Advantage not as a Trapdore swallowing up in Destruction but as a Gate opening to everlasting Life And this is done first by recounting our looser dayes in bitternesse so shall we unlive the time we have lived amisse then by frequent Meditation and foretast of Death Think thine Eyes grown dim in the fainting twylight of life and thou shalt soon turn them aside from vanity think thine Eares grown deafe with sicknesse and thou wilt soon stop them against Idle words think thy Tongue grown stiffe with drowth and that thought will be a watch before thy mouth to Examine what thou lettest out and what thou lettest in think on the cold sweat of Death so thou wilt abhorre to swim in Lust think how naked thou must goe hence even as bare as thou camest onely with a shrowd as thou camest in with a Cawle and almost with as little flesh then thou wilt easily contemne all wordly pomp and subdue thy carnall Tumours Thinkest thou that Death drawes nearer when it is thought of or dares not to approach unlesse it be call'd no such matter this practice of dying dayly will not make us to die the sooner but so to live as that we may die the happier And this or the like practice belongs to our Christian Profession assumed in Baptisme where by the Covenant of Grace we become Dead in a third Acception Dead in Quality Dead to all Wordly and Carnall Lusts though we may sometimes fall upon them by Infirmity yet to pursue them is against our Profession The Desire is Dead and the Renunciation made against them is a kind of Death The spirituall Pharaoh with all his Hoast lies drown'd in the Font representing a Red Sea the Blood of Christ there Christ and We enter into Covenant he to free us from Sin and we to forsake it he to strike off the Dominion and Guilt thereof we the Service and Confederation Because by nature we are born Dead in Sin and subject to Corruption therefore by a second birth we are born Dead unto Sin the spirituall Death is a Countermine against the Naturall For by the Power of Baptisme the Old man together with his Lusts is taken and crucified nayl'd hand and foot to the Crosse of our Saviour quite disabled from acting what he would and at length with much adoe with striving and strugling with Gall and Vineger with Piercing or Breaking forc'd to die outright How then shall we that are Dead to Sin live any longer therein 't is the Use of the Apostle Rom. 6. 2. v. Is it not strange to heare that a dead man walkes is it not stranger to heare that he speakes and workes yes eates and drinkes abundantly and yet dead how is it then that the Old man so long since crucified dead and buried doth yet so frequently exercise the Actions of Life moving the Tongue to Idle words Lying Swearing the Throat to Excesse the Eie to Adultery the Hands to Oppression and all the members to severall Iniquity how is it that the Church of God is haunted with such Evill Spirits and Goblins sure there is some Spell or Magick in this foule Prodigie otherwise without the help of the Devill it could not be I grant that a rotten Tree after it is hewn down and laid in the Durt may put forth a Sprig a Leafe or so but they come to no Strength they never prosper Haire may grow on a Carcasse but such haire is never dressed nor keemed So may the Reliques of the Old man have a Counterfeit shew of Life but must not gather Head never be cherish'd within any Christian bosome Death frees us from all worldly Relations and Bonds as S. Paul disputes in the sixth to the Romanes it frees the Wife from the yoake of her Husband the Servant from the Task of his Master shall we then who are freed by Death forsake a fresh and lovely Spouse who died for our Love and be reunited to an old rotten Carcasse shall we forgoe this new Master who bought us with his blood for an Old tyrannous Canniball that feedes on our destruction God forbid So much for this point wherein you have heard that we are now dead already and in three respects Dead in Law through the sentence pronounced on sin that therefore we ought not to be over-sollicitous for much provision where we have no right to tarry longer Dead by the Course of Nature as appeares by the mutability of those elements whereof we consist and of things appertaining by dayly declynations insensibly but yet continually growing into sensible changes in our owne Persons and by the successive defluction of all mankinde from whence we should gather patience for the losse of others Caution for our selves but without Anxiety and above all godly Preparation for a better life Lastly that we are Dead by the Covenant of Grace Dead to sin and sin to us that therefore sin ought not to rule and exercise our Members Then if the Old Adam Die within us while we live we shall live in the New when we Dye as we were Buried in Baptisme we shall be Baptized in Buriall and returne with Bodies as clean from the Grave as we did with soules from the Font So from the Death of life I passe to my second Generall the Life of death Your Life is hid with Christ in God Death having lost her sting cannot kill us utterly some Life is left else it could not be hid You may then observe these three degrees of Comfort the safety of life in the Chamber of Death 't is Hid the ready Meanes of safety 't is hid with Christ the strong Author of the Meanes 't is hid with Christ in God The Subject is aptly disposed to a resurrection the Meanes are already prepar'd the Author is All-sufficient and Infallible First our Life is Hid then it is not quite extinguished but safe laid as coales rak'd up in Ashes safe though unseen alive though close covered It lies like Treasure under Ground not out of Minde though out of Sight and shall again be dig'd up if not for the worth of the Mettle yet for the Image of God which it beares Death is but a longer and sounder sleep and life is hid in sleep as well as in Death for in sleep the senses are fetterd as in Death all bodily Faculties Howsoever from the Captivity of one part an utter Destruction of the whole is not concluded When halfe the body is struck and possessed by a dead palsie there still remaines a living Body because there is life in some part So when the whole Body is seazd by Death there still remaines a living Man because there is life in the best part the Soule Abraham Isaack and Iacob have being enough to preserve their Names and our Saviour proves them to be also Living What though the Union of parts be Actually dissolved Yet the Dissolution is not Totall because there still remaines a possibility and a Naturall Desire of reuniting
A SERMON CONCERNING DEATH and the RESURRECTION Preached in St MARIES At OXFORD On Low Sunday April the 28. 1644. Before the COMMITTEE of the Members of the Honourable House of COMMONS By W. Strode Dr of Divinity Published by Authority OXFORD Printed by LEONARD LICHFIELD Printer to the Vniversity 1644. COL 3. 3. For ye are Dead and your Life is hid with Christ in God AFter the Death and Resurrection of our blessed Saviour it will not be unseasonable especially in these times of Danger to meditate upon our own Loe therefore Life and Death not now proposed to your Choice but to your Meditation The matter of my Text is the whole Race of Man both while he is and while he is not he still Travells to and fro betwixt two Stages which are ever the same though the order be mutually inverted For we are no sooner enterd into Life but we are Dead dead and buried with Christ in Baptisme no sooner dead to the World but new borne to God through the same meanes when we are thus borne againe notwithstanding this spirituall Parenthesis we still proceed in a naturall course of Death no sooner dead so but our Life is hid with Christ in God Thus on the Corner-stone we ketch Corners alive and dead dead and alive and 't is quickly done for Life and Death or Death and Life are not so farre disjoyn'd as we account none indeed so neare Neighbours they are sever'd not onely but by an Inch as the Poet phansied at Sea Tabula distinguimur but on Land also they are scarce distant by a moment of Time we finde them so close united in my Text that they meet in the selfe same Instant nay further in the very nullity of Time For now even now Ye are Dead and Then even Then after Time your Life is hid with Christ in God So that my Text affords a contrary Assurance in two contrary Cases Assurance of Death while ye Live {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} for ye are Dead and Assurance of Life when ye Dye for your Life is hid with Christ in God the first is the Death of Life the second the Life of Death that passing sure for ye are surer of nothing on Earth then of yourselves and yet howsoever ye are ye are Dead the second surer yet for God is surer then your selves your Life is hid with Christ in God In the first part I shall strike you Dead ye are Dead How Dead yes already in the Aorist {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which we render not ye shall dye but ye have died or now are dead Man borne of a Woman is not borne as you may think into Life but into Death Ye that are most awake sit asleep with your Eyes open and when ye walk about ye walk like Ghosts What shall I tell my Hearers they are Dead who then shall heare me I know to whom I speake to the Dead that come hither to learne the way of Life Thrice Noble and thrice worshipfull thrice worthy and thrice welcome that ye may truly know how dead ye are I say ye are thrice Dead yes three wayes Dead in Law Dead by the Course of Nature Dead by the Covenant of Grace First ye are Dead in Law the Generall Sentence hath already passed upon all In the day thou eatest of the forbidden fruit thou shalt surely dye From that Day to This every sprig of Adam lives meerly by reprieve For which we have nothing to pleade but our Book and Child-bearing our Book which containes Gods mercifull Promise and the Child-bearing of Christ whereby we become Consanguineous with the Innocent and Holy One of God If so let me turne the Inference of my Text to the Consequence For to Therefore and so read backward Therefore set not your Affections on things on the Earth as you are warned in the precedent verse When we draw neare to the End we minde nothing else and onely thereto we set our strength Would you not think the man mad who being sentenced to death should be sollicitous for Titles to set forth Hìc jacet if being streight to be demolish'd in Person he should seek out Surveyors to build Castles and Barnes if being strip'd for the Axe he should send for the Taylour if when he should gaine Peace with God by sacrificing his Affections he should chuse to die like Zimri and Cosbi so vaine so mad are we all our toyle is for an Epitaph we build Houses when we must dwell in the Grave we take measure for Clothes when Death takes measure for the Coffin we and the wormes look for Provision at once and we dye in our Lusts. The Iudge under whose Repreive we stand forbids Anxiety for things that perish yet still our wisedome teacheth us to be thus foolishly Anxious and therefore God prevents our Projects as he did the project of that uncertaine rich man in the Parable while he was driven into agony of thought what he should doe with his great increase while he became extreme miserable through much prosperity and was ready to burst for want of a larger Store-house his Repreiver sayes unto him Thou Foole this Night will I take away thy Soule this Night for the Soule is alwayes due because we are Dead in Law That which Christ spake concerning the End of the World Let not he that is on the house top come downe to take any thing out of the house nor he that is in the Field returne to fetch his Clothes Mat. 24. the same may I apply to the End of every particular Person that promiseth Life to himselfe for the accomplishment of remote projects let not he that is below thinke of cutting downe Trees to make Ladders for his advancement nor he that stands above thinke of securing his Condition by descending lower for we are dead in Law The Goard wherein Ionas delighted had a worme inbred to make it wither so have all Earthly delights if that will not weane us from them we have a worme of Corruption within our selves to make us let goe our hold Abraham the Representation of all the Faithfull had no Inheritance in the Land of Canaan not a Foot of his owne Perpetuity save onely a place of Buriall of this we are capable by Law Dust thou art and to Dust thou shalt returne Indeed a Grave we cannot misse because the Body will consume and bury it selfe Secondly we are Dead by the Course of Nature Beleeve it ye are all dead men as we say of those that are desperately sick for ye cannot hold out long ye are Going while I speake Ye finde that the Dust flyeth away are ye not made of Dust that the winde vanisheth is not your breath in your nostrills that the shadow creepeth doe not your Bodies cast a Shadow as the Element such is the Compound and as the Shadow such is the substance But more expresly Dust ye are Psal. 103. 14. v. Your Life is a winde
the Meanes under the power of his Resurrection our life is hid Shall not he be able to effect for us what the Sun can doe for Flowers some will ask How shall the Dead rise or with what body shall they come Christ answers With my dead Body shall they rise Esay 26. at the 19. v. By vertue of his body already risen from Death Vbi gloria praecessit Capitis eòsequetur spes Corporis saith Leo whither the Head hath gloriously gone before the Members hope to follow after At the first veiw there appeares no more in Christs Resurrection but a man Risen but when we consider the Condition and Relation of that Man that being the Innocent and Holy one of God he was neither worthy of Death nor Tenable by it that therefore he dyed not for Himselfe but for the Guilty not as an Offendor but Vndertaker and Laid downe his Life with Power to take it up again for the benefit of those for whom he laid it downe that Death unadvisedly seizing upon an unlawfull prize forfeited the Lawfull hold of sinners together with the Iust when the Gospell hath yeilded this Discovery then we find that this Sonne of Man is become the Everlasting Father the Lord and giver of Life to all Mankinde that our Resurrection is virtually included under His and that though power thereof we shall rise as surely as if we had his power to raise our selves For as to us a Childe was borne and for us a Man was Crucified so for us a Saviour is risen Whatsoever Christ did on Earth the same he did in our behoofe not for Himselfe so that if we rise not in vaine is Christ risen Why is he cal'd the Foundation the Head the Roote the First fruites but in relation to Vs If the Foundation be laid by wisedom it implies a rising Structure if the Head be above Water the Members are safe if the Roote be quick the Branches will sproute if the first Fruites be Holy so is the whole Crop Christ is our Life in the next words after my Text this Life lay Hid in our Grave and therefore it is but a correspondent exchange that our Life should be hid with Christ that since he lay in a sepulcher hewd out for another others should be quicken'd by his Rising But how was Christ hid in our Grave himselfe hath shew'd in the 12. of St. Iohn 24. v. Except a Corne of Wheat fall into the Ground and dye it abideth alone but if it dye it bringeth forth much fruite he lay then in the Grave as a graine of Wheat in the furrow so purposely sowne for us that our Life might be hid with him as increase in the Graine which was sown It is not to be forgotten that as Christ at his Passion compar'd Himselfe to a Graine of Wheat so the Apostle in his Resurrection hath fitly compar'd him to the First Fruites Cor. 15. 20. the compleat Allegory declares this Vertue in Him this Dependance in us that since he lay in the Ground not like a stone but like Corne therefore in springing up he rose not single not as Ionas from the belly of the Whale unlesse to Ionas you reckon the Ninivites rais'd by his Preaching but multiplyed to more then Fifties to more then Hundreds to a world of Graines besides Himselfe that since at His Resurrection he likewise became the first Fruites of them that sleep he hath consequently obtain'd a blessing for the whole field Wherefore as the Lord Iesus who is blessed for evermore hath return'd Victor in spite of invading Death and all Impediments wherewith he was blocked so shall it be that all his Dependants in the utmost skirts of the world shall rise from Death notwithstanding the drowning burning mangling confounding scattering of Carcasses whose disorderd destiny makes a distinct Recollection of Parts to seem impossible But in presence of a sufficient meanes and unresistible Power Impossibility must Vanish We finde in the Generall Course of Nature things as much beyond our reach dayly renew'd we finde in Humane nature no Reluctance no repugnance against the Resurrection but rather an Aptitude and desire if there come a sufficient cause to reduce it into Act. Now when Christian Religion hath discovered to Reason an able Meanes in Christ who for this purpose became the first fruites of them that slep'd and hath gotten power to be judge of the Quick and Dead that the Dead might rise and appeare before his Tribunall now the Resurrection is more then possible more then fecible 't is in Vertue already perform'd and when I shall shew you that the Author who hath chosen and appoynted this meanes is God it will be found to be necessary And herein consists the third degree of comfort our Life is Hid with Christ in God In God Where could our Life be better or safer plac'd For as the Soule is the Life of the Body so God is the Life of our Soules and consequently both Soules and Bodies are in his hand hardly to be poynted out but safe kept in an Invincible and Infallible Custody The same who of his Infinite goodnesse hath appointed Christ to be the meanes of our Resurrection he having Power and will to produce the deserv'd Effect will not faile of his Iustice and Truth to bring it to passe If yet you can doubt consider your own Creatures the works of man when a musicall Ayre hath been plaid is it quite lost never to be called for againe or what is become of it is it hid in the Bowells of the Instrument in the prick'd or conceivd Copy or in the hand and Power of the Musition in all these so when the breath of man is expired he is hid in the Mold as in the Matter with Christ as with our Idea and Pattern in God as in the Author and harmonious Composer Againe when a Printer dissolves his Impression and casts it into the first Elements or Letters is it quite lost or what is become of it is it hid in the Boxes which contain those Letters or in the book out of which it was copied or in the hand of the Printer that sets the Letters together in all these such is the Case of Man though all his quarters be divided into the quarters of the world though his parts be distributed like those of the Levites wife or digested into other bodies or scattered into all Elements they are still within Gods Boxes though his Figure be lost to the memory of men it remaines fresh with Christ and in his Book are all our Members written though they cannot meet of themselves yet God can finde them out and will joyne them together after his Sonnes likenesse and his particular Register Who turned the round world who fashioned the parts of man at first was not God that Carpenter and Christ his Sonne Now which is harder to make a Table and the Timber too or to joyne the parts taken a sunder to create that which was not
or to new cast that which was before That Potentiall being which man had within the hand of his Maker before his Creation the same and more remaines after his Dissolution Look on Nature the Creature is potentially couch'd under her Power in the Seed look on Art so is the frame within the Artificers call in the wood look up to God so are they that shall rise within the Mold before him how grosse is it to beleeve Nature in her Naturall Effects Art in her Artificiall and onely to mistrust God in his workes Divine Ask not how the Bodies confounded one with another shall be sifted and sever'd for God is the Keeper of Bodies and Elements he knowes where every Atome lies what belongs properly to every Person and how to call it forth How vaine is it to question Gods Power in things impossible to our scant Apprehension yet to widen your Apprehension in this particular and to shew you an Answer to more then ever was objected Though all adventitious matter should be separated and none should remaine but that which issued from the loynes of our Parents and was also derived from our first Parents Adam and Eve God out of those few drops could raise distinct and proper bodies to all mankind Nihil Deo Impossibile nisi quod non vult saith Tertullian nothing is Impossible to God but what he will not doe and what he will that 's necessary Now God hath reveal'd his will by appointing and using the meanes of Raising us and hath past his promise by his Son Iesus that through him he will raise us up at the last day This is the Fathers will which hath sent me saith our Savlour that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up againe at the last day Ioh. 6. 39. v. so that now Gods Iustice and Truth are deeply at stake till there come a Resurrection His Iustice would have stood ingag'd however though no such meanes no such promise had been reveal'd if we grant there is a God it may be evinc'd out of morall principles that of necessity there must be a Resurrection though we knew not how for either there would be no difference of Vertue and Vice in respect of Reward and Punishment and so divine Iustice would be but a Bug-beare or else there would be need of a Resurrection that they who have been prosperous in their wickednesse might be called to account hereafter and they that have here suffered by Vertue might then shine in Glory But since the meanes are expressely revealed since Christ hath paid the price of our Resurrection and God hath promised to make it good since many Martyrs have died in defence of this Hope upon Gods word God is further ingag'd both to Christ and Them both in his Iustice and Truth to performe his purpose and promise And we may be sooner induc'd to yeeld that there is no God or that he was not at all our Builder nor Christ his Corner stone then that he should begin to build and not make an End or Promise an End and not fulfill it Wherefore without doubting let us here rest our Hope that as the Glory of the Father hath raised his Sonne so he will perfect his Glory in raising his Sonnes Attendants Thus you have heard the three Degrees of our Comfort the Safety of Life in Death in that it is hid the sure meanes of safety for that it is bid with Christ and the strong Author of the meanes in that it is hid with Christ in God It remaines now on our part that we be not affrighted with Death because it is no longer the Iaw of Destruction but the Gate of Life and a Passage into Everlasting Happinesse * If those bold Spirits that having heard of the Immortality of the Soule or at least her Rest from misery presently dispatched themselves out of this World without any other call or further warrant but onely this Notion if those undaunted Venturers had been likewise taught the Resurrection of the Body to a better Life and had such an occasion to spend their lives as is now offer'd to us the defence of Religion Lawes and Liberties doubtlesse their Courage had been so inflam'd that either through too much Valour they would undeservedly have found their seeking or have gotten such honour as might stay the desire of death by pursuing the death of others and by taking content in Acts of Glory I doe not wish any to run this Course unadvisedly a sober Expectation of Death or Victory in usefull Service both by charging and sustaining is Valour sufficient and not too much for any Souldierly Martyr Further since Christ by the wood of his Crosse hath sweetned our bitter waters and died for Sin to make Death easie since he hath risen againe to lead us the way into Life Eternall I cannot too much inculcate this other Lesson that we walk not disorderly in this our Pilgrimage least we turn the Gift of Life into double Death the Ioy of our Hearts into Horror and Iudgement our Rising into Bottomlesse Falling In it selfe nothing can be so sweet and desireable as the Appearance of the Lord Iesus in the Resurrection Why should we so confound the Conscience with unrepented Guiltinesse that we should need Mountaines to cover us from his Presence Let us rather amend our wayes and live carefully that we may die with Comfort and Rise with Ioy that the Hope of a Ioyfull Rising may remaine comfortably seal'd unto us in the time of our Hiding by Assurance of the Holy Ghost through Christ the Meanes and God the Author To whom be all Thankes Praise Dominion and Glory now and for evermore Amen FINIS Gen. 3. 19. Isa. 51. 6. Hom. Iliad {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} * Cics de contem morte