lesson is That even the Godly are sometimes much afraid of bodily death You see your example is plaine The disciples thinking they should presently be drowned crie out we perish so did Peter their mouth in that excellent confession of their faith seeing the wind boisterous he was afraid and when he began to sinke he cried Lord save me The Doctrine is sufficiently confirmed and so I might leave it But because many of Gods children are herewith greatly troubled and Satan assaulteth their soules suggesting that they have not faith nor true peace of conscience nor are in good estate with God because they are so fearefull to die give me leave a little to inlarge my selfe for their comfort and for illustration of this Doctrine present unto you foure glasses and thorow which it is that men and women looking Death is so fearefull or comfortable The first is the glasse of Nature the second of Fortune the third of the Law and the fourth of the Gospell In the three first Death appeareth fearefull only in the fourth comfortable Yea fearefull in the glasse of Nature more fearefull in the glasse of Fortune and most fearefull in the glasse of the Law God would have all the wicked to behold Death in the three first that through feare of Death they may repent of their sinnes and flie to Christ who saveth from it and hee would have the godly to behold Death in the glasse of the Gospell that having found grace to beleeve and repent they may die comfortably But Satan who seeketh mans destruction well knowing how remarkable the sicknesse and deaths of men are and what deepe impressions the last ends of the dead make in the minds of the living laboureth to invert this order And whereas God would have his children to behold death in the glasse of the Gospell he as much as he can hideth that from their sight and shuffleth in the other before them that he may terrifie them with the dread and horror of death and if it be possible draw them into impatience and to speake unadvisedly which the wicked hearing and seeing are thereby animated in their evill courses saying You see such and such an one great professors and holy men yet you see how impatient in sicknesse how fearefull to die And on the other side when the wicked are sick readie to die so much as he can he hideth the three first glasses and only presenteth the fourth and if in the time of health they have heard any comfortable sentences he will helpe their memories to rehearse them to the end they may lie patiently and die resolutely and cheerefully then doe such sinners boast Loe such a man though in his health a good-fellow a drunkard a whore-master gamester swearer c. yet he died like a lambe wagged neither hand nor foot I desire to make no better end which I hope I shall doe though I walke in his waies Oh see the juggling of Satan where God doth not over-master him Be wise yee that feare God Doe yee see a most wicked and prophane liver to die quietly and well condemne him not sometimes a good death may follow a bad life but it is to be feared Satan hath abused him and presented a wrong glasse before him therefore say I will not hazard mine estate upon so desperate a point I will not walke in his waies I will live well and then I shall die well and doe you see such an one as hath lived godly and well and approved himselfe to the consciences of such as knew him to be an honest man fearing God and eschewing evil yet lieth hardly impatiently bearing his visitation tossing tumbling sweating it may be talking idly and raving Alas this may befall the best of Gods children partly through the malice of Satan and partly through the weaknesse of flesh and bloud and strength of his disease But let not these things trouble thee That of Saint Augustine is most sure Non potest malè mori qui bene vixerit He cannot die ill that liveth well Yea Thou art thy selfe sick and in danger of death and thou art much troubled to thinke how soule and bodie must part friends and all be left thy body which thou hast kept so delicately clothed and fed so deliciously must be laid in a place of darknesse and cold become meat for wormes and see corruption but thou art more troubled to thinke how thou must leave thine houses lands offices wealth and honour thou knowest not to whom it may be to enemies leave a desolate widow and fatherlesse children to the mercy of the world thy selfe being cut off in the midst of thine age and deprived of all thine hopes but thou art most troubled to thinke how Death came into the world that it is the wage of sinne the seale of Gods anger malediction of the Law and portall of hell thy minde can thinke of nothing else so as now thou art even distracted with feare and wouldst give all that ever thou hast for life Oh if thou beest a penitent beleever suffer not Satan thus to abuse thee say unto him Avoid Satan thrust away these glasses from thee let not thy minde meditate on these things call for the glasse of the Gospell wherein thou shalt see the sting of Death taken away yea Death it selfe swallowed up in victory thou shalt see the nature of it changed being the end of sicknesse sorrow sinne labour and all miserie and the beginning of full happinesse and glory thou shalt see the Angels carrying soules into Abrahams bosome thou shalt see the happinesse of heaven into which the soule immediately upon departure hence entreth and such as all the wealth glory and comforts of this life are but dung in comparison of there shalt thou see God in his holy habitation a Father to the fatherlesse and Husband to the widow yea there shalt thou see thine owne mortall and corruptible body rise in glory Oh behold Death in this glasse of the Gospell and thou shalt die most comfortably and even desire to be dissolved and be with Christ I beseech you marke well my discourse of Death this day and labour to remember at the least the principal passages therof you know not how soone you may have occasion to make use of it It is appointed for all once to die but when this day or to morrow this yeere or the next where on sea or land at home or abroad how by fire or water ordinary sicknesse or pestilence naturally or violently we know not these things if preserved by you may stand you in some stead in time of need Wherefore what I have delivered in the grosse I will now more particularly unfold and from the holy Scriptures inlarge my Discourse severally The first glasse is the glasse of Nature I meane of Nature corrupted for it is the wage of sinne i◠Adam had not sinned there had not beene death Thorow this all the wise Gentiles and Heathen
on his face and praying out of the dust with great constancie he prayed three times with submissive obedience Not my will but thine be done and with great charitie for ever and anon he visited his Disciples and gave them good counsell and comfort and what was it he thus begged Take oh take away this cap and he was heard in that which he feared the storme was calmed an Angell sent and comforted him Oh man see in thy Saviour what it is to be a sinner If the righteous and deare Sonne of God having no sinne but by imputation was so affrighted with the terrors of death how would death distract with the terrors of it impenitent sinners if God did open their eyes and let them see it in the looking-glasse of the Law clothed with the red robe of Gods fiery indignation gaping with great Iron teeth ready to devoure having in the forehead written Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the booke of the law to doe them and having the keyes of hell and the bottomlesse pit in his hand Thus we have seene death in the looking-glasse of Nature and it appeareth fearefull for therein the bodie perisheth We have seene it in the looking-glasse of Fortune therein it appeareth more fearefull for therein bodie and all the good things of this world perish We have lastly seene it in the looking-glasse of the Law and therein it appeareth most fearefull for therein bodie and soule perish for ever The fourth and last glasse is the glasse of the Gospell wherein through the death of Christ the nature of it is changed of a foe it is become a friend and from a curse and punishment of sinne is become a blessing from the doore of Hell it is become the portall of Heaven Christ hath spoiled principalities and powers and triumphed openly over them on the Crosse yea and hath pursued Death into the grave his Castle and there conquered him the sorrowes of death being loosed whereof it was impossible that he should be held and so hath performed what he anciently threatned O death I will be thy plagues oh grave I will be thy destruction which made the Apostle in the name of all the faithfull so to triumph O death where is thy sting ô grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the law but thanks be to God who giveth victory through Iesus Christ our Lord I am the resurrection and the life he that beleeveth in me shall live though he die He that beleeveth is passed from death to life and shall not come into judgement Now then there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus and Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord Loe these are the comforts of the Gospell against death which all the faithfull have enjoyed from the beginning of the world though more plentifully revealed in these last dayes And hence it is that where-ever death is beheld through the glasse of the Gospell it is seene and spoken of with abundance of joy and comfort and as the nature so the name of it is changed God called Abrahams death a going to his fathers and the death of Isaak Iacob Aaron and Moses is called a gathering to their fathers Ioshuah calleth his dying the going the way of all the earth And David useth the same words Moses and Elias talking on Thabor of Christs death call it so too they talked of his departure Yea Christ called it his departing out of this world to his Father and Simeon prayed the Lord to let him depart in peace It is but a taste but a sight Lazarus death is called a sleepe Ioh. 11. Paul calleth his death a loosing as out of prison S. Peter calleth his a laying downe of his Tabernacle Thus comfortably doe the Scriptures phrase death for the incouragement of all mortall men who must die oh get into Christ and feare not death no more than thou wouldest feare to lie downe and sleep or to put off an old garment or to goe out of prison or of a rotten Cottage that thou maist dwell in a Palace a Paradise Oh death is not now terrible but desirable as S. Paul said I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ And againe Wee sigh desiring to be clothed on with our house which is from heaven Oh welcome death which to all Gods children through Christ is the end of hunger thirst sorrow care sicknesse ache paine temptations sin and all evills and the beginning of all good without end Whereof some of the learned Fathers have written most large and excellent Treatises If then these Disciples had beheld death in the glasse of the Gospel had had a strong Faith they would never have given it so harsh comfortlesse a title as calling it a perishing but as you have heard a sleeping going and gathering to fathers departing laying downe of Tabernacle c. and if their Faith had beene strong they would have said as the three children did to Nabuchadonozer O King our God whom we serve is able to deliver us Winds and Seas what meane yee to rage Our Master whom we serve is able to save vs whether he sleepe or wake but howsoever we feare not death be it sudden or looked for violent or naturall by sea or land by water or fire for if we die we shall goe to heaven and then shall we know misery no more To conclude these disciples call and pray to Christ for helpe but withall they doe their duties The Euangelist saith They did toile in rowing in another storme and so doubtlesse did they in this The heathen Mariners in Ionah as they did cry upon their gods so they cast their wares into the sea to lighten the ship and did even dig and delve or furrow the sea with their Ores if possibly they might have brought it to the land But herein appeareth a great deale of our folly that as most pray not at all so many pray only Lord save us and doe nothing else whereas God would have every one in such a storme to set to his hands to helpe to cast out the lading of the ship and lighten it What is it that ladeth the ship of the Church and endangereth it in a storme It is sinne which is heavier than sand or lead or any ballast It was too heavie for David to beare Psal 38. 4. It made the Sonne of God sweat Luke 22. 44. Yea made God himselfe complaine That hee was pressed as a Cart with sheaves Amos 2. 13. Oh Ministers Magistrates all Christian men and women set to your hands Over the boord with sinne in your selves and in others Were it not madnesse for Mariners in a storme to take in more lading And
that it doth not onely justine us before God and appropriate unto us all the happinesse of heaven through Christ but is of so great use in this life both in the times of health and prosperity as time and occasion serve bringing forth most worthy fruits in regard of God and our neighbours and specially in our adversities and troubles David confessed hee had perished in his troubles if it had not beene for his Faith And the Apostle saith Through Faith the Saints of old stopped the mouthes of Lions quenched the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword were tortured and accepted not deliverance Heb. 11. 33. It is Faith that breedeth Patience and begetteth godly comfort and courage hee that beleeveth doth not make haste that is whereas the vnbeleeving comming into any distresse any danger or perplexitie are distracted with care and feare and make haste running and rushing into all manner of evill and indirect meanes for releefe and deliverance as Saul who for want of Faith made too much haste to offer sacrifice and consult with a Witch Such as truly beleeve will not doe so Though earth remove and hills be hurled into the midst of the sea If God send famine he is not so fearefull for he knoweth God feedeth the Birds of the aire and the young Ravens when they call And whosoever feare him shall want nothing that is good If God send pestilence he is not so fearfull for he knoweth it is Gods arrow to hit whom he will and that if his life be more for Gods glory than his death A thousand shall fall on one hand and ten thousand on the other yet it shall not come nigh him If sword come he wil not be so fearfull Though he were compassed with ten thousands of enemies round about for he knoweth the wicked is but Gods sword that an haire cannot fall from his head but according to the good will and pleasure of his heavenly Father If sicknesse and death come he is not so fearefull For he knoweth though he die yet shall he live oh of what singular use is faith in all our troubles But I heare some as discomforted with this discourse say I thanke God my conscience doth approve my cause and walking to be honest humane frailties excepted yet I finde my selfe often very ill disposed and fearefull to die which maketh me doubt I have not faith I answer Our Saviour doth not say Because his Disciples were so fearefull therefore they had no faith but their faith was little Immoderate feare argueth imbecillitie but concludeth not a nullitie of faith And for thy comfort know this that even the best of Gods children are subject to such feares as David The feare of death is fallen upon me Psal 55. 4. But though it exceed measure for a time their faith will keepe them from despaire and in good time recover them as David said I will not feare to goe thorow the valley of death c. Psalm 23. 4. Oh pray then for the increase of faith Whereunto lastly may be added godly meditation on such great blessings as death beheld in the looking-glasse of the Gospell doth bring to every true beleever as that the Body is presently brought into a better condition than ever it had in this life for by death it is both made insensible and by that meanes freed from all the calamities of this life and ceaseth to be an Active and Passive instrument of sinne the Soule passeth to life rest and glory perfectly seeing and knowing God without intermission keeping an eternall Sabbath and without cessation or wearisomnesse keeping turnes with the Angels praising Gods name for ever and ever in fulnesse enjoying whatsoever may cause love and admiration or procure joy and contentation even an universall collection of all joyes blessings and comforts beyond all we have heard seene or can possibly thinke In regard whereof Solomon hath pronounced The day of death to bee better than the day of birth And the Apostle desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all And so much for the literall doctrine Gods people must not immoderately feare any manner of death and how that is obtained Our second doctrine is from the mysterie the ship representing the Church and the storme persecution Our Saviour reproving the disciples for their immoderate feare in this storme doth â—each vs That Gods people should not immoderately feare though the Church be in never so great danger distresse or perplexitie What greater evill threatned to the Church than by the Assyrian Monarch Insomuch that God caused the Prophet to call his sonne Maher-shalalhash-baz or make speed to the spoile yet even then the Prophet bade the people not be afraid nor say a confederacie a confederacie but sanctifie the Lord of hoasts and let him be your feare and let him be your dread and hee shall be for a sanctuary c not forbidding a moderate feare and use of godly meanes but immoderate feare and for their securitie making such leagues with Idolaters and Gods professed enemies as was forbidden Oh great is the storme now and the poore ship of the Church in mans eye in great perill but bee not so fearefull but rest on God The Church is in danger beset with enemies both powerfull and politike for crueltie and mischiefe matchlesse who have confederated and threaten her ruine True but hath not Christ said Hee will be with his Church to the end of the world nay more That the gates of hell shall not prevaile against it The ship is covered with waves but shall not be drowned the Church is persecuted but shall not bee destroied God will in his good time rebuke winds and seas and send a comfortable calme Mardochay beleeved comfort and deliverance would come and it did come and he that doth not beleeve as he did may worthily bee rebuked in the words of my Text Why are yee so fearefull O yee of little faith And so much be said of the first thing Christ reproved in his disciples viz. The excesse of feare The second followeth which is the defect of faith in these words O yee of little Faith Which reproofe is laid downe in way of admiration q. d. Oh that your â—aith should be so little and weake hauing heard and seene what you have done Out of which â—ater commeth meat and out of this strong commeth sweetnesse that I may use Sampsons Riddle yea out of this reproofe doe flow comforts abundantly to all godly minded ones who mourne in their soules because they are subject to the same reproofe having but a little â—aith For the further comfort then of all poore weake and feeble beleevers suffer me with your patience fully to open this point And marke his words he saith not O yee of no faith for they all beleeved in him
to make Unitie one of the markes or their seventh note of the true Church and assume that to themselves and impute Division to us First for their Divisions it is strange but that men of that side will say and write any thing that Bellarmine should say they all joyne in obedience to their Head and that their Councels Popes Decrees and Writers doe wonderfully agree though writing in divers tongues places occasions whereas the world hath taken notice yea all must needs know that know any thing how Rome it selfe by her owne children hath beene sacked siedge laid to the Castle of Saint Angel and the Pope taken prisoner Is this their Canonicall obedience How divers Popes have challenged the Popedom and three stood at once Many battels have beene fought and thousands slaine Who was the head of their Vnity then and when a woman was Pope How Popes have cut off Cardinals heads one Pope abrogate and condemne the Decrees of others yea in extreme hatred digged up their bodies and cutting off two of the fingers to burie it againe and sometimes cut off head and cast the bodie into Tibur one Councell condemning what another had decreed What Writers euer more eagerly opposite than Dominicans and Franciscans Priests and Iesuits yea Schoole-men themselves about the bookes of Canonicall Scripture themselves the Virgins being without sinne Transubstantiation Purgatorie yea Iustification merit of workes worshipping of Images yea what point of difference is there betwixt them and us wherein some of their own side doe not side with us against them yea as the Church of Rome is wholly departed from that ancient faith it professed in the daies of the Apostles so the moderne Church is exceedingly declined from that faith it formerly professed even since it came to be the seat of Antichrist which being so abundantly cleared by divers of our learned Divines in their polemicall Tracts and Discourses and hoping that either you know or doe not doubt of the truth hereof I will not insist upon probation of particulars which were infinite and therefore if Unitie be a note of the true Church Rome cannot be it so divided as it must needs one day come to ruine and destruction For our owne divisions which we doe not denie have beene some and too many yet such as disprove not the true Unitie of the Church but are justified not only by the divisions of the Romish Church which are moe and greater and it is like will never be composed but the divisions which by Satans malice and subtill abusing of the weaknesse of some have ever infested the true Church of God even in Rome in her best estate Saint Paul saith There were therein that caused divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine And telleth the Corinthians there were among them envying strife and contention some holding of Paul some of Apollo some of Cephas Paul and Barnabas were at variance Paul Peter had iarres great strife betwixt East and West Churches about the keeping of Easter so as they excōmunicated each other no lesse broils in the Churches about Rebaptization What Tragicall troubles did Theophilus Patriarch of Alexandria raise against Chrysostome Bishop of Constantinople a chiefe adversarie to whom was Epiphanius Bishop of Cyprus The event was Chrysostome lost both Bishoprick and life in banishment many were flame in taking parts the Cathedrall Church and Senate-house in Constantinople burnt downe to the ground in pursuit of reuenge How did the Orthodox Bishops in the Councell of Nice fall at variance and complaine of one another to the Emperour so as Constantine had much adoe to compose the difference In the second Councell of Ephesus such eager contention that Flavianus the Bishop of Constantinople was not only deposed but also pitifully murthered Too too many such grievous contentions Ecclesiasticall stories witnesse to happen in the Churches of God in Councels and amongst the learned Fathers and Bishops so lamented by Cyprian and Basil as the cause of persecution and the turning away of many from embracing of the Christian religion and a great advantage to Arrius and such like Haeretikes to spread the poyson of their haeresies farre and neere Thus you see there have beene yea and as long as Sathan hath leave to compasse the earth to and fro and that Gods Saints be imperfect in knowledge and weake in affections there will be divisions they have beene and are greater than amongst our selves yet not disproving a true Church Secondly our divisions are not of the Church but of some in the Church our Church doth wonderfully accord in the unitie of faith and uniformitie of government and therefore are falsly imputed to the Church Thirdly not in matters of faith wherein as our Church doth accord with other Reformed Churches abroad in all fundamentall verities there being no fundamentall dissention betwixt any the Reformed Churches as the Harmonie of Confessions beareth witnesse so neither is the difference or dissention amongst such in our Church except Popishly affected about matters of substance but of circumstance not about the boords or bodie of the ship anchor cable card or who shall be Pilot but about the saile and ceremonies of blacke or white Fourthly though these differences have beene too hotly and eagerly followed of some yet God be thanked not pursued by fire or death nor to the pronouncing of each other Heretikes as both anciently as partly you have heard and might heare much more if I delighted in this Argument and would for this purpose search the Authentike histories of the Church and lately also in the Romish Church betwixt the Popes themselves and the Franciscans with all cruell extremitie persecuting the poore Dominicans Lastly blessed be God even in this happy calme our divisions and contentions are well slaked and composed notwithstanding they were kindled and nourished especially by the cunning of subtle and secret Papists lurking amongst us as the remnant of the Canaanites to be as pricks in our eies and thornes in our sides but a little storme would make us perfect friends as some of our learned forefathers who in time of prosperitie were much divided and abounded in their severall senses and opinions concerning such matters yet in the daies of Queene Marie went ioyfully to the stake and died together for that truth which they ioyntly beleeved it being most true of an ancient Father The communion of good things oftentimes breedeth envie and hatred but communion in miserie breedeth love and compassion Thus I have shipped the passengers I have given them their charge Looking upon the sea I see many ships when I come to handle the vessel wherein they passe It is a needfull question for these daies which is that ship wherein Christ and his disciples passe and how may it be infallibly knowne from all other When I come to that I hope to make it cleare to all whose eies the god of this
no strength in him When wicked Belshazzir an enemy of Gods people and at that time he and his Wives Concubines and Princes carowsing in the Vessels of Gold and Silver which his father Nabuchodonezer had brought from the Temple of the Lord in Ierusalem and praised their gods of Gold and Silver Brasse Iron Wood and Stone no sooner cast his eye on death through the glasse of the Law which God set up on the wall over against the Candlesticke but his countenance was changed his thoughts so troubled him that the ioints of his loynes were loosed and his knees smote one against another and nothing could comfort him or still that raging storme This was signified by that dreadfull manner of giving the Law on Mount Sinai with such darknes thunder lightning and earth-quake that all the people fled and Moyses himselfe confessed I exceedingly feare and quake We see when wicked and ungodly men come to die how they fare either they die sullenly as Nabal whose heart was dead as a stone it being the righteous judgement of God upon them that such as refused grace in their life time when he offered it should in their sicknesse neither have grace nor crave it but die blockishly and senslesly The Lord knoweth our times are full of such men and women which as David saith have hearts as fat as brawne possessed with a spirit of slumber you might as well speake to the bed-sted as to them talke with them of the way of Redemption Iustification and Salvation alas how ignorant Tell them of Resurrection and last Judgement they have no apprehension Reprove them for their sinnes past they know no such matter Informe them in the doctrine of Repentance Contrition of heart longing after the righteousnesse of Christ the happinesse of heaven they wonder as if you were reading of Riddles to them You shall finde no sound knowledge no token of true repentance no fruit of lively faith no testimonie of a well-grounded hope no signe of Christian joy as looking for a better life nothing but dulnesse and deadnesse of spirit and all their desire is to live But others being awakened out of their sins their consciences accusing and they beholding death in the looking-glasse of the Law good Lord how are they affrighted What tossing sighing groaning sweating compassed about with the sorrowes of hell and he is overwhelmed with despaire Now are his sinnes set before him the sinnes of childhood youth age his swearing riot uncleannesse oppression contempt of Gods word and generall profanenesse such as hee made but a mocke and sport of but now they come in troopes and appeare so great that he is swallowed up of dismaiednesse and letteth his tongue be wray his despaire and utter blasphemie and let a man labour to comfort him he still holdeth Cains conclusion My sin is greater than can be pardoned And thus as his life was full of sinne his death is full of sorrow as in his health he had no conscience in his sicknesse he hath no comfort as in his life he mocked Gods counsell in his death God laugheth at his destruction and he is in hell whilest he liveth which to prevent he could wish the rocks and mountaines to fall on him and cover him Yea not only the wicked and reprobate but even the elect and most righteous having but a glimpse of death thorow this glasse have beene exceedingly daunted and brought into most fearefull fits Holy Iob a man by Gods owne testimonie that feared God and eschewed evill and all the dayes of his life did wait for his change Iob 14. 14. could in good measure beare the sudden strange losse of all his substance cattell servants and children and say The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken blessed be the name of the Lord but let him be touched in his bodie sicke and sore from the crowne of the head to the soale of the foot let God withall write bitter things against him and make him possesse the sinnes of his youth let him see death in the looking-glasse of the Law and then he enjoyeth wearisome nights and is full of tossings yea will curse the day and all the services of his birth David a man after Gods owne heart will wade thorow a world of troubles and it is not the malice of Saul hatred of the Philistims envie of the Princes rebellion of Absolom trecherie of Achitophel no threatning of Goliah grapling with a Lion fighting with a Beare no hunger cold danger can discourage him but in all distresse he comforteth himselfe in his God but let him see death in the looking-glasse of the Law and hee will even roare for the disquietnesse of his heart his heart will be pained the terrors of death fall on him fearefulnesse and trembling come upon him and horror over whelme him Psal 55. 4. yea the feare of death doth undoe him then will he make his bed to swim and even water his couch with teares and then all his prayers are against death Oh spare me that I may recover my strength and Oh my God cut me not off in the midst of my dayes Oh save me for thy mercies sake for in death there is no remembrance of thee and who will give thee thanks in the grave Let King Ezekiah receive a message of death from God and behold in the glasse of the Law and hee will turne his face to the wall and weepe bitterly chatter like a Crane or Swallow mourne like a Dove and complaine that God like a Lion hath broken all his bones and all his prayer is for life The living the living shall praise thee But in Christ himselfe we have an Example of all Examples for this purpose who as Mediator beholding death in the glasse of the Law and the inferiour reason presenting it to the minde not with all circumstances he began to feare his soule was exceeding sorrowfull even to death yea the sorrowes of death compassed him about that he fell into a dreadfull agonie his thoughts were troubled his spirits affrighted his heart trembled his ioynts shooke his pores opened and a sweat of drops like bloud burst thorow and thorow his garments Oh this was a grievous storme in his soule And what doth he As his disciples came to him so he to his Father and in a sweet and solitarie place a Garden an Oratorie whither he had often resorted to pray there he powreth out his soule in an heavenly prayer most commendable both for substance and circumstance with earnest intention for he did double and ingeminate the title often Father Father with wonderfull fervencie of spirit every word afforded a drop of bloud in faith he said my Father with humblenesse for he kneeled downe with wonderfull reverence he fell downe groveling as it were kneeling
this Land in the daies of Queene Mary so cheerefully to receive sentence of death so joyfully to sing in their prisons darke and loathsome dungeons so comfortably embrace faggots kisse stakes clap hands in flaming fire because all this was for a good cause even for Christ the Gospell and a good conscience sake and the holy Ghost hath pronounced Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord This made them rejoyce in death with joy unspeakable and glorious This was Iosephs comfort in prison that he was falsly accused And Daniels that he was cast to the Lions for the matter of his God Therefore Saint Peters charge is Let none of you suffer as a murtherer or as a theefe or as an evill doer or as a busie-bodie in other mens matters but if any suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God in this behalfe But how great is the horror of malefactors No doubt but it pierced Ahabs soule more than the arrow did his bodie that this was the just judgement of God upon him for his sinne How fearefull was death to all such whose carcasses God overthrew in the wildernesse and destroyed them with fiery Serpents and other fearefull meanes Who knoweth the unconceiveable dread and horror which wicked men have in their soules in their prisons death-beds or executions when their owne consciences tell them This miserie is come upon me for murther theft adultery riot and such like wicked courses I doe not deny but such malefactors may die sullenly or desperately Others may be deceived and thinke they die in a good cause when they doe not So the ancient Donatists and Arrians and in our times the Priests and Iesuits thinke they die for Religion and the true Catholike cause and deserve to be Canonized for Saints whereas they suffer deserved punishment for their rebellion and sedition yea they would in death be accounted Martyrs before they have led the life of a Christian yet being thus abused and deceived by Satan and God in his justice giving them over into a reprobate sense they may even astonish men to behold their seeming patience joy and Christian resolution but yet this standeth firme that no man suffering or dying for an evill cause and his minde be rightly informed can die with comfort and peace but with exceeding dread and horror such an one must needs be exceedingly fearefull to die Yea this that I have said must also be understood with exception of Repentance Many men justly suffer pressures and miseries tortures and torments for their sinnes and evill deeds yet upon true repentance finde peace and comfort in life and death Moses died in the wildernesse and might not enter into the promised Land because hee did not sanctifie God at the waters of Strife but repenting he died with comfort Iosiah fighting rashly and without warrant from God was wounded to death but repenting of his folly he died with comfort and was gathered to his Fathers in peace The theefe on the Crosse died justly for his sinnes but repenting he died with comport and went to Paradise Our Prodigall suffered hunger and misery justly for his riotous and luxurious dilapidating and wasting his goods but repenting he found comfort Many a man commeth to great misery poverty sicknesse ache imprisonment banishment death for his disordered life yet truly repenting findeth peace and comfort But these cases excepted no man that is rightly informed in his minde and continueth impenitent can but be exceedingly afraid to die wherefore every one that would moderate the feare of death must be sure to live and die in a good cause The second meanes for moderation of the feare of death is to live an holy and sanctified life The Apostle compareth death to some fierce and truculent beast or serpent which killeth all men that grapple with it with a poysonfull sting and telleth us the sting of death is sinne As a man then would not feare but with great boldnesse encounter that Serpent when he knoweth the sting is gone so may we boldly and comfortably die when we know the sting thereof is gone Oh it is the guilt of sinne maketh men so fearefull to die But great is the peace they have that love thy Law Mark the upright behold the just the end of that man is peace The righteous are bold as Lions Oh such as here live in the feare of God making conscience of their waies eschewing evil Walking in the Spirit Mortifying the flesh with affections and lusts having their conversation in heaven And ever beholding the face of God thorow the perspective of holinesse Setting their minds on those things which are above Being passed from death to life and alreadie entred into the first degree of glorification sanctification being glorification inchoate and glorification sanctification consummate What comfort joy boldnesse have such in sicknesse and death How comfortable to the living to visit such and to heare and see their cheerefulnesse patience prayers praises benedictions valedictions if infirmitie of flesh and bloud or strength of disease doe not hinder on the other side such as walke in their life time after the flesh drinke up iniquitie like water and are continually strengthening and adding poison to the sting of death How are they distracted with feare if they see that beast but gape upon them or hisse at them How comfortlesse to visit such see their impatience observe their worldly mindednesse and heare their words of discontent discomfort and distrust if God have not laid on them the spirit of slumber Therefore let him that calleth on the name of Christ depart from iniquitie And whosoever would with comfort and boldnesse looke for death or Christ to judgement Let him deny all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and live righteously godly and soberly in this present world The third meanes of moderation is by a lively and stedfast faith This is our victory even faith How can that man be immoderately afraid to die who doth in his heart stedfastly beleeve that Christ died for him and hath conquered Satan death and hell for him disarmed the strong man Satan deprived Death of its sting that it cannot hurt that the nature of it is changed an end of all evill the beginning of all true good It is not possible with the cleare eye of Faith to behold death in the Crystall-glasse of the Gospell and to be immoderatly afraid of it Here then was the Disciples want they had a good cause they followed their Master into the ship they lived honestly Iudas excepted but their faith was weake and therefore their feare so strong Why are yee so fearefull O yee of little faith Wherefore let all such as desire to moderate the feare of death pray for increase of Faith Oh see what an inestimable Pearle Iewel Faith is in
borne or buried or whilst he lived whereon to rest his head And as quickly was he gone againe he did but sojourne or as the word signifieth pitch his Tent among us for the space of 33 yeers which compared with eternitie or long lives of the Patriarchs is nothing He was but as a Traveller which as for a nights lodging only turned in unto us and as a stranger he was used for his owne would not receive him but did lade him with all wrongs and injuries preferre a murtherer before him and most disgracefully crucifie him betwixt two notorious malefactors But it shall suffice only to touch these things The third and last is more largely to be handled as most fitting the Text the day the insuing service of this day whereunto with some few words to that purpose I would prepare you and is this This man is a strange man wonderfully qualified For they propound the question in way of admiration What manner of man is this q. d. Oh what a wonderfull man is this And well might they so marvell and demand for there was never such a man on earth before or since or shall be The Church saith Her beloved is the chiefest of ten thousand a finite number being put for an infinite All the thousands and millions of glorious Angels in heaven or men on earth cannot afford such another He is the only Standard-bearer as the word signifieth He is anointed with the oile of gladnesse above his fellowes He received not the spirit by measure In him were hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge yea all that fulnesse of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily that they may well marvell What manner of man is this For Christ hath said of himselfe he is a wonder and the Prophet maketh this one of his glorious titles He shall be called wonderfull And never any creature so answerable to his name as Christ to this For what he was said did suffered ordained was all most marvellous Let us retaile these things For wherein can I more edifie you than by provoking you to marvell which is the whetstone of knowledge And first let us consider his person and it will make us marvell yea be astonished with marvelling He that is true God from everlasting in time became true man not ceasing to be what he was before but beginning to be what he was not before assuming true manhood to subsist in the word by hypostaticall or personall union neither nullifying the Deitie nor deifying the Humanitie but reserving the essentiall properties of each nature severall and distinct without mixture or confusion The Apostle saith This is a great mysterie and to be much marvelled at God manifested in the flesh The word made flesh Manhood assumed into personall union with Godhead that so Godhead and Manhood make the person of one Redeemer as soule and body doe one man that seeing as God hee could not die which God hath threatned and as man not overcome death being God and man he could both suffer and overcome the one suffered and the other enabled By reason of which union and as I may call it association of divers natures a kinde of mutuall commutation there is whereby those concrete Titles God and Man when we speake of Christ doe take interchangeably one anothers roome and in the Concrete it is most holy and true which in the Abstract were horrible and hellish blasphemie to affirme We cannot say the Humanitie made the world or Deitie suffered but we may truly say the man Christ made the world and the God Christ suffered The Apostle saith The Iewes did crucifie the Lord of glory 1 Cor. 2. 8. and that God hath purchased his Church with his bloud and Christ being on earth said at the same instant The Sonne of man was in heaven Where you see a bloudy death is attributed to God and Lord of glory and ubiquitie to manhood which humane nature admitteth not Therefore by God and Lord of glory wee must understand the whole person of Christ who died and shed his bloud but not in that nature for which he is called God and Lord of glory and in the other place by Sonne of man we understand the person of Christ who was in heaven as well as on earth though not in that nature for which he is called the sonne of man Yea without this caution the Fathers who were both sound in the faith and unanimous in defense thereof will seeme to be both corrupt and contrary For Theodoret disputeth with great earnestnesse that God cannot be said to suffer but he meant in the Abstract against Apollinarius who held the Deitie to be passible And Cyrill is as earnest saying Whosoever doth denie very God to have suffered death doth forsake the faith but he meaneth in the flesh and not in that substance for which the title God is given him But why doe I goe about to expresse and make cleare such a mysterie as is unconceiveable The strength of faith appeareth in those things wherein our wits and capacities are weake and therefore I must leave you reverendly and religiously to marvell at the person of your Redeemer and say What manner of man is this who is truly God-Man and Man-God And so I proceed to speake of his humane nature wherein he is more familiar unto us yet therein most marvellous also And first His conception is marvellous which was not according to the course of nature and by carnall copulation as Ebion blasphemed but as the holy Gospel teacheth and we professe to beleeve he was conceived by the Holy Ghost that as he was God of his Father without mother so he might become man of his mother without father and so be a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedech who is said to be without father and mother And this comming of the Holy Ghost upon the Virgin effected a threefold worke First the fashioning of the body of a part of Maries substance that so he might be the true sonne of Adam Abraham and David according to the flesh and also the creating and infusing of the soule into the body which at the first was organized and fit to receive it which other bodies are not Secondly the sanctification of that matter that it had not the least staine or blemish of any originall sinne uncleannesse contagion or corruption Thirdly the union of the Godhead Manhood All which were wrought at the same instant of time Of all which the personal union is most marvellous That as in the Trinitie three persons are united in essence so in Christ three several and distinct substances viz. Deitie Soule and Flesh are united in one person And therefore the humanitie of Christ his soule and body did not make a person as in other men but so soone as