerfully treads down Pride as this Consider that thou art but a dead man and thy body be it never so strong or beautifull is but a lodging of Death thou art but a rotten creature yea vermis crastino moriturus a worme that must dye to morrow So oft therefore as corrupt Nature stirreth up thy heart to Pride because of the flowers of beauty and strength that grow out of it let this humble thee thy flowers O man cannot but wither for the root from which they spring namely the body is dead already 2. Rightly Secondly thinke of thy death Rightly Send out the scouts of thy heart aforehand And that for these reasons 1. To discover the Power of Death 2. The Perill of Death 1. The Power of Death Great is the Power of Death 't is unresistible thou art not able to encounter it Art thou able to withstand the Messenger of the Almighty No Death is an Iron-hammer that breakes us all to peices as so many Potters vessels Death comes upon the Wicked as Iehu came upon Iehoram 2 K. 9. v. 23 24. He made with all speed to his Chariot thinking to fly away but in vaine for the Arrow of Iehu overtooke him So when men with all speed run to their Chariots i. e. to their refuges of vanities the dart of Death surely overtakes them 2. To discover the Peril of Death O there is a great dealt of peril and danger in Death Death will be very terrible to an unregenerate man Art thou a Sweater or a Drunkard 't is the Devils Serjeant to arrest thee and carry thee without baile to the prison of utter darknesse It is Satans Cart to carry thee presently to execution in Hell 3. Sesonably 3. We must think upon it seasonably timely and in due season Think on it while we are
young and strong Remember thy death in the daies of thy youth in the daies of thy strength before sicknesse and weaknesse seize upon thee Lay not the greatest burthen on the weakest beast Adjourne not the longest journey to the shortest day A whole life is but short enough to provide for Death We are a week providing for a Feast a moneth preparing for a Wedding three moneths deliberation about a Bargaine And will we make no provision no preparation for this aforehand We take time to make provision for the buriall of the dead And shall we take no care to provide for Death it self Many men never think of Death untill Death come and take away their thinking Think upon it I beseech you in season whoever thou art that hearest me this day whether freind or foe stranger or familiar be not deceived the great God of Heaven and Earth the great Determiner of time and daies hath allotted thee such a portion of time which thou shalt not passe Death * Rev. 6.8 mounted on his pale horse is posting towards thee Here is not thy abode nor rest thou dwellest a House of clay in a Tent pitch'd up to day and removed to morrow Thou art a Didapper peening up and down in a moment depart thou must and be gone God knows how soon First then this may reach us watchfulnesse we know not the hour goe let us watch every houre We know not the hour wherein Death the Lords Handmaide with the broom of sickness or sorrow will sweep us away as the maide doth the spiders house 2. It may teach us to provide for things Eternall what ever becomes of Temporals for Death will strip us of all 3. Labour to bid Death welcome How shall I doe this First follow the precious Counsell of Christ * Mat. 6.20 Lay up Treasure for your selves in Heaven Which are Workes of Pietie and Deeds of Charity they will comfort you in Death and accompany you to Heaven 2. Looke carnestly to things that are above To GOD to IESUS CHRIST who sits at Gods right hand carrying on the great worke of Mans Redemption So did * Acts 7.55 Stephen in that extraordinary vision he saw the admirable Glory of Christ in Heaven 3. Live after the Laws of the new Ierusalem become a new creature be borne againe he that is borne but once shall die twice and he that is borne twice shall die but once 4. Labour to get an assurance of the forgivenesse of thy Sinnes Labour to finde God reconciled unto thee Labour to feele the power of CHRISTS Death and the vertue of His Resurrection 5. Live in all good Conscience they that live in all good Conscience till their dying day shall depart in abundance of Comfort at their dying day Get a good Conscience and keep a good Conscience that when thou shalt come to die though thou want the benefit of a comforting Minister thy Conscience may supply the place of a comforting Minister and may be the same to thee as the Angell was to CHRIST in His Agony and minister such comfort unto thee as may make thee ready for joy to leap into the grave Lastly be willing to die feare it not IESUS CHRIST was once among the dead thou must follow him through the horrours of the grave Art thou a child of God Hast thou given up thy Name to IESUS CHRIST Though Death invade the naturall powers of thy body and suppresse them though Death breake in upon this lodging of clay and demolish it to the ground yet be in no wise daunted thy death is but like the renting of * Gen. 39. Iosephs garment from him the man of God fled and left his garment in the hand of his Mistrisse So a child of God escapes out of the hands of Death without danger Vivendo decrescit transeundo nos terit he leaves his garment in the hands of Deaâ—h i. e. his body which like a garment the longer we weare it will be the worse for wearing The dissolving of the body to the man of God is but the unfolding of the Net and breaking open the Prison that the Soule which was prisoner may escape Here is notable comfort for the man of God He hath a life in him which no death can extinguish though the body descend into the grave the Lord will take it out againe He will not leave it in the grave neither cast off the care thereof but shall watch over the dust therof though it taste of corruption it shall not perish in corruption The Holy Ghost who dwelt in the body shal be unto it as a Balm to preserve it to Immortality This same flesh and no other for it though it should be dissolved into innumerable pickles of dust shall be raised againe and quickned by the omnipotent power of the eternall Spirit of GOD. Occasion I now come to the Occasion Something I shall say of this deceased Gentleman here arrested before our eyes for a debt of Nature I shall not praise his Birth nor his Education nor his Profession but as * Hierom Epitaph Mar. Hierom said of Marcella that godly Woman Nihil in illa laudabo nisi quod proprium I will praise nothing in him but what was proper and peculiar to him Consider him as a Man Husband Christian And we shall find him a patterne worthy imitation 1. Consider him as a man As a man he had his Infirmities For Lord what is man 8 Ps An infirme fraile creature many and great infirmities we labour under as we are men We have strong Corruptions in us as we are men we can doe no thing but Sinne Yet this I may safely deliver of him that he kept himselfe or rather GOD by His Grace kept him from those Sinnes against which Holy David prayed * Ps 19.13 Lord keep thy servant from presumpteous sinnes Wee are are naturally prone to great sinnes he was not a strong Sinner O the strength of sin in our daies Notwithstanding Admonitions Iudgements Mercies men goe on still in sinnes No reformation no amendment we were sinners before the Wars and we are sinners still He was none of these 2. Consider him as a Husband And there he observed the rule of the Apostle * Col. 3.19 Husbands love your Wives and be not bitter against them He lived lovingly with his Wife in the sacred Conjunction of their GOD six and thirtie yeares together Children he had none that lived but a chearfull respecter of them whom Law and Love had made his own No Lyon in his house no Tyrant among his servants freindly affable courteous towards his Neighbours observing another precept of the Apostle * Rom. 12.16 equalling himself to them of low degree whereby he gained love and lost nothing of his reputation 3. Consider him as a Christian And so hee was 1. Peaceable 2. Humble 3. Charitable 4. Devout Foure most infallible evidences as I take them of a true Christian and
shall be a generall Resurrection and this is Spes in Urnâ Hope in the Grave Thirdly we ought daily to Prepare for Death and to live in continuall Expectation thereof and this is Viaticum in via Provision in the way First the Term of our life is appointed and die we must no avoyding hereof And that for these Reasons First it is GODS Will and Decree ver 5. His daies are determined the number of his moneths are with thee thou hast set his bounds that he cannot passe As he set bounds to the Sea hither shalt thou come and no further so thus long shalt thou live and no longer 39 Psal 5. Thou hast made my daies saith David as an hands breadth If GOD hath made them but an hands breadth who can make them longer Pilate would not alter his Writing 19 Joh. 22. Nor GOD his Decree that is gone out It was the first Doctrine preached to man after his Fall 3 Gen. 19. Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne Not by any necessity of his created Nature but because he finned GOD threatneth to make his End as base as his Beginning Die then we must Dance all in Deaths Ring sooner or later we shall be cut downe by the Axe of Death to be Fuell for Burning or Timber for Building to become a cursed Brand in Satans Furnace or a blessed Beam in CHRISTS Palace GOD hath passed upon Adams Posterite this sentence of Temporall Condemnation Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne All of us without some extraordinary Dispensation as that of Enoch and Elias was are liable to the same 5 Gen. 24. 2 Kings 2.11 Secondly through the contagion of originall Sinne Sinne is the wicket that let Death into the World 5 Rom. 12. As by one man Sinne entred into the World and Death by Sinne and so Death passed upon all men for all have sinned Sinne hath given Death much advantage and victory over humane nature that the kernell of a Raison yea a haire in Milk hath choaked and killed a man as it did Anacreon * Val. Max. lib. 9. cap. 12. and Fabius the Romane and layd him lower then the beasts of the earth for they lie upon the ground while he is layd under it Thirdly from the Matter whereof the body of man consists The originall of mans body is Dust 2 Gen. 7. Homo ab humo Not any durable matter as Marble and Rocks against which the Winds blowing and the Waves beating cannot prevaile 7 Mat. 25. but like Dust before the Wind 18 Psal 42. 4 Iob. 19. Wee dwell in houses of clay whose foundations are in the dust i. e. in mortall bodies subject to corruption which are crushed before the Moth sooner and with lesse labour then the Moth is crushed which is killed onely with a little touch 2 Corinth 5.1 The Apostle calls it an Earthly house or Tabernacle For wee know that if our Earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved c. St. Paul who was a * 18 Acts 3. St. Paul exercised a handy-craft wrought with Aquila whose Trade was to make Tents of skins then much in use in those hot countries view Anot. on the Acts Tent-maker elegantly compareth our body to a Tent and that in many regards First a Tent or Tabernacle is easily raised up and as easily taken down and spoyled so is our body by sicknesse or outward violence come but one ill night one little touch of a Feaver some paine in the Side or imperfection in the Lungs come the stone in the Bladder Abijt illa universa Scaena all the Stage vanisheth Secondly a Tent is a moveable House or Habitation so are our Bodies which are now like Tents pitched upon the Earth but shall be hereafter transported into Heaven Thirdly a Tent is foule without and soild with Wind and Weather so the Body and Outside of man is but vile and contemptible subject to blasts and stormes exposed to all the violence of Nature Now that I may the better rivet the Truth into your Minds and Memories consider with me that the walke of Death is Vniversall not some men die but all all that have breath must lose it and all that have life must leave it as the Woman of Tekoah told K. David 2 Sam. 14. cap. We must all dye you a Soveraigne and I a Subject you a Man and I a Woman We must needs die and be as water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered up againe Wee shall all be desperately lost I have seen an end of all perfection said Holy David 119 Psal 96. There is nothing so perfect on Earth but it hath an end David had a sight of this Happy are they which have Davids Eyes It concernes us to looke into this matter And GOD requires us to listen to the Proclamation of mans Mortality that he makes by his Prophet 40 Isaiah 6. * Quia per nativitatem viret in carne per juventutem candescit in flore per mortem aret in pulvere Greg. in Ps 5. Paenitent A Voice said cry And he said What shall I cry All flesh is grasse and all the goodnesse the gracefulnesse the glory thereof is as the flawer of the field GOD would have the Prophet discover the Vanitie of all humane Excellency to cry it in the Eares of the People to make such a noyse that might rouze a man that were slumbring awake a man that were sleeping move a man that were musing so carefull is GOD that you should learne this Lesson For First no Eminency of Office or Dignity can priviledge thee though thou sittest in the Chaire of Earthly Dignity Death will pull thee thence 82 Psal 6. I sayd yee are * Nuncupativè non Substantivè Gods by Name not by Nature but yee shall dye like men No Title of Honour shall excuse you die you must and render an account as well as other men Wee have seen this Truth verified in our daies Hee that made the Earth of nothing can marre the greatest in a moment Hee bringeth Potentates to nothing and maketh the Iudges of the Earth as Vanity 40 Isa 23. Hee poureth contempt upon Princes sayes Job 12.21 And looseth the Girdle of the Strong i. e. For their VVickednesse and Tyrannie He causeth their People and Subjects to contemne them Secondly no Strength or Statelinesse of any Place or Palace can protect thee Xenoph. in Apolog. pro Socrat. Socrates would live no longer unlesse his Freinds could tell him of a place without the Territories of Athens where men never die And it was a pretty Answer of Hormisda the Persian Ambassadour to Constantius the Emperour demanding of him how he liked the Citie of Rome with the Amphitheatrum the Capitolium and other such rich Monuments as were shewed unto him In truth I thinke it the most glorious Citie in the World * Id tantum sibi placuisse quod didicis set ibi quoque homines mori Ammian Marcell
a Sanctified heart His Devotion towards GOD was not onely publique but private He was carefull to set up the duty of Praier in his Family for he had often heard from my mouth that Families as well as Kingdomes were cursed that called not upon the Name of the LORD And truly GOD will visit private Families as well as publique States GOD will lay His Axe to the root of an unpraying Family as to the root of an unpraying Kingdome O set up the duty of Prayer in your Families that they may be GODS Families Many men rise in the morning like the wild Asse to their prey to their trade to their businesse and they lie downe at night as Dogges doe in their kennels they call not upon the Name of the Lord. I never knew a praying Family a Family of much Sin Prayer doth break the power of Sinne in a Family and weakens the Kingdome of Satan in the hearts of Gods people I have been often called to pray with his family doubt not but GOD hath in mercy accepted the services of his poor servants He had a weake and crazie body but GOD gave him a religious mind in so great weaknesse of body He was born for the good of Many Most liberally he remembred the poor both in his life time giving often privily many large gifts to his poor Neighbours when he saw them in want and at his death bequeathing ten pounds to the poor of lower Tooting in Surrey where he dwelt and fifty pounds to the poore of Kingston upon Thames where he was borne and both his Father and Mother and his elder Brother and Sister with himselfe now lie buried to be distributed among them the next yeare after his decease Yea in his life time according to a former promise made to his loving Brother in Law Mr. Abraham Colfe Minister and Pastor of the Church of CHRIST at Lewisham in Kent near Greenwich and as a farther testimony of his love to his loving Wife Elizabeth sister to the said Mr. Abraham Colfe he did from the 25th of March 1642. now almost nine years past give six pence every week weekly on every Lords-day in every yeare yearely to six poor people of Lewisham being of honest life and conversation and chosen by the Minister Incumbent and Officers of the Church and Parish to be distributed at the publique Church they being in health at the end of the Sermon before noon And also at his death hath given by Will thirty pounds to purchase lands for the perpetuating of the said gift to six poor people of Levisham in like manner successively for ever Also he bequeathed great Legacies to the value of above two thousand pounds to his poor kindred freinds and servants As GOD gave him Riches so GOD gave him a rich heart O this distribution of Wealth is the onely thing This breaking of Loaves among the needy This casting our Bread upon the face of the waters Eccles 11.1 Men think laying up the way to be rich but God thinks laying out to be the way The loynes of the poor will blesse you for your Liberality I see the faces of many rich men I know not the frame of your hearts I know not the bias of them This I know that the clouds that are full poure out raine to refresh the earth so the rich that have abundance must distribute it liberally Now for his sicknesse Dolore calcuâ—i miserè expiravit terrible as his discase of the stone in the bladder wherein were found twelve stones weighing above six ounces which put him to strong Out-cries Out-cries for the Lords Mercy Outcries for pardon deep acknowledgements for his great and many sins God had layd great paine and torment upon him I never heard him repine nor charge GOD foolishly 1 Job 22. He was patient and pray'd for patience Lord give me patience to suffer thy good will and pleasure He died praying even when death shooke him by the hand his Prayer was O FATHER SON and HOLY GHOST O Blessed Saviour and Redeemer have mercy upon me Thus lived and dyed this worthy Gentleman The Garment which he wore of borrowed earth he hath left to be restored to the earth againe I forbid not his Freinds to lament him We may lament the dead but not the estate of the dead CHRIST sorrowed for his Friend Lazarus But my counsell is let not the Temple of GOD be over-sad And as the Apostle adviseth * 1 Thes 4.13 Sorrow not without hope for him that is asleep Hee is but a sleep his Grave his Bed hee shall awake as sure as he lay down yea more fresh and glorious in the great Day of Resurrection FINIS