Christian Exortation against the fearc of Death For since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead Corin 15 Ch. p 21. TWO DISCOURSES The FIRST A CHRISTIAN'S EXHORTATION Against the FEARS OF DEATH The SECOND A brief and clear Declaration of the Resurrection of the Dead With suitable Meditations and Prayers touching LIFE and DEATH Recommended as proper to be given at Funerals By W. S. LONDON Printed for Tho. Bever at the Hand and Star next to the Middle Temple-Gate near Temple Bar 1690. Price bound 1 Shilling A DISCOURSE Against the Fears of DEATH PLATO said That the Philosophy wherein Man living in this World should principally exercise himself is the Meditation of Death That is to say of his condition in the World frail diseased and mortal of the divers accidents of this humane Life and of the Hour of Death so uncertain and unknown to the end that considering these things he might withdraw his affection and trust from this World that he might despise it and all temporal things wherein he sees and discovers so much inconstancy and such suddain and frequent mutations or changes and that by such a despising of uncertain and casual things he should stir up himself unto a contemplation of those that are Divine and Heavenly and forsaking that which is here perishing and transitory he should choose his part in Heaven and should stay himself at that which is permanent and eternal For the like reason Philip the Father of Alexander the Great a man of good understanding and of very great consideration to the end that in the midst of his great prosperity he should not forget himself in his Duty gave order that one of his Gentlemen should every day at his waking come and speak these words unto him King have in remembrance that thou art a mortal Man Jesus Christ also our Saviour and Master intending the same doth exhort us to Watch and to lay up Treasures in Heaven and not on Earth where all things are uncertain and changeable We see by this that during our Life we cannot do better then to think upon Death and our Body being upon the Earth to accustom our selves to have always our Spirit and Heart in Heaven Now because that the remembrance of Death is a fearful thing to many I have bethought my self to pass away my Griefs and to recreate my self from my other Studies and also to give you a testimony of the Obligation which I think I have towards you as well for the good which you have done unto me as for the Friendship which you bear me to write unto you and to present this small Treatise wherein I have briefly touched certain Points wherewith the Faithful may Arm themselves against Death which he ought to do in time and prepare himself to receive it with assurance at such time as it shall please God to send it for that which doth astonish many is that the coming thereof is suddain unto them and that they are surprized unlooked for We see by experience in a frontier Town that when it is well Victualled and provided of all things necessary to with-stand a long Siege those within are a great deal the more assured and bold whereas if it were unprovided they would stand amazed and tremble with fear if they should chance to see the approaching of the Siege It is easie to judge by that of what importance it is to have prevented a danger and to be prepared for it To provide therefore and arm the Faithful Man against Death we must note that there are two sorts of it the one is temporal of the body which Christians ought to desire the other is eternal of body and Soul which they ought not to fear persevering in the Faith of our Lord. That it is so all Fear pre-supposeth evil and danger we do not fear that which is good but long after desire and pursue it and when it offers it self we receive it joyfully but an evil we apprehend and fear we fly from it and when it happens unto us we sorrow and do complain If then it doth appear by good and evident Proofs that the Faithful Man is not in danger of this second Death may we not then conclude that if we fear it it is foolish and without occasion And surely if we had judgment and never so little Faith it were sufficient presently to take away the fear of it from us For first the proper nature of faith is to animate and quicken our heart so soon as it is received in us The Just saith the Prophet shall live by Faith Now even so as the Body whiles the Soul is in it liveth and dieth not until such time as it be separated from it no more doth the Faithful Man persevering in the Faith which hath been inspired and put into his Heart by the Grace of God Although saith David I should walk in the midst of the shadow of Death I will not fear for Thou art with me O Lord What was the cause of this assurance was it not Faith Armed wherewith we ought no more to fear Death then we do Sickness when we are in perfect health well disposed and in good liking or Poverty when we have plenty and abundance of all good things Secondly By Faith we have remission and an abolition of all the faults which we have done Why do we then fear Death There is no Death where there is no Sin 〈…〉 Death 〈…〉 Paul and elsewhere The Reward of Sin is Death Sin causeth God to be angry with us and that in His Anger He condemneth us to Death Now all Seeds doth bring forth according to their sort and quality The Wheat bringeth forth Wheat and the Rye Rye and we must not hope for any Fruit if there be not Seed before hand This being true and witnessed in a thovsand places of the Scripture that unto a Christian all his Sins and debts are acquitted by the Grace and Mercy of God that they are forgotten that they are covered that they are not imputed and that they are remitted and pardoned that they are cast as far from us as the East from the West provided that there be no more Seed thereof we need not look for any Fruit That is to say if there be no more Sin there is no more anger of God nor of death and by consequent that also there ought to be no more fear Thirdly By Faith we have the Word and the Promises of GOD whereupon it is grounded Among others this Whoso Believeth shall not Die but is passed from Death to Life Now this promise can no more fail than He that gave it us It is Eternal and all that God saith is as sure and permanent as Heaven and Earth For this cause when we look into them we ought in them to consider the vertue and power of this Word by the which they were once Created and ever since preserved and maintained in that estate wherein
we now see them and to infer thereupon that being of the same power and efficacy in all other things nothing is impossible nor uncertain of all that which God doth say and promise unto us And therefore as St. James saith Receiving His holy Word by Faith in our Hearts and the Promises which He hath made us to give us Eternal Life we ought to assure our selves of it and take away all fear and apprehension of Death What was the cause of the ruin of us and our Fore-fathers Was it not because they did decline from the Word of God to follow their own Fancies and the Counsel of Satan If then on the contrary we will cleave to it without leaning any jot either to the right hand or to the left we shall live by it and in it Hearken unto Me saith GOD speaking by Isaiah and your Soul shall Live And Zachary in his Song He hath given us a knowledge of Salvation And St. Peter speaking to Jesus Christ Thy Words are Words of Eternal Life If GOD the Prophets and Apostles do assure us that the Word of God received by a true Faith in our Hearts doth there quicken keeping and retaining it What occasion have we then to fear Death Moreover by Faith we dwell in Jesus Christ and have him dwelling in us who having Life in himself as his Father doth quicken us and all those unto whom he doth communicate himself Wherefore then being his Members Flesh of His Flesh and Bone of His Bones in brief being one with him shall we fear Death Hath not He power over it and not only for Himself but also for us He saith S. Cyprian who hath once overcome Death for us will always overcome it in us Hath not he beat down dispossessed chased and spoiled Satan the Prince and Lord of Death Hath not he accomplished the Law and by this perfect Obedience which he hath born to God his Father appeased his Anger satisfied his Will and abolished the malediction of the Law which is nothing else but Death Did not he die to make it die when he rose again Hath not he broken and dissipated all the Torments plucked down the Gates of Hell and triumphed over her and all her Power Say not henceforth faith St. Paul who shall go up into Heaven or who shall descend into the depths for to bring Life unto us For Jesus Christ is dead and risen again from the dead for to deliver us from death and risen again to restore us to Life He is our Pastor and for this Reason we ought not to fear that any Creature should snatch us by Violence out of his Hands or can hinder him from giving us Eternal Life He is our Advocate we ought not then to fear to be overthrown in Judgment nor that by Sentence we should be condemned to death He is our Mediator we need not to fear the Wrath of God He is our Light we not fear Darkness He is our Shadow and our Clouds we ought not then to fear the heat of the Fire Eternal no more than did the Children of Israel the heat of the Sun in the Wilderness being hidden under the Pillar Let us then for these Reasons forsake and cast behind us all Fear of Death which having had no Power nor Advantage over the Head shall have no Power over his Members Again By Faith we have with Jesus Christ God his Father and are allied and joined together with him as he saith by his Prophet I will marry thee if thou wilt promise me thy Faith And Jesus Christ in St. John He that loveth me will keep my word and I and my Father will come and dwell in him For this Reason we are also called his Temples because we are consecrated and dedicated unto him by his Holy Spirit that he should dwell in us Now seeing God is with us we have the Original the Fountain the Cause the Beginning and the Author of Life we have the great Jehovah of whome all things depend by whome all things are and move in whome the Angels Archangels Principalities the Heavens and all the Elements consist we have him from whome all Creatures Visible and Invisible take their Life and their Being by the Participations which they have with him We have him who is the most Perfect and most Soveraign Work-man of all things who by his breath doth quicken and make them to Live and by his power infinite doth preserve them We have to make short Him who only can fatisfie and by his Presence cause that of Life and of all other good things we shall have and think we have enough Shall we then fear Death in such company If as St. Augustine saith God is the Soul of our Soul we cannot die but by being separated from him the which David doth confirm in one of his Psalmes saying Those shall perish O Lord who do depart and go from thee which being considered let us strive only to keep him with us by Faith and Obedience and besides let us take away all the fear which we may have of Death Again by Faith we have the Spirit of God You are not Carnal saith St. Paul writing to the Romans but are Spiritual for who hath not the Spirit of God is none of his And else-where speaking to the Galathians Have you not the Spirit of God by Faith Now this Spirit is the Spirit of Life if God withdraws it from his Creatures they die they perish and come suddenly to nught On the contrary when he pleaseth to send and pour it upon them he raiseth and restoreth them in an instant even as we see a Hen brooding of her Eggs by a secret vertue doth disclose and bring them to Life albeit that before they were without sence or feeling Even so doth the Spirit of God all Creatures by his Divine Power He giveth testimony and doth assure us in our Hearts that we are the Children of God to the end that from him as from our Father by a certain and assured hope we should wait and look for Life He is a pledge unto us for fear lest we should doubt Having therefore such earnest of Life having testimony from him who being the Spirit of Truth cannot lie nor abuse having him himself who is the preserver of all Creatures shall we fear Death It is as much as who should fear the darkness at noon-day the Spirit of him who hath raised again Jesus Christ and who hath up-held him because he should not be overcome of Death being in us will quicken us also saith Saint Paul and will preserve us from it let us then put away all fear of it Faith also causeth that God doth adopt and repute us for his Children you are all Children of God by faith saith St. Paul and St. John he hath given power to all those that shall receive him and believe in his Name to be made the Children of God then being Children we are the Heirs and Co-heirs with
to the Joy of the Children of god Unto the Thief it was said This Day thou shalt be with me in Paradise Luk. 23. Joh. 5.6 which cannot be understood of the Body but shews that the faithful Dying makes the passage from Death to Life The which ought only to be understood of the Soul seeing that the Body must first be brought to Earth and that it must put off all Corruption for to rise at the last Day Incorruptible and in Glory Mat. 22. Thus Jesus Christ against the Saduces who denied the Immortality of Souls shews that forasmuch as God calls himself the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob Exod. 3. infallibly the Souls departed do live for he is not the God of those that are dead in such sort that they are no more but he is the God of those that are and that live and doth good to the Posterity of those that are and not of those that are not which cannot be understood but of their Souls seeing their Bodies were returned to the Earth Whereby we see that they deceive themselves greatly that say that their Souls die and vanish with the Body where they Sleep also those likewise who think that they enter into other Bodies Mak 6. Luk. 9. Even the Pagans by natural Apprehensions have believe that the Souls were Immortal a we see that Euripides in the Tragedy which he intituled Hecuba doth declare it when he brings in Polixen speaking to Hecuba and dying saying to her What shall I say to Hectâ— thy Husband who was dead she aâ— swered her tell him that I am the most wretched in the World And in that which he entituled The Supplicant he says The Spirit shall return to Heaven Likewise Pholicides says That the Soul is immortal and living always waxeth not old Pythagoras in his Golden Verses said If when thou hast left the Body thou comest into Heaven thou shalt be as God living always and being no more Mortal Cicero likewise Writes of it in his Book of Friendship and in that which he writ of Age in some sort comforting himself in the hope which he had of the immortality of his Soul We see then that it is a thing most assured that the Soul is immortal as the Lord by his Word which is the Infallible Truth of Heaven doth shew it us And likewise the Pagans how Ignorant soever they were of the true Religion have well understood it Wherefore those that deny the Immortality of Souls accuse God of lying and make themselves in worse estate than the Pagans This Knowledge is a great Consolation to the Faithful in all their Afflictions and doth take from them the fears of Death knowing that their Souls being separated from their Bodies live in Heaven 1 John 2 in which they are admonished not to settle themselves upon the transitory things of this Life and not to load their Souls with the burthen of Sin to the end that dying they may be raised up towards God our Father and Jesus Christ our Saviour unto whom we ought with a stedfast faith to recommend them Now even as the faithful do rejoice at it the unfaithful on the other side knowing the Souls to be immortal are so much the more fearful of Death seeing the eternal pains and torments to be prepared for them at their going forth of this World James 1. 1 Pet. 1.4 So that which serveth to the Elect for Joy and Instruction is unto the wicked nothing but Sorrow and occasion of Despair The Second Point TOuching the Body it is all apparant that it is subject to die as well because that we know that those that were in times past are dead and that we see that those of our time die one after another as principally because that the Lord declares to Adam that by reason of his Sin he with his posterity shall be subject to return into the Earth from whence he was taken Gen. 3. The Apostle says Rom. 5.8.6 That by Man Sin came into the World and by Sin Death and so Death came unto all Men by reason that all have sinned â—nd the reward of Sin is Death whereof the hour is uncertain unto us â—uke 12. Although we are certain â—hat it is the Journey that every man must go by reason that unto them â—ll it is ordained to die once Jos 12. 1 Kings 2 The Scripture is full of Testimonies upon this matter although it be well enough known of all by every days Experience Heb. 9. Job 14. The Pagans themselves without Instruction of the Word of God have well understood that unto Man it is a thing that cannot be avoided as Euripedes shews it in the Tragedie of the Supplicants saying That every part of Man must return from whence it came the Spirit into Heaven the Body into the â—â—â—ih which is the Mother and Nurse thereof Wherefore it is a thing known to all that we must die but now by how much it is easie to believe that necessity to die is imposed upon us by so much is iâ— more difficult to believe that our bodies being returned to dust shall risâ— again And indeed the sensual Maâ—â— cannot comprehend any thing there in neither hath any thought of it as we see that the Pagans never thought of it although that they have disputed of the immortality oâ— Souls But the Man that is regenerate by the Spirit of God doubt not but that the Lord can raise the dead seeing he will have it so and that nothing can hinder his Will Psal 115. For as sayth the Prophet he doth what he will Apoc. 4. We must then fee how the Scripture dotâ— assure us that the Bodies as well oâ— the good as of the wicked shall rise again the first â—o be crowned with Glory the other with perpetual Infamy Dan. 12. For to teach us thâ— Resurrection it compares Death to a â—leep as hath been already said to â—he end we may be certain that as the bodies after they have laboured shall rest by Sleep that they being awaked may with so much more alacrity return to work so when we shall have made an end of this present Life our Bodies shall be brought to the Tomb as in a Bed of rest for to rise again from thence at the latter day and be put into their place Job prophecying of the Resurrection the which he did firmly believe says I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he will stand up at the latter day upon the Earth and although after my Skin this Body shall be devoured by Worms yet with my Flesh shall I see God I shall behold him and my Eyes shall look upon him and none other for me although my Reins are consumed within me Job 14. 19. David foretels the Resurrection of Christ by whom we shall rise again the which was figured by this that Jonas was three days and three nights in the Whales Belly as Jesus Christ himself declares it Johu 2. Mat. 12. The Prophet Isay
this true Life even in this World thou dost quicken by thy Truth us that are poor wretched and dead in Sin thou dost augment that life by the Ministry and Efficacy of thy holy Gospel and dost confirm it by the use of the Sacraments which thou hast established to confirm the Faith of those that are thine until that our Corruption and what we have in mortality in us being abolished by the Resurrection we shall be and live everlastingly with thee both in Body and Soul when thou shalt be all in all Life Everlasting is to know the true God and thee his Son which wert sent unto us Now we see thee by Faith in a Glass and in Obscurity but one day we shall behold thee face to face and shall be transformed into thy Glory nd wholly reformed unto thy Image I do beseech thee merciful Saviour to increase my Faith that I may be so well grounded in the Doctrine of my Salvation that nothing may turn me from it Increase in my Heart the Reverence which I owe thee that I may never turn from thy Obedience Strengthen me in such sort that the allurements nor threatnings do neither intrap nor astonish me but that constantly I may cleave unto thee who art my Life till Death Cause that in vertue of thy holy Promises and of thy Spirit I may increase more and more in thy Love and leaving behind me the things of this World I may tend to that which is firm and perfect Increase thy Grace in me that every day I may dye in my self for to be quickned and guided by thy Favour fearing no other but thou God Almighty loving nothing but thee as there is nothing but thee to be beloved boasting my self in nothing but in thy only Grace and Mercy which is the Glory of all thy Servants seeking no other good but thee nor desiring any thing but thee who art the full and entire felicity of all the Faithful Amen Another LOrd Jesus who art always merciful who dost not stick to be my Saviour as well in Adversity as in Prosperity Give me the Grace in all humble obedience to yield unto thy will when it shall please thee to mingle bitterness amongst so many sweet things which thou causest me to taste in living under thy Protection Thou art admirable and most good in the time of Afflictions In that by such means thou dost heal spiritual Diseases and in visiting of us in this World thou disposest us to meditate of a better Life having thy self shewed us the Example thereof True it is that I find it very hard to digest but thou hast been brought to a more strange condition when for to draw me out of Hell thou wentest down into it thy self and for to reconcile me to thy heavenly Father thou hast undergone his Curse by reason of my Sins I have so often deserved Hell and the fiery Torment and thou deliveredst me assuring me that I have part in the merits of thy Death and thy Obedience and that I am one of thy Co-heirs for to reign one day with thee in thy Kingdom and at this present in the midst of so many Afflictions to be nevertheless set in the heavenly Places Having part in so many good things why shall I vex my self for a little endurance by the means whereof thou wilt awaken me and make me better and draw me so much the more to thee But seeing thou knowest me better then I know my self if it be thy pleasure to put me to any tryal give me necessary force and patience to glorifie thee converting all the evil that may happen unto me to good and Salvation And if in supporting my weakness thy goodness is pleased to advertise me by some light affliction cause that this thy well-willing may draw me more and more to love and honour thee to give thee thanks for the care which thou hast of thy poor Servant and by that means to dispose me to weight for thee at my Death that after it I may find the Life which thou hast purchased for me by thy Death and therein with thee to have part in Joy and Rest for Ever Amen Another Lord God Heavenly Father when I consider in how many sorts I have sinned before thy Face and against thy high Majesty I have horrour in my self in thinking that I have so often turned from thee Propitious and favourable Father I detest my ingratitude seeing in what servitude of sin I have been too often precipitate selling as much as in my lay of the precious Liberty which thy Son had purchased for me I condemn my folly I altogether dislike of my self I see nothing but Death and mishap hanging over my head and my Conscience rising for a Judge and Witness of my Iniquities But when on the other side I enter into a Contemplation of thy infinite mercy the which surmounteth all thy works and in the which if so I dare to speak thou surmountest thy self my soul is comforted And indeed why should I make my self believe that I cannot find grace before him that summons and so often and gently calls the sinner to repentance protesting expresly that he desires not the death of a sinner but rather that he turn from his wickedness and live Moreover thy only Son hath so well assured us that we shall find favour in thy sight by the sweet words which himself had uttered as that of the lost sheep and of the prodigal Son the image of whom I acknowledg'd my self to be that I should be most unthankful incredulous and wicked to go back and to be ashamed of thy presence although I am wretched seeing thou dost so stretch forth thy hand unto me and draw me to thee with such wonderful affection I have very vildly forsaken thee O merciful Father I have unhappily let slip thy Graces and adhering to desires of my flesh and straying from thy Obedience I have wrapped my self in the base servitude of sin I am fallen into extream misery I know not whether to retire unless it be towards thee whom I have abandoned Let thy mercy receive this poor supplication whom thou hast supported during his errors I am unworthy to lift up mine Eyes unto thee or to call thee Father But I pray thee bow down thine Eyes to me seeing thou wilt have it so being without that in the power of thine Enemies The sight of thy Face will revive me and bring me again to thee Seeing I have some displeasure in my self I know thou lookest upon me that thou hast given me Eyes to see the danger wherein I was thou hast sought and found me in death and in the world and hast through thy mercy given me a desire to enter into thy house I dare not desire that thou shouldst kiss and embrace me nor that hou shouldst weep for joy that thou hast found thy poor Servant and Slave I do not demand the precious Ornaments wherewith thou doest honour thy great servants
Jesus Christ and we are by the means of this adoption certain once to come unto Life unto the rest and unto the glory wherein we shall Reign Eternally with his Father Moreover being Children of God we are of his Houshold and it is not in his House where Death dwelleth it is in Hell in the Devil's House in Heaven and the Place where God abides there is an unspeakable Light so great a Beatitude and Happiness that in the Contemplation thereof David crying out said O how they are happy that do inhabit and dwell in thy House And elsewhere In this consists all my good Lord that I may be near unto thee Again being Children we are at Liberty free from Sin free from Death free from the Condemnation and Rigour of the Law freed from Service and Force of the Devil what do we fear being then Children of God and consequently Brothers of Jesus Christ Is it possible that he can ever deny or abandon his Flesh and Blood or suffer them to die having Power to save them Therefore being the Children of God our Father he loveth us with a Love unseigned and Fatherly And if as saith St. Paul during the time that we were his Enemies he had such a care over us that not sparing his only begotten Son he hath delivered him over to Death to preserve us from it and to reconcile us unto himself now that we are his Friends and in his Favour will he not save us Who is that Man who considering these Reasons will not presently assure himself and cast away all fear which he had of Death That which also ought to assure us against Death and take away all fear which we have of it and of the Horrour and Anguish prepared for the reprobate and damned is our Calling that God of his Grace hath vouchsafed to withdraw us out of the Darkness wherein we were and to illuminate us by his Holy Spirit teaching us by his Holy Word wherein we ought to trust and wherein lyeth our Salvation and so what we ought to do to please and obey him to the end that walking in his Law and serving him in all Justice and Holiness we might after we have a little suffered in this World be faithfully glorified with him in the end for that which God beginneth he will accomplish and when he hath determined to call any one to him and to save him he never changeth his Counsel neither doth repent himself of the good that he will do unto him He us Unchangeable and so stedfast in his Purpose and Determination that that which he once Wills and Ordains he doth execute without being turned from it If then we feel in our selves that God hath given us the Grace to hear to believe and to love his Word and to fly from and reject all that which is contrary to it and to have an Affection to observe that which he commandeth us and a dislike if haply by infirmity or otherwise we chrnce to commit any thing against his Law Let us not doubt but we are regenerate elected and predestinated to Eternal Life and consequently out of danger of Death Let us then take away all fear and let us say with St. Paul What shall separate us from the Love and Charity of God What shall make us to think that he hath not a will to save us It shall not be Pain Affliction Hunger Persecution nor Adversity nor Death nor any Creature whatsoever shall make us to doubt that he doth not love us in the favour of Jesus Christ and that having chosen called and justified us in him but that finally he will also glorify us by him The Sacraments which Jesus Christ hath left us for the Confirmation of our Faith ought likewise to assure and strengthen us against the Fear of Death First Baptism by the which we are buried and die with Christ that we may rise again with him in the which we are washed from all our sins and clothed with his Innocency to the end that presenting our selves to the Father so adorned and covered with the Robe of our Elder Brother we may receive his Holy Blessing and be saved from the Deluge wherein all the Infidels perish as Noah was in his time by the Ark. Having then the Promises of God as we have said before and over and above his Sign and Seal by the which he has bound himself to render that Life to us which we havelost by our Sin wherefore then do we fear Death doe we think that he will revoke or that he will deny and disavow his own Sign and Seal Secondly The Lord's Supper where we take the Bread and the Wine for to be received into the Communion and Participation of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and by Consequent into the Fruits of them that is to have part in his Obedience in his Justice in his Satisfaction and Redemption in the Testament and new Alliance and generally in all the promises of God the which by his Death have been ratified It remaineth now to conclude our purpose and to infer upon the precedent things that if we fear Death it is for want of considering them or if we do consider them it is for want of believing them for there is no man so timerous being firmly perswaded of that which is spoken but will take away all fear of Death and will say with David I shall not die but always live to declare perpetually the Works of the Lord and praise him And who will not scorn at it with St. Paul and insult upon it saying O Death where is thy Victory Where is thy Sting Where is thy Strength Where is thy Terrour and Fear which Men had of thee Jesus Christ our Saviour perceiving the time of his Death draw near said that in short time he should pass from this World to go to his Father calling Death a Passage which should greatly comfort us We have almost all this opinion rooted in us and it is that which doth so Discourage us that it is a dangerous passage and uneasie Now for to take it from us and to stir up our Hearts he would needs pass it before us and as it were sound the depth to the end that we seeing that he did not stick at it should take Courage As also we see before and after him the Prophets Apostles Martyrs and other Holy Persons have done it who having passed it without any apprehension of Danger and being escaped safe and well do now rejoice with God that they are gotten to the Land and to the Port where they did aspire Shall we then be such Cowards shall we be so faint hearted and of such tender and effeminate Courage as to fear to go by a place so frequent and a way so great and beaten that Men go it as said some of the Ancients Blindfold Likewise we see that not one alone of those that trusted in God calling upon his aid that put themselves
not we when we shall come neer unto death that is to say to the passage beyond the which is our Country our House our city our Friends and Kinsfolks our Rest our Joy and our Pleasure The Child who during the time of his minority hath alwaies lived in fear and base servitude doth he not rejoyce when he seeth the day coming wherein he doth hope to have liberty and quietly to enjoy his goods So ought every faithful man seeing the day of his death draw near in the which he shall be put in possession of all the goods which God hath given him and the gift wholly resigned When a man that hath undertaken some long and tedious Journey having travelled many daies and being wearied on the way seeth the gate of the Town whether he goes doth he not rejoyce and as it were leap for joy Doth he not give God thanks going into the Town that it hath pleased him to conduct and bring him safely thither Now ever since we were born we have alwaies been in this world as strangers we have done nothing else but travel in this low place as in a great desert we have here wearied our selves then seeing death neer unto us that is to say the gate whereby we must enter into the Kindom of our God and the stairs whereby we must ascend unto his Holy Mountain have we not occasion to consolate our selves and to leap for joy considering that we are almost arrived at the place where we hope to rest perpetually If poor Adam being driven out of the earthly Paradise after he had tasted of the miseries whereinto he precipitates himself by his sin had been called thither again and set in his first Estate what occasion should he have had to rejoyce And we also who after so many and divers afflictions are called out by God by the means of death into no Earthly but Heavenly Paradise not Adams but Gods where there is no Sin where there is no Serpent where there is no forbidding in short where there is no fear nor shame When Noah after the flood and falling of the waters which had broken and torn all began to see the firm land he did rejoyce and for joy sacrificed to God for a thanksgiving altho' it was accursed and brought forth thornes and thistles as before What more great occasion shall we have when after the great flouds and desolations which we have in this world we shall begin to see and salute the Land of the living the blessed Land the land that was promised to the good the Land flowing with Milk and Honey and all sweet and savory things When Joseph after he had a long time been prisoner in great calamity suddenly without thinking thereon was raised to such dignity that he was next the King in Egypt making Laws and Ordinances for to dispose the State and Kingdom had not he matter of Consolation We have no less but much more when after our Prisons Captivities Servitudes Banishments and so many other afflictions which we suffer in this World we by death are in a moment lifted up from the dunghill into Heaven there to reign with Jesus Christ and to be partakers of his Glory of his Honour of his Faith of his Rest and of his Table Was it not a great joy to the Jews who had been captives three score years in Babylon amongst the Idolaters in great misery deprived of the use and benefit of spiritual things such as to assemble together to praise God and to hear his Word and to do other things appertaining to the office of a Christian weeping sometimes when they were by themselves and hanging up their Harps and Instruments through grief that they could not serve God according to their desires nor sing his praises among the strangers was it not a great joy then in these circumstances to have the Kings letters to return into their country build their Temple and there according to their ancient manner in all Liberty serve praise and worship their God and is it less to us when after a long and tedious captivity that we have endured in this world conversing with Idolaters Unbelievers Blasphemers despisers of God and of his Word we are delivered and have our pas-port to go into this celestial Jerusalem and into the holy Temple of our God there for to praise him perpetually and in beholding his goodness to glorifie and sanctifie his holy Name Death is also to be desired by reason that with out sorrows in also ends our mourning we in this world are alwaies sad heavy and melancholy In it we weep we sigh and alwaies wear the black weed But when by death we go forth of it to go into the House of our Bridegroom we put off and leave the mourning weed for to take our goodly and and sumptuous a biliments and everlasting joy shall be powred on those which have been the faithful servants of God and then shall be accomplished that which hath been promised them You that do weep in this world are happy for you shall laugh there shall be no more grief nor complaining nor tears for God at our coming into his Kingdom will wipe them away from our eyes we shall be comforted and we shall rest in Abrahams bosome as did Lazarus there shall be no other question but of singing and saying every one to our Souls Praise thou the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me praise his Holy Name So to the Harpe and other instruments Go to a wake that you may now be set up again in the estate to serve God and praise him for his goodness say to all the Church O! give thanks unto the Lord and call upon his Name O! let your songs be of him and praise him and let your talking be of all his wondrous works Say to all creatures bless the Lord in all his works praise and exalt his Name Bless God ye Angels of Heaven Sun Moon Fire Aire Water Earth Trees and Beasts A maid that hath long time been betrothed desires that the day of her Marriage were come and when it is come she rejoyceth seeing that she shall soon be brought to her Husbands House to dwell perpetually with him we ought also to comfort our selves when the time draws near that our Lord must come and we ought to attend him waking as did the five wise Virgins that so soon as he shall be come we may go in to the wedding with him and that the gate be not shut against us as it was against the five foolish because they were fallen asleep Another reason why death is to be wished for is that it causeth us to see our friend and Saviour Jesus Christ of whom we have as yet seen but the Picture The Prophets and Apostles have described him unto us so fair of such a comely Stature so Courteous so Vertuous so Loyal so Eloquent so Lovely so Noble so Rich so loving of Us that for our salvation he did
never took a Medicine of such great force nor which wrought better It is a great shame that these Pagans in their Ignorance and Infidelity seem to be better instructed and more vertuous then we are for we fear Death and flie from it as an evil thing and they hold and esteem it as an incomperable good Epaminondas at the hour of his Death perceiving his Friends about his Bed weeping comforted them saying Rejoice O my Friends for your Friend Epaminondas is going to begin to Live Is Death then an Evil which hath nothing else of that which we esteem Death but the Name and Reputation for indeed it is a Life Also is this life a good which hath but the Name of it for in effect it is a very Death Both the one and the other as saith Saint John Chrysostom is masked and have both false Faces Life which is so evil favoured hath the fair which maketh it to be feared and hated When it presents it self unto us so mask'd at the first it seems fearful but if we put up the mask we shall find it underneath so fair and Beautiful that presently we shall be inflamed with the Love of it Let us then take away this vain fear of Death let us believe that which is true that it is the greatest good that can happen unto us That which anciently Apollo answered to Pindar being questioned what thing he did esteem the most healthful and profitable to Man To die answered he It is said of Cleobis and Biton that God would recompence them for their piety and obedience and respect which they had born towards their Mother Now having given them leave to demand what they would they referred themselves to his Judgment as knowing best what is most profitable and necessary for us then our selves What came of it The same day they died Whereby did appear that there is nothing more profitable unto man than Death by the which we are led into a place of pleasure where we begin to live In the Old Time the Sepulchres were built in Gardens which was done not only for to bring into our minds our end in taking off our Pleasures and Delights and by that means to moderate them but also for to instruct us that Death is a Guide to Pleasure and Paradise and is as a passage for to enter into a pleasant Orchard it is the reason for the which at Athens when they buried the dead Bodies they turned their Faces towards the East and not towards the West to shew that in death our Life and Light begins Why do we put our Bodies in Sepulchres as in Chests if it be not to shew that they are not lost but layed up as precious Vessels of the Holy Ghost and that in time they shall be taken forth and shall be put into Light for the Decoration of the House of their Lord. These things considered let us take away all fear and apprehension of Death let us rejoice and sing as do the Swans when they are near their Death Let us say with David Lord I have been glad when it hath been said unto me Go to let us go into the House of our Lord. It remains now before we end this present Treatise to shew how we should behave our selves at the death of our Friends and how to mittigate the Sorrows which we conceive for them which to do we must consider that which followeth First the unavoidable necessity of all Men the which cannot be remedied neither by Counsel nor any other means David having a regard thereunto did comfort himself after the death of his little Child for whom he had we pt and prayed so much during his Sickness when there was yet some hope to impetrate of God by humble Prayers that he would restore him to Health but when he saw that it was too late that all Tears were now vain and unprofitable he left his Mourning and began to rejoice Jesus Christ saith that every day hath Afflictions enough o it self to trouble us without heaping on those of others either of those that are gone renuing it by the remembrance of them or of those which are to come anticipating by Fear and Cunjecture This is an Instruction most necessary and which we ought all to take for the rest and tranquility of our Minds Secondly we must consider when our Friends die that it is the Will of God which doth nor ordaineth nothing but for the good of his Children as saith St. Paul to those that are loved of God all things succeed and turn to their Profit If we do not believe that we are Unbelievers if we believe it we ought not to grieve for any thing that befals us for all is profitable to us Now there is no great reason that we should hide us from our Profit The Soveraign Wisdom of God is the Cause that there is nothing better done than that which he doth and his Goodness that there is nothing better If there be nothing better nor better done than that which he ordaineth and disposeth and he disposeth of us and of our Affairs and generally of all that which happeneth unto us why do we sorrow why do we desire any thing else For we cannot have any thing that is better why do we complain For all is well and cannot be better done We must thirdly think that to dye is a thing general and common to all We pass and fly away as doth the water of a Brook and it is an act and stature of our God that we must dye all if then that happen unto us which is common to all is it not a great Folly and Pride in us to desire to be exempt from the common condition and to wish for a Particular What are we the vvorse that our Friends are Dead so do those of our Neighbours die Menander Writing to a Friend of his to comfort him alleadged this reason unto him Thou shouldst have saith he just occasion to grieve if thy fortune and destiny were worse than other Mens but if it be alike why dost thou complain There are more that if we would diligently consider and make an entire comparison between us and others we should find there are an iufinite many worse fortuned than we are And that is true which Anaxagoras said as reporteth Valerius That if it were possible to assemble all the Miseries of the World on a heap and afterwards to part them by equal Portions there is not he but would rather chuse his own than his part of the whole Heap Seeing that we are not alone losing our Friends and that if we will look into it we shall find that there are enough more ill at Ease than we Let us content our selves that so it pleaseth God and let us not desire Immortal Friends where we see those of others to be but Mortal Again let us think that it is a natural thing to die as it is for winter to be cold and summer hot Our bodies
saith St. Paul are mortal then let us not marvel if in winter there be rain frost and snow for the season brings it Let us not marvel that the night follows the day and that man at night after his labour goeth to sleep for all that is natural Also ought not we for the the same reason to be astonish'd when a man dyety no more saith St. Basil then when he is born and commeth into the world for the one and the other is Ordinary And want of considering it is cause oftentimes that at the death of our Friend we are so amazed as if it were a thing prodigious and not accustomed When news was brought to Anaxagoras that his son was dead it moved him not at all only he said that it was not a new and unusual thing that a mortal man should die and that when he begot him he did not beget him immortal What made him so constant but that before hand he had foreseen and often considered that it ought so to come to pass being a natural thing Moreover we must consider than death is a tribute which we owe and are bound to pay unto nature Thou art dust and earth and to earth thou shalt return saith God speaking to man after he had sinned Then when one of our Friends dieth why are we discontented Because he hath quitted himself and payed what he ought If he had payed his King the tribute and ordinary Tax we would approve of that as most right and an obedience and duty towards his Prince and if he hath done as much to nature what reason is there to grieve at it Again that in it God heareth us for we ask of God that his Kingdom come and that his will be done what do we jest with God asking him that which we would not have and fear to obtain and do vex our selves and murmur instead of giving him thanks when he hath granted our requests We shew well that we think little on the prayers which we make for if we thought upon them either we would not pray so or else in praying so if God grant our request we would not be sory for it Again that when our Friends die we lose them not for our Lord whose they are both before and after death is not the God of the dead but of the living Cirus speaking to his friends before his death to comfort them said Do not think when I shall be dead that I am lost or shall come to nothing When we sow a land the grains of corn are not lost they rot therein but it is the better to fructifie so are our bodies in the earth for to revive one day and to rise again in incorruption immortality and vertue When also a man goeth along and tedious journey do we think him lost When any one of our friends is at the Court with his Prince who will not suffer him to depart out of his Company raised to honour and provided of great offices are we sorry for it Why then are we sorry for a Friend whom we know assuredly to be in the House of God in honour and credit and so well at ease that he would not change for all the felicity of this world Again that it is a very unhonest and unseemly thing in a faithful man to grieve so immoderately and as if he were desperate A Christian ought to have a strength and courage which should be invincible against all adversities and even against the gates of Hell He should be like a building grounded upon a firm Rock that may hold firm against all the stormes waves and winds and all the inconveniences wherewith he may be assayled he must not be soft and yield presently to Adversity melting in Tears and therein drowning as David said his Bed The Lucians in time past had a Law by the which it was ordained that whosoever would weep for the Death of his Friend should put on Womens Cloaths to shew that it is more answering to a cowardly and esseminate Heat than to manly Courage And as it happens in Mens Bodies that when they are tender and delicate they cannot endure the cold in Winter nor yet the heat in Summer so may we judge of such Courages that if they cannot bear Adversity without Impatience no more can they prosperity without Insolency We must finally consider that by the Tears and Complaints which we use at death of our Friends we do not remedy our selves no more than doth the sick Man his Disease by his Sighs but rather doth encrease his Misery And we may say that even as by common Experience and the reports of Physicians we see in Cholerick Folks that the more they anger themselves their Rage and Choler doth augment also in the mournful and heavy People that continuing in their Tears and Lamentations their Sorrow doth grow and strengthen So said an ancient Philosopher to Arcinoe to comfort her If said he thou lovest Tears they will love thee reciprocally and as Friends will always frequent and accompany thee What then doth this great Mourning profit us if not to make us more miserable I but will some say in excusing themselves it is a natural thing to weep at such an accident I agree to it neither will I condemn a moderate Sorrow As I certain Man saw an ancient Philosopher weeping for the Death of his Son and did reprove his inconstaney he answered him very well saying Good Friend suffer me to be a Man We must not be like Barbarians or savage Beasts without Humanity without Affection without Pity nor Feeling I wish saith Pinder not to be Sick but if I am I would not be without feeling for it is an evil sign when in our Sickness we are dull and feel nothing Then when in our Mourning we shall keep the mean and shall avoid the two Extreams which St. Basil doth condemn as vitious which is that we be not Stoiks that is to say without affection nor soft on the other side to suffer our selves to be won and overcome with sorrow I do approve that if we shew our selves Men in Weeping let us also shew that we are Christians furnished with Hope in correcting and moderating our Sorrows Others say I loved them so dearly If thou lovedst him so dearly as thou sayest shew it and rejoice at his happiness and rest I rather believe that which causeth in us this great Mourning is the love which we have of our selves which is the cause that we grieve at the loss of our Friends not for the respect which we have to them but to our selves being discontens to be deprived of the Pleasure and Consolations which they gave us Which Jesus Christ said unto his Disciples Seeing that they grieved that he had told them that in short time he should be put to Death It is not for love of me that you are so heavy for if you loved me you would be glad for as much as it is my good or
happiness to die Others say he was so honest a Man therefore is it that God took him as he did Enock for fear lest by the Malice and Corruption of this Age he should change When the Fruit is ripe must it not be gathered for fear lest it should rot on the Tree Others say be died in the prime of his Age by so much the happier is he for as said Anacharsis That Ship is happiest which arriveth first at the Port. Moreover there is no certain time determined for all Men to die But as we see in Fruit time some are gathered sooner than the others so is it amongst Men. There are some also that say we must honour the Dead by mourning for them falling into the superstition of the Jews who holding his opinion did hire certain Singers and Musitians to sing pitiful and funeral Songs for the Death of their Friends which Jesus Christ did reprove in the House of the Prince of the Synagogue and not without cause for it is not good in praise o a Body to mourn for it Complaints and Tears are rather signs of Misery than any thing else We do not now weep for the holy Martyrs which yet we should do if in Tears there did consist any Honour but we honour them by a remembrance of them with blessing and thanksgiving and by Pain and Study we endeavour to follow them If likewise we have a Friend whom we will honour after his Death it must not be with Tears and Lamentations but rather by an honourable mansion which we are to make of him and of his Vertues and by a desire which we have to imitate and follow his good and laudable course of Life It is time to conclude this present Treatise and to resolve on the precedent Reasons that we must neither fear nor fly Death but rather love and desire it more than Life and prefer the day of our Death before the day of our Birth for by our Birth we come to Pain and Affliction and dying we go to God and to perpetual rest Let us then strictly examine them and judge of them that we may take away the fear of the one and the excessive love of the other God through his holy Spirit give us the Grace to do it So be it A Clear Declaration Of the RESURRECTION Of the DEAD FOrasmuch as in all times there have been some who have mocked at the Resurrection and have utterly denied it Mat. 12. Acts 17. 1 Cor. 15. It is not without good Cause that the Apostle St. Paul doth so carefully teach us that the Dead shall rise again for even as the Knowledge doth bring unto us a Soveraign Joy and Consolation and doth give us a Will and Affection to follow unto the end JESUS CHRIST our Head and Spouse to be Crowned with him with that Eternal Beatitude which God hath prepared for his Children Mat. 25. So also those that are not assured of the Resurrection which is the Foundation of our Religion are less affectionate to follow the Lord and to give themselves to Piety and Justice And we must not doubt but the wicked who abandon themselves to all impiety against God and who without remorse of Conscience do exercise all sorts of Wickedness against their Neighbours they do it so much the more freely as to perswade themselves that if they escape the Judgment and Punishment of Men they shall hear nothing of it after this Life For seeing that to avoid only the vengeance of the Magistrate in this World they hide as much as they can their iniquities and give such good Colours to their mis-deeds as possibly they can that they may not be convicted Wicked how much more do you think they would be bridled from doing Evil if they were perswaded that although their Bodies die yet their Souls shall remain Immortal and shall endure the Judgment of God which it hath deserved and that one day their Bodies shall rise again that both Body and Soul may be Eternally tormented in Hell Heb. 10. by the Judgement of God so horrible and fearful Heb. 10. whereupon we may see how necessary it is to know that the Dead shall rise again this Doctrine being the principal upholder of Christian Religion of which if a Man be not altogether perswaded all is nothing And it is impossible to persevere amongst so many Difficulties and Afflictions which are daily present at the serving of the Lord For if the hope of the Resurrection were not we should be the most miserable of the Earth Cor. 15. seeing that in this World the Faithful are ordinarily more afflicted than the Infidels but our Consolation is the Promise of Jesus Christ that although the World shall rejoice for a time and that we shall weep Joh. 16. Rom. 8. Psal 37. and 73. the time will come that our Head will visit us and rejoice our Hearts with a Joy that shall never be taken from us Now for to understand this Article of Faith we must well consider these three Points First we must know whether the Soul now dieth with the Body or no. Secondly Whether the Body returns so to the Earth that it cannot â—ise again Thirdly If it doth rise who is â—t doth raise it and in what estate it shall be when risen The first Point AS for the first Part. The Lord for to declare unto us the Immortality of Souls compares Death â—o the Sleep of Man and saith that those that are dead sleep assuring us that even so as when the Body doth sleep the Soul doth not sleep as appears by so many Dreams which Men have that also although the Body shall be put into the Sepulcher as in a place of Sleep nevertheless the Immortal Soul shall be gathered and assembled in its place from whence it shall come again at the day of Judgment to put on her Body that therein she may enjoy the happy Life or suffer Eternal Punishment Rom. 2. Mat. 25. Luk. 8. The Apostle speaking of the Daughter of Icairus whom the Lord did raise again saith That the Spirit did return into her shewing that it was not dead like the Body but only that she was gone to the Place from the which by the Commandment of Jesus Christ she came again to re-enter into her Body as also that of Lazarus of Bethleem Joh. 11. For ever so as the Body doth return to the Earth from whence it was taken so the Spirit doth return to God who gave it The same Evangelist declares that the Soul of Lazarus lives in Heaven and that of the evil Rich Man in Hell Luc. 16. And the Lord dying to shew that the Soul was not subject to Death as the Body did recommend his Soul to his Father Luk. 22. Act. 7. Saint Steven the first Martyr recommended his to Christ Saint Paul desired to be dissolved and to be with Jesus Phil. 1. knowing that after his Soul should be delivered out of the Prison of his Body it should go
in the 26. Chap. speaking of the Elect saith unto the Lord with Faith Thy dead shall live and rise again with my Body Awake and rejoice ye Inhabitants of the dust for thy dew is as the dew of the Fields and the Earth shall cast forth the dead The Lord willing to assure his People Israel that delivering them from the Captivity of Babylon he would bring them back into the Land which he had given them he said unto them in a Vision by the Prophet Ezek. 37. that as certain as the dead shall rise so certainly will he deliver them from the Captivity of the Babylonians for to set them in Peace in their own Land Danie saith that those that sleep in the dust shall wake some to Eternal Life and others to perpetual shame and Infamy and those which have been wise shall shine as the Brightness of the Firmament and those which do perswade Man to Righteousness shall be as Stars for ever and ever Dan. 12. Jesus Christ shews the Saduces that the dead shall rise again because that God is their God Mat. 28. In St. John Chap. 6. he saith that the will of his Father who sent him is that he shall lose nothing of all that he hath given him but that he shall raise it up at the larter day The Apostle declares that Christ is risen again for our Justification Then he saith that even as we die in Adam so we shall rise again and shall be quickened in Christ Rom. 4.5.6 1 Cor. 15. For seeing that he who is the Life when he was put into the Tomb thereby made many to rise again by much more reason now being risen again and glorified will he raise us again John 19. Psal 36. Mat. 27. In like manner he declares That he that believes Jesus is dead and risen again of which we have the surest Testimonies ought by the same parity of Reason to believe that God will bring from the Grave those that sleep in Jesus who shall from thence forth ever live with the Lord wherefore says St. Paul comfort one another with these Words that is let this be your Consolation in the midst of all your Trials Afflictions and Troubles upon Earth that they cannor last long but must end with your Life when you shall descend into the Grave where you shall not long remain but the same Power that raised your Blessed Redeemer from thence shall have the same effect on you and likewise raise you from the Dead and you shall be joined with Christ your Head and live with him in everlasting Glory this is the very sum of our Christian Profession and the highest point of our Faith All humane wisdom which is folly before God Mat. 24.25 cannot perswade themselves that the bodies which are returned into dust can rise again 1 Cor. 15. Phil. 7. nor those which have been burned whereof the ashes have been dispersed with the winds 2 Cor. 5. Acts 2.4 nor those which have been devoured by birds and by beasts and digested and reduced to dung 1 Thess 1. nor those which have perished in the waters which have been food for fishes 1 Pet. 1. 1 Cor. 1. But the Lord by that which he had done before plainly sheweth that hereafter it shall be very easie for him to do what he will with our bodies for seeing he hath made all things of nothing can he not make that to return to life which hath already been Gen. 1. Psal 33. Gen. 1. And as he made man first of the Earth can he not as well make him to rise again from it Gen. 1. in the beginning the Earth was so obedient unto him that when he commanded it to bring forth the bud of the herbs that beareth seed and the fructifying tree and the living creature beasts worms c. It of it self immediately brings forth that which before had never been how much more easily by the commandment of God may it restore many which have already been and shall be returned into it John 11. We see that although that Lazarus of Bethania had already been three days in the Earth and nevertheless when the Lord commanded him to come out of the Earth presently it was done He himself also rose again from the Earth the third day for to assure us that he will raise us again Mat. 28. Apoc. 1. for as death could not overcome Jesus Christ but that he is risen so shall it not be able to hinder his members from rising again because that he hath as much power over the dead as over the living Rom. 14. Gal. 1. 1 Thess 1.4 If God hath raised the head it followeth that he will also raise the body which we are if we believe When we consider that he did hinder the so hot burning furnace from doing any hurt to Sidrake Misake and Abednego Eph. 4. Dan. 3. we shall not find it an impossible thing to God to make them rise again which have been buried that they may be reunited unto their Souls And he that shut the Lyons Jaws because they should do no harm to Daniel Dan. 6. shall be able to raise those again which have been devoured And he commanded the fish to cast up Jonas Jon. 2. also can be easily cause that the Sea shall obey him when he shall command it to cast up his dead In brief the faithful cannot doubt of his Resurrection knowing that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor powers nor things present Rom. 8. nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature can separate him from the love which God beareth in him in Jesus Christ our Lord Revel 20. For also the Sea must cast up those dead bodies which are in it and death and the Grave those which are in them for as much as the Lord hath the keys of the Grave and of death having power over them Rev. 1. Moreover God cannot be true nor truly wise nor Almighty nor Just if he doth not raise the dead and by consequence cannot be God And so who denyeth the Resurrection denyeth also that there is a God for seeing by his Word he promiseth to raise up the dead if he do it not he is not true And seeing that he declares that he will have it if he doth it not it follows that it is for want of knowledge and of power and so shall neither be truly wise nor Almighty Also he shall not be just if he doth not render to every one that which he promiseth him for the Author to the Hebrews saying that God is saith also that he is a rewarder of those that seek him Heb. 11. Mat. 10. Marc. 8. Luc. 9 Now in this world the children of God have nothing but afflictions every day being set out for a shew as men condemned to death and being made a spectacle to the world to the Angels and to men Cor. 4. John 16. As our Saviour also saith to his disciples You shall weep and lament
and the world shall rejoyce 2 Tim. 3. And the Apostle declares that whosoever will live holy in Christ he shall endure affliction Act. 5.20 21. We see that the Apostles and those which received their doctrine have almost always been in continual afflictions Col. 1. Heb. 10.11 In our time the afflictions of the faithful have been notorious that there is none so simple but may see them Mat. 6. Marc. 14. 1 Cor. 10 11. 1 Thes 1.3 On the contrary part the wicked instead of receiving punishment in this world are ordinarily better at their ease than the faithful and do flourish like the bay Tree as saith the Prophet Psal 37. Wherefore there must necessarily be another place where the good shall be recompenced with joy and the wicked with sorrow otherwise God should not be just and Christ should have dyed in vain But some one will say God doth accomplish his promises upon the souls of the just and his threatnings upon those of the unjust and by that means God shall not cease to be just although he should not raise again the bodies of men With this we must consider that if it be so that a free retribution is done to the soul as according to the promise of God it ought to be done to the just and punishment is justly inflicted upon the soul of the reprobate to the end that the justice of God may be safe so must it also of necessity be that the bodies be recompenced some with honour others with disdain to the end that God may remain just for ever For even as the Soul of man renued by the holy Ghost giveth it self to serve God so doth the body when it ceaseth from evil doing and being even ready to be martyr'd for professing the Lord serving to Justice and Holiness Rev. 12. For Example we have the Prophets Rom. 6. Act. 7. St Stephen the Apostles and so many Martyrs and true Servants of God whose bodies have greatly given themselves to serve God Rev. 6.8 Also in like manner as the spirit of the wicked doth imploy it self but only to offend God likewise they employ their bodies to serve to filthiness and iniquity and to do all evil Rom. 6.7 therefore just it is that the bodies of the Saints which served God and of the wicked which disobeyed God should both be raised by him to receive according to what they have done for or against him Furthermore they who deny the Resurrection of the body do likewise make the incarnation and bodily passion of Jesus Christ unprofitable For if the body do not rise again what needed he to take humane nature upon him and to suffer in it to deliver our bodies from the everlasting curse Seeing that if it were so that the bodies being dead should so return to the Earth that they should have no more being and so could neither enjoy happiness nor suffer pains and sorrows had it not been enough that he had only suffered his soul being heavy to death for to deliver the Souls from Hell Marc. 14. Whosoever then denies the re-establishment of bodies thro' ignorance makes the humanity of Christ unprofitable and accuseth God the Father of cruelty as if he had taken pleasure to see his well beloved Son so cruelly entreated without having for his part deserved it and without that it should serve to the Elect he maketh him also for his part in blaspheming a Lyer with his Father because he says that he will raise his at the last day In like manner doth he accuse the holy Ghost of vanity which by the mouth of the Prophets hath prophesied and foretold the Resurrection of the Dead Also he disanulleth Christian Religion for if the dead do not rise again Christ also is not risen and so the preaching of the Apostles should be false and we should be abused to believe their doctrine and those which are dead in Christ should be cast away Cor. 15. The Lord fitting himself to our capacity as the mother to the child teacheth us the Coelestial things by the comparison of the things Terrestrial to the end we comprehend that which otherwise is incomprehensible unto us And touching the matter which we have now in hand the Prophet Esay declares unto us Esai 19. that even as in Winter the grass of the field seems to be dead and in the spring after it hath felt the dew it springs and waxeth green again so likewise our bodies being dead shall rise again when at the latter day they shall feel the dew of the grace of God hearing the voice of the Son of man The Apostle saith Mat. 24. that as the seed must die before it be quickned 1 Thess John 5. and then it riseth by vertue of the sap which it hath had in the Earth in greater glory then it was sown 1 Cor. 15. so likewise all men must die that they may rise again the elect in greater glory then they were set upon the Earth by the vertue of the eternal Spirit of Jesus in whom they died Rom. 1. Thess 4. the probate in greater dishonour then they were before by the vertue of the immortal spirit of Satan in whom they are departed For seeing the Lord doth excellently unfold his power towards the insensible creatures we ought not to doubt but he hath at the least as much will to shew his power in making them to rise again for whom he died to the end to crown them with glory and his enemies to be charged with shame and infamy seeing they have so much dishonoured him When a nut or the kernel of a Pear or Apple is rotted in the ground God causeth it to rise again to a great tree for to bear much more fruit being risen again then it did before and a grane of Wheat being put into the ground and dying brings forth much fruit John 12. do we think that the Lord hath not as great power to raise up men as he hath to raise these things so small and as it were of no value Shall it not be easie for him to raise us again as it hath been easie to him to draw us forth of the matrix of the mother alive where before we were born we were as it were in a Sepulchre If the Prophets and Apostles in the name of God have raised up the dead Psal 18 shall it be impossible to the Lord by his power to raise them 2 King 4. Acts 9. Let us assure our selves that nothing can separate the body and soul of the faithful from the love which God beareth them neither hinder but that he shall make the wicked both in body and soul to be his foot-stool Now by reason that the Apostle saith John 6. that the body which is sown is not that which riseth again Heb. 10. 1 Cor. 15. there are some that will infer thereupon that at the Resurrection our souls shall not return into those bodies which now we have but into other bodies which the Lord
is endued with understanding with reason and with judgment to know the soveraign good which is God to love him to adhere and unite our selves unto him that we may have part of his immortality and happiness Now we forsake and contemn this great good for to grovel upon the earth and to go down into the pit of carnal desires applying the vigour of our understanding and judgment to things that are not worth the pains that we employ in them We bury our selves quick of heavenly we become earthly and of men created for eternal life we endeavour as much as in us lieth to set our selves in the rank of brute Beasts God doth not forsake us nevertheless although that our ingratitude hath well deserved it but calls us unto him by his word presents unto us infinite testimonies of his grace continues it daily he supports exhorts counsels chides and fatherly chastiseth us Nevertheless we continue blind deaf and negligent despising his goodness or use it not as we should or indeed abusing it nay which is worse we love vain and transitory things better and have our minds too much fixed and setled upon them God stretcheth forth his hand to conduct us we draw back ours and fly when he calleth us If he put us into the way of salvation we grudge and repine for the world we look behind us deferring and remitting our amendment till to morrow Let us awake then let us not always stick in the mire let us strengthen our selves in the vertue of him that supports and succours us let us a little undertake to despise corruptible things and to desire those that are truly good and everlasting When God calleth us let us hearken if he guids us let us follow him that we may come to his house let us receive his good things and himself too for he gives himself unto us in the person of his Son He shews us the means to get to Heaven let us then desire of him to give us the will and courage by faith repentance charity and hope to aim thither and that he would maintain his grace in us until the end to sigh in this mortal life and to wait through the assurance of his mercy for our departure out of this world and our last day which shall be the beginning of our true life Prayers and Meditations HOW great are the illusions and impostures of the enemy of our salvation He sheweth us afar off things that are ridiculous and vain and perswades us that it is all good and happiness he scares us with things that we ought not to fear and makes us to fly from those things which we ought to imbrace He calleth inticeth and flattereth us by the means of our desires if that will not serve he roars and storms and endeavours to astonish us within and without O eternal Light and Verity O Lord and merciful Father disperse those clouds of ignoranee and error illuminate our understanding and do not suffer us to come near to that which thou hast commanded us to flie from and which is hurtful and pernicious unto us let us not desire but what is truly to be desired to wit thy self who art the spring-head of all goodness of our life and of eternal happiness All flesh is grass and the glory of the man is like the flower of the field cause then that we may seek for our firmness and contentment in the grace which thy Son hath brought us let our life lye hid in him so that at the day of the separation of our souls from our bodies we may find it holy in Heaven waiting with assured rest and joy the happy Resurrection of this flesh in which all corruption infirmity and ignominy being abolished and death being swallowed up of victory we shall live eternally with thee in an incomprehensible happiness in thee by the which thou shall be glorified Maintain then thy Children O Lord in this faith and hope finishing thy work in us until they be altogether with thee for to enjoy the inheritance and the glory which thine only Son hath by his Merit purchased for them Amen Prayer OLord Jesus Christ Creator and Redeemer of Mankind who hast said I am the way the Truth and the Life I do bessech thee by this unspeakable Charity which thou hast shewed in yielding thy self to Death for us that I may never stray any jot from the who art the way nor that I doubt of thy Promises seeing thou art the Truth and dost accomplish that which thou promisest Cause that I may only take pleasure in thee who art the Eternal Life beyond the which there is nothing to be desired neither in Heaven nor Earth Thou hast taught us the true and only way to Salvation because we should not abide erring like stray'd Sheep in the lost ways of this World shewing us clearly that which we ought to believe to do to hope and wherein we ought to yield and settle our selves It is thou that hast given us to understand how cursed we are in Adam and that there is no way to escape from this Perdition in the which we are plunged but by Faith in thee Thou art that true Light which dost appear to those that walk in the desert of this Life and who having drawn us out of the darkness of the spiritual Egypt hast driven away the darkness of our Understanding and dost enlighten us to the end we may tend towards the promised Inheritance which is the Life Everlasting into the which the Unbelievers does not enter but those that have assuredly relied upon thy holy Promises O what a Goodness is it that thou hast vouchsafed to descend from thy Fathers-Bosom and from the Everlasting Throne to the Earth to put on our poor Nature of Master to become Servant to the end that by thy Doctrine thou mightest do away the darkness of our Ignorance to guide our feet into the way of Peace and to make plain the way of Salvation unto us which if we follow we cannot stray nor wax weary seeing that thy Grace and Power do accompany us therein all the days of our Life Moreover by thy Spirit thou dost strengthen us in it and double our Courage Thy word is Bread which nourisheth us therein thy promise is the staff which upholds us Thou thy self by thy secret and incomprehensible vertue dost bear and maintain us in it in an admirable manner to the end that both in fair and foul weather we may walk with all Alacrity unto thee And as in preserving us thou hinderest that we do not fall into the snares of Satan and the World also seeing thou art the Truth thou takest away all doubts scruples and mistrusts which may trouble and let us or turn us during our course thou causest us to behold the supernal Vocation the misery and vanity of the World the frailty of this present Life the Gate of Death and the most happy Life which is beyond that And as thou art