the rule remain firm I say it may be so But secondly we answer They had that that was in stead of Death to them some change though they did not die after the manner of other men So at the end of the world it is said that those that are alive shall be caught up and changed in the twinckling of an eye there shall be a sudden and almost undiscernable unperceivable change which shall be to them instead of death But it will be objected further There is a promise made in Joh. 11. That those that believe shall never die To this I answer with that common distinction There is a twofold death which the Scripture calleth the first and the second death The first death is the death of the body that ariseth from a dis-junction and separation of the body from the soule And there ie a second death that ariseth from the dis-junction and separation of the soule from God The first death is no death properly the second death is that which is truly Death and so they shall not die A man may have a body separated from the soule and yet not his soul separated from God nor himselfe from Christ Who shall separate us from the love of God in Christ neither life nor death nor principalities nor powers c. Death you see shall not be able to separate us from God it cannot separate the soule Nay it doth not separate the body from Christ the body remaineth a member of Christ as well while it is still in the grave as before God is not the God of the dead but of the living saith Christ Mat. 22. And therefore he proveth that even Abraham was not dead in that sense that they then took it but he remaineth yet alive in as much as God was his God Abraham whole Abraham was Gods by vertue of Covenant so are all his posterity the children of Abraham by faith in a spiritual sense they remain with Christ and they are united to him as members to the head even when their bodies are in the grave So that I say they die not in that sense so as to have their soule separated from God though they die in the first sense that is to have their bodies separated from the soule But our Saviour in that place of John speaks of the second of that death which is an everlasting separation of the soul from God As we say of wicked men that while they are alive they are dead so the Apostle speaks of the widdow that lived in pleasures while she lived she was dead and the Church of Sardis had a name to live but she was dead This is true death indeed when that the soul of a man is separated and dis-joyned from God and from Christ And it is the state of every man by nature of every man under sin though they walk up and down and do the actions of the living yet they are but dead men And as truly as they are said to be dead while they live so truly it may be said of the children of God that while they are dead they live as it said of Abraham so it may be said of all Gods servants they die not properly but remain still in union with God and with Christ with God through Christ they are Christs and therefore Gods in him and therefore they die not Look what the soule is to the body that is God to the soul the soul is the life of the body and God is the life of the soul they are still living men that have God the soul is alive even when the body lieth down in the grave This shall serve for the opening of that they are not dead but alive they do die in the first sense and in the common acceptation in respect of the separation of the body from the soul but they do not die in the second sense in respect of the separation of the soul from God they do not die eternally they do not die properly Now briefly to make some use of this and to hasten to that I most intend to stand upon Is it so then that Death is the end of all men Let us make account of it for our selves This seemeth but a plain point and so indeed it is but I know there is nothing more useful and I know there is nothing lesse regarded and lesse considered of seriously then this that we must die It is true we all acknowledge it in the general and every man the very worst the most ignorant and most prophane in the world will yeeld to this in the general that all men must die and let a man come and tell them that they themselves must die they will grant it too but this is that that undoes us all we rest in generals and do not seriously insist upon a serious application of it to a mans own particular case and bring it home to a mans self to conclude thus I must die I may die soon this may be the last day of my life upon earth this may be the last time I may breath this may be the last word that I shall speak the last action that I shall do I know I must die and it may be I may die now This is that we should principally intend and labour most after that when we read the stories of the Scripture and see that Death is the end of all men that all must die and their houses must be houses of mourning to conclude the same for our selves All those worthies spoken of in Heb. 11. it is said they all died in faith I read such a man was a King but he died such a man was a Prophet but he died such a man was Noble but he died such a one died in his youth such a one in his strength these died and I must die the same thing must be said of me that is said of them I say let us not only say it but resolve and conclude upon it conclude for our selves that the same thing must be said of us that is said of all men All men must die we must die The benefit that floweth from it will be this First when a man bringeth it to his own particular case it will make sin more odious to him What is it that brought Death into the world what bringeth death upon us Sin By one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have finned This I say is it that will make sin odious to a man it will make a man look upon sin as a deadly evil A man will avoid an infections disease that is mortall and deadly and pestilential and the like Why because it is deadly it is as much as his life is worth The same is sin it is that that brought death upon all man-kind and will bring it upon thee When doth the creature forfeit his beeing to the Creator
ariseth out of this This is necessary to awaken mens drowsinesse and to quicken up mens dulnesse to a serious consideration of that that is so usefull to themselves A man would wonder that in the Wildernesse where so many thousands died for the hand of God was out against them for their murmuring and rebellion and they were destroyed by the destroyer as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 10. that there Moses should pray Lord teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdome though they had a sight of so many dying before them and that continually yet they needed to be stirred up to pray that God would teach them to make use of it So it is with us We have seen not only one or two die before us but there was a time not long since and you cannot forget it wherein the destroying Angel did walk at liberty about the Citie and kill thousands in our streets yet when so many died what security was there even among those that lived in so much that after awhile the sicknesse grew common and usual and so unregarded Have we not need then as much as ever Moses had in the Wildernesse to crie to God to teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdome Nay much more now when there is scarce one or none in comparison of those multitudes that were swept away in that visitation we have need of such helps as these are and to joyn our prayers with them too that we may be stirred up to a serious application of it to our selves That 's the first thing it is necessary for living men to take to heart the death of those that are departed that they may see and be brought seriously to think of the certainty of their own death Secondly therein also we see the nature of death what the proper work of it in the world is It is of singular use too The nature of death the proper work of it is to dis-unite to separate to dis-joyn things here you have the soul separated from the body the estate separated from the man the man separated from his friends and all by Death First I say ye have the body separated from the soul and this is a useful consideration The soul and the body while they keep together in a man they may be helpful and useful one to another the time will come when they must be separated Alas the not considering of this is the cause of those great errours that are in the lives of men that they bestow so much time upon their bodies that they so much mind the present things of this life and their outward welfare as if they had no souls at all to regard as if there never should be a separation of body and soul one from another What is the reason that there is all that care took for food for the body for apparel for the body for health for the body and such an utter neglect of the soul but because that men doe not dream do not thing of a time of separation of a time of dis-junction of a time of parting these two All the work of a mans life should now be to make a good use of the faculties of his soul that the body may be happy by it the soul will draw the body after it to its own estate Now they are together if they joyne now in sin after there separation there shall come a time when they shall be joyned in punishment if they joyn now in the service of God after they have been separated a while by death there will come a time when they shall be again joyned in glory and happinesse That is the first There will be a separation of soul and body therefore make good use of them while they are together let the body be serviceable to the soul by all its senses and members let the soul rule and order the body by its understanding and affections c. that both body and soul may be made blessed in an eternall conjunction together after death and in an everlasting union in the sight of God Secondly Death makes a separation between a man and all his outward estate in the world The rich man in Saint Luke 12. thought not upon this Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years he thought his soul and his goods should never have parted therefore take now thine ease saith he See what the end of it was Thou fool saith the Lord this night they shall fetch away thy soul and then whose shall these things be The time is coming that these things shall be none of thine they shall be another mans they shall be some bodies else they shall be taken from thee How necessary is this consideration to take off mens affections from the world and to stir them up to use their wealth and their estates while they have them so as may make for the glory of God A time shall come that they shall not have it to use that nothing shall be left them but a bare account to be given up Give an account of thy Stewardship Luke 16. The main businesse is now to be done while a man and his wealth are together while a man and his estate continueth together to use it to Gods glory otherwise it will be a woeful and heavy parting when death shall come to make a separation The young man went away sorrowful when Christ would have his wealth from him because he had great possessions How sorrowful will a man go out of the world when he hath a great deal of wealth but he hath not prepared his account he cannot give up a reckoning of his getting of it of his using imploying of it it is necessary therefore I say that men take to heart the death of those that die before them that when they see the bodies and souls of men parted men and their estates parted they may learn how to use their bodies souls themselves and their estates while they are yet joyned together Thirdly Death doth not only part a mans body and soul a mans self and his wealth but it parteth a man from his friends from all his worldly accquaintance from all those that he took delight in upon earth Death makes a separation between husband and wife see it in Abraham and Sarah though Abraham loved Sarah dearely yet Death parted them Let me have a place to bury my dead out of my sight It parteth father and child how unwilling soever they be see it in David and Absolom Oh Absolom my son would God I had died for thee and Rachel mourned for her children and would not be comforted because they were not It parteth the Minister and the people see it in the case of the people of Israel lamenting the death of Samuel and in the case of the Ephesians at the parting of S. Paul sorrowing especially when they heard they should
still a generation to praise God their Creator and so being a temporal thing ordained for the office of this life it ceasoth when Death cometh there is nothing but Death and that which Christ speaks of in the Gospel can make a separation when death cometh all relations cease and a wife is no wife and a husband is no husband Behold out of this the infinite love of God in Christ that hath made all things all unions and contracts hath made all to be void but his own for our Lord Jesus in life and death is our Husband our Lord our Master our Father as well in the one as in the other whereas by the intercourse of death all things are dissolved two of the best friends that are may part upon discontent and body and soul must part at Death and Husband and wife the Symbol of Christ and his Church must part one from another yet when all societies and contracts part Christ doth not part from us but he is in the Grave as well as in the highest heavens our Husband and Lord and Spouse and we are his Church still we keep the same relation and as strong bonds in death as in life My Dead Yet not withstanding though she was not Abrahams Wife yet she was Abrahams dead This must teach a man after he is freed by Death to the combination and contract yet that there is a care remaining from the Dead a love to that though not as to a Wife the respects of Man and Wife are carnal and fleshly Death cometh and cutteth down the flesh therefore cutteth off that respect too but because she was dead and there was such bonds hetween them formerly therefore a man is bound to lament and sorrow for his dead as Abraham did here to love the memory of the dead to speak well of the dead when occasion serveth to commend them for their vertues to use the friends of the dead as far as is in their power with all courtisie to be good to the children of the Dead those that the mother hath left and not to cast them into the hands of a furious woman a new Wife that neither careth for dead nor living but to have a special regard to the bonds and familiarity and that spiritual acquaintance that God made in this life and so to be good to all that come of that issue for their sakes Let me bury my dead Lastly it followeth why he would bury his dead Out of my sight A strange thing Out of my sight Was his grief so aggravated as he could not still behold her face or was it necessary that the carkasse it self must be conveyed away must it needs be that the body being now no way amiable but noisome must be conveyed out of a mans sight The best friend in the world cannot endure the sight of a dead body it is a gastly sight especially when it cometh to that dissolution that the parts begin to have an evil savour and smell as all have when they are dead then to keep themselves in life and health it is necessary to avoid them to bury their dead out of their sight And what so sweet a sight once to blessed Abraham as Sarah What so sweet a spectacle to the world as Sarah The great Kings of the world set her as a Parragon and she came no where but her beauty enamoured them she was a sweet prospect in all eyes every man gazed on her with great content to see the beauty of God as in so many lines marked out in the face of Sarah Yet now she is odious every eye that looked upon her before now winks and cannot endure to look upon her she must be taken out of sight Oh bethink your selves of this you that take pride in this frail flesh that prank up your selves to make you graceful in every eye you that study to please the beholders you that are the great Minions of the world you that when age beginneth to purle your faces begin to redeem your selves with paintings think of this Mother Sarah the beautifullest woman in the world is loathsome to her husband her sweetest friend therefore I heseech you in the fear of God leave these fooleries and vain fancies remember what danger Sarahs beauty cast her into though it were a great gift of God yet she had better have been without it then to have that hazard of soul and body that she was brought to by Abrahams travels and necessity and know it that your best beauty is to please the eye of God to look beautiful in his sight for the sight of God is never weary the sight of men will be weary of you the best friends you have will loath to see you dead you will then be grisly in the eyes of men but the eye of God it is all one even in the dust and nothing can make you so ill-favoured but God will like you therefore labour to please Gods eye that never ceaseth nothing will make him after his affection whereas the eyes of men this life is so full of foul alterations as the least sickness bringeth an abomination unto them I see the time prevents me I will speak a little to the present occasion We have here a depositum a gage a pawn of a dear Sister of ours a woman known to you all to be of a holy Christian conversation a neighbour full of peace and quiet and of good works according to her calling She was also in the spiritual part a woman of a very good inclination loving the Word of God curious and attentive in the hearing of it She was much delighted in it and desired to communicate the knowledg she had in the Scriptures to others and to speak of it as often as occasion permitted By this study it pleased the Lord to work a constant and lively faith in her to put all her trust and considence in him She was now taken upon the sudden therefore the Lord hath left her as a pattern for us to look upon to take heed to our selves that we may make our peace with God and look for death every moment because we know not how soon we may be arrested She was indeed a woman of great trust and faith in God and one whose mouth was full of his praise still admiring and recounting the wondrous grace of God to her in all the course of her life in sparing her in giving her comfort in her conscience concerning the pardon and forgiveness of her sins and providing for her worldly helps which she thought never to attain to and in many other particulars She did open the grace of God according to her best understanding still giving the praise to his holy Name and no doubt if the stroke upon her had not been so fatal and as deadly as now it was we should have had the like fruit more abundantly at this time Howbeit she was not as one altogether destitnte but she called for and craved
that are such as I have now said think in your consciences what would you die if God should now stop your breath and ascite you by Death presently to appear before his Majesty being thus full of ignorance of security of presumption of unsanctified of vicious of malicious of covetous thoughts could you find in your hearts to say Lord now let us depart Sure we could not but Death must needs be to us as it is said to be to the wicked Rex terrorum the King of terrours if it should come upon us and find us in this case And yet what know we how soon how suddenly we may be overtaken some of us drop away daily some young some old some lie sick longer some lesser time and how soon it will be our turn we cannot tell Our hreath is in our nostrills we are all as grass If the breath of the Lord blow upon us we do suddenly wither as the slower of the field and return again to our first Earth Why will we not labour to be now ready sith it may be alwayes truly said We may now depart either while we are here or in our way home or in our beds or at our meat Who can truly say to himself I am sure I shall not die this hour It may be now thou wilt demand of me What shall I do that I may be ready To insist upon particulars would be too long onely therefore in a word The best preparation for death is a reformed life He that lives religiously cannot but die preparedly And it is a thousand to one if a wicked liver make a gracious end The Scripture makes mention of a double Death and so likewise of a twofold Resurrection the first Death is the death of the body which is the separation of it from the soul The second death is of the soul which is the separation of it from God The first Resurrection is the rising from the Death of sin to a new life the second is that which shall be of the body out of the Grave at the day of Judgment Now what faith the Scripture Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no power Wouldest thou then be freed from the second Death hell destruction when thou art dead Now that thou art yet alive labour to have a part in the first Resurrection Note what Saint Paul faith of the wanton widdow that she is dead whilst she lives So he that lives in the pleasures of sin and in the wayes of his own heart and after his own lust he is dead in soul though he be alive in body and if he seek not to come out of this grave eternal death shall be his portion Well then wouldest thou prepare for Death wouldest thou be able alwayes to say Lord now now I am ready labour to know God out of his Word that is eternal life Labour to feel Christ live and raign in thee by his Spirit labour to renounce every sin do not go on in any known sin against conscience renew thy repentance daily and still survey the state of thy soul that wickedness may not get dominion over thee Let Death come when it will though the Lord should so visit thee that thou shouldest drop down suddenly yet it shall not find thee unprepared thou hast a part in the first Resurrection there is no fear of the second Death But if thou wilt cherish thy heart in evil thou wilt go on in thy ignorance in thy careless worship of God in thy prophaning the Sabbath in thy whoredom oppression malice drunkenness excess voluptuousness thou makest ready for hell and it is not thy Lord save me or I cry God mercy c. that shall serve thy turn I will tell thee who thou art like unto even to a man appointed after a year or two to be burned and in the mean space must carry a stick daily to the heap so thou heapest up wrath against thy self and makest thy score so great that when Death comes thou shalt not know how to be prepared And thus have I finished the first general part of my Text touching the disposition of the godly in respect of Death I proceed now in a word to the second the ground rule or warrant of this desire and preparation for death according to the word as if Simeon had said this desire that I have now to end my dayes proceeds not from any carnal discontentment because I am now old and can take no great comfort in worldly things but the ground of it is thy word and Promise thou Lord hast revealed unto thy servant that I should not die before I had seen my Saviour This word is now fulfilled and the sweetness thereof hath given me that encouragement that I do even long to be dissolved and to be united unto thee Or again thus Oh Lord this care that I have had to provide thus for Death and to be alwayes in a readiness it hath not come from my self nature never taught it me but thy Word hath instructed me If I had not proceeded according to thy Word I should never have known how to have prepared my self to the time of dissolution This is the meaning of the words and so the Doctrine is plain viz. that Men ignorant in Gods word can never take comfort in death nor be truly prepared to undergo it This is plain if we consider the Exposition which I have already given of that part of Simeons speech It is a general Rule that of our Saviour Ye err not knowing the Scripture A man ignorant in the Scripture can never rightly perform any spiritual duty Hence was that of David Thy testimonies faith he are my delight and my counsellors If any matter came in hand that concerned his soul straight to the word of God went he to know thence how to do it as a man for his Lease or conveyance goeth to a Counsellor for direction So again he confesses that if Gods Law had not been his delight he should have perished in his afflictions And so no comfort no true quiet in any trouble much more at Death without the guidance and information of the Word The assurance that the sting of Death is plucked out that Gods wrath is appeased that sin is pardoned that Heaven gate is opened whence shall we fetch these but from the Scripture the directions for a holy life which is the best preparation for Death where shall we find them but in the Scripture Here then we see is a Caveat to all that have no will nor desire to be acquainted with the Scripture Divers think they should have done well enough though we had no such Book as we call the word of God To be a Scripture-man is a by-word a reproach a matter of disgrace and sooner will men listen to some idle Pamphlet then to a matter of Scripture Well beguile
and the more difficult work and if I be able to do the greater I am able to do the less he that believes ix me faith Christ though before he were dead in trespasses and sins yet he shall live he shall live the life of grace Then followes the Fxplication and confirmation of the second member of the Proposition in these words Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die I am the life faith Christ for whosoever believeth in me and so is restord to spiritual life he shall never die he shall never die to speak properly for he shall never perish he shall never die this life shall never be taken from him neither here nor hereafter not here for he shall continue to live the life of grace not hereafter for though the body shall die yet this separation of the body from the soul it is not so properly a death as a passage to life a passage from the life of grace to the life of glory And this body also that is separated from the soul it shall be quickned again and shall be raised up to live for ever therefore he that believeth in me shall never die Thus you see the words expounded Now from the first member of this Proposition I am the Resurrection and the Exposition and confirmation of it in these words He that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live Hence the point of Doctrine I will observe is this that Jesus Christ is the Fountain and Author of all life He is able to give and restore life to those that are dead He is the Resurrection Now whereas there is a double death and a double Life and consequently a double Resurrection we must understand that Christ is the Author of both in this place we are not to exclude either Therefore we will endeavour to expound this general doctrine in these three particulars First Christ hath such a quickning power in him that he is able to raise up those dead bodies of his that now lie in the Grave Secondly Christ hath such a quickning power in him that he is able to raise up the soul that is dead in sins to a spiritual life Thirdly we will shew you why Christ as in this place so else-where doth express both the state of the faithful here and their estate after under the same phrase of speech he comprehends both under this term I am the Resurrection For the first of these Christ is the Author of life he hath such a quickning power in him that he is able to raise up the dead bodies of his out of their graves We will speak first of this Resurrection that is of the body though it be later in time Because that naturally we are more apt to conceive of the death and life of the body then of the death and life of the soul And secondly because that the understanding of this Resurrection of the body will give light to the understanding of the other of the soul And here first we will shew briefly what this Resurrection of the body is And then prove that Christ is the Author and the fountain of it First the Resurrection of the body is this when the soul that was actually separate from the dead body returns again to its proper body and being united to it the man riseth up out of the Grave with an immortal incorruptible body to lead a glorified life This it the Resurrection of the body Now that Christ is the Author of this Resurrection of the body it is evident For as Christ himself by his own power raised himself being dead in the Grave John 2.19 faith Christ destroy this Temple and in three dayes I will raise it again speaking of the Temple of his body And so again Joh. 10.18 I have power faith Christ to lay down my life and to take it up again so likewise Christ by his quickning spirit he will raise up the bodies of those that are now dead in the grave as we may see Joh. 5.28 29. Marvel not at this faith Christ for the hour is coming in which all that are in the grave shall hear the voice of the Son of man and shall come forth they that have done good to the resurrection of life c. In this regard Christ is called the first fruits of them that sleep For as the first fruits being offered to God did sanctifie the whole crop and the owner hereby was assured of the blessing of God upon all the rest so Christ is the first fruits of the dead and his Resurrection it is an assurance to the faithful of their Resurrection and the cause of it both an assurance a pledge of it and likewise a cause of it Therefore herein Christ the second Adam is opposed to the first Adam As the first Adam who was the root of all man-kind did communicate death and mortality to all those that spring from him so likewise Christ the second Adam by his Resurrection he conveyes life and a quickning power to all his members as we may see 1 Cor. 15.21.22 For since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead for as in Adam all die Adam he communicates death and mortality to all that spring from him even so in Christ shall all be made alive Christ he conveyes life to all his members and they are all quickned by his Spirit therefore Christ is called a quickning spirit 1 Cor. 15.45 The first Adam was made a living soul but the last Adam a quickning spirit not only a living but a quickning spirit And this quickning power and vertue Christ did manifest before his resurrection by raising up three from death namely by raising the Widdows son Luke 7. and Jairus his Daughter Luke 8. and Luzarus here in this chapter And at his resurrection also he manifested this his quickning power in that he rose not alone but raised the bodies of many of his Saints with him many of his Saints arose with him and as they rose with Christ their head so also they ascended to glory together with Christ their head and the resurrection of these it was an effect of the resurrection of Christ it was by the power of Christs resurrection Of these we may read Mat. 27.52 53. The graves opened and many bodies of the Saints that slept arose and came out of their graves after his resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared to many Thus you have the first conclusion proved that Christ is the Author of the resurrection of the body Now in the next place the second conclusion is this that Christ is the Author and Fountain of spiritual life also He is the Author of the Resurrection of the soul and the resurrection of the soul it is this when the Spirit of grace of which we were all deprived in Adam returns again to the soul of a natural man and so quickens the man that the man begins to
quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either from a word signifying to stretch because death stretcheth out the body or from words signifying to tend upwards because by death the soul is carried upwards returning to God that gave it In Latine Mors either quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our fatal portion or as Saint Austin will have it a morsu because the biting of the Serpent caused it The letter or word is but like the bark or rind the sence is the juyce yet here we may suck some sweetness from the bark or rind From the hebrew Muth we learn that our tongues must be bound to their good behaviour concerning the dead we must not make them our ordinary table talk or break jeasts upon them much less vent our spleen or wreak our malice on them we must never speak of them but in a serious and regardful manner de mortuis nil nisi bene From the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mutando 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tenuem in 〈◊〉 aspiratam we must learn to extend our hands to the poor especially near death which stretcheth out our bodies and to send our thoughts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the things that are above whether if we die well the Angels shall immediately carry our souls From the Latin mors so termed quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divido we are to learn to be contented with our lot and bear it patiently considering first that we brought it upon our selves secondly that we gain this singular benefit by it that our misery shall not be immortal O Death to which Death speaketh the Apostle for the Scripture maketh mention of the first and second death and Saint Ambrose also of a third The first Death with him is the death of nature of which it is said they shall seek death and not find it The second of sin of which it is said the soul that sinneth shall die the death The third of grace which sets a period not to nature but to sin The Death here meant is the first death or the Death of nature which the Philosophers diversly define according to their divers opinions of the soul Aristoxemis who held the soul to be an harmony consequently defined Death to be a discord Galen who held the soul to be Crasis or a temper Death to be a distemper Zeno who held the soul to be a fire Death to be an extinction Those Philosophers who held the soul to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as Tully interpreteth it continuam motionem Death to be a cessation The vulgar of the Heathen who held the soul to be a breath Death to be an expiration Lastly the Platonicks who held the soul to be an immortal spirit Death to be a dissolution or separation of the soul from the body and this is two-fold 1 Natural 2 Violent 1 Natural when of it self the natural heat is extinguished or radical moisture consumed for our life in Scripture is compared and in sculpture resembled to a burning lamp the fire which kindleth the flame in this light is natural heat and the oyle which feedeth it is radical moisture Without flame there is no light without oyle to maintaine it no flame in like manner if either natural heat or radical moisture fail life cannot last 2 Violent when the soul is forced untimely out of the body of this Death there are so many shapes that no Painter could ever yet draw them We come but one way into the World but we go a thousand out of it as we see in a Garden-pot the the water is poured in but at one place to wit the narrow mouth but it runneth out at 100 holes Die Some 1 By fire as the Sodomites 2 By water as the old World 3 By the infection of the Ayre as threescore and ten thousand in Davids time 4 By the opening of the earth as Corah Dathan and Abiram Amphiraus and two Cities Buris and Helice Some meet with Death IN 1 Their Coach as Anteochus 2 Their chamber as Domitian 3 Their bed as John the Twelf 4 The Theater as Caligula 5 The Senate us Caesar 6 The Temple as Zenacherib 7 Their Table as Claudius 8 At the Lords-Table as Pope Victor and Henry of Luxenburge Death woundeth and striketh some With 1 A pen-knife as Seneca 2 A stilletto as Henry the Fourth 3 A sword as Paul 4 A Fullers beam as James the Lords Brother 5 A Saw as Isaiah 6 A stone as Pyrrhus 7 A thunderbolt as Anustatius What should I speak of Felones de se such as have thrown away their souls Sardanapalus made a great fire and leaped into it Lucretia stabbed her self Cleopatra put an Aspe to her breast and stung therewith died presently Saul fell upon his own sword Judas hanged himself Peronius cut his own veines Heremius beat out his own brains Licinius choaked himself with a napkin Portia died by swallowing hot burning coals Hannibal sucked poyson out of his ring Demosthenes out of his Pen c. What seemeth so loose as the soul and the body which is plucked out with a hair driven out with a smell fraied out with a phancy verily that seemeth to be but a breath in the nostrils which is taken away with a scent a shadow which is driven away with a scare-crow a dream which is frayed away with a phansie a vapour which is driven away with a puffe a conceit which goes away with a passion a toy that leaves us with a laughter yet grief kild Homer laughter Philemon a hair in his milk Fabius a flie in his throat Adrian a smell of lime in his nostrils Jovian the snuff of a candle a Child in Pliny a kernil of a Raison Anacyeon and a Icesickle one in Martial which causeth the Poet to melt into tears saying O ubi mors non est si jugulatis aquae what cannot make an end of us if a small drop of water congealed can do it In these regards we may turn the affirmative in my Text into a negative and say truly though not in the Apostles sence O Death where is not thy sting for we see it thrust out in our meats in our drinks in our apparel in our breath in the Court in the Country in the City in the Field in the Land in the Sea in the chamber in the Church and in the Church-yard where we meet with the second party to be examined to wit the Grave O Grave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the language of Ashdod it signfied one thing but in the language of Canaan another The Heathen writers understand by it First the first matter out of which all things are drawn and into which they are last of all resolved So Hippocrates taketh the word in
why is thy conntenance fallen Or as that great King said to Nehemiah Why is thy countenance sad So if men would put the question to themselves concerning their affections as concerning love why do I set my heart upon such and such things and so likewise concerning their sorrow and anger and every thing Why is it thus As Rebecca said when the children did strive in her womb so when there is a conflict of passion in the soul against reason since it is so why am I thus Who art thou that fearest mortal man saith Isaiah to the Church If men I say did thus they would not break out into such exorbitancy of passions as commonly they do The way then to order any affection aright is to reduce it to the principles of sanctified and rectified reason and judgement Let reason be guided by the Word of GOD and let the affections be ordered by that reason so rectified Thus it was with man in the state of innocency and experience telleth us that in the state of corruption all disorder cometh from the want of this subordination of the affections to reason in their several actions and motions When a man goes hood-wink'd up and down he is in danger of stumbling and falling into one hole or other this is for a man to walk in darknesse then a man-walketh in darknesse when he is not guided in all his actions and affections by the light of truth shining in his understanding A man should therefore strive to check himself and to suffer others to check him Why is it thus If a man cannot give a cause and a reason it is a passion to be rejected a distemper o be repented of This is the first thing He saw no reason therefore he would not do it The second is this It was altogether bootlesse Why should I fast I cannot bring him back again He meaneth bring him back again to live on the earth So Job meaneth when he speaks in the same manner If a man die shall he live again he cannot be brought again to live and converse among men The point I note hence is this That all the actions and opportunities of this life cease in death There is no calling of them back again No bringing of a man back to take new opportunities to enioy the comforts he hath lost and to make use of the means he hath neglected and to redeem the time he hath slackly let passe When the request was put to Abraham by Dives that some might come from the dead to tell his brethren upon earth where he was No faith he that request shall never be granted that a man should come from the dead to give warning to the living much lesse that a man himself should return from thence to begin upon a new score a new reckoning to have a new time appointed when that time is past over They have Moses and the Prophetes let them hear them God hath appointed the means and a time to use the means Now they have Moses and the Prophets After this life they shall have none of these means no time of using them The child shall not come back again nor the man shall not come back again Death is a strict door-keeper all that passe out that way the door is shut on them they shall never return back We read of many several Ages that have gone to the place of silence we never read of any that came thence to tell what is done there we never heard of any yet that came back again to reform his course A friend with all his prayers and tears cannot bring back a friend that is dead It teacheth us a point of wisdom to make good use of our time the time of grace we have We draw neerer death every day then other and when once we are dead we shall never be brought back again upon the earth If a man had all the world and would give it to obtain an hours time upon earth to do what he neglected before he cannot have it therefore while it is called to day harden not your hearts yet a little while and you shall have the light saith Christ while ye have the light walk in the light Make use of the means of grace the time may come when ye may wish as Dives is described to wish that some body much more that you your selves might come from the dead Certainly if those in Hell were to come from the dead again though it were to live a hundred years on earth a holy strict and concionable life to watch over all their wayes to keep a good conscience towards God and men they would not omit a duty nor slight a duty they would not omit an opportunity a minute but spend their whole life in working out their salvations with fear and trembling they would sleep and awake with fear lest they should sin they would be careful that they had no sinful thought they would be patterns of the strangest expressions of conformity to the rule that can be imagined if it were possible to be granted You may easily be perswaded of this do you that now which they wish for and wish in vain make use of the time of grace now there is no coming back again afterward Thirdly A third reason is this I shall go to him As if he should have said I have another business in hand now the child is dead it is not for me to stand blubbering and spending my time for a dead Child I am going to him The word here is I shall return to him Return signifieth to go back to a place where one was before So David shall return to his Child for he was there before there in respect of his body the principles of that is in the earth where the Child is and in heaven in respect of his soul where the Child is The Body returneth to dust whence it was taken and the soul to God that gave it The body is of the dust and returneth to dust the soul cometh from God and returns to God again Therefore he saith here I shall return to him because I came from him When things are reduced to their principles the body to the earth and the soul to God they are said to return Ye see the phrase then The point briefly is this That the greatest care of a mans life the greatest business he hath to do on earth is to prepare for death His business is not to care for his children that are dead and to spend unprofitable sorrow for them the main business of my life is how I shall make my peace with God and be fitted for death for I am going thither We should observe the death of others to stir us up to a serious preparation for our own death the Father should be stirred up by seeing his Child dead before him the elder by seeing the younger die before them we see how death hath shot his arrowes
there will be no mercy there is no mercy where there are the fruits of uncharitableness and if there be no mercy there will be no piety Let this therefore be the touch-stone of piety love and peace with men as the Apostle speaks As much as is possible have peace with all men I will speak no more of the meaning of the first part Marciful men are taken away It is the Commentary upon the former The second is the Predicate of the Proposition they are taken away that hath reference to this they perish It is great wisdom in the Spirit of God thus to expound one word by another That as in the body of a man those parts that are of most use God in wisdom hath made them double hath made them pairs two eyes two hands two ears c. because these are parts of great use that if one part fall away and miscarry the other part may supply if one eye be out a man loseth not his sight he hath another and so in other parts so it is in the Scripture if we mistake one word here is another that is more plain to lead us right in the meaning of the Scripture for else men would have been offended Godly men perish That is more then to die that that perisheth is lost But it is plain they are not lost in death Perishing is one step beyond death If it had been predicated of merciless impenitent unrighteous men it might have been said so they perish they not only die But what hath the righteous done who ever perished being innocent Who ever suspected and dreamed that it was possible for merciful men to perish Here cometh in the interpretation No be not deceived It is a word frequently used in the world carnall men think so but they perish not they are but took away Ye see how one word helpeth the other so this word giveth us assurance of the meaning of this Scripture and of the state and condition of a merciful man he perisheth not though the Atheists of the world think so he perisheth not to himself for then beginneth his happiness when death cometh though they perish to mens memorial and remembrance there is no remembrance of the wise man more then of the fool saith Sollomon that is worldly men that mind the world and their bellies they take no more to consideration when a righteous man a wise man dieth then a fool that is an impenitent man though I say they perish to the memorial of the world they perish not to God not to the fruition of his happiness for Death is but a porter a bridge to everlasting life then beginneth their glory Heaven that was begun before in a mistery then it is set open to them literally and personally They perish not because they are taken away there is the proof of it A man that is removed only from an Inn no man will say that he is lost That that is transplanted from one soil to another doth not perish A grast or syens though it be cut off and it is to have a more noble plantation It is so far from perishing that it is more perfect it is stablished in its nature it is set into a better There are but one of these two interpretations of perishing and neither of them can befal a godly merciful man Either it is a passage from a beeing to a not beeing and so the Beasts when they die perish because their souls are mortal as well as their bodies it is no more a living creature there is no more life it it it resolveth to its first principles the soul it is nourshed as well as the body there was a beeing before but now there is a nullity of beeing in respect of a living creature there is nothing liveth Here is a perishing from a beeing to a not beeing Again perishing may be a passage from a beeing to a worse beeing so an impenitent man when he dieth he passeth from life to death yea to an eternal death to a worse beeing that is a perishing and a proper perishing that is worse then to be lost It is better to have no beeing then to have either of these But in neither of these senses the righteous man perisheth he hath a beeing and a well-beeing after death His soul hath a eral beeing with God in happiness his body hath a beeing of hope though it be in the grave Nay it hath a real beeing of happiness as it is a member of Christ in regard of the mystical union So in no sense he perisheth he is but took away he is but removed it is but Exodus but transitus his death is not a going out of the Candle it is but a translation a removing of it to a better frame it is set upon a more glorious table to shine more bright The word is well expounded in Heb. 11. concerning Enoch whereas in the fifth of Genesis the Scripture saith Enoch walked with God and God took him in the Hebrews it is said he was translated In the one he was took away that is in respect of the world In the other he was translated that is in respect of heaven They are tock away that is from the place of misery the Dungeon the prison to a place of glory and happiness They are took away from the house of clay to the house Eternal not made with hands in the heavens they are translated upward that is meant in this So that there are two observations in this First That Piety and Mercy excuseth not from death Godliness it self freeth not a man from death Death it is that end that is propounded to all men The bodies of godly men are of the same mould and temper of the same frame and constitution as other men their flesh is as frail their humours as cholerick their spirit as sading their breath as vanishing they owe the same debt to nature to sin to God to themselves and their own happiness They are bound under the weight of the same Law the statute law is It is appointed to all men to die once It is well said to die once for the impenitent man dieth twice he dieth here by the separation of his soul from his body that is the first death and there is the second death that succeedeth that the death of the soul by a separation of it from God which is far worse But righteous and merciful men die once the first death seizeth upon them It is appointed to all It is the end of all flesh In one place It is the end of all the earth in another place It is the end of all living the end of all men even merciful and godly men are brought within the compass of this law of Nature to yeeld up this debt and due Righteousness excuses not it frees not It is a law that bindeth one as well as another As Basil of Seuleucia observeth though Adam was the first that finned
be greater then I can give warrant for they that die thus die eternally And we had need beseech God with all earnestness of spirit to keep us from such a fearful temptation as this for they that die thus die not in the Lord and therefore cannot be blessed for my Text saith it of no other but of those Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. This is the first point I come to the Restriction Die in the Lord. It may be construed two wayes the preposition is Ambiguous for the preposition many times in Scripture signifies In Domino or propter Dominum As Rom. 16.1 I commend unto you Phebe our sister that you would receive her in Domino in the Lord that is for the Lords sake as becometh Saints And in the twelfth verse of the same Chapter Salute the beloved Persis which laboured much in the Lord that is laboured much in Gods cause for the Lord. So again Say to Archippus look to the ministery that thou hast received In Domino that is for the Lord for the Lords service for his work I might give you many more instances There is one place most pregnant Eph. 4.1 I Paul a prisoner in Domino so saith the vulgar Latine and so is the Greek interpretation In the Lord. What meaneth Saint Paul A prisoner in the Lord what is that A prisoner for the Lord a prisoner for the Lords cause And thus you may take the word here in the Text Blessed are they that die in Domino that is such as die in causa Domini and thus Judicious Beza to whose judgment I attribute much in translations he readeth it so Blessed are the dead qui moriuutur causa Domini and then in his Annotations propter Dominum And if you take it thus then the Martyrs only are blessed That Martyrs are blessed the Church of God is so far from making a question that they set it down as a Rule Injuriam facit Martyri qui orat pro Martyre A man doth wrong to a Martyr that prayes for a Martyr their blessedness is so sure for He that loseth his life for my sake and the Gospels shall find it saith Christ If he loseth a temporal life he shall find an eternal If he lose a life accompanied with sorrow he shall find another life that is with joy such joy as cannot be conceived such joy as shall never be ended Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his Saints There are two things saith S. Bernard that makes the death of a Saint precious the one is a good life before the other is a good cause for which he dieth A good life will make it a precious death but a good cause will make it a more precious death But that is the most pretious death that hath both a good life before it and a good cause coming next The Matyrs are blessed but they must be such Martyrs as suffer for the Lord be sure of that or else they are not blessed There be some that would be accounted Martyrs a great company of such we have had of late that have died for broaching of reason and some for sowing of sedition some for absolving subjects from the oath of Alleageance some for attempting to blow up Parliament houses Such as these are not Martyrs It is not the punishment it is the cause that makes the Martyr Our blessed Lord himselfe that never did evil was crucified between two evil-doers there was an equal punishment there was not an equal cause It must be the cause that we must look to if we look to be blessed But I cantot stand upon that Here is the first interpretation To die in the Lord is for the Lord. But there is a second and that is more large die in the Lord that is die in the faith of the Lord. Salute Andronicus and Junius my fellow prisoners which were in the Lord before me Saith S. Paul that is that were Beleevers that were in the faith before me And to let pass many other places if there be no resurrection of the dead saith the Apostle then we that are asleep in Christ c. If we beleeve that Jesus died then those that sleep in Jesus shall he bring with him c. and Again He shall descend from heaven with a shout and they that are dead in Christ shall rise first Now what is it to die in Christ in a large sense I will tell you He that would die in Christ first he must die in obedience There are many works of obedience that we are to doe Our last and greatest act of obedience is to resign up this same spirit of ours willingly chearfully into the hands of God that gave it If we have not attained to that strength that some have done that is to live patiently and die willingly yet we should labour to attain to thus much strength to live willingly and to die patiently So as Christ may be magnified in my body saith the Apostle I pass not it makes no matter let it either be by life or by death When we have done the work that God hath set us to do we must be gone and thus must every one say with himself Lord if I have done all the work thou hast appointed me to do call me away at thy pleasure Here is the first In obedience Secondly Die in repentance I remember what Possidonius said of Saint Augustine a little before his death that it was necessary that men when they died they should not go out of the world absque digna competenti resipiscentiâ without a fit competent repentance He himselfe did so for he caused the penitential Plalmes to be written and they were before him as he lay upon his bed and he was continually reading those penitential Psalmes and meditating upon them with many tears he died even in the very act of contrition I do love to see a man chearful upon his death-bed but I do more love to see a man penitent There is a day indeed when God will wipe away all tears from our eyes When that cometh then he will wipe away these tears of repentance too these tears of godly sorrow But the Lord grant he may find me with tears in mine eyes Thirdly Die in faith Indeed if ever Faith had a work to doe it bath then a work to do when all other comforts in the world fail us and freinds go from us then faith to lay hold on the promises I know that my Redeemer liveth and that I shall rise again at the last day and be covered with my skin and shall see God with these same eyes Thus faith And then fourthly Die with Invocation calling upon the name of God Thus have all the Saints of God done continually commending of their souls to God in prayers Saint Paul would have us commend our souls to God in well-doing And it is a necesary thing every morning
Lord the Lord that sheweth judgment and righteousness upon the earth there is a mercy shewed to the creature but it is I that do it faith the Lord. If you meet with a merciful man God is merciful in that man If you meet with a bountiful man God is bountiful in that man If you meet with a man whose lips feed many God instructeth that man I say seeing all things we have though they have divers channels and pipes and conveyances whereby God conveyeth goodness and mercy to men yet nevertheless it is in God and from God we receive all let us therefore look upon every creature as instruments in Gods hand that can do us neither good nor hurt without him What good it doth it doth by the influence of the supream cause working by that creature let us so look upon and conceive of every creature Thus the Saints have done in all times Jacob when he saw Esau I have seen thy face as the face of God saith he He saw God in the face of Esau So in all good men we should say God is good in them This should make men not to seek themselves not to study men more then God not to study gain with men with the loss of God to please men with the displeasing of God but to venture the loss of all men that they may please God if they cannot keep men and God together For the affections of men are in Gods hand and he fashioneth and frameth them according to his own pleasure either to love or hatred as David observed in the case of Shimei God hath bid him curse Be convinced I say of this that if we get all the men in the world to be our freinds with the neglect of God if we get all the treasures and wealth of the world if a man were advanced to the Monarchy of the whole earth yet these things are more in Gods hand then in ours When a man hath wealth it is not in his own keeping riches have wings When a man hath favour God gives it not into his own keeping whatsoever we have it is secured to us by Gods protection and made good to us by his blessing Let this be our care and work therefore how we may live to God how we may enjoy God in the things we enjoy and possess God in all things we possess in the things we have still to keep God and that will keep our estates and names and comforts and lives and all That is the first Again secondly There are certain graces to be exercised if a man would not live to himself for indeed it is the property of a Christian and none else to live to God and not to himself and he doth it by vertue of those graces in his heart that empties him of himself and draws him to God therefore I say there are certain graces that every one should exercise if he would not live to himself What are those First the knowledg of God in Christ Get a more full and particular and experimental knowledge of God All our looking to the creature is because we know not God perfectly if we did know him we would account him the chiefess of ten thousand the Church when she knew Christ said so we would account him as Elkanah said to Hannah Am not I better to thee then ten sons better then ten friends then ten worlds Get therefore a more full knowledge of God that all power is in him One thing have I heard once and twice that power belongeth unto God saith he Psalmist Secondly Get faith in the exercise more All the worthies of the Lord in Heb. 11. What made them live so to God and not to themselves as they did because they beleeved they did it by faith by faith Abraham denied himself by faith Moses for sook the pleasures of Egypt by faith those Worthies of whome the world was not worthy wandred up and down in sheeps skins and goats skins and would not be delivered When a man getteth interest in Christ by faith he shall see that in him that will satisfie all his desires and answer all his losses Thirdly exercise Love Faith works by love The more we love God in Christ the more perfectly we shall cleave to him Love is a uniting grace that uniteth the soul to Christ The love of Christ constraineth me faith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. for we thus judge if one died for all then it is fit they that live should not live to themselves And the truth is the more a soul loveth Christ the more it will live to him Lastly a word of the last Use and that for instruction Being convinced that such is the estate of most men that they live to themselves and that whose estate soever it is it is a sinful estate and argueth a man out of Christ and that there is a possiblity of getting out of this estate Let it be for instruction to all those that in some measure live to God and not to themselves let it be to teach them and perswade them more fully to live to him and less to themselves A man simply censidered without any relation to others or dependance upon an another man he may please himself but when a man is considered in his dependance upon God and his relation to men he must then observe the will of his Creatour in that relation God hath set him he must carry himself as his creature and observe the end that the creature is appointed to Nay he must carry himself as a Christian and observe the good of the body he must carry himself as a member to do good to the whole Let every Christian labour to do this if he would have comfort to his soul that he doth not live to himself that he is of the number of those that are accepted of God in life and death Labour to imploy his time and strength and gifts and whatsoever he is and hath to the good of others As every man hath received the gift let him minister to others as faithful dispencers of the manifold grace of God If you have received gifts you have received them from God you have received them for the good of others you have received them as dispensers let every man faith the Apostle dispense the manifold grace of God if the Apostle had said be dispensers of the grace of knowledge that you have for the feeding of the souls of many and not of your estates or relieve as many as you can with your estates but take no care for their souls but when he saith be dispensers of the manifold gifts of God his meaning is that whatsoever I have wherewith I am able to do men good with whether it be inward or outwards gifts the gifts of the mind or of the outward man any thing whereby I can be advantageous to others I must serve God and men in improving of that He that will not
the outward man which is the separation of the Body from the Soul it is no Death if it separate not both from God which it can never do if a man keep the sayings of Christ therefore though his body that keepeth the sayings of Christ be took from his soul yet he seeth not death so as to have any hurt by it he feeleth no ill by it nay it is good to him for it is a passage from misery to rest and felicity Thus ye have these words as faithfully interpreted to you as I know how And now I will make proof of this Doctrine thus explicated namely that thus to keep Christs sayings to know and follow the Doctrine of the Gospel is the only sure way to escape the danger and hurt of Death Saint Peter acknowledgeth as much when he said to the Lord Jesus Christ that he had the words of Eternal life then he that keepeth them is certainly safe against the hurt of Death So the Angel speaks to the Apostles whom the Pharisees had imprisoned when he brought them forth of Prison he biddeth them speak to the people the words of this life since Christs Doctrine is the word of life it must needs follow that the keeping thereof is a perfect Antidote against the poyson of Death And Saint Peter when he gave an account to the rest of the Apostles and the brethren of Judea of his going to the Gentiles he saith that an Angel appointed Cornelius to send for him that he might speak words to him whereby himself and his family should be saved and those words which cause a man to be saved you know will give him freedome enough from Death Thus I have proved the point by expresse Texts and there are two reasons of it The first is delivered by the Apostle Saint John in the first Epistle and second Chapter where he faith let that abide in you which you have heard from the beginning that is the Doctrine of the Gospel which Christ taught his sayings if that remain in you you also shall continue in the Son and in the Father He that hath fellowship with the Son and with the Father can never see Death for God is the fountain of life therefore those that are one with him and continue in him cannot see Death no more then he can be overwhelmed with darkness that is where the Sun shineth fully no more then the body can be dead as long as it hath communion with the soul so those in whom the word of Christ remaineth and stayeth they are assured that they shall remain with the Father and the Son and therefore being united to that that is life God the Father and the Son it is impossible that ever they should be hurt by the first or ever at all taste of the last Death Again the Word of Christ freeth him in whom it remaineth from the power and hurt of sin bringing to him remission of sins and sanctification And being free from sin the cause of Death it is easie to conjecture that he shall be freed from Death it self Let a mans Debt be satisfied and let the favour of the Prince be obtained and a Pardon granted the Prison shall never hold him long he shall not be brought to the place of Execution but when his guives are knocked off he is set at liberty so when we have obtained power against sin by the powerful work of the Spirit of God which alwayes at the same time doth bend the heart of man to rest on Christ for salvation and heartily to indevour to walk before him in holiness and righteousness when I say we are thus freed from the power and guilt of sin it is impossible that Death should lay hold upon us as his prisoner to carry us to the dungeon of Hell and to hold us under the wrath of God and that fiery indignation of his that causeth Hell to be Hell Therefore certainly the words of Christ are an undoubted truth and we must rest upon them without all distrust and wavering that he that keepeth his sayings shall never see death and that the knowledge and beleeving and obeying the Doctrine of the Gospel is the only sure way to escape the hurt and ill of Death it self Let us make some Application of this Doctrine to our souls First to stir us up to a right hearty thankfulness unto Almighty God that is pleased to cast our times and dayes into that age and those places where the Doctrine of the Gospel this Saying of our blessed Saviour is so clearly and plainly and evidently laid open to you and frequently and earnestly prest upon your souls where the Lord cometh to declare unto you the way to life where he scoreth you out a path that will bring you quite out of the clutches and danger of Death this is the happiness of our present Age and place where we live and this whole kingdom too The grace and mercy and favour of our loving God hath so disposed of us that we do not live in times of Paganisme and darkness where there was no news of Christ that we live not in places of Popish darkness where the Doctrine of the Gospel is so mixed and darkned with tricks and devices of their own that they cannot see Christ clearly It is our happiness I say that we do not live in those places and times where either Paganisme or Popery with their darkness covered Christ from us and caused us that we could not clearly see or hear him and so not keep his sayings But now grace is offered light is tendered to us we may be saved we may escape the danger of damnation if the fault be not solely and wholly in our carelesness and wilfulness and neglect and abuse of the means that God hath afforded us The heathen men that have not heard of Christ cannot possibly attain to life as far as we can judge by the Scripture And it is very difficult for the Papists that hear so darkly and are told of the Doctrine of the Gospel with so many sophistications to come to be saved But for us that have the Doctrine of the Gospel so plainly and carefully taught us and revealed unto us we may be saved and may easily see the way to obtain salvation So we go beyond them in happiness Oh blessed be the name of the Ever-living God that beside the peace and plenty and other temporal benefits wherewith he hath crowned this unworthy Nation of ours he hath added this blessing of blessings this King of favours to give us so clear a revelation of the Doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ alone Blessed be his name and let your hearts say Amen to this thanksgiving and let it be one part of your endeavour this day to give solemne praise every man apart and his Family apart for this unspeakable mercy of his in making you live in the dayes of Light and in the bright Sun-shâ—…ne of
those that were without God in the present world as the Apostle saith Now for this there is no distinction in our time for Christ being made the Corner stone hath made both walls one the Jewes and Gentiles being built upon himself all this difference is taken away But at that time it was fit to maintain a distinction to keep a note of difference As God set a mark upon the flesh of Abraham and upon the houses of the Israelites in Egypt so they kept this in all points even in their very Graves that a difference might be maintained between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent to the uttermost Give me a possession a burying place Here is the end why he would have this Pessession A strange kind of Possession a thing that every one is born to no man will deny this we say the land in the Church-yard is every mans every man is born to that land Behold such a land such an inheritance this Father cometh to begg He hath not a foot of ground in all the whole land no place to dwell in but by their leeves no place to feed on but with there consent he is content thus to possesse to have it upon their hand to have his house upon their liking and his field and grass upon their affection and content to be gone and depart upon their bidding but when it cometh that his dead must be buryed there is no dislodging then no removing then that is a Possession he makes not other things his Possession but useth them in a transitory manner So that the holy Ghost would teach us this that a mans Grave is his strong hold his Possession And indeed there is no Possession so durable and certain as the Grave all the lands and all the means that a man hath in this world it may in the course of time either by the misguidence of the party or the succession of prodigals be made away that he that hath had full possessions may not have a foot of land to call his own so Possession are alterable sometime one mans sometimes anothers and again anothers no man knoweth whose because they are still removing But when a man is possest of his Grave that is a long Possession that Lease is time out of mind and it holdeth to the coming of Christ to Jndgement Though there be a sort of covetous men in the world that care not for lucre and gain to remove dead bodies to make men pay dear and yet presently when the memory of that payment is gone in this base respect to remove them from their natural rest and to put new bodies in their room Though this I say be practised by some yet notwithstanding the Lord hath ordered this that a man should have his Grave for ever and that all Christian men should know that they have no such true inherent Possession sticking to them and they to it as the Grave Thus the great God bringeth us to life by death making us possesse the Grave here for a time and after possesseth us with life and glory and joy in the highest heavens Behold Abraham see how he beginneth to possesse the world by no land pasture or earable Lordship the first thing is a Grave So every Christian must make his resolution The first houshold-stuff that ever Seleucus bought in Babylon was a Sepulchre stone a stone to lay upon him when he was dead that he kept in his garden So we should begin to make that our chief utensill it should teach every Christian much more to be mortified so to the world as to be settled upon nothing for a Possession so as the ground where his flesh shall rest in hope till the Lord receive him and give him his Spirit again A strong kind of entrance this holy man made into the holy Land that the first thing he takes possession of should be a place of burial for the dead Even so wondrously God useth to work the promised seed it came of the dead womb of Sarah and accordingly it is in this great and famous History that out of these dead ones the Lord takes such a firme possesson of this Land that when four hundred years were come about there was such a quick issue that it drove all the Inhabitants out of the Land for out of Sarah that was now dead and Abraham and the Partiarchs that were interred in his Cave out of their dead loynes the Lord raised a living issue of six hundred thousand foot-men besides women and children that came under the conduct of Joshua and discomfited the Captains of the Land and took possession The gracious God out of dead and poor things in the world raiseth strength and Majesty that those that they trampled upon and accounted as dead men the Lord made out of them such a living stock that all the poor of Canaun was not able to hold up and make head against them they were such a powerful Army but hid themselves in Caves and became as dead men to give place to these dead men Here is the wonderful great glory of the Almighty out of meer nothing to work all things and as he made all things that are seen out of nothing for by faith we learn that things that are seen were made of things that are not seen so he still continueth to lay his foundation in baseness and humility in a ridiculous manner to flesh and bloud yet out of that he bringeth large and infinitie majesty and glory such as no man can aspire in his thoughts to think sufficiently of Give me a burying place to bury my dead Behold he calleth her Sarah his dead he calleth her not Wife though it is said after in the Text that Abraham buried Sarah his wife yet that is in respect of the time of her life when they lived together and in respect of the former society and converse they had but now he speaks to the point she is no more his Wise but his dead It is translated by all in the Neuter Gender not my dead she but my dead simply in the Neuter gender as a thing which now had not so much relation So it is true when men and women are severed by Death they are no more man and wife but one anothers dead For as the Apostle saith Do you not know that as long as a man liveth his wife is subject to him and she must not couverse with another So likewise for men again but when God dissolveth the contract by Death then as she is free for another man so she is no more his Wife so long as she was alive upon the ground she was his Wife but now when she is to go into the ground he calleth her his dead but not his Wife The substance and sum is this That Matrimony is Gods blessing for present use of mankind for the propagating of the Species to continue the seed of man to the worlds end that there may be
what it is our life is resembled unto and how filthy the resemblance holds The second is wherein it is compared to a Vapour In two things The shortness of abiding The suddenness of departing The shortness of abiding it appears for a little while Where first observe the Apostle useth the word of appearing it is a thing rather in appearance than in deed of shew rather than substance such is a Vapour when it first ariseth and breaks out of the Earth it makes a great swelling to the eye as though it would fill the ayre and darken the Sun yet it hath no solidity nor substance with it but it is a meer empty tumor it seems and appears to be something but really it is nothing And such is our life it is rather a life in appearance than indeed and therefore Saint Austin knew not whether to call it a living death or a dying life for truly it is another manner of thing that deserves to be called Life only that deserves to be called so by which the Soul lives to God and by which the Soul lives hereafter with God that is the life of the Soul this is the life of the body that is the life of Faith The life that I live is by Faith in the Son of God He calls not that life by which the body is united to the soul but that he calls Life whereby the Soul is united to God the Soul may be dead though the body be alive if it be a stranger to the life of God Dead in trespasses and sins it may be dead while it lives Eph. 5.14 Awake thou that sleepest and a rise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light He that lives in sin is dead in sin and the Soul lives when the Body is dead therefore that cannot be the true life by which the body breaths but that by which the Soul subsists if the Soul when it is separate from the body may have happiness and live with God that deserves truly the name of life but if it be a stranger to it though it live that Life is a dead life nay the worst death the Scripture calls it the second Death where though we never die yet we are ever dying the Life that we live here it is rather a thing in appearance than a being So all these things that belong to this life all the joyes and all the sorrows of it they are rather appearing joyes and appearing sorrows than true joyes and true sorrows Consider first the joyes of our Life they are not sound and true but false and vain joyes if any wicked or ill thing be the object of joy as it is of too too many they rejoyce in doing wickedly that is a false joy they rejoyce in that they should sorrow and mourn for and not only wicked and unlawful but worldly outward things such as we may rejoyce in honours pleasures riches and friends yet these being well examined there is no solid true joy but a vain joy in them for they afford no rejoycing to the Soul it is only matters of spiritual joy the joy in the Holy Ghost that the Soul rejoyceth in and with that joy the Soul is ravished though it be bereft of other as again the Soul may be overcome with spiritual sorrow though there be abundance of outward joy presented to it Prov. 13.14 our joyes are but appearing joyes Consider our sorrows and they are but appearing too whether it be loss of comfort that we sorrow for or sense of pain being rightly examined we shall find that they be rather shews than true griefs for there is nothing can bring true grief upon the Soul but only the pain of sin nor no loss can bring any true sorrow upon the Soul but the loss of Gods favour sorrow bestowed upon other things it is but counterfeit sorrow in comparison of this therefore in Heb. 12.11 the Apostle faith that the chastisements that we suffer here they seem grievous and not joyous they seem grievous as if all that we suffered here were rather seeming than real and undoubtedly the Apostle said right for whatsoever chastisement a man hath here he may possible have more matter of joy than of sorrow to the same purpose the Apostle 2 Cor. 9.6 where he describes the afflicted estate of the Saints as God knows they are subject to many afflictions he doth it with an As it were because he would vilifie the terror of it and not grant their condition so miserable as it appears as it were dying as it were wanting as it were sorrowing it is but as it were such as they were not so in Isai 29.8 the Prophet there tells us how it is with a hungry man and with a thirsty man when he dreams he dreams he eats and he dreams he drinks But it is only the fancy of a dream he finds it quite otherwise he finds his stomack as empty as his hand so it is with our life here it is no better then a waking dream where we seem to do what is done and we seem to be what we are Saith the Poet what is one and what is another Man is like a shadow of a dream he that seems something now anon he falls and comes to nothing and he that seems nothing now anon he riseth and comes to something Thus you see that all that ever we have here it is but only seeming it is not real whether they be our joyes or our sorrowes they are but seeming joyes and seeming sorrows yet again this appearing and seeming life of ours it indures faith the Apostle but a little while Indeed vapours last not long for the first matter they are made of affords not them any continuance and besides that they are easily dispelled and dispersed by the Sun such a vapour is our life Out of the same Argument you may see that our life can continue but for a while it cannot last long First it is but a breath as a vapour is Again as vapours are apt to be dispersed and dispelled easily by the hot Sun and the cold wind so hot and cold diseases and insinite sort of other casualties are easily apt to dissipate it it is true some vapours hang longer in the ayr then others so this vapour of life it may keep longer residence in some bodies then in others but when it is longest it is but a little while David determins the date of it within the tearm of 80. years the strength and vigour of it in the opinion of the Philosopher is of less continuance the mind decayes at 45. years and the body decayes at 35. If we compare the life of man with other creatures then we will say it is but a while the Raven the Elephant the Stag they out-live man double and treble If you compare it with the life of the world then you will confess it is but a little while for the world hath continued and lasted some thousands of years
rashly and inconsiderately and divers things out of incogitancy that he knows not what he doth he is unfit for holy duties unstable in all his wayes As he is thus in regard of his place and calling so in regard of the duties of Gods service he cannot do these with a quiet heart with a peaceable spirit while he is possest with these fears You shall see almost all the sins in the world come from this fear What was the reason that Abraham and Sarah did equivocate was it not fear in that particular of men more then God and so they put God upon a miracle to preserve Sarahs chastity in the case of Abimeleck What was the reason that Aaron yeelded to make an Idol for the people of Israel and so joyned in Idolatry with them he was afraid of the people that they might do him some hurt he durst not trust God with his preservation So Peter denied his Master out of fear What is the reason that a Minister doth not sometimes reprove sin that a Magistrate doth not sometimes reform that that is amisse It is slavish fear they will not trust God to maintain them in his own cause What is the reason that many servants lie c. it is out of a slavish fear of their masters And so in regard of the things of the world men are inordinately afraid that they shall lose somewhat they possess and therefore they take indirect courses Still this slavish fear and horrour and distrust of God it is almost the cause of all sin as we may observe in the world This being so prejudicial in the last place let us fence our hearts against this fear By this means we shall honour Religion and make our lives comfortable incourage other Saints of God and draw people to like Religion when it yeelds such sweet contentment to the souls of men For do but once again muster together all our enemies and see if we have cause of fear For our spiritual enemies Will any man fear a wounded foe for the Lord God hath wounded Satan and trampled him under our feet and brought us as Joshua did his Captains to set our feet upon the neck of principalities and powers that through the mighty power of God we are more then conquerours and shall we fear such an enemy as this Shall we fear those sins that we are humbled for and which God hath made as if they had never been For the evils of the world Why should we fear them those corrections that are immediatly from God there is no cause of fear in them As thus If God take away thy Wife or thy Child or thy friend or a part of thy substance what cause of fear is there Fear not faith God I will chastise thee in measure and will not make a full end of thee Jer. 46.28 yet thou shalt not be altogether uncorrected And then remember God proportions the correction to our strength as a Father not as a Judg he aims at our amendment not at our ruin If he take away a friend that we doted too much on if we set our minds too much on the world and worldly things God will deprive us of them and so by this be all in all to us and draw us neerer to himself have we cause of fear to fear that that comes from God No will some say if we fall into the hands of God there is mercy but the mercies of men are cruel What if unreasonable men deal with us have we not reason to fear ill from them they are outragious and cruel they bend their malice against us and if the enemy should come and make an in-road into our country and bring devastation what should we do then I answer first in all things that fall from men there is a provident hand of God therefore faith our Saviour to his Apostles when he would incourage them faith he there is a providence even concerning sparrows there is none of them light on the ground without the providence of God So when he would encourage his Disciples against their adversaries your very hairs are numbred As if he had said Almighty God knows how many hairs every man hath upon his head he numbers all our joynts he tells our steps there is nothing befalls us but what the provident hand of God is in And wicked men the Divel and all his instruments God hath them in a chain they cannot go one step further then he gives them leave Again consider what God laid to Abraham here I am thy shield In regard of all the evils that men attempt against us whether in regard of scoffing or persecution and open hostility or whatsoever God is our sheild And the Psalmist calls him else-where our strong tower You know how it is if men incounter a strong Tower the enemy must first batter the Tower about their ears before they can hurt the men If a man fight with an enemy he must pierce his shield before he can hurt the man We may speak it with sacred reverence to the Majesty of God they must overcome God himself before they can hurt his people in doing any thing that shall prove in the event hurtful as long as they keep close to God The Lord intimated this to the people of Israel The Egyptians marched and followed hard after them to devour them with open mouth God when he saw that he removes the pilsar of the Cloud and set it between them as if God should have said to them you deceive your selves to think to conquer my people you must conquer me before you conquer them So God is our strong Tower our shield and our deliverer and he will find deliverance for his people some way or other from the evil or in the evil or out of it as shall turn to our exceeding advantage For suppose the worst that can be supposed that wicked men are let loose on us to do all that their malice can invent they can but touch the body the shell of the soul and let the prisoner out of doors Upon this argument Christ incourageth us Fear not them that can kill the body but fear him that can kill both body and soul As if he should say Do the enemies threaten death they promise you life the greatest advantage and the happiest day that ever can befall a man that is in covenant with God is the day of death Then all they can do is to kill the body for a while which God will raise maugre the malice of the Divel and all his instruments and possess the soul of that bliss that is prepared for it And in regard of Death why should we fear that if we be in covenant with God the nature of it is changed the sting is out and it is become beneficial But you know the Saints die still The red Sea swallowed up the Egyptians but contrariwise to the Israelites it was a wall
And this will cut sore and lie heavy on our conscience and therefore let us do it betimes Not only to prevent the Divel and his temptations but because you see how suddenly they may be taken away from us in a moment So Children should be admonished to learn to know the Lord God in the dayes of their youth how soon that evil day may come we know not that the wise man speaks of therefore betimes while ye have opportunity do it And for our own part let us learn this First when God crops such flowers that rise in the bud when he takes away such Children be thankful to God that he hath given us a longer time that he hath enlarged our dayes and prolonged our years that he hath given us such a great deal of space and opportunity to glorifie him here to do him service in the land of the living to get evidence of our Calling and election and to get assurance of our peace with him Let us praise God for the length of our dayes a blessing of God in it self and a blessing to us if we improve it Again every one remember if Children do die old men must die any man may die For it Death strike such as do but begin to live then we that have lived long it is time and reason to expect death and not to fear it I speak not this as if we should be slavishly afraid of death while we are so our lives are not comfortable What is the reason that we fear it inordinatly because we love our lives we love our bodies and the world inordinatly and not in and for God And then by the continual spectacles of mortality let us be acquainted with death A vizour and apparition to a Child scares him and he runs from it at the first but at last he grows throughly acquainted with it and fears it not so it is in regard of death many men will not endure to hear of death they will not endure to think of it they will not endure to hear a Funeral Sermon or to come to the hous of mourning to be put in mind of their latter end Death is a strange vizour to these men and women they are afraid of it and run from it but if we did oft think of it as oft as we think of sin in the cause of it And when we feel sorrow think here is a harbinger of death I feel pain in me ere long I must surrender to the stroak of Death And as oft as we see spectacles of mortality to read a lecture of Death And when we lay our selves down in our beds think of Death And upon all occasions come to the house of mourning and think of Death If the Serpents sting be plucked out a man may handle it he is shie at the first but after finding it cannot hurt him he fears it not So we have cause to thank God for death as well as for other things thus far because he hath changed the nature of it and made it a sweet passage to another life And then though God take Children or friends or goods or any thing in this world he will be our exceeding great reward he will be All in all to us here and hereafter THE RIGHTEOUS JUDGE OR THE RULE OF JUDGEMENT SERMON XXVIII JAM 2.12 So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the Law of Liberty VPon the like sad occasion I have already handled something out of these words The last thing that I came to was That in the day of Judgement God will call both the words and actions of men to account He will bring their words and their actions to judgement not only their works 2 Cor. 5.10 God will bring every work to judgement and so Eccles 12. He will bring every thing to judgement whether good or evill But besides that he will bring every word to judgement too even the very vain words of men of every idle word men shall give account Matt. 12.36 And the very rash and passionate speeches of men what they speak in passion and repent not of even those passionate speeches that they thought might have easily been passed by He that calls his Brother fool shall be in danger of hell fire Matth. 5.22 Then much more those evil speeches against God Jude 13 14. He shall come with thousands of his angels in judgement against all those that have spoken against him They have spoken against God they have reviled him he shall judge them for all their evil and cursed speakings against him saith the Apostle They in fury and madness fell to evil and cursed speaking and slighted God and despised him therefore he shall come in great glory with thousands of his Angels to make it appear that he is more glorious then they thought him to be and he will now stand for the vindicating of his honour and the manifesting of his glory in such a terrible appearance at that day Against all those that speak evil and against all their cursed speakings against him saith the Text evil speaking against God is cursed speaking Because it exposeth a man to a curse it leaves him under a curse that shall appear at that day to be just against him so we see God will bring both words and works to judgement at that day And the reasons are First because the Law of God binds men in their speeches as well as in their actions I say the Law that shall judge them doth now bind them in their very speeches as well as in their actions You have two commandements expresly taking notice of the words of men The third commandment of the words of men concerning God he that takes the name of Godin vain he will not hold him guiltless And then the ninth commandment of the words of men concerning men Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour Now God that hath made a Law to bind and to order men in the matter of speech certainly he will judge men by that Law You know that Kings and Princes and Parliaments and Kingdoms they make not Lawes in vain but they are the directions whereby the judges proceed in their course of judgment upon malefactours So I say Gods Law it is not in vain it is not a bare direction onely to us in point of obedience but also the express rule whereby Christ himself will proceed in matter of judgement Again secondly there is great reason that words as well as actions should be brought to judgement because God and men are injured by words as well as by actions First concerning God you read of some Psal 73. that set their mouths against God and against heaven Indeed they can do no more hurt to God then a man that shoots an Arrow at the Sun can hurt the Sun by shooting at him but in their intention they set themselves against God in as much as their tongues are set against
with borrowed and received comfort but by this Because the state of Gods servants in respect of the spiritual quiet and satisfaction and contentment of heart is not alwaies alike but sometime they have abundance of joy that they seem to be as it were in heaven Sometimes they are perplexed with many disquiets and griefs that they seem to be cast down to the deep as it is said of the Marriners in Psal 107. what is the reason of this but that no flesh should glory in it self that every man might know that whatsoever he hath to make his life comfortable and pleasing to him it is from God that dispenseth it to men in that proportion as seemeth good to his own wisdome God will have us know that all the happiness of our spirits is in their union with the chief of spirits with himself and that when they are but a little separated from him when he doth but a little withdraw himself from them they are as a thing that is dead how shall we know that the branches have sap from the root that it is that that makes them flourish and grow but by this If you do but cut them off from the root they whither presently So it is with the spirit with the heart of man if God do but a little withdraw himself let sin but make a separation between God and man now a man is like a withered branch he hath nothing now to revive him because he is divided from the root At the least it is with him as it is with a tree in Winter though the sap remains in the root so though he remain in union with the root yet the moisture is gotten into the root it self and doth not now infuse it self into the branches I confess the servant of God that is once united to Christ shall never be separated the union it is now and alwaies shall be but nevertheless the sap and comfort of the Spirit it may remain in the head our life may be hid in Christ and may not appear in us at all And we are then in that estate as if we were branches cut off whereby it may appear that whatsoever life and comfort and strength of heart we had it was from Christ and by the influence and work of his Spirit And then for the time to come God doth it to prevent some distempers that might grow on the hearts of his servants if they should alwaies be in a like state of spiritual joy God doth it to prevent pride Paul was apt to be lift up with those revelations therefore a messenger of Satan was sent to buffet him And so it may be to prevent carnal confidence in the creature a man would begin to ascribe somewhat to himself to his present condition if it were alwaies thus with him you know what the Apostle Paul saith 2 Cor. 1.10 We received in our selves the sentence of death that we might not trust in our selves but in God that raised the dead look to what end Paul received the sentence of death to that end Gods faithful servants sometimes receive the very sence of death as it were and the sence of the destitution and want of all spiritual comforts for the present Why That they might not trust in themselves or in those habits of grace and comforts they have or in any creature whatsoever The work of Gods spirit in the regenerate soul it is but a creature a work of God and God will not have men trust in any such thing in what then In him that raiseth from the dead God will bring them to such a state that they shall seem as dead men as destitute of all spiritual comforts they have that they might trust in him that is able to raise them out of such a state as that that look as he is able to give life to the dead body so he is able to give comfort to the distressed soul that is at that time in the shaddow of death Secondly it comes sometimes from Satan and that is thus Satan wonderfully sets himself against the seed of the woman especially against the promised seed Christ he will alway be at his heel Gen. 3.16 and in his opposition against Christ he sets against the very glory of Christ among men and that is his kingdom he would not have Christ exalt his kingdom over men Now the kingdom of Christ consists as the Apostle speaks not in meat and drink but in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost If he cannot keep a Christian a true beleever from unrighteousness he will labour to interrupt his peace if he cannot keep him from the habit of peace peace in the grounds of it yet he will keep him from the exercise and effects of that peace from joy he will hinder that as much as he can that he may not have the sence of his blessedness he knows that spiritual joy strengthens a man to all spiritual duties and his endeavour is to weaken all the servants of Christ in all their services and therefore he doth at least labour against that with all his might that if they will needs go on yet nevertheless to propound and occasion as many things that may be troublesome to them and disquiet their hearts as he can And there are two principal wayes that I may but touch them whereby Satan wondrously prevails in this particular The one is by stealing out of their hearts those precious promises those comforts whereby the Word of God revives the soul You have forgotten saith the Apostle the consolations of God And the devil meets in man with two advantages to help him in the effecting of this First he turns the thoughts upon new objects and herein he doth diametrically and directly set himself against God in the way of his special providence that very thing that God in wonderfull wisdom hath wrought in the heart for the ease and comfort of man Satan makes it an occasion of trouble and that is this the variety of mans thoughts what is the reason that God hath framed the mind of man to change his thoughts continually and to have innumerable thoughts Certainly for the very ease of the Spirit of man for the very ease of the soul of man For if the mind should keep intent upon any one thought long it would so work upon that that it would weary it self out in working as we see men by excess of grief in particular cases grow to be phrensie and destracted and the like Now this aptness of the mind to run to variety of thoughts that God hath made for the ease of man Satan turns it as a help to hurt him A man shall run on into a world of business of temptations and distractions that shall draw him from the thought of those things that he hath heard for the relieving of his Spirit wherein God spake comfort to his heart that he may the better fasten those
all the Angels and Saints in Heaven the spirits of just men made perfect to Abrahams bosome to be with Christ Et quanta 〈◊〉 felicitas What greater happiness It was much that Moses obtained to see the back-parts of God but how much greater favour is it to see him face to face to have eternal fellowship with God the father with Christ the Redeemer with the Holy Ghost the sanctifier The knowledg of this benefit of Death makes the face of it comfortable to Gods servants and causes them to strive with their own natural weakness that so they may even long for their day of dissolution But now against this point divers Objections may be alledged For first the Apostle Paul sayes that Death is the wages of sin And else-where he stiles it Christs enemy the last enemy that he shall subdue is Death How should not death then be rather a day of misery to be trembled at then a day of happiness to be longed for To this I answer that we are to distinguish touching Death for it must be considered two wayes First as it is in its owe nature Secondly as it is altred by Christ in the first sence it is true that Death is the wages of sin and the very suburbs and the gates of hell But in the second taking of Death it ceases to be a plague and becomes a blessing inasmuch as it is even a door opening out of this world into Heaven Now the godly look not upon Death simply but upon Death whose sting and venome is plucked out by Jesus Christ and so it is exceeding comfortable But then secondly it is objected that we read of many that have prayed against death as namely first David Return O Lord faith he and deliver my soul oh spare me for thy mercies sake for in death there is no remembrance of thee Secondly Hezekiah when the message of death was brought to him Thirdly Christ himself Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me To all these I answer first touching David that when he composed that sixt Psalm he was not only grievously sick but also exceedingly tormented in mind for he wrastled and combated in his conscience with the wrath of God as appears by the first Verse of that Psalm therefore we must know that he prayed not simply against Death but against death at that time in asmuch as the coming of it was accompanied with extraordinary apprehensions of Gods wrath for at another time he tells us that he would not fear though he walked through the valley of the shaddow of Death And the like I say touching Hezekiah that his prayer proceeded not from any desperate fear of Death but first that he might do more service to God in his Kingdom And with such a kind of thought was Saint Pauls desire of dissolution mingled Secondly he prayed against Death then because he knew that his death then would be a great cause of rejoycing to evil men to whom his reformation in the State was unpleasing Thirdly because he wanted issue God had promised before to David that there should not fail a man of his seed to sit upon the throne of Israel so that his children did take heed to their wayes Now it was a great discomfort to him to die chidless for then he and others might have thought that he was but an Hypocrite in as much as God had promised issue to all those Kings that feared him and for this cause God heard his prayer and after two years gave him a son Manasseh by name And so I say the same touching our Saviour Christ that he prayed not against Death as it is the separation betwixt Body and Soul as appears by what the Apostle faith that he was heard in that he feared for he stood in our room and became a Curse for us it was the Curse of the Law which went with Death and the unspeakable wrath and indignation of God which he feared and from this according to his prayer he was delivered But thirdly we see in most good men a fear of Death and a desire of life and I my self may some godly man say do feel my self ready to tremble at the meditation thereof and yet I hope I belong unto God I answer that there are two things to be considered in every Christian Flesh and Spirit Corruption and Grace and the best have many inward perplexities at times and doubtings of Gods favour Now it is a truth which our Saviour delivers that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak And as in all other good purposes there is a combate betwixt the flesh and the spirit so is there in this betwixt the fear of Death and the desire of Death sometime the one prevails and sometimes the other but yet alwayes at last the desire of Death doth get the victory Carnal respects do often prevail far with the best care of wise children and the like These are their infirmities but as other infirmities die in them by degrees so these also at last are subdued and the servants of God seeing clearly the happiness into which their Death in Christ shall enter them do even sigh desiring to be clothed upon with their house which is from Heaven Here then is a good Mark by which we may know our selves to be Gods servants viz. by the state of our thoughts and meditations touching Death I will so deliver it as may be most for the comfort of those that truly fear God I demand therefore of thee Dost thou know that the confident and comfortable expectation of Death is the work of the Holy Ghost in Gods servants Dost thou desire unfeignedly that the same may be wrought in thy heart Dost thou labour to know what happiness comes by Death to those that feare the Lord Dost thou grieve at thine own weakness to whom the thought of Death is sometime troublesome and unsavory Dost thou pray the Lord so to assure thee of his favour in Christ that death may be desired before it comes and welcome when it is come Dost thou when thou hearest this speech of Simeon wish that thou wert able to use the like words with the like resolution Surely these things shew that thou art Gods servant and that by Death the Lord will draw thee to a place of rest If these thoughts which I have now named be strangers to thy heart and thou dost not love to trouble thy self to study about Death it is an evil sign The servants of God are not wont to be so secure in matters of this quality And thus much for the first particular in the first general part the desire in the godly of death the second is their care for it the point thence is that It is the care of Gods servants to be alwayes so prepared for death as at what instant soever the Lord shall send it they
infirmities that the body had before he shall rise to lead another kind of life a glorified life so in this resurrection of the soul the sinner riseth and is raised up to lead a new kind of life a spiritual life and therefore it is called Newness of life Rom. 6.4 that we should walk in newness of life both in regard of the new principle and fountain of iâ—… the spring of grace in the soul And in regard of the new effects and new operations which are answerable to the new root Fourthly there is a proportion also in regard of the perpetuity of both for as in the Resurrection of the body the body shall rise an immortal body not subject to death any more so here in the resurrection of the soul when the sinner is restored to spiritual life he is raised up to a durable immutable estate he shall continue to live this life of grace and the immortal seed that is put into him it shall never die so Christ saith verse 26. He that believeth in me saith he and so liveth he shall never die he is raised to an immutable estate to such a life as shall never be subject to spiritual death again Thus you see that analogie and proportion between these two and in this respect they may both be comprehended fitly under one term Secondly in regard of the infallible connexion between these two for wheresoever the resurrection of the soul to the life of grace goes before there the resurrection of the body to the life of glory will certainly follow after for as the spiritual death of the soul did necessarily draw after it the mortality and death of the body so the spiritual life of the soul doth necessarily draw with it the immortality and the resurrection of the body therefore as in the Sacrament the name of the thing signified is given to the sign in regard of the neer conjunction and relation between them so here in regard of the neer conjunction between these two that they are never separate therefore they may both fitly be comprehended under one term Thus we have endeavoured to expound the general doctrin in these three particulars We have shewed you that Christ is the Author and fountain of the Resurrection of the body he hath the quickning power in him wherby he is able to raise those bodies that are dead in the grave Then he is the Author of the Resurrection of the soul too he is able to quicken those souls that are dead in sins And then we have shewed the reasons why these two the Resurrection of the body and of the soul are both comprehended under one phrase of speech I am the Resurrection Now I come to the Use and Application of that that hath been delivered And the Use of the point is First for comfort Secondly for tryal and examination Thirdly for exhortation and direction First the Use of the point may be for comfort here here is matter of sound comfort to all those that are the faithful members of Christ Jesus if thou be united to Christ by saith Christ is the Fountain of life he will be the Fountain of spiritual life therefore here is comfort against Death against the death of the soul and against the death of the body Comfort first against the death of the Soul comfort against sin that is the ill of all ills and is the death of the soul If thou be united to Christ Christ by his divine power he is able to free thee from the power and dominion of sin from the bondage of sin Dost thou complain that thy understanding is dark and blind remember Christ is able to give thee more light Ephes 5.14 Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Dost thou complain that thy heart is hard and stony remember that Christ is able to soften thy hard heart and to give thee a heart of flesh as he hath promised Ezek. 36.36 I will take away their stony heart and give them an heart of flesh Dost thou complain that thy affections are unruly and set upon wrong objects remember to thy comfort that Christ is able to rectifie these affections he is able to plant in thee the true love and fear of God as he hath promised Deut. 30.6 I will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed that thou shalt love me with all thy heart and with all thy soul And in Jer. 32.40 I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall never depart from me Dost thou complain that thou canst not bear afflictions patiently remember that Christ thy head he is able to strengthen thee and he will do it as he did the Apostle Phil. 4.13 saith he I am able to do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me But here the weak Christian will be ready to object but I have so many strong corruptions in me that I am afraid that I am not yet raised out of the grave of sin that I am not yet raised out of my natural estate To which I answer remember this to thy comfort that the first Resurrection is unlike to the second in this regard in regard of the measure and degree of it as soon as ever the soul quickens the dead body the dead body leaves the Grave and the state of corruption wholly and all at once but it is not so in the Resurrection of the soul When the spirit quickens the soul the soul begins to rise again from the grave of sin but yet the bands and setters of sin and corruption still remain upon the soul Indeed as soon as the Spirit of grace quickens the soul the soul presently hates all sins and begins to shake off these setters of sin and corruptions and shakes them off by little and little but I say it shakes them not off all at once In this spiritual Resurrection sin indeed receives a deadly wound but yet it is not wholly abolished In the spiritual Resurrection sin is like a beast whose throat is cut that lies striving and strugling for life so sin hath life in it but yet it hath a deadly wound therefore remember to thy comfort that that will be true here between the power of grace and the remainders of sin that is affirmed of the house of Saul and the house of David 2 Sam. 3.1 there was long war between them But the house of David grew stronger and the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker So it will be between sin and grace sin will grow weaker and weaker and grace stronger and stronger But yet the weak Christian may object further but I feel the spirit so weak in me and the flesh so strong in me that I am afraid the flesh will prevail and so I shall return again to my natural estate To this I answer remember that this is contrary to the nature of a true Resurrection to return to death again
for at the last Resurrection the bodies that are raised shall be immortal never to die again so here those souls that are quickened to the life of grace they are raised to a durable immutable immortal estate never to die again That which Christ saith of those that shall be accounted worthy to attain the second Resurrection the Resurrection of the body it is true here also he saith those that shall be accounted worthy of the world to come of the Resurrection to life they shall never die for they are as the Angels of Heaven Luke 20.35 39. Those that partake of that Resurrection can never die so here those that partake of this spiritual Resurrection to the life of grace they shall never die this Resurrection to the life of grace it shall continue in them For the spirit of grace when he once cometh into the soul and quickens it it continues there and remains there for ever it is as a Well of water springing up to eternal life as Christ speaks Joh. 4.14 Whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up to everlasting life Now we know a stream of water is of a vanishing nature yet if it be nourished with a continual Fountain that can never be dry the stream will continually run so it is with the stream of grace in the soul it is nourished with a continual fountaine such a one as can never be dried up Thus you see here is comfort against sin against the death of the soul Those that are united to Christ by faith they may be assured that Christ will be to them a Fountaine of spiritual life Secondly here is comfort against the death of the body against natural death If thou be united to Christ thou needest not to fear temporal death remember that though the body be dead because of sin yet the spirit is life as it is Rom. 8.10 The body that is dead that is it is mortal and subject to death because of sin but the spirit the soul that liveth it passeth from the life of grace here to the life of glory Yea and the body too that is laid in the Grave notwithstanding shall be raised again by the quickening power of Christ Remember Christ is thy head and therefore he being risen from the dead thou shalt not perish You know as long as the head of the natural body is above the water none of the members of the body can be drowned so it is here as long as Christ is risen none of his members can be held captive in the Grave Remember Christ is the first fruits of the dead the first fruits of them that sleep therefore his Resurrection may be a pledge and an assurance to thee of thy resurrection As we have borne the Image of the earthly saith the Apostle so we shall bear the Image of the heavenly 1 Cor. 15.49 As we have borne about us these corruptible bodies so when we rise again we shall rise with immortal and incorruptible bodies and live a glorious life with Christ and so be made conformable to Christ our head therefore fear not the death of the body Remember that Death can destroy nothing in thee but sin therefore fear not This consideration may comfort us as against our own death so against the death of our friends Let us therefore receive comfort hence as Martha in this Chapter I know that my brother shall rise again in the Resurrection at the last day and that did comfort her But here this question may be demanded but is not this Resurrection of the body a benefit common to the wicked are not they partakers of this benefit from the resurrection of Christ as well as the godly shall not they be raised and quickned as well as the godly by Christ his Resurrection To this I answer that this Resurrection of the body to life it is a benefit proper to the faithful to the true members of Christ for though unbeleevers and wicked persons shall be raised up again yet By a different cause And to a different end I say first by a different cause the wicked that are out of Christ cannot have any benefit from the Resurrection of Christ because they are out of Christ therefore they shall be raised indeed but not by a quickning power flowing from the resurrection of Christ but by the divine power and command of Christ as a just Judge and they shall be raised by vertue of that curse pronounced in Paradice Gen. 2. In the day thou eatest thou shalt die the death that includes eternal death therefore this curse must be executed upon them and therefore they must rise out of the Grave again that body and soul may die eternally but the faithful members of Christ shall be raised by the quickning power of Christ as their head and Saviour Again as the wicked shall be raised by a different cause so to a different end for they shall not be raised to life to speak properly that state is stiled eternal death therefore their Resurrection is stiled the resurrection of condemnation Job 5.27 they that have done good shall come forth to the resurrection of life and they that have done ill to the resurrection of condemnation they shall not rise to life but to eternal death but the godly only shall attain this Resurrection of life and therefore they only are stiled the sons of the resurrection Luke 20.36 So much may suffice for comfort A second Use of the point may be for trial and examination since we profess to be Christians to be members of Christ let us here try the truth whether we be so in deed or no. Christ is the Resurrection he is the Author of the first Resurrection to a spiritual life The first thing that Christ doth in the soul of a sinner is to raise the soul to a spiritual life therefore examine whether thou have felt this quickning power or no this first Resurrection to a spiritual life When Christ was upon the earth he had power to raise up all those to life again that died but yet he raised but few there are but three that we read of those that we named before The Widdows son Jairus Daughter and Lazarus here So likewise Christ now hath power to quicken all those that are dead in sin to raise them to spiritual life but yet he quickens but few in comparison of those that continue still in their sins Therefore let us all examine our selves upon this point whether we have attained the first Resurrection or no. If we be true members of Christ we partake of the first Resurrection for Christ is a fountain of spiritual life to all his members therefore examine this look to the first resurrection to the Life of grace thou maist know it briefly by three signs First by forsaking of sin
gained the knowledge of Christ When a man himself is united with the principle of life when he lives in Christ he desires that others may live in Christ too and this desire and endeavour to gain many to Christ it appears in their place and relation A Christian master that lives a spiritual life will labour that his servants under him may live the life of grace with him too A Christian Father will labour that his children may live to God as well as himself a Husband will labour to draw his Wife to Christ as himself is drawn and every one father and friend and acquaintance as much as in them lies by any advantage and opportunity that is put into their hands they will draw others to Christ because there is life in them And this is not done out of faction out of a desire to make their party strong as many in the world desire to strengthen their party but as in living things there is a natural desire to convey that life to others Parents begat not children out of faction to increase the party but out of a natural affection to convey the natural life they have to others so Christians that they do is out of spiritual affection out of simple have to the salvation of others out of a naturalness in their disposition to indeavour that all may be like them As the Apostle Saint Paul wisheth that all that heard him were like him except those bonds So much for that you see how fitly the Apostle useth these terms of life and death to express the change of one that is in Christ when he turns from sin to God Now we come to see the order wherein the Apostle expresseth them make account of this conclude of this that you were dead but are alive First you were dead to sin and then alive to God These certainly are knit together but they are done in order so we joyn both these points in one and that is thus much that All that are in Christ he works in them by his spirit in this order they first die to sin and after live to God These two are inseparable but yet they are joyned in order that first men die to sin and secondly live to God The Scripture expresseth this in fit similitudes Ephes 4.22 24. faith the Apostle there Seeing you have put off the old man that is corrupt through deceivable lusts and put on the new man that after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Here is the order there is not only an effectual change but this is wrought in a method first putting off and then putting on He seems to allude to apparel there that as a man that is cloathed with rags he puts not on ornaments and robes till he have put off his rags as it is Zach. 3. when Jehoshua came before the Angel of the Lord with filchy garments with vile rayments faith the Lord take away those rags and put upon him change of rayment Just thus God deals in the conversion of a man in the change of a man that is in Christ he takes away his filthy rags first his love to sin he is no more cloathed with them as he was wont he accounts them not or naments as they were wont to do but filthy clouts to which he faith Get ye hence he detests them and then he is clothed with rayment then he expresseth the fruit of holiness and righteousness Another expression there is Ephes 5.8 Ye were darkness but now ye are light in the Lord walk as children of light There is not only a change of apparel that is from rags to robes but of your state and condition you were in darkness now ye are light Mark the order from darkness to light That look as it was in the Creation first darkness covered the face of the deep Gen. 1. all was without form and void and then God said Let there be light so now first there is a removing of the darkness the soul was held in and now ye are light in the Lord so they come to walk as children of light Well this is the expression of it in Scripture let us see the ground of it in reason It must be so that in this order God proceeds in this effectual change first to turn men from sin and then to GOD first to die to sin and then to live to God The first reason shall be taken from our union with Christ We are planted into Christ faith the Apostle Rom. 6.4 5 6. By being planted with Christ there grows a similitude between Christ and us We are baptized and buried by baptisme saith the Apostle into his death and we are raised and quickned faith he by the resurrection of Christ that like as it was with Christ so it is with us He was dead and raised so we are first dead to sin and then alive to God Secondly it must be so from the nature of contraries for these two things are contrary one to another there is an immediate opposition between them so as there must be a removing of the one if there be a possession of the other and there must be first a removing of the one before the other can be in the soul As you see in sickness and in health there must first be a removing of sickness before the body be in a right state of health And as in life and death this is the order they are brought first from death to life and then one necessarily followes the other as life necessarily followes upon the removal of death and health upon the removal of sickness Thirdly it must be so or else if both these were not and in this order wrought what difficulty were there in the life of a Christian what singular thing were there in a Christian above any man in the world Every man in the World doth outward actions if there were not such a change as from death to life there were no difference at all where were the difficulty The Scripture saith The way is narrow and strait that leads to life and few there be that find it what narrowness or straitness were there in the way to life if there were no more but thus that a man might settle upon some actions of Religion and so be effectually changed If this were all what great matter were there in Religion what need Agrippa stand out in the mid-way what need he be but half perswaded to be a Christian he might easily be perswaded to be a Christian if he might hold his Heathenisme and be a christian too What need Foelex tremble to hear Paul dispute of righteousness and judgment to come if he might be unrighteous and a Christian too What need the young man be sorry when Christ bad him sell all and follow him if he might hold all he had and be worldly affected and be a Christian too what need any of the labours of a Christian to what use were a
fruits of sin you shall keep your estate and keep it with comfort as far as it is good for you your sins provoke God even to curse your blessings You shall not lose your pleasure if you part with sin nay you shall gain pleasures All sorrow and grief of heart and disquiet of spirit that ariseth from terrour of conscience are they not hence because of sin Would you have joy and pleasure unspeakable and glorious part from sin that is the cause of sorrow When we bid you part with sin we speak to you to part with a needless thing it is a superfluity as well as hurtful superfluity of malice what need one sin in the world cannot you live and be happy without it cannot you live comfortably and die blessedly without sin Nay is it not that that hinders your blessedness and happiness The Angels in heaven they are blessed because they are without sin but those of them that sinned they are reserved in chains of darkness to the judgnent of the great day Adam in Paradise in the state of innocencie he was blessed he was without sin but as soon as he sinned he was cast out of Paradise and a Cherubin set with a flaming sword to keep the way of the Tree of life that man should not come at it You your selves the best comfort the best peace the best evidences you have are those that do arise from your hatred of sin Therefore do but consider how needless a thing it is Can you get any thing by it can you live a day longer or an hour more happy can you be a whit better by it If you could enjoy any present good by sin there were somewhat to be pleaded but what is it you get a little wealth by unrighteousness is it gain Job saith their belly shall be filled with gravel If a man sill his belly with gravel what hath he gotten by it you will get that that you must cast up again you get that that one day you will wish you had never known as Israel when they turned to God they should say of their garments of silver and gold that they had made for their Idols Get you hence So every worldly man that raiseth his estate by unrighteous means the time will come that he shall wish all the money that he hath gotten were in the bottome of the Sea that he had never known what a penny or a house or apparel had meant that he hath gotten or made or appropriate to himself by any unrighteousness whatsoever What Use is there of it And will you lose your souls for that that is nothing and will you lose heaven for that that is needless and eternal happiness for that that will not do you a moment of time not a little present good not a little present ease not a little present comfort But lastly the great benefit that redounds by it that is spoken of in the Text it is that you shall live and live to God The more you die to sin the more you shall live to God through Jesus Christ Now we come upon a strong motive to perswade you to set more heartily against those evils that are daily reproved the more you die to them the more you shall live to God Suppose the work of repentance be a hard task suppose it should be somewhat painful suppose it be something that vex and disquiet the natural spirit of man as there is pain in repentance and mortification of sin yet nevertheless if you may get eternal life by it is it not worth the while Consider what you do for natural life suppose a member of the body be gangrened that it is in danger to be spread over the whole body and the taking away of natural life the loss of a hand and the loss of any member though it be never so useful rather then the body shall be in danger and a man deprived of life you will lose a useful member and when you have done you do it but in hope to preserve life for you are not sure when you have cut off that member to live a day after but yet because it is possible because it is the way to natural life and yet if you have that life granted suppose for term of years as Hezekiah had for fifteen years yet it is but a natural life a life full of misery a life exposed to many vexations and disquiets a life that hath so many troubles in it that men in the best estate of health with sometimes that they were dead through disquiets and troubles and yet for the preservation of a troublesome life if you were sure of that you would lose a member I know when we come and speak of renouncing your former wayes your cove ousness and prophaneness and pride and vanity and wickedness in any kind we speak of cutting off of hands of members of the body they are so dear therefore Christ saith If thy hand off end thee cut it off if thine eye off end thee pull it out it is better to go to heaven with one hand then to hell with both This I say I know you apprehend it a hard lesson there is no life no Christ without such a death to sin Yet it is a truth and a necessary truth for you to know and therefore consider it and that seriously what you lose If we come and perswade you to cut off some useful member yet you yeeld to that for a natural life you wil cut off a hand that is as useful as any member of the body but we bid you cut off superfluous members those needless members the members of sin that will be your death We would have you but to be rid of the Ulcer that is all we would have you deprived of to preserve spiritual life and to live to God If I were to speak for a natural life it were but temporal it were but upon conjecture but we speak for a life upon certainty When we perswade you to die to sin that you may live to God we assure you that this will certainly follow on it you shall live to God if sin die in you and we speak not only upon certainty but for eternity too you shall do it for eternity too you shall do it for eternity it is not a life that ends Nay we speak for a life wherein there is true happiness that hath no mixture of misery to make you weary but a life that hath perfect peace and joy a life that hath blessedness begun and shall have blessedness perfected in heaven this life we perswade you to live Consider now what we say if there were more you shall live to God the more you die to sin Skin for skin faith Job and all that a man hath he will give for his life but if it be such a life as this to live to God a spiritual life what to live as the Angels do that live with God! to live as
Minister that was with her asking how she that had a Husband and Children enjoying an estate and many other comforts could be willing to forgo so many blessings and exchange them all for death She from that inward sence and perswasion of Gods love to her in Christ concluded my Husband is dear and my Children are dear to me but Christ is dearer Therefore I am willing to forgo Husband and Children and all the contents you can number in this life that I might live with Christ to partake of greater felicity then this world can afford me And now the Lord Jesus hath received her into his own protection and satisfied her expectation with the performance of his love But wherefore have we spoken all this what that we might add any praise unto the dead no But to quicken those that are living and incite them to the like duty Some may think it impossible there should be such activeness in doing of good and such unwearedness in performing of the acts of mercy and where say they shall we find such an example you have it before your eyes and know that examples will rise in judgment against you and condemn you as well as precepts If you follow them not while they invite you The Text saith Do good to all especially to the houshold of faith And here is an example before our eyes of one who took her time and opportunity to do good to all especially to them of the houshold of Faith Go thou and do likewise DEATH PREVENTED OR MORTALITY CHANGED SERMON XL. JOB 14.14 All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait to my change come THis Book of Job comprehends the History of a good man and of his many tryals Though goodness deliver from Hell yet it priviledgeth not from temptatious or crosses yea the more eminent Holiness is many times the more it is exposed to sharp and manifold assaults Job is set upon on all sides he found the Devil a fore enemy and his great estate a suddain shipwrack his Children in a moment crusht to pieces He had but three Points of Land to look at in this troublesome sea and every one of them seemed rather to augment than to lessen the storm His Wife whose breath should have sweetned and eased his grief was an impatient vexation His friends whose counsels and compassions should have been an easie harbour and tender relief they became his bitter and censorious judges Yea his God who by his own testimony he served and feared with singular uprightness and whose bowels are ever tender and compassionate to such and upon whose gracious acceptance he thought to quiet and anchor his troubled spirit yet anon he seemed not only a stranger but an enemy and this went deep that even Mercy it self seemed cruel and Kindness so unkind and harsh But what was his behaviour under all these For the general sweet and heavenly For some particulars sad and weak when saith did work he was above all his storms In the deepest calamity saith can settle and compose the soul and fill it with the sweetest comforts When sence and nature did work then he was much impatient and the wind had the better over him In the one be shews himself a Christian In the other a man In the one Job is beyond himself in the other below himself According to the time and manner of these several workings he is like or unlike himself Thus it is with the best whose outward change doth not more vary but their inward carriage doth as much change At length Job after many disputes with his friends and conflicts with himself concenterates his thoughts in two main Points 1. One was still to trust in God let him be what he will and let him do what he will though he should continue his present trials yea and exceed them though he should kill me yet saith he Chap. 13.15 though he stay me I will trust in him and there he disposeth of his soul 2. Another was to prepare for death all the dayes of my appointed time I will wait till my change come and there he disposeth of his body Many arguments he layeth down in this Chapter which did occasion him to these thoughts and resolutions The first is the brevity of mans life Vers 1 2. Man that is born of a Woman is of few dayes he cometh forth like a Flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not He saith not years nor moneths nor weeks but dayes and these dayes not many but few and these few dayes not long but short as quickly set as the shadow as quickly cropt as the flower Secondly the misery of that short life in the same place and full of trouble as if every Article of life were replenished with sorrow even as every vein of the body is with bloud this his own experience could tell him Thirdly the certainty of Death The Sun hath his appointed race which in the Winter is short in the Summer long but in both it hath a certain time of setting so the race of mans life to some it may be shorter to some longer but the night will come and all must be closed up in Death vers 5. His dayes are determined the number of them they are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds which be cannot passe and if so then high time for Job to think of it and prepare for it Death began in a manner to seize on him already in several parts in his feet for his wealth was gone in his loynes having lost his children in his heart his friends leaving him in his bosome for his wife was a discomforter nay in his very life it self so much as was wrapt up in the outward part of his body for that was diseased in his speech and spirits they grow hoarse and faint all these were the harbingers of a future dissolution Well therefore might Job conclude ever I must not live and long I cannot live therefore though in much misery and in had dayes I will think of Death and fit my self for a good end and apply my self seriously and wisely for a good work All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait till my change come Which words contain in them two parts First his future dissolution which he calls a change and a change that is coming upon him as if he had been the next man till my change come Secondly his present disposition I will wait he thinks of death before death and prepares to die while yet he lives Neither was this a death pang a sit a humour which began quickly and expired suddenly Nay he will make it a serious business as if this should be his every dayes work All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait Some read it of my appointed warfare and others of my appointed labour they all intimate that he means by his appointed time his appointed life the lease or term of breathing which
God had allotted allowed and decreed There are two propositions which naturally issue from the words and comprehend the juyce and marrow of the Text. First that there is a change which will befall the sons of men Secondly we should alwayes wait till it come I begin with the first that There is a change which will befall the sons of men Be we poor or be we rich be we noble or be we ignoble be we prosperous or be we afflicted be we strong or be we weak be we old or be we young be we good or be we bad be we male or be we female whatsoever our natures be whatsoever our parrs be whatsoever our places be whatsoever our ages be whatsoever our courses be whatsoever our wayes be how fair and how durable our estates may appear yet at length there is a change which will befall us That which Jacob spake in a pathetical way Joseph is not and Simeon is not may truly be said of all the sons of men once they were now they are not though once we reckoned them upon our account yet at length they are shut out and stand aside as cyphers But that you may the better understand what change it is that is here meant you are to know that there is a fourfold change First a change of the condition this I call a temporal change wherein some or more or all of our outward comforts are shrivelled and seared up by some present misery When poverty breaks in upon us as the hunter doth upon his game and causeth our riches as so many birds to which Solomon compares them to take to themselves wings and flie away When sickness stayeth our health in the bed and imprisoneth us to the chamber When our friends glide away from us like a river through their Apostacy or start aside like a broken bow through their falshood or treachery When the neer relation of Husband and Wife Parents and Children is cut asunder and the many sad tears for their loss imbitter all our former comforts But this is not the change intended in the Text. Secondly there is a change of the Body and this I call a corporal change for even these vild bodies of ours shall be changed Look as the spring is a refreshing change to the season of the year so shall the Resurrection be an exceeding change to our bodies or as the morning is a change to the night so at the Resurrection shall our bodies awake and their corruption shall put on incorruption neither is this the change which Job here intends immediatly though some expound his aim to be at this from whom I cannot absolutely dissent yet I think they hit not the right scope Thirdly there is a change of the Soul that I call a Spiritual change wrought in the soul by the spirit of God nothing makes in this life such a change as true grace We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 This change is like the turning of a disordered instrument or like the refining of corrupt mettal or like the clearing of the dark air or like the quickening of a dead Lazarus but neither is this change that the text intends Fourthly there is a change of the life and this I call a mortal change we shall all be changed faith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.5 life hath the first course but death will have the second As in a Comedy several persons have several parts to act which when they have dispatched they all draw off of the stage so though in life we all present our selves on the stage of this world and act several Scenes and parts yet at length we must all retire and pass away through one and the same door of mortality This is the change which Job speaks of to wit a change of this life by Death Here then are two things to be demonstrated and proved for the making good of the point in hand viz. 1. That death is a change 2. That this change of death will befall all the sons of men First that Death is a change not an anihilation A change is a different and a divers order or manner of being Anihilation is one thing and mutation is another thing there the thing ceaseth utterly to be here the thing only ceaseth to be as once it was so it is with Death it doth not reduce us to nothing but alter our former something it changes our manner or order of being not our being absoluteâ—…y Now observe Death is a change in five respects First it changes that neer union of the Soul and the body and makes of one two severals they that were as the hands mutually clasped or as two persons conjugally tyed together when Death comes it plucks them asunder and divides one from the other as far as heaven is from the earth Secondly it changes our actions or work Whiles life remained here in our bodies while our day lasted we might have sed the hungry clothed the naked visited the sick relieved the distressed frequented the ordinances bewailed our sins but when death once enters the night is come in which no man can work thou art then turned changed into an insensible rotten and loathsome carkass Thirdly it changes our country Whiles we live here we are as children put abroad to school in a strange place hence it is we are so often in the Scripture called Pilgrims and strangers This earth this lower world is not the proper home of the Soul But when Death comes we change our country we go home to our own place to our own City the wicked shall go to their own place as it is said of Judas and the godly to their own Mountain to their own Kingdome Fourthly it changes our company In this life we converse with sinful men empty creatures infinite miseries innumerable conflicts but when Death comes all this shall be changed we shall go to our God and Father to our Christ and Saviour and to the innumerable company of blessed Angels and Saints and the spirits of just men made perfect Fifthly it changes our outward condition When Death comes thou shalt never see the wedge of gold again thou shalt never find thy delights in sin any more all the excellency of the creature and the contentments of them and the sensual rejoycing in them shall go out with life Death shall shut and close them up in an eternal night which shall never rise to another day So much for the first thing that Death is a change I come now to speak briefly of the second that this change of Death will besal all the sons of men Psal 89.48 What man is he that liveth and shall not see death shall be deliveâ—… his soul from the hand of the grave We love to see most things the eye is never satisfied with seeing and yet
many things there are which we shall never see Every man cannot see that which one man doth but there is one thing which every man shall see he must see death There are many enemies from whom we can deliver our selves and many more from whom we may be delivered but yet there is one enemy from which we cannot desend our selves nor be defended by others he will be too strong for every man let him strive repine order his dyet intreat do what he will or can No faith the Psalmist none shall deliver his soul from the hand of the grave And he puts a Selah a note of observation at the end of the verse That all the sons of men are subject to this change by death will appear to you by these familiar Arguments The First may be taken from the quality of our lives which is sweetly set out in the Scripture under the terms of changeable things all which point out unto us the certainty of death Sometime our life is compared to a shew Psal 39.6 Surely every man walketh in a vain shew In a shew you know there is some devise or other opened carryed a-while about but at length it is shut up so it is with our lives Sometime again it is compared to a shade or a shadow Job 8.9 Our dayes upon earth are a shadow a shadow is but an imitation of a substance a kind of nimble picture which is still going and coming and will set at last perhaps it is suddenly ecclipsed so is our life Sometimes again it is compared to a vapour James 4.14 What is your life it is even a vapour that vanisheth away like a poor cloud sometimes looking white sometimes black sometimes quiet and settled sometimes again tossed up and down with every wind and at last consumed and brought to nothing so it is with our lives Sometimes also compared to a Tale Psal 90.9 We spend our years as a tale hat is told a meer discourse of this thing and that thing and indeed but a very parenthesis of a more tedious discourse and many times it is broken off in the very telling so it is with our lives Sometime again it is as grass as in Isa 46. The voyce said cry aloud what shall I cry all flesh is grass and the goodliness thereof as the flower of the grass And verse 7. The grass withereth and the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it And Job in this chapter calleth it a Flower He cometh forth faith he like a flower and is cut down A flower is a sweet thing but of an earthly breed sed with showers at its best when it is in all its glory it is but to day and to morrow it withereth and is fit for nothing but the Oven so it is with our lives Many expressions of the like nature might be added the Scripture is plentiful in these comparisons comparing our life to the Spiders web to a Weavers shuttle to the breath of a candle to a pilgrimage to a journey to the dayes of an hireling c. all of them things of a changeable and variable nature The second argument may be taken from the quality of our Natures and there in there are two things considerable both which imply a certainty of death First our composition and matter whereof we are made we are reared out of a mouldering and wasting principle our bodies are therefore stiled an earthly house 2 Cor. 5.1 A house though of Iron will in time be cankered but a house of earth as it is most impotent against assaults so it is of its own nature most apt and subject to dissolution And in this respect also they are termed Tabernacles Now a Tabernacle you know is a thing of no perpetuity made only to be soon set up and that in a mans passage and then as soon taken down again Secondly beside this there is in our nature sin and corruption and this is it that doth put us to the sword and cause this deadly change this tears our lives with a continual consumption The tree breeds the worm which will destroy the life of the tree we in Adam gave leave to sin and now it is that sin gives leave to death In the day that thou shalt eat there of thou shalt surely die Gen. 2.17 and Rom. 5.12 By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed over all men in that all have sinned The shadow doth not so neerly attend the body of man as Death doth the body of sin And Rom. 6.23 the very wages of sin is death God should do that man wrong that hath hired out his soul all his dayes to sin if he did not at night pay him with the wages of death The third Argument may be drawn from the certainty of the Resurrection we all believe the resurrection of our bodies and therefore we must needs conclude a change of our bodyes for what is the Resurrection but life from death for the dead to hear the voyce of Christ and live What is it but a breathing in of the soul again the lighting of the candle again the body could never be raised if it were not first changed Thou fool faith Saint Paul 1 Cor. 15. that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die The fourth Argument is from the infalibility of Gods decree it is appointed unto men once to die and after death to come to Judgment Heb. 9.27 Thou maiest sooner expect that the course of the heavens shall be altered and the Center of the earth be dislocated then that the purpose of God concerning mans mortality should be reversed any that may be for heaven and earth shall pass away but this shall never be not one jot of the word of God shall fall to the ground God hath purposed it and none shall dissanul it nay he hath established his purpose with a word of confirmation Gen. 2. in the day thou eatest therefore thou shalt surely die As if he should have said Do not deceive thy self but build upon it I have spoken it and will not alter the thing that is gone out of my mouth as sure as thou livest if thou eatest thou shalt die Thus you see the first assertion cleared unto you I will address my self now to the second of which brieffy too and then make Application of them both together As there is a certainty of our change so we should alway wait till it doth come There are two things which I will here inquire of for the fuller illustration of this point First what this continual waiting may import Secondly why there should be such a constant waiting for the day of our mortal change First this continual waiting mainly imports two things one a certain axpectation of death for waiting is an act of Hope expecting something If we do hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it saith the
singular comfort if we take them as a commination and they afford us much or more if we take them as Saint Paul and S. Chrysostome do by an insultation As a man offering sacrifice for victory and full of mirth and jollity he leaps and tramples upon Death lying as it were at his mercy and sings an Io Poean a triumphant song wherewith Gerardus a great friend of Saint Bernards breathed out his last gasp of whom he thus writeth In the dead time of the night my brother Gerard strangely revived at midnight the day began to break I sent for to see this great miracle found a man in the very Jaws of death insulting upon death and exulting with joy saying O death where is thy sting Death is not now a sting but a song for now the faithful man dyeth singing and singeth dying And so having plucked away the prickles and opened the leaves by the Explication of the letter I come now to smell to them and draw from thence the savour of life unto life Ero pestes tuae ô mors As Saint Jerome writeth of Tertullian his Polemmical Treatises against hereticks Quot verba tot fulmina Every word is a thunderbolt so I may truly say of this verse quot verba tot fulmina So many words so many thunder-bolts striking Death dead by the light whereof we may discern three parts 1. The menaced or party threatned Death 2. The menacer or party threatning I. 3. The judgment menaced plagues 1. The menaced impotent mors Death 2. The menacer Omnipotent Ego I. 4. The judgment most dreadful pestes plagues 1. First of the party menaced Death Christ threatneth destruction to none but to his or his Churches enemies But here he threatneth Death Death therefore must needs be an enemy and so the Apostle termeth it the last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death For albeit Death by accident is an advantage as oftentimes an enemie doth a man a good turn which occasioned that excellent Treatise of Plutarch wherein he sheweth us how to make an Antidote of poyson and a good use of other mens malice yet is it in it self an enemy alwayes to Nature and to grace also it sets upon the elect and the reprobate the believer and the Infidel the penitent and the obstinate but with this difference it flyes at the one with a deadly sting but at the other without a sting the one it wounds to death the other it terrifieth and paineth but cannot hurt But there being divers kinds of death which of them is here meant Death is a privation and privations cannot be defined but by their habits that is such positive qualities as they bereave us of for instance sickness cannot be perfectly defined but by health which it impaireth nor blindness but by sight which it destroyeth nor darkness but by light which it excludeth nor death but by life which it depriveth us of Now if there be a four-sold life spoken of in Scripture viz. 1. Of nature 2. Of sin 3. Of grace 4. Of glory There must needs be a four-fold death answerable thereunto 1. The death of Nature is the privition of the life of nature by parting soul and body 2. The death of sin is the privation of the life of sin by mortifying grace 3. The death of Grace is the privation of the life of grace by reigning sin 4. The death of Glory is the privation of the life of Glory by a total and final exclusion from the glorious presence of God and the kingdome of heaven and a casting into the lake of fire and brimstone prepared for the devil and his angels Of Death in the first sense David demandeth who is he that liveth and shall not see death and shall he deliver his soul from the hand of hell of Death in the second sence Saint Paul enquireth how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Of Death in the third sense Saint Paul must be meant where he rebuketh wanton Widdows Shee that liveth in pleasure is dead while shee liveth Of Death in the fourth sense Saint John is to be understood blessed is he that hath part in the first resurrection for on such the second death hath no power Saint Austin joyneth all these significations and maketh one sentence of divers senses he is dead to death that is Death cannot kill burt or affright him who is dead to sin And another of the Ancients makes a sweet cord of them like so many strings struck at once he that dyeth before he dies shall never die he that dyeth to sin before he dyeth to nature shall never die to God neither in this world by final deprivation of grace neither in the world to come of glory Of these four significations of Death the first and last sort with this Text for that the first is to be meant it is evident by the consequence here O grave I will be thy destruction And by the antecedents in Saint Paul When this corruptible shall put on incorruption c And that the second is included may be gathered both from the words of Saint John And Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire and of our Saviour I was dead and I am alive and have the keyes of Hell and of Death And so I fall upon my second Observation viz. the person menacing J the second person in Trinity our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ The word here used Ehi is the same with that we read Exod. 3. Ehi Ashur Ehi I am that I am and if the observation of the Ancients be current that wheresoever God speaketh unto man in the old Testament in the shape of man of Angel we are to understand Christ for that all those apparitions were but a kind of preludia of his incarnation then the Person here threatning can be no other then he besides the word Egilam in the former part of this vers being derived from Gaal signifying propinquus fuit or redemit jure propinquitatis pointeth to our Saviour who by assuming our nature became our Alie by blood and performed this office of a kins-man by redeeming the inheritance which we had lost But we have stronger arguments then Grammatical observations that he who here promised life to the dead and threatneth plagues to Death was the Son of God the Lord of quick and dead for the same who promiseth to redeem from the Grave threatneth to plague Death but we all know that Redeemer is the peculiar stile of the Son as Creator is of the Father and Sanctifier of the Holy Ghost tu redemisti nos thou hast redeemed us to GOD by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and Nation To the redemption of a slave that is not able to ransome himself three at least concur the Scrivener who writeth the Conditions and sealed the Bonds the party who soliciteth the business and mediateth for the captive and layeth down
the sum agreed upon for his ransome and the person in whose power the captive is and who accepteth of the ransome Which of these is the Redeemer you will all say he that is at the cost of all so it is in our redemption from spiritual thraldome the holy Spirit draweth the condition sealeth the Bonds the Father receiveth the ransome the Son both mediateth for the ransoming and layeth down the sum For we were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb withouâ— blemish he took part of our nature that through death he might destroy him that had tthe power of death that is the devil and deliver them who through the fear of death were all there life-time subject to bondage Hence we gather that he that destroyed death must die but to affirm that the immortal and eternal Spirit of God expired is blasphemy and to say that the Father suffered is heresie long ago condemned in the Patro-passions we conclude therefore with the Apostle that the second person Christ Jesus hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel And so I fall upon my last Observation the judgment here mentioned Davorica 3. Thy plagues there is no tittle or iota in holy Scripture superfluous some mystery therefore lyeth in the number plagues in the plural not plague in the singular which I conceive to be this that Christ put Death to many deaths and foyled and conquered it many wayes first in himself secondly in his members First in himself by destroying sin the sting of Death Secondly by breaking the bonds thereof in his powerful Resurrection wherewith it was impossible that he should be held Secondly in his members by changing the nature of it to them and making it of a curse a blessing of a loss a gain of a punishment either a great honour or a special favour or a singular advantage a great honour as to the Martyrs who thereby acquired so many Rubies to their crown of glory as they shed drops of blood for their Saviour A special favour as to Abraham Josiah and Saint Austin who were taken away that they might not see and feel the misery that after their death fell on the posterity of the one the subjects of the other and the diocess of the third A singular advantage to all the faithful who thereby are discharged from all cares fears sorrows and temptations and presently enter into their Masters joy For blessed are the dead that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their works follow them Now the means whereby Christ conquered death utterly destroyed it are diversly set down by the learned some argue a contrariis contraries say they are to be destroyed by their contraries as heat by cold moysture by drought sickness by health Death therefore must needs be destroyed by life as the contrary but Christ is the resurrection and the life in him was life and life was the light of men Saint Austin declareth it after this manner Life dying contended with Death living and got a glorious and signal victory Nysscen thus the Devil catching at the flesh of Christs humane nature as a bate was cought by the hook of his divine Saint Leo and Chrysologus thus if a Bayliff or Sergeant arrest the Kings son or a priviledged person and lay him up in a close prison without commission he deserveth to be turned out of his place for it So Death Gods Serjeant seizing upon his Son in whom there was no fault without warrant or commission was justly discharged of his office Is Death thus discharged hath Christ changed the nature of Death and freed all his Members from the sting of the temporal and fear of eternal death hath he of a postern made it a street-door of an out-let of mortal life an in-let of immortality why then are we so much afraid of death which can no more hurt us then a hornet or wasp after her sting is plucked out Christ fought with a living death we with a dead death which doth not so much sever our souls from our bodies as joyn them to Christ not so much end our life as our mortality not so much exclude us out of the Militant as render us to the Triumphant Church Nothing is more dreadful I confess to the natural man then Death which dissolveth the soul and body and the Grave which resolveth the body into dust and ashes To cure this malady of the mind there is no vertue in any Drug of nature the Philosophers in this case are Physitians of no value they tell us that sickness and death are tributa vivendi and the Grave the common house of the dead But what of this what comfort is here doth this speculation discharge us from the tribute or make the payment thereof the easier doth it inlighten the darkness of these prisons of nature or take away the stench from these under-ground houses no whit Yet God be thanked there is a magazine in Scripture to pay these tributes there is light in Goshen to enlighten these houses there is Specknard to perfume these dankish rooms there are Cordials in holy Scripture to strengthen the heart not only against deadly maladies but also against death it self for there we hear of a voyce from heaven not only affirming the happiness of the dead but confirming it with a strong reason for they rest from their labours and their works follow them we hear of Tabernacles not made with hands but eternal in the Heavens we hear that when we are absent from the body we are present with the Lord we hear the Lord of life opening the ears and chearing the heart of the dead and saying I am the resurrection and the life whosoevor believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live There we hear death not only disarmed of his sting but also slain down right O death I will be thy death O grave I will be thy destruction Secondly hath Christ destroyed Death and hath he both the keyes of Death and of Hell then beloved when we lie on our death-bed let us not have recourse after the Popish manner to any Saint or Angel no not to the blessed Virgin her self but to her Son who is the Lord of life who satisfying for our sins at his death thereby plucked out the sting of death and after his resurrection quite destroyed this serpent In which regard he is stiled stella matutina the Morning star because he ushereth in the day of eternity and primitiae dormientum the first fruis of them that slept because in him the whole lump is sanctifyed When therefore the fiery Serpent hovereth over us to sting us to eternal death let us look upon the Brazen Serpent and the other shall not hurt us Lastly hath Christ conquered Death and Hell and that for us let us then
believe faith he that every noble soul which is in grace and favour with God presently as soon as she hath shaken off the body which kept down her wings flyeth joyfully streight up to her Lord and Saint Cyprian Death to the godly is not a departure but a pass from a temporal to an eternal life and no stay by the way as soon as we have finished our course here we may arrive at the goal there And S. Bernard The infidels call the parting of the soul from the body Death but the believers call it the Passeover because it is a pass from death to life For they die to the world that they may perfectly live to God To strike sayl and make towards the shoar if all that die in the Lord are blesfed from the very moment of their death and this blessedness is confirmed by a voyce from heaven let us give more heed to such a voyce then to any whisper of the flesh or devil Whatsoever Philosophy argueth or Reason objecteth or sense excepteth against it let us give more heed to God then man to the spirit then the flesh to faith then to reason to heaven then to earth although they who suffer for the testimony of the Gospel seem to be most miserable their skins being fleyed off their joynts racked their whole body torn in pieces or burned to ashes their goods confiscate their arms defaced and all manner of disgraces put upon them yet they are most happy in heaven by the testimony of heaven it self the malice of their enemies cannot reach so high as heaven it cannot touch them there much less awake them out of their sweet sleep in Jesus Secondly if the dead are blessed in comparison of the living let us not so glue our thoughts and affections to the world and the comforts thereof but that they may be easily severed for there is no comparison between the estate of the godly in this life and in the life to come for here they labour for rest there they rest from their labour here they expect what they are to receive there they receive what they expected here they hunger and thirst for righteousness there they are satisfied here they are continually afflicted either for their sins or with their sins and they have continual cause to shed tears either for the calamities of Gods people or the stroaks they themselves receive from God or the wounds they give themselves there all tears are wiped from their eyes Here they are alwayes troubled either with the evils they fear or the fear of evil but when they go hence Death sets a period to all fear cares sorrows and dangers And therefore Solon spake divinely when he taught Crasus that he ought to suspend his verdict of any mans happiness till he saw his end Thirdly if those dead are blessed that die in the Lord let us strive to be of that number camus nos moriamur cumeo Let us go and die with him and in him And that we may do so we must first endeavour to live in him For Cornelius a Lapida his collection is most true As a man cannot die at Rome who never lived at Rome so none can die in Christ who never lived in him and none can live in him who is not in him first then we must labour to be in him and how may we compass this Christ himself teacheth us I am the Vine and my Father is the Husbandman every branch that beareth not fruit in me he taketh away and every branch that breareth fruit he purgeth that it may bring forth more fruit as the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the Vine no more can ye except ye abide in me Hence we learn that we cannot bear fruit in Christ unless as branches we be ingrasted into him now that a graft maybe inoculated 1. There must be made an incision in the tre 2. The graffe or syence most be imped in 3. After it is put in it must be joyned fast to the tree The incision is already made by the wounds given Christ at his death many incisions were made in the true Vine that which putteth us in or inoculateth us is a special faith and that which binds us fast to the tree is love and the grace of perseverance If then we be engrafted by faith into Christ and bound fast unto him by love we shall partake of the Juice of the stock and grow in grace and bear fruit also more and more and so living in the true Vine we shall die in him and so dying in him we shall reflourish with him in everlasting glory Fourthly if we are assured by a voyce from heaven that none but they are blessed who die in the Lord all Infidels Jewes and Turks yea and such hereticks too as deny all special faith in Christ are in a wretched and lamentable case for it is clear that unbeleevers cannot live in Christ for the just liveth by faith and though hereticks and among them our Adversaries of Rome have a general faith yet because they want a special faith in Christ whereby they are to be ingrafted into him and made members of his mystical body they can make no proof to themselves or others at least unless they renounce some of the Trent Articles that they live or die in the Lord. Lastly if all that die in Christ are blessed as a voyce from heaven assureth us we do wrong to heaven if we account them miserable we do wrong to Christ if we count them as lost whom he hath found if we shed immoderate tears for them from whose eyes He hath wiped away all tears to wear perpetual blacks for them upon whom he hath put long white robes Whatsoever our losses may be by them it cometh far short of their gain our cross is light in comparison of their super-excellent weight of glory therefore let us not sorrow for them as those that have no hope Let us not shew our selves Infidels by too much lamenting the death of beleevers Weep we may for them or rather for our loss by them but moderately as knowing that our loss is their gain and if we truly love them we cannot but exceedingly congratulate their feasts of joy their rivers of pleasures their Palmes of victory their robes of majesty their crowns of glory Water therefore your plants at the departure of your dearest friends but drown them not For whatsoever we complain of here they are freed from there and whatsoever we desire here they enjoy there they hunger not but feast with the Lamb they sigh not but sing with Moses having safely passed over the glassy sea they lie not in darkness but possesse inheritance of Saints in light They have immunity from sin freedome from all temptations and security from danger they have rest for their labours here comfort for their troubles glory for their disgrace joyes for their sorrowes life for their death in Christ and
and godly whatsoever and to all faithful believers but he makes choyce of this Epithite he describeth them by this that they are such as love his appearance Heb. 9.28 Unto them that wait for him shall he appear the second time for salvation The godly are there described by this very property they wait and long and desire after his appearance the second time In the 24. of Saint Mathews Gospel it is made the property of a good and faithful servant there that he waiteth for his Masters coming and prepareth all things in a readiness it is opposed to the sloathful servant that doth clean otherwise Ye see the truth of it in Scripture But ye will say Is this the property of the Elect and faithful Do not ungodly men and sinners believe the coming of Christ and that he shall come to judge the quick and the dead Doth not every man make this profession of his faith I believe that Jesus Christ shall come to Judge the quick and the dead Why then do ye make it the property of Believers since every man believeth and looks for it To this I answer There is a twofold expectation of Christ his return to Judgment The one An expectation with desire and with an earnest longing the expectation of the faithful of a Lord of a gracious Redeemer nay of a loving Husband Therefore every faithful soul cannot but wait upon him As a faithful servant that hath done his work longeth for his Masters coming home that he may give an account of his faithfulness and may be acceptable to his Master for his faithful service that he hath done in his absence that he may expect his Masters remuneration But there is another expectation of Christ to come that is not with desire but with horrour and dread and fear out of guiltiness of Conscience This is the expectation of a Malefactor in the Jayl he waiteth and looks for the coming of the Judge to pass sentence on him and so to be dragged to execution thus wicked men expect Christ thus wicked Angels expect him But the expectation of the godly is an expectation with love and desire an expectation not of a severe Judge but of a loving husband of a faithful Master that hath promised a recompence to the service of believers even the least and lowest if it be the gift of a cup of cold water in his name Therefore ye must take knowledg of the expectation here meant this I say is proper to believers Let us see the truth of the Doctrine in the Reason of it why every faithful soul must needs long and desire the second coming of Christ First because it is a part of Christs gracious promise which the faith of the soul leaneth on The proper object of faith is the promise of the Gospel this ye may see in the Text Christ had promised to come Amen even so here is the reason of this desire because his promise goeth before it The faithful soul apprehendeth every other inferiour promise and every less promise much more this main promise the very knot of all the very complement of all faith must needs expect and clasp fast hold upon this promise and give assent and acclamation to it as in the word Amen even so come as thou hast said and promised Many promises to this purpose hath our Lord and Saviour Christ pronounced for the stirring up of our faith and affection as namely that in the 14 of Saint Johns Gospel toward the beginning where he comforteth his Disciples in his absence If I go I will come again And so in Acts 1.11 As ye see him ascend with your bodily eyes in his Person and flesh so ye shall see him descend But we need not go far for promises for immediately before the words two verses besides in this Chapter the 7. and 12 Behold I come shortly This is the property of every godly man having the promise of the coming to lean upon it and to desire the accomplishment of the promise In the old Testament they had the promise of the first coming of Christ that they earnestly desired as Jacob Gen. 49.18 Lord I have waited for thy salvation and Abraham saw Christs day afar off and rejoyced And in the New Testament we read of Anna and Zacharias and Elizabeth and the faithful that wait for the consolation of Israel they waited for the accomplishment of this promise the coming of Christ in the flesh his first coming Shall they wait and earnestly desire the first coming of the Son of God in humility and humanity and baseness and shall not we earnestly expect his second coming in glory to manifest not only his glory but our glory shall not we expect that coming of his wherein we shall be married to himself and whereby we shall be took up to himself Thus ye see the promise of Christ is one ground yea and a principal ground of this expectation of the faithful The second Reason is drawn from the Union and conjunction between Christ and the faithful soul That is in the Text too the Bride saith Come Now there is a neer union and conjunction in this same conjunction of Marriage among men wherein the love must needs be imperfect and but a drop of that Ocean and wherein the love of the parties must needs be sinful yet notwithstanding we see how vehement it is in the absence of one another the one longeth and pineth after the other and one party enjoyeth not himself without the other Much more ought it to be so here in this heavenly contract between Christ and his faithful Spouse should not hear the Spouse be sick of love as the Spouse professeth of her self in the second of Canticles This vehement desire must needs arise out of the neerness and undevidedness of that conjunction that is between Christ and a Christian There is little love where there is little desire of the thing beloved when it is absent Why doth the member of the Body desire immediate conjunction with the head but because it knows that the seperation from the head is the death of the member So it is in this neer conjunction between Christ the head and his members the Church they must needs desire immediate and inseparable conjunction with the head because the seperation from the head must be the death of the members That is the second Reason The third Reason of the Point is this because the Saints of God they know that the accomplishment of the full happiness of the Church of God and likewise of themselves that are members of the Church it consisteth in this in Christ his second coming again to judgment therefore they do earnestly desire it and effect it and say Amen even so Come because I say they know this is the coming that perfects the Church of God perfects their glory in the state of happiness which the Church and every member thereof doth expect they know that that is the time which
Saints have right to eternal life by inheritance Vse 1. For Confutation Vse 2. For Consolation Vse 3. For Direction 1. 2. The fourth branch of the Text. All of all sorts have a right to eternal life Acts 10 34 Vse 1. For Admonition Vse 2. For Consolation general Particular 1 Tim 2.17 1 Tim. 2 21.12 Isa 49.23 Doctr. 1. The servants of God have a comfortable and willing expectation of death Proved Phil. 1.13 2 Cor. 5.8 c. The ground of the desire of death in the Saints Eccles 7.1 Rom. 7.24 Psal 120.5 Thilip 1 23. Exod. 34.23 Object 1. Rom. 6 23. 1 Cor. 15.26 Respons Death considerable two wayes Object 2. Psal 6.4 5. Isa 38.3 Math. 26.39 Respons Why some of the Saints in the Scripture have prayed against death Psal 23.4 Phil 1.23.24 1 Kings 8 25. Heb. 7.5 Object 3. Respons Two things consider able in a Christian Mar. 26.41 2 Cor. 5.2 Vse For Trial. Doct 2. A special care in the servants of God to be alwayes ready for death 2 Tim 4.6 1 Cor. 15.31 Job 14.14 Psal 90.12 Heb. 13.14 Luk. 12.36 Reas 1. Psal 89.48 1 Pet. 4.19 Reas 2. 2 Sam. 4.5.6 Job 1 19. Reas 3. Note Vse Deut 32.29 Esa 28.15 Job 28.14 How to be prepared for death 1 Tim. 5.6 Jo. 17.13 Doct. 3. Ignorant men can neither take comfort in nor be truly prepared for death Math 22.29 Psal 119 24 Psal 119 9 93 Vse Doct. 4. Death freeth Gods servants from all misery Phil. 1.23 2 Tim. 4.6 2 Pet. 2.14 2 Pet. 2.15 Rev. 14.13 Rev. 6.9 Luke 16.22 Vse 1. Consutation of Purgatory Vse 2. For consolation of the Saints Gen. 41.40 Rev. 21.4 Esth 8 17 1 Joh 3.2 1 Cor. 13.12 Quest Answ How to know whether the day of death be a discharge from all former and following miserles Doct. 5. The Saints at their going hence have a comfortable and peaceable debarture Psal 37.37 Prov 14.32 Gen. 49.33 Gen. 13.25.2 King 22.20 Reas 1. Rom. 8 9. Chap 16. Reas 2. 2 Tim 4.7 8. Isa 38 3. Ephs 22 10. Object 1. 1 Respons Joh. 7.24 The unqulet departure of many of the Saints cleared with the grounds thereof Eccless 9.2 Rev. 12.12 Mark 9.26 2 Cor. 4 6. Esa 54.8 John 13.1 Object 2. Respons The seeming-quiet departure of the wicked with the grounds thereof Psal 73.4 1 Sam. 25.37 Luk. 11.11 Excles 8.12 Esay 57.11 Vse Confutation of Purgatâ—…y Vse 2. Exhortation Gen. 3.19 Prov. 11.7 Job 27.8 2 Tim 4.7.8 Joh. 17.4 5. Psal 119.1.1 Sam. 2.20 Luk. 13.3.2 Thes 5.24 2 King 9.22 Heb. 10.24 Dan. 4.27 Parts of the Text. Doct. Jesus Christ the Fountain and Author of all life 1 Of the body Resurrection of the body what 1 Cor. 15.20 2 Of spiritual life 3 Why both comprehended under one term 1 In regard of the Analogie 2. 2 In regard of the connection Vse 1. Comfort 2 Against the death of the soul Object Answ Object Answ 2 Against the death of the body Quest Answ Difference in the Resurrection of the godly and wicked 1 In the cause 2 In the end Vse 2. Trial. Signs of the first Resurrection 1 Forsaking sin 2 Newness of life 3 Progress in both Vse 3. Exhortation direction Quest Answ All men must die 1 To manifest Gods truth 2 His power 3 Our benefit by Chrst 4 To conform us to Christ Rachel was 〈◊〉 Fruitful 3 Obedient 4 Her death Coherence Observat 1. Observat 2. Observat 3. Observat 4. Doctr. 5. There is a change in all that are in Christ as from death to life 1 The analogy between spiritual and natucal life and death 1 In general 1 A General change 2 The orderlyness of it 2 The Analogie in particular Death threefold 1 Judicial 2 Civil 3 Natural 1 Imperfect Simile 2 Newness of life expressed by life in three respects 1 The principle of life 2 The actions of life 3 The properties of life Appetite 2 Tropagation The order Observat Men first die to sin and then live to God Reason 1. From our union with Christ 2 From the cotâ—…ariety of them Vse 1. Conviction Vse 2. Exhortation No loss in dying to sin Not life 2 Not peace 3 Not esteem 4 Not wealth 5 Not pleasures Sin a needless thing 2 The gain by death to sin 1. Conclusion The faithful are hopeful Rom. 5 Definition of Hope 1 Pets 1 9. Rom 8 24 Vse 1 Trial of Hope Rom 4 18 Isa 21 16 Hab 2 3 Isa 8 17 2 Pet 3 9 Psal 73 9 Psal 102 13. 2 Pet 3 3. Iob 2 9. Mal 3 14 2 Cor 6 8 2 Sam 6 22 Vse 2. Hindrances of hope 1 Iohn 4.18 Rev 21 8. Psal 118 6. Psal 91 5. Psal 40 1. Luke 21 19.1 Cor 15 16 Iob 17 13 Heb 11 27 Heb 11 35 Phil 1 23 2. Conclusion Christ the object of Hope Phil 1 21. Psal 38 15 Psal 71 5 Gen. 49.18 Iob. 13.15 Vse 1. Trov 23.5 Psal 146.3 Psal 62.3 Vse 2. Phil 3.8 Eccles 1. Isa 55.4 2 Cor. 1 20. Iohn 14 6 Iob 6 68 3. Conclusion This life-time is our hope-time Vse 1. Isa 55 6 1 Iohn 3 2 Vse 2. 2 Pet 1 8. 1 Thes 1 3 Heb 6 19 Psal 84 7 2 Per 3 18 1 Cor 7 20 Col 4 17 4. Conclusion Hope is no for the things of this life 2 Cor. 5.1 Isa 57.13 Vse 1. Vse 2. 5. Conclusion Our life is a misery Iob 14.1 1 Cor 7 29. Iam 4.14 Vse 1 Iohn 2 15. John 11 25. Psal 8 4. Vse 2. 6 Conclusion The hopeful are not miserable Vse 1. Vse 2. I am 5.11 Revle 14.13 Exod 33 20. Explication Rom. 12.2 I am 2.15 16. Heb 13 31 Rom 12 15. Mat 5. 2 Thes 3 10 1 Peâ—… 1 Division Doctr. 1. It is the duty of Christians to take the best opportunities of their life to do good A twofold opportunlty to be taken of doing good 1 The time of life Luke 16 9 Mat. 25.10 Objection Answ Objection Answ 2 Of outward estates Trov 23.5 Eccles 11 8. 1 Tim 6 17. Iob 13 15 16 17 18. Vse 1. Prov 3 28 Psal 78. Vse 2. Gen. 18.19 2 Sam 9.1 Doctr. 2. It is the duty of Gods servants to relieve others Deut 15.7 Eccles 11.4 Isa 58.7 2 Cor. 8 9. Heb 13 16. Iohn 15 19. Reason 1. Pro 3 26 27. Luke 16 9. Reason 2. Psal 41 1. Tsal 37 6. 1 Tim. 6 19. Vse Iames 5. Vse 2. Quest How to give so as to do good Answ 1 Give justly Eccles 11.1 2 Give wisely Psal 1 2 In respect of the quantity In respect of the quality 3 Give in simplicity Rom 11 8 Mat 6 4 Cive chearfully 2 Gor 8.6 The persons to whom good must be done 1 Generally to all Luke 10 Reason 1. Mala 2 10 Reason 2. 1 Iohn 4 20 Vse Object Answ 1 Sam 25 Object Answ Rom 12 Object Answ Eccles 11.1 Objection Answ Objection Answ Objection Answ Objection Answ Objection Answ Objection Answ Doct. 1. Doct. 2. 1 There are
continual readiness that which may furnish us abundantly with meditations in this kind It was a custome in former times for men to make their Sepulchres in their Gardens to mind them of death in the midst of the pleasures of this life This present Work may not unfitly be termed a Garden wherein whosoever takes a dayly walk may gather in the several beds thereof those wholsome flowers and hearbs which being distilled by serious meditation will prove water of life to a fainting spirit in some he shall find instruction in some incitation in others consolalion in all profit Here thou shalt find that Lethall Gourd sprung up by Adam his trausgression that makes all his posterity cry out There is Death in the Pot. There thou mayst gather Hearbs of Grace as a counterpoyson against the malignity of death in a third there is the spiritual Heliotropium opening with joy to the Son of Righteousness the hope of a blessed Resurrection Do the glittering shews of outward things make thee begin to over-fancy them here thou shalt find how little they will avail in death the consideration whereof will make them like that precious stone which being put into the mouth of a dead man loseth its vertue art thou over-burthened with afflictions here thou art supported in the expectation of a far more exceeding weight of glory art thou ready to faint under thy labours here thou shalt find a time of rest and of reaping doth the time seem over-long that thy patience begins to flag here thou hast a promise of thy Saviours speedy coming In a word be thy estate and condition what it will be here thou mayst have both directions to guide thee and comforts to support thee in thy journey on earth till thou arrive at thy Country in Heaven Certainly there is no man can sleight and undervalue so deserving a Work but he shall discover himself either to be ignorant or idle or ill affected especially when so judicious and learned men have thought it a fit concomitant for their several Labours which they have added for the accomplishment of it Therefore take it in good worth improve it for the good of thy Soul that being armed and prepared for death when it shall approach thou mayst have no more to do but to die and mayst end thy dayes in a stedfast assurance That thy sins shall be blotted out when the time of Refreshing shall come from the presence of the LORD Thine in Him who is the Resurrection and the Life H. W. THE TABLE THE Stewards Summons Page 1. TEXT LUKE 16.2 Give an Account of thy Stewardship for thou mayst be no longer Steward The Praise of Mourning Page 17. ECCLESIASTES 7.2 It is better to go to the House of Mourning then to the House of Feasting for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart Deliverance from the King of Fears Page 33. HEBREWS 2.14 15. 14. For as much then as the Children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil 15. And deliver them who through the fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage The Perfection of Patience Page 47. JAMES 1.4 But let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing A Restraint of exorbitant Passion Page 61. 2 SAM 12.22 23. 22. And he said while the Child was yet alive I fasted and wept for I said who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the Child may live 23. But now he is dead wherefore should I fast Can I bring him back again I shall go to him but he shall not return to me The Sting of Death c. Page 73. 1 COR. 15.56 The sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law The Destruction of the Destroyer c. Page 81. 1 COR. 15.16 The last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death The Worlds Losse and the Righteous Mans Gain Page 91. ISAIAH 57.1 And merciful men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come The Good-Mans Epitaph c. Page 107. REVEL 14.13 I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their Works do follow them The Christians Center c. Page 117. ROM 14.7 8. 7. For none of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself 8. For whether we live we live to the Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords The Improvement of Time c. Page 129. 1 COR. 7.29 30 31. 29. But this I say Brethren the time is short it remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none 30. And they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as if they rejoiced not and they that buy as though they possessed not 31. And they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away Security Surprized c. Page 143. 1 THESSAL 5.3 For when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape A Christians Victory or Conquest over Deaths Enmity Page 159. 1 COR. 15.26 The last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death The great Tribunal or Gods Scrutiny of Mans Secrets Page 171. ECCLES 12.14 For God will bring every work into Jungement with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evill A Tryall of Sincerity c. Page 181. ISAIAH 26.8 9. 8. Yea in the way of thy judgments O Lord have we waited for thee the desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee 9. With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early for when thy judgments are in the earth the Inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness The Expectation of Christs Coming c. Page 195. PHIL. 3.20 21. 20. For our conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ 21. Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself Christs Precept and Promise or Security against Death Page 211. JOHN 8.51 Verily verily I say unto you if a man keep my saying he shall never see Death The Young-mans Liberty and Limits c. Page 223. ECCLESIAST 11.9 Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the dayes of thy youth and walk in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these
affections that of sorrow as well as anger and the like I answer briefly The Scripture indeed biddeth us mortifie our affections but it doth not bid us take away our affections it biddeth us only mortifie and purge out the corruption of our affections Now there is a twofold corruption and distemper in the affections of men The first is when they are misplaced and setupon wrong objects so we mourn for that we should rejoyce in or we rejoyce in that we should mourn for Secondly when they are either excessive or defective either we over-do or we do not either not at all or not in that proportion and measure that we should Thus when we over-grieve for worldly crosses and too little for sin too much for the losse of earthly friends and too little for the losse of Gods favour and spiritual wants this is a distemper of the affections in the defect the heart grows earthly and fixed upon the creature and is drawn away and estranged from God Then there is the excesse that the Apostle speakes of when he exhorts them not to mourn as men without hope whether he spake there of the Gentiles as some think that cut their heads and made themselves bald in the day of their mourning an affected kind of outward shew they had to mourn which the Lord forbad the people of Israel to do or whether as indeed it is because they did not restrain inwardly and bridle the exorbitant excesse of their affection we should not mourn as the Gentiles but as men of hope mourn as men that can see the changes that God makes in the earth and in your Families and can see how neer God cometh to you and what use God would have you make of every particular tryal and affliction mourn so far as you see your own guilt in not making use of the opportunities you have had in enjoying your friends and so far as you see any evidence of displeasure from God so far we should mourn but not as men without hope But I briefly passe this intending not to insist upon it only by occasion because Solomom makes the place where any die the house of morning We come now to the proof of the point why going to the house of morning taking these occasions to affect our hearts is better then to go to the house of feasting then to take occasions of delighting our selves in outward things What 's the reason It is double First This is the end of all men What is the end of all men The house of mourning That which he meaneth by the house of mourning here is that which he calleth the end of all men that which putteth an end to all men and to their actions upon earth and that is Death So that the main point that in this place the wise man intendeth is but thus much I will deliver it in the very words of the Text we need not varie from them at all Death is the end of all men Death is that which every man must expect to be the end of his life and of his actions It is the common the last condition of all men upon earth I will give you but two places of Scripture that include all men in Death One in Job the third from the fourteenth verse to the 20. Verse of that Chapter Job sheweth there how Death is the End of all men he beginneth with the Kings and Counsellers of the Earth with Princes and great Warriors and descendeth afterward to prisoners and mean persons to labourers to servants to small and great all saith he lie down in the dust and go to the place of silence The other place is in Zachar. 1.5 Your fathers where are they and the Prophets do they live for ever That is look to all your fore-fathers that have been in all times before you whether they be those Fathers that you glory in Abraham Isaac and Jacob and the rest or those Fathers that disobeyed the word of Prophesie which indeed is the principall thing here intended all these Ancient persons they are dead or as S. Peter speaks of those that were disobedient in the dayes of Noah they are in prison they are in the grave yea and the Prophets too that preached to you they are dead the generations before you both of Prophets and people are all dead You see then that Death is the common condition of all men Kings and Subjects Prophets and people this is the last thing that shall be said of them all they are dead And it must be so First in regard of Gods decree It is that that God hath appointed and determined concerning all men that they must die there is a statute for it in heaven that can never be reverst It is appointed to all men once to die Heb. 9.17 Secondly in regard of that matter whereof all men are made of earth Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Your remembrances saith Job are like unto ashes your bodies to bodyes of clay How easie is it for the wind to blow away ashes for a potter to break in pieces a vessel of clay so easie it is to put an end to the memories and bodies of men they are but ashes and clay Thirdly in regard that every man hath in him that that is the cause of Death sin It is that that is as poison in the spirits and as rottennesse in the bones Sin brought in Death and Death seizes upon all men it consumeth all men from the very beginning by degrees Shew me a man without sin without it either in the committing of it or without it in the guilt of it you may then shew a man that shall not die while all men are under sin they are under Death Even our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ himself though he did not sin actually yet because he stood guiltie of our sins Death seized upon him So then Look to Gods decree that is All men shall die Look to the matter whereof every man is made that is a decaying dying substance And look to the cause of death in all men that is sin If any man can either escape Gods decree or bring a man that is not made of such a mouldring matter or produce and shew a man that hath no sin in him then you may shew a man that shall not die but till then this conclusion remaineth that the wise man setteth down this is the end of all men that they shall die But here it will be objected We find some men that did not die It is said of Enoch that he was translated that he should not see death Heb 11.5 And of Elijah that he went up by a whirle-wind into heaven in a chariot of fire 2 Kings 2.11 These men did not die To this I answer briefly Particular and extraordinary examples do not frustrate general rules God may sometimes dispence with some particular men and yet
see his face no more It parteth those friends who were so united together in love as if they had but one soul in two bodies see it in the separation that was made by death between David and Jonathan that were so knit together in their love that he bewaileth him Woe is me for my brother Jonathan This is a necessary consideration for us that live that we may learn to know how to carry ourselves towards our wordly friends and how to moderate our selves in our enjoyment of these worldly comforts Look upon every worldly thing as a mortal as a dying comfort Look upon children and friends as dying comforts Look upon your estates as that that hath wings and will be gone Look upon your bodies that now you make so much of as a thing that must be parted from the soul by death and that ere long See what advice the Apostle giveth 1 Cor. 7.19 the time is short saith he therefore let those that marry be as if they married not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it A man abuseth the world when he useth it beyond the consideration of the shortnesse of enjoying these things when he looks upon these things as things that he shall enjoy alwayes But if we would use it aright look upon things as things that we shall enjoy but for a short time This body that seemeth now to have some beauty in it yet it must die be laid in the dust these friends that seem now to have some pleasure and delight in them yet I must die and be took from them this estate and wealth that now I set so much price upon I must die and death will part me and it So I say look upon every thing as separable from us Moderate your affections likewise to them Use them onely as comforts in the way as a traveller doth the pleasures of his Inn he stands not to build himself houses against every pleasant walk he looks upon he stands not to purchase lands and to lay them to every Inn he comes to lie at No he knows that he is now but in his passage in his way he knows that he is not at home that is the place he is going to and after a time he shall come thither So make account that you are not now at home it is death that must help you to your home Let this therefore take you off from all these things that are in the way It is a strange thing to see how Sathan besotteth and befooleth men They strive and labour to compasse many worldly things as if their happinesse stood in the enjoyment of them as if they should have their wealth and their comforts for ever What care is there amongst men to get wealth and many times lose their souls in getting the world Alas Death will part soul and body them and their wealth and all Do we not see this daily in the death of others before us such a one is dead where is his body now in the dust Where are his friends and his companions now Where is his wealth and his estate for which many flattered him and fawned upon him are they not all separated from him they have nothing now to do with him he cannot dispose of one penny of his estate now it is left he knows not to whom others now have the mannaging of it As now you can say this of others so there will a time come that other men will say the like of you I had such a friend but death hath parted him from me he had such an estate but death hath parted him and his estate Let us therefore make this use of the death of others to conclude with our selves that there will be a parting of all those outward things that now we are so apt to dote upon The third special thing considerable in the death of others that will be matter of profit and benefit to those that live and survive after them is the end and cause for which God sendeth Death abroad into the world with such a large commission that it goeth on with such liberty to every family to every place that it seizeth upon every person What 's the reason of it You shall see in the several deaths of men several causes There is judgement and mercy sometime a mixture of both and sometime but of one of these Sometimes we see an apparant judgement of God in the death of some A judgement of God upon themselves Thus the young Prophet that disobeyed the word of the Lord a Lyon met him in the way and slew him So those Corinths that did eat and drink unworthily in the Lords Supper though they were such as were saved after yet neverthelesse for this very cause saith the Apostle some of them were sick and weak and some slept they died they were judged of the Lord that they might not be condemned with the world When you see death seizing upon men as an act of divine judgement of divine displeasure let it make you more fearful of sinning against God lest you provoke against your selves the same warth in the very act of sin Sometimes again it is a judgement of God upon others Thus God takes away divers of his servants because the world is not worthy of them And as this is an act of judgement upon the world so it is an act of mercy to them God in mercy taking of them away from the evil to come and from the evil present A judgement of God to others that are udworthy of them A mercy to themselves that they are took away from their own evil from sin from temptations from all the effects and fruits of sin and taken away from the evil that is to come upon others An act I say of mercy to them So it was to the child of Jeroboam he should die and should not see the judgement that was to come upon his fathers house because there was found some good thing in him toward the Lord. So it was to Josiah He should be gathered to his fathers in peace and his eyes should not see all that evill which the Lord would bring upon Jerusalem and upon the inhabitants thereof An act of judgement to others Righteous and merciful men are taken away and no man layeth it to heart they consider not the causes wherefore God takes away those good men A Land a Kingdom a State a People a place is much weakned when those that are righteous and merciful men when those that stand in the gap and use their endeavours to prevent judgments are taken away The house will certainly fall when the Pillars are removed They are the people of God only that hold up a state that hold up the world Assoon as Noah is put into the Ark presently cometh the deluge upon the World Assoon as
it as Ill. Ill is twofold either that which is contrary to mans will and so it is called Malum tristitivum or else contrary to mans nature and so it is Malum corruptivum Now Death is contrary to man in both these senses both to his nature and to his will It is a thing he would not have because it is contrary to his nature and that is contrary to his nature that seeks the destruction of nature Now when a man apprehendeth Death as a thing that would destroy nature that would overthrow and dissolve and break in pieces that goodly Fabrique as he conceiveth it and make that something to become nothing it is a thing that nature cannot bear it abhorreth So the servants of God as they have nature in them they have this natural affection to preserve their beeing and this in it self is not simply sinful but so far as it exceedeth the rule Therefore you see that because men apprehend Death as an Ill contrary to nature they prefer other things that are Ill in a lesse regard in a lesse degree before that A man would rather part with his wealth then part with his life as we see in Psal 49. A man would give God a ransome for his soul if he could he would give all his goods to ransome his life He would rather be poor then not at all Nay a man will part with his ease with his health rather then with his life he will be in paine rather then he will not be Skin for skin and all that a man hath will be give for his life Nay a man will part with his credit and estimation rather then with his life he will rather be disgraced then not be A living dog is better then a dead lyon this is the speech of a man naturall he preferreth a dog that hath life in him before a Lyon that is dead he would rather be a mean living man then a dead Prince That is ths first thing men naturally conceive Death as a thing contrary to nature So it is a natural Ill. Secondly as a man conceiveth Death an Ill contrary to nature so he apprehendeth it an Ill not easily overcome When Goliah looked on David on the meannesse of his stature and the slendernesse of his prepartation to fight he considered him as an enemie but as a weak one and therefore instead of fearing he disdained him Dost thou come to me as a dog I will give thy flesh to the fowles of the heaven and to the beasts of the earth he scorned him But when the Host of Israel looked on Goliah as a mighty enemy that they could not easily resist much lesse overcome the Text saith they were full of fear because of Goliah the strength of the adversary was that that filled them with fear So when a man looks upon Death and seeth it come as a mighty armed man provided with all weapons of war seeth it come in to the most populous Cities as in the pestilence and slayeth ten thousand before it seeth it come on the most strong and valiant men and breaks their bones and destroyeth them Who can stand before this Goliah he that defieth the Host of God the host of Israel not only the wicked but the servants of God are overcome by this enemy I say thus nature discourseth and thus a natural man apprehendeth Death and therefore he conceiveth Death to be a fearful Ill because it is a thing that he cannot easily overcome That is the second Thirdly he conceiveth it as a thing Future as an Ill to come I am yet living and in health but how soon this health may turn to sicknesse and this life to Death 〈◊〉 know not this is that that holdeth down the spirit under fear As David said I shall sall one day by the hand of Saul one day so saith a man that liveth now in the multitude of his businesse in abundance of strength and ability every way I shall one day fall into the Grave I shall one day fall into the hands of Death Peter we know how he affected Saphira with telling her of the death of her husband and saith he the feet of those that carried out thy husband shall carry thee out this affected her with fear so that she fell down dead upon the apprehension of it Thus I say if we look upon the object Death considered as an Ill that is a thing contrary to nature Death considered again as a strong and mighty Gyant that none can overcome but it overcometh them And then considered again as a thing coming upon men now in the approach and we know not how soon he will grasp a man in his hands and seize upon him this is that I say that causeth that natural fear that is in the children of God Then again consider the Subject the person in whom the apprehension of such an object is and so likewise we shall see somewhat in the dispositions of men or in their state and condition here that may affect them with a natural fear of Death The first is some men by constitution are more melancholy and are naturally of a more fearful temper indeed distemper The brain is distempered the heart is distempered The brain apprehends things and looks upon them through a false glass through a deluded fancie and so makes a false report to the heart presenteth things more terrible then they are so sometimes the heart is ill affected by the misreport that is brought to it by the understanding sometimes both are distempered as that humor prevaileth more strongly in the body So also there are sometimes raised up turbulent and disquieting and voilent passions that make some full of fear as we see in Belshazzar whose knees did smite together and all through the apprehension of death and so Felix when he heard of death and judgement to come he trembled Though the fear of these men did not rise from melancholy but from inward guilt of conscience yet the effect sheweth that when men are affected with the apprehension of Death in the worst sight and opprehension of it it causeth fear and terrour Secondly it cometh in others and generally in all from weakness of nature which in some is more then others according to their different constitutions and educations so the rich many times are more fearful of death then the poor because they have more to lose so likewise voluptuous persons are more fearful of Death then those that are more temperate because by voluptuousness they have dis-joynted and weakned their spirits So young men many times are more fearful of Death then those that are old as we see in the story Judg. 8.20 Jether the sonne of Gideon when he should have killed Zeba and Zalmunna the Text saith He was afraid because he was a young man but Gideon that was elder did it willingly as a man better accustomed and experienced with observations of changes and varieties of accidents amongst
comforts are gone So if a man love honour and applause amongst men it ceaseth in the grave all honour there is laid in the dust contempt is cast upon Princes this is that that affecteth men exceedingly that they shall lose their honours and pleasures and acquaintance and business and all when they come to the grave and that because mens hearts are set too much upon these things That is the second reason There is a third thing which is a sinful cause of this fear of Death and that is the want of Assurance There be two things that a man not being assured of makes him fear Death and these may be in the children of God and as they are more in any one so the fear of death is more in them The first is when they are not assured of reconciliation with God that God is at peace with them pleased with them in Christ The want of this assurance makes death fearful for now they look upon Death as a Sergeant as a Jaylor either it is a Sergeant to take them off their present comforrs or as a Jaylor to hold them under those bonds and fetters that they would fain escape Now when a man looks upon Death either way it is terrible As a Sergeant so the rich man in the Gospel This night they shall fetch thy soul from thee they shall come to thee as a Sergeant to a Debtour to require a debt they shall require thy soul of thee Now we all know that a man that is in debt and either hath not to pay or is unwilling to part with that he hath such a man cannot indure the sight of a Sergeant above all men because he cometh to fetch that from him that he would not part with Or if he look upon Death as a Jaylor so Christ saith Agree with thy adversary quickly lest he deliver thee to the Judg and he give thee to the Jaylor and then he holdeth thee in prison from whence thou shalt not go out till thou hast paid the utmost farthing Now when a man looks on Death as a Jaylor that holdeth all in the grave till the great Judg of heaven and earth calleth for them at the generall day of Assizes that great day of appearance when all the world shall be gathered together and every prison shall give up their prisoners The sea and the grave shall give up their dead I say when a man standeth thus as unreconciled to God or at least as one that doth not apprehend this reconciliation is not perswaded of this that God is reconciled to him it is no marvel if Death be terrible to him Therefore in the sixth of the Revelation The Kings and Captains and the great and mighty men they cryed to the mountains to fall upon them and to hide them from the presence of the Lamb because the great day of wrath was come and who could stand So we see in 33. Isa 14. there is crying out concerning the coming of God the sinners in Sion the hypocrites are afraid what is their fear who shall dwell with everlasting burnings and who shall remain with cousuming fire when they shall see nothing but terrour and wrath in God fire and consumption when they see nothing but such terrible things then feare cometh upon them Now mark hypocrites stand all together unreconciled and therefore it is no marvel if they be afraid and the Saints of God so farre as they are defective in the assurance of Gods love so farre they conceive themselves in the state of Hypocrites and therefore they are so full of fears Again a second thing that they stand unresolved of is concerning the future estates of their souls and bodies after death they are not sure of this that there is a better condition afterwards this is that great question Whither go we I go now out of the body and whither then I go out of the world and whither then I am going out of the company of men and whither then shall I go to Angels and Saints or to divels shall I go to Heaven or to Hell shall I have a beeing or not in misery or in happiness They know not what shall become of them they are unresolved of this point of their own state to come whether they shall be in happiness or horrour after death and therefore Death is terrible You have the point opened I will answer an objection or two and then come to the use It may be objected It seemeth the servants of God are not kept under the fear of death all those that are in the state of grace have faith faith that spendeth these fears and therefore since they are in the state of beleevers how can they be held under the fear of death To this I answer briefly there is faith in all the children of God that are effectually called but we must know that Faith is considerable two wayes first as it is in conflict and secondly as it is out of conflict Now the Faith of Gods servants in conflict so sometime it is in conflict with fear and sadness of spirit Why art thou cast down oh my soul why art thou disquieted within me c. Sometime it is in conflict with reason and sense thus the people of Israel when they came into the Wilderness they looked for nothing but dying and destruction of nature for sense presented it to them therefore saith Moses which is the voice of faith Stand still and see the salvation of God c. Now in this conflict the success is doubtful sometime as it was between Amalek and Israel fighting together Amalek prevailed and Israel had the worst sometime Israel prevailed and Amalek had the worst so somtime Faith prevaileth against sense and those fears that arise from sense and sometime again carnal fears and Sense prevaileth against Faith now accordingly are those effects in the hearts of Gods children But secondly sometime Faith is out of conflict it now triumpheth in assurance it is come now to full assurance of Faith as it is called in the Scripture and then there is nothing so comfortable and desirable as death it self to the servants of God So we see David in the 23. Psal Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear none ill for thou Lord art with me And so the Apostle Saint Paul triumpheth over all things Nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ neither principalities nor powers nor life nor death nor things to come nothing shall do it the Apostles faith now was out of conflict it had got the field the day of Sense and now he looks on Death with comfort So that I say in that measure that Faith works in that measure fear of death ceaseth Secondly it may be objected But we see the servants of God are said to love the appearance of our Lord Iesus Christ and the Apostle Paul is said to
Death and therefore when by faith he looks upon Christ and through him upon Death he looks upon that as a thing made instead of poison a medicine instead of a destroyer a Saviour and deliverer as a means to free him from the bondage of sin and misery and afflictions c. Thirdly Doth God do this that he may make men more holy and watchful in their course then certainly the more thou canst purge out thy sin in the course of thy life the less thou shalt fear death The sting of Death is sin then if thou wilt have Death comfortable let thy life be conformable to Gods rule and word or else every sin will present it selfe in death before thee specially those sins thou allowest thy self in will make Death as bitter as Hell Fourthly Doth God do it for this end that he may make thee better prepared for death Then the more thou art prepared for Death beforehand the less thou shalt fear it when it cometh upon thee it will not come as a stranger but thou wilt be ready to receive it as one with whom thou art acquainted already It is a great matter if men could learn this wisdome to die daily that is be every day imployed as dying daily I mean for the manner of your carriage not for the matter for the substance of the duty If a man were sure to die this day he would lay aside all business and set himself to be prepared for judgment and would lay aside the use of any other comforts and delights But this is not the meaning but this that we carry our selves in business every day as if death should seize upon us in that business that we might be found well-doing that is when a man followeth his earthly business with a heavenly mind when he keepeth to the rule of righteousness and truth in his ordinary calling when he is doing or receiving good in his company when he useth his pleasures and recreations as the whet-stone to the Sithe to make him fitter for God I say when thus we do things to a right end and in a right manner if Death now should seize upon us in such an action it should find us well-doing And this is that we perswade you to if you would have death comfortable and not tertible be so imployed as that your actions may be good both for matter and forme that you are now about because Death may stricke you in such an action But I cannot stand on these particulars Again for the causes in our selves If you would be freed from the terrours of Death then rectifie your apprehensions and opinions of Death think of it as it is as it is I say to beleevers to those that are in Christ It is not the destruction of nature and so a natural Ill as you account it It is rather a cure of nature for assoon as ever we live we are dying and all our life it is but a living death a continual decaying and dying Now when death cometh it putteth an end to all the decayes of nature and setteth all right again It is but a sleep and sleep it is not a destruction but a help of the body and that which inableth to vigour and strength and fitnesse to action Again it is not the distruction of any part of a man the body it self is not destroyed indeed it is in the Grave but it is in the grave as in a bed of peace They shall come and rest in their beds saith the Prophet The grave is but as a bed wherein the body lies asleep and no man you know is troubled with fear that he goeth to bed The grave is but as Gods chest to keep in all his Treasure whereof the bodies of his servants are a part precious to him even in the grave in death Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints and God will open this Cabinet and the Chest of the Grave in the great day of the Resurrection and bring the body out again and then it shall be as good as ever it was nay I say not only as good but much better too for our vile bodies shall be made like the glorious body of Christ Phil 3. No man when he goeth to bed thinks much to have his old cloathes taken off that they may be mended and made better against morning When we sleep in the Grave it is no more but this the garment of the soul the body the old apparel that is taken off that it may be made better and a more glorious body this is all we lose nothing by it but our estates even our bodily estate is bettered by it And for the Soul Death doth not destroy that neither for know this the soul liveth for ever the bodie indeed returneth to the Earth as it was but the soul returneth to God that gave it The soul I say liveth that is the thing that Christ himself proveth in 22. Mat. Abraham is alive why so for God is not the God of the dead but of the living for God said I am the God of Abraham c. How can this be that God is the God of Abraham and yet he is dead Indeed he is dead if we looke to the separation of the soul and body in the cessation of bodily actions but if we looke to the better part of Abraham his soul that continueth the everliving God hath made an everlasting Covenant with him and therefore he dieth not Again it is not only not the destruction of nature but not of your actions neither Death doth not destroy them neither Indeed there is a cessation of bodily actions but it is that the body may have better strength and be the fitter instrument of holiness after But for those actions of the soul that depend not upon the body they are as perfectly done when we are dead as when we are alive and better too When a man liveth upon the earth you see his soul is much hindered by the body A distempered sick crazie body or a full well-fed body is a hinderance to the soul because of that tie that is between the body and the soul and the spirit so there is a simpathy the soul is affected somewhat in this sense But it is not so then the soul shall be loosed from the body and so freer for spiritual actions then now it is The souls under the Altar they crie How long Lord holy and just wilt thou not revenge our bloud upon them that are upon the earth The souls of Gods servants you see then are glorified when they are out of the body and therefore shall glorifie God more prefectly and enjoy God more freely and fully then now while their souls are in these mortal bodies And at that very instant when the soul of Cods servant is carried out of the body to heaven it more perfectly injoyeth Christ and is more sensible and more fit to answer the love
beyond and short and above and below us in those that are elder and younger and richer and poorer all forts he will strike us at last this thing I say should stirr us up to prepare for our own dissolution A man would think that there were no need of such a thing the very bare sight of a Corse or a Hearse the bare sight of a deed corpse the bare ringing of a bell or a Funeral Sermon should be warning enough to the living to tell him of death When a man sees a company carrying a dead body to the grave he should say to himself It may be the feet of these may carry me next But how cometh it to pass hat it is not thus Certainly there is not power in all examples to work this it is the work of Gods spirit Though a man observe the death of never so many before him yet his cannot work in him a serious care to make preparation for his own death except God adde a further work to it We may see this in the expression of Moses when so many died in the Wilderness Lord teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdom As if he should have said Though so many thousands died in the Wilderness and that by so many several kinds of death yet we shall never apply our hearts to wisdom by those examples except God teach us that wisdom Therefore we should pray to God to teach us by his Spirit to make use of Examples Men must give account for examples as well as for rules men must give account for examples of mortality as well as for Sermons of mortality therefore let the example of others mortality stir you up to prepare for your own and that you may do so be much in calling upon God Lastly He shall not return to me that is in this sense to converse on earth as he had done before I shall return to him but he shall not return to me He doth but reitterate and repeat what he had said before in effect This is the thing then that Parents must make account of both for themselves and their children For their children It should make them moderate therefore in their sorrow for them God now hath shewed his purpose and declared his will therefore we should rest in that will of God This is the thing that David aymed at Gods will was not only to take away his child but so to take him away as never to return to him again in that manner Now God had declared his will and therefore Why should I fast saith he as if he should say I will now rest in the will of God In all the things which we account crosses and losses in children and friends c. The main business of a christian is not to expresse sorrow but submission and subiection to God to exercise and inure his heart to patience and to rest in Gods good pleasure and will As Eli though he failed in his carriage to his sons yet he shewed a dutiful respect to God his heavenly father When Samuel told him the judgement of God that should come upon his house It is the Lord saith he let him do what seemeth him good in his own eyes though it were a heavy judgement such as whosoever should hear of it both his eares should tingle yet it is the Lord let him do what seemeth him goad As if he should say I have nothing to do in this business but to subject my self with patient submission and contentedness to his will it is the Lord it becometh not me to contend with him and to reason with God concerning his work I confess he is righteous let him do what see meth him good in his own eyes And so Aaron There was a heavy judgement befallen him his sons were consumed with fire yet the text saith Aaron held his peace When God manifested so great wrath to his house in wasting and consuming and burning his sons for offering of strange fire yet Aaron held his peace that is he did only mind how to glorifie God by a contented submission to his will So Job he heard not only of the losse of his children but that he lost them in such a manner by a violent death by a house falling on their heads yet the Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. Whereas a carnal worldly man would have fallen to strugling and contending and quarrelling against God and so trouble and perplex his own spirit We do exceedingly imbitter Gods cup by mingling with it ingredients of our own passions and so make the affliction more heavy and grievous then God intends it Here is the reason we possess not our souls with Patience When we are sensible of the losse of friends and children c. let us learn to make it our business to think I have a greater work to do to prepare for my own death God in the death of this man speaks to me to prepare for my own And then to glorifie God by submission to his will make it appear that thou acknowledgest a power in God to dispose of thy house to do every thing by patiently resting in his will And yet this comfort is added though children be took away that they shall not return in an earthly manner yet they shall in a better manner Parents are contented to part with their children for a time for their preferment Children though they are very young that are commended by the prayers of the godly Parents into the hands of God these whose hearts God hath inlarged and quickned fervently and faithfully to pray in the besalf of their children they may rest in this assured that they shall meet at the Resurrection in a better manner their children shall be better preferred then if they were on earth and shall be raised up to perfection Here you see there is not a tooth bred in a child without a great deal of pain and every tooth cost some pain but this mortal body shall put on immortality and this corruption shall put on incorruption This weak body shall be made strong weak children strong without pain Death endeth these things and the Resurrection shall present him in a perfect measure of strength in a glorified estate So much for this text and for this time THE STING OF DEATH OR THE STRENGTH OF SINNE SERMON VI. 1 COR. 15.56 The Sting of Death is Sin and the Strength of Sin is the Law SOlomon telleth thus that there is a season for every thing there is a time to be born and a time to die These two are the two great seasons of all men we are as sure to die as we are sure we have lived and every degree of our life is but a step to our death Every man of us hath but a part to act here in the world when we have done that that God hath appointed us we are drawn off from
the Stage by Death You will say this is a hard condition for so Noble a creature as Man is to be folded up in the grave for so fair a beauty as the life of man is to be closed up in eternal darkness that man should turn to the acquaintance of dust and worms and make his habitation with rottenness and loathsomeness that Death should have the victory of so excellent a Creature it is a hard condition The Apostle thinks not so he thinks otherwise Death faith he ver 54. is swallowed up in victory As if he should say It need not trouble you to think so of Death the condition of it is not so strange and hard as men take it to be It is swallowed up in victory If a man have a strong enemy to deal with it might trouble him but it is no great matter to deal with a conquered enemy Christ hath overcome Death hath conquered that strong enemy Death is swallowed up in victory Therefore Saint Paul in the precedent and subsequent verses of this Chapter seemeth to insult and triumph over Death Oh Death faith he where is thy sting Oh grave where is thy victory As if he should say before Christ came and conquered thee Death thou wert victorious so it was there was a sting in it before Christ sweetned the grave there was something that was terrible in the Grave but now because Christ is come and hath gotten the victory over the one and sweetned the other therefore Saint Paul breaks forth thus into an insultation and triumph But how can this be Why doth the Apostle thus triumph The reason is insinuated in the verse I have read to you the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law But this is the occasion of trouble to Christians No it is not thanks be to God that hath given us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord As if he should say I will shew you the reason of my triumphing over Death there was a sting in Sin and Sin is the sting of Death and the Law is the strength of sin but Christ hath took away sin and hath satisfied the Law sin being taken away Death cannot hurt me the Law being satisfied Sin cannot prejudiceme This was the cause of the Apostle and in him of every Christians insultation over Death The words I have read contain two parts First the sting of Death Secondly the strength of Sin First the sting of death is sin Secondly the strength of sin is the Law If there were no law there would be no sin and if there were no sin there would be no death Sin is the transgression of the Law and sin is the sting of death I shall only at this time insist upon the first of these from whence I shall deliver that which if it please God to accompany with his Spirit may be useful to you The proposition shall be the very words of the Text. Sin is the sting of death This Proposition I would not have you understaud in this sense only that death came in by sin meerly in a habit though that be true too But understand it in this sense That all the horrour and terribleness of Death all the power and rage it hath whatsoever makes it fearful to a man it receiveth it all from sin It is sin that armeth Death against a man if Death have any weapons against a man Sin puts those weapons into the hands of Death if Death have any poyson against a Christian the sin of that person putteth that poyson in it Death may be considered two wayes either as Christ hath made it or as we make it Death as Christ hath made it is a medicine to a Christian a passage and entrance to happiness it is a day of redemption and refreshing and so we need not be afraid of it Death as we by sin have made it is the Pale horse Saint John speaks of in the Revelation it is as a fearful arrest to the debtor it hath a sting in it and so it is feareful But that I may open this point more profitably we will inquire into these particulars First what death the Apostle speaks of here Secondly of what sin he speaks of Thirdly in what respect sin is called the sting of death And then we will make the use and application of all this First of what death doth the Apostle here speak of that sin is the sting of For answer hereunto there is a double death corporal and spiritual Corporal death is the privation of the soul when the soul is severed from the body Spiritual death when God and grace are severed from the soul The Text speaks of the corporal death Sin is not the sting of the spiritual death for the spiritual death is sin it self And hear I will not contend with any man if he be full of enquiry but I will distinguish two parts of spiritual death and I grant in one of them is this sting In spiritual death therefore there are two parts or two degrees The first is called the first death That I take to be the death of the soul in sin The second part is when soul and body are for ever closed up in Hell And in this part sin is the sting And remember this by the way Sin is not only a sting now but it will be a sting to men in Hell the sting the deadliness the exreamity of punishment that is in Hell it is received all from sin for the damned in Hell when they come there as they cease not to sin so the sting of sin ceaseth not to be with them and it may be delivered by conjecture I think Hell were no Hell if there were not the sting of sin there So then you see what death the Apostle speaks of principally of corporal death but it may be extended to the second part of spiritual death for their sin continueth and so the sting remaineth The next question is what sin the Apostle speaks of when he faith the sting of death is sin This is not a time to stir controversies therefore those ancient controversies and such as are lately stirred up about original sin how far it is the sting of death I let them go In a word to let you see what sin is the sting of death remember this Sin may be considered two wayes either as it is intire untouched uncrushed Let that sin be what it will be whether it be original only or whether it be any actual sin streaming from original whether it be a sin of ignorance or knowledg whether it be of pleasure or of profit A sin immediately that respecteth God or immadiately respecteth our neighbour whatsoever the sin be if it be not touched if it be not crushed if it scape uncontrouled if it be in its native power and keeps in his kingdome if it rule in a man that sin will certainly be the sting of
respect of the metaphor the Apostle aludeth unto it is taken from the sting of a Serpent and so Sin is a sting in a double respect First in respect of the fearfulness and then in respect of the hurtfulness of it First in respect of the fearfulness It is Sin that makes Death fearful to a man Indeed I confess that in the best Christian though Christ have pulled out the sting of death yet there are natural grudgings and shruglings As to a Serpent though the sting be pulled away yet there are some abhorrings and dislikes in a man But then how terrible is Death when it cometh in a compleate Armour as it doth against a person in whom Sin remaineth in its full power it must needs then be terrible See the differences between two persons the one is afraid of every one he meeteth the other is not what is the reason the one is greatly indebted and ingaged the other is free So it is with a Christian and another man the one cannot hear of Death but his heart breaks he is full of fear and horrour the other heareth of Death and is only somewhat affected in the hearing of it but not possessed with that fear as is the other what is the reason the sting of death remaineth in one and not in another Sin therefore is a sting in that respect Secondly it is a sting in respect of hurtfulness The sting of the Serpent is a hurtfull thing it poysoneth the vitall parts it takes away life it self All the evill that cometh to us by death cometh by sin Man need not complain of the ilness of the prison so much as of his own folly that he ingaged himself in debt whereby he is cast into prison Why complainest thou of the misery in Hell rather labour to break off thy sins that are the cause of all that misery all the hurtful quality and miserable condition that befalleth a person in Death and Hell is for Sin the eternal separation of the soul from God and all punishment that follows after in Hell are the fruit of mans sin Hell had not been Hell without Sin it is Sin that causeth it to become hurtfull Thus I have explained these inquiries Now I come to make Use and application and so conclude the Point The first Use of this point shall be this If Sin be the sting of death let it be our wisdom to get this sting pulled out in the time of our life Oh that this people were wise faith God then would they consider their latter end If you were wise that hear me this day you would consider that Death will come and if it be not taken away before-hand with a sting upon the soul My brethren we have many enemies to deal with even now at this very instant but there is yet an enemy as the Apostle faith The last enemy to be subdued is Death he his behind and here is the difference betwixt Death our last enemy and some other of our enemies some other of our enemies cannot be subdued but by their presence but let me tell you this Death is such an enemy as is never subdued but by his absence thou canst never overcome Death in death thou must not reserve this combat till thou come to the field but thou must overcome this enemy before he cometh thou must overcome him in thy life How is that Pull out the sting of him now then Death is conquered How will you disarm the tongues of malicious slanderous persons and deprive them of their viperous speech by an innocent life So how will you take away the sting of death watch against Sin take away sin and you take away the power from Death set upon Sin and Death is overcome so much sin as is now dead so much is Death conquered I beseech you seriously consider these particulars First that it will not be long ere Death knock at these doors of ours these houses of clay must shortly be ruinated we must certainly be resolved into dust What is this life of ours but as a ship that is driven by a gale of breath When the breath of man ceaseth the ship lieth in a dead calm Man goeth to his long home saith Solomon and the mourners follow in the streets Death is our long home we all are the mourners we follow in the streets This dead carcass is an example that leads us to our home and a sermon to tell us that we must follow we follow now in a charitable expression but we shall follow one day in paying of the same debt Look over all the times of the world and the dispositions of persons look over learning and folly greatness or poorness find me a man that escaped Death Die we must and we have need to have this much pressed upon us for it is a hard matter to beleeve that we must die that I must be the man that must die common notice of Death are granted but that I must die and lie in the dust and stand before God it is a hard matter to beleeve this And consider this secondly that Death will be terrible to thee if he knock and find a sting in thee Thou that now wilt not be reclaimed from swearing Alas what will become of that blaspheming soul of thine when death shall come and find a sting of blasphemy in thee How darest thou think of giving up that swearing soul of thine to the Judge of heaven and earth Thou unrighteous person that wilt not sanctifie the Lords day how darest thou give up that unholy soul of thine to the holy God Dost thou think to have an eternal rest in heaven and wilt not give God a rest here So I might say for all kind of sinners Think of this take heed lest Death find a sting in thee for all the sting that Death hath it findeth in thy self look to it thy condition will be fearful if Death come and find Sin unmortified unrepented of in thee God will certainly bring thee to judgment for every thought and word and action Thirdly consider this that naturally we are so tempered that if Death come he shall find his weapons and strength in us in every man of us I mean considered naturally But how shall I know whether Death when he cometh shall find a sting in me or no I will only give you two tryals you shall know it thus First if thy conscience now sting thee for some approved sin if thou repent not Death will assuredly meet thee with a sting that approved sin of thine will be the â—…ting of death Conscience will sting a man either for the act done or for the approbation of the act if conscience sting a man for his approbation of a sinful quality or for a sinfull course if a man continue in that course surely that will be the sting of death to his soul therefore look to thy self perhaps thou art convicted of such a sin perhaps thy
sting a man That is the second Thirdly wouldest thou have the sting of death pulled out now Then mortisie thy sins now do it presently Remember what Saint Paul saith but I think he speaks it in respect of afflictions I profess by our rejoycing in Christ Jesus I die dayly If it be meant of afflictions yet it should be verified of us in respect of sin die dayly to sin and then the sting of death is gone Oh beloved our condition will be sad and discomfortable when at once we must enter into the field with Death and Sin he that dieth daily to Sin he hath nothing to do with Death when it cometh Death may come to such a party but cannot hurt him he may rest quietly when it cometh And observe it so much sin as thou now sparest so much sting thou reservest for Death and is it not folly in a man to spare sin that giveth a sting to Death But now as a man is to crucifie evey sin let me put in this caution and remember this advise As the sting of every sin is to be pulled out so pull out especially the sting of that Sin that now stingeth thy conscience that now lieth upon thy conscience for if it work now it will work fearefully at death Death doth not lessen the work of sin but inrageth it God will then present and set thy sins in order before thee perhaps God hath brought thee here to day to hear this Word get thee home and set thy soul in order The love of Sin and the fear of Death seldome part and where Sin is much loved Death will there be much feared Death is never more terrible then where sin is most delighted in Therefore crucifie sin if thou wilt have the sting of death taken away It may be thou thinkest it is a troublesome work but remember that those sins which thou now so much delightest in and lovest and livest in will then prove the sting of death to thee If a man would spend his time in the mortisication of sin when death cometh he should have nothing to do but to let his soul loose to God and to give it up to him as into the hands of his most faithfull Creator and Redeemer And is it not an excellent thing for a man to have nothing to do with Death when it cometh Lastly here is a use of comfort If it hath pleased God to give any of us the grace to pull out the sting of death it is a great comfort But Death is approaching you will say Oh but Death is disarmed the sting of it is taken away what a singular comfort is it then to you that Death is coming Indeed all the comfort that the soul is capable of is this that the sting of death is took away Now when Death cometh upon such a man it doth but free him from all that state of misery he is in here from all that extremity of condition that he is put into from all those diversities of occasions pressing occasions of tumbling about in the world Death doth but put an end to all And which is an excellent comfort to a Christian Sin is ended with Death what afflicteth the soule of a Christian but that he carrieth about him a body of sin and of death This was a trouble to Saint Paul and is to every true Christian Now when Death cometh there is an end of this Body of sin thou shalt never sin more thou shalt never grieve the Spirit of God more thou shalt never be clogged with such imperfections and infirmities in duty that death that cometh to thee shall pass thee to the fruition of eternal glory and what canst thou desire more then to be happy in eternal glory with God THE DESTRUCTION OF THE DESTROYER OR THE OVER THROW OF THE LAST ENEMY SERMON VII 1 COR. 15.26 The last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death DEATH is a Subject that a Christian should have in his thoughts often and neither the hearing nor thinking nor speaking of it can be unseasonable for any place or person We have heard that the life of Philosophers is nothing but a meditation of Death and certainly the life of a Christian much more should abound in such meditations No man can live well till be can die well He that is prepared for Derth is certainly freed from the danger of death neither is there any so fit a way to be ready for it as to be osten minded of it Therefore I have made choice at this time to speak of this verse wherein ye see the Apostle declareth and leadeth us to treat of four things First that there is a Death Secondly that this Death is an Enemy Thirdly that this Enemy is the last Enemy Lastly that this last Enemy shall be destroyed A word or two of each of these parts First Death is Ye know that well enough your eyes shew it you daily our senses declare it so plainly that no man is so senseless that knoweth it not It is agreed upon by all Only for your better furtherance to make use of this point let us acquaint you with that which nature will teach ye concerning Death Secondly with that which Scripture will teach you above and better then Nature Nature sheweth ye concerning Death first what it is And then Secondly what Properties it hath It telleth us this That Death is in absence from life a ceasing from beeing when one was beeing to be thrust as it were out of the present world and be cast some where This is all that Nature informeth us concerning the Essence and Being of Death Death is a deviding of us from this life and from the things of this life and sends us abroad we know not where Secondly Nature teacheth us three Properties concerning Death One that it is universal It hath tied all to it high and low rich and poor Death knocks at the Princes pallace as well as at the poor habitation of the meanest man It is a thing that respects no mans greatness it regardeth no wealth nor wit nothing Death takes all before it That Nature teacheth too Secondly Nature teacheth that Death is inevitable If a man would give all the world he cannot thrust it out of doors It takes whole Armies as well as one man It scorneth to be resisted by the Phisitians there is no words no means to escape it It is such an enemy as we must grapple with and it will conquer This Nature teacheth Again Nature teacheth that death is uncertain A man knoweth not when Death will come to him or when it will lay hold on him or by what means it will setch him out of the world It may fetch him out of the world at any time or in any place and by such occasion as it is impossible for any wit to think of before This is in substance all that Nature teacheth And the knowledg of this
it is for good use as well to remember and consider it as to understand it But now I go on to tell ye what the Scripture teacheth concerning Death for that giveth a perfecter and larger information of the thing then the dim light of Nature The scripture then over and above that which Nature sheweth telleth us concerning Death these things First it sheweth better what it is and then It sheweth whence it cometh and what are the causes of it Thirdly it declareth the consequences what follow upon it And lastly and bestly it tellech us the remedy against the ill of Death In all which Nature stumbleth and can do little or nothing First the Scripture telleth us what it is It telleth us how that it is the disolution of a man not the annihilation It doth not make him cease to be but takes asunder awhile the soul from the body It carrieth the one to the earth and the other to another world so that both continue to be though they be not united as before The word of God teacheth us that he hath created the world as it were a house of three Stories The middle is this present life where we be And there is a lower place the Dungeon a place of unhappiness and destruction there is a higher place a pallace of glory According as men behave themselves in this middle room so Death either leadeth them down to the place of unhappiness or conveyeth them up to the pallace of glory and blessedness This Nature is ignorant of but the Scripture is plain in The rich man dieth and his soul is carried to Hell the poor man when he died his soul was advanced to Heaven So that Death is nothing but the messenger of God to take the soul out of the body and to convey it to a place of more happiness or more misery then can be conceived Secondly the Scripture acquaints us further with the cause of death Philosophers wondred since nature desireth a perpetuity and continuance of it self that man should be so short a time in the world The Scripture endeth this wonderment and tels us that man indeed was made immortal to continue for ever and should not have died but sin came into the world and by sin death Death is the mother of sin and of all misery that by little and little draweth to death I say sin the first sin of our first Parents whereby they transgressed that most easie and equal mandate about eating the forbidden fruit That transgression that was the treading under foot the covenant of works and the disanulling of it that sin let in Death at a great Gap and now it triumpheth and beareth rule over all the world Nature cannot tell which way in the world a man should die so soon and that he that is the Lord of all creatures should be inferiour to a great number of them in length of life But the word of God unriddleth this riddle and telleth us that God made man that he might and should have lived for ever but Sin coming and coming in the person of the first man it brought death and made all men mortal and when sin entred Gods curse came and that working upon us poor and miserable creatures it is the cause that we cannot continue long here It was equal that death should follow sin for since God made man to obey his will when man had unfitted himself for Gods service it was reason that he should have a short continuance of life for the longer he endured the more he would abuse himself Ye see then two things that the Scripture teacheth concerning death The third thing it sheweth is what followeth after death and that is plain It is appointed for all men once to die and after death cometh judgment Narure never dreamed of judgment after Death but the Scripture telleth us there is a judgment after Death Judgment what is that Judgment ye know is a calling of a man before Authority a looking into his wayes a considering of his actions a finding out whether he be a sinner an evil-doer and if he find him so to passe sentence according to his evil deeds When God hath took the soul from the body he takes the soul first and after both soul and body and presents them before his own Tribunal and there searcheth into every mans life ransacks his conscience looks deep into his conversation and inquireth into his secrets openeth his actions and whole carriage from his infancy to his last breath and findeth out the things that he hath done and passeth sentence according to that he hath done This Indgment hath two degrees First assoon as a man dieth No sooner is the soul separated from this case as it were the body but instantly it is presented before the Lord Jesus Christ and there he passeth sentence either that it is a true beleever a godly liver a person united to Christ that walked as becometh the Gospel of Christ and then it receiveth glory and joy and bliss for the present more then tongue can express Or else it findeth against him that he was a sinfnl man a wicked man a hyyocrite a dissembler one that named Christ with his tongue but did not depart from iniquity nor live according to the Gospel of Christ and then he is delivered up to Satan to be hurried down to Hell and there to suffer the wrath of God according to the desert of so great wickedness This particular judgment passeth upon every soul assoon as it leaveth the Body Then followeth the great universal Judgment when soul and body shall be reunited and stand before God every particular man that ever hath been is or shall be every man shall appear in their own persons their whole lives shall be laid open all secret things shall be made known for God faith the Apostle shall judg the secrets of all hearts by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel This is the third thing that the word of God informeth us concerning death that nature could never do The last that is the best the Scripture giveth us a remedy against the ill of death It is a pittiful thing to hear of mortality and sickness if there were not a good Potion or Phisick prescribed to ascape the ill of it To hear tell of Death and so tell as the Scripture saith that it is a going to another world of weale or woe and not to hear of a remedy it is woful tydings and would wring tears from a hard heart But the Scripture makes report of death not only tollerable and easie but comfortable and gladsome to a Christian heart for it sheweth by whom and by what means we may infallibly and certainly escape all the hurt that Death can do Nay by what means we may order our selves so that Death may be beneficial to us What is that In one short word It is Christ I am the resurrection and the life he that beleeveth in
me shall never see death He meaneth to hurt himselfe Again This is the message that God hath given us life and this life is in his Son And He that hath the Son hath life Our Saviour Jesus Christ came into the world as the Apostle telleth us that he might destroy him that had the power of death and so set them at liberty that all their life-time were in bondage under the fear of death And Saint John saith He came into the world to destroy the works of the devil which are sin and death So that now Death hath lost his sting because Christ overcame it in dying he slue Death and was the death of Death this man Christ God and Man he offered himself to his Father as a Sacrifice for the sins of the world and dying a cursed death upon the Cross so satisfied the justice of God on the behalf of all those that are in him that death can do them no harm It is nothnig else but a passage to eternal blessedness Oh blessed be the name of God that hath been pleased to provide so perfect a remedy against so mortal an enemy and to lay it open so clearly and plainly in the Gospel Ye have heard of those things that I thought to put you in mind of concerning Death and so I have done with the first point The second is That Death is an enemy Therefore the Apostle Paul telleth us of a certain sting it hath Oh death where is thy sting It is an armed enemy it cometh as a Serpent with a sting that entreth into a mans soul putteth it to exream perplexity if he taks not order to disarm this enemy An enemy ye know is a person that setteth himself wilfully to hurt a man may hurt his neighbour either through indiscretion or unadvisedness against his will or he may lay wait to do him hurt intending misceif and seeking to peforme somewhat that shall be injurious to him We call not him an enemy that we receive a little hurt from against his will contrary to his purpose and intention but he that studieth and before-hand desireth to be an enemy Now Death as we may say studieth our hurt in all extremity before-hand There is but two sorts of hurt that can come to a man One is to deprive him of that which is beneficial and comfortable to rob him of all that is contentful to him in this life As when a company of Foes break into a Nation they burn their goods and spoyle their houses and rob and take away all that is comfortable to them so much as they can Death is such an enemy It desireth to bereave a man of that necessary contentment he hath When it meeteth with a learned man it takes away all his learning at one blow assoon as he is dead he ceaseth to be a great scholler It cometh to a rich man and robs him of all his goods at one blow too though he have millions Death causeth all to be another mans When it cometh to a King it pulleth him beside his Throne takes his Crown off his head and casteth both him and it into the dust he is King no longer when he is dead And so in all the benefits of this life it takes away the pleasure and contentments of a man it takes away the husband from the wife and the wife from the husband it devideth children from Parents and Parents from children all the benefits that this life afford Death strippeth a man of them all and turnes him naked out of the world just as he came he must goe and carry nothing in his hand Death will not admit him to take one farthing or any thing else with him So he is an enemy for he spoileth us of whatsoever is desirable in this life But he is an enemy also in inflicting a great deal of ill upon men So death bringeth torment for the present It is a terrible thing to wrestle with it makes a man bleed and sweat as it were No man can incounter with death but he feeleth anxiety and vexation of body and mind unless he have comfort from above to enable him to wrestle with it but in his own proper nature it is so furious an enemy that it doth not cease till it hath dragged the soul into the presence of God and after from his Tribunal to the torment of eternal fire in Hell That succeedeth death for naturally of its own nature it tendeth to the destruction of man because it is a fruit of sin and therefore must needs he the perdition and overthrow of the soul For sin bringeth destruction in regard it makes God angry with us and separateth from him and by consequence from all manner of comfort and in regard it separateth from him it bringeth all manner of ill his wrath his hatred and ill will the greatest of all Death I say properly and of it selfe intendeth and seeks to draw all those that it layes hold on to a state of everlasting unhappiness therefore it is an enemy So you see the second point opened The third is that Death is the last enemy after which there shall be no more But I must tell you to whom it is the last not to all For there are a generation of men that shall feel death to be the last of enemies and in a manner the first But to the Saints and those that are prepared for death and those that will use the remedy to these and these alone death is the last enemy after once they have grappled and fought and encountred with this enemy they are at peace and rest as he saith Happy are they that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours There is no more toyl and misery to a good man after death And why Because death separateth sin from his soul as well as the soul from the body and so taking away the cause of unrest it must needs take away misery and unhappinesse it self Indeed properly Death doth it not but the Lord Jesus Christ by death For it pleaseth him when his servants leave this world then they are fit to enter into a place of happiness in another world which they could not be except they were freed from sin Death is the daughter of sin and with a happy patricide as it were at once it destroyeth it self and sin and therefore it takes away all misery because it takes away all sin Therefore it is the last enemy because it killeth the worst of our enemtes for when we are dead there shall be no more enmity between God and us and so no more enemy This is the third point The last is that this enemy shall be destroyed A thing is destroyed abolished when its self ceaseth to be and it took out of the way and when all the ill effects that it would produce and effect or hath are removed So the Lord Jesus Christ abolisheth Death he destroyeth it that it
shall never again be known in the world or felt by his servants and he preventeth all those evill effects that it would work in the soul for eternity and removeth all the ill effects of it that it hath wrought on their bodies for the present time Death takes away a mans goods for the present Christ abolisheth that he giveth everlasting substance in heaven Death takes away friends Christ abolisheth that he sends us to heaven where we have more friends and better Death brings the body to rottenness and corruption it laieth it in the dust turns it to putrifaction Christ abolisheth that at the Resurrection it shall rise again in glory How that is done the Apostle tells us in the end of this chapter The body shall be laid in the dust a weak and feeble a mortal and natural body but it shall be clothed with immortality This mortal shall put on immortality this corruptible shall put on incorruption then shall be fulfilled that saying Death is swallowed up in victory But this is also limited it shall be destroyed to whom To those that use the remedy those that partake of Christ those that have put on him that is the Resurrection and the life Thus I have laid before your eyes briefly these four things that the Apostle leadeth us to treat of concerning death That it is That it is an enemy That it is the last enemy And that it shall be destroyed Now I desire to apply this and to make use of it First I shall be bold to play the Examiner to search each conscience a little Brethren let the word of God enter into your souls Ye hear that there is a death and that this death is a sore and bitter enemy and ye hear that to some sort of men it is the last enemy that ever they shall encounter with and be freed from all the hurt of it it shall be utterly destroyed Now do so much as discend every one into himself and inquire what care there hath been to prepare for death to make use of the remedy against death what time and paines hath been bestowed to seek to get that that is the only means to escape the Dart of this enemy and that that is the only cause to procure this enfranchisement to the soul from that that else will destroy all A man hath not fitted himself to encounter with his enemy when he looks after wealth and followeth the pleasures and contentments of this life these things will do no good they will be rather a burthen to the heart and vexe the soul and increase the mischief laying more sin upon the soul and giving death darts to pierce the soul with But when is a man fit for death and who may encounter with this enemy with safety I will tell ye That man that takes the greatest care to disarm death of his weapons to arm himself with defensive weapons against death If an enemy come upon a man with good weapons in his hand and find him altogether unweaponed it is hard for a naked unarmed man to deal with him it is hard for a man that never thought of it before to fight with one that is skilful at his weapons Death I told ye is an enemy and an enemy that is skilful in his weapons and the weapon of death it is our own sin Death bringeth nothing with it to hurt a man It findeth with us and in us that whereby to hurt us so many corruptions as are in thy heart so many weapons so many idle words so many bad deeds so many swords to pierce thy heart Death maketh use of those weapons it findeth in our selves and with them he destroyeth and killeth and brings us to perdition Now what have ye done beloved to disarme death what care have ye taken to break sin apieces that it may not be as a sword ready drawn for the hand of death when it cometh as Arrows in a Bow to shoot at you when Death layeth hold on you That man that hath took no care to overcome sin in the power of it and to get himself free from the guilt and punishment of it is unfit for death If death come upon him and find his offences unrepented of unpardoned unsubdued he will so order those offences that he will thrust them into his foul as so many poisoned Darts that will bring sorrow and anguish and vexation and destruction to all eternity Ye may see then whether ye have any fitness to meet with this Enemy whether ye be in case to fight that battel that of necessity ye must for Death as I told ye before is enevitable If ye have not Get alone between God and thy self and there call to mind the corruption of thy nature the sins of thy childhood of thy body of thy mind bring thy soul into his presence confess thy sins with an endeavour to break thy heart for them and to be sorry for them mightily crying to him in the mediation of that blessed Advocate Jesus Christ that died on the Cross to pardon and to wash thy soul in his bloud and to deliver thee from the pollution of thy sins Beg the Spirit of sanctification to bear down those sins and subdue thy corruptions Bestow time to perform these exercises daily carefully present thy self before God thus to renew thy repentance and faith in Christ to make thy peace with God Labour to purge away the filthiness of thy sin and then whensoever Death cometh thou shalt find in thy self sufficient against it thou hast disarmed it But if ye spend your time in pursuing profits and pleasures and follow the vanities of this life and either ye do not think of death or ye think of it no otherwise then a heathen man would have done to no purpose ye think of it to enjoy the world while ye live because ye know not how soon death will end the world and you if you play the Epicures in the thought of Death to annimate you to enjoy the outward benefits of this life to think of it to no purpose but only to talk and discourse now and then as occasion serveth then Death will find your souls laden with innumerable sins that repentance hath not discharged and undoubtedly it will bring eternal perdition Have ye thus disarmed Death But again a mans self must be armed or else he cannot incounter with his enemy What is our Armour against Death to keep off that blow The Apostle in one word sheweth us these Armours when he saith a Breast-plate of faith and love and the hope of salvation a Helmet If a man have got faith to rest on Christ alone for eternal happiness and his soul filled with the hope of glory and salvation through him and then with love to him and his servants for his sake These three vertues will secure a man against all the hurt that death can doe Faith Hope and Charity the Cardinal vertues that Christian religion requires
and commands us to seek these are Armour of proof against all the blows of death he that hath them shall never be hurt of Death because he shall never taste of the second death he hath only to wrestle with the first Death and there is no terrour nor terribleness it that if a mans heart be secure by these Graces Faith whereby we depend on Christ and on him alone for grace and salvation bringing hope whereby we expect and look for salvation of our souls by his blood according to his promise and working charity whereby we love him for his goodness and his servants for his sake If it be charity not only of the lip to speak well but that that produceth wel-doing I say this is that makes us that death cannot separate us from Christ but the further we are from life the neerer we are to him for when this outward tabernacle of our house is dissolved we have a building with God eternal in the heavens and death to such a man is nothing but the opening of the door to let him out of the dungeon of the world and to place him happily in the Pallace of eternal blisse I pray enter into consideration how ye have behaved your selves in the course of your lives whether as Heathens or as Christians A man that takes no care to prepare for death though he come to the Church from Sunday to Sunday and partake of all Gods ordinances yet if the consideration of death be not so imprinted in him that it become a motive to him to labour for Faith and hope and charity and to endeavour to edifie himself in these graces he liveth as a Heathen or an Infidel and when death cometh to him it will do him more hurt then it will an Infidel because by how much God hath given him more means to escape and by neglecting those means as his sin is greater so shall his punishment be Secondly if ye have been careless for to prepare for this enemy Now be ashamed of it and sorrow for it let your hearts now smite ye and ake within you Oh foolish man or woman say I have lived twenty thirty forty fifty years and some more I have laboured against other enemies if men had any thing against me I would be sure to take order I have laboured for the things of this life for riches and friends and give my self leave for to enjoy pleasures and taken pains to doe good to my body but all this while it never came into my heart seriously to think I must die and after that comes Judgement that I must stand before Gods Tribunal and give account of my wayes I have not laboured to beware of Death and of sin nor to kill my corruptions I have not laboured to increase in Faith and hope and charity I have left my self unarmed against the last and worst enemy Oh what folly is this to live in the world many a long day and never to consider that there will be an end of all these dayes and the end of those the beginning of another life and a life that will be infinitely more miserable then this If this beloved have been any of your faults to be carelesly forgetful of your latter end not to consider of your departure hence if the world have so tempted you and pleasures have so enamoured you that you have forgotten your latter end blame your selves it is the greatest of all follies And that I may disgrace this folly and make you ashamed of it Consider a little That this is to be like children The Apostle biddeth us not to be like children in understanding but he that forgetteth Death and is careless to prepare for it is a very child A little one never thinketh he shall ever be a man himself and maintain himself and live in the world by his own labour or by that he shall have from his friends he careth for nothing butmeat and drink and sport and pastime we blame their folly andlaugh at it as rediculous and therefore by our diligence we prevent that ill that might else come upon them Is it not thus with many of you ye live and build houses and raise your names to be glorious and to make a fair shew in the world but to get grace and to get faith and hope and love and repentance none of your thoughts almost run that way scarce any of your thoughts are so bestowed Is not this to be children in understanding Again he is a foolish man that knoweth he shall meet an enemy and will not prepare If a man should hear of twenty or thirty thousand souldiers were gathered against the City and besieged it to destroy it He would not be so foolish and so simple then as to bestow himself in his trade and to follow his business and to give himself to merrimeut but he would get his weapons and he would look about him help to arm the City and to make it strong Why do ye not consider that your soul is as a City Death will come against it and batter you with sickness with pains and at last will certainly take it and if the soul be not prepared will carry it to Hell fire Why will you be so retchless and sensless to eat and drink and labour to grow rich to bury your selves in eatrthly labours and never think how to escape how Death may be kept out that will destroy soul and body I presume you are ashamed of this folly by this time I hope ye will go away with remorse and sorrow for so carelesly neglecting a thing of so great importance to be provided for In the third place therefore I entreat you begin this great work this day Consider if you have not begun the enemy lieth in wait for thee oh man or woman if thou be never so young thou maist meet with him before night if thou be old thou must meet with him ere long Prepare for him betime think what an enemy may encounter thee in the way If a man be to travel though he be not assured to meet with an enemy yet he will strive to get good company and weapon himself he will carry his sword something he will do that if a theef come to rob him he may be able to prevent the danger Beloved think that there is an enemy that way-laies us as we go along in the world one time or other he will be sure to come upon us therefore stir up your selves begin this day to prepare for this enemy How shall I prepare for Death I told you before it is not amiss in a word to repeat it Get Faith in Christ and Hope and Charity and repentance These will be means to prepare and help thee against Death Therefore if hitherto thou have not lament and bewail the sinfulness of thy nature and life Assoon as thou art out of this place get thee into a solitary room fall upon thy knees lament thy
sins the ilness of thy nature and carriage rehearse thy wayes as much as thou canst condemn thy self before God mightily crie for pardon in the meditation of his Son and never leave sobbing and mourning till he hath given thee some answer that he is reconciled And then strive to get faith in Christ call to mind the perfection of his redemption the excellency of his person and merits that thou maist repose thy soul on him that thou maist say though my sins be as the Stars and exceed them yet the merit of my Saviour and his satisfaction to the justice of God it is full in him he is well pleased and reconciled I will stay on him Lord Chiist thou hast done and suffered enough to redeem me and Man-kind thou hast suffered for the propitiation of the world though my sins deserve a thousand damnations yet I trust upon thy mercy according to the Covenent made in thy Word Thus when a man laboureth to cast himself on Christ to lay the burthen of his salvation and to venter his soul on him now he hath beleeved this Breast-plate Death is not able to thrust through And then labour that this faith may work so strongly that it may breed Hope a constant and firm expectation grounded on the promises of the Word that thou shalt be saved and go to Heaven and be admitted into the presence of God when thou shalt be separated from this lower world He that is armed with this hope hath a Helmet Death shall never hurt his head it shall never be able to take away his comfort and peace He shall smile at the approach of death because it can do nothing but help him to his kingdome And then labour for Charity to inflame thee to him again that hath shewed himself so truly loving to men as to seek them when they were lost to redeem them when they were captives and to restore them from that unhappiness that they had cast themselves into Oh that I could love thee and thy people for thy sake thou diddest die for them shall not I be at a little cost and pains to help them out of misery Thus if ye labour to be furnished with these graces then you are armed against Death those will do you more good then if you had gotten millions of millons of gold and silver As you have understanding for the outward man as you have care to provide for that top reserve and comfort life while you are here so have a care for the future world and that boundless continuance of eternity If a man live miserable here death will end it if he be prepared for death he shall live happily for ever but if a man live happily as we account it and die miserably that misery is endless Ye mistake beloved ye account men happy that abound in wealth and honour that have great estates I say ye mistake in accounting men happy that enjoy the good things of this life that can live in prosperity to the last time of their age possessing what they have gotten If such a man be not prepared for death Death makes way for a greater unhappiness after death For the more sin he hath committed the more misery shall betide him his life being nothing but a continued chain of wickedness one link upon another till he settle upon a preparation for Death And in the last place here is a great deal of comfort to those that have laboured to prepare for death though to them Death is an enemy yet it is an enemy that is utterly destroyed The Philosopher said that Death is the terriblest of all terrible things so it is to nature because it doth that that no other evil can do it separateth from all comfort and carrieth us we know not whether Death is terrible to a man that is unarmed for death but to the poor Saints that have bestowed their time in humiliation and supplication and confession that have daily endeavoured to renew their faith and hope and repentance Death hath no manner of terribleness in the world if it be terrible to a Christian at the first it is onely because he hath forgot himself a little he doth not bethink how he is armed If God have fitted his servants for death he hath done most for them if they have not riches yet they are fit for death if they have not an estate amongst men it mattereth not a whit if they be fit for Death if they be miserable here in torments and sickness when others have health it is no matter all these increase their repentance makes them labour for Faith and Hope and Charity whereby they are armed against Death Nothing can save us from the hurt of Death but the Lord Jesus Christ put on by Faith and that furnished with Hope and Charity If God give a man other things and not these graces Death is not destroyed to him But if he deny him other things and give him these graces he doth enough for him Death is destroyed to him His body indeed falleth under the stroke of Death as other mens but his soul is not hurt Death layeth him a rotting as the common sort but the soul goeth to the possession of glory and remaineth with Christ When he is absent from the body he is present with the Lord. Nay when the last day shall come Death shall be utterly swallowed up then the poor and frail and weak body that sleepeth in corruption and mortality shall be raised in honour and in immortal beauty and glory a spiritual body free from all corporal weaknesses that accompany the natural body it shall be made most glorious blessed even as if it were a spirit all the weaknesses that accompany the natural being of the body shall be baken away and it shall enjoy as much perfection as a body can and therefore it is called spiritual Therefore I beseech you rejoyce in the Lord if your souls tell you that you are armed against this death THE WORLDS LOSSE AND THE RIGHTEOUS MANS GAINE SERMON VIII ISAIAH 57.1 And merciful men are taken away none considering that the Righteous is taken away from the evil to come WHen I first began this Verse I did never think that all things would have been so sutable to the finishing of it as now I find they are For there is no circumstance that can be required to make a correspondency between a former and a latter handling but is to be found in the two surveyes I took upon this Text. The occasion of handling it now is the same that was before I began it at a Funeral and now at another Funeral I shall end it The place of handling the same as it was before I began the former part of the Verse in this very street at the other end of it Now I shall finish it at this And the time it is the same and every way answerable to that it was before It was begun in a time of Mortality seared
yet Abel was the first that died Adam committed the transgrestion the elder son was Cain the second Abel in the course of nature the eldest should have gone first but Abel righteous Abel that was the moyty the half of his comfort and the greater half though the younger Adam sinneth first and yet righteous Abel dieth first He gives the reason to be this because God would let us see in the Portal of death the table of the Resurrection he would shew us the linnaments of the Resurrection in the first man that dieth that righteous Abel is took away that we should be assured that he was but translated there was hope of the Resurrection confirmed even in his death But yet that is not all the reason I conceive that is more proper to this is righteous Abal dieth first to shew that even righteous and merciful men must not expect immunity from death and from suffering tribulation in this world it is the condition that befalleth Abel the righteous as well as Cain the Pharisee It belongeth to faithful Abraham as well as to Apostatizing Gemas to beloved Jacob as well as to rejected Esau to meek Moses as well as to cursing Shemei to Deborah the Prophetess as well as to usurping Athaliah to devout Josiah as well as to impious Ahab to tender-hearted David as well as to churlish Nabal to the humble Publican as well as to the vaunting Pharisee It is the law and rule that is set to all there is no exemption righteousness piety and works of mercy then do not exempt Eor if they could exempt how should piety have the reward when should godliness come to the full recompence It is death that makes way to the hope of reward And if it be so that righteousness excuseth not then neither honour nor strength nor beauty nor riches can excuse in the world for these are of far less prevalency with God then piety So the Argument standeth strongly If Job died that was a merciful man if Abel was taken away that was a righteous man look to other conditions then Casar that is the Princes of the world shall be cut off their state and pompe shall not keep them then Cressus that is the rich men of the world shall die their purse and plenty shall not excuse them then Socrates that is the prudent and learned men of the world their wisdom shall not prevent it then Helena that is the Minnions of the world the decking of their bodies and their beauty and painting shall be setched off they will expose them to death they shall not free them then Sampson that is the strong men of the world those that are healthy of able parts likely to out-live nature their strength shall not excuse them that no man should glory in any thing without Neither the strong man in his strength nor the wise man in his wisdom or the rich man in his wealth but if he glory in any thing to glory in the Lord. Though we must not boast our selves of piety yet as the A postle saith yea have compelled me If a man may boast of any thing it is of piety that is rejoyce in this If God have made a man a vessel of mercy and an instrument of doing any good but otherwise to boast of it even that shall be the stain and further disgrace of it for righteousness it self excuses not from death all are subject to the same law that is the first observation Mercifull men are taken away as well as others Secondly there is a difference in the manner though they be subject to death yet it is a subjection under another subjection Death is made subject to them they conquer Death So both stand together they die and not die because their death is but a translation but a removing There are two persons two men in every penitent and godly man there is somewhat of a righteous man and somewhat of a sinner somewhat of the flesh and somewhat of the spirit so according to these two both laws are kept the Law of commination that is kept thou shall die the death there is the reward of sin the law of promise that is kept thou shall live for ever there is the reward of righteousness Mortality giveth the reward to sin immortality to piety Though they die they are but taken away The word implies these two things First it implies that their death is but a temporary death Taking away is not a final translation it doth not implie a nullity Death though it cut the knot of nature yet not grace It is true there is the sharp Axe of death there is no knot so Gordian but it will cut it a funder It is a great knot that was first knit between the body and the soul it cutteth that asunder It is a sure knot which is the Conjugal knot between man and wife it cutteth that asunder There is a natural bond and union between Parents and children it cuts that asunder There is a civil union between friend and friend it cuts that knot asunder it takes one friend from another But there is the mystical union between the head and the members between Christ and the Church it cannot cut that knot asunder But look as Christs body in the Grave it was not deprived of the Hypostatical union so likewise the body of a Saint when it lies in the grave in corruption it is mellowing for immoratlity and eternity yea then it enjoyeth the benefit of the mistical Union there is somewhat of a member of Christ that lies in the grave that dust that the body of a Saint is resolved into it is holy Dust because that mistical Union is not cut asunder Death cutteth not that knot It perfecteth the misticall Union in respect of the soul and it is but an interruption of the manifestation of the union in respect of the body it is never severed As the Husbandman hath some corne in his ground and some in his Barn the Corn in his ground is of no less value and account then that in his house and Barn Nay it is of more for that that is in his Barn shall not multiply so many bushels he putteth up and so many he receiveth but that which is in the ground multipiles therefore it is in as great account So it is with God There are many bodies of the Saints walking on the earth and those that are laid in the grave that are sowen as the Apostle faith for immortality The bodies of the Saints in the grave are of no lesse account with God then those which walk up and down in the world and glorisie him with works of piety why the body is sown to immortality there is still somewhat of Christ That is the first thing it implies They are taken away it argues that their death is temporary Secondly it sheweth it is deliberate that their death is not sudden For there is a difference between these two to be snatched away
and to be taken away Impenitent men when they are taken away in Judgement they are snatched away in displeasure The godly man God takes him away removes him it is as gentle a word as could be used there cannot be a better word to express it in our translation then for God to take him away Job and Moses expressed it so and so Isaiah here to shew that Death is never sudden to the merciful and righheous man Why because he is alwayes prepared It may be sudden in respect of others but not to himself The stroke of Death may be the same to a righteous man as to an impenitent man they may both fall by the prevalency of the same disease the same duration of sickness the same warning given them the same sympathy but there is a difference in regard of the suddenness If it be a sudden stroke that overtakes an impenitent man then it is two wayes sudden even a premeditated death is sudden to him because he is not prepared sudden death cometh not to a prepared man because he looks for it it may as I said be sudden to others but it is not to himself Why because he expects Death he dieth dayly he dieth in his thoughts before he dies in act he dies in meditation before he dies in passion I die daily faith the Apostle Death when it came to the Apostle it found him dying it could not come suddenly to him Death finds him setting open the doors therefore though it seem sudden death it cannot be sudden because he is taken away the stroke of Death may be sudden but the issue of death is not sudden the stroke may be sudden to his body but not to his mind because he fitteth himself still for it There is the deliberation implied in the word his death is not sudden in that he is prepared God awaketh his heart to make him look for it therefore when Death comech though sooner or later it doth but take him it shatcheth him not away that is the meaning of the second The third word is the extent of this act from the evil to come that is a word that is not specified in the former part it makes both this and that the more full it makes a greater demonstration of Gods goodness he is not only merciful in taking away but he takes away from that that is evil he takes from a bad estate to a better An evil that is present that is simply so an Evil for the time to come God takes righteous and merciful men from both That I may lay a sit path for my proceeding in it Saint Aust in devideth the nature of Evil well to those two heads there is the Evil of doing and the evil of suffering that is the evil of sin and of punishment The first of these the Evil of sin is opposite faith Aquinas to the increated good The second the Evil of punishment is opposite to the created good God takes away merciful men from both these First from the Evil of suffering Two wayes he is took from that He is took away from the Evil of suffering that he shall not see it and that he shall not undergo it and endure it First that he shall not see it that he shall not be a sepectator that is one part of taking away For righteous and merciful men have tender affections and yearning bowels when they see Gods judgements extended over any place or person they sympathize with them they weep with those that weep and mourn with those that mourn God takes them from this sorrow and mourning It hath alwayes been accounted one part of the happiness of a godly man to be taken from the Evil of the place he liveth in God takes Josiah from the evil to come Saint Jerom sheweth it well in Nepotian he makes this as an Argument amongst others that his departure was a comfort and happiness to him because saith he Nepotian is happy that he sees not those Evils and calamities and miseries that are now come on the Church that we see Nay not only in the esteem of godly and righteous and Christian men but in the esteem of the Heathens it was accounted a happiness to die before a man see the miseries on the place he wisheth well to Virgil in the eleventh of his AEniads bringeth in Vandall making a lamentation over his son Pallas that was slain after many tears that were shed over him and doleful words that were past the Poet bringeth in his wife and faith it was her happiness to die before him that she saw not this misery the Poet accounted her happy that she died before and saw not the misery that was brought on that place and her husband In his esteem then it is one point of happiness to be taken away before that Evil come upon a place we wish well too He expresseth himself in another place in the first of his AEniads They are happy that die before their Country before they see the ruin of that Therefore it must needs be a great happiness for a Christian to be taken away before misery come upon the Church Here is one respect the Lord hath he takes them away that they do not see the Evil he bringeth on a place Secondly That they should not suffer it that is a further degree and a greater So we see that it is the happiness that is intailed on other servants of God Though it is not a course that God alwayes constantly keepeth sometime he suffereth godly men to live and to be swept away in common calamities as the Plague Famine Sword and the like even righteous men perish in these times that is the course that God sometimes takes On the other side sometime he takes this course that he will preserve them in the middest of danger he will keep them alive he sendeth calamities and plagues and yet he preserveth the righteous So in the Revelation he commandeth the Angel to seal his servants on the forehead when he poureth his curses on the Earth so in the ninth of Ezekiel he speaks to the man with a slaughter weapon to mark those that mourned to passe them by So in Exod. 12. he commandeth the bloud to be sprinkled on the posts of the doors that the Angel may passe by So God when he seeth his mark the bloud of the Covenant on the head of his servants he passeth them by in common calamities sometimes I say he takes that course But he is not tyed to one course alwayes sometimes he takes away his servants from the Evil to come he doth not suffer them to have the sorrow of seeing or feeling of it God when he intendeth to smite the Earth with plagues and curses he will make this way for his course he will remove the obstables the Saints that are the impediments they hold Gods hands they wrestle by prayer they prevaile by humiliation they cast down themselves and stand in
the gap that he may unwind his hands of this burthen of the prayers of his servants he removeth them by death he saith to them as he did to Moses let me alone that I may destroy them And then as it is with the Husbandman when the corn is gotten into his Barn he burneth up the stuble till the Wheat be gathered the Tares are not turned up God will not pour his plagues untill he have removed the impediments those that are merciful men when they are taken away he poureth down his judgements Therefore he takes them away that they may not see it nor suffer it that is the second Thirdly he takes them from the Evil of sinning that is a greater blessing and in two senses from that He takes them from it that they shall not see sin for that is a great Corrosive to a godly man It was one point of Davids grievance that he saw wicked men suffer I humbled my soul with fasting and I behaved my self as one that mourned for his Mother David humbled himself even for his enemies when they were afflictied that was one part of his sorrow But the chief part of his sorrow was to see them commit sin Mine eyes gush out with rivers of tears because men keep not thy law That was a great affliction Therefore that they may be eased of that evil God takes away merciful men that they shall not see sins committed they are offensive to chaste eyes He takes them to heaven that their ears may not be filled with hellish blasphemies and damnable oathes that overburthen the ground that ring their peals in every street as a man passeth by there is no hearing such things in heaven That is one thing he takes them away that their eyes may not be glutted with beholding extortions oppressions murthers contentions revilings and other sins in the world It is a great ease to a godly man to be took out of evil times when God leaveth him in times and places that are evil he shines as a light when God takes him away he hath the reward of his sorrow it cost him grief to see it therefore to reward him God takes him away that he may not see sin committed Fourthly God takes them away that they may mot sin themselves for heaven is a place as of no sorrow so of no sin though we be unsatiable of sin now then there is an end put to it It pleaseth God so to deal in his providence to order it that sin brought in Death and Death carrieth out sin that as a skilful Chimmick distilleth an Antidote out of poyson so doth God Death that was the reward of sin God setcheth the translation out of it to eternal happiness the Mother sin brought forth Death and Death the daughter carrieth out sin That is it that is the great comfort of a man in death as now I shall cease suffering so here is my comfort too I shll cease sinning though my purposes and endeavours be bent upon piety yet I am overtaken I could not tread so strait but I did often tread awry now there shall be a new plain path provided for my feet there is no sin in heaven That is a great point of wisdome that God destroyeth sin with the body and raiseth the body again without sin if the body should live alwayes how should sin end sin will not be rooted out as long as we are in the body while we carry about us this vaile of flesh we shall carry about us also another vaile of sin therefore faith Epiphanius God dealeth with us as a skilful houshoulder with his house Look as it is in building an old house if there grow a Fig-tree or Ivy out of the house that it spred the root through the chincks and partitions of the wall a man that cuts down the Fig-tree shall not profit for it is so fast rooted in the wall and in the chincks that either he must pull down the wall or else it will not die Therefore a wise man will pull down his house and root out the Fig-tree and then set up stones and there erect the house beautiful and so both are preserved he hath his end in both both the house is rebuilt and the Ivy consumed and rooted out So it is in case of sin there is the house we carry about us the building the temple of our body the house is man himself sin is the fig-tree it is such a fig-tree as insinuateth it self between every chink and partition in our nature there is somewhat corrupt in every faculty of the soul and it sheweth the fruit in every part of the body that is an instrument of sin it hath so wound it self in that the fig-tree cannot be destroyed cannot be pulled out except the house be dissolved there must be a pulling down of the Temple therefore God in wisdome by Death he takes the Temple the house in peeces and then the fig-tree may be pulled out and then he erects the wall of that house more glorious then before it was thrown down while the fig tree was in it while sin was in it it is raised up without it that is that the Apostle faith Corruption shall put on incorruption and mortality shall put on immortality the body that is sown a naturall body it shall be raised a spiritual it is sown in dishonour it shall be raised in glory God therefore takes them away from the evil of sin he dissolved the body that he may purifie it and cloath it with immortality that it may be a purer body then when it was first presented in nature at the first Creation We see hereby what those good things are that Death bringeth It bringeth immunity from the evil of suffering God takes away merciful men that they see not that they suffer not And it bringeth immunity from sin that they do not see it that they do not commit it The use is a Pillar of considence not to be afraid of Death who would fear that which makes for his perfection that is the means of his translation of happiness And in respect of others not to mourn for them that are took away out of this world as those that are without hope they are not took away but translated they are removed for their advantage for the better Elijah was removed from earth to heaven in a firie chariot shall Elisha weep because he enjoyeth him not No he is took from earth to heaven Joseph was sold into AEgypt but it was to be a Ruler God intended that it is the same reason God translates us out of the world to give us the end of our hope even the salvation of our souls Shall we mourn as men without hope God takes them out of a valley of tears shall we mourn unsatiably for those that are took out of the valley of tears Let us not bring their memory to the valley of tears they are past it God takes them from
my son would God I had died for thee my son All conditions that live find tears in mens eyes and consideration of their departure only the godly and the righteous man findeth none Here is their stupidity Can there be a greater stupidity then to make a man die twice as they die the death of their bodies so to make them suffer a death in our memories as they perish to the world so to perish also in our thoughts and meditations We owe God so much we owe piety so much we owe the memorial of many so much we owe our selves so much as to take it into consideration And yet no man considereth This is the fault which we may examine our selves of For if we now make reflection of all this upon our selves we must find a conformity with our times There is never a word of this Scripture but it is true now I will now take the parts in order First we cannot deny that evil is to come upon this place Nay it were well if it were to come it is come already it hath overtaken us If we load the earth with the evil of sin it is impossible that God should forbear long The evil of sin that surchargeth the earth must be unloaden again by this burthen by the burthen of punishment one burthen must justle out another Evils there have been impendant that we have seen Evils there are now present that we begin to groane under and no man can tell where that evil will stay There is evil present and evils to come because our evils are still multiplying the beginnings of sorrows and sufferings and fears God grant it may stay But our state and condition is like them in this that they are yet impendant We see the heavens grown black judgments are a ripening When ye see the sky red when ye see the skie black judgment is beginning not only beginning to bud but it beginneth to spread and inlarge it selfe Thus farr there is a correspondency There is evil that we have cause to fear and suspect yet further to come on this place Secondly there is a conformity with the other too in our negligence The world sendeth forth men now void of natural affection It was never so before For if before they neglected others yet they were careful of themselves But men now desperately neglect their own salvations There is no respect to God no pitty of others no not of themselves I do not wonder that men heretofore considered not when they loved their lives better then their sins because they had some sensible taste of that that was temporal when they loved their lives better then heaven But now men love not their lives best but their sins better for though their lives be in danger yet their sins are kept It is an admirable thing to consider how every way we are given to plenty to ryot to security notwithstanding God cometh neer and bringeth his judgment even to the door and makes it swell He forbeareth a long time to trie us with mercies and then he takes a severe course Where shall men see the face of an alteration our lives are the same our delights the same our vanities and follies the same we keep the same sins still as if we were bent to provoke God further to see what he will do That is an evident sign we consider not for what purpose God sendeth his plagues we consider not what he doth when he takes away others for our example none lay it to heart and take it into consideration it swimmeth not in his brain We begin to tremble and we think our selves well if we provide a countrey house but God hath beset us in the Countrey and in the City There will be no flight but to repentance there is the City of refuge and there is no way to repent but by consideration these must be took to heart before there can be amendment and till there be amendment there will he no removing of judgment It is plain then that we are conform able in that part of the Text. And in the first too That merciful men are taken away experience sheweth it daily they are taken so frequently that there is hardly any left they are not only taken away but swept away And if there were no other proof this representation this sad spectacle before our eyes that is an argument to make the proof of the conformity of the first part of the text with us In the text there is mention made of a righteous man of a merciful man The Spirit of God bringeth in all the parts by pairs It is fulfiled in the solemnity and occasion of this day by pairs God calleth us to piety by pairs he giveth us spectacles of mortality I thought I had come to do the duty for one to performe the solemnity of one Funeral but after I perceived I was called to do the office for two It was not so from the beginning it falleth not out so every day Here is the true proof that these are the times of mortality set the pairs any way and we shall see that there is one free none can secure himself from the stroke of death One a vertuous ancient Gentlewoman the other a grave learned minister but of younger condition here are both ages took away and both presented not only so but here are both conditions of life and both presented together and here are both sexes and both presented together to teach us that no sex no condition no age can secure themselves I will smite the Shepheard saith Christ foretelling the Disciples what should befal them Here is the smiting of the Shepheard and the sheep too But both together and I beleeve this place cannot send such another pair For the one He was the most eminent for his place For the other she was the most eminent for her piety I was not acquainted with the conversation of either and therefore I shall not speak much and the information I had it was not much for it was needless I may save a labour for both for if I speak any thing false ye are able to refute me if I speak any thing true as all must be true that is spoken here yet ye are able to prevent me and I can say nothing that ye know not For the one I here that he had the report of a man that was conscionable in the discharge of his place And all that I shall say of him shall be only this there is cause that ye should take to heart his death For what is the reason that in this little Parish that is as healthful as another But God is wounderful in his wayes and we must not search into the judgments of God that it is not full eight years but there have three succeeded that have been commended to this place and have died one after another Is it so that ye kill them with unkindness the world saith so I tell ye I know
live to himself is bound to serve every man with every gift he hath If God have furnished a man with inward gifts the graces of his Spirit If a man have knowledge and faith or experience or comfort whatsoever graces of the Spirit he hath there are duties appointed and a Communion of Saints exprest that men may be stirred up to exercise those graces in that communion for the good of all the Saints Therefore we are said to have knowledge to profit with And gifts to edifie with All that a man hath God hath given him for this end that God may be glorified by it Hercin is my Father glorified that you bring forth much fruit Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven Men have much benesit by the graces of the Spirit in others when they are improved as they ought they are as lights amongst men in the world Grace when it is opened like the Box of oyntment raiseth a desire in others after it Grace exercised and communicated to others it sheweth the amiableness of it Christians should therefore do it that they may make Christianity lovely that they may make the profession of Religion amiable to the world that is by communicating the graces of God to others This every man should do in his place in his person take all advantages this way And as it is good for others so it is good for a Mans self to do thus a man increaseth his own store Liberality we say is the best husbandry There is no promise in the Scripture for hoarding up there are many to distribute I say it is the best husbandry in the world especially in spiritual things it is as the oyl increased in the pouring out like the loaves the more they were broken the more they multiplied still We see the hand noursheth it self by administring food to the mouth so a Christian not only exerciseth but increaseth grace in himself by communicating grace to others And what I say for spiritual I say for outward things If a man have wealth or honor or any of these outward things and an opportunity he should imploy them for others that it may appear that he doth not live to himself He that layeth up riches only for himself and his family liveth to himself He that followeth his calling only for himself and his family liveth to himself He doth that which a man out of Christ would do but a man that would live to God he must glorifie God with his estate To do good and to distribute forget not for with such sacrifices God is pleased Heb. 13. Charge them that are rich in the world that they be not high-minded but ready to distribute to the necessities of the Saints 1 Tim. 3. It is a charge laid upon all to glorifie God with their estates with their Authority as they are magistrates as Job faith I was a foot to the lame an eye to the blind a father to the fatherless a husband to the widow He did all things for the good of others All men are ambassadours sent from God for the good of the bodies and souls of others Am I a neighbour it is for the good of the body and soul of every one that converseth with me according to the manifold gifts bestowed upon me and I live no further to God then I do extend and communicate all my particular gifts to the good of others both for soul and body Thus you have the point opened and pressed concerning living to our selves as a mark of those that are Christs that they do not live to themselves I beseech you brethren let this be the advantage of Funeral Sermons that are preached upon the occasion of the death of our deceased brethren to teach us how to live Let every man hereaster resolve to lead a profitable and fruitful life to do all the good he can while he liveth that for much good done to many thanks may be given by many on his behalf THE IMPROVEMENT OF TIME OR THE RIGHT USE OF TIMES SHORTNESSE SERMON XI 1 COR. 7.29 30. But this I say bretrhen the time is short It remaineth that both they that have Wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as if they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it for the fassion of this world passeth away THat I may briefly come to open to you the sum of that that I have to deliver out of this Scripture I desire you beloved in the Lord in few words to take notice of the drift and scope of the holy Apostle in this place and that is this The Corinths as it seemeth in the beginning of this chapter had written a Letter to Saint Paul wherein they did propound to him divers Cases of Conscience and did intreat him that he would send him judgement concerning those points Some five or six we may gather they did write to him about One was this whether he thought it either a lawful or a fitting thing for a man to marry The second was Whether if a man were married his Wife and he might not separate themselves one from another The third was If they did live together whether it were lawful for the one to deny to the other matrimonial benevolence The fourth Whether if one of them being a Beleever and the other an Infidel it were lawful or convenient for the beleever to remain a yoke-fellow to the Insidel These and divers other cases of concience they intreated Saint Paul to resolve them in Now the Apostle in the beginning of this Chapter writeth an Answer to every one of these Questions they propounded To some of them he answered thus Indeed I canuot give an absolute determination what is to be done but I suppose this and this is best And to another I advise such a thing I cannot directly determine the will of God but I have received mercy of God to be accounted faithful and if you would know my opinion it is this And so he giveth divers doubtful answers to their Questions only he telleth them this is fittest for the opportunity When he hath done all he cometh to this I have read But this I say brethren c. As if he should say The Questions I have given you an Answer to I think you know not what to resolve upon because I say only this is my counsel or this is my opinion But this I am peremptory in that is That they that have wives be as if they had none they that weep as if they wept not and they that rejoyce as if they rejoyced not This I do not come to say I suppose and I think it sit or I give my advise or for the present occasion it is fit to be thus But brethren herein I am consident and
that hath a Wife hath two things that another hath not that hath no wife The first is He hath a great deal of joy and comfort he hath a second self a loving yoak-fellow one in whose Bosome he can pour his heart at any time one that he can make partaker of all his contentments one that is willing to help him to carry all his crosses so in a Wife supposing her to be a good Wife he hath that comfort that another knows not of Secondly he that hath a Wife hath a great many cares that another hath not he hath a great deal of fear lest he should leave her in distress a great deal of care how she and the children that are begotten by him of her should be provided for when he is gone so that as Saint Paul saith he cannot but care for the things of the world how he may give content to his wife These two things a man hath that hath a Wife Now What is it to be in this as if he had no wife That is this In all contentments that come by a wife to use them as if he had none at all that is to be moderate not to glut himself and to think now I am a happy man I need no more God hath given me such a yoak-fellow and I have abundant joy in it But to moderate his heart in this And for the other thing for care and thought how to provide for her and her children to go on as if he had no wife and children to provide for to leave all to God to go on in his calling in obedience to God and let God do what he will And for matter of providing food and rayment when he is gone let him even carry himself as if all the world were gone when he is gone This is to have a wife as if he had none to be as moderate in the injoying of the contentments that come by his wife to be as moderate in cares required for a Wife so moderate in them as if he had no wife at all to joy in or to take care for For the second They that weep as if they wept not That is for matter of Affliction One man cometh out and he exceedingly glorieth in his happiness that he hath a wife Another complaineth no man is so full of crosses as I every day one cross after another no man hath such children such a husband such an estate so poor so afflicted so weak ever groaning and complaining Now saith Saint Paul be as if not in weeping That is let the thoughts of the neereness of the shoar make you so contented as if there were no cross at all lying upon you For I still follow the Metaphor the Spirit of God useth he that is the poorest man in the Ship he that doth nothing but dress the sayles and as I said before ply the pumpe and it may be is beaten withal yet in the midst of all these he thinketh I shall by and by cast Anchor and though I work hard yet one hour more will make me free So it should be with us in all afflictions as if not that is Think Death will come and end all I am sick in body I am crost in my good name in my yoak-fellow Well Death will end all these I have but a little while ro tarry in this world and short things must not be tedious On the other side He that rejoyceth as though he rejoyced not That is in all the contentments of the world in all the joy a man hath in the things below as suppose a man have an estate here and credit given him or any thing that makes the world account a man happy Remember all these things will be gone assoon as I die as still to use the comparison let it be the Master of the Ship he may think with himself all these are under me I can command them and punish them if they disobey yet as soon as I am out of the Ship they are as good as my self I am now neer the shoar and shall be soon out of the place I am in let me therefore moderate my self So let us in all worldly contentments be so moderate as if we should take our leaves of them and they of us And so for a man to be as though be possest not That is for a man not to inlarge his heart as the world is enlarged But if I have now so many pounds and therewith buy such a purchase and such a purchase let me live and carry my self in my thoughts as if I had nothing but food and rayment And then lastly cometh in the main of all the rest They that use the world as not abusing it By world he means all the good things of the world all that I named before and all that you can else think of Wife and children prosperity and adversity every thing on the right hand and on the left all cometh within the compass of the World use all these things so But especially he aimeth at worldly businesses the things we are exercised about do them as not abusing them as not letting your hearts be set too much upon them but be temperate and moderate in all that we may ever be fit for that great service that God hath to imploy us in Now out of all these put together the main Lesson that I would speak of is this That the true servants of God true beleevers all the blessings and crosses they meet with in this world they must have them as if they had them not This is the point I would open to you That in wife children prosperity crosses think what you can a beleever must be in them as if not as if he were not in that condition To give you for the proof of this any other Scripture then my Text I suppose I need not the Apostle Saint Paul you see layes it down in so many words Yet for the better confirmation of the point I will add to that two or three other plain places Only first I would a little explain to you what it is for a man to use all these things as if not And I cannot for my life better lay it open to you then by such a comparison as this Look how worldly men use the things of heaven so a heavenly man use the things of the world To instance in a few duties that I will but name Suppose it be the duty of prayer Bring me out a true beleever and a worldling let them both be put upon this duty of prayer The true beleever his heart before he goes to prayer is so full of care that he may pray aright so full of fear lest his heart should not carry it self as it should when he is in the duty his heart is so violently bent to it it so strugleth and striveth that he may do it as may please God When he hath done he hath much joy and
he will have thee on the topp of the wheel of prosperity thank God for it take heed of abusing the things thou enjoyest Remember the things of this life are inconstant things as a flower as a nosegay that seemeth as a dainty fine thing but while we are smelling at it and praising it it withereth away so is it with all these things I would I could tell how to speak home to your souls and yet I know that little I have spoken if it be entertained with faith if you beleeve this to be the truth of God not as the speech that a man makes to you but as the speech of Saint Paul an Apostle of Christ that sets it down by the direction of God that it is thus I say if you lay down this as a truth that comes from God and seriously think with your selves I have but a little time to tarry here below and when I am out of the world I shall live for ever in heaven or in hell while I do enjoy the things of this world God will have me to be as if not in them and there is good reason why they are shewes and not substances Grace and the favour of God is only that which is substantial whatsoever you look upon that is under these are but shewes riches and honour and worldly contenments they are but shadows like one in a play that is but a Peasant under the coat of a King these have but only outsides under them there is no such matter This I say which I have spoken being seriously considered and faithfully received may through the blessing of God and your own prayers to God to teach you this be a means to moderate you in the use of all those things that are here below SECURITY SURPRIZED OR THE DESTRVCTION OF THE CARELESSE SERMON XII 1 THES 5.3 For when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape IN the latter part of the Chapter going before the blessed Apostle St. Paul to the end that he might draw those to whom he wrote from immoderate sorrow for them that were departed this life revealeth to them certain comfortable truths concerning the Resurrection from the dead telling them that death it self is but as a sleep whence they shall be raised at the last day by the voyce of the Arch-angel c. In the beginning of this Chapter he prevents an objection that some might make For having fallen upon the discourse of the Resurrection he well knew the curiosity of mans nature that leaves those things that are most profitable to enquire after such things that God hath hid and therefore some men might say Since there shall be such a time and such a change when will those times and seasons be When shall that great day of the Resurrection come when all shall be brought together Of the times and seasons brethren saith the Apostle ye have no need that I write unto you verse 1. As if he should say this is no needful no necessary thing for you to inquire into or for me to tell you rather let us fall upon those things that are necessary and useful for neither you not I can tell the particular time when that shall be yet know this that very suddenly such a time shall come and that when the world least thinks of it The suddenness hereof he setteth down by a twofold comparison First by the coming of a thief in the night Your selves know perfectly that the day of the Eord so cometh as a thief in the night vers 2. Secondly by the travail that cometh upon a woman with child When they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape This latter is that I have made choyce of at this time for my Text. A little for the explanation of the words When they shall say peace and safety The Apostle intendeth not to condemn either the speaking of peace to the children of peace or their rejoycing in that peace they have But that which he condemneth is that they cry peace to themselves whom God denounceth war against Men that go on in a course of sinning and in security and yet will perswade themselves that all shall be well with them in the end these are the men upon whom Death shall come thus suddenly and upon whom the Judgment day shall come thus unexpected When they shall say peace and safety that is when they are living in their sins walking on in their rebellions against God and shall yet be flattering themselves that it shall be well with them not withstanding this then shall Judgment come upon them then sudden destruction cometh By destruction here he meaneth not the destruction of the body or the soul the destruction of their beeing For the Soul even after the death of the body shall have a beeing and the body also shall be restored again to its beeing and parts in the resurrection from the dead It were happy for wicked and ungodly men if there should be such a destruction of there beeing as that they should cease to be any more for then this body the members whereof have been the servants of sin should not be tormented in Hell and then this Soul of theirs that hath set all the body on work in the service of sin it should not be sensible of that anguish that shall cause gnashing of teeth It were well I say for them if there should be such a destruction it is that which if they might have their desire they would wish above all things in the world But it will not be such a destruction it shall be worse with them It shall only be the destruction of their joy and comfort of all their contentments of all those things wherein they solaced and flattered themselves upon earth all these things shall be destroyed Their riches that fed their lusts shall be destroyed and their company that incouraged them in sin shall be destroyed and all things wherein they have delighted themselves here upon earth shall be destroyed the whole earth shall be burnt with fire before them And beside this that same chearfulness of spirit and that free disposition whereby they incouraged themselves in the wayes of their pride or whatsoever else it was that made them seem some body on earth all this shall cease and fail them and forsake them There shall be no mirth no wisdom no courage no friends no wealth no houses no apparrel nothing to pride and delight themselves in there shall be an utter destruction of all these things Then shall destruction come upon them As pain upon a woman with child This sheweth the manner the kind of their destruction that shall come upon them It shall be first a sudden destruction it shall not give them warning either of the time or
find it out What a sort of diseases we are subject to you may imagine how many Nay yea cannot imagine how many when the very eye as some Occolists observe have above sixty diseases What a many casualties there are every moment when as oft as we step over the threshold we cannot tell whether ever we shall come home again The fire saith Death is in me and the water saith Death is in me the earth we tread on hath Death in it the Ayre we breath in that which we continually take in and put out at our nostrils hath death in it Death dwelleth with us in our houses it walketh with us in the streets it lyeth down with us in our beds it is wrapped about us in our cloaths that stick to us Benhadad is slain in his Bed Ammon at his Table Zachariah in the Temple Joah at the Altar The disobedient Prophet is torne with a Lyon The unbeleeving Prince is trod to Death in the croude Abimelech slain with a Mill-stone and Pyrrhus with the fall of a Tyle Adrian is choaked with a flie Victor is poisoned with Wine And one of the Emperours with the bread he received in the Sacrament Thus Death waiteth every where and yet we spie it not It is a secret Enemy and therefore the more dangerous Thirdly it is a Spiritual Enemy And it is the more dangerous for that Spiritual I call it First because it is invisible for the spirits are invisible they cannot be seen Such an enemy is Death though we must all feel it yet we cannot see it were it any way discernable we might think of some way how we might shift and shun it but it is beyond the ken of our eyes we are no more able to see that then the Ayre being therefore out of sight it is out of our reach we know not how to grapple with it we know not with what weapons to encounter it And a Spiritual Enemy I call it because though it seize on the body it strikes at the soul By Gods decree the death of the soul is a concommitant of the death of the Body and were it not by Gods mercy reverst they wouldstill come like lightning and thunder and strike both together Again it is a spiritual enemy because it fighteth against us in the strength of sin It cometh armed with a Sting the sting of de ath is sin Some make question whether if Adam had never sinned he should ever have died But me-thinks the Apostle Saint Paul putteth it out of question By one mans disobedience sin came into the world and by sin death All those Death 's that S. Austin reckoneth up First when the soul is deprived of God separated from him Secondly when the body is separated from the soul Thirdly when the Soul is separated from the body and from God and suffereth torments for a time Lastly when the soul is separated from God and rejoyned to the body to suffer torments eternally All these are the recompence and reward of sin Therefore Death coming and being an Enemy thus armed whatsoever kind of death it be we may well say it is a spiritual enemy and the more spiritual the more dangerous Fourthly and Lastly it is a continual enemy And it is the more dangerous for that It laies hold of us in the womb and never leaves us till it hath brought us to the Grave Beloved we do not only die when we die but all the time we live assoon as we begin to live we begin to die As Seneca saith Every day we die because every day some part of our life is gone As a candle it is no sooner lighted but presently it begins to waste as an hour-glass it is no sooner turned but presently the sand begins to run out So our life it is no sooner breathed but presently it begins to vapour out As the Sea what it gaineth in one place it loseth in another so our life what we gain one way we lose it in another look what is added to it so much is took from it the longer a man liveth the less he hath to live Death doth by us as Jacob did by Esau catcheth us in the wombe and never leaveth us So we see it is a Common a Secret a Spiritual a Continual Enemy Next we are to consider How and wherein Death sheweth it self an Enemy What Death deserveth at our hands to be thus accounted and seared Fearful and terrible it is that is certain So Aristotle It is the most terrible of all terribles Bildad in Job calleth it the King of terrours What doth Death bring with it to make it fearful I answer Death hath sundry concomitants and companions that attend it that make it a formidable Enemy First the Harbingers that come along with it Sicknesses and diseases infirmities old age and difficulties These are all fearful to nature and through fear of these Death keepeth men all their life in bondage They make our lives as it were a life rather like a life then a life indeed So that howsoever the Apostle said in another place as it were dying and behold we live There Death hath the tanquam and life the Ecce yet here we may say as it were living and behold we die here life hath the tanquam and Death the Ecce Life is but as it were a life it is but the shadow of a life that man walketh in Man walketh in a vain shadow and disquieteth himself in vain It it true it lighteth not on all alike some it cometh on as a Lyon and breaking their bones from morning to evening it makes an end of them to others it is as a Moth in the garment secretly in their lives by degrees insensibly pining and consuming them Howsoever what Harbinger soever it bringeth it visiteth us with many touches and twitches before it come falling pell-mel thick and three-fold on us when they come In respect of these it may be said to be an enemy Secondly the dissolution that Death bringeth For it dissolveth the frame of nature It divorceth and separateth the Soul from the Body those two companions that have lived so lovingly together and perhaps have lived a long time together This is another thing that makes Death look like an Euemy Friends and companions that have lived long together are loath to part we see in experience old folk commonly are more loath to part when they are old then when they are young Now there is none neerer then the soul and body there is none have lived so long or so loving it must needs be tedious for these to part and be an affliction and vexation when neither the body can longer retain the fleeting soul or the soul longer sustain the drouping body Therefore in respect of this also Death being the cause of this no marvel though nature reluctate and we look upon it as on the face of an Enemy Thirdly the horrour of the Grave
the men of darkness as Job calleth it the place of oblivion the pit of stinch and rottenness this is another thing that nature shrinketh and relucts at For there we must bury out of our sight that that once was the delight of our eyes as Ezekiel said by his wife And though it were never so lovely before yet it quickly becometh loathsome Our Beds must be made in darkness where corruption and wormes must be the Mattress and Coverled to lie under us and spread over us Thou shalt say to Corruption thou art my father and to the worme thou art my mother and my sister That body of thine that God in the wombe so wonderfully made that thou all thy life-time paradventure hast delicately cherished lapped in Silk in Fur pampered with sweet wines Death as a proud Tyrant will set his foot upon it and throw thee down to the horrid dungeon where thy flesh shall putrifie and thy bones rot and the beauty of it though somtime it were as the Rose and the Lilly of the field shall soon become as loathsome as the dung in the streets This is another thing that makes the face of Death dreadful and terrible when we think of such privations and annihilations as these that we shall come from a beeing to no beeing These cannot but make Death look with the face of an Enemy Fourthly The loss and deprivation of all worldly contentments and worldly imployments that is another thing that makes Death terrible and fearful to us Look whatsoever contentment we took in any thing here we must bid it farewel then Farewel to all to prophets and pleasures and honours we shall carry none of them away with us None of our pomp and glory shall descend after us as the Psalmist saith Farewell to all the gold and silver we have gathered together to all the goodly lands we have purchased to all the stately houses we have built to all the pleasant gardens and orchards we have planted to all the sports and pastimes we have had to all our merry consorts we have kept company with to all our Jewels and wardrope to our dauncing and feasting and musick Death pulleth us from all these and layeth us levell with the Dust It mingleth shovels and Scepters together It makes rich and poor the Prince and the Peasant alike I shall see man no more All relatians we have now shall be broken off then between Husband and Wife Parents and children Master and servants neighbour and neighbour friend and friend we shall dwell apart with our selves and not so much as shake hands one with another All the services and imployments we are took up with here shall cease then there shall be no frequenting of the Exchange no exercising of Trade no bearing of Office no working in our Calling Death is the night that no man can work in and Death is the place of silence where all affairs are cut off Where there is no work nor invension nor wisdome nor counsel as Solomou saith in the book of the Preacher Oh saith good Hezekiah I shall see the Lord no more in the Land of the living There is no more service to be done to the Lord nor no more in the Church in that manner as it is now there is no exercise of Religion no Word no Sacraments no Fasting no Almes no Preaching no Prayer no Confession and thanksgiving The Corse cannot praise thee the Grave cannot give thanks they that go down into the pit cannot honour thee Oh Beloved how careful and active and vigilant and diligent should this make us to be when we consider it for the well improving of that time that we have lent unto us and for the well-discharging of those places and offices and duties that are now laid upon us Considering that Death is an enemy that will cut us off from all affairs and bereave us of all opportunities of receiving or doing or performing any service to God at all either in Church or Common-wealth Fifthly and lastly Conscience of sin and certainty of judgment and uncertainty of salvation for brevities sake I put them together these things come along with Death and make the face of Death terrible and fearful Conscience of sin first of all For Sin it is the sting of Death And which of us is there that doth not arm Death with that sting Who can reflect on the passages of his life but he shall find it as full of sin as the Leopard of spots We find nothing in sin now but oblectation and delight and therefore we hide it under our tongue and hugg it in our bosomes Oh but when Death cometh once it thrusteth these things out and oh the horrour and anguish that the poor conscience is tormented and made to smart with Again with conscience of sin certainty of judgement that is another dreadful Arrow in Deaths quiver After Death cometh judgement And we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ to receive according to what we have done in our bodies First the particular judgement that passeth upon the soul it shall never be reverst for as the Tree falleth so it lieth And then the General judgement when the Body and Soul shall both be wrapped up in the same condemnation Oh who can dwell with devouring fire with those everlasting burnings And then lastly The uncertainty of our future estate For how many thousands be there that die that can not tell what becometh of them when they die but they must sing that Farewel to their souls as Adrian to his My poor wandring soul whether art thou going What will become of thee Death then being accompanied with such an Army of Terrours as these the Apostle might well call it as it is in the Text an Enemy That is the first thing Secondly we are to consider how it is called the last Enemy For two reasons First because it is the last that shall assault us So Caietan Secondly because it is the Last that shall be destroyed So the common stream of Interpreters It is the Last Enemy that shall assault us And here I have to note two things First that while we live in the world we have more Enemies in the world For when there are some last there must be others going before If Death be the last Enemy there are some others beside I we have so God knoweth Enemies on every side Without us within us The Divel he is an Enemy to us and vollies of tentation he hath to discharge against us So many tentations so many Enemies The World is an enemy to us An enemy when it seemeth a friend When it smileth it betrayeth it kisseth and killeth On the right hand it hath prosperity to allure on the left hand adversity to affright in every corner wicked counfell and company and examples to seduce and insnare us Lastly our own flesh is an enemy It is a Serpent
we carry in our bosomes The Divell is a Serpent in Hell the world is a Serpent in our hand the flesh is a Serpent in our bosome We carry it with us where ever we go It is a con-natural concorporate Enemy All our other enemies could do us no hurt if it were not for that if this enemy that cohabiteth with us did not combine against us Know who ever thou art there is no Enemy like thy self thy self is the worst enemy of all All the sparks that slie out of Sathans engines could never sindg a hair of our heads if our flesh were not as tinder All the winds that blow in the four corners of the world could not make shipwrack of us if our flesh were not a treacherous Pilot. Death that gnaweth the thread of our soul and body asunder could not separate them or them from God if the flesh did not what the teeth of it and sharpen it with a sting So then we see we have a great many Enemies more to encounter us besides Death some without some within Therefore how should this teach us circumspect walking to behave our selves wisely in every thing as David when he knew Saul was his Enemy and had an eye upon him to do him mischief How should it teach us to pray with David Lord teach me thy way and lead me in the right path because of mine enemy That is one thing I have to note Again another thing I have to note If Death be the last enemy then in all probability it is like to be the worst Of the Divels regiment it is I told ye before He is the General of the Army And beloved beleeve it the Divel is very politick and subtile in marshalling his forces he will not place his best Souldiers in the forefront of the battel but keeps them in the Reare he puts them behind that when all the rest have wearied and tired us they should set on us afresh He is so cunning a disputant that he reserveth the best arguments for the last A cunning Gamester that plaies his best play at the last A cunning Archer that shoots his best shaft at the last So since Death is the last Enemy it is like to be the sorest Now the sorer we are like to find him the carefuller we should be to arme against him alwayes to put our selves in a readiness that whensoever he cometh he may find us weaponed that if it were possible we might be alwayes doing as if we were dying it being the height of the perfection that any soul can attain to as the heathens themselves well obierved for a man to spend every day as if it were his last day That is one reason why the Apostle here calleth Death the last Enemy because the last is like to be the worst Again another reason As it is the last by which we are assaulted so it is the last that shall be destroyed That the Apostle principally meant here as Interpreters commonly understand it when he saith the last enemy that shall be Destroyed is Death he meant that Death is the Enemy that shall be destroyed last And this leadeth me to the last point I propounded to speak of That Death is an enemy and the last enemy and at last shall be destroyed It shall be destroyed that is one thing Who undertakes the doing of it Our selves In likelihood Death is more likely to destroy us then we it But as it is said of the seven-sealed book in the Revelation when there was none in heaven or in earth or under the earth that was able to open it the Lion of the tribe of Judah prevailed to open the book So the Lion of the tribe of Judah prevaileth to destroy this enemy that none in heaven or in earth or under the earth but only he is able to destroy He saith of him as David of Goliah when he defied the host of Israel and all men ran away Let no mans heart fail him So saith the son of David The Lord of David let no mans heart fail him I will go to fight with yonder Philistim Oh Death I will be thy death It is spoken in the person of Christ whom Saint Peter calleth the Lord of life He subdueth all Enemies and it is he that will destroy Death he will not leave him till he have trod him under foot But when will Christ do this We see Death playes the Tyrant still it killeth and spoyleth as fast as it did his sickle is in every ones harvest as fast as the corn grows up he cuts it down he leaveth not an ear standing How long Lord how long before this that the Apostle tells us of will be At last His meaning is at the general day of the Resurrection when the end of the world shall come then Christ shall destroy him And he bringeth it in the rather to assure the Corinths of that that some of them doubted of namely that there should be a Resurrection For unless the dead should arise how can Death be destroyed But Death shall be destroyed therefore it is out of question that the dead shall rise again But what comfort have we in the mean time if Death be not destroyed till then if till then it play the domineering Enemy No not so neither We have comfort enough in that that Christ hath already done Though it be not already destroyed yet it is already subdued It is not only subdued but disarmed and not only so but captivated and triumphed over He subdued it when he died in suffering death he overcame Death he beat him in his own ground at his own weapons in his own hold he disarmed him When he rose again then he spoyled him of his power and took his weapons away and triumphed over him in the open field When he ascended into heaven then he carried those spoils with him in token of conquest as Sampson took the Gates of Gaza on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill Christ by Death took the sting of Death away by his Resurrection he took the strength of Death away by his Ascension he took away the hope of Death for ever conquering or prevailing more finally at the last Judgement he will take away the name and Being of Death so that it shall never be more remembred but mortality shall be swallowed up of life I Christ hath done this for himself perhaps but what is this to us Nay Christ hath done it not only for his own victory but he hath given us victory he is not only a conqueror but he hath made us conquerors thanks be unto God that hath given us victory In a word Christ hath and will do by Death as he doth by our sins he hath subdued them already at the last he will utterly destroy them sin and Death both of them are already subdued at last they shall be abolished and destroyed that they
shall he no more As there shall be no more sorrow and pain so there shall be no more death and sin All tears shall be wiped from our eyes I will ransom them from the power of the grave and redeem them from death More then this This yet addeth to our comfort Christ will so destroy Death as be will not only subdue him for us but also reconcile him to us not only foil him as an Enemy but propitiate and make him our friend We have all our enemies subdued to us but some are so subdued that they are reconciled Death is one of them it is a reconciled as well as a subdued enemy Instead of bringing forth children for bondage it becometh a purchaser of our freedom it is so far from plucking us from Christ as rather it letteth us into Christ so far from being a loss as it bringeth gain so far from being a dammage that it is part of our Dowry therefore the Apostle reckoneth it as a prerogative as he saith that the world and life and Christ is ours so Death is ours Indeed if Death were not ours life were not ours for our only way to life now is by Death Such a friend is this Enemy become that it is a Bridge to pass to heaven the Chariot that we are took up to heaven in What we get of life toward life we lose in death but what we get in death toward life we never lose Now for the Application and conclusion of all Something I have to say by way of comfort and something by way of counsel First by way of comfort Against the fear of Death or against over-much sorrow for those that Death takes away It is true Death is an Enemy But to whom only to the wicked that are out of Christ to those that have no benefit at all by his Death and Resurrection and Ascension When Death cometh and findeth out these they may say as Ahab did to Eliah and more truly a great deal hast thou found me oh mine Enemy It is the worst Enemy they have in the world It is a cruel Sergeant that catcheth them by the throat and arresteth them for a debt that they are never able to pay It draggs them to the Jayl casteth them into the Dungeon to the chains of Darkness I have not a word of comfort to say to them They have no more comfort in Death then they have in Hell where though they shall lie in torments and pain they shall not have a drop of water to cool their tongue But to the saithful in Christ there is comfort upon comfort For though Death be an Enemy yet remember first it is a subdued Enemy Secondly a reconciled Enemy Thirdly and lastly an Enemy that one day shall not be at all It is a subdued Enemy that is one comfort The strength and sting of it is gone When a Bee hath lost his sting and is a Droan it can hurt no more So Death is a Droan to a Christian it hums and buzzeth it doth no hurt it cannot sting the sting is gone Against all those Enemies that I formerly told ye of that are attendants on Death here is comfort First it is true Death cometh with ill Harbingers it bringeth sicknesses and aches and pain but there is comfort against this For when God sendeth pain remember he promiseth to send patience too that he will put his hand under to help His left hand shall be under us and his right hand over us to catch us he hath promised comfort upon our sick beds to make our bed in our sickness We need not make such an Allegory as Ambrose doth this sweet flesh of ours the Bed of our soul it is under infirmities and weaknesses God helpeth us he makes our bed he saith to the sick of the Palsey Take up thy bed he turneth our bed in our sickness either he sends us health so some exponds it he turns the bed of sickness into a bed of health or God turneth our bed for us in our sickness that is he refresheth us giveth us ease when we lie upon our sick beds It is a Metaphor borrowed from those that attend sick persons that help to make their Beds easie and soft and turn them that they may lie at ease So God hath promised his children in the painfull time of sickness to make their Beds easie and soft to cause them to lie at ease by the Patience that he will give them Secondly it is true Death bringeth dissolution and dissolveth the frame of nature it separateth and divorceth those two loving companions the Soul and the Body But there is comfort in this For though it divorce the Soul and the Body yet it cannot destroy the soul and the body even the body is in the hand of god when it is rotting in the earth as the Soul is translated to heaven Again though they be separated yet it is but for a time one day they shall meet more joyful and glorious then ever before and after that they shall never be separated again Lastly though he separate the soul from the body and the body from the soul yet neither from Christ nor Christ from them Nay it is so far from separating that it helpeth to unite us to Christ as I said before the dssolution of those shall be the conjunction with him I desire to be dessolved and to be with Christ Thirdly it is true the horrour of the Grave attendeth Death and the putrifaction of this flesh of ours that must turn to corruptness it makes it terrible and fearful But there is comfort against this For after that time of putrifaction there shall be a time of restitution and though the worms devour this flesh of ours yet in thâ—… very flesh of ours we shall see God another day These eyes shall see him There is comfort in that that when God shall come to restore us with himself what the Grave hath cloathed with corruption he will cloath with glory these vile bodies he will make them like the glorious body of Christ without all corruption Fourthly it is true Death depriveth us of worldly friends of worldly imployments this makes it terrible Yet there is comfort against this Though we be deprived of worldly friends it carries us to heaven to better company to Angels to the spirits of just and perfect men to God the Judge of all to Jesus the Mediatour of the New Testament Nay besides one day he will restore again those very friends of which here we are deprived though we lose them for a time in heaven we shall meet again and there renew a perpetual league of society and love So though it deprive us of worldly benefits it cannot of heaven and those are better they are not pleasures of sin that last for a season but at the right hand of God that endure for ever So though it deprive us of worldly
before hand with the patient and quiet bearing and enduring of these many troubles and crosses that befall thee As Agamemnon first overcome the Lacedemonians by wrastling and then by fighting and Bilney first burnt his finger in the Candle that after he might the better endure the burning of his body at the stake So think with your selves If I cannot endure a little how shall I endure more If I cannot endure a light cross a small affliction do I murmur at that Am I impatient and repine at that How shall I bear the pangs of Death when they come Therefore let us inure our selves to a meek and quiet bearing of lesser stripes so we may be better able to endure heavier strokes Many of us lay out a great deale of care how to live in the world we had more need take care how to die when we shall leave the world Study the Art of dying That is the third Lastly that we may the better subdue Death that it may not be an Enemy too strong Learn before so to dispose of our selves and order our affairs that when Death cometh we may have nothing to do but to die Get all differences reconciled all doubts settled all reckonings ordered sequester our selves from all other avocations that nothing may interrupt us when that work is to go inhand with Put thy house in order saith God to Hezekiah I say so to every one of you First your outward house that which concerneth your worldly estate put that house in order What wouldest thou make thy Will and testament and be troubled about that when thou hadst more need to have that Will and testament confirmed that Christ hath made And then set thy soul and conscience thy inner house in order let not conscience be to seek then of any thing that concerneth thee for thy peace toward God and man Die thus and die happily Though Death be an enemy yet thou shalt not be hurt of it because it is subdued and at last thou shalt get the victory over it when thou shalt see it uttery destroyed And now as I have exhorted you to do this by way of counsel so yet a little further I crave patience that I may encourage you to do it by way of example By the example of this blessed servant and Saint of God for whose occasion you have given this meeting and I have preached this Sermon Give me leave to do by her as Mary Magdelen did by our Saviour Christ to break a box of Spiknard and pour it on her that I may anoint her for her burial Concerning whom though I could say a great deal yet knowing how well she was known to you I should not be afraid to say too much Yet on the other side because the night is farr spent and because she was sufficiently known to you although I speak but a little I shall speak enough She dwelt among you who is he that can speak ill of her who knew her but reported well of her The Apostle Saint Paul reduceth all the practical parts of Christianity to three heads Living soberly and righteously and holily The grace of God saith he hath appeared and teachth us to do all this She had learned to live soberly She was a pattern of sobriety Sober in her countenance in her diet in her apparel in her speeth in all her behaviour And the grace of God taught her to live righteously both in those things that concern the works of justice and those things that concern the works of mercy both are referred to righteousness For her justice I am perswaded she was exceeding careful in all her wayes to keep a good Conscience I am sure she was a woman very diligent and painful in her Calling she was truly one of those good house-wives that Solomon describeth in Prov. 31. and had studied that Chapter well and attained the practise of it she could never endure idleness in any there was no plague she said to idleness and that diligence in our Callings sets open a door to many blessings and shuts up the door to many tentations I may call her a discreet woman that was a crown to her husband so Solomon said a vertuous woman is He had a rich portion when God gave him her Houses and lands come by inheritance but a Prudent wife cometh of the the Lord. She was an excellent guide to her family to her servants Children she had none She had such children as S. Austin speaks of and he saith they are those children that women are saved by What children saith he Good works and those children she was full of She did the part of a Mother in bringing up her servants that were with her insomuch as she would say sometimes though they were none of her own children Behold here am I and the children that God hath given me And for works of mercy aswell as justice she was most open-hearted and handed not only to do according but beyond her ability alwayes ready upon every occasion to distribnte and administer to the necessities of the Saints and provoked and stirred others to the doing of the like Among her neighbours she lived unblameably A woman of a meek and quiet spirit and Saint Peter saith Such of God are much set by She was no tatler nor busie medler in other folks matters For Piety she was remarkable She shewed it both in her health and sickness In her health both publikely and privately In publike She was a religious frequenter of the ordinances on the Lords day and on the week dayes a diligent hearer and attender an exceilent rememberer one of the best Remembrancers that I have heard of And in private she was excellent for duties there both for the discharge of her own duty by giving ensample to others and many times by good and godly exhortations and instructions and daily by private reading and prayer she set apart some time for her self for private meditation In her sickness she was a spectacle for thousands to look on It pleased God to lay a long and heavy affliction upon her She had a Cancer in her breast that had been on her three years in the two last years she suffered a great deal of extremity as you may imagine by one thing that I shall say She was fain to endure a great deal of dressing with Corrasives and sharp medicines a great deal of cutting and searing and burning she was above fifty times burnt with hot Irons but Lord with what patience did she still endure it She would say It was no matter sanctified afflictions were better then unsanctified prosperity Apelles said when the picture of a beautiful woman was to be compleatly drawn he must borrow one part from one and another from another and put all together She had learned this She had looked on many good patterns in the Scripture and had drawn to her self an imitation of them all so that she was a perfect and
am a stranger among you And being so as every Christian must profess himself it therefore followeth we must abstain from all fleshly lusts and worldly desires and carnal concupiscences and appetites for strangers use not to settle on their dregs in the Country they passe thorow but as men in motion they take that which is needful knowing that they have a Country in another place the blessed Jerusalem that is from above who is the mother of us all Secondly we are to consider here the humble conclusion that Abraham makes out of his pilgrimage out of his strangeness because he was a stranger therefore he will be no meddler as it is an old rule strangers must be no meddlers they must not take what they will not buy what they will strangers do not purchase land in a strange Country without the good will of the Natives Such was the nature of this holy man of God he would not so much as make bold with them for a burying place without their consent One would think it had been easie for him to have ventured upon this whensoever a man dies the common custome of nature and the law of Nations yeeldeth this priviledge to put their dead into the ground earth to earth there is none so barbarous as to deny by the light of nature but that a dead man should be buried strangers or Forreiners or native Inhabitants therefore I say a man would think that such a man as Abraham might safely have ventured upon this to bury Sarah and never told them and asked their good will But no the blessed man was of another mettal of a heavenly and sweet disposition he would trouble no man he would give no offence but carry himself as an Angel of God among them harmless to every one he desireth every mans love he was careful to avoid any mans displeasure and therefore he cometh to them as to great men and intreateth them as if it had been for a Lordship or a piece of a Province or some great matter of estate he cometh to beg a Grave he desireth a burying place This should teach us what ought to be our condition in this world not to be audacious and bold and presumptuous as commonly we are one upon another And even strangers themselves so forget themselves now adayes that they make no conscience of depraving and undermining and spoyling and putting Natives out of their possession they get to themselves such an impudency as is strange and none of the least reproaches they neither approve themselves to God nor men by this bold intrusion Let strangers be like themselves to know that nothing is theirs that they can challenge they must come to it by the good will and consent of the parties for strangers are not at home but to be sent home to their own place they must presume of nothing out of their place If men did consider this they would not shoulder out and in jure and backbite one another and all for base worldly pelse little better then a burying place then a Rod of ground to make them a Grave but men are so set on it as though all their hope were here as though they had no treasure in another place as though this were their home and they had no further motion to better things This is the Preface Now the Petition followes Give me I pray you Give me not Gratis the meaning is not as after the story sheweth he would not take it for nothing but give me for price for reasonable bargain as you shall deem it fit to give me Se here again the excellent moderation of this great man this great servant of God he confest it lay in their power to assigne and contract with him for any thing it must be their gift or else he would venture upon nothing I have lived among you and I would fain die among you too as you have given me leave to live with you I beseech you cast not away my dead my Wife is gone the way of all flesh and I shal follow her shortly cast us not away there is no further corporal living for us to gether I beseech you give me a burying place and then we shall be one corporation our bodies will moulder to nothing and not hurt you therefore give me that which is a common gift a gift that enemies will give to enemies and therefore a gift to strangers and it is natural to do good to strangers I beseech you give me What is this he would have For though this people were very liberal and would have given him a hundred times more then this he requested as we see afterward by their answer it would have been a great matter that Abraham should have been denyed yet this holy man asketh such a gift as they might well grant without harm Hereupon the holy man is to be commended as for the great beggars of the world they cry Give give all the whole Country is not sufficient to satisfie their desire but still when they have had this and that preferment they cry still Give This blessed man was of more moderation he had a more circumcised heart and desire he desireth no more then they might well forbear and part with and suffer him to have without hindrance And so it teacheth men their duty that they should not too much grate upon a friend not too impudently demand things that cannot well be parted with many men are of such good natures that they will give away at the first sight of a Petition that that shall be a great loss and dammage to them and after wish that they had not given it when they cannot recover it again There was no such spirit in Abraham nor should be in Gods children they should not be insatiable and extend themselves to unreasonable demands a thing that argueth one altogether glued to this world and one that hath no further expectation than of things below Give me What A possession of burial First A Possession He would have it so conveyed as no man might make claim of it but that it should be for him and his for ever Therefore it was as it were a Church-yard that he begged such a one as was capable and had sufficient scope and roome for his whole Posterity in the time to come in times of trouble and persecution for in this place were the Fathers and those Partiarchs though we read not of their Burial in this place in the book of God many of them yet notwithstanding it is likely that all the Patriarchs had their bodies conveyed to this place and that the great ones in Egypt that so demeaned themselves that they had favour from the Court were brought to this place For these and himself and his present Family about him whom it might please God to strike with Death he knew not how soon the holy Father desired a place separare that there might be no mingling of the select people of God with
Your Fathers where are they and the Prophets do they live for ever Zach. 1.5 God cuts off both the righteous and the wicked Ezek. 21.4 The righteous perisheth and the hhasidim the merciful men or the men of godliness are taken away Isa 57.1 Yea and often-times as Menander was able to observe it Whom God loves best he takes soonest An observation much like that in 1 King 14.12 13. That son of Jeroboam who only of that family had some good thing in him was taken away young But whether sooner or later their holiness frees not from death rich gilding upon an earthen pot keeps it not from breaking They are made of the same mettal of the same clay with other men The Apostles that brought the treasures of grace to the world were themselves Testacea vasa so Saint Hierome Vasa fictilia so Saint Gregorie but only earthen vessels 2 Cor. 4.7 clay in the hand of the potter Isa 64.8 And therefore all things in this respect come alike to all Eccl. 9.2 Vse 1. If such die then Death is not alwayes evil for sure it is not evil to them to whom all things work for good Rom. 8.28 The sting of it is gone And though it have not a pleasant look to entertain us with it is but as a rude Groom that opens the gate by which we must pass to a better place and to better company The godly have many advantages by death 1. Rest from their labours 2. A Crown when they have finisht the race 2 Tim. 4.7 8.3 Freedom from danger of sinning any more Rom. 6.7.4 Death frees from a possibility of further dying 2 Cor. 5.1 Let me die saith Seneca and what hurt comes by that I can be bound no more I can be sick no more I can die no more 5. They go presently to God While we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord We are willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 8. I desire to be dissolved to be with Christ Phil. 1.23.2 Tim. 4.6 We wrong death when we call it horrid it is sin which makes it to be so else it is but conceit There is often more pain in a tooth-ake then in dying Tears and black cloth and the tremblings of the guilty do disguise Death and make it look terrible He that said it was of all terrible things the most terrible was himself an Heathen and knew not what Christ had done to alter the property Once indeed it was uncouth and hideous but since Christ dyed it hath a more fair and pleasant face There can be no danger in that way which all the Saints have gone As Phocion said to one that by the same sentence of the Judges was to die with him Art thou not glad to fare as Phocion doth So are we not glad to fare as the holy Patriarks Prophets and Apostles have done and to go after them He that went this way the first of any man-kind was holy a Saint it was Abel whom God accepted We use to call those passages and Streights which have been first found and discovered by any by the names of the first Discoverers as the Streights of Magellanus and that a little lower Schouten Streight or Fretum le maire So if it may afford us any comfort for the passage let us call Death no longer Death but Abels streights Let us learn if not to love yet to contemne Death that so we may have the more easie conquest over all other hard things It was a bravery in Damindas an heathen which Christians should be ashamed to come short of When Philip had broke into Peloponesus and some Lacedemonians said They were likely to sustain much evil unless they could reconcile themselves to Philip Damindas said O Semi-viri quid nob is poterit acerbè accidere qui mortem contemnimus Ah poor spirited men what can be sharp or hard unto us who have learned to despise death it self Vse 2. Because Saints or holy men do also die let us make the best use of them while they are with us To benefit and profit our selves by our religious friends acquaintance neighbours and kindred When God raises up some man eminent for wisdome and a godly life he is set up as a light for the town or neighbour-hood to walk by Yet oft-times such as dwell neer are careless and neglect their benefit when strangers farther off draw neer unto the light and gain by it as we use to let our own books lie by and rather make use of such as we borrow to take notes out of them because we know not how soon they may be called for by the owners and presume that the other will still be in our keeping We should improve our good acquaintance and walk by the light while we enjoy it because many times the Sun sets and it is night in a neighbour-hood or a family when a good friend a good Parent or a good Master dyeth Remember Joash and Jehojada 3. The Death of Gods Saints is precious in Gods sight When David was opprest with griefe it seems he had such thoughts as these Surely man is res nihili a vain and worthless thing too low and too unworthy that God should take any notice of him or be careful of him But at last he overcame such thoughts when he had found the experience of Gods tenderness towards himself in particular and towards all his people and now resolves That God neglects not his as if he were not affected with their miseries but their souls lives and safeties are dear and tender unto him as a treasure which he will not carelesly lose or suffer men or divels to take away by force or treachery Their Death is pretious Jakar the word of the Text is in pretio fuit magni estimatum est God sets them at an high and dear rate The Septuagint renders it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Noun by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pretiosus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 probatus and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multi pretii God honours and accounts well and hath high thoughts of the sufferings of his See how the word is translated in other Texts 1. Honourable Isa 43.4 Jakarta Thou wert pretious in my sight thou hast been honourable 2. Much set by 2 Sam. 18.30 His name was much set by 3. Dear Jer. 31.20 An filius Jakkir presiosus mihi Ephraim Is Ephraim my Dear son 4. Splendid clear or glorious Job 31.26 Si vidi lunam Jaker pretiosam abeuntem The Moon walking in brightness Put all these expressions together and then we have the strength of Davids word The death of the Saints is pretious that is 1. Honourable 2. Much set by 3. Dear 4. Splendid and glorious in the sight of the Lord. God is so tender of his people that 1 He will not have them take wrong he orders their death
Temple assuring us that we shall live there with him this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heaven before heaven the life of the Soul the keeper of Christ the keeper of God This is a second Gate There is another gate the gate of Charity by this we enter not but press in unto God and are not led but transported unto God and carried in a fiery Chariot By this grace we approach not neer unto God but forgeting the greatness of his Majesty we lay hold on him we hang upon him we imbrace him we familiarly converse with him we freely consult with him we inseparably cleave unto him more close then any Polypus doth unto the Rock Another gate is the gate of humility a low gate but a sure and certain gate the exaltation of the soul the honour the dignity of the soul that which subjects the soul immediately to God and so seateth it above all the creatures that gate whereby the soul steals into heaven though the gate be never so streight by crouching bowing bending pinching of it self At these gates if you knock earnestly by devout prayer and frequent Almes you may enter into this glorious and magnificent house with which the Saints desire to be cloathed upon and this is the first house which they desire There is another house which the Saints desire and that is the house of their bodies glorified while they are here in this life they have a cottage rather than a house a cottage seated in a low watery myrish place exposing the soul to Agues Feavers and variety of diseases so that she is sometimes down at the best but crasie and valetudinary scarse any vicissitude and change either of age or place or calling but the soul is dangerously affected with it and in great hazard a dangerous Cottage ready to fall upon the soul and crash it in pieces a cottage full of holes and rifts in every storm and tempest of adversity it rains through this cottage into the soul and makes the soul unhealthy in the Sun-shine of prosperity the beams of the Sun beat upon the soul and make it faint and weak many times a ruinous cottage so that the inhabitant is forced to spend almost all his time in repairing it in keeping it up in supplying the necessities of it distracted rent and torn with cares and sollicitudes for it so that little time is left for better duties for duties proper to the inner man and when the soul setteth her self to these duties then this Cottage is an impediment unto her taking off her mind from it by some sudden gust of a vain thought or hindring her by some indisposition or compelling her by some urgent necessity to break off before shee is willing These and the like incumbrances do much afflict the Saints therefore they desire to be cloathed upon with a pure house a pleasant house a lightsome house a healthful house a durable house a glorious house that might be a help and incouragement to the soul in holy and religious duties In this we groan earnestly c. You that are owners of the wonder are not ignorant what a wonder man is a composure of different natures Celestial terrestrial Angellical beastial corporal spiritual greater then the world less then the world the richest Pearle and the basest foyl the Image of GOD and a peece of clay you are not ignorant how these two are affected one to the other in the Regenerate man if the body be sound and well it kicketh against the spirit if it be ill it afflicts the Spirit How do I love my body as my fellow servant and eschew it as a mine enemie how do I hate it as my clogg and reverence it as my fellow-heir I buffet it as a slave and imbrace it as a friend I chastise it and keep it under and then I want a companion to assist me in the works of piety I cherish it and nourish it and then am I stung with the lusts of it it is a flattering enemy a treacherous friend Oh my conjunction and oh my alienation that which I fear I imbrace and that which I love I fear before I make war with it I am reconciled and before I am reconciled I am at variance what a strange mystery is this therefore the Saints mortifie and crucifie their bodies they gird them close with the cords of strong resolutions they macerate them with watchings and fastings and make them thin and pale and wan that so they may be serviceable to the Spirit they labour that their hands may be translucent with fasting as the hands of Elphogus were that their countenances may be living documents of humility that their bodies may be as transparent glasses wherein the thoughts of their hearts may be seen that their soules may have no more residence in the heart but may as evidently be seen in every part of the body as there This they aym at and when they have done all this yet they complain of the dulness deadness heaviness lumpishness of the body and are at enmity with it and cry out Oh miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death not that they are simply enemies to the body but to this earthly corruptible body this sinful body that depresseth the mind musing of many things and desire the deposition and laying down of the same that so they may receive a glorified a clarified an incorruptible spiritual body not made of a spirit but serviceable to the spirit they desire that these eyes may be so defecated that if they cannot behold the essence of God yet they may stedfastly behold the Empirian heavens the splendour of our Saviour and the lustre of the bodies of the Saints more bright then the Sun seven times they desire that these hands may be blessed with the contractation of that sacred body that redeemed them they desire that this body may be so transparent and lucid that the soul may sally bout freely not at the eye alone but at every part to contemplate those glorious objects that it may be so prelucit that the very thoughts of the heart and the divine fancies that are in the imaginative part may be seen through it that it may be so stript of corporal density and grosseness that like lightning it may be here and there that it may be fit for raptures and extrasies and the Soul no more doubtful whether she be in the body or not in the body This the Saints desire and long after And let me speak this of you oh triumphant Souls that are now in bliss without the least impeachment of your happiness This even you thirst after you esteem it an imperfect estate to be without your bodies though you glorifie and praise GOD in your souls yet you count it an imperfect work and say with the Psalmist In death no man remembreth thee and in the grave no man shall give thee thanks though your spirits do it without ceasing
without failing yet the whole man doth it not and such an insatiable avidity there is in you of the praise of God that unless it be done totally and fully you think it not done at all therefore you desire this glorified Organ but the Saints on earth being much more depressed with this heavy clay cry out with these Saints In this we groan earnestly c. To be cloathed upon with our house c. An impropriety of speech I confess for men do not cloath themselves with houses yet of eminent elegancy and pregnant with variety of instructions to shew the fitness of this glory to every soul as apparel is fitted to every body to shew the comliness of this glory as apparel is an ornament to a man to shew the firm adhesion of this glory the whole man as a garment doth cleave close unto him to shew the redundancy of this glory that a man shall invelopp himself in this glory as a man doth inwrap himself in his garment to shew the Author of this glory he that made garments to cover mans nakedness in Paradise below he maketh robes of honour to adorn him everlastingly in Paradice which is above to shew the undeservedness of it on our part that these garments they are not webbs of our own spinning but robes of Gods giving to shew the all-sufficiency of this glory in this life we need houses to dwell in and rayment to cover us and food to nourish us and fire to warm us but this glory it shall be a Magazine of all spiritual store an house to shelter us a garment to cover us Manna to feed us water to refresh us it shall be all in all unto us These and many more instructions are folded up in the Cabinet of this Metaphor which streights of time will not give me leave to unfold and spread before you but must leave them to your private meditations and so passing though unwillingly from these two houses which the Saints desire I must raise up your attention to their ardent affection unto them In this we groan earnestly c. Wherein you see the intention of their affection and the expression of it The intention not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Desiring but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Desiring earnestly The expression of it by groans In this we groan earnestly The one the soul the other the body the one the form the other the exercise the one the root the other the branch or if you will the one the fire the other the fuel the one the flame the other the oyl that nourisheth the flame The first is the intention of the affection As those that are in a longing passion die if they be not satisfied as the pregnant Mother groans to be delivered of her burthen as those that are pressed under a heavy weight faint if they be not eased even so the Saints pressed down with that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that eternal weight of glory mentioned in the precedent Chapter a burthen which did both press them down and raise them up that did both straiten them and enlarge them like the feathers of the Dove which add to her Mass but take off from her gravity which makes her more corpulent and yet more light even so this weight of glory so pressed down the Saints that it raised them up to the Throne of the Lamb and feeling this body of sin this body of death which they did bear about them as plummets of lead hanging at their feet they desire est-soon to be stripped of all incumbrances and impediments to depose and lay down this cottage of clay that so being absent from the body they might be present with the Lord this was the violence of their affection In this we groan earnestly c. An affection worthy the name of an affection truly grounded and therefore towring so high that it is almost invisible to our weak sight There are some in this life that are fed with gall and wormwood with tears and groans upon whom the wheel of oppression is roled breaking all their bones so that they seek for death as for pearls and hidden treasures as an end and period of their miseries Others there are who seeing the vanity of the things of this life and ballancing with them the trancendent excellency of the Soul of man above the world had rather be idle or not be at all then to be so basely and meanly imploved and rewarded as the world doth remunerate her favourites Others make bitter invectives against the body as the only impediment to the soul in her more pure speculations placing the happiness of the soul in the separation from the body all these come far short of this divine affection which hath not her rise from the miseries of this life or from the vanity of the creature or from the incombrances of this cottage but from a true apprehension of the love of God from a deep panting after union with him from a taste of the powers of the life to come from a Soul inflamed with a coal from Gods Alter Look upon these Saints in my Text they were indeed exercised beyond measure with those things which we call miseries calamities afflictons at the mention whereof we quake like Aspen leaves but were these tainted with impatiency were these groans fuliginous vapours from a malecontented spirit Did they not account these afflictions their Justs and Barriers and Turnaments and exercises of honour and Chivalry at which Angels and Archangels were present with their Euges and approbations God himself the chief Spectator and rewarder of these exercises they themselves triumphing and boasting in their tryals with the impress of the Apostle on their shields of faith We are perswaded that neither death nor life nor Augels nor Principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus They were more Eagle-eyed by the strength of grace to pry into the nothingness of the creature then all the Philosophers by the strength of nature they did mortifie and crucifie and keep under the body with the lusts thereof and more truly detest the corruption of the outward man then any Platonist whatsoever but were these the grounds the rise of this celestial affection nothing less to see God to enjoy God to dwell with him to converse with him to be dissolved to be with Christ these transported their affections not the emptiness of the things below but fulness of things above not the baseness of earthly things but the glory of celestial things not the miseries of this life or of this crazie vessel but the happiness of the life to come they had but a glimpse of this strange light darted into ther souls and the whole world was darkness unto it they had a gust of sweetness cast into the palate of their souls and all things else were bitter and unsavory
Christ was placed in the summity and height of their souls and the desire of the full fruition of him caused that fainting that earnest longing in their spirits You will say if this be so what will become of the greatest part of Christians who are afraid to die who are so far from groaning to depose this Tabernacle that they groan at the least intimation of dissolution It is true that all men receive not this saying neither is it for every one to attain to this perfection As there are two forts of faith so there are two forts of Christians there is a strong faith and a weak faith and there are strong Christians and there are weak Christians the strong Christian is willing to die and patient to live the weak Christian is willing to live and patient to die he goes when God calls but he could wish that God would defer his calling he hath good hopes of heaven but he desires a little more to enjoy the earth he loves God more then all yet his affections are not fully taken off from all he is not perplexed with the fears of Hell yet he is not ravished with the joyes of Heaven he hath much strength but knows it not as many a Spectator of a prize is better able to performe it then he that undertakes it but either through faintness of heart or ignorance of his own strength dare not put it to the hazard but had rather commend another mans valour then trie his own whereas a strong Christian a man grown in Christ sends a challenge to this Gyant Death singles him out as a fit object of his valour grapples with him not as with his match but as his underling insulteth over him setteth his foot on the neck of this King of terrours and by conquering him captivates with great facility all other petty fears of ignominy poverty and the like which therefore are dreadful because they tend to Death the last the worst the end the sum of all feared evills this is the unconquerable crown of Faith this is the glory of a Christian this is the Diadem of honour wreathed about his Temples advancing him above all other men whatsover But you will say may a man desire death Is this now a question what means the agony of the Apostle I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ What means the earnest longing of the Spouse Apoca. 22. The Spirit faith come and the Bride faith come and let him that hears say come What means her fainting in the Canticles I am sick of love let him bring me into his chamber Let me see his face I am sick unto death Let me dy lest I dy that I may see him for ever What means the Character of a true Christian As many as love the appearance of the Lord which cannot be without death What means the incredible contempt of death in ancient Christians insomuch that it was a received Maxime with the Heathen Omnis Christianus est contemptor mortis What means the heroical incouragement of old Hilarion Egredere anima egredere quid times Go out my soul go out why tremblest thou What means the words of old Simion in the flames Thus to dy is to live What means the rapture of Saint Chrysostome that he would thank that man that would kill him as transmitting him more speedily to those unconceivable Joyes What means this groaning and thirsting in my Text Do not these demonstrate that it is lawful to desire death Not simply in it self or for it self it is the separation of those two whom God hath coupled it is a cessation of being it is an evil of punishment the daughter of sin to desire it simply were to desire evil which is abhorrent to nature much less ought we to hasten our death by violent means Let their memories be buried in perpetural silence as the botches and ulcers of Christianity who out of impatience have perpetrated this heinous sin a sin against God and man against nature against grace against the Church against the common-wealth against all things The Heathen man could say that we are the possession of God to be disposed of by him not by our selves the body is the structure of God the work of his hands the Tabernacle which he hath made and not to be removed or to be taken down but by his command while we live we may advance the glory of God the good of others we may impeople heaven make up the ruines of Angels to hasten our death were to envy this glory to God this good to others In that distraction of our Apostle between two good things his own glory and the good of others you know which way the scales inclined to the good of others as if he had said let my glory be deferred so Gods glory be increased let my joy be increased let my joy be sulpended so the joy of Angels and of the Court of heaven be intended by the conversion of sinners Nay more this is a small thing Let me be an Athema so Israel be blessed let me be blotted out of the book of life so thousands be inserted let the bowels of Christ be streightned to me so they be enlarged to others this is life indeed this is the end of our life this will comfort us in this life and crown us in the life to come He that can truly say that while he lived he lived to God not to himself that he sincerely propounded the glory of God and the good of others unto himself this man may write upon his Tombe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have lived take this out of the life of man and what is it but a meer death if not worse though it be protracted to the years of Methusalem twice told Thus simply to desire death is not good but cloath this with some circumstances and then to desire death is not only warrantable but commendable when we have done all the good we can when our lives will be no more serviceable to Church or Common-wealth when we have with all fidelity done our Masters work when we have the testimony of a good conscience that we have fought a good fight that we have kept the faith that we have finished our race then may we say with old Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace then may we with our Apostle lift up our eyes to the crown of righteousness which the righteous Judge hath laid up for them that fear him then we may expect the Euge of the good servant Well done good and faithful servant enter into the joy of thy Master Again when we are called to be Holocausts or sacrifices oblations of sweet savours the Frankincense of the Church to perfume others to deliver up our lives unto God to seal his Truth with our bloud to encourage others then we ought to run unto death with all alacrity rejoycing that we are counted worthy to suffer for his Name to triumph to boast
Disciples Mat. 24. The Disciples point Christ to the stately buildings of the Temple but they were soon damped when Christ told them that after a while there should not a stone be left upon a stone So perhaps you are taken with admiration at the former part of the discourse concerning the excellency of mans soul but are damped to consider that a man may lose it It is a substance immortal in respect of the being of it but defiled with sin it is adjudgeable to death in regard of the well-being and a posibility so to die is nothing repugnant to the immortality of the soul The damned spirits they are alwayes dying and are never dead they are alwayes deprived of Gods comfortable presence and are never released of their hellish torments As the Apostle saith in another case as dying and yet behold they live as living and yet behold they die The soul expiring is the death of the body and God forsaking is the death of the soul But you will say how is it possible The question is soon resolved if we ponder the causes of death A thousand mortal maladies there are to kill the body and there are a thousand deadly diseases to destroy the soul There is no sin so small but in the rigour of Gods justice and in its own nature it way damn the soul When God in the beginning stated man in Paradise he gave him a special caveat about the tree of knowledg he gives him a command thus In the day thou eatest thou shalt die What for bare eating No beloved but for the sin for tansgressing so small a commandement of so great a God Sin alone makes a separation between God and the soul and causeth the death of the soul the soul that sins the same shall die It may teach us that for the time that we live in this world there is nothing easier then to sin There is a tree of Life and a tree of Kuowledg and by eating of the tree forbidden cometh death there is a way of felicity and a way to destruction there is a God of salvation and a ghostly enemy and by adhering to the pricipality of sin a man may lose his own soul Is it possible then that a man may lose his soul that is so precious and have we not great reason to try and to suspect our selves touching our standing towards God Is there not a main necessity to seek the means to preserve us in the compass and seals of grace It is lamentable to consider how in bodily diseases men can open their grief and seek for help and send to some learned Physitian We can go to some noble learned councel in case of law But alas the soul lies wounded in the way over laden with the grievances and pressures of sin distracted with the affrightings of a troubled conscience as if there were no balm in Gilead no Physitian there as if there were no Minister to afford help There is no seeking abroad a Lyon is pretented to be in the way and Solomons sluggard folds his hands to sleep O let not these things be so Be not as the Horse and Mule that have no understanding Neglect not the helps of your preservation in grace but be continually watchful with suspition and jealousie and abstain from fleshly lusts that fight against your souls The Poet could say Theeves rise by night to rob and kill and steal and wilt not thou wake to save thy soul God for the most part saith Saint Chrysostome hath alotted to nature all by two's two hands two eyes two feet two ears ears eyes hands feet two of all that if we chance to maim one we can help to relieve the necessity of it by the other but he hath given us but one soul if we lose that what shift shall we make for another soul a piercing contemplation if we had grace to consider it Therefore O my soul tender thy self as my own happiness if thou be translated to heaven the body in time shall come thither this corruption shall put on incorruption this mortal shall put on immortality Again if thou be haled with the fiends to the nethermost hell the body in time shall be tormented with thee It is altogether just with the righteous God that they that meet in sin should also consort in suffering Save thy self and save all and by woful consequence lose thy self and lose all For what is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul So much for the second point the possibility of losing a mans soul Come we to the third the compossibility of outward prosperity he may lose his soul in gaining the whole world In the diversity of opinions concerning the chief good some there were that placed it in riches others in honours and how ever they differed in their judgements yet both agreed in this that they were both deceived For how ever it cannot be denied but that riches and honours are the blessings of God yet again they are no demonstration of a blessed man Lest any man should take them to be ill they are bestowed upon them that are good lest any man should reckon them for the chief good they are bestowed likewise upon the evil external blessings are but common favours vouchsafed to good and bad Was Abraham rich so was Abimelech Was Jacob rich so was Laban Was David a King so was Saul Was Constantine an Emperour so was Julian Salvation depends not on the multitude of riches or emminency in place the tallest Cedar hath the greatest fall and the fairest houses many times the greatest ruin and outward prosperity uuguarded with inward sanctity may soon lose the soul For first rich men are tainted with covetousness which is a kind of secret Idolatry Collos 3. and covetousness which is Idolatry saith the Apostle If you would know the reason the more tenaciously a man loves his own the less devotion he offers to God you cannot live in the service of Mammon and of Christ the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it you cannot serve God and Mammon If the young man in the Gospel have great possessions if Judas carry the bag if Demas imbrace the present world then fearewel Christ farewel Paul and farewel soul too So true is the saying of the Apostle They that will be rich fall into temptations and snares and many foolish and noysome lusts that drown men in perdition and destruction Where he saith not they that are but they that will be rich It is not simply money but the love of money that is the root of all evil Riches are good with a good conscience but if the soul be infected with avarice if it savour of that bitter Collaquintida Death is in the pot and how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdome of heaven For the desire of worldly men it is as the unsatiable thirst of a dropsie patient there is
to the outward man if a man keep himself in order in regard of these thought is free and the Law doth not take hold of a man for his affections but the Law of God doth therefore you know that lusting after a moman in Gods account is reputed adultery the hating of a mans brother in his heart is accounted manslaughter he is accounted a murtherer that hates his brother so he that is angry unadvisedly you know what he is in danger of and that man is accounted guilty before God that cannot order his affections in regard of those unruly passions that are within him This I observe by the way God in Scripture takes especial notice of it and I am perswaded it is an infallible distinguishing character between an hypocrite and a sincere child of God an hypocrite labours to wash the outside he hath a demure countenance clean hands smooth language c. these things are good but he goes no further he makes no conscience of secret contemplative wickedness of the lusts of his heart and the thoughts of his mind these things he never enters into himself to mortifie But that man that is conscionable so walks with God as that a wrie affection an inward lust after somewhat that is evil troubles him and humbles him before God the vanity of his thoughts in secret cause him to mourn before God this is a sign of a man that walks before God and accounts God a Spirit that searcheth the hearts and tryeth the rains and therefore if ever we will approve our selves to God let our Religion be practical and reflect upon our selves and among other things upon our inward man to set that in order Secondly by way of instruction we see what happy men and women we might be if we were not our own foes if we could attain this pitch to live without fear that nothing should trouble us were it not a happy condition surely it is a thing feazable some Saints have attained it in a great measure you know David when Ziglag was taken his wives gone all the spoyl taken and the people were ready to stone him what did poor David he can incourage himself in the Lord his God notwithstanding this So it may be with a poor Christian his friends may forsake him perhaps the world is gone riches take to themselves wings it may be his body is crazy and all things are out of order yet this man can incourage himself in the Lord his God he can say to himself fear not Saith David though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death a doleful condition yet I will fear none ill Psal 23. And in another place though ten thousand should compass me in on every side I would lay me down and rest Though the Apostles were watched by souldiers laid in the stocks and for ought they knew the next day they should be brought to execution yet they sing as merrily and sleep as heartily as if they had been on a Throne and had been Kings in a Pallace Thus a good conscience will make a Christian happy if he be not his own foe but our hearts are intangled with the world and worldly things that for the most part we see not this priviledge But I leave that Next it may serve to reprehend and chide the most of us yea all in that we are distracted with fears unnecessary such as spend our spirits and consume our precious time such things as make our lives uncomfortable and dishonour God and our Religion and profession and all to no purpose Some things we fear a great while before we need perhaps that we need not fear at all One faith Lord what would become of me if I should loose my wife if I should loose my children or loose my estate What would become of me if the times should be hard if there should be a dear year I can scarse bring both ends together now Another faith what shall I do when I am old and cannot take pains for my living thus men fear a thousand inconveniences What need we meet evils half way what need we create to our selves such troubles sufficient for the day are the troubles of it But in regard of carnal fear all things make us afraid more then we need and the fear of ill oft-times perplexeth a man more then the ill it self that lights upon him And men of a melancholly disposition they frame to themselves such strange Chimera's Imaginations of things that perhaps shall never come to pass and so trouble themselves with a great deal of fear Thou art afraid of such and such losses perhaps thou maist die first and such things perhaps shall never befall thee labour to prepare thy heart before hand and then fear them not I will shew you the inconveniences of this briefly First of all these fears of losses and crosses and the like they often bring a great deal of ill to men nay it brings a great deal of ill as the natural event and consequent of it partly by the judgement of God Isa 66.4 I will bring their fears upon them And that that wicked men fear shall come upon them This is the way to bring ill upon them when men will needs be miserable is it not just with God they should The Romans will come and take away our Empire and so it was Saul was afraid that David should succeed him and so he did When men will not learn to live by faith it is just with God to bring that that they fear upon them because they dishonour him by unbelief In the second place it not only brings ill but it makes the heart unfit for ill when it comes In the fear of man their is a snare but in the confidence of the Lord there is a sure reward In the fear of man there is a snare what doth fear do It insnares a man it binds a man hand and foot and layes him flat before his enemy when he comes and then his enemy tramples upon him It so weakens the Spirits and disheartneth a man before it comes that when it comes he is no way able to bear it For the fear takes away all the joy and content that a man may take in the present good that he enjoyes at the hand of God that he cannot enjoy that because he fears I know not what ill that may come and then when that ill comes he is not able to bear it his spirit is so weak I might shew much hurt that this fear doth both to the soul and to the body of man To the body of man how doth it weaken and contract the Spirits and bring diseases and some times death it self Fear doth much hurt to the soul Naturally Spiritually Naturally it weakens a man in regard of the operations of his sonl that the body is not a fit instrument for the soul to work by It makes a man do divers things
be said he straight-way dyed As a condemned person is called a dead man though he be respited for a time Besides the Messengers and Sergeants of death presently took hold of him and arrested him for sin as hunger and thirst and cold and diseases daily wasting of the natural moysture to the quenching of life Indeed God suffered him that the sentence was not presently executed so to commend his own patience and to give to Adam occasion of salvation the promise of Christ being after made and he called to repentance by that means to attain a better life by Christ then he lost by sin It is objected again Christ redeemed us from all sin and all the punishment thereof but he did not redeem us from bodily death from temporal death for the faithful we see die still even as others do therefore it is concluded by some that temporal death is not the wages of sin for then when we were free from sin by Christ we should be freed from that Our answer to this is that Christ hath freed all his elect not only from eternal but even from temporal death though not from both in the same manner From temporal death first in hope of which the Apostle speaking 1 Cor. 15. saith The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death meaning temporal death at last then it shall be destroyed mortal shall put on immortality as the Apostle speaks but in the mean time it is destroyed in hope though it remain indeed and must be undergone even of the faithful in this life Howbeit to them Christ hath changed the nature of it and now they no longer undergo it as the wages of sin but for other causes As first the exercise of their graces their faith and hope and patience and the rest all these are exercised as in other afflictions so even in the death of Gods Children Secondly the total removal and riddance of the reliques of sin from which they are not freed in this life but when they die then all sin is taken away for as at the first sin brought death into the world so to the faithful now death carries it out again Thirdly their entrance into heaven and to be at home with the Lord from whom we are absent as long as we are at home in these bodies Fourthly to prepare their bodies for renuing at the last day that is done by death for as a decayed Image or statue must first be broken that it may be new cast so these bodies of ours must be broken by death that they may be cast into a new mould of immortality at the general resurrection But here as some sin remains so death remains though we be in Christ yet we are still in that estate wherein it is appointed to all men once to die Thus even temporal death is left to the Children of God to be undergone before they come to heaven It is left to them I say and that justly in respect of the remnants of sin yet they undergo it no other way but for their own good and benefit However temporal death in its own nature to an unbeleever is the wages of sin And as temporal so eternal death for when God told man that in the day he finned he should die the death he meant not only temporal but eternal death he meant that principally as I shewed before in that the Apostle opposeth it to eternal life in the next clause of the sentence Now Christ hath freed all beleevers actually from eternal death But how eternal death should be the wages of sin may be doubted because between the work and the wages there must be some proportion that seems not to be between sin and eternal death for sin is a finite a temporal thing committed in a short time and that death is eternal Now to punisha temporal fault with an eternal punishment it seems that it is to make the punishment to exceed the fault and that is against justice But for an answer to this doubt we must know that however sin considered in the act and as it is a transcient action it is finite yet in other respects it is infinite and that in a threefold consideration First in respect of the object against whom it is committed for being the offence of an infinite Majesty it deserves an infinite punishment for we know oftences are reckoned of for their greatness according as the greatness of the person is against whom they are committed If he that clips the Kings coyn or deface the Kings Arms or counterfeit the broad Seal of England or the Princes privie Seal ought to die as a traytor because this disgrace tends to the person of the Prince much more ought he that violates the law of God die the first and second death too because it tends to the defacing of the Image and the disgracing of the person of God himself who is contemned and dishonoured in every sin Secondly sin is infinite in respect of the subject wherein it is the soul of man Seeing the soul is immortal and of an everlasting substance and that the guilt of sin and the blot together stain the soul as a crimson and skarlet die upon wooll and can no more be severed from the soul then the spots from the Leopard it remains as the soul is eternal and as that is everlasting so sin is infinite in durance and continuance and deserves an infinite wages and punishment which is eternal death Thirdly it is infinite also in respect of the tie between the desire and endeavour of an impenitent sinner for his desire is to walk on still in sin and except God cut off the line of life never to give over sinning but he would run on infinitely committing sin even with greediness And it is reason that as God accepts the will for the deed in godliness so he should punish the will for the deed in wickedness if we sin according to our eternity in our will and purpose to sin God will punish us according to his eternity it is just that they that would never be without sin if they might have their own will should never be without punishment Thus we see eternal death is the wages of sin though sin be committed in a moment though it be a transcient action in it self yet it is just with God to give it the wages of eternal death So you see Death both temporal and eternal is the wages of sin We come to the Use of the point being thus declared First it teacheth us contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome that original lust and concupiscence in the regenerate is a sin for how else should God be just in inflicting temporal death upon infants that are regenerate actual sins they have none and if they have no original sin neither then God should inflict the wages of sin where there were no sin which connot be because there is no
iniquity with God Therefore certain it is that after regeneration this original lust though the guilt of it be taken away yet as sin it remains the substance of it still remains and will as long as we live in this world For it is in us as it is well compared as the Ivy is in the wall which having taken root so twines and incorporates it self that it can never be quite rooted out till the wall be taken down so till body and soul be taken a sunder by death there will be no total riddance of Original corruption and the depravation of our nature it is still in us as appears by the temporal death even of the best Saints of those that are most sanctified in this life it shews there is remainders of corruption in them still for if there were not sin there would not be the wages of sin there would not be death if there were not sin Secondly the Use of it is to take away a fond Popish distinction of mortal and venial sin they teach some sins to be venial that is such sins as in their own nature deserve not death whereas the Apostle here speaking of all sin in general he saith the wages thereof is death And how can it be otherwise when all sin is the transgression of the Law and Saint John defines it and all transgression of the Law deserves and is worthy of the curse which is both the first and second death for Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are witten in the book of the Law to do them There is no sin then but it is worthy of death therefore there is no such venial sin as they dream of We deny not but that some sins are venial and some mortal in another sence not in respect of the nature of the sin but of the estate of the person in whom the sins are so we say all the sins of the Elect are venial because they either are or shall be pardoned And all the sins of reprobate persons are mortal because they shall never be pardoned It is the mercy of God and not from the nature of the sins that makes them venial for otherwise every sin in it self considered be it never so small is mortal for if it work according to its own nature it works death of body and soul It is a foolish exception that they bring against it that thus we make all sins equal and that we bring in with the Stoicks a parity of sin because we say all are mortal It is a foolish cavil for it is as if one should argue because the Mouse and the Elephant are both living creatures that therefore they are both of equal bigness Though all sins be mortal they are not all equal some are greater and some are lesser according as they are extended and aggravated by time and place and person and sundry other circumstances Suppose one should be drowned in the middest of the Sea and another in a shallow pond in respect of death all were one both are drowned but yet there is great difference in respect of the place for depth and danger So there is great difference in this though the least sin in its own nature be mortal as the Apostle saith here the wages of it is death Thirdly seeing the wages of sin is death it should teach us what Use to make of death being presented before our eyes at such times as this hereby we should call to remembrance the grievousness of sin that brought it into the world by the woful wages we should be put in mind of the unhappy service Had there not been sin there would have been no death upon the death of the soul came in the death of the body first the soul died in forsaking God and then the body died being forsaken of the soul the soul forsook God willingly therefore it was compelled unwillingly to forsake the body This is the manner how death came into the world by sin therefore death must put out sin That housholder when he saw tares grow among his wheat he said to his servants the envious man hath done this So whensoever thou feest Death seize upon any say to thy self sin hath done this this is the wages of sin and if man had never sinned we should have seen no such thing Fourthly this must deter us from sin since it gives such wages Indeed the manner of sin is for the most part if not alwayes to promise better but it is deceitful and this is the wages it payes thee The wages of sin is death The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated wages some take it quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the evening because wages are paid in the evening So the morning of sin may be fair but the evening will be foul when the wages come At the first sin may be pleasing but remember the end the end of it is death Like to a fresh River that runs into the salt Sea the stream is sweet but it ends in brackishness and bitterness Or like to Nebuchadnezzars Image the head was gold but the feet were of clay Or sin may be compared to that Feast that Absalom made for Amnon there was great chear and jollity and mirth for a while but all closed in Death in bloudshed and murther It deales with men as Laban dealt with Jacob he entertains him at the first with great complements but used him hardly at the last Or as the Governour of the feast said Joh. 2. All men in the beginning set forth good wine and then that which is worse so sin gives the best at the first but the worst it reserves for the last This should keep us from every sin though it seems never so pleasing and never so sweet to us remembring that the worst is still to come We read that when the people saw that Saul forbad them to eat though they were exceeding hungry yet not one of them durst touch the honey for the curse though they saw it so the pleasures of sin may drop as honey before our eyes but we must not adventure to taste of them because they are cursed fruit and because of the wages that will follow Never take sin by the head by the beginnings as the greatest part do but take it as Jacob took Esau by the heel look to the extream part of it Consider thy end and thou shalt not do amiss Jezabel might have allured a man when having painted her face she looked out of the window but to look upon her after she was cast out eaten of doggs and nothing remaining but her extream parts her scull and the palms of her hands and her feet it could not be but with horrour so sin may allure a man looking only on the painted face in the beginning but if a man cast his eye upon the extream parts it would then affright and deter him for the wages the end of
it is death What a world of people run blindly and desperately on they turn to the race of sin as the horse to the battel without fear as if the Psalmists Tremble and sin not were rather sin and tremble not Whereas we have great cause every one to tremble at the least motion of sin in our selves to which so dreadful and woful wages is due Lastly for this point so many of us as have repented and have already left the service of sin we must hence learn as to be humbled in our selves considering what danger and misery we have escaped so to be more thankful to Christ that hath freed us from so wretched wages due to our sins and that by taking the whole punishment upon himself For we must know beloved that the best of us by nature are children of wrath as well as others the stipend that we have earned is eternal death and surely it hath been payed to us nothing could have kept it from us but only the satisfaction of Christ coming between Gods justice and us Think we then if we can what misery it is that we have escaped as many of us I mean as be in the state of grace we have escaped death the hurt of temporal death we have escaped eternal death What is that a separation from the blessed presence and glory of God destruction of body and soul for ever unutterable torments company with the divel and his angels and the rout of reprobates darkness blacker and thicker then that of Egypt Weeping and wayling and gnashing of teeth in the infernal lake that worm that never dies and the fire that never goeth out This is the wages of all sin and that it is not rendred to all sin and to all sinners the cause is only this that the payment hath been already exacted of Christ in the behalf of all true beleevers therefore in their own persons they are discharged how infinitely are we bound in thankfulness to him and how careful should we be to walk worthy of it resolving never to return to the service of sin again but to make it our whole study that we may please and honour such a Redeemer that hath redeemed us from such misery as this that we may please him for we had deserved eternal death as well as others and he hath not only freed us from that that we had most worthily deserved but most freely also bestowed that upon us that we could never deserve for so it followes in the next point The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That is the second thing to be considered the reward of the service of God You have heard of the reward the wages of sin Now the reward of the service of God is eternal life it is called life There is a twofold life belongs to men The one is natural and is common to all good and bad in this world The other spiritual proper to the faithful begun by the union of God and the soul and maintained by the bond of the spirit and this life hath three degrees The first is in this life unto death and it begins when we begin to beleeve and repent and come to a saving knowledge of God and of his Son Jesus Christ as it is said This is eternal life to know thee to be the very God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ Joh. 17.3 The second degree is from our death to our resurrection for in that time our souls being freed from our bodies are withal free from all sin original and actuall Thirdly after the Resurrection when body and soul shall be reunited we shall have immediate communion and fellowship with God and so enjoy a more perfect and blessed life then ever 〈◊〉 could here And this spiritual life with all the three degrees of it is the life here spoken of especially the last degree the perfection of it in heaven It is called eternal life because it shall never end For a thing is said to be eternal three wayes First which hath neither beginning nor end so God alone is eternal and none but he Secondly which hath no beginning and yet shall have an end so Gods decree is eternal for it never had a beginning yet when all things decreed are fulfilled it shall have an end Thirdly which hath a beginning but never shall have end and so the life of Gods Saints had a beginning as all created things have but it shall never have an end and this eternal life it is called here The gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Because we cannot deserve it but it is given and bestowed on us freely for Christ So then the point of observation from the latter part of the words is this that Our salvation it is the free gift of God given us only for the merits of Christ For observe I beseech you the Apostles words when he had said The wages of sin is death he doth not add and say but the wages of righteousness is eternal life but he calls that the gift of God To make us understand saith Damascene that God brings us to eternal life meerly for his own mercy not for our merits or else surely the Apostle would have made the latter part of the sentence answerable to the former But here perhaps some may ask why eternal life should not be the wages of righteousness as well as death the wages of sin I answer because there is not the same reason between sin and righteousness For first sin is our own it merits it but righteousness is none of our own it is the holy Ghosts and it is due to God Then again sin is perfectly evil and so it deserves death but our righteousness inherent is not perfectly good it is imperfect in this life and nothing that is imperfectly good can merit as wages eternal life therefore the Apostle makes such a manifest difference between them he calls death the wages of sin but eternal life the gift of God it is the free gift of God through Christ Indeed eternal life sometimes many times in Scripture is called a reward But there is a reward of mercy as well as of justice Nay God is said sometimes to reward his children in justice How is that Though the reward come originally from mercy yet accidentally it comes to be justice thus because God hath tyed himself by promise to reward now promise is debt from a just man Thus the Lord may be accounted a debtor How saith Saint Austin as a promiser if he had not promised eternal life otherwise he ows us nothing at all much less eternal life which is so great a thing Yet it may be doubted how eternal life is the free gift of God seeing it is given for the merits of Christ as it is here exprest the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord that is for the merits of Christ now a
this a meeting for the solemnization of a Marriage I might further descan upon this plain-song that ariseth from the inference of Mens honouring of Women What have I said if it were a Marriage solemnity surely howsoever here be before our eyes the eyes of our bodies a visible object of mortality yet notwithstanding here is before us an invisible occasion of rejoycing as at a Marriage solemnity to the eye of our soul understanding and faith for while here we live in the world Jesus Christ our Spouse he hath his friends friends of the Bridegroom his Ministers and messengers that in his name come to us woo us use all the means that may be to move us to accept of Christ for our Lord and Husband When a man accepts of this offer there is then the contract consummated in regard of the Mutual consent that passeth between the one and the other Christ having his Proxies here we the Ministers being for him and every believing soul for himself This contract continueth so long as here we remain in this world when we depart the body is laid in the Bride-bed quietly to rest and sleep till the Bride-groom be pleased to come and awake his Spouse and it will be a blessed voyce that he shall come withal Come ye blessed of my Father receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world As for the soul that goeth immediatly to Christ and is in his Fathers house with him the Spouse in that part with her Husband the Lord Christ enjoying an eternal inviolable communion and sweet society But howsoever this is thus to the invisible eyes of the soul we now must look upon the object here before us and answerably order out matter and therefore with this touch I let pass the inference and come to the substance of the Text. You heard the sum you heard the parts But we must hear proceed Huesteron and Proteron and clean invert the order of the words as I hope your selves will discern if you do but well mark the order and method Life is in the last place grace before it the right that cometh before it and the extent of that right before all I suppose therefore you will think that first it is meet to lay forth the priviledge it self Life and then to speak of the ground of it then of the right that we have and then of the Extent of that right and this order I purpose to follow First therefore concerning the Priviledge it self Life For brevities sake I forbear to speak much of the divers acceptations of life and distinctions thereof as it is in the Creatour the only true God Father Son and holy Spirit or as it is the invisible and glorious creatures the Angels or as it is in men who are animated by a reasonable soul or as it is in those creatures that are guided only by sense Beasts Fowl Fish or otherwise as it Trees and Plants that come forth out of the earth having a vegetative life only The life here meant is that we call eternal life consisting in our communion with Christ our Spouse and this is a life proper to the Saints proper unto them because coming from the grace of God extended unto them alone proper unto them because they are heirs of it And in this extent there is a restraint howsoever the extent be in divers considerations yet a restraint a qualification only believers only found true Christians to them it is proper And this life is to be considered either in the Inchoation and beginning thereof or in the consummation and accomplishment thereof In regard of the Inchoation of this special life of the Saints it is here begun in this world I now live faith the Apostle speaking even of this life by the faith of the Son of God And the Just shall live by faith This life it is by Christs dwelling and living in us I now live yet not I but Christ liveth in me faith the Apostle in the place before quoted The other it is in the world to come and it is by a sweet feeling and fruition it is by our abiding with Christ and living with him in which respect faith our Lord Christ to the penitent believer upon the Cross This day the very day that he dyed shalt thou be with me in Paradise and so Saint Paul saith of himself I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ implying that upon the dissolution immediatly there is a fruition a communion with Christ And the same Apostle speaking of those Saints that shall be upon the earth at the very moment of Judgment when the dead faith he are raised then shall we also that are alive and remain be cought up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the ayr and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Now then mark here you see the soul hath present communion with Christ upon the dissolution of the body and the body also shall have communion with him at the great day of the Resurrection of all flesh Now this life and communion with Christ is proper to the Saints by vertue of their union with Christ A mistical union For Christ the Son of God he is life originally in himself for as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself He is also Life communicatively communicating life unto us therefore he is said to be the Bread of life and in this sence because he is that Bread which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world The Use of this point my brethren is manifold I will but touch it First it doth instruct us in the great love and good respect that God beareth to us children of men that of his own good pleasure hath written our names in the book of life and hath sent his Son to purchase life for us and to bring us also to this life Beloved what love the Father hath shewed to us in Christ Secondly this is a demonstrrtion of the woful plight wherein naturally men are in this world they may seem to be of some account they have a life that is far different from the life of Plants and also from the life of Beasts they have a reasonable soul to animate them Oh but this this is not the life Natural life indeed is a death compared to this life that is here noted to be proper to the Saints which cometh by grace wherof we are heirs and therefore of all natural men it may be said as the Apostle said of the wanton Widdow she is dead while she liveth even so are all such dead while they live dead in sins and trespasses and if so be those that are in this kind dead continue so till the death of the body seize upon them wo wo wo to them upon this followeth an eternal death endless easeless
specially when she was both husband and wife both master and mistris Death making a division between her dear Husband and her self she used to pray her self and those that heard her and have given testimony thereof admired her gifts that way Frequent she was as apeared in her often retiring her self to her Closet in her constant and secret devotion yea also she took occasion of much fasting specially when she heard of the troubles of the Church The cause of the Church much affected her either in matter of rejoycing or griefe she continued it till her dying-day and still her heart was upon the peace of the Church praying for it As thus she exercised her self in this holy manner so she did likewise wonderfully respect those that were the Ministers of God Amongst many others I have heard long ago that worthy Minister before mentioned from whom I have received most of what I have now related speak much of her and of her worthy Husband in this respect The feet of those that brought the glad-tydings of salvation were beautiful to her And as she was careful to testifie her respect to them so she her self gained no little recompence thereby for she was still asking them questions still desiring to have such and such doubts resolved by them As thus her piety was manifested so likewise was her Charity constantly every week giving relief to the Poor ready upon all occasions that she was moved to to open her hands and to open them wide and that again and again not wearied in doing good Sober and grave she was in her carriage and attire and therein a good example to the younger sort And thus she continued even to her dying day full of sweet meditations upon her death-bed my self partaked of some of them Being asked what evidences she had for her salvation she answered good whether she doubted not she replyed no though she were of a tender conscience yet she had laid such a foundation as her faith remained firm She sweetly ended her dayes with prayers of her own with desire of the prayers of Ministers still as they came to her for as she hearkned to and desired the benefit of their counsel when she lived so she desired the comfort of their prayers now in her death thus I say with a sound testimony of her faith and of her good estate she ended her dayes and we may be assured that she is in the Number of those that are Co-heirs of the grace of life I remember the Philosophers make mention of a word which contains in it a kind of collection or combination of all in one I may say of her that the graces and vertues and ornaments of others seemed to be gathered together and to meet in her And so her piety toward God resembleth her to the two pious Hanna's the one the Mother of Samuel the other the Daughter of Phanuel Her charity resembleth her to Dorcas her love to the Ministers of God to the Shunamite that provided a Chamber a Table and a Candlestick for Elisha In her relation to her Husband she shewed her self a true Daughter of Sarah In her relation to her children which she had a Bathsheba and Eunice To others a Priscilla the Wife of Aquila ready to instruct as occasion was offered And so my bretheren she hath shewed her self a follower of those that through faith and patience inherit the Promise It remaineth to us to set such examples before us and to be followers of them as they have been followers of others and as others have been followers of Christ that so walking in their steps we may also be in the number of such as have the comfort of this Text to be Co-heirs of the grace of life which that you may do c. PEACE IN DEATH OR THE QUIET END OF THE RIGHTEOUS SERMON XXXIV LUKE 2.29 Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy Word IN the Text it self to let pass other things you have First a Request and secondly a Reason upon which the Request is grounded Of each of these in order and first of the first The Request The sum whereof is That he may die Whereof is considerable First the disposition of the servants of God in respect of death viz. 1. A desire and longing after it 2. A care to be alwayes ready for it Secondly the warrant or guid of that desire according to thy Word Thirdly the nature and quality of the death of the Righteous a departure in peace Of each of these apart The point that ariseth from the first branch of the first general part viz. the desire and longing of the Saints for their day of death is this that The servants of God have in them a contented comfortable and willing expectation of death The rise of this Observation is obvious enough one spirit works in all Gods servants and brings forth like effects though not alwayes in the same measure that therefore which is true in Simeon which the very first view of the words import that the coming of Death was expected and desired by him is in some degree verified sooner or later in all that are the Lords Hereunto agrees that of Saint Paul I desire faith he to be dissolved c. And he averrs the same of all true beleevers viz. that they groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with their house which is from Heaven and that they are willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 c. The foundation of this desire is the knowledg and right understanding of the truth of that speech of Solomon to wit that the day of death is better then the day of a mans birth They have learned to know that the day of death to Gods servants is the day of freedome from all miseries and of entrance into eternal happiness The miseries of this life which even the best are subject unto are many Loss of goods loss of credit loss of friends aches pains diseases severs consumptions c. bondage under original corruption and the fruits thereof as unbelief pride of heart ignorance covetousness distrustfulness hatred lust c. the buffetings and temtations of Satan society with the wicked all these miseries even the Holiest and dearest servants of God are exercised with and divers of these do make them many times mourn exceedingly and to cry one while O wretched man that I am and to groan out another while Woe is me that I am constrained to live in Mesech and to have my habitation in the tents of Kedar of all these miseries Death is the end to Gods servants And so also it is an entrance into happiness for albeit their bodies rot in the Grave and be laid up in the Earth as in Gods store-house untill the last day yet the soul forthwith even in an instant comes into the presence of the ever-living God of Christ and of
not your souls with these vain conceits with your Popish and carnal imaginations I say and testifie from this place that that man or woman which careth not to be taught out of Gods book cannot die like a Christian Who can teach thee the way to die well but God And where doth God teach but in the Scripture If our thoughts of Death if our provision and preparation for Death be not warranted and guided by Gods word it is all in vain Lord faith Simeon my desire of dissolution is according to thy Word my care to be prepared hath been ordered by thy Word he cannot die with comfort that cannot make the like profession And this may serve for the next general part the ground of this desire and preparation for Death it is Gods word Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart according to thy Word The third and last part follows the nature and quality of the death of the Righteous A departure in peace or a peaceable dismission Here are two things first a dismission secondly a dismission accompauied with peace The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated Let thy servant depart may well be Englished thus let thy servant loose Lord free me enlarge me set me at liberty Hence we learn that The servants of God do by Death receive a final discarge from all manner of misery This is evident out of the force of the phrase here used Simeon knew that so long as he lived his soul was as it were imprisoned in his body and in it he was held in bondage under the remnants of Original corruption subject to the assaults and temptation of Satan in continual and daily possibility to trespass and sin against Cod beside other afflictions and grievances in the body and estate but he had withal this knowledge and understanding of the nature of Death that it was an enlargement to the soul and a freeing of it utterly and finally from all those and the like incumbrances The same may be gathered from the phrase used by Saint Raul I desire faith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be dissolved and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read the time of my departure the words shew that there coms a liberty by death to the souls of Gods servants The phrase that Saint Peter useth is worthy our observation for this purpose First he terms death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the laying down of a burden and by that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the laying down of a burden and by that means the soul is lightned and eased Secondly he terms it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a going out from a place and condition of hardship The second book of Moses which relates the dyparture of the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage hath the same name Exodus As for the point it self namely that the death of the Righteous is to them a discharge from all misery the Scripture bears witness to it Blessed said he are the dead which die in the Lord even so faith the spirit that they may rest from their labours As long as they live here they are diversly troubled when they die their labours are at an end and they are received into rest Saint John tels us that in his vision he saw the souls of them that were slain lye under the Alter Now the Alter in the time of the law was a place of resuge and safety and thence it appears that by death the servants of God are est-soons received into a place of holy security where there is no expectation of any further misery They are said to be received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into Abrahams bosome into the fellowship of the same happiness with Abraham the Father of all true believers The Doctrine in the first place makes against those of the Church of Rome which maintain a place of torment even for the servants of God after this life where they must be tryed for a time before they can enter into Rest and happiness This place they term Purgatory the torment here they hold to be unspeakable far surpassing any torment which the wit of man is able to devise But this place among others is sufficient to overthrow this dotage for how were death to the Righteous a dismission a loosing a freedom from misery if there followed after it a torment of far greater extremity then at any time before was ever tasted of So that the death of the servants of God being as I have proved it to be an enlargment from misery certainly the soul is not bound in any new Prison whence it must expect and wait and pray for a second dismission In the next place this Doctrine makes much for the comfort of Gods servants the face of Death to the wicked is very dreadful the day of it is to them the beginning of sorrows their souls are instantly arrested by the damned spirits and kept in everlasting chains of darkness but to those that are the servants of God it is otherwise I may by way of allusion to the phrase of my Text compare their day unto that which happened unto Joseph in which he was brought out of prison to be Ruler over all the land of Egypt So is their death unto them a day of Bailment out of prison a day in which all tears shall be wiped away In which they shall have beauty for ashes and the oyl of gladness for the spirit of heaviness and the long white robes of Christs Rightcousness by which they shall be presented blameless unto God That day shall be to them even as was the day of escape to the Jewes a feast and a good day in which they shall see God as he is and know him as they are known of him But happily thou maist say how shall I know that the day of Death is the day of dissolution and this kind of dismission A very necessary quaere indeed this is for every man almost is ready to challenge to himself a part of this happiness and it is a matter presumed upon by many which shall never enjoy it I will therefore give you one certain mark by which we may know assuredly that the day of our death shall be to us a day of enlargment and of final discharge from all both former and following miseries and that is this if in the time of our life here our being subject to corruption and sin hath seemed unto us the greatest burden and bondage They which have groaned and mourned under their own natural corruptions as it were under some heavy and tyrannous yoak or as the Israelites mourned under their Egyptian Task-masters to them only shall the day of death be a day of freedome If sin be not a burden to thee if thou dost not many times lament and even mourn to think how thou art carried captive unto evil if thou dost not with griese feel how thou art clogged with corruption
and hindred by it from doing the good which thou shouldest certainly death will be to thee the biginning of thy thraldome and after it thou shalt be a perpetual bondslave unto Satan in the kingdome of etetnal darkness Mark this all ye that take delight in evil to whom it is a pastime to do wickedly and who seek rather how to satisfie then how to suppress your own corruptions who repute it a kind of happiness to follow the swing of your own lusts and to have liberty to do as your own hearts do lead you when you die this shall be your reward even a most miserable and endless captivity under Satan him have you served in the lusts of sin while ye lived his slaves shall you be without hope of releasement world without end This is the right Application of this Doctrine death is a day of enlargement to the godly it is a dismission The next particular is that it is a dismission accompanied with peace the lesson we are taught hence is that The servants of God have at their going out of the word a comfortable quiet and peaceable departure Thus Simeon here he prayed for no other thing but that his end might be as the end of the Righteous is ever wont to be even a departure hence in peace Hence is that general rule of the Psalmist Mark the perfect man and behold the upright man for the end of that man is peace Agreeable whereunto is that of Solomon that the righteous hath hope in his death And memorable to this purpose is that which is storied of old father Jacob shewing unto us the quiet end of the Righteous He gathered up his feet into the bed and so gave up the Ghost It was the blessing promised to Abraham that he should go to his fathers in peace And the same was made to good Josias There is a twofold reason hereof First the assurance which they have of the favour of God in Christ This must needs breed quietness when I am perswaded in my soul and conscience that all cause of danger after death is removed and that God is and will be gracious unto me in his Son What cause of fear is here lest what occasion of perplexity If any man shall doubt whether the servants of God have this assurance I prove it thus that all of them first or last have it in some good measure If any man faith the Apostle have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Hence it necessarily followes that all that are Christs have the Spirit of Christ but now the office of the Spirit is to bear witness with our spirit So that all that are the Lords as they are endued with Gods Spirit so they feel this Spirit bearing witness to their souls of this Adoption Secondly the comfortable Testimony of their own consciences touching their former care to glorisie God by a Religious and godly conversation Hence came Saint Pauls peace I have saith he fought the good fight I have kept the faith Therefore I am sure there is laid up for me a Crown of life Hence Hezekiahs I have walked before thee oh Lord in truth and with a perfect heart Not that they do ground their hope upon the desert of their fore-ran courses but because they know good works to be the way and do understand by the Scripture that a holy life here is the first fruits of a glorified life hereafter Thus we see the truth of this point and the reasons upon which it is grounded Now here some may object first We see many worthy men that have made a great and an extrordinary profession of Religion in their lives and which have also carried themselves unblamable yet to give appearance of much anguish and perplexity and even of a kind of despair in their death How can we say then that all good and holy persons have a peaceable departure I answer first We ought to remember the Rule our Saviour gives not to judge according to the outward appearance It is a very weak argument to say that this or that man dyeth without peace because to the standers by he makes not shew of peace Certaine it is that as a man may have peace with God and yet himself for a time by reason of some tentation not feel it so a man being sick or going out of the world may feel it and yet others that behold him cannot perceive it Secondly we must know that these outward unquietnesses which do many times accompany sickness do happen as well and as ordinarily to good men as to the most wicked such as are ravings and idle-talkings and strange accidents in the body in this sence all things come alike to all God hath made no promise in Scripture that those that serve him shall be freed in their deaths from violent sicknesses Therefore these things must not be thought to be any abridgment of their peace Thirdly we must consider that with the best servants of God Satan is most busie when his end is neerest and when he is as it were out of all hope of prevailing The red Dragon in the Revelation had greatest wrath when he knew his time to be short When the evil Spirit was commanded once to come out of the child then it rent him sore Now these temptations though for the time they be very violent and extream so that the party may happily utter out some words and speeches of dispair yet be they no final prejudice to the inward peace Interrupt they may but utterly quench it they cannot because the power of God is made perfect through weakness And so even in death Satan receives the greatest foil when he thinks to get the greatest victory Thus then I answer in one word The peace of Gods servants at death is not ever in the like measure felt by them but yet it never dieth in them they which behold their death do not alwayes see it yet they themselves sooner or later are sure sweetly and secretly to feel the same My reason for my assertion is grounded first upon that of the Apostle God commands light to shine out of darkness He brings his servants to Heaven by the gates of hell out of sorrow and anguish and tentation he raiseth out their greatest quiet Secondly because the love of God is eternal and unchangeable Whom he loves he loves to the end It is impossible that the Lord albeit he try and that sharply yer should finally for sake those that are his in their greatest extremity But again secondly if you make a peaceable death to be the reward of the Righteous what say you to this There be many that in all their life gave little evidence of any Religion or grace but of the contrary rather yet in their death were very quiet and still and seemed to all that were by to have in them no manner of vexation no
rise out of the grave of sin and to lead a new life a spiritual life the life of grace this is the resurrection of the soul Now that Christ is the Author of this Resurrection also of this spiritual Resurrection we may demonstrate this by a multitude of Divine testimonies but we will single out some few of the chiese we need go no further then this Evangelist which affords plentiful testimony for the confirmation of this truth As in Joh. 4.10 There Christ speaking to the woman of Samaria he said unto her If thou haddest known the gift of God and who it is that said unto thee give me drink thou shouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee living water Here the Spirit of Christ it is compared to living water by an allusion to the water that continually springeth out of a Fountain And the Spirit of grace is compared to living water from the effects of it because the Spirit of grace restoreth spiritual life to the soul and then preserveth this life therefore it is living Water and Christ is as the Fountain of this water that yeeldeth and giveth this living quickning water of the Spirit Again in Joh. 5.21 there Christ challengeth this power to himself As the Father raised up the dead and quickneth them so the Son quickneth whom he will As Christ when he was upon the earth he raised whom he would from the death of the body so now being in heaven he raiseth whom he will from the death of the soul Yea the voyce of Christ sounding in the ministry of the Word accompanied with his quickning Spirit is of power and efficacie to raise those that are dead in sins as we may see Joh. 5.25 Verily verily I say unto you faith Christ the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voyce of the Son of God and they that hear it shall live Again in Joh. 6.35 there Christ stileth himself the Bread of life and the Living bread Jesus said unto them I am the bread of life and in verse 48. I am the bread of life and again verse 51. I am the living bread Christ is the living bread the bread of life who as he hath life in himself so he communicates spiritual life to all those that seed upon him And here is a broad difference between this Bread of life and ordinary bread ordinary food for though ordinary food can preserve natural life where it is yet it cannot restore life where it is not but Christ is such living Bread that he restores life to those that are dead in sins and preserves that life that he hath restored thus he is the living Bread Again Joh. 15.1 there Christ compares himself to a Vine and the faithful to so many branches I am the true Vine faith Christ and my Father is the husbandman And in verse 5. I am the Vine ye are the branches Now as the branch of the Vine sucks juyce and sap from the stock and root of the Vine so all the faithful receive spiritual juyce and life from Christ their head As Adam he is a common root of corruption and spiritual death to all that come from him so Christ is a common root of grace and spiritual life to all those that are his members And in this regard Christ is compared to a head and the faithful to his members Collos 1.18 Christ is the head of his body the Church Christ is the head and the faithful are his members therefore as in the natural body the head that is the principium the fountain of sence and motion it is the head that by certain nerves and sinews conveyes sence and motion to all the members of the body so in the mystical body the Church Christ is the head that conveyes spiritual life and motion to all that are his members to all the faithful Thus you see the second conclusion explained and proved also that as Christ is the Author of the resurrection of the body so he is of the resurrection of the soul too it is he that raiseth the soul to spiritual life Now in the third place we are to shew the reason why this double quickning power is here comprehended under one term I am the Resurrection Now that this double power of quickning is to be understood here under this one term we need not I hope spend time to prove for that Christ speaks here of the spiritual resurrection and the spiritual life this I take to be evident from Christs own exposition in the words following He that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live He that believeth in me though he were dead in sins and trespasses before yet he shall live the life of grace therefore I am the Resurrection Again that the resurrection of the body is not here excluded it may appear from the scope and intent of these words of Christ for the scope of these words here is to perswade Martha that he was able of himself by his own power to raise up her dead brother to restore him to life saith he I am the resurrection I have power to restore spiritual life to the soul that is dead in sin and this is the greater work therefore I am able to restore natural life to the dead body to restore the body that is dead in the Grave to life again Now the reasons why this double power is here comprehended under one term I am the resurrection the chiefe reasons I take to be these two First this double quickning power is here comprehended under one term in regard of the Analogie and proportion between these two between the restoring of the body to life and the restoring the soul to life Secondly in regard of the certain inseparable connexion between these two First I say in regard of the Analogie and proportion between these two the resurrection of the body and of the soul now the proportion and analogie consists especially in these four things First as in the resurrection of the body the living soul must first return to the dead body and quicken it before it can rise again so here in the Resurrection of the soul the Spirit of grace must return to the soul that is dead in sins and quicken it before it can rise again so that there is a similitude in regard of the first beginning and principle of this Resurrection Again secondly there is an analogie and proportion in regard of the point and term the state from which the Resurrection is for as in the resurrection of the body the body riseth from the state of corruption from the bondage of the Grave So here in this resurrection of the soul the soul and the whole man riseth from the state of spiritual corruption from the bondage of sin The third proportion is in regard of the estate to which a man riseth for as in the resurrection of the body a man shall rise again without those
first degree of his exaltation so this spiritual Resurrection that we have spoken of it is the first degree of a Christians exaltation therefore get this in the first place yea get this and all will follow If thou attain this thou maist be assured of the second Resurrection also to the life of glory Remember that Christ by raising himself from the dead by his own power declared himself to be the eternal Son of God He was declared mightily to be the Son of God by his Resurrection So if thou canst by a power and vertue drawn from Christ rise out of the grave of thy sin then thou shalt declare thy self to be the member of Christ the Son of God the daughter of God therefore labour to attain this first Resurrection But here this question may be demanded but by what means now doth Christ convey this spiritual life to his children and how shall I get to be partaker of this Resurrection by what means shall I attain this first Resurrection to this spirituall life To this I answer briefly that by the same means by which Christ works faith in the soul by the same means he raiseth a sinner to life for he that beleeveth liveth and he that liveth beleeveth he that beleeveth is raised to life therefore by the same means that Christ works faith by the same means he raiseth a sinner to life Therefore the outward means is the Preaching of the Word the inward the Spirit of grace By such means as Christ will raise the bodies of the dead at the last day by the like means he now raiseth the souls of those that are dead in sin Now Christ will raise the bodies that are now dead in the Grave at the last day First by his voyce John 5.28.29 and by the sound of the Trumpet 1 Cor. 15.52 The Trump shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible And he shall raise them by his quickning Spirit So by the like means Christ now raiseth our souls that are dead in sins therefore if thou desire to be raised out of the grave of sin let me counsel thee First to attend diligently to the word of God upon the preaching of the Gospel The word of Christ is a quickning word as Christ saith Joh. 3.63 My Word is spirit and life The voyce of Christ is a quickning voyce as Christ by his voyce raised Lazarus out of his Grave when Christ said to Lazarus Come forth presently Lazarus quickned and came forth so the voyce of Christ in the ministery of the Word hath a quickning power to raise sinners from the death of sin therefore when the Ministers cry aloud and the Prophets lift up their voyce as a Trumpet then hearken Secondly be frequent and fervent in Prayer for the Spirit of grace and of Christ before thou hear pray and after thou hast heard pray that the Spirit of Christ may accompany his Word that so this may be a means to awaken and to quicken thee out of thy natural estate and to raise thee out of the death of sin Thou must pray to God to give thee a hearing ear and a believing heart that so the sound of the Word may not be as the sound of a Trumpet in the ears of a dead man but that thou maiest be quickned by the voyce of Christ And though thou have continued a long time in thy sins yet be not altogether discouraged remember that Christ is able to raise thee though thou have continued never so long in thy sins for he that was able to raise Lazarus that was dead and buryed and now stinking in the Grave he is able to raise up thee also In the last place in one word if upon examination thou find thou have attained to this spiritual Resurrection then here is a ground of exhortation To humility To thankfulness Here is a ground of Exhortation to Humility and Thankfulness to joyn them both together because they usually go together the proud person is alway unthankful and the humble man is alway a thankful man Now if thou have attained to the Resurrection thou hast great cause to be humble and to be thankful First thou hast great cause to be humbled because thou hast nothing but that thou hast received thou hast great cause to be humbled because thou puttest not any hand to this work no more than the dead body of Lazarus could help to the raising of him No more then a creature being nothing can help to its own creation no more can a sinner help forward this mork of his Resurrection therefore thou hast cause to be humbled for not puting the least helping hand to this work it is wholly supernatural Therefore let not any one arrogate any thing to the power of his free will but remember the work is wholly supernatural Secondly as we have cause to be humbled so to be thankful too do but consider the desperate and dangerous estate of sin whence thou art raised and then make thy humble confession with the Israelites when they brought their first fruits before God Deut. 26.5 A Syrian ready to perish was my father he went into Egypt with a few and become a Nation mighty and populous and the Lord brought him out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an out-stretched arm with terrour and signs and wonders and hath brought us to this place and hath given us this Land even a Land flowing with milk and honey The like deliverance the Lord hath wrought for thee therefore be thankful and make thy thankful acknowledgment with the Psalmist Psal 115. Not unto us but to thy name give the glory And then desire God as he hath by his mercy brought thee to the Kingdome of grace so by his power to preserve thee to the Kingdome of glory And desire Christ as he by his quickning Spirit hath made thee partakers of the first Resurrection to the life of grace so to make thee partaker of the second to the life of glory DEATH IN BIRTH OR THE FRUIT OF EVES Transgression SERMON XXXVI GEN. 35.19 And Rachel died IT is a Statute law of God that all both Men and Women must die The causes for which it pleased Almighty God to leave the bodies even of his dearest Children under the power of Death to be returned to dust are many First for the manifesting his truth according to that ancient threatning mentioned Gen. 3.19 Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Secondly for the manifestation of his power that by death he may translate his chosen servants to life Sin it was that brought death into the world and God will shew his strength in this that death shall be the utter abolishment even of that very thing which brought it first upon us and made us all lyable to it If there had not been sin there should not have been death and now God will that in those that are his the kingdom and being of sin shall utter
this life yet in death thy hands must open â—…emselves and let it go thou must not hold the world above thy life nor thy life beyond the day of death no we cannot alway have that which we desire we must certainly part with what we most esteem of Secondly what comfort is this to a good soul If we had hope only in this life faith Saint Paul we of all men are most miserable 1 Cor. 15. Death is a happy change to a holy person First it is a change which shall put a period to all his changes in this life his outward condition how oft doth it change sometime by joy and sorrow sometime by comfort and misery by health and sickness by abundance and want but when Death comes all sorrow shall fly away for ever thou shalt never be more troubled with a sick body with a sad estate with common losses but the change of a temporal life shall set thee in a full and settled possession of an heavenly His inward condition how oft doth it change sometime free anon distressed now a sweet view of heaven anon darkned with fear now rejoycing in Christ anon buffeted with Sathan now blessing God for grace anon distracted with the insolent workings of remaining corruptions but when death comes then comes a change of all this it will release thee for ever of sin and Sathan after death sin shall be a burden no more and Sathan shall be a tempter no longer but thou shalt be as happy as thou canst desire and shalt enjoy thy God and thy Christ without fear of trouble in glory in felicity in eternity all the cruel insolencies of tyrants shall come short of thy soul thou shalt be above their malice and beyond thy self Secondly it is a change and no worse then a change just as Joseph changed his garments and went into Pharaoh so thou shalt put off thy body and go into glory put off thy mortality and go into immortality Oh what terrour to wicked men a day of change will befal them Why didst thou say Oh David there is no bands in their death and they are not in changes like other men Verily I should have checked thee hadst thou not recanted it presently thy self Psal 73.4,17,18,19 and reported it to us that they are set in slippery places and are brought into desolation and cast down into destruction in a moment and utterly consumed with terrour Good Lord what a change is that to them they judged with insolent and unrighteous judgment the Children of God now but death will change this the unjust steward shall be called to a an account and he that beat his fellow servant shall be eternally judged by a righteous God and their honour shall sinck in the dust neither shall their riches deliver them from wrath but they shall see him whom they have peirced and persecuted and shall not be able to escape his presence A dismal thing will this be that a man shall have his honour die and the great God put disgrace upon him a dismal change indeed when a man shall see all his power changed into impotency his pleasures into torment and wrath put upon his soul when God shall seperate thee from his presence thou shalt not have a drop of ease nor any friend to assist thee nor any hope of comfort thou shalt be stript of them all in a monent shall a change of all this be O consider this if there be any here that forget God least he tear you in pieces and there be none to help remember and consider your latter end and apply your hearts to wisdome Last of all shall there be a change that shall befal every son of man then Oh that this people were wise as Moses faith that they would remember their latter end all the dayes of our appointed time to wait till our change come What do you think of servants to whom you had committed servile imployments till you came home and if when you come home they were absent and you found one in the street drunk another in a chamber with a strumpet how would you take this Brethren think upon it we are Gods servants or should be two things are imposed upon us one to honour God another to save our own souls if he find us doing the works of the Devil and the flesh and find us in the works of the world how will he take this Come faith God I have lent you a life thus many years I told you what you should be and what you should do and what have you been doing all this life what have your works been what courses have you taken are these the fraits of your wayes to have a life run over with ignorance with prophaness c. Alus when a man at that time shall have nothing to say but Loâ—…d I have lived in such a sin all my dayes I have fulfilled my own desires thou hast for me in this World and I have laboured to get a great estate all my dayes Another may say I have spent my time in 〈◊〉 society c. What will God say to these men are these the endings of thy life the fruits of thy opportunities where is the repentante I called for at thy hands where is that godly sorrow that I called for for the sins of thy life did not I send thee into the world for this end to get Grace to get Faith to make up thy accounts with me thy God and hast thou no regand to it Well thou hast been foolish inconsiderate for the time that is past yet now understand that a day of change will besal thee O let us be perswaded I beseech you be perswaded to it in this our day to know the things that concern our peace whilest it is called to day not to hearden our hearts whilest it is called to day not to deser our repentance thou art not assured of any more time then present Death may meet with thee as thou sittest in thy feat as thou goest out of the Church doer and thou knowest thy heart hath been wicked oh why wilt thou set thy eternal estate upon so small a point as it were the cast of a Die Remember what Daniel said to Nabuohadnezzar let it have acceptance with thee break off thy sine by repentance c. Seeing we must die and appear before the judgment feat of God what manner of persons ought we to be in all holiness of life and conversation as soon as we are we begin to sin and as soon as we are we begin to die let us look upon our account and be faithful to our souls perhaps thy accounts are yet to make oh be sure to let it be the first thing thou doest and give thy self no rest till thou hast done it and when thou hast done this labour to clear it with the bloud of Christ labour by humble confession and hearty repentance to turn unto the Lord go on
hereafter Every man goeth though some set out sooner some later and shall arive at his home but let him look to his way as the way is he taketh so shall the home be into which he is received if he take the way on the right hand and keep within the paths of Gods commandements his home shall be the New Jerusalem descending from God most gloriously shining with streets of gold gates of pearl and foundatious of pretious stones where all tears shall be wiped from his eyes but if he take the broad way on the left hand and follow it his home shall be a dungeon or vault in Hell where he shall be eternally both mourner and Crops But to shoot somewhat nearer to the mark Marriages and Funerals though most different actions and of a seeming contrary nature yet are set forth and as it were apparelled with parallel rites and ceremonies our rayments are changed in both because in both our estate is changed Bels are rung flowers are strowed and feasts kept in both and anciently both were celebrated in the night by Torch-light He that hath but half an eye may see in the Rituals of the Ancients the blazing and sparkling as well of the funeral as the unptial lights and no marvail the shodows meet when the substance concur the pictures resemble one the other when the faces match the accessaries are corresponding where the principals are sutable as here they are for in marriage single life dieth and in death the soul is married to Christ The couple to be married in ancienter times first met and after an enterview and liking of each other and a contract signed between them presently departed the Bride to her Mother the Bridegroom to his Fathers house till the wedding day on which the Bridegroom late in the night was brought to his Spouse and then he took her and inseparably linked himself unto her Here the couple to be married in man are the body and the soul at our birth the contract is made but after a short enterview and small abode together the parties are parted and the body the Bride returneth to her Mothers house the earth but the soul the Bridegroom to his Fathers house the Father of spirits in Heaven as both their guests are set forth in this chapter verse 7. the dust returns to the earth as it was and the spirit to God that gave it But in the evening of the World at that dreadful night after which the Angel swore there should be no more day or time here the soul is given by God to the body again and then the marriage is consummated and both for ever fast coupled and wedded for better for worse to run an everlasting fortune and to participate either eternal joyes or torments together Thus man is brought to his long home or as the Seventy and Saint Jerome renders the Hebrew his house of eternity and the mourners go about the streets here is a short reckoning of all mankind like to that of the Psalmist who alluding to the name of the two Patriarchs faith Coll ADAM ABEL All men are altogether vanity so here upon the foot of the account in Bonaventures casting all appear wretched and miserable describitur miseria mortis in morientibus compatientibus all are either dead corpses or sad mourners corpses already dead or mourners for the dead and their courses and motions are two 1 Straight man goeth c. 2 Circular mourners go about The dead go directly to the long home the living fetch a compass and round about the termini of which their motions shall be the bounds of my discourse at this present Wherein that you may the better discern my passage from point to point I will set up six Posts or standings 1 The Scope 2 Coherence 3 Sense 4 Parts 5 Doctrine 6 Vse The scope will give light to the Coherence the Coherence to the Sense the Sense to the Parts the Parts to the Doctrine the Doctrine to the Vse Wherefore I humbly entreat the assistance of Gods Spirit with the intention of yours whil'st in unfolding this rich peece of Arras I shall point with the finger to 1 The main Scope 2 The right Coherence 3 The litteral Sense 4 The natural Division 5 The general Doctrine 6 The special application of this parcel of holy Scripture First the Scope Although all other Canonical books of this old and new Testament were read in the Church yet as Gregory Nysscen acutely observes this book alone is intituled Ecclesiastes the Preacher or Church-man because this alone in a manner tendeth wholly Ecclesiastical policy or such a kind of life or conversation as becometh a Preacher or Church-man For the prime scope of this book is to stir up all religious minds to set forth towards Heaven betimes in the morning of our dayes Chap. 12. verse 1. Remember thy Creatour in the dayes of thy youth to enter speedily into a strict course of holiness which will bring us to eternal happiness to dedicate to God and his service the prime in both senses that is the first and best part of our time For as in a glass of distilled water the purest and thinnest first runneth out and nothing but lees and mouther at the last so it is in our time and age Optima queque dies miseris mortalibus avi prima fluit Our best dayes first run and our worst at the last And shall we offer that indignity to the Divine Majesty as to offer him the Devils leavings storem at at is diabolo consecrare fâ—…ecem Deo reserv are to consecrate the top to the Devil and the bottom to God feed the flesh with the flower and the spirit with the bran serve the world with our strength and our Creatour with our weakness give up our lusty and able members as weapons to sin and our feeble and weak to righteousness Will God accept the blind and the lame the lean and the withered for a sacrifice How can we remember our Creatour in the dayes of our age when our memory and all other faculties of the soul are decayed How shall we bear Christs yoak when the Grashoppers is a burthen unto us when we are not able to bear our selves but bow under the sole weight of age What delight can we take in Gods service when care and fear and sorrow and pain and manifold infirmities and diseases wholly possess the heart and dead all the vital motions and lively affections thereof Old men are a kind of Antipodes to young men it is evening with them when it is morning with these it is Autumne in their bodies when it is Spring in these the Spring of the year to decrepit old men is as the Fall Summer is winter to them and Winter death it is no pleasure to them to see the Almond-tree flourish which is the Prognosticatour of the Spring or the Grashopper leap and sing the Preludium of Summer for they now mind not
up all the sons of Adam shall be swallowed up it self into victory Till then we shall all go 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in our several rank and order take our last walk the way of all flesh and it is happy if we go it as Abraham did here in peace and a special blessing if we be gathered as he was to his Fathers in the Autumne of a good old age In which words we have two Acts of a Tragedy the former acted upon his Stage thou shalt go to thy Fathers the latter under the scaffold and be buried in a good old age None die better then they who have life in their hope and none live better than they who have death in their mind and thought especially if it be in the time of their health and bloom of their beauty and pride of their youth and top of their earthly happiness For this cause Joseph of Arimathes is supposed by many to have set his Sepulchre in his Garden as it were to sawce his sweetest pleasures with the sad thoughts of his Funeral and John surnamed the Almoner began his Sepulchre on the day he was Consecrated Patriark of Alexandria and it was the manner of the ancient Emperours at their Coronation feast to have several sorts of Marble shewed them to the end that they might choose one of them for their Tomb-stone and agreeable hereunto the interlineary gloss yeeldeth a reason why God commanded that the oyle wherewith the Kings were annoynted should be compounded with Cinnamon and other spices quod sit cinericii coloris because it is of the colour of Ashes or rather such mould as is digged out of Graves to put them in mind that very day in which they were made Gods upon earth that they should die like men In which regard we have great cause to Bless the providence of our heavenly Father who in the midst of our Marriage feasts and many occasions of mirth and joy presents us with such sad spectacles as here we see to the end we should not exceed in our mirth or too far set our heart upon the pleasures and comforts of this life which like sticks under a pot after a blaze fall suddenly into ashes Let us learn from all the changes and chances of this mortal life not to sing a requiem to our souls here with the fool in the Gospel because we have wealth laid up for us for many years for if our riches take not their wings and fly away from us we shall be taken away from them we shall be arrested by Gods Bayliff Death and then we must go But thou shalt go Our observations from this Scripture ariseth from two springs 1. The manner 2. The matter The former divides it self into two Rivelets the latter into three In the former to wit the manner I observe 1. That these words were spoken to Abraham in a Dream when the Sun was going down a heavy sleep fell upon him 2. That they were spoken by way of Gracious promise In the latter to wit the matter I observe three blessings bestowed upon Abraham 1. A comfortable death Thou shalt go in peace 2. An honourable burial and be buried with thy Fathers 3. A seasonable time for both in a good old age First of the manner When the Sun was setting a deep sleep and dreadful darkness fell upon Abraham and God shewed him in a dream the misery and thraldome of his postetity in Egypt Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them and they shall afflict them 400. years vers 13. and lest at the sight hereof his heart should utterly have failed him and his bowels dryed up within him like a pot-sheard God cleareth the skie which was clouded with a smoak of a fiery furnass vers 17. and cheareth his heart reviving him with a promise of safety and peace for himself and of deliverance of his posterity also out of their grievous servitude after a certain period of years allotted for the promise of the growth and ripeness of the Amorites sins For dreams in general the great Secretary of Nature discovereth unto us that the Dreams of good men are better than the Dreams of bad and he will have his foelix or happy man to have a singular priviledge above other men even in his sleep And doubtless as a good conscience is a full feast in the day so it is a light banquet in the night for better thoughts and phantesies in the day beget better dreams in the night as the brighter colours in the Window when the Sun shineth cast clearer species intentionales or reflections from them on the Wall God is with his children as well in the night as in the day and he imparts his counsels and discloseth his secrets as well by dreams in the one as by visions in the other That prophesie of Joel I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams though it were fulfilled in the day of Penticost as Saint Peter instructeth us yet ought it not to be restrained to that day or the Apostles time only For it hath been verified in all after-ages and holdeth still for profitable and comfortable irradiations of Gods Spirit upon the soul by day and night though not for supernatural and prophetical revelations or not so frequent Dreams therefore as they are not with the Eastern people supertitiously to be observed so neither are they utterly to be neglected as idle and vain nocturnal phantasies The Poet could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jupiter sends Dreams and Ariflotle dreamed not when he wrote his exact discourse of Divination by dreams nor Artemidorus when he published his curious tract intituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judgment of Dreams for the experience of all times proveth that the Dreams of many men especially a little before their death have been very considerable When the window of the senses are shut the soul hath best leisure to look into her self and after sickness hath battered down the walls of the dark prison of the body in which she was close kept more light breaks in upon her and she seeth farther off then she could before and this is the meaning of the Platonicks in that their Apophthegme anima promonet in morte the soul looks out as it were neer death For this particular in my Text God is gracious to many of his children now adayes by Dreams or otherwayes to give them notice of their departure hence To some he maketh known the year to some the moneth to some the very day and hour when they shall go the way of all flesh And as here he fore-shewed Abraham his departure from hence per viam lecteum by the milky way as it were that is by a sweet and pleasant passage of a natural death in the autumn of his life so also in a Dream he
the Haven of death The Draw-net of the Gospel catcheth sweet and stinking fish in Gods field Tares grow with Wheat in his floar there is much Chaff with good grain But after death God taketh his Fan in his hand and purgeth his Floar After we depart hence God placeth and sorteth his Children by themselves and the Children of the World and the wicked are by themselves and so every man is exactly gathered to his own people every star is set in his own constellation every grain is put in his own heap every person and family is joyned to his own tribe we all pass by the same gate of death but presently after we are out of it some take the right hand and are ranked with sheep others the left hand and are ranked among his goats We are all like Plate worn out of fashion and we must all be altred and therefore of necessity must be melted that is dissolved by death but after we have run in the fire of the judgment of God of that which was pure mettal God will make Vessels of honour but of the drossy and alcumy stuff that is the prophane or impure person or hypocrite vessels of dishonour and these shall shine like the sun in the Firmament those shall glo like coals in the fire of hell for evermore By this it should seem may some object that the righteous have no prerogative in death above the wicked but only after death and consequently that God promised Abraham no blessing in these words thou shalt go to the fathers it had been rather a singular favour to have kept him out of the common track with Enoch and have translated him that he might not see death this objection is answered in the next words In peace it is no special blessing or favour to bring us to our fathers by death for statutum est omnibus haminibus semel mori the Statute provideth sufficiently to send us to the place where we were born but to send us thither in peace is a singular favor which God vouchsafeth his dear Children especially in such a peace as Abraham went in wherein a three-fold peace concurred 1 Peace of estate 2 Peace of body 3 Peace of conscience First thou shall go to thy fathers in peace that is in a peaceable time or the dayes of peace the storms I foreshewed the hanging over thy Posterity shall not fall in thy time but thou shalt die in a blessed calm thy house being set in order and thy friends about thee thy children shall close thine eyes and they whom thou broughtest into the World shall carry thee with honour out of the World Secondly thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace that is thou shalt have an easie and a quiet pass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there shall be no great strugling at thy departure but a kind parting of soul and body thy soul shall earnestly desire to return to the Father of spirits and though thy body shall contend in courtesie to stay it a while yet it shall without much adoe yeeld thou shalt like a ripe Apple fall from the Tree without plucking or a violent blast of Wind thou shalt go out of thy self as a golden Taper when the waxe is spent and thou shalt leave a sweet smell a good name like a precious perfume after thee Thirdly thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace that is in peace of conscience and peace with God which passeth all understanding thou shalt have no trouble in thy mind at the hour of death no terrours of conscience no fearful conflict with despare no dangerous assault of Sathan or flashes of hell fire all thy sins shall be blown away like a cloud and the beams of Gods countenance shall shine brightly upon thee and dry up all thy tears non sic impij non sic it shall not be so with the wicked it shall not be so with them for there is no peace to the wicked faith my God neither in life nor death but as a ruff sea is ruffest of all and most foaming and raging of all at the shore so the life of a wicked man is alwayes unquiet but most troublesome at all near the end If he die not in some garboil as Sylla or in the act of uncleanness with John the Twelf or voyding his entrals with Arrius or rending his bowels with Julian or falling upon his own sword with Nero or rayling and raging with Latomus if he be not punished in body with some violent fit of sickness or unsufferable pang of torment yet he goeth not to his fathers in peace for there is sent a hue and cry after him to apprehend him and lay him in chains of darkness till the general Assises at the dreadful day of Doom when he shal not be found of God in peace but in wrath and reading in the look of the Judge of quick and dead his dreadful sentence he shall cry to the hils to fall apon him and to the mountains to cover him from the presence of God and wrath of the Lamb. And thou shalt be buried in a good old age Although the heathen Philosophers made little account of Burial as appeared by that speech of Theodorus to the Tyrant who threatned to hang him I little pass by it whether my carkass putrifie above the earth or on it and the Poet seems to be of his mind whose strong line it was Caelo tegitur qui non habet urnam which was Pompeys case and had like to have been Alexanders and William the Conquerours Yet all Christians who conceive more divinely on the soul deal moreh umanly with the body which they acknowledg to be membrum Christi and Templum Dei a member of Christ and Temple of God If charity commands thee to cover the naked saith Saint Ambrose how much more to bury the dead when a friend is taking a long journey it is civility for his friends to bring him on part of the way when our friends are departed and now going to their grave they are taking their last journey from which they shall never return till time shall be no more and can we do less then by accompaning the Corps to the grave bring them as it were part on their way and shed some few tears for them whom we shall see no more with mortal eyes The Prophet calleth the grave Miscabin a sleeping chamber or resting place and when we read Scriptures to them that are departing and give them godly instructions to die we light them as it were to their bed and when we send a deserved testimony after them we persume the room Indeed if our bodies which like garments we cast off at our death were never to be worn again we need little care where they were thrown or what became of them but seeing they must serve us again their fashion being only altered it is fit we carefully lay them up in deaths Wardrope the grave though a man after he
I was thirsty and you gave me drink I was naked and you clothed me I was sick and in prison and you visited me or an Allegory as Where the body is there the Eagles will be gathered or an Apostrophe as Hear O heavens and hearken O earth or an Exclamation Oh that they were wise then they would understand this Oh that my people would have hearkned io my voyce and that Israel would have walked in my wayes In other passages a conjunction and combination of many figures and ornaments of speech as in that Text of the Prophet Jeremy Is there no balm in Gilead no Physitian there Why then is not the health of my people restored In which one verse you may note four figures First an interrogation for more emphatical conviction Secondly a communication for more familiar instruction Thirdly an Allegory for more lively expression Fourthly an Aposiopesis for safer reprehension and the like we observe in our Saviours exprobration O that thou knewest in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace O Jerusalem Jerusalem which killest the Prophets and stonest those that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children as a hen doth her chickens and thou wouldst not Here is a posie of rhetorical flowers an Exclamation O si câ—…gnovisses a reticentia at least in this thy day saltem in hoc die tuo A repetition Jerusalem Jerusalem an interrogation how oft would I quoties volui And lastly an Icon or lively expression to the eye sicut galina congregat pullos suos As the hen gathereth her chickens under her wings Where are now our Anabaptists and plain pack-staff methodists who esteem of all flowers of Rhetorick in Sermons no better then stinking weeds and of all elegancies of speech then of prophane spells For against their wills at unawares they censure the holy Oracles of God in the first place which excell all other writings as well in eloquence as in Science doubtless as the breath of a man hath more force in a Trunk and the wind a lowder and sweeter sound in the Organ-pipe then in the open ayr so the matter of our speech and the theam of our discourse which is conveyed through figures and forms of Art both sound sweeter to the ear and pierce deeper into the heart there is in them plus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more evidence and more efficacie they make a fuller expression and take a deeper impression secondly where are our prophane criticks who delight in the flesh-pots of Egypt and loath Manna admire carnal eloquence in Poets and heathen Oratours and task the Scriptures for rude simplicity and want of all Art and eloquence It is true the Scripture is written in a style peculiar to it self the elocution in it is such as Lactantius observeth that it befitted no other books as neither doth that we find in other books befit it As the matter in Scripture so the form is divine nec vox heminum sonat which consisteth not in the words of mans wisdome but in the evidence of the Spirit Yet is there admirable eloquence in it and far surpassing which we find in all other writings Wherefore Politian the Grammarian who pretended he durst not touch any lease in the Bible for fear of defiling the purity of his language or slurring the gloss of his style is condemned as well by learned humanists as Divines And Theopompus who went about to cloath Gods word with gay and trim phrases of heathen Orators and Poets was punished by God with loss of his wits Thus have we viewed the form let us now have an eye to the matter our Lords conquest over Death and the Grave There are two things most dreadful to the nature of man Death and the Grave the one severeth the soul the other consumeth the body and resolveth it into dust the valiantest conquerours that with their bloody flags and coulors have struck a terrour unto all Nations yet have been afrighted themselves at the displaying of the pale and wan coulours of Death the most retired Philosophers and Monks who have lived in Cells and Caves under the ground yet have been startled at the sight of their Grave How much then are we indebted to our Christian saith that not only overcometh the world but also conquereth the fear of Death and the grave and dareth both in the words of my Text O death sting me if thou canst O grave conquer me if thou be able O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory In which words the Apostle like a Cryer calleth Death and the Grave into the Court and examineth them upon two Articles first concerning the sting of the one secondly concerning the victory of the other Will it please you then to fix the eye of your observation upon the parts of this Text as they are laid before you in terms of Law 1 A Citation 2 An Examination In the Citation upon 1 the manner of it 2 the parties cited 1 Death 2 Grave In the Examination 1 Upon the first Interrogatory put to Death touching the ledging of his sting 2 Upon the second Interrogatory put to the Grave touching the field of his victory First for the manner of Citing it is by an Apostrophe a figure often accurring in holy Scripture as in the book of Kings O Altar Altar O ye mount ains of Gilboa and of the Psalmes lift up ye gates and be ye lift up you everlasting doors and of the Canticles Arise O North and blow O South and in the Prophets O earth earth earth In imitation of which strings of rhetorick the Auncient Fathers in their funeral Orations many times turned to the dead and used such compellations as these audi Constantine vale Paula hear O Constantine farewel O Paula From which passages our advesaries very weakly if not ridiculously infers the invocation of Saints departed making weapons of plumes of feathers and arguments of ornaments and which is far worse Divinity of rhetorick and articles of faith of tropes of sentences By a like consequence they might conclude that hills and trees and the earth and gates and death and hell have eyes to look upon us or ears to hear us or that we ought to invocate them because the holy Ghost maketh such Apostrophes to them as the Fathers do to the souls of Saints newly departed out of their bodies Secondly for the parties here cited and called in their order first Death and then the Grave Death goes before the Grave because men die before they are buryed and the Grave is properly no Grave till it be possessed by a dead body before it is but a hole or pit O Death In Hebrew Maveth from Muth whence mutus in Latine is derived and mute in English because Death bereaveth us of speech and for a like reason the Grave is termed Domus silentii a house of silence In Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either
his Aph. Secondly the rule of the Region of darkness or prince of Hell so Hesiod taketh it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hes op dies Thirdly the state and condition of the dead or death it self so Homer taketh it Il. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Language of Canaan it is either taken for the place of torment of the damned And in hell he lift his eyes being in torments and seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosome Secondly for the Grave and that most frequently in the Seventy Interpreters as namely I will go down into Hades to my son that is the Grave and let not his hoary head go down into Hades that is the grave in peace and in death there is no remembrance of thee and who will give thee thanks in Hades that is the Grave and what man is he that liveth and shall not see death and shall he deliver his soul from the hands of Hades that is the Grave and Hades that is the Grave cannot praise thee Death cannot celebrate thee and so it must be here taken For though Hell in regard of the Elect be conquered yet it eternally possesseth the reprobate men and Devils neither shall it be destroyed at the day of judgment or emptied but inlarged rather and replenished with the bodies of all the damned whose fouls are there already But Hades that is the Grave shall lose all her captives and prisoners for the earth and sea shall cast up all their dead We have the parties to be examined let us now hear the Articles upon which they are to be examined First Death is to answer to this Interrogatory where is thy sting these words may be understood two manner of wayes 1 Actively 2 Passively 1 Passively where is thy sting that is the sting thrust out by Death in which sence the sting of Death is no other then the present sence of the desert of death and guilt of conscience and a dreadful expectation of damnation and hell to ensue upon it take away this sting from the death of the body that it is a punishment for sin and an earnest as it were of eternal death and it can hurt no man This sting Christ hath plucked out of the death of all his Saints and of a curse made it a blessing of a torment an ease of a punishment of sin a remedy against all sin of a short and fearful cut to eternal death a fair and safe draw-bridge to eternal life 2 Actively where is thy sting that is the sting which causeth and bringeth Death In this sence the sting of death is sin non quem mors fecit sed quo mors facta est peccato enim morimur non morte peccamus as Saint Austin most accutely and eloquently Sin is said to be the sting of Death as a cup of poison is said to be a potion of death that is a potion bringing death for we die by sin we sin not by death sin is not the off-spring of death but death the off-spring of sin or as the Apostle termeth it the wages of sin And it is just with God to pay the sinner this wages by rendring death to sin and punishing sin with death because sin severeth the soul from God and not only grieveth and despightfully entreateth but without repentance in the end thrusteth the spirit out of doors And what more agreeable to Divine justice then that the soul which willingly severeth her self from God should be unwillingly severed from the body and that the spirit should be expelled of his residence in the flesh which expelleth Gods grace and excludeth his Spirit from a residence in the soul This sting of death is like the Adders two forked or double for it is either original or actual sin original sin is the sting of death in the day thon eatest of the Tree of knowledge thou shalt surely die and as by one man sin came into the World and death by sin and so death passeth upon all men for that all had sinned Secondly actual sin is the sting of death the soul that sinneth it shall die the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father nor the father the iniquity of the son the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him Howbeit if we speak properly original sin as it is a proness to all sin so it maketh us rather obnoxious to death then dead men but actual sin without repentance slayes out-right Adam did not die the day he eat the fruit but that day became mortalis or morti obnoxius guilty of death or liable to it original sin alone maketh us mortes but actual mortuos dead men The Devil like to a Hornet sometimes pricks us onely but leaveth not his sting in us sometime he leaveth his sting in us and that 's far the more dangerous He is pricked only with this sting who sinneth suddenly and presently repenteth but he who the Devil bringeth to a habit or custome in sin in him he leaveth his sting Now we know what the sting is let us enquire where it is The answer is if we speak of the reprobate men or Devils it remaineth in their consciences if we speak of the Elect it is plucked out of their souls and it was put in our Saviours body and there deaded and lost for he that knew no sin was made sin for us to wit by imputing our sin to him and inflicting the punishment thereof upon him That we might be made the righteousness of God in him for the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes were we healed who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree Athanasius representeth the manner of it by the similitude of a Wasp losing her sting in a Rock Vespa acculeo fodiens petram c. as an angry Wasp thrusteth her sting into a rock cannot pierce or enter far into it but either breaketh her sting or loseth it all so Death assaulting the Lord of life and striving with all her might to sting him hurt not him but disarmed her self of her sting for ever The first interrogatory is answered we know where Deaths sting is let us now consider of the second interrogatory concerning the victory of the Grave O grave where is thy victory If the Grave as she openeth her mouth wide so she could speak she would answer My victories are to be seen in Macpelah Golgotha in all the gulphs of the Sea and Caves and pits of the Earth where the dead have been bestowed since the beginning of the world My victory is in the fire in the water in the earth in all Churnels and Caemitaties or dormitories in the bellies of fish in the maws of beasts in holy shrines Tombs and sepulchers wheresoever corpses have been put and are yet reserved Of all that ever Death arrested and they by order of divine Justice have been
neither absolutely neither by the contract of the Law nor by the covenant of grace Not absolutely 1 Because no creature can simply merit any thing of the Creatour as Saint Austin proves by many invincible arguments 2 Because our works are no way advantagious or beneficial to God we indeed gain by them but he gains nothing 3 Because there is no proportion between our work which is finite and the reward which is infinite Neither can we be said to merit by the contract of the Law as our Romish adversaries would bear us in hand 1 Because what God requireth by the written Law we are bound to performe even by the Law of nature and when we do but that which we ought to do our Saviour teacheth us not to tearm our selves arrogantly meritours at Gods hands or such as he is engaged to recompence but unprofitable servants 2 Because we do not our work sufficiently and therefore cannot challenge as due by contract our reward our best works are scanty and defective 3 Because we loyter many dayes and though at sometimes we do a dayes work such as it is yet many times we do not half a dayes work nay for one thing wherein we do well we fail in a thousand Lastly neither can we be truly said to merit no not by the covenant of Grace 1 Because the Grace which worketh in us all in all is no wayes due to us but most freely given us of God our works as they are good they are not ours as they are ours they are not good 2 Because whatsoever we do in fulfilling the Covenant of Grace we are bound to do for the inestimable benefits which we receive by our Redeemer 3 Because we imploy not our Talent to our Masters best advantage no man walketh so exactly as he might do by the power of grace which would not be wanting to us if we were not wanting to our selves But because we may seem partial in our own cause and take these reasons for demonstrations our Adversaries will not acknowledge to be so much as probable arguments let the ancient Fathers give in the verdict Saint Austin When the Apostle might truly have said the wages of righteousness is eternal life he chose rather to say but the gift of God is eternal life that we might understand that he brings us to eternal life not for our merits but for his mercy sake And Saint Basil There remains an everlasting rest to those who fight lawfully not for the merits of their works or verbatim according to the Greek original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not according to the due debt of their works but of the grace or by the favour of our most munificent god And Fulgentius To possesse the kingdome prepared for us is a work of grace for of meer grace there is given not ouly a good life to those that are justified but eternal life to those that are glorified And Saint Ambrose our momentary afflictions are not worthy the glory that shall be revealed therfore the form or tenour of the heavenly decrees upon men proceed not according to merits but the mercy of God And Mark the holy Hermite The kingdome of heaven is not a reward of works but a gift of God prepared for his fruitful servants And let Pope Gregory conclude all As Eleazar who killed the Elephant yet was killed by the Elephant in his fall upon him so those who subdue vices if they grow proud of their victory as all do who conceive they merit heaven by it are subdued by and lye under those vices which they before subdued for he dies under the enemy whom he hath discomfited who is extolled in pride for the vice which he conquered The third difficulcy was whither the works follow the dead which may thus be expedited their good works follow them not to the grave for there the soul is not nor to Purgatory for I have already proved there is no such place nor to Hell for none are blessed that come there The works of the damned indeed follow them thither there they meer with them and with the Devil who seduced them to torment them for them there the swearers and blasphemers gnaw their tongues there the lascivious wantons are cast into a bed of fire there they who swum here in pleasures are thrown into a river of brimstone But the works of the godly follow them to the place where they receive their recompence for them The fourth difficulty was when the works follow the dead which may be thus expedited some of their works follow them immediatly after their death others at the day of Judgment Those works which they have done by and in the soul only without the help or use of the body follow them immediately after death when the soul receives her reward for them but those which were performed partly by the soul and partly by the body follow them at the day of Judgment When the King shall say Come ye blessed of my Father possess the king dome prepared for you for I was hungry and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was naked and ye cloathed me I was sick and in prison and ye visited me We have peeled off the rhine let us now taste of the sweet juyce if our works shall most certainly and plentifully be rewarded Let us be Zealous of good works let us be filled with the fruits of righteousness let us in no case be weary of well-doing let us not cast away our confidence which hath great recompence of reward if a cup of cold water shall be reckoned for what think ye of a glass of hot water to revive many a fainting soul If two mites cast into the treasury shall be taken notice of what think ye of ten talents If Christ hath a bottle for every tear shed for him how much more for every drop of bloud There are infinite motives in holy Scriptures to incite us to good works I will touch at this time only upon three 1. Our great Obligation to them 2. Our exceeding comfort in them 3. Our singular benefit by them First our Obligation to them is twofold 1. As men 2. As Christians As men we are bound to serve him with our hands who gave us them As Christians we are to employ them in his service who loosened them after they were manacled and restored unto us the free use of them 2. Our comfort in them is exceeding great they assure us of our spiritual life for as the natural life is discerned by three things especially 1. The beating of the pulse 2. The letting out of breath 3. The stiring of the joynts or limbs so also is the spiritual if the pulse of devotion beat strong at the heart if we breath to God in our fervent prayers and lastly if we stir our joynts in walking in all holy duties and performing such good works as
this experiment and cannot secure a corps from mouldering into it first matter Dust For proof hereof let us suppose first that which I may call an healthful corps viz. of one not weakned and wasted with a long lingering and languishing disease but of one cut off suddenly in the prime of his youth Secondly Suppose an Artist expert in his profession of Embalming no whit inferiour to them who made the last bed for the repose of King Asa's corps 2. Chron. 16.14 of sweet oders by the art of the Apothecary Thirdly allow him the most and best of spices not only a mixture of Myrrhe and alloes about an hundred pound weight the proportion assigned by Nicodemus for our Saviours body John 19.39 but as many as India and Arabia doth produce the Embalmer being stinted to no number but his own pleasure Lastly because moist Countries be accused to invite corruption let us lay the scene of this experiment in Egypt it self where the dryness of the clymates may contribute something to the affecting of the work The premises thus provided in matter and manner in kind and degree to the Chyrurgions full desire let him not begin his opperation and fall on working according to the rule of art Here I suppose he will with his instruments first take out the brains and bowels of both which conclamatum est it is granted on all sides that they cannot be preserved from putrefaction and juditious art will not adventure on a labour in vain Next I conceive he will curiously incorporate his spices into those vacuities and concavities out of which the brains and bowels those hags of corruptions were taken out Thirdly after the using of much art in order to his design he will build the body many stories high in perfumed Sear-cloaths Lastly he will deposite it in some dry place perchance where no earth shall touch it lest as ill company often solicite good natures to badness the corps may be tempted by contiguity to the earth the sooner to return to dust Now when all this is done all in effect is still undone as to the thing undertaken I deny not but that a corps may thus be preserved some hundreds or perhaps for some thousands of years And yet give me leave to say of such a body minima est pars sui ipsius there is the least of flesh and body in that flesh or body the matter thereof insensibly resolving into dust and that dust vanishing into nothing that doth appear so that the most of what remaineth is the substance of spice and flesh and that at last passeth to dust as its general matter Yea such prodigious cost of Embalming bestowed on bodies hath accedentally occasioned their speedier corruption Many a poor mans body hath slept quietly in his grave without any disturbance whilst the corps of some Egyptian Princes might justly complain with seeming Samuel to Saul 1 Sam. 28.15 Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up their Fingers and Hands and Armes Toes Feet and Legs and Thighes and all their body tug'd and torne out of their tombs tumbled and tossed many hundred miles by Sea and Land bought and brought by Drugists for Mummy and buryed in the bellies of other men they it seems being canibals who feed on mans flesh for food though not for Phisick all which may seem a just judgment of God on the imoderate cost and curiosity in their embalming as if endeavouring thereby to defeat and frustrate Gods sentence and to consure the truth in my Text. Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return In a word as a loving child which is violently kept from his tender Mother will wait and watch his first and best opportunity to return to his Mother again So every mans body is a child of the Mother Earth and though the vigilant eye and powerful hand of art endeavoureth its utmost to detain this child from the arms of its Mother maugre all obstruction it will make its way unto her for dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return First Use this teacheth us what to think of Popish Reliques their Priest pretending many of their Saints bodies to remain in their shrines at this day uncorrupted thus they fabulously report that the hand of Saints King Oswald Nullo verme perit nulla putredine tabet Dextra viri c. That no worm or putrifaction tainted his right hand which had been so abundantly bountiful to the poor If so he had far better success then he who was a better Kind and Saint even David himself Acts 13.36 Who after he had served his Generation was laid to his fathers and saw corruption But most of these Popish forgeries were discovered at the desolution and such bodies found as rotten as their superstition who adored them Second Use Seeing it is impossible to preserve our bodies from returning to dust let us labour to keep our souls from being turned to damnation Eccles 12.7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God that gave it Wherein observe all Spirits both good and bad after death return to as to the Father of Spirits to do their homage unto him I say they all instantly return unto him from him alone to recerve new orders and instructions how and where he will have them for the future disposed of in an eternity of weal and woe God grant that our souls may so return to God as never to return from him but abide with him in endless happiness O consider the worth of your soul and value them accordingly Saint Matthew saith 16.26 What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole World and loose his own Soul But Saint Luke Chap. 9.25 hath it if he gain the whole World and loose himself His body is without him only an appendant and that seperable but his Soul is his very self loose that loose all There lived lately in the City of Exeter a person well known generally remitted by all a right religious man though in my mind more to be commended for his devotion then discretion his custome was to apply himself to strangers in all companies and sequestring persons by themselves demanded of them If you die at this instant what assurance have you of the eternal salvation of your Soul A question which hath posed many a great Scholar to give a good answer with truth and comfort thereunto I confess his Christianity was better then his civility in surprizing people with so sudden an Interrogatory However it is a question if not fit for him to ask of others fit for every man to demand of himself the Preacher in the Pulpit the People in their Pewes the Taveller on his Horse the decumbent in his bed every one at all times in all places Now it is not the least part of Gods mercy unto us that before our bodies after our deaths finally return to dust they even whilst we are living begin for to ungive and to
this world Heathens themselves were wont to say that the chiefest wisdome and the main study of Philosophy was only this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even a careful and serious thought of death The memory of a Christian is never better employed then when the thought of death is presented before it This is our wisdome to consider and study how to die well He is a wise man whose memory serves him to think of death The soundness of the stomack is the strengthening of all the rest of the parts of the body so the vigour and strength of the memory in thought of death is the chief support of the soul and if the remembrance of death decay not in us there is no want of wisdome in the soul Is it the meditation of death that makes us wise Judge ye then how many fools there are in the world that never entertain the least thought of death into their hearts that live and run on in sin and never think of the hour of death It is the folly which the Prophet chargeth Ierusalem with that she did not consider her latter end Lam. 1.8 She remembreth not her last end therefore she came down wonderfully In the height of her pride she never thought of death It is strange to see that we should neither think of our own departure nor heed the death of others who are constant Monitors and Remembrancers to us of our own frailty If the Sun chance to be eclips'd we stand amazed at the sight of that darkness which over-spreads the face of that glorious body but we never regard the declining and eclipse of man who is the more noble and glorious creature If the Sun be darkned we wonder at it if man die we never heed it Why then let me stir up your thoughts to the meditation of death that ye may be so wise as to have ever in mind the approach of death 1. Let us think of others that are daily going to their long homes Do we not see some continually coming into the world and others making as much speed out of the world some entring upon the stage others going off As it is in the constant revolution of the heavens some Stars rise and others set and fall so it is with the Sons of men some live others die some daily come forth out of their Mothers wombs others daily return to the womb of their common mother even the earth from whence they were taken 2. Let us look upon our selves and consider how neer death is approaching to us and what hast it makes towards us We know not how soon death may surprise us therefore let us be so wise as to provide for his coming Death for all that we know is now digging of our graves even now he thinks of us when we little think of him let us then be as watchful for death as he is for us let us think of sickness in the time of health and in the day of prosperity remember the hour of death Even in the midst and height of all the glory and happiness of this world let us bring into our remembrance the time of our change and dissolution It is observeable that at the very time of Christs glorions transfiguration the conference which past between Christ and Moses and Elias was concerning the death of Christ Luk. 9.31 They speak of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem to shew unto us that when we are in the height of our glory and honour our thoughts should be busied with the remembrance of our death and departure out of this world I do not like the proverb which is too frequent in your mouths I thought of such a thing no more then of my dying day Let us remember the old Canon in another sense Finis primus sit in intentione Let our end be first in our thoughts and intention let the time of our death be the first thing we think of either morning or evening that so the constant thought of death may take away the terrour of death and being so well acquainted with death before hand we may never he terrified with the approach of it but being guarded with faith and a good Conscience we may boldly look death in the face and triumph in the conquest of the Conquerour through Christ our Saviour by whom we obtain victory over death and the fruit and benefit of our conquest even the Salvation of our souls in Jesus Christ I have done with the text now I fall upon the more careful part of this duty We Ministers at such solemn times as these have an hard Province put upon us in these occasions commonly the wind stands in our faces and we have a crabbed Dilemma cast in our way even that of Agathon in Athenaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If we seek the truth we shall not please if we please we shall hardly speak the truth We walk between two fires the displeasure of God and the frown of man We value not the latter so we may not run the hazard of the former Our chief care is in respect of God that while we seek to give to breathlesse man a little breath of praise we do not dare to dishonour the living God And if this we aim at we need not be afraid to give some satisfaction to the world and right the honour of the dead provide that while we seek to keep up the Fame of another we do not lay to pawn our own reputations or which is far worse make shipwrack of a good conscience On the one hand charity binds me to speak all the good I can of my Neighbour on the other hand conscience in joyns me to utter nothing but the truth Therefore while charity guides me and conscience awes me I hope I may promise to my self a favourable construction from you of all that I now speak I shall not flie out into any empty schemes of Rhetorick concerning the birth of this Worthy Knight Sir William Armyne well known and belov'd in these parts ye all know his descent and extraction he was cut out of no mean quarry Here his bones now rest where he once liv'd with honour and many of his Ancestors before him Do you think I lay any great weight upon all this It is not Birth but Breeding not Breeding but Geace that ennobles a Family Blood without Manners is base Blood Manners without Grace like a glorious Shadow without the Substance I remember what a good man mean of birth answered one that was Noble in Blood and base in Manners 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As my Birth and Parentage is a shame to me so art thou a shame to thy Birth Grace in the heart not Gold in the Purse is the best Inheritance of a Christian There are some stains in the best in the Purse is the best Inheritance of a Christian There are some stains in the best Coats there are spots in
exceeding great The Jailor hearing her cry out in her pangs If you cry said he to day I will make you shreek worse to morrow when you are to be burnt at a stake The woman replied Not so to morrow my pain will be abated for to day I suffer as an offender for the punishment justly imposed by God on our sex for our disobedience and breach of his law but to morrow I shall die for the testimony of the truth in the defence of Gods glory and his true Religion Thus it is strange to see what alacrity a good cause insuseth into arighteous man deriving comfort into his heart by insensible conveyances so that he imbraceth even death in self with a smiling countenance seeding his soul on the continual feast of a clear conscience Besides this it clears divine Justice and comforts the righteous man perishing temporally in his righteousness that his cause shall be heard over again and rejudged in another world If one conceive himself wronged in the Hundred or any inferiour Court he may by a cretiorari or an accedas ad curiam remove it to the Kings Bench or Common Pleas as he is advised best for his own advantage If he apprehendeth himself injured in these Courts he may with a Writ of Errour remove it to have it argued by all the Judges in the Exchequer chamber If here also he conceiveth himself to find no justice he may with an Injunction out of the Chancery stop their proceedings But if in the Chancery he reputeth himself agrieved he may thence appeal to the God of heaven and earth who in another world will vindicate his right and severely punish such as have wilfully offered wrong unto him And so much to assert Gods justice in suffering the righteous man to perish in his righteousness Now on the other side God may without any prejudice to his justice suffer wicked men for a time to thrive in this world and not suddenly surprise them with punishment so giving them a space to repent if they would but make use thereof Indeed David saith Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him But God is a fair hunter he might in the rigour of his justice knock wicked men down as he finds them sitting in their forms But God will give them fair law they shall for a time run yea sport themselves before his judgements ere they are pleased to overtake them Know also to the farther clearing of his justice that wicked men notwithstanding their thriving in badness for a time are partly punished in this world with a constant corrosive of a guilty conscience which they carry about them The Probationer-Disciple said to our Saviour Master I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest what is promised by him is preformed by a guilty conscience that Squire of the body alwayes officious to attend a malefactour Fast and I will follow thee and thy empty body shall not be so full of wind as thy mind of dismal apprehensions feast and I will follow thee and as the hand on the wall bring in the sad reckoning for thy large bill of fare stay at home and I will follow thee or else meet thee in the way with my naked sword as the Angel did Balaam Wake and I will follow thee sleep and I will follow thee and affright thee with hideous fancies and terrible dreams as I did King Richard the third the night before his death I have read of one who undertook in few dayes to make a fat sheep lean and yet was to allow him a daily and large provision of meat soft and easie lodging with security from all danger that nothing should hurt him This he effected by putting him into an Iron-grate and placing a ravenous wolf hard by in another alwayes howling fighting scenting scratching at the poor sheep which affrighted with this sad sound and worse sight had little joy to eat less to sleep whereby his flesh was suddenly abated But wicked men have the terrors of an affrighted conscience constantly not onely barking at them but biting of them which dissweetens their most delicious mirth with the sad consideration of the sins they have committed and punishment they must undergo when in another world they shall be called to account This thought alone makes their souls lean how fat soever their bodies may appear And as sores and wounds commonly smart ake and throb most the nearer it is to night so the anguish and torture of a guilty conscience increaseth the neerer men apprehend themselves to the day of their death Now not onely wicked men but even the children of God because of the corruption of their hearts too often make bad uses to themselves of the righteous mans perishing in his righteousness These may be divided into three ranks 1. Such as fret at Gods proceedings herein 2. Such as droop under Gods proceedings herein 3. Such as argue with Gods proceedings herein The first are the Fretters for if the perishing of the righteous cometh to the serious observation of a high-spirited man one of a stout and valiant heart he will scarce brook it without some anger and indignation fuming and chasing thereat Thus David we know was a man of valour of a martial and warlike spirit and he confesseth of himself that beholding the prosperity of the wicked his heart was grieved and he was pricked in his reins Nor was it meer grief possessed him but a mixture of much impatience as appears by that counsel which in like case in one Psalm he gave himself three several times Fret not thy self because of evil doers and again fret not thy self because of him who porspereth in his way and the third time fret not thy self in any wise Our Saviour observeth that there are a sturdy kind of Devils that will not be cast out save by fasting and prayer But this humour of fretting and repining at Gods proceedings herein which he understood not could not be ejected out of David but by prayer no doubt and that very solemnly not at home but in Gods temple When I thought to know all this it was too painful for me until I went into the Sanctuary of God there understood I their end O let them of high spirits and stout hearts not lavish their valour and mis-spend their courage to chase and fume at such accidents venting good spirits the wrong way but rather reserve their magnanimous resolutions for better services and besides their private devotions address themselves with David to Gods publike worship in his house who in his due time will unriddle unto them the equity of his proceedings But if men be of low and mean spirits pusillanimousand heartless natures and if these narrow souls in them meet with melancholly and heavy tempers such fall a drooping yea despairing at the perishing of the righteous they give all over for lost concluding there is no hope they rather languish then live walking
but his proceedings which before wanted not clearness in themselves but clearing to our eyes shall then be pronounced declared and adjudged just in the presence of Devils men and Angels so that ignorance shall not doubt nor impudence dare to deny the truth thereof But before we take our final farewel of the words in our Text know they are also capable of another sence I have seen the righteous man perish in his righteousness that is I have seen a good man continuing in goodness and snatched away in the prime of his years whilest wicked men persisting in their profaness have prolonged their lives to the utmost possibility of nature I confess Saint Paul will in no case allow the word perishing to be applied to the death of the Godly but startles at the expression as containing some Pagan impiety therein pointing at it as an Atheistical position Then they also which are faln asleep in Christ are perished However in a qualified sence not for a total extinction but temporal suspension of them in this world the Prophet pronounceth it of a just mans death The righteous perish and no man layeth it to his heart Yet as if suspecting some ill use might be made of that term perishing in the next words he mollifieth the harshness thereof and who best might expounds his own meaning The righteous man is taken away from the evil to come Indeed when a just man dyeth with Abraham in a good old age he is not properly said to be taken away but in Scripture-Phrase to tarry till God comes Thus when Peter was very inquisitive to know how John should be disposed of Christ answered him If I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee John of all the Jury of the Apostles dyed in his bed a thorow old man of temper and temperance of a strong and healthful natural constitution moderate in diet passions and recreations Ahijah and Josiah may be instances are cut off by an untimely death such are properly said to be taken away Now even such men God not only without the least stain to his Justice but in great manifestation of his mercy may cause to perish or if that be too harsh a tearm may take them away from the evil to come And that in three several acceptions First to keep him from that evil of sin which God in his wisdom foresees the good man would commit if living longer and left to those manifold temptations which future times growing daily worse and worse would present to and press on him True it is God could by his restraining and effectual Grace keep him though surviving in sinful times from being polluted therewith but being a free Agent he will vary the ways of his working sometimes keeping men in the hour of temptation sometimes from the hour of temptation The later he doth sometimes by keeping the hour from coming to them or rather from coming to the hour making them to fall short thereof and preventing their approach thereunto by taking them away in a speedy death Thus mothers and Nurses suspecting their children would too much play the wantons disgrace them and wrong themselves when much company is expected at their houses haste them to bed betimes even before their ordinary hour Secondly From the evil of sin which other men would commit and he beheld to the great grief and anguish of his heart Lot-like for that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds Manifold Uses might be made of the Just mans thus perishing in his righteousness First men ought to be affected with true sorrow yet the Prophet saith The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to his heart Surely his wife or children will or else the more unworthy haply he hath none when dying His kindred will except which is impossible with Melchisedech he be without father without mother without descent His friends will though rather the rich than the righteous have friends whilest living and leave them when dying But to satisfie all objections at once By none are meant very few inconsiderable in respect of those multitudes that pass the righteous mans death unrespected Parallel to that place in the Proverbs None that go to her return again neither take they hold of the path of life Not that adultery is the sin against the holy Ghost unpardonable but vestigia pauca retrorsum Be thou by an holy Riddle One among that None I mean a mourner in Sion for the righteous mans death amongst these very few who lay it to their hearts Secondly Men from hence are seriously to recollect and apply to themselves the doctrine of their mortallities when thee see the righteous man perish in his righteousness There is a bird peculiar to Ireland called the Cock of the Wood remarkable for the fine flesh and folly thereof All the difficulty to kill them is to find them out otherwise a mean marksman may easily kill them They flie in woods in flocks and if one of them be shot the rest remove not but to the next bow or tree at the furthest there stand staring at the shooter till the whole covy be destroyed As foolish as the bird is it is wise enough to be the embleme of the wisest men in point of mortallity Death sweeps away one and one and one and the rest remain no whit moved at or minding of it till at last a whole generation is consumed It fareth with the most mens lives as with the sand in this hypocritical hour-glass behold it in outward appearance and it seemeth far more then it is because rising upon the sides whilest the sand is empty and hollow in the midst thereof so that when it sinks down in and instant a quarter of an hour is gone in a moment Thus many men are mistaken in their own account reckoning upon three-score and ten years the age of a man because their bodies appear outwardly strong and lusty Alas their health may be hollow there may be some inward infirmity and imperfection unknown unto them so that death may surprise them on a sudden Thirdly They are to take notice of Gods anger with that place from which the righteous man is taken away Solomon speaking of the death of an ordinary man saith The living will lay it to heart But when a righteous man is taken away the living ought to lay it to the very Heart of their hearts especially if he be a Magistrate or Minister of eminent note When the eye-strings break the heart-strings hold not out long after and when the seers are taken away it is a sad symptome of a languishing Church or Common-wealth Lastly Men ought to imitate the vertuous examples of such as are dead The cloud and pillar at the Red-sea was bright toward the Israelites to guide and direct them with the light thereof but
we found it let it not be said that we willingly let the fair Fabrick of Faith and good life to run to ruine in our so that the next Age may justly sue us for Dilapidations When our Saviour said unto his Disciples Mat. 26.21 Verily I say unto you that one of you shall betray me they were exceeding sorrowful and began every one of them to say unto him Lord is it I yea Judas himself lagging at last with his Is it I Lord and was returned with Thou saist it Thus at the last day of judgment shall all generations be arraigned before God But to confine our Application only to those three within the last sixscore years if God should say unto them One of you have betrayed my truth how would it put them all upon their particular purgation Is it I Lord saith the first generation in the reign of King Edward the sixt surely they shall be acquitted who in the Marian dayes sealed the truth with their blood Is it I Lord saith the second generation lasting all the Reign of Queen Elizabeth to the middle of King James That also will be cleared as publickly preserving the purity of true Doctrine in the thirty nine Articles What a shame shall it be if when our age shall ask with Iudas Is it I we shall be returned thou hust said it Yours is the Age that hath betrayed my Truth to Errour Unity to Faction Piety to Prophaness sad when such a Fact shall be so clear that it cannot be denied and yet so foul that it cannot be defended However this my too just fear may consist with hope of better things of you and such as accompany salvation I must conclude with you Reverend Fathers whom my loyalty cannot pass by without doing my due homage to the Crown of your Age especially if it be found in the way of truth Give me leave to tell you belong to that generation which is passed out of this world not only the Van or Front and also the main body and battel of your Army are marched to their graves and their souls I hope to heaven whilst Divine Providence for reasons best known to himself hath reserved you to bring up as I may say the very rear of the rear of your generation O do not mistake this Reprieve for a Pardon and here give me leave to use a plain but expressive Similitude Have you never seen a wanton child run a firebrand against the Hearth or back of the Chymney and so on a suddain make a skie of sparks of which sparks some instantly expire others continue a pretty time and then go out others last a little longer whilest one or two as having a greater stock of soot to feed them hold out a good while but at last are extinguisht Man is born to labour as sparks do fly upward some presently go out wasted from the womb to the winding-sheet others live to ripe men others to be old men some whose temper and temperance are more signal then in others to be counted wonderous old but all at last die and fall to the earth We read Rev. 10.2 of an Angel who had his right foot on the Sea and his left on the earth This may seem a strange stride save that it abateth the wonder because Angels when pleased to assume bodies may extend themselves to a vast though finite proportion But you though meer men and weak men must stride a greater distance having your left foot already in the Grave endeavour to have your right foot in Heaven and waving all love of this world set your minds and meditations alone on God and godliness In a word whatever our Age be rising shining or setting Men Brethren or Fathers let us endeavour with David in my Text according to the will of God to serve our own Generation Come we now to the sad occasion of our present meeting to perform the last Christian Office to our Deceased Brother well known to many of you and to none better then to my self A child is like a man in the similitude of parts though not of degrees and in some measure he did sincerely with David serve his Generation He was a dutiful Son unto his aged Mother as she cannot but confess and will I hope as occasion is offered remember and reward it to his wife and children A loving Brother a kind Husband and I doubt not but his widdow will discharge her mutual affection to him in his relations Bathsheha thus describeth a good wife Pro. 31.12 She will do her Husband good and not evil all the dayes of her life It is not said all the dayes of his life but of her life What if he should chance to die and she to survive him yea after to marry again as God forbid any should be debarred marrying in the Lord especially for their own and childrens advantage yet still she would do good unto him all the dayes of her life To him that is to his memory mentioning with respect to him that is to his children and friends careful over the one and curteous over the other He was a tender Father and faithful Friend witness the many volunteer mourners an unusual proportion for a person of his quality who at their own charge have habited themselves that the outward sadness of their cloaths might express the inward sorrow of their hearts He was an excellent Master having bred many good workmen in his Vocation and I hope they will prove good husbands too Let me add he was an excellent subject for according to that which his conscience with many others conceived to be loyalty he lost much of and hazarded all his estate Lastly and chiefly he was a good Saint having more piety then he shewed and as daily he consumed in his body he was strengthened in his soul in Faith through Christ whereof he gave many testimonies before towards and at his death What shall I speak of his parts of Nature so far above his education and profession that he might have past for a Scholar amongst Scholars for his wit and pleasant expressions But God now hath made him his free-man and paid him his wages for so well serving his Generation THE CROVVNE OF RIGHTEOUSNES OR The glorious Reward of FIDELITY In the Discharge of our DUTY SERMON LIII 2 TIM 4.7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the Faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me at that Day and not to me only but unto them also who love his Appearing I Shall not detain you by any impertinent Preface sith the shortness of time for this Service together with the indulgence of this so Learned an Auditory anticipates an Apology and gives hope of much Candor under so manifold Imprâ—…parations And so I address my self to the serious business of my Text The scope whereof amounts to
sight and Contemplation he found it so sweet that it was good to be there longer 3. Lastly To all this may be added Immortality as the Diamond set in the ring of all the rest their Mortality hath put on Immortality the Body never more after it is cloathed upon therewith being subject unto Corruption Death it self is then struck dead and swallowed up in a final Victory unto all Eternity To which purpose ye may do well to meditate at leisure those very apposite and pertinent Scriptures 1 Pet. 5.4.2 Cor. 5.1 Rev. 2.11.1 Cor. 15.54.55 compared with Hos 13.14 and to this purpose the places of blisse are styled c mansions or abiding and resting places John 14.2 And this is the reward couched under this Metaphor of a Crown the Bliss whereof indeed transcends the skill and tongue even of Angels themselves to express Saint Paul speaking of the excellent goodness was treasured up but in the gifts and graces of Regeneration in this life saith even of them that the natural eye hath not Seen nor the ear Heard nor hath it entred into the Heart of an unspiritualized man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2.9 Much less surely can this be done Excellent glory above in Heaven Wherefore the joy thereof being so incomprehensible as it is when it could not enter into the faithful servant mentioned in the Gospel then he was bid to enter into it even into that joy of his Master Mat. 25.21 And thus far of the remuneration it self at large both in the Certainty and the Dignity thereof It is a Crown of Rightiousness I come next to consider the Donor or the Bestower of the same the Lord set forth unto us here under the periphrasis of being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Righteous Judge Where note saith the Roman Catholique that the Reward is a Reward of Justice not of favour rendeâ—…ed as a due debt not given as a gratuitous benevolence so Cajetan on the Text Dicendo reddet Justus Judex debitum jus significate and so by consequent the good works to which its rendered are properly meritorious and God shall be unjust if he deny them his due reward even due of debt But whilest these overweening spiders suck poyson the Humble Bees draw honey from these fragrant and sweet flowers To Cajetan though none of the meanest Schoolmen we may oppose Primasius who hath this more solid expression quomodo â—…st acâ—…rona bebita redderetur nisi prius illa gratuita donaretur How can that Crown be said to be rendered as due unless first it was bestowed as free and again oper a Bona sunt Dei bona The Lord in crowning our good deeds doth but reward us with his own gifts in this case we must be all constrained to say as David on another occasion 1 Chron. 26.14 All things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee Wherefore Saint Paul the great Assertor of free grace hath styled most fitly life eternal it self wherein consisteth the absolute consummation of all graces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a free gift Rom. 6.23 a word not used in any Heathen Author but peculiarized to the inspired penmen of Holy Writ besides the manner of the Apostles expression is very remarkable even in this very Text where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is laid up and the other of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall give both these expressions imply a free donation no meritorious purchase at all elsewhere our reward in heaven is called an inheritance Ephes 1.14 Act. 26.18 which is a thing comming freely by descent unto the rightful Heir Moreover works meritorious according to the determination of the Patrons of merit themselves They must be 1. Nostra our own works wrought out of our own strength and done by our own power whereas the Evangelical Prophet hath otherwise assured us Isa 26.12 Thou O Lord faith he hast wrought all our works in us He means gracious works Alas we are not such Silk-worms as to spin a thred of Felicity out of our own bowels we must remember that the highest style which the Scripture gives the Saints is but to be Vessels of Salvation to receive the graces of God distilled into them from above Not Springs or Fountains to derive them to our selves and by the very Schoolmen themselves the graces of the Spirit are called Habitus infusi Habits not acquisite by frequent Acts as moral vertues are but infused by God into the Heart Every good and perfect gift descending from above as Saint James saith Jam. 1.17 Yea it was the positive assertion of our Saviour himself John 15.5 Without me ye can do nothing He means Acceptably He doth not say as Saint Austin observes sine me difficulter potestis or non potestis persicere without me ye can hardly do any thing or ye are not able to bring any act unto perfection but simply and expressely thus Without me that is without leaning upon me having my special and gracious assistance Ye can do nothing at all that is good and gracious and our Apostle also elsewhere professeth that all our sufficiency namely in things supernatural is meerly and solely of God alone 2 Cor. 3.5 Therefore we may well conclude that whatsoever good works there are in us they be none of our own Secondly As they must be our own so likewise are they in the sense of those grand Impostors of the Christian world to be perfect as in which nothing is to be found defective nothing redundant whereas all our righteousness as it is inhaerent in us Alas it is but as a defiled nasty and polluted menstruosity Isa 64.6 the highest pitch or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of perfection that whilest we are clad with the raggs of our vile flesh we the very best of us all can attain to in this life is as I have shewn elsewhere but to see and to acknowledge our imperfections as in the clearest serenity of the Firmament some speckling cloud may be discovered so in our most accurate and exact performances either in the Matter or in the Manner or in the Degree measure or end of doing we all prove some way defective even the very best things that we do have enough in them to be pardoned if the Lord should discusse them without mercy in a rigorous severity and be so extream as to mark what in them is done amiss To this effect the forementioned School Divines have styled the greatest Saints as they are yet Members but of the Church militant on earth but Viatores walkers in the way whose motion is but only progressive not Comprehensors till actually instated Members of the Church Triumphant above in glory in the mean while that maxime in Divinity is Orthodox and solid Successivâ—…rum non simul est esse perficere Those things which admit of a succession in their motion or degrees of growth their being
wounded afresh with some gross act of sin this made David afraid yea to roar out and to make a noyse through the disquietness of his spirit Psal 38.8 Psal 55.2 and under that state of soul to begg earnestly to be spared that he might recover strength in Gods favour before he went hence and was no more Psal 39.13 or else when the Lord shall for divers ends and reasons surcharge the soul and conscience with the sins of youth for which perhaps men have not as became them been sufficiently humbled thus dealt he even with his servant Job writing bitter things against him Job 13.26 see also Job 16.4 But out of those cases it is proprium quarto medo onely the Saints love it all such love it and alwayes and no marvaile sith by this second coming and appearance of Christ in the day of the last Judement they receive very great and inestimable benefits such as are final Redemption of the Body from corruption Rom. 8.23 Freedom from the society of the wicked which here afflict the godly by their violation of Gods Law and Precepts Deliverance not onely from the raign and dominion but even from the inhabitation and being of sin which here they find as a clogg and a burthen too heavy for them and so long to be rid of it Rom. 7.24 and lastly the beatifical vision and perfect fruition of the ever-blessed and all-glorious Trinity in the Heavenly Hieru salem among the innumerable company of Angels being admitted to the general Assembly and Church of the first-borne which are enrolled and written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant in whose presence there is fulness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore And thus my brethren after my measure as I could upon so short notice of about a day though not so full after my desires as I would in so great so learned and serious an Auditory have I dispatched my discourse upon the Scripture your candour will I hope connive at the want of polishing and entertain it as it is according to the weight and importance off the matter of it And may the God of grace reap the Total glory Amen FINIS The coherence Devision of the words Prospos Every man in the world is Gods Steward Proved 1. By what every one receiveth from God 2. By what God expects from every one Psal 24 1. Men do not waste his goods 2. That they do not abuse them to ill ends Luke 19 27. James 4 3. 3 To do him Homage Acts 10 33. 4 To return him fruit Matt. 21.33 Vse Two things required of a Steward 1. Dispensation Rom 13 4. Rom 1 14.1 Tim 5 8. 2. Right ordering of his dispensations Luk. 12.42 1. Faithfully Heb. 3.5 Exod. 32.19 2. VVisely Rom. 3.7 1 Tim. 3.17 Gen 18.19 Propos 2. All Gods stewards must give an account Two dayes of reckoning 1. In this life By the VVord Gen 3.11 1 King 19. Matt 3. Acts 2. By the rod. Job 33.14 Mic 6.9 Job 33.19 1 Cor 11.30 Psal 31.5 2 After this life A necessitie of a day of judgement 1. In respect of God his decree Acts. 17.31 Isa 46.10 His honour Eccles 3.16 2. In respect of the Saints 2 Thes 1.5 For the manifestation of their innocency For the reward of their works Mal. 3.17.18 3. In respect of the wicked For the manifestation of Gods righteous proceeding against them Rom. 2.5 For the perfecting of their punishment Why God is said to call all men to an account 1. Because he will proceed in particular Job 27.18 Jam. 5.1.2 James 4.3 Mat. 16. Mat. 5 22. Mat. 15.19 2. Because he will proceed by me hod and order Psal 50. Psal 51. Rom. 7. A direction in the exercise of repentance 3. Because he will proceed by books Dan. 10. Rev. 20. John 12.48 Jer. 17.1 4. Because God will exact of every one according to what he hath been trusted with Luke 12.48 Vse 1. For confutation Atheists in the Church 2 Pet. 3. Vse 2. For instruction 2. Not to judge others Rom. 14.10 1 Cor. 4.5 2. To judge our selves here A two sold reckoning to be made here 1. Reckon with out selves Jer. 8.6 Lam. 3.39 Psal 4. 2. Reckon with others 2. Sam. 12.3 Acts 20.26 Iames. 5.3 3. To Exercise daily repentance Acts 17.31 4. To get an interest in Christ Rom 8.1 Exod. 25.21 5. To lead a holy conversation 1 Pet. 3.11 2 Cor. 5.9 Acts 26.15 16. Vse 3. For Comfort James 5. Heb. 9.27 The Coherence The meaning of the words The devision of the words Observat 1. The death of others is a just occasion of Mourning Gen. 23.2 Gen. 27.41 Gen. 50.10 2. Sam. 25.1 Zach. 12.10 John 11. Act. 20.38 Reas 1. Reas 2. Ier. 5.3 Vse Object Answ A twofold distempe In mens affections 1.2 1 These 4.13 Deut. 14. Observat 2. Death the end of all men Iob 3.14 Zach. 1.5 Reas 1. In regard of Gods decree Reas 2. In regard of the matter whereof men are made Iob 13 12. Reas 3. In regard every man in him hath the cause of death Object Heb 11.5 2 King 2.11 Answ Object Answer Rom. 8.28 Matt. 22. Vse 1. Make account of it for our selves The benefit of the particular application of death to a mans selfe 1. Sin will be made more odious Rom. 5.11 2. The truth and justice of God will bee the more acknowledged 3. Death will be the b 〈◊〉 prepared for Job 14.14.5 Three things wherein here is oâ—… a particular application of â—…h to a man 1. In matter of sinning Acts 5. 2. In redeeming of the time of life 1 Cor. 10.35 Heb. 3 13. Gal. 6.10 3. In the manner of our conversation Vse 1 In respect of the death of others 1. To moderate our mourning for the death of others 2. To improve he life of others Observat 3. It is the duty of the living to lay to heart the death of others Reas 1.1 God is glorified hy it Psal 28.5 Reas 2. Our selves are benefited by it 1. Thereby we come to see the certainty of death 2. Thereby we come to see the nature of death The proper worke of death 1. To separate the body from the soule 2. To separate a man from his estate 3. To separate a man from his friends Gen. 23. 2 Sam. 1. â—… 1 Cor. 7.19 3. Thereby we come tosee the end and cause of death 1 Kings 14.13 2 Chro. 34.18 Isa 57.1 Ezek. 9.4 5. Vse 1 For reproof of the generall neglect of this duty Vse 2. For reproof 1. Of the excess of sorrow for dead freinds Judg. 8.24 Gen 31.30 2. Of the rash censuring of the manner of others death Luke 13.4 Eccles 9.2 Vse 3. For Instruction Luke 2.29 Observat Gods children are subject to the fear of death The outward causes of the fear of death 1. God
God for by faith we are become the children of God This Faith in Christ the Law doth not teach the former Covenant would not accect What to bring to the Law the Righteousness of another the satisfaction of another and to trust upon that to be entertained and received the Law rejects it Thou must pay thy self in thy own person and with thy own goods thou must yeeld perfect obedience to the Law and fully accomplish it in thy own person it will not receive payment of another for thee it will not accept satisfaction of the righteousness of another on thy behalf But oh the sweetness of the Doctrine of the Gospel If we have a Treasurer that is able and willing to pay the debt that will tender and make payment of it we shall be accepted for his sake so that we give him the glory of resting upon this payment and be not so absurd as to mix any action of our own to that payment that â—…e hath made fully and compleatly for us This is a Doctrine of sweetness and favour and great compassion that though we cannot do it of our selves we shall be accepted if our Surety will do it for us so that we give our Surety the glory of being a prefect and able pay-master and relye wholly upon his satisfaction The last part of the condition on our side is that we yeeld New obedience to the Law Perfectly to obey it to which we are tyed hy the former Covenant But now this is the obedience of the Gospel a thing far different from the obedience of the Law that was formerly required in the old Covenant there a man was tyed and bound to obey perfectly fully compleatly without any defect In a word he must pay the uttermost farthing he must do his duty his whole duty in in all the parts and degrees with all fulness of perfection absolutely without any defect or want without any imperfection at all An impossible labour for corrupted men a service that none all having lost those abilities that God gave man at the first can ever reach to But then cometh the sweet Gospel the Doctrine of grace and favour of tender compassion and faith thus If thou wilt consent to obey thou shalt eate the good things of the Land If you mortifie the deeds of the body by the spirit you shall live Rom. 8.13 But if you though never so much in shew under the Covenant of Grace live after the flesh you shall die Ye see New Obedience is required absolutely as a Condition of the Gospel for the obtaining of everlasting happiness for the escaping of Death and Saint John faith If we walk in the light we have fellowship one with another and the bloud of Christ shall purge us from all sin so that this walking in the light and New Obedience is obsolutely required of all those that intend to be made partakers of Christ and his benifits they must give up their souls and bodies as instruments of his glory and not serve sin any longer in the lusts thereof they must not give their members as weapons of unrighteousness to sin but live as becometh them that are one with Christ mortifying all the lusts of the flesh and quicken themselves or being quickened with him to parctise all good things required in his word and to obey all his commands which was first written in Adams heart and then in Tahles of stone This New Obedience is the same in substance that was required in the former Covenant but now with a gracious acceptation of endeavour after perfection instead of perfection the former tyed us to the obedience of all that was required in all fulness and then promising acceptance but the obedience that the Gospel requires is striving to this perfection in truth and sincerity desiring and labouring after it in putting out our selves towards it and then promising acceptance through the perfection of Christ in and by which our imperfections are done away Now Brethren you understand what this saying of the Lord Christs is by vertue of the keeping of which we must be secured if we be secured from the hurt of Death What is it now to Keep the saying of Christ It is to inform our Judgements in the understanding of these truths and assent to them as truths and to practise and follow them to do the duties which we have heard to practise the Doctrine of Repentunce and Beleeving and Obedience I confess our Saviour doth proclaim it thus Repent and beleeve the Gospel but for the more clear explaining of it we make new Obedience a thing of it self and not included in the Doctrine of Repentance for it is an act of that whereof Repentance is a resolute wishing and desiring A man cannot possibly rest on Christ for salvation till he hath so asked pardon as he resolveth an amendment and when he hath this resolution and relyeth on Christ for the pardon of his sin then from him he receiveth power to amendment of life and so his purpose cometh to action and his desire to execution Thus alone these two things differ as far as I conceive Now I say this is the Doctrine of the Gospel and to keep it is to know and beleeve and follow it to beleeve and obey as Christ faith If you know these things there is one part of the duty happy are you if you do them there is a second for they can never be done except they be done as known And thus I have interpreted the first part of the Proposition namely the Antecedent Let us say somewhat of the latter too the benefit that followeth upon the former duty and for the obtaining of which the former duty is necessary namely that he shall never see death What is it to see Death And what Death is meant here To see good things in the Scripture phrase is as much oftentimes as to enjoy them to have the benefit and commodity of them to receive them to entertain them Without holiness no man shall see God that is no man shall enjoy God Blissed are the poor in spirit for they shall see God that is thay shall enjoy God On the contrary to see a thing that is tearmed Evil is to be annoyed with it to have the hurt of it lying upon a man and pressing him down as they in Jeremy said Let us go into Egypt where we shall not see sword or famine meaning that they should not be pursued by war and want of things needful so that by seeing evil is meant the evil lying upon one and annoying and hurting one and so I suppose it is meant here And by Death is meant Natural and as we may tearm it supernatural and eternal Death For the keeping of Christs sayings so freeth men from the latter as they never come neer it and so freeth them from the former as they never dread to be under the power of the latter And the first Death of