Ejus est in mundo diu velle remanere quem mundus oblectat saith St. Cyprian He that is taken with cannot but desire to continue in the world and it is a kind of death to think of parting with it which he knoweth must be when death comes And therefore said an Ancient truly The soul can never willingly be seperated from the body till it be taken off from these worldly pleasures 2. Let no sinne have dominion over us When the sting is plucked out of the Serpent it is not terrible but amiable St. Paul hath told us The sting of death is sinne Oh let us pluck it out by repentance It is impossible for him who lyeth in sinne to live with Christ Well may he be afraid to dye Indeed if a wicked man desire to dye it is out of ignorance and incogitancy because he doth not rightly apprehend or at least seriously consider what followeth after death Alas it were far better for an impenitent sinner to live here though in meannesse and misery then to go hence and be with Devils in torment to eternity Oh let it be our care in life to separate stnne from our souls and then the separation by death of our souls from our bodies will be a means of the union of our souls with Christ and consequently an Object rather of joy then fear 3. Let our Faith grow up to a full Assurance It was by Faith that Moses refused Pharaohs Treasures and chose affliction with the people of God and by Faith it is that we are enabled to contemn life and desire death Those things which are so glorious in the worldlings eyes are to Faith contemptible and those things which are so dismall when looked upon with an eye of sense become amiable to the eye of Faith Even death which is the King of terrours is to a Believer a Queen of desires That he who questioneth whether there be a life after death or who doubts whether he shall partake of it should be afraid to die is no wonder He that knoweth not what shall become of him when he goeth hence may well be desirous to stay here And therefore let us strengthen our Faith in the Promise of eternal life and make our calling and election sure 4. Finally Let our love to Christ be more and more enflamed Love is desirous of Union and if fervent will break through all difficulties to the enjoyment of its Object Friends delight much in each others society What loving Wife would not willingly be with her Husband I and go to him though it be over the boisterous Seas Oh when shall I come and appear before God was Davids wish arising from his zealous love to Gods presence in his Sanctuary Come Lord Jesus come quickly is the voice of the Church earnestly longing after his approach because she dearly loveth him And from this sweet spring bubled up that affectionate wish of an Ancient Utinam essem cum Christo meo Oh that I were with my Christ Mori timeat qui nolit esse cum Christo as St. Cyprian excellently Let him be afraid to die who would not be with Christ to which he cannot be unwilling who hath a sincere affection towards him Thus let us remove out of the way those stumbling blockes of reigning wickednesse and worldly love let us take to our selves the wings of Faith in and love to Christ so shall we make haste in our desire to be dissolved that we may be with him HAving given a dispatch to the Text it now remaineth that I adjoyne a few words concerning this our Deceased Sister whose remaines are to be laid up in the Grave And truly whither you looke upon Her in Her Life or Death in her Health or Sicknesse you shall find Her a Patterne of many graces Shee was the Daughter and Neece of two Reverend Ministers of the Gospell now with God and as I doubt not but Shee had a Religious Education So Shee retained the sweetnesse of that Liquor with which Shee was at first seasoned That truly Reformed Religion of the Church of England wherein Shee had been grounded and established Shee constantly professed and in some measure practiced Shee was an affectionate Wife a tender Mother a prudent Mistresse a Friendly Neighbour a Virtuous Woman and a Devout Christian It pleased God of late to visit Her with much Sicknesse which Shee underwent with much Patience being often heard to say Shall I kick against my Maker In her last Sicknesse Shee was full of Heavenly Expressions by which Shee gave Testimony of the graces of God confer'd upon Her Shee renewed Her Repentance and godly sorrow for Her sinnes for though She blessed God who had kept her from notorious sinnes that Shee could not but accuse Her selfe for many neglects and infirmities being much troubled yet Shee had spent her time so ill and not done that service for God Shee ought Ardent were Her longings after Gods favour often saying A Reconciled God is worth all the World Shee testified Her submission to Gods dispose by that sweet language If it were Gods will I am content to live but not else Her affections were much taken off from the world for which reason Shee said Shee was unwilling Her Children should be about Her Bed least they should steale Her Heart from God and though Shee had the World at will yet Shee accounted all dung that Shee might win Christ It pleased God to suffer Satan to Winnow Her but Her Faith did not faile and after some conflicts Shee got the Conquest triumphing over him bidding defiance to him casting Her self in an humble confidence upon the merits of Her Redeemer Finally when Shee was desired by her Friends to forbeare much speaking least it should exhaust Her Spirits Her reply was Can I spend my self better then for God with whom I trust Shee now is which since it is far better for Her I hope it will not be too much trouble to her Relations Let not Her dear Husband grieve inordinately Since Shee is gone to Her better Husband Christ Let not her affectionate Aunt mourn immoderately because Shee is gone to Her Heavenly Father Let none of Her Friends weep much for Her who is with Her best Friend rather let all of us learne to follow Her in those Virtues which Shee practised that we may attaine that glory whereof I hope Shee is possessed whither he bring us who hath dearly bought us Iesus Christ the Righteous Amen FINIS Gen. 1. Partie 1. 2 Tim. 4. 6. 2 Pet. 1. 14 15. Tertul. l. de animâ c. 27. Ambros. de bono mortis c. 2. Plat. in Phad Cic. in Tusc. Ambros. ibid. Aug. l. de spir. anim c. 43. Eccl. 12. 11. 2 Cor. 5. 1. Iohn 1. 14. 1 Pet. 2. 11. Aug. Iob 14. 10. Mic. 2. 10. Luke 12. 35. Partic. 2. 2 Cor. 5. 6. Rev. 14. 16. Luk. 23. 43. 1 Thes. 4. 17. Rev. 6. 9. Aug. l. de Eccl. dogin c. 79. Id. De consid. mort. Serm. 2. Just M. Quaest. Resp. Orthod 9. 75. Greg. Naz. in erat Caesar Macat hom. 12. Chrysost. in Phil. hom 3. Iren. adv. haer. l. 5. Chrysost. Ibid. Jobn 14. 18. Cypr. de Mortal Gen. 2. Partic. 1. Hier. Turtul Luke 12. 36. Cypr. Ibid. Greg Mor. l. 5. c. 40. Isai. 57. 2. 2 Cor. 5. 4 Quer. 2. Vulg. Lat. Exod. 20. 12. Luk. 2. 29. Sen. Ep. 24. Cic. Cypr. de mortal Sen. Ep. Cypr. de mortal Id. ibid. Arab. Heb. 1. 0. Rom. 8. 17. Prov. 8. 18. Eph. 2. 6. Rev. 3. 21. Joh. 17. 24. Rom. 8. 17. 2 Tim. 2. 1â— Rev. 3. 20. Mâ—â— 4. 2. Psal. 15. 10. Psal. 73. 25. 1 King 10. 8. Bulling Mat. 17. 4. Cael. Rodig l. 21. c. 44. See my Sermon called the Epitaph of a godly man Ver. 21 24. Zanch. in lâ—c Bern. Serm. 12. in Cart Cypr ib. Diadâ—ch 1 Cor 15. 56. Psal. 42. 2. Rev. 22. 20. Cypr. ibid. Mr Abraham and Mr Isaac Calfe
THE PILGRIMS WISH OR THE SAINTS LONGING DISCUSSED IN A SERMON Preached in St BENNET GRACECHURCH AT THE FUNERAL OF Mrs ANNE DUDSON Daughter of Mr Isaac Calf heretofore Minister of Gods word at Chatwell in Essex and late Wife of Mr Edward Dudson of London Draper who departed this life the 4th day of Ianuary 1658. and was Interr'd the 11th of the same Moneth By Nath. Hardy Preacher to the Parish of St. Dionys. Back-church Luke 2. 29. Lord now lettest thou they servant depart in Peace according to thy Word Aug. in Joh. Qui cupit dissolvi esse cum Christo non patienter ritur sed patienter vivit delectabiliter moritur LONDON Printed by A. M. for Ioseph Cranford at the Sign of the Castle and Lyon in St. Pauls Church-yard 1659. TO My Worthy Friends Mr EDWARD DUDSON AND Mrs ELIZABETH MAN THe neer Relation which you both had to the deceased Gentlewoman the one of an Husband the other of an Aunt moveth me to joyn you together in this Dedication The dear Affection which you both had to her Person whilest alive and have to her memory now dead enduced you to desire this Publication After some delay of time for which I beg your pardon as being not voluntary but necessitated by multiplicity of emergent occasions I have at length fulfilled your desire by which meanes her living works and dying words as they follow her so will live still with you for your Consolation and not with you only but with all unto whose hands this following Discourse shall come for their Imitation Nothing remaineth but my Prayers not for her she needeth them not but her's I mean your selves and her surviving Children of whom the one of you is I douubt not a carefull Father and to whom I trust the other of you will be instead of their tender Mother That you may all enjoy a prosperous lasting life on earth and a glorious everlasting life in Heaven is the earnest Prayer of Your affectionate Friend NATH. HARDY THE PILGRIMS WISH OR THE SAINTS LONGING Phil. 1. 23. For I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better DEath is the lot of all men to desire death the temper of few men it is that guest which every man must entertain and yet scarce any man will bid welcome Many are so wicked that they scarce think of it more far more are so weak that they do not desire it Indeed to desire death aright argueth one more than a Man a Christian nay more than an ordinary Christian a strong Saint Such an one was he who uttereth these words a Starre of the first magnitude a Christian of the highest forme But yet the examples of Eminent Saints are set as Copies for us to write by and though we cannot presently obtain yet we must seriously indeavour that the same mind may be in us which was in this holy Apostle who saith I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire c. In which Verse are two Generals observable Namely Deaths Description in those words To depart and to be with Christ Where we are to take notice of The Nature of Death in Generall it is a Depature The Consequent of it to the good in particular and that is being with Christ St. Pauls affection towards Death in the rest of the Verse where is to be considered The Quality and kind of the affection it is a desire The AEquity and justice of the Reason enducing to it because it is far better The Energy and strength of it in the Effect flowing from it in that he was in a strait betwixt two Of each of these in their Order Beginning with the Description of Death and that As to its generall nature in the word Depart Among the many acceptions of the Greek Verb none more sutabler to this place than that which is the most plain namely to remove or depart answering to the Hebrew word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} whereof the Syriack here maketh use and with which agree the Latine words Migrare abire discedere So that the Assertion couched in this Expression is Obitus Abitus Dying is a going hence the time of death is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the time of our Departure A Departure it is and that both of the soul and of the Person of the soul out of the body of the person out of this world I find the Apostle Peter in two Verses describing Death by two words which set forth this double Departure the one {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a putting off the soul putting off the body when we dye as the body doth its Cloathes when we goe to sleep the other {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a Decease or going out of the AEgypt of this world 1. It is a Departure of the soul from the body when Death cometh with its sharpe Edge the loving knot which nature tied between those two deare Friends is cut asunder as darknesse is the absence of light when the Sunne removeth from our Horizon so is death the privation of life when the soul removeth from the body In this respect it is defined by Tertullian to be dis-junctio by St. Ambrose to be absolutio by Plato to be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and by the Latine Oratour to be discessus animae à corpore a dis-joyning absolving loosing a separation migration and departure of the soul from the body Indeed it is but a Departure of the one from the other not an annihilation of either anima absolvitur corpus resolvitur the soul is let out of the body and the body is resolved into its first Principles whereof it was compounded but neither returneth to nothing Fully to this purpose St. Austin Mors non consumit conjuncta sed diviâ—… dum origini suae utrumque reddit Death doth not consume but divide those parts which were before conjoyned each returning to its Originall that is as Solomon explaineth it the dust to the earth and the soul to God I grant when a man dyeth he ceaseth to be a man but not to be Sic in non hominem vertitur omnis homo saith the Poet and rightly but not in non ens the Materials still remain though the house be puld down and the Fabrick dissolved 2. It is a Departure of the person out of this world The Greek word most properly ad rem nauticam spectat is used by Seamen who are said to loose from the Haven when they depart from the shore and put forth to Sea thus when a man dieth he departeth from the shore of this world and launcheth into an Ocean of Eternity Sometimes the word is used of Souldiers who when they remove take down and unloose their Tents which were fastned to the ground thus by Death our earthly Tabernacles are dissolved and we remove to
another place This world in this respect is compared to an Inne since as Cicero well Natura nobis commorandi non habitandi locum dedit God hath given us here not an house to dwell but only a place to sojourne in It is said of our Saviour {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} he dwelt among us but as in a Tent yea he was borne in an Inne to teach us that he for his time and surely then we for ours are but so many Travellours still upon Departure Indeed it is a very frequent Metaphor by which our present condition is described we are said by the Apostle Peter to be Pilgrims and strangers Omnis homo advena nascendo compellitur migrare moriendo saith the Father elegantly Every man is borne a stranger and when death comes he must be gone in reference to which is that of Iob Man giveth up the ghost and where is he which is not to be understood absolutely for to say a Man is no where at all is to say he is nothing but restrictively he is no where here upon earth he is not among the living he is vanished out of this world To close up this 1. Since we Depart by Death why do we dote on life and seeing we must leave why do we love this world If a Man in a forreigne Countrey where his stay will be but for some Moneths should put himself to a great deale of cost in Building and Planting for his delight or one who liveth in an house whereof he hath but a Lease for a few yeares should lay out a great deale of money in adorning and beautifying it would he not be accounted a Foole Oh what mad Men are we who set our hearts and bestow both our love and care upon this world when we must ere long depart Let me therefore bespeake you in the language of the Prophet Micah Arise ye and depart for this is not your rest you cannot fix or stay long here depart before you depart let your affections depart from the love of before your persons depart from their being in this world and let your souls by divine love go forth whilst yet they are in your bodies 2. When death comes we must Depart why do we not make ready for our Departure when we depart we must walke through a shady Valley Oh let us provide for our journey having according to our Saviours counsell Our loynes girt and our lights burning or rather the Greeke word belonging most properly to Marriners when we depart we launch into Mare mortuum the dead Sea Oh let us before hand Rigge the Vessell of our souls that it may be fit to Saile let Faith be her Rudder Hope her Anchor Sincerity her Ballast a profession of the Truth her Sayles Love her Cordage good Workes her freight a good Conscience her Pilot And being thus provided whensoever the time of our Departure shall come we may navem committere with confidence commit our Ship into the hands of Christ And so much shall suffice for the first part of Deaths Description in that word Depart which is as it were the Heart and Center of the Text wherein the severall Lines meet Go we on to The other part of Deaths Character which is the consequent of it in regard of good-men and that is being with Christ In every locall motion there is a double term to wit à quo and ad quem from whence and to which It is so in this Departure whereof my Text speaketh the terme from which is not mentioned but hath been already supplyed the soul departs out of the body and the man out of the world the terme to which he Departs is plainly and punctually exprest to be with Christ Indeed this is not true of every one who departs by death but only of the good Balaam saw so much which made him wish O that I might dye the Death of the Righteous When we dye the souls of all go ad Deum Judicem to God a just Judge but only of the good ad Christum redemptorem Christ a mercifull Saviour It is not a common favour to every man nor yet is it a personall priviledge of St. Paul To me saith this Apostle a little before to live is Christ and here Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ put them together and you may see the just latitude of this benefit every one who in some measure liveth to Christ when he dyeth shall be with him What here St. Paul assureth himself of Christ promiseth to the Thief on the Cross thou shalt be with me not only eminent Saints such as St. Paul was but penitent sinners such as the Thief was shall be with Christ Blessed are the dead saith St. Iohn who dye in the Lord all who by a lively faith and timely repentance die in are blessed in being with him This being with Christ is that which all true Christians partake of not before and in some respect presently after their departure 1. We cannot be with Christ till we depart hence This Apostle is express Whilst we are in the body we are absent from the Lord It is one thing to be in Christ and another to be with him that is by faith and is now attainable this is by sight and is not to be enjoyed till hereafter we must be in him before we dye else we cannot dye in him but we shall not be with him till we are dead It is one thing for Christ to be with us and another for us to be with Christ that is our comfort in life but this our happiness after death now he walketh among his golden Candlesticks the Churches but then it is the Members of his Church shall walk with him now his spirit is with us but then it is that our spirits shall be with him It is one thing to come to Christ and another to be with him that is a preparation for this it being impossible to be with him to whom we do not come but whereas that is the duty of this life this is the felicity of that other life Finally there was a time when Christ was on Earth and then his Disciples whilest alive had the honour to be with him but now he is gone into Heaven and therefore we must leave earth or we cannot be with him 2. Not till we dye and withall when we dye we shall be with him From henceforth is St. Iohns word Blessed are the dead To day was our Saviours language to the Thief and here being with Christ is set down as the immediate consequent of our departure Indeed had not St. Paul hoped to be with Christ before the Resurrection his desire of departing had been irrationall it being far better to live in doing Gods service then to sleep in a Grave or if he had desired to depart it must have been only upon the account of being at rest from trouble not
of being with Christ nay since as he saith in the next Verse his abiding in the flesh was needfull for the Philippians his desire to dye and his strait about it had not only been irrationall but irreligious had it not been that he perswaded himself that so soon as he was departed he should be with Christ Only a distinction must be here annexed of being with Christ in our persons and in our souls of the former our Apostle speaks as not to be till the last day when we shall meet the Lord in the Aire and so shall be ever with the Lord of the latter he is here to be understood the Union of the soul with Christ being that which followeth upon its dissolution from the body St. Iohn in a Vision saw the souls of them that were slain for the word of God under the Altar that is with Christ who was our sacrifice on Earth and is our Altar in Heaven and when we remember that Christ promised it to a penitent Malefactor we must not confine it only to suffering Martyrs The summe is At the Resurrection shall be the reunion of soul and body and so the compleat glorification of our persons with Christ but immediately after death the souls of all them who were in Christ by faith are with him by sight It were easie to trace the footsteps of this truth in the Writings of the Fathers Omnes sanctorum animae cum Christo sunt exeuntes de corpore ad Christum vadunt expectantes Resurrectionem corporis sui All the souls of the Saints going out of the body go to and are with Christ expecting the Resurrection of the body So Gennadius in St. Augustin and in another place of that Father it is expresly said Recedens anima ab Angelis suscipitur collocatur in sinu Abrahae si fidelis est aut in carceris inferni custodia si peccatrix est The departing soul is received by Angels and if believing is placed in Abrahams bosome if impenitent cast into the Prison of Hell till the appointed day of its being united with the body Were it needfull I could bring many more Testimonies of this truth out of Iustin Martyn Gregory Nazianzen Macarius with others But let St. Chrysostome suffice instead of all and that in this place where he saith the just after Death are with Christ {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or as a late Writer conceiveth it should be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Not beholding him through a glass by faith but face to face The Doctrine thus axplained and confirmed becometh a strong Argument proving against The Psychopannychists That the soul doth not dye nor yet sleep with the body untill the Resurrection for the souls of the good are with Christ and by the rule of contraries the souls of the bad with the Devill neither of them are with the body The Papists that there is no Purgatory after death through which the souls of penitent sinners pass before they be with Christ for if they be immediately with Christ it is in Paradice not Purgatory and if any one should have passed through a Purgatory in all probability it must have been the Thief whose life had been so flagitious good works were so few and conversion so immediately before his death That Opinion which yet I confess is ancient and harmeless of assigning a place of rest and felicity to the separated souls of the just on this side the Heaven of the Blessed for if they be with Christ it probably followeth they must be where he is and that is far above all Heavens not only in A but The place of happiness The Lutherans who affirme the glorified Body of Christ to be every where for then it is on earth as well as in Heaven and what need St. Paul desire to go hence that he might be with him But to enlarge in Controversies befits not the Pulpit at any time much less when it is hung with black My work now is not the Confutation of Errors but a Consolation of the Mourners nor can there be a better ground of comfort then this Meditation that our godly friends being departed are with Christ {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} saith St. Chrysostome Let us rejoyce over the just not only living but dying Why should their departure which is a meanes of joy to them be matter of grief to us Why so much troubled that they can no longer continue with us whenas they go to be with Christ To mourne for anothers happiness is the envy of an enemy If you loved me saith Christ you would rejoyce because I go to my Father Docens scilicet ostendens cum chari quos diligimus de saeculo exeunt gaudendum potius quam dolendum So St. Cyprian teaching us rather to rejoyce then weep at our friends Departure who seem to say to us If you loved us you would rejoyce because we goe to Christ A Consideration which as it may take off our unwillingness to part with so it should make us willing to go after them and this leads me to St. Pauls affection and therein The Quality and kind of it namely an affection of desire Having a desire St. Paul was not only content to dye and willing to live but content to live and willing to dye nor was it a slender wish but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a fervent desire and that not transient but permanent {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not only desiring but having a desire as it were fixed and setled in his mind For the further opening of St. Pauls desire in reference to death it will be needfull to resolve two Quaeries the one concerning the possibility whither any man can desire death and the other concerning the legitimacy whither any good man may desire it 1. It may rationally be enquired how any man can desire to dye since only good either in reality or appearance is the Object of desire whenas-death depriveth us of good nay is the worst of temporall evils But to this it is justly answered that however death considered in it self is an evill and so formidable yet to a good man it becometh good and so desirable Our Apostle expressing death as the Object of his desire clotheth it with a smooth word to depart and if you please a little more narrowly to look into the use of the word you shall find it represents death as advantagious and consequently to be desired Sometimes it is used of a mans returning to his home or Countrey St. Ierome renders it reverti Turtullian recipi the Marriners going forth to Sea are said {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to loose from the Haven and when they do this by way of returne homeward {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a returne from strangers to ones own home is
thus styled it is applied to Conquerours coming back from the Wars and the Lords returning home from the Wedding is expressed by this phrase Whereas all men are in truth and good men in their own esteem strangers by death they go home to their Heavenly Countrey Quis non peregre constitutus properaret in patriam regredi What stranger doth not long to return to his native soyle nothing more naturall to a man then to love his home death is a departure home Sometimes it is used for mens being set free from bonds and Prison and of Oxen when after their labour in the evening the yoake is taken from off their necks The body is as it were the Prison of the soul yea the whole world is but as a larger Prison to a Saint from which death sets him free Dissolvi nonquaereret Paulus nisi se proculdubio vinctum videret In that St. Paul desired to be loosed no doubt he apprehended himself a Prisoner Was ever any man in love with his Fetters and what Prisoner doth not groan for enlargement or captive would not welcome liberty death is a departure out of Prison Once more It is sometimes used of going to bed we are wearied in the day of our life with manifold labours at the evening of death we go to our bed so the Prophet Isaiah's expression of the Righteous when they perish they enter into their beds Doth not the weary Labourer long to be in his bed of ease and refreshment Death is a departure to our bed and no wonder if under these considerations of rest and liberty and returning home it be the Object of desire To all this it may be further added That the primary object of St. Pauls desire was not the departure but being with Christ Sutable to this it is that else where he saith We that are in this Tabernicle do groan being burdened not for that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that which a Christian so earnestly desires is the state of bliss in the enjoyment of Christ Death is only desired in order to that and that upon necessity because there is no going to Christ without a departure hence otherwise the best men would abhorre it By this time you see the Resolution of the first Quaery which amounts to this that death was not by St. Paul is not cannot be desired by any one but only in ordine ad aliud in order to that which followeth it and especially the being with Christ The Quaere which would next be satisfied refers to the Legitimacy Whither and how far death may be desired To which end be pleased to knew that that desire of death which is lawfull yea not only lawfull but excellent 1. Is not Active but Passive So the Vulgar Latin reads it Cupio dissolvi I desire to be dissolved In some cases the truth of our destre is testified by the endeavoure but it is not so in this that command of killing respects a mans self as well as others and forbids not only the act but the endeavour he that by neglect of good meanes shortens his life or by any evill meanes attempts the hastening of his own death being no other in Gods account then a self-murderer We must not desire death as we desire grace we ought so to desire grace as to use all wayes for the obtaining it we must not so desire death as to take any course for accelerating it 2. Not impatient but submissive not repining at Gods delaies but waiting his leisure if God please or when God pleaseth is the language of a Christian as in others so in this matter Indeed Simeon prayeth Now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace but it was as appeareth by that addition according to thy Word because having seen the Messiah he knew the time of his dissolution was come We must not limit God to this or that season And whilest we desire the thing we must contentedly wait the time Sapiens è vita non fugere debet sed exire saith Seneca A wise man must not fly but go out of life He learneth accipere to receive death willingly but he hateth arripere to runne upon it desperately Nor dare he break the Prison doors though he be ready when God sets them open to go forth Animus piis omnibus retinendus est in custodiâ corporis nec injussu ejus a quo ille est nobis datus ex hominum vita migrandum saith the Orator Our Soul must not be dismist out of without his leave who infused it into the body In this respect the good man hath a desire at once both to live and to die according to Divine appointment If God will have him continue longer on earth to do him service he is willing and if he will take him to himself he is willing resolving still to bow his will to Gods 3. Lastly Not Carnal but Spiritual Many there are who wish themselves in their Graves meerly out of discontent at the condition of their life either because they have not what they would or suffer what they would not Some there are who desire to die that they may be in Paradise rid of misery and enjoy faelicity But the right desire after death is upon higher and spiritual Grounds not so much to be free from sorrow as sinne to be in Paradise as to be with Christ Indeed these words to be with Christ are both Incentive and Directive to our desire of death No stronger Argument why we should desire it no higher end for which we should desire it What can make death welcome to us if this of being with Christ will not Nor should any consideration make it more welcome to us then this of being with Christ And thus you have the second Question answered the result whereof is that provided we do not hasten our own death but are content to tarry Gods time and that we do not only or chiefly wish it for self-ends we may nay we ought to desire if God will that we may depart and be with Christ and this is that whereof our Apostle hath here given the Phillipians and all Christians a Pattern But oh my Brethren how doth St. Pauls desire upbraid our backwardnesse and chide our feares It was St. Cyprians complaint of the Christians in his time and it is still true Obnitimur reluctamur pervicacium more servorum ad conspectum Domini cum tristitia maerore perducimu◠excuntes istinc necessitatis vinculo non obsequio voluntatis We resist and struggle and like peevish servants must to our grief and sorrow be forced into our Lords Presence going hence not with a willing obsequiousnesse but out of a compelling necessity Omnes refugiunt terminum ad quem curunt said Seneca Truly all men would fly from the Goale of death to which they runne I am afraid the most Christians are unwilling that should be