Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A04270
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The ioy of the vpright man In a sermon preached at Grayes Inne: By I. B. Wherein is declared the hidden comfort, the sure reward, the present condition of the vpright-hearted.
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Barlow, John, b. 1580 or 81.
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1619
(1619)
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STC 1439; ESTC S116383
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22,522
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44
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condemned already Many in their fond imaginations thinke that like the Giant of Gath they haue vpon the hand of their faith sixe fingers yet alas when they come in the day of death or time of triall to feed on the promise to put on the Lord Iesus Christ they like Adonibezek will lacke their thumbes and dye for want of feeding on the food and true bread of eternall life Now the righteous haue not only the precious promises but also precious faith the which two being vnited carry the whole man into the garner of God and large field of the kingdome of glory for me are saued by faith And as the sickle is to the hand of the reaper so is faith to the soule of the righteous and true beleeuer Reason 4 And last of all hee that is a reaper of these fauours must fit himselfe for the kingdome of heauen and that the Lord of glory may come in He must cast out the bondwoman and her sonne Satan and all the seeds of sinne purge himselfe of the old leauen cleanse the inside of the cup and platter of his soule and this will none but the righteous doe vngodly men lodge their Lord in the Inne they cast him into a cratch suffer him to knocke yet permit him not to enter and suppe with them They will not dresse and sweepe the floore of their soules cast out the rotten goundsell in the barnes of their hearts and emptie themselues of that rubbish that shutteth the doore dammeth vp the roome and shouldreth out this heauenly ricke this haruest of the Lord But the righteous they sweepe the house make way for the haruest open the doore pluck vp the euerlasting gates and giue the King of glory good great and royall entertainment so that he will sup with them they with him and partake of all his fatlings Vse 1 And seeing the point thus by reason and Scripture confirmed let vs come to make application And here in the first place we may see the vanity of our prophane and vngodly persons who crie out as the people in former times if wee preach this doctrine that Only the righteous reap these great fauours you take too much vpon you Moses and Aaron for all the congregation is holy Thus they in this cleere light of the Gospell say what in their hearts with the foole No in publique and seeke to defend it that All shall be heires of Gods greatest benefits not one shall perish And wee say too that if they be righteous and for number as the dust of the earth or starres in heauen that they shal all inherit the kingdom of God and of glorie but if they be proud vniust deceitful and want vpright hearts were they as the sand on the sea shore drops in the huge Ocean graines on the ground or fishes in the water for multitude that so liuing and so dying they must reape nothing but wrath vengeance and the largest fields of Gods highest displeasure euery mothers sonne Darkness trembling terror and the sting of the second death shal be the sheafe of their field the corne of their barne and the best graine that shall be preserued for the garner of their soules for they were neuer vnited to Christ haue any right to the promises truth of faith in their hearts neither would open the gates of their soules that the King of glorie might come in and finde fauourable acceptation And yet for all this in the land of vprightnes they will doe wickedly What shal I say or where shal I begin and when make an end Haue wee not the biting vsurie the cursed couetousnesse the deuouring oppression the destroying extortion the shop of dearth darknes and deceit the vnequall weight mixt ware and counterfeit stuffe And as sure as the word of God is true and holy and iust that vpon whom these foule sinnes shall be found hee shall dye the death I know that this is a hard position to settle in their minds yet he that denieth this for a truth must turne Atheist gainsay that there is a resurrection a iudgement to come and a iust Iudge that reuengeth all wrong Psal 50. 21. 2. Pet. 3. 3. 4. Vse 2 And in the second place here is a world of comfort to the vpright in heart For whatsoeuer the Lord hath sowne in earth or heauen if thou faint not thou shalt reape in due time In earth thou shalt haue food and raiment fit and conuenient and if need be in great abundance Let the waters swell the sea rore the earth tremble the winde blow and the floods come yet thou shalt escape all danger Let the Sunne be darke the Moone turned into blood the Starres fall the heauens burne and the elements melt with heate yet iust Lot shall be deliuered Noah escape drowning for righteousnes is written in thy forehead and the destroyer shall not destroy thee What if thou sow in teares plow vp thy ground in a time of mourning yet thou shalt reape with ioy and by the hand of the Angell be carried like a rick of come in due time into the garner of God For faithfull is he that hath promised and will surely doe it Hee hath sowen and his sonnes shall reape though the haruest be long in comming the crop shall be the bigger the better Therefore in the middest of all thy sorrowes let this meditation comfort thy soule that the righteous and vpright in heart of which number thou art shall be the reapers of Gods greatest benefits Vse 3 And seeing this is thus Let no man say that It is in vaine to serue the Lord and that Godlinesse is not gainfull for it is profitable euery manner of way Iob serues not God for nought neither doth righteousnes preuent riches The fooles prouerbe is that He that vseth plaine dealing shall die a beggar I say no and adde more that hee that doth not vse it shall dye like Iudas a very beast and iudge whether is the better I can tell you that when the heauy sentence shall visit vs that did Ezekiah Thou must dye not liue then will the worth of a well led life be a matter of moment a thing much set by seene into and this tidings shal come and will not tarry and then shall the iust liue by his faith haue boldnes of spirit and reape that riches the great husband in heauen had sowne and prepared from the beginning for the vpright Then shall he haue all teares wiped from his eyes rest from his labours and his life shall see the euerlasting light yea he shall reape fulnes of ioy freedome from all bondage and pleasures for euermore Vse 4 And in the last place seeing the righteous are the only reapers of the Lords greatest blessings it must be a strong motiue to moue vs to be such We would all be set at libertie both spirituall and corporall enjoy all the blessings that the great
Psalme so that we may without danger expound it of Christ the true light of his comming and all blessings that accompany the same Is sowne that is prepared purposed and appointed of God to be receiued in due time and conuenient season for as seed lieth in the earth couered for a while so is the ioy of the iust secret hidden For the righteous Wee must vnderstand that there is a twofold righteousnesse and that either personall or by imputation Personall righteousnesse hath in it two things first integritie secondly conformitie for there is one frame of the person another of his actions Integritie of nature must be in him that is personally righteous so was Adam Eue and Christ by creation hence some conclude that onely they three were created in the image of God and none other for God in the beginning made man righteous righteous in respect of his nature and being and Christ afterward as hee was man for the Spirit did ouershadow the Virgin and purifie the matter and masse of which his humane body consisted so that it was perfect and without the staine of the least originall sinne And againe conformitie of action is also of necessitie to make a man personally and absolutely righteous the first Adam had the one but failed in the other therefore because he kept not the rule of iustice he was neuer actually and personally righteous the second Adam Christ had both and so was able to abide the Law yea the very rigour of it either for puritie of nature or holinesse of conuersation and he onely and none but hee Hence he is called Iesus Christ the righteous for he was righteous euery manner of way And although the first may bee without the second yet the second cannot be without the first because the latter as an effect springeth and floweth from the former as his true and proper cause Ephes 4. 24. And thus hauing declared what personall righteousnesse is wee come to see what is meant by righteousnesse imputed Now imputed righteousnesse is that righteousnesse which is not in mans selfe or from himselfe but from and by another not by creation but imputation This seemes to me to be prefigured by the skinnes wherewith the Lord after the fall clothed our first Parents the bodies of the beasts were for sacrifice the skinnes to put them in mind that their owne righteousnesse was like the figge-leaues imperfect and therefore they must bee iustified another way Yet howeuer that be Paul is plaine for this distribution of double righteousnesse for saith he I labour not to be found in mine owne righteousnes which is by the Law but that which is by faith in Christ Phil. 3. 9. So that it is manifest there is an imputatiue as well as a personall righteousnesse And here we are to note two things in righteousnesse imputed first what it is that maketh righteous secondly how or by what meanes we are made partakers of this that maketh vs righteous The thing or matter is Christ and his obedience Christ is made our righteousnesse c. 1. Cor. 1. 30. And we must haue both his person and actions to be the matter of our iustification for we are conceiued in sinne therefore we must haue a righteousnesse to satisfie the iustice of the Law in that for the parts of Diuinitie at the Creation seeme to be Holinesse of nature and Perfection of life so that this rule being iust and good must be fully satisfied either by our selues or some other else no flesh should be iustified or saued Againe I say his obedience must be imputed also and that actiue and passiue the which some but without iust reason deny affirming that the passiue is of it selfe sufficient And the reason is this the Law after Adams fall required a double debt the one that the breach thereof might be repaired the other perfectly obeyed that that was done must be vndone and that which was vndone must bee done and by whom euen by Christ our surety And obserue how fitly the actiue and passiue obedience of Christ answere these two for his passion remooued the curse and his actiue obedience brings the blessing and confirmes man being reconciled And this is that which the Apostle intendeth though some otherwise expound the place where he saith If by the death of Christ that is his passiue obedience we be reconciled to God when wee were enemies much more being reconciled we shall be saued by his life that is his actiue obedience Rom. 5. 10. For the better vnderstanding of this let vs compare Adam vnto a pot or some such earthen vessell first it is framed molded and well figured then it is put into the ouen or furnace and hardned Now suppose that this vessell bee hit with a foote and dashed in pieces before it was hardned must it not haue a double act to make it perfect one to mould it anew another to season and harden it Why man by Creation was by God excellently framed but he was not hardned and confirmed by the obedience of the Law but broken to pieces in dashing himselfe against it so that now hee standeth in need of more than at his creation for he is broken therefore wants molding and then hardening too else notwithstanding his case were mutable and his condition subiect to breaking still Now the passiue obedience of Christ doth frame him anew that is set him in that condition wherein he was at the first by creation and then his actiue obedience like the furnace doth confirme and make him a vessell vnchangeable and fit for the Lords vse for euer And doth it not stand with iustice that death should remooue death and life procure life I write my opinion submitting my selfe to the iudgement of the reuerend and learned that the ground of this error had its beginning from misunderstanding of personall righteousnesse for Adam was iust by creation in respect of his essentiall properties but neuer actually righteous in the obedience of the precepts by practise so that Adam was no sinner yet not iustified for not a sinner and a righteous person are not equall and equiualent termes they may not bee conuerted for Adam though iust by creation yet not by action so that he did but answere to one part of the rule not the other neither could hee vntill this created righteousnesse had been produced into act for as the breach of the Law made him actually a sinner vniust so the performance of it would haue made him actually righteous the which he neuer was The death of Christ will restore vs to that estate from which we fell in Adam and that is of enemies to make vs friends and to heale meritoriously our wounded nature but his life must confirme vs and make vs actually iust and there can be no danger at all in holding this doctrine and I wonder that any man can either ascribe too much to Christ or beleeue too much in him for if the breach