a Christian in this case concerning Christ Whom have I in death but thee and there is none in life I desire in comparison of thee The comfort of life is in the knowledge and the profit of death is in the fruition of Christ if we be without Christ it is hard to say whether is better to live or die the truth is both are hurtful whilst life will prove an increase of sinne and death sends to torment but if Christ be ours both will be to our advantage according to that of the Apostle All things are yours whether life or death things present or things to come all are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods 2. But because all Greek copies divide the verse into clauses and as Zanchy well observeth it is not safe to recede from the plain reading of the Text unless necessity compell whereas here the verse being read according to the Originall is more full and no lesse true I shall adhere to our last as the best Translation and so much the rather because in this construction it holds well in connexion both with what praecedeth and followeth Therefore his expectation was that Christ should be magnified and he not ashamed whether he did live or die because if he lived it should be Christ if he died it should be gain and so no cause in either of shame to himself but from both there would accrue honour to Christ Again therefore he did not wot what to choose whether life or death because to him on the one hand to live was Christ and on the other to die was gain To look upon the words in themselves you have in them some things supposed and some things proposed The things supposed are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as a presence of life so a certainty of death The things proposed are the dedication of his life to Christ and the advantage of death to himself Of the former more briefly Of the later more largely 1. To live to die are the things supposed the one common to all others with S. Paul the other common to S. Paul with all others First S. Paul lived so doe all men so doe all animals what our Apostle saith of bodies I may of life There is a naturall body and there is a spirituall body so there is a naturall and there is a spirituall life this is an hidden but that a manifest life this an inclosure but that a common it is common to Heathen with Christians to beasts with men the little ant the crawling worms have a share in life as well as we so that these may say as well as S. Paul To me to live why should we be so much in love with or dote upon this life which we have no more interest in than the meanest living creature indeed it is a mercy for which we ought to be thankfull it is a talent which we are to improve but it is no priviledge wherein we should glory whereof we should boast or wherewith we should be too much affected Secondly As S. Paul lived so he made account of dying Others live as well as he and he must die as well as others The {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is as certain as the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as sure as we live we must die man is no lesse subject to perishing than the beast yea the good man hath no more exemption than the bad for so the Prophet Esay asserts The righteous perisheth Indeed our Apostle elsewhere calls righteousness a breast-plate but it is not death-proof and though it delivereth in yet not from death It is true death is the wages of sin but still it is here the lot of a Saint perfect innocency should not have known mortality but grace in the best is mixed with that sinne which bringeth death Christ I grant hath taken away death but so as he hath taken away sin for the present onely in part not fully sin is taken away ne praesit death ne obsit the power and guilt of the one the sting and venome of the other but neither ne sit not the beeing of either And indeed it is not without manifold reason that Divine Providence hath so ordered it 1. That the members may be conformable to their head we may follow Christ the same way of death in which he hath gone before us to glory 2. That by the pulling down of the wall the mosse may be fully-plucked out and by the dissolution of the body its infirmity and frailty wholly purged away 3. That the power of God may appear the more glorious in raising us up after death hath layd us in the grave and the grave turned us into dust 4. Finally That the strength of our faith might appear the more in believing we shall live though we die For these Reasons the wise God hath appointed his own children to walk through the valley of the shadow of death To carry it yet one step further and that in a few words it is no other than S. Paul who was not onely a Christian but an Apostle who taketh it for granted that he must die neither the word nor the work of righteousness can secure from death Prophets Apostles Ministers as well as others are mortall and must die Indeed they are according to our Saviours metaphor the lights of the world but such as after a while may be blown out by a violent however must go out by a naturall death Clouds they are from whom the rain of instruction falls upon the people but at length they themselves vanish away Finally Angels they are in respect of their Office but still they are Men in regard of their nature and must die like men S. Paul himself hence supposeth it as a thing which sooner or later would befall him And so I have given a dispatch to the first passe we on to the Next and principall part of the Text the things that are proposed concerning the things supposed which accordingly are two namely Christ the scope of the one and Gaine the attendant on the other which when I have viewed severally I shall look upon them joyntly and so put a period to my discourse on this Scripture To me to live is Christ is the first Propsition to be discussed It is that which according to that twofold life a Christian leads namely spirituall and temporall is capable of a threefold interpretation 1. Many of the Fathers understand this to live in a spirituall sense and so this phrase To me to live is Christ is made Synonimous with that of this very Apostle elsewhere Christ liveth in me To this purpose is that Paraphrase of devout Anselme upon this Text That by which I live is Christ I live not the old but the new man And of eloquent Chrysostome I live not a common life but
mine Enemy but he who liveth to Christ may say to it as David of Ahimaaz It cometh with good tidings And now my brethren would you on the one hand see the reason why you are so fearfull of death it is because your consciences accuse you that you have not lived to Christ suae quisque conscientia vulnus accuset non mortis acerbitatem we may thank our owne guilty consciences for our feares of death It was not without reason that St. Paul saith the sting of death is sin since death is onely venemous and deadly to them who live in sinne On the other hand would you see the way to a joyfull end would you have comfort in and gaine after death Oh let it be your study to live to Christ It is our Saviours counsell to his Disciples Take no thought for your life let me alter it a little take no thought for your death but for your life let your care be to advance Christ in your lives and it will be his care to confer the gaine of glory and immortality upon you at your death And thus I have finished the Text Time and your expectation hasten me to the sad occasion of this sorrowfull assembly The early and unexpected death of this hopefull servant of Christ in the worke of the Gospel Master Adam Pemberton What S. Paul said concerning Timothy I need not doubt to say of him that from a child he hath known the holy Scriptures being the Son of such a Father who strove to instill into his tender yeares both Religion and Learning It pleased God to bestow upon him many choice naturall endowments of an Acute wit a Ready expression and a good memory He wanted not acquired abilities in the knowledge of Tongues Arts those handmaids of Divinity which none contemne but the ignorant who because they cannot be like others would have others like them and so whilst darknesse covers the Hemisphere they may be thought to have as good eyes as any Besides these naturall and acquired parts I trust and what ever any proudly undertake Man can goe farther he had some measure of supernaturall and infused graces and experienced those saving operations of the blessed spirit on his owne heart Being thus competently nay farre more excellently then many of his yeares furnished for the work of the Ministry he entred into holy Orders and that by the right door preferring the beaten track of venerable Antiquity before the untroden by-path of Novelty And now having undertaken this sacred employment how studious and sedulous frequent and diligent he was in performing it I doubt not but a great part here present can attest Commonly twice this last halfe yeare thrice nay many times oftner within the compass of a week he dispensed the mysteries of the Gospel to the people so that I may truly say he exhausted himselfe his strength his health in this worke as it is reported of Archimedes is quibus obtinuit famam amisit vitam He lost his life by those studies which got him credit So I may truly affirme of him by labouring to gaine Soules to Christ he impaired the health of his owne body and in some sence accelerated his end As thus he did the worke of the Lord laboriously so in some measure sucessefully me thinkes I read in the eyes of many here present their deep sorrow for his losse and that chiefly upon this account the great good and comfort their Souls found in and by his labours yea it pleased God to give him as it were a seale of his Ministry at his last Sermon after which one that had been seduced by the errors of the times came to him humbly acknowledging his own folly heartily blessing God for his instructions and earnestly desiring confirmation by private conference with him And truly I cannot but take notice of Gods great mercy to himselfe in this regard that though he was but a tender plant and so the more apt to be bended any way yea though in this innovating age the ready way to preferment of which young men are usually Ambitious he to turn Novelist or in plaine termes Schismatick yet not consulting with flesh and blood he stood firme in the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints chose rather to side with suffering Truth then prospering Error He owned the Church of England and that as before this last deformed Reformation to be his Mother zealously preaching her Doctrine asserting her Discipline and bemoaning her sorrowes which caused him not many dayes before his death to take up Davids language Redeem Israel oh God out of all his troubles Nor did he onely pity her sufferings and pray for her deliverance but to the utmost of his power he was ready to help her children his fellow brethren and labourers in the Gospel who for her sake are reduced to extream necessity In this respect what St. Hierome said of Nepotian I may of him Caecorum baculus esurientium cibus spes miserorum Solamen lugentium fuit he was a staffe to the blind food to the hungry an Anchor of the afflicted and a comfort of the mourners And now whilst this young Tree was thus growing up in grace and knowledge in favour with God and Man so that they who sate under the shadow of his Ministry promised to themselves much comfort and contentment Alas who can mention it without teares in the spring of the yeare I and of his age the winde of a violent disease blasted him and death removeth him hence to be transplanted in the celestiall Paradice Having spent his life in the Lords worke he ended it on the last Lords day and on that day of rest yet withall of labour to a Minister he rested from his labours So that quem haeredem putavimus funus tenemus to use St. Hieromes phrase we are forced to bemoane his fall with teares who being Elder hoped to have left him a remaining Pillar in the Church of God Some few houres before his dissolution a Reverend Doctor of Divinity his and my very good friend coming to visit him and putting him upon the act of Resignation in yeilding up himself to Gods dispose his answer was That if he might doe God any further service in his Church he was willing to live but if not he was content to submit to Gods will saying in the words of my Text which since he made use of I made choice of To me to live is Christ and to dye is gaine and truly by what you have already heard there is reason to believe that he practised the former and hope that he now experienceth the latter Indeed his death in respect of us was a losse a great losse and that every way His Father hath lost the staffe of his age an observant Child his Wife an affectionate Husband and his Children poor babes whose sorrow is yet to come a carefull Father The Church hath lost an obedient Son
am not unthankfull He conferreth on me grace for grace I return him praise for his grace He is for my deliverance I for his honour He for my salvation I in subjection to his will Thus it was with the Spouse and thus will it be with every Christian who duly pondreth upon the mercy of Christ towards him and hath his soul affected with love and gratitude to Christ To end this If there were not in us any spark of love to Christ yet even self-love cannot but strongly oblige us to live to Christ inasmuch as this is the onely honourable profitable and pleasurable life 1. No life so honourable as this all actions are dignified especially by the end to which they tend whence the more noble the intention the more noble the operation and what intention can be higher or end nobler than the glory of Christ this is that which by a strange activity turneth our earthly into an heavenly our naturall into a spirituall life which is the most excellent of all lives To live to a mans lusts debaseth his life and maketh it no better than bestiall to live to Christ exalteth it and rendreth it no lesse than angelicall 2. No life truly profitable but this the way to live to our selves is to live to Christ whilst he hath the glory we have the benefit and as his name is advanced so our good is advantaged There is a strange riddle and a seeming contradiction in those words of God by the Prophet Ephraim is an empty vine and bringeth forth fruit a vine is then said to be empty when it is fruitlesse and can that which bringeth forth fruit be said to be fruitlesse But the next words to himself unfold the riddle and reconcile the contradiction since the fruit which is brought forth to our selves is no fruit What he said of the day wherein he had done no good Diem perdidi I have lost a day that may we say in this case that day and time of our life is lost wherein we live not to Christ Finally this is the most pleasurable life free from those cares and feares distraction and vexation with which living to the world and our lusts is encombred full of those joyes and sweet pleasures and delights whereof all others are ignorant He that can say To me to live is Christ may say To me to live is peace of conscience contentment of minde and joy in the Holy Ghost In one word this is the onely way to make both our life comfortable and our death gainfull And so I am fallen on The other branch of this Text that which is here proposed by our Apostle concerning his death in those words To me to die is gain To die whether violently or naturally by sickness or a sword be the manner or means of death what it will it is gain not onely not injurious but commodious no hurt but profit no losse but benefit To me and all such as he was whether faithfull Ministers or good Christians Indeed this is primarily true of that dying to which S. Paul being now in chains at Rome might especially referre I mean a violent death for the cause of Christ by heathenish persecution And so this is true of the death it self and true Martyrs may say the very {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to die is gain to thm Indeed to die for Christ is both an honour and a gain an advancement and an advantage S. Paul in this very Chapter tells the Philippians it was given to them to suffer as if this were a special choice gift an extraordinary gratification conferred by God upon a man when he calleth him to suffer and especially death for his truth yea the death it self gaineth an increase of the reward and a further accession of glory In this respect our blessed Saviour saith He that loseth his life for my sake shall finde it which is in effect He that loseth shall not lose yea the very losing his life in this quarrell shall be an advantage to him whilest he shall finde that life which infinitely exceedeth this Mors quippe integriorem facit vitam mors magis deducit ad gloriam to use S. Cyprians expression such a death shall not onely accelerate but accumulate the glory of that other life But besides this speciall it is according to a right construction true also in a generall notion not onely of them that die for but all that die in the Lord that death is a gain to them onely with this difference to Martyrs their dying is a gain and all Christians gain by dying Indeed this gain is not a direct and proper but onely an accidental effect or rather a consequent of death not flowing from but following after it that which death in its own nature bringeth forth is evill it causeth not gain but losse depriving good as well as bad men of the sweet comforts of this present life but in regard of the good Christ hath by obtaining for them a life after death made death of a curse to become a blessing of a punishment a benefit of a departure an entrance and of a losse a gain thus as the waters of Marah were sweetned by the tree so is the bitternesse of death allayed the sting of it plucked out yea the nature of it changed by the crosse of Christ This being premised I shall intreat you to walke awhile with me in this pleasant field of deaths gain which I shall endevour to illustrate both absolutely and comparatively privatively and positively 1. This will appear to be a truth absolutely Death is a gaine to a godly man if you consider both the evils from which he is freed and the good things of which he is possessed 1. Privatively death is a gain to true Christians in respect of those various evils from which it delivereth The evils of this present life are of two sorts to wit temporall and spirituall from both which death delivereth Many are the miseries under which we groan in this life but Mors pro remedio so S. Ambrose death is a cure for them all In this respect it is that Seneca saith aptly it is Nullius mali materia multorum finis The cause of none but the end of many evils Upon this account it was that death hath been even by the heathens looked upon as an advantage When those two famous carpenters Agamedes and Trophonius had built a Temple for Apollo at Delphos they begg'd of him a Reward To whom this answer was given by the Oracle That it should be conferred on them within nine daies within which time they died And when Cydippe begg'd of Juno a boon for her two Sons Cleebis and Byto she found them in the morning dead in their beds as if the Gods could not bestow a greater benefit than death by which men are freed from the calamities of life In this respect Seneca's comparison is very fiâ— who
resembleth death to an haven into which when the ship enters she is past all the danger of rocks of sands of waves or windes to which she was continually lyable upon the tumultuous seas Indeed death is that which delivereth our bodies from pains and aches our eyes from tears and our hearts from sorrows and in this respect S. John calls them who die in the Lord blessed because they rest from their labours to wit all labour both of minde and body with which here they are oppressed The truth is many are the afflictions as of all men so especially of the righteous in this life They are sure to meet with persecution from wicked men for their righteousness sake as the tree is beaten with sticks for its fruits sake yea such is the rage of persecutors that they care not to what sorrows of hunger cold nakednesse imprisonment banishment want they expose them besides Almighty God is pleased to chastise them for whilst he lets others alone in sinne to exercise their graces by adversity whilst others enjoy prosperity but when death comes it sets them free from all as being the last chastisement which God doth inflict upon and the last mischief which wicked men can doe to the godly But these are the least of those evils from which death delivereth a believer there are evils of another an higher nature and as the sense of them is a sadder trouble so the deliverance from them must needs be a greater gain such are divine dereliction Satanicall temptation the wickeds conversation and sins infection 1. In this life the godly are oft-times enforced to goe mourning all the day long because God hideth his face many clouds interpose that they cannot behold the Sun of righteousness shining on them but when the winde of death cometh it bloweth all these clouds away and puts them in such an estate wherein there shall be no interruption of their comfort 2. Whilst we live on earth we must expect assaults from hell we walk here amongst snares nor are we at any time or in any place secure from Satans suggestions but death puts us out of his reach whilest our souls soare aloft and so are like the flying-bird out of the compasse of his snare 3. How we are forced to be as lillies among thorns wheat among chaffe and being thus mingled with the wicked we complain with David Woe are we that we must dwell in Mesheck and in the tents of Kedar but when we die we shall be separated from the ungodly so that they shall no longer be to us as the Canaanites were to the Israelies Thorns in our eyes and Pricks in our sides 4. Finally so long as we continue in this world the bur of corruption will cleave to us but death rids us of it according to that of S. Paul He that is dead is free from sinne In this respect death is fitly called by S. Ambrose Vitiorum sepultura the grave of our sins And by Gregory Nyssen {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the expurgation of wickednesse since till the vessell be broken the muddy water of corruption cannot be wholly poured out Consuit the experiences of the Saints and you shall finde them still complaining of spirituall conflicts with their corruption We are besieged on every side as S. Cyprian observes and Oh how often is a breach made upon us if covetousnesse be knocked down lust riseth up if lust be quelled pride starteth forth if pride be subdued anger exasperateth thus are we forced to a continuall strugling with our sins but when we die the combate ceaseth and as for the present we are not under sinne so then we shall be without sin or so much as the motions of sin Indeed it very observable that as death came in by sin so sin goeth out by death filia devoravit matrem the daughter destroyeth the mother nisi primi parentes peccassent non morerentur peccarent justi nisi morerentur had not our first parents sinned they had not died if we did not die we should not be without sin sin delivereth to death and death delivereth from sin and so that which was onely the punishment becomes the period of sinfull evill And surely as S. Ambrose occasionally speaking of these words saith Lucrum est evasisse incrementa peccati lucrum fagisse deteriora ad meliora transisse it is no small gain to avoid the increase of sin nay our Apostle uttereth these words saith S. Cyprian Lucrum maximum computans jam seculi laqueis non teneri jam nullis peccatis vitiis carnis obnoxium fieri accounting it the greatest gain no longer to be subject to the sins of the flesh and intangled in the fetters of the world indeed this is as in it self so in the estimation of every godly man the chiefest gain and no wonder if accounting sin to be the greatest evil he esteem this the chiefest priviledge of death more rejoicing that it putteth an end to his sinnings though they were never so small than to his sufferings were they never so great In fine death is both a totall and finall deliverance from all evils except it self from which also we shall be delivered by the resurrection in which respect an Antient saith elegantly It is unjust to call it a death rather a recesse from death a separation from corruption a freedome from bondage rest from trouble ease of labours ut in summa dicam omnium consummationem malorum yea the consummation of all evils And yet in all that I have said I have told you but one half and that the lesse half of deaths gain there is not onely ademptio malorum but adeptio bonorum a removall of evil but the presence of good and so positively To die is gain For though the happiness of our persons doe not presently follow upon death but the resurrection yet there is an happiness conferred upon our souls immediately after death and if you would know wherein this consists I answer 1. When we die our souls goe to paradise a place of rest and joy and comfort Our first parents were cast out of paradise that they might die and we die that we may goe to paradise The Poet saw this when he said Parte tamen meliore mei Though my body rot in the earth yet my better part shall be carried above the skies Indeed the souls of them that depart hence in the Lord are immediately received into those celestiall habitations 2. When we die our souls go to God and Christ in whose presence is fulness of joy this is the reason why Gregory Naz calls death a benefactour because it presently sends us to God our Apostle in the next Verse save one tells us He had a desire to depart and to be with Christ thereby plainly intimating that when be did depart hence he should be with Christ to wit in his soul and
quia sciebat non peccasse non flevit David justly bewailed dead Absalom because he died in his rebellion and therefore despaired of his blisse but when the other childe dieth he drieth his eyes as not doubting its happinesse They indeed cannot sufficiently be lamented at their death who dying in their sins drop into hell not they who are carried into those heavenly mansions saith Isidore excellently 2. Let the gain of death mitigate the fear which is apt to arise in us from the apprehension of our own When Abigail told Nabal the threatning words of David the Text saith His heart died within him and became as a stone Thus is it with the most of us when any summons of death is given nay not onely with the most but even sometimes with the best Christ cometh to the Disciples on the Sea to preserve them from the storme and they are troubled death cometh to deliver us from all evill and we exceedingly tremble Indeed the reason is because we consider not that death is a deliverance and so gaine to us What Chrysologus saith of Martyrs is true of all good men Morte nascuntur fine inchoant occisione vivunt in coelis lucent qui in terris putabantur extincti their death is a birth and end a beginning they live by being killed and whilst they are thought to be extinguished on Earth they shine in Heaven and surely were this well pondered by them they would not seek consolation against death but death it selfe would be their consolation Those words of Job I have said to Corruption Thou art my Father to the Worme Thou art my Mother are not unfitly allegorized by Origen to this purpose Ut pueri consolatores habent parentes sic ego mortem putredinem as if he therefore called Corruption and Wormes his Father and Mother because as Parents are comforters to the Children so were they to him It is true the Separation of Soule and Body is terrible and a naturall feare of it may be cannot but be in all I but it is as true in respect of the godly that when this separation is made anima absolvitur corpus resolvitur quae absolvitur gaudet quae resolvitur nihil sentit as St. Ambrose elegantly the Soule is set at liberty and rejoyceth yea the body is at rest and knoweth no trouble and is such a separation to be feared This life what is it but a going to death and death what is it but a going to life little cause then sure why we should either too much love the one or feare the other Non est timendum saith Tertullian quod nos liberat ab omni timendo shall that be the object of our feare which freeth us from what ever is to be feared by death we gain glory and shall we not glory over death non repuerascam said a Roman si Deus mihi largiretur I would not be young againe though God would grant it me and he giveth this reason quia ab hospitio ad domum discedam because when I dye I shall goe from my Inne to my home Did ever childe cry when his Fathers man came to fetch him home Alas beloved as St. Ambrose rightly non mors ipsa terribilis sed opinio de morte not death it self but our misapprehension of death is terrible to us did we look through beyond death at the gaine which followeth it would not be dreadfull but amiable in our eyes and with this holy Apostle we would not feare but desire to depart That of the wise man the righteous hath hope in his death the Caldee reads The righteous hopeth he shall dye so farre is a good man upon serious meditation of deaths gaine from fearing of that he hopeth for his dissolution and though he dare not rashly hasten yet he willingly entertaineth it whensoever sent by God to him To draw to an end Be pleased to put both clauses together since indeed they cannot be asunder If to us to live be Christ to dye must needs be gaine to dye cannot be gaine but onely to them to whom to live is Christ If a good life precede an happy death cannot but follow Nor is it probable a gainfull death should be the consequent if a religious life have not been the antecedent Indeed if we observe the temper of many in the world we shall finde them either inverting or separating these clauses 1. Some there are who would invert these words make gain the predicate of the former and Christ of the latter thus doth every covetous man say To me to live is gain and to dye is Christ vaine men who will have Gold to be their God and yet Christ to be their Redeemer they will serve Mammon whilst they live and yet be saved by Christ when they dye but it will be just with Christ to say at death to all such Mammonists in these words of God to the Israelites in the day of their distresse Goe to the Gods which you have served the gaine which you have lived to and let that deliver in this houre of your death 2. More there are who would sever these Clauses whilst they would gladly say to dye is gaine but not to live is Christ One was asked whether he had rather be Craessus or Socrates his answer was in vitâ Craesus in morte Socrates he would be rich Craesus in his life and good Socrates at his death you know whose prayer it was Let me dye the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his and it is that no doubt which many wish and desire nay hope who yet regard not to live the life of the righteous and that their course to that end may be like his But what a folly nay madnesse is it for men to expect to reap what they doe not sow to sow to the flesh and to the world and yet reap by Christ the gaine of everlasting life after death as therefore we expect that one let us endeavour the other and if gaine by death be our hope let living to Christ be our practice So that this Scripture thus considered doth plainly put a difference between the pretious and the vile the godly and the wicked whilest to these who live to themselves death is a losse to those who live to Christ it is a gaine Adrian was wont to say that death is pavor divitum pauperis desiderium the rich mans feare and the poor mans desire I may well apply it here death either is or may be the bad mans feare but the good mans wish or to use St. Ambrose his expression justis mors quietis est portus nocentibus naufragium it is an Haven to the Just but a Shipwrack to the Guilty to those a bed of repose to these a rack of torture The man who liveth to the world saith to death as Ahab to Eliah Hast thou found me oh
THE EPITAPH OF A Godly Man especially a Man of God OR The HAPPINES by DEATH OF HOLINES in LIFE Delineated in a SERMON preached at the Funerall of Mr ADAM PEMBERTON late Minister of the Parish of St Fosters Foster-lane Who ended this mortall April the 8th 1655. and was buried in hope of an immortal life the 11th of the same Moneth By NATH HARDY M. A. and Preacher to the Parish of St Dionis Back Church REVEL. 14 13. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me Wâ—ite Blessed are they which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works doe follow them Aug de discipl Christ Tract 1. c. 12. Prorsus confirmo audeo dicere Credidi propter quod locutus sum non potest malè mori qui bene vixerit Chrysost in Psal 114. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} LONDON Printed by J. G. for Nathanaell Webb and William Grantham at the Black Bear neer the little North-door of S. Pauls Church 1655. To the Reverend Mr. John Pemberton Minister of Charleton in Kent Contentment here and Injoyment hereafter Reverend Sir I Am very sensible that this Dedication will revive the memory of your great losse and thereby renew your grief But withall this publication will perpetuate the memory of your dead Son and that may be your comfort Indeed this as I conceive was the chief cause why it was so earnestly desired by many of his friends and this I am sure was the onely reason why it was at length yeilded to by me But truly so pretious is his name that I am abundantly assured it will live though he be dead not onely in the inkie characters of this paper but the tender affections of many hearts The truth is might prayers have prevailed with God for his life he had not yet died and would tears have brought him back from the dead he had again lived What the name of the place was where the Angel of the Lord spake to the children of Israel so that they lift up their voices and wept might justly have been given to that Church upon the day of his Enterrement it was BOCHIM a place of weeping every eye almost bedewing his grave with tears And though in respect of him they were as needlesse so fruitlesse the case being as holy Job observeth farre different between a withered root and a dead man yet as the Jewes said of Christ weeping for Lazarus it might well be said of them Behold how they loved him and doubtlesse he cannot but be remembred by them to whom he was so much endeared This I have thought fit to mention Good Sir as for his honour so your joy at least the mitigation of your sorrow for him who lived so beloved and died so lamented and though he is buried will not be forgotten Yet still that which is and ought to be your greatest consolation is the good hope you have of his eternall salvation on whom having finished his short course in keeping the faith and fighting the good fight I trust the crown of righteousness is already in part and shall be in that day fully conferred by the Lord the righteous Judge And now worthy friend I cannot but take notice of that whereof I am confident you are not unmindfull the various dispensation of Divine Providence towards you and yours Both your hopefull Sons he was pleased to take away in the Morning of their Youth and you have lived to the Evening of Old Age Both their years put together could not make up much above two thirds of those you have already lived to and if it be Gods will may you see many more for the sake as of your surviving Children Grand-children so especially the Church that having expended a long life in Gods service you may at last exchange it for an eternall life in his glory So prayeth Your Truly Loving friend NATH HARDY The EPITAPH of a Godly man especially a Man of GOD PHIL. chap. 1. ver. 21. To me to live is CHRIST and to die is gain WOrds both short and sweet brief and pithy few in expression and large in extension That of Solomon is an ample Epitome summing up the whole duty of man in these two Fear God and keep his commandements That of our Blessed Saviour is a comprehensive compendium comprizing the whole Law of God in these two Thou shalt love the Lord thy God and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self But loe in this abridgment we are taught both how to live and how to die Quantum in quantillo how much is here folded up in a little what counsell for life what comfort in death doth this Scripture afford Happy is he who so readeth this copie as to write after it vieweth these steps as to tread in them being able to say if not with the same measure yet at least with the like truth of affection and confidence in Christ To me to live is Christ and to die is gain I finde among Expositors a double Version of this Verse 1. Some Modern both Protestant and Popish Interpreters and one among the Antients read this verse as if it were one intire Proposition whereof Christ is the subject and gain the predicate Christ is to me gain both in life and death According to this sense there is a double truth contained in them First That both life and death are gain to a good man In the former verse our Apostle expresseth his confidence that both his life and death should be Christs glory and here that they would be his gain Utraque mihi conducibilia is Theodoret's note both shall conduce to my benefit Ostendit sive vitam sive mortem sibi censuram in salutem so Estius he sheweth that whatever happened whether the continuation of his life or the acceleration of his death it should work for his good in which respect he seemeth to say Nec mori timeo nec vivere recuso as Lapide well glosseth I neither refuse to live nor fear to die In how happy an estate is every holy man to whom no condition cometh amisse prosperity or adversity wealth or want health or sickness life or death Lucri bonus odor ex re quâlibet saith the worldling gain is sweet out of any thing The Saint finds truly sweet gain in every thing Secondly That it is Christ who maketh both life and death gain to a good man It was S. Paul's hope first that Christ should be magnified by him And next that he he should be comforted by Christ both in life and death Unus est Christus qut tam in morte quam in vita nos facit beatos saith Calvin upon the place Indeed Christ is the Christians All in all estares as David said concerning God Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none on earth I desire in comparison of thee so saith
if you will know where Christ is you shall finde it by other Scriptures to be farre above all heavens at the right hand of God Indeed the contract between Christ and the soule is made on earth but the marriage is consummated in heaven here Christ is with us by his Spirit there we shall be with him first in our souls and at last in our persons It is much for a Prince to visit a poor man in his cottage but it is farre more for him to take the poor man home with him to his palace Esse Christum cum paulo magna securitas Esse paulum cum Christo summa foelicitas It is our great security while we live that Christ is with us but it shall be our felicity when we die that we shall be with Christ 3. Finally when we die our souls are endowed with perfect purity and spotlesse holinesse and grace receiveth its consummation by glory the Apostle maketh mention of the spirits of just men made perfect that is perfectly just and holy in their spirits Indeed the perfection of glory is not till the resurrection when soule and body shall be united but in the mean time the souls of them that die in Christ are adorned with a perfection of grace and if the beginnings of grace be pretious what is the completion of it if the first fruits be desirable what is the full crop if the soule which hath but one dram of grace be more truly noble than if it had all other naturall or morall endowments how glorious shall our souls be when they shall be as vessels filled to the brim with fulnesse of grace By all this which hath been said the truth of this Apostolical Assertion sufficiently appeareth but that all Objestions may be removed be pleased to consider it comparatively and to weigh a while in the scales of reason both the losse and the gain of death that we may see how much the gain preponderateth the loss and so this Doctrine will remaine undoubtedly true notwithstanding whatever may be pretended to the contrary It is true death bereaveth us of a mortall and transitory but it is an inlet to an immortall and everlasting life it despoileth us of our worldly possessions I but it putteth us into possession of our heavenly inheritance it taketh us from the society of our neighbours bosome of our friends I but it sends us to Abrahams bosome makes way for our society with Christ Finally it severs the soul from the body I but it unites the soul to God what is it for the candle to be put out whilst we enjoy the light of the Sun for the standing-pools to be dry so long as we may drink at the fountain for our earthly comforts to be taken from us when heavenly joyes are conferred on us The truth is death is not a privation but a permutation So holy Iob calleth it a change and that a blessed exchange of a cottage for a palace a wilderness for a paradise a house of bondage for a place of liberty of brass for gold pebles for pearls earth for heaven And now tell me if upon all these considerations S. Paul had not just cause to say To me to die is gain The meditation whereof may serve as a check to those passions of grief and fear which are apt in this matter to be exorbitant the one in respect of our friends and the other of our own death It is the use which Cyprian teacheth us to make of this very doctrine Ut neque charorum lugeamus excessum cum accessionis propriae dies venerit incunctanter libenter ad Deum ipso vocante veniamus That we should not too much bewail the departure of our dearest relations and when the day of our dissolution doth approach that we readily and chearfully obey Gods call 1. Let the gain of death moderate our sorrow for our friends who sleep in Iesus Why should we be troubled for them who are at rest sit down in sorrow for them who are entred into joy Why are we clad in black for them who walk in white and so many tears flow from our eyes for them who have all tears wiped from theirs It is storyed of the Thracians that they mourn at the birth and rejoice at the death of their friends Nec imprudenter saith S. Ambrose nor was it without reason that they should account those fit to be bewail'd who are launching forth into the tempestuous sea of this world and attend them with joy who are got into the harbour of rest We read concerning Lazarus that Christ rejoiced when he was dead but wept being to raise him to life And Chrysologus his note is very apt to our present purpose Christ us recipiens Lazarum flevit non amittens Christ bewaileth not the losing but restoring of his life according to which the Greek Fathers make the reason of our Saviours tears to be that he should now call him back to a miserable life Indeed as S. Hierome saith concerning Nepotian we may say of every one who departeth in Christ Non tam plangendus est qui hac luce caruerit quam gratulandum ei qui de tantis malis evaserit We are not so much to condole his losse of this life as to congratulate his deliverance from the miseries of this life Thou wilt say perhaps It is my friend my dearly beloved friend who is dead and can I choose but mourn But is he thy friend and dost thou envy him his happiness dost thou dearly love him and yet grieve at his welfare He is thy friend and death is his benefit and shall the benefit of another especially of thy friend be thy sorrow I but he is snatched from my arms I have a great losse in his departure and that is my trouble True this nature promteth to that we should be sensible of our own losse yea grace requireth that we should be sensible of such a losse as it is a crosse inflicted upon us by Divine Providence Thus patient Job when the news came to him of his childrens death shaved his head and rent his mantle signes of that sorrow which naturall affection put him upon yea he fell down upon the ground and worshipped signes that in his sorrow he looked higher at the hand of God which had done it But as with one eye we look on our losse and weep so with another eye we must look on their gain and rejoice as it is a chastisement to us we must be affected with sorrow as a mercy to them with joy and thus whilest we mingle these affections together our sorrow will not be exorbitant Indeed when any die to whom we have reason to fear death is the beginning of sorrrow there is sad cause of bitter mourning but not for them who die in the Lord Scribitur David justè flevisse filium parricidam qui alium parvulum