some lege naturae destitutae by the law of nature in its defection and decay and such was this law the law of death it was not enacted neither came it in when man was in his prime but when he was in the wane not when he was in the height in the verticall point of his integrity but when he was in the declination the state of sin In die quo commederis c. saith God to Adam in the day Gen. 2.17 that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death in that day but not before If Adam had not sinned he had not dyed if he had not transgressed Gods law he had not tasted Gods curse but having once sinned death presently ensued not that Adam presently dyed for he lived after that 930. yeeres but Gen. 5.5 that he was now dyable as I may so speake subject to death and the lawes of death having and feeling in himselfe aches paines infirmities diseases infinite anxieties and vexations the certain symptomes and messengers of death which before be neither had nor felt expresse and pat for this purpose is that of the Apostle Saint Paul As by one man sinne entred into the world so death by sinne And againe the wages of sinne Rom. 5.12 Rom. 6.23 is death every kind of death both spirituall and corporall is the guerdon of iniquity the reward of sinne Death was not Godâ— immediate and proper worke for God made not death Wisd 1.31 neither was it one of those Impes that God planted in Paradice for there all was very good but it was the worke of Satan Gen. 1.13 and had its originall from the bitter root of sinne So that Satan begot it Adam and Eve nurst it and sinne brought it forth To breviate the cafe in hand and to give you the substance of it in short it is this Here is a Statute enacted concerning death enacted by God by reason of sinne thus have you the pith of the Doctrine in point of Explication now for Application in point of Vse And first if mans death be appointed then is it not contingent Vse 1 or casuall but comes upon him by a certaine Series of causes and these guided by an universall cause God almighty When Lazarus was dead his two sisters Martha and Mary comes to our Saviour with this dolefull note and pitifull complaint Lord if thou handst beene here my brother Io. 11.12 32. had not dyed saith one Lord if thou hadst beene here my brother had not dyed saith another And is not this the common note and language of the world when a man is dead then if such a Physician had been here if he had been let blood if he had not taken such a potion or eat of such a peece of meat or lived in such a foggy ayre if he had not done thus and thus or so and so he might have bin a lives man to this day These consider not with Job That the dayes of man are determined and his bounds appointed which he cannot passe the time the place and every circumstance of his dissolution is decreed that one man dyes in the field another in his Iob 14.1 bed another in the water that one dyes in a foraine Nation another in his owne this and all this is fore-ordained in heaven What though one seeme to dye casually another by an unexpected violence What the hand of God is in both If we should come to a man newly fallen dead from his horse sunke downe upon the sudden dead in the streets we must conceive and thinke that we heard God whisper him in the care and say unto him Dye thou here that God that brought us into the world at his owne pleasure will and doth carry us â—ut at his owne appointment If mans death be appointed and appointed by God then is it unavoydable All the armour of proofe and coats of male in the world cannot ward us from the terrible stroke of it Let vaine man make his nest in the Ceders build a tower that may reach up to heaven let him wash his steps in butter joyne house to house field to field land to land let him eat and drinke of the best clothe himselfe in purple and fine sinnen let him purchase the highest promotions manage the greatest offices of State insinuate himself the dearest into his Soveraignes favour let him doe what he can to fortifie himselfe against death all will not doe He that hath appointed it will bring it to passe nothing can hinder the powerfull decree and appointment of the Almighty It is weâ—l observed by Saint Gregory that Deus nouit maâ—are sentenâ—â—as at non novit mutare Decreta God can and doth sometimes alter his meaning reverse his Edicts threatned for sinne as in the case of David of Ahab of Ninivie but the determinations of Gods Decree from all eternity are irrevocable unrepealeable these like the Laws of the Modes and Persians never alter In vaine doe we seeke the avoydance of that which God hath appointed wicked Balaam could not choose but doe God right in his determinations of this nature God saith he is not as man that he should lye neither as the Sonne of man that he should repent hath he said and shall he not doe it hath Num. 23.19 he spoken and shall he not make it good In him there is no mutability nor shadow at all of change Men are mutable appoint to day and disappoint to morrow resolve now and by and by are of another minde but God is not so If Palate stuck close to this quod scripsi scrâ—psâ— Io. 19. 22. What I have written I have written and would not have a letter aâ—â—â—â—ed sâ—rely God will â—â—â—ck as close to 〈◊〉 Qâ—od staâ—uâ— stâ—â—uâ— what I have appointed I have appointed and will not have a tittle diminished the foundation of God stands sure his decree and appointment firme and though heaven and earth shall passe away as for certaine they shall yet one jot or tittle of Gods word and purpose shall not passe till all be fulfilled As sure as God is in heaven and that 's sure enough so sure shall these and all these fraiâ—e bodies of ours one day be piled up at the gates of death for it is appointed and appointed by God Nor is it without observation that the phrase of speech here is of the passive voice Statutum est it is appointed denoting thereby unto us that man must be a patient and not an agent in his owne death For a man to be felo de se as the Lawyers speake to lay violent hands upon himselfe to bring a writ of remove and not from the Kings Bench and by Gods owne appointment is a foule and fearefull transgression of this Statute Let the Stoick Philosophers teach what they will and infuse this rotten principle into their Disciples that non multum â—â—erest c. It matters not much whether death come â—o us or we to it
sure I am Religion teacheth no such thing well may such a desperate position be maintained in Schools and by heathen Philosophers but never in Pulpits and by Christian Divines That Law in the Decalogue Non occides Thou shalt not Exod. 20. kill reflecteth first upon a mans selfe and then upon his neighbour To kill a mans selfe is forbidden in the first place his neighbour but in the second this is but a breach of the law of charity but that of the law of nature so that according to that solid speech of Saint Augustine Exceptis iis quos just a lex generaliter c. excepting those whom a just Law in generall or God the fountaine of justice in speciall commandeth to be slaine Whosoever killeth himselfe or any other he is guilty of murther and a transgressour of the Law If the life of man were his owne then indeed it were somewhat he might be the more lavish of it and use it at his pleasure but it is the gift of God and man must not dispose of Gods gift without the minde of God the giver 1 Sam. 2.6 Or if man were sui juris his owne man then it were another case but he is pars Communitâ—tis as Aristotle speaks a part of the state a member of the body politick and if one member suffer all the members suffer with it â— Coâ— 12.26 If one man dye an untimely death all the whole Commonwealth is supposed to be damnisâ—ed by it and therefore it is as I conceive that the King doth take so procise an account of the death of the meanest Subject because both he himselfe and the whole Kingdome had interest in him That some have made away themselves as former Ages doe witnesse and this our age too is no warrant for us or any one to doe the like We are all set in this world as souldiers in battell array and must not breake our ranks without order from our Captain As Prisoners in a Gaole must not seeke our liberty without the Jaylors keyes to let us out As Subjects in a Kingdome and must not out of the Land without the leave and past-port of our Soveraigne And therefore Balaam craves leave Numb 23.10 to depart Let me dye and Jonah though weary of his 〈◊〉 would not quench the light of it himselfe but makes petition Ionah 4.3 to God Take away my life And old Sâ—meon begs his release Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Luke â— 29 We must not projicere animas as he speaks desperately throw away our soules but fairely resigne them nor quit our charge heâ—e upon â—erth but wait upon God according to Jobs example All the dayes of my appointed time will I Iob 14.14 wait till my change come Man must wait for his change not worke it not appoint his owne death for it is appointed by God And so I have done with the first part the Statute enacted in the first word of my text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is appointed Appointed by whom my text shall answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to men that 's the second part of text the concernant parties for whom this Law 2. The concernant party was enacted and to whom it was appointed namely to men And indeed of all the creatures under the cope of heaven there is none of them all can so properly be said to dye as men for of them some have onely being as the Planetary bodies the Stars the Stones and the like Some again have being and vegetation as the Trees and Plants some have being in vegetation and sence as the bruit Beasts and some have being vigetaâ—â— on sence and a soule too as reasonable men Now death being a seperation of the soule from the body cannot in right reason nor in a genuine true sence be ascribed to any creature but such as hath a soule as well as a body To speak properly then it is mankinde that suffers the sentence of death and it is men that dye for to them it is that death is allotted is apoointed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that not to some one man or to some few men but to all men for though the particle of universality be not expressed yet sure it is included and so intended an indefinite proposition we say in the Schooles is equivalent to an universall When Iob saith Man that is borne of a woman is of few dayes he means every man so here when the Apostle saith it is appointed to Iob 14. â— men to dye he meanes all men all without exemption without exception Death is a debt that every man must pay qui vult excipere creatur decipere he be he what he will that thinkes to goe free is fouly deceived and shall finde it otherwise David puts the question what man is he that liveth and shall not see death but the question is without all Psal 89. 48. question every man living shall see death Kings and Princes and Dukes and Earles and Barons and Baronets and Knights and gentlemen and Tradesmen and Husbandmen and all there is neither sex nor age nor Nation nor condition that shall be priviledged Absalon for all his beauty Sampson for al his strength Salomon for al his wisdom Achitopel for all his craft is dead and so is rich Dives courtly Haman valarous Ioab all dead and which is more so is righteous Noah faithfull Abraham zealous Lot meeke Moses religious David innocent Iob painfull Paul penitent Zacheus and he that was the center of all perfection Christ the Lord. If any power or greatnesse or piety or integrity or vertue or grace or any thing in the world had been any muniment or defence against death surely Christ of all other had never dyed nor made his bed in the darke as Iob seaks Iob 17.13 This Statute of death takes hold of all that enjoy the benefit of life Paracelsus that great Phisition though he cured many others and promised immortality to himselfe yet was he cut off in the prime of his yeeres Contra vim mortis non est medicamen in hortis there is no antidote for death never yet was it seen or known or heard that any drug was so soveraigne as to preserve a man from dying of the longest liver it hath been said in the end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his life is past or vixit he had his time or mortuus est he dyed Before I quit this point I will resolve a doubt or two but briefly and as it were in two words the first this The Apostle S. Paul saith that Christ hath destroyed death Dub. how comes it then to seize upon the Saints of God whence 〈…〉 1.10 is it that the righteous dye seeing Christ hath dyed for theâ— This doubt may be assoyled thus first the most righteous man upon the face of the earth besides his originall hath many Solut. 1. actuall sins which make him liable to
For this cause King Philip would have his remembrancer every morning to put him in minde of his mortality and the Anchorites of old would every day scrape with rheir nailes some part of their owne grave And Saint Jerome would have the scull of a dead man before him continually Behold ye despisers and wonder ye that put away farre from you the evill day that make a league with death and a truce with the grave ye that take no notice in the world of your owne infirmities sicknesse weaknesse faintnesse wearinesse age and the like never remembring that these are the messengers of death and that the sound of their Masters feet is behinde them ye that can passe by the death of others and never once apply it that can see your neighbours friends acquaintance alliance c. carried to the grave and never lay it to heart We read in the second of Samuel and the 20. chapter that when Amasa was dead and lay wallowing in his blood all the passengers and people stood still and â—ooked upon him ex ruina disciplina Let us read letters in the ruines of others and never looke upon the death of another without remembrance of our owne death This is the first speciall The second is to make preparation for death the reason why the sonnes of men are snared in an evill time and intangled in the bands of death as fishes in a net or birds in a snare is because it fals suddenly upon them and they not prepared for it Eccles 9.12 I know not whether God in his wisdome hath of set purpose concealed from us the coming Eccles 9.12 of death for this very end that we may be alwayes in readinesse when it doth come woe to that man whom the Lord when he comes shall finde sleeping it had been good for that man that he had never been borne for as the tree fals whether towards the South or towards the North so it lyes and there it shall be As death findes a man so judgement Eccles 11. 3. takes him looke how he dyes so shall he rise againe and so shall he be judged It is a maine point of wisedome in a Christian to prepare for death in respect first of the certainty secondly many times of the suddennesse of it There is nothing in all the world so certaine as death let a man climbe up the highest Mount or Pinnacle let him looke downe againe upon the face of the world and he shall see all things hang dandling upon the thred of instability wheeling and turning upon the pin of uncertainty onely death that 's certaine In all other things we may use a forte a peradventure or a perchance It is a chance for a man to be rich a chance to be great a chance to be wise a chance to be learned but for a man to dye is no chance but a certainty a constitution that shall never be replealed till destruction be thrown into the Lake of fire and death shall be no more Revel 21. We all know that we must dye and know it as certainly as we know our owne names or our right hand from our left or the joynts of our fingers yet we regard it not we prepare not for it Secondly as it is certaine so many times it is sudden too seizing upon those soonest that lest expect it It was far and wide from the thoughts of that rich man in the Gospell promising to himselfe rest quiet long life that he should be arrâ—sted with that killing message stulte hac nocte Thou foole Luke 12.20 this night shall thy soule be taken from thee Little drâ—mpt â—elâ—hazzar in his cups that his Kingdome was numbred and Dan. 5. that the same night he should be slaine or Corah in his conspiracy that he and his partisance should be swallowed up of Numb 16. the earth or Iobs children in their banquetting that the Iob 1. house should fall down upon their heads or Ananias and Saphira in the middest of their lying that they should sinke downe stone dead at Saint Peters feet Many a man hath Acts 5. been taken away in an instant and put out like a candle when the thoughts of death have been farthest from him and therfore make preparation for it that 's the second speciall The third and last speciall is to consider the benefits that come by death and these I shall couch in two words 1. Vnde Whence it frees us 2. Quo Whither it brings us It frees us first from sinne our first Parents dyed because they sinned we dye that we may not sinne sinne delivered them over unto death but death delivers us from all sin Hence it is that death is stiled by Saint Paul 2 Tim. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a time of liberty the loosing of the soule from the bonds and fetters of sinne So that a soule seperated from the body is set at liberty like a bird out of a cage or a fish out of a net and freed from those manifold corruptions and heavie pressures under which it groned Secondly it frees us from wicked company it was no small affliction to David that he was constrained to dwell Psal 120. with Mesech to Ieremie that he must live amongst adulterers Ier. 9.2 and rebels to Lot that he must heare and see the filthy 2 Pet. 2.8 thy conversation of the Sodomites Now death frees us from all and carries a man out of the Gun-short and reach of Satan of all Satanicall and wicked compay Thirdly it frees us from the miseries of this life The world is a sea of sorrowes we live in it as in a vale of teares And as in the sea unda undam sequitur one wave followes another and seldome or never shall you see the waters calme or levell So in the world affliction followes affliction miserie miserie calamitie calamitie and never rest untill we arrive at the haven of death This was that that made Epictetus speak more like a Divine then a Philosopher Homo calamitatis fabula in foelicitatis stabula that man was a very map of miserie And some of the wisest heathen too judge it the best thing in the first place not to be born the next to die assoone as we ase boâ—n this for the â—unde whence death frees us Now for the quo whether death brings us for as it frees us from something so it brings us some whither And will you know whither in a word the death of the Saints is a Portall to let them into Paradise a Bridge to give them passage into heaven a Whirrie to waft them over and bring them to the haven where they would be an Angell to carry their soules into Abrahams bosome Socrates the heathen professed that he could willingly dye that he might see the companie of the antient worthies As Orpheus and Hesiod and Homer and the rest What shall we do then that are Christians but with Hilargan the Hermite
death Secondly Christ by dying did not take away the stroke but the sting of death not the being of it but the curse tollitur mors non est sit sed ne obsit men are still mortall but the tyranny of death which makes it penall is taken away Thirdly the nature of death is changed it is now in a manner no death of a curse it is become a blessing of a punishment a benefit of the gate of hell the portall of heaven thus the first doubt is resolved The second doubt is this Enoch was translated that he Dub. 2. should not see death Heb. 11.5 and Elias was carried up by 2 Kings 2. a whirlewinde into heaven therefore all men dye not I answer the translation of Enoch and the rapture of Eliah Solut. are two intrigate and subtile questions and such as have troubled I will not say pusled the heads of many Divines my meaning is not to trouble either you or my selfe with any exact discusment of these questions onely to satisfie for the present and to assoile the doubt proposed this I say That Enochs translation and Eliah his rapture and the change of all those that are alive at Christs second coming in the end of the world were and shall be a kinde of death loco mortis saith Aretius in the stead of death instar mortis saith Bosquter like death But because this change neither did nor shall seperate the soule from the body nor dissolve the compositum therefore it is not a true proper real death Againe let it be supposed that Enoch and Eliah did not dye it will not infring this common Statute that all shall dye It is enough that all the posterity of Adam be obnoxious to death though some be dispensed withall and dye not for as privilegia paucorum legem nor faciunt to use the words of the Canonist the priviledges of a few doe not constitute or make a law so neither anull or infringe a law What though some have been priviledged and exempted from death I say with Saint Augustine alia naturalitas alâ—a mirabiliter fiant some things are done naturally some miraculously an ordinary course is one thing an extraordinary another but take it ordinarily and according to the common course of nature and it is as true as truth it selfe that it is appointed unto all men once to dye And so I come to the third part of my Text touching what this Statute was enacted and appointed unto men and that 's exprest here in two branches Death and Iudgement 3. Touching what once to dye that 's one branch but afâ—er this the judgement The former branch of this Statute is touching Death it is appointed unto men saith the text once to dye semel once Death not twice quod casus in Diabolo id in homine mors that which the fall in the Divell the same is death in man he fell but once and we dye but once Men that are dead are phrased by the holy Ghost as waters spilt upon the ground 2 Sam. 14. 14. which cannot be gathered up againe waters once spilt sinke into the dust and are not gathered up againe nor cannot be spilt againe What is said of the death of Christ may be saâ—d of the death of all other men in an ordinary regular way he died but once no more doe they one corporall death sufficeth If any now shall object unto me and say that some have Object died twice as the widdow of Sareptaes sonne the Shunamites son 2 Kings 4. the dead man that was cast into the grave of Elisha As also Jairus daughter and Tabitha and Euâ—ichus and â— Kings 17. 2 King 13. Lazarus and some others these all were raised up to live and lived to die again I answer that all or the summe of all that can be said is Answer that it was an extraordinary act And besideâ— the common Road of Gods usuall way for ordinarily and without some speciall dispensation and priviledge all men die and die but once I am the more confident in because my text is cleare for it Statutum est c. It is appointed unto all men once to die 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to die that is the maine matter of the statute death There is a three fold death 1. A Naturall the death of the body 2. A Spirituall the death of the soule 3. An Eternall the death of the whole man both body and soule The first of these three seperates the soul from the flesh The second the spirit from grace The third the whole man from the Beatificall vision and presence of God and that for ever The first of these three kindes of death as I take it is only meant in this place not the spirituall death of the soule nor the eternall death of the whole man but the naturall death of the body that 's the death appointed unto men without discrimination to all men without exception The death of the body and the dissolution of nature is that the remembrance whereof is so bitter whereof the wiseman speakes Ecclesiasticus 41. 1. That which the heathen Philosopher called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most terrible of all tetribles That which Job call the King of feares That Cup which Iob. 18. 14. our Saviour Christ himself was afraid to drink off Matthew 26. 39. Et fortior non est miles quam imperator and usualâ— the Souldier is not more valarous then his Leader then his Captaine If the apprehension and scentiment of death was so terrible to him that was more then a man how much more to us that are but men but meere men And yet death is of the nature of those things that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bitter sweet Bitter in respect of it self or being the destroyer of nature but sweet in respect of the consequence as being a passage to a better life I dare say there is not a soule of discretion amongst you all but could wish the terrours of death taken away and the bitternesse of it abated and allayed Now that you may have that you wish for and be able to encounter with death as a friend not as a furie let me commend unto you these specialls First to meditate often upon death Secondly to make preparation for death Thirdly to consider the benifits that come by death These three well practised and put in use by a Christian will like that wood that Moses threw into the waters of Exod. 15. 25. Mara sweeten the bitternesse of death and make it more pleasing For first the frequent meditation of death and the often inculcating and commenting upon it will make it more familiar and lesse terrible Tela proevisa minus Loedunt he that sees or thinks upon a bullett or blow a coming 2 Kings 6. 22. starts not at it as he that is hitt upon a sudden and unawares It s wisdome for a man to acquaint himselfe with death before it come