dominions cannot withstand Death The most eloquent Oratour by his strongest reasons and most pathetical expressions cannot perswade Death The deepest Counsellour by all his policy cannot outwit or cozen Death O mighty Death saith the Historian thou hast drawn together all the far stretched greatness Sir Walt. Ral. Hist World in fine all the pride cruelty and ambition of man and covered it with these two words Hic jacet There is no discharge in that War Every one must go in person there is no appearing by a proxy Though the Tenant would serve for his Land-lord the Subject for his Soveraign the Father for his Child as David for Absolom yet it will not be accepted All must in their own persons appear in the field and look that grim Goliah Death in the face It is appointed for all men once to dye Hebr. 9. God hath decreed it and man cannot dissanul it The Grammarian as one observeth wittily who can decline other nowns in every case can decline Death in no case Death is every moment shooting its Arrows abroad in the World and doing execution and though it shoots above thee slaying the Superiours below thee taking away thy Inferiours on thy right hand killing this friend on thy left hand causing that acquaintance to drop yet t will never cease shooting till thou art slain Thy life for a while may be kept up like a Ball by the Rockets and tost from hazard to hazard yet at last t will fall to the earth When once Death this son of a murderer sin comes to take away thine head there will be none to shut the door or hold him fast Now men that must travel arm themselves for all Weather Women that cannot escape their appointed sorrows provide Bezer and Amber powders against that time But O what a mad man art thou who knowest certainly of the coming of this Enemy and that when he cometh he can both kill and damn destroy both body and soul yet takest no care to arm thy self for that hour In other things thou providest for what may be and wilt thou not for that which must be In Summer thou layest in fuel and food because it may be thou mayst live to spend it in Winter Thou workest early and late to encrease thy heaps and to add to thy hoards because it may be thy Children may come to enjoy it Where is thy reason then to toly and moyl for an uncertainty and thus foolishly to neglect that which is of necessity Secondly Death may come suddenly Secondly Dost thou know that death may come suddenly Some diseases do no sooner appear but we disappear Death like a flash of lightning hath on a sudden burnt down many a body It sometimes shoots white powder doth execution without giving warning Deiodorus dyed with sudden shame Sophocles with sudden joy Nabal with sudden fear Pope Alexander was choakt suddenly with a Fly Anacreon the Poet with the Kernel of a Grape Aeschilus was kild by the shell of a Tortoise which the Eagle let fall on his bald head mistaking it for a Rock The Cardinal of Lorrain was lighted to the Chambers of death by a Poisoned Torch A Duke of Britany Prest to death in a crowd King Henry the second of France was kild at Tilting Senecio Cornelius had his breath stopt by a Squinzy I might name very many others who took a short cut to their long homes Balthazers carousing in his Bolls drunk his bane Ammon merry at his dainties meets with Death Zimri and Cozbi unload their lusts and their lives together Korah and his companions find the Earth Opening her mouth and swallowing them up quick though she stay for others till they are dead Herod scarce ends his proud speech before he is sent to the place of silence Ananias and Saphira finish their lies and their lives at the same time Scarce a week but nigh those parts we live in some or other by violent or natural means are suddenly sent into the other World That which hath been one mans case may be any mans case Reader when thy breath goeth out thou art not sure of taking it in again thou mayst like the fool be talking of many years when that God whose word must stand may say this night thy soul shall be required of thee and O what will then become of thee Thy eternal condition that estate which is to be for ever and ever dependeth on this uncertain life and art not thou mad to be reveling and roaring dallying and delaying when thine unchangeable estate is in danger Theives after the commission of their Robberies frequently repair to Inns where they drink joyfully and divide their booty when on a sudden the Hue and Cry arriveth at that town the Constable entereth their Room attacheth their persons marreth all their mirth and carryeth them to the Goal whence after their tryal for their fellonies they are carted to Tyburn Many a sinner in the midst of his carnal triumph hath been haled to eternal torments like that filthy Adulterer mentioned by Luther who went inâ—o Hell out of the imbraces of his Harlot The Philosophers say that the weather will be warmish before a snow When the skie is most clear then the great thunder commeth Sodom had a fair sun-shiny morning but a storm of fire and brimstone before night Sure I am thou hast no promise to excuse thee in thy greatest pleasures from such a sudden punishment Thou art already a condemned person and thou wantest nothing but the messenger death Speed nothing but an hurdle an horse and an halter as Judge Belknap in Richard the seconds time said of himself to carry thee to thy deserved Execution Psa 64.7 God shall shoot at them with an arrow suddenly shall they be wounded When the Pye is priding her self on the top of a Tree little thinking of a Fowler so near she is fetcht down by a sudden shot It may be thou trusteth to thy youth and strength because thou feelest no infirmity therefore thou fearest no mortality Thou thinkest Death should go to the dead bones and dry breasts to such as see with four eyes and go on three legs but dost thou not know that Death never observeth the Laws of nature As young as thou art thou mayst be rotten before thou art ripe Thy Sun may set at high noon the Jews have a Proverb that the old Ass often carryeth the young Asses skin to the market Blossoms are liable to nipping as well as full grown fruit to rotting Have not several been Married and Buryed in the same week nay drest by the same hands in one day for their Weddings and their Coffins Bensirah the Jew hath a good saying The Bride went into her Chamber and knew not what should befall her there Pro. 27.1 Therefore boast not thy self of to morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth Is it thy strength thou trustest to alas the Leviathan of Death laughs at the shaking of that
breakfast every morning and the table was covered with sackcloth and furnished with the same bitter herbs both at Dinner and Supper For all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning vers 14. Nam quicquid adversi accid t aut carni accidit aut animo Muscul in loc Now the weight of this burden was so great pressing his body and oppressing his mind that without an Almighty power it had broke his back His flesh and his heart failed him 3. Others take the words in a natural sence as if the Prophet did neither intend by them his fault Sunt quibus praesens tempus plaâ—et aliis futurum magis arr det Marl. in loc as some who take them in a spiritual sence nor his fear as those who take them in a civil sence but onely his frailty as if he had said My moysture consumeth my strength abateth my flesh falleth my heart faileth or at least ere long my breath will be corrupt my days extinct and the grave ready for me how happy am I therefore in having God for the strength of my heart Deficit consumâ—tur caro mea cor meum Mollerus Ainsworth reads the words Wholly consumed is my heart and my flesh I shall take the words in this sense as being most sutable to this occasion So far the Thesis now to the Antithesis Robur cordis Calv. But God is the strength of my heart Though my flesh fail me the Father of spirits doth not fail me when I am sinking he will put under his everlasting arm to save me The Seventy read it But God is the God of my heart because God is all strength God in the heart is the strength of the heart Petra cordis Moller The Hebrew carrieth it But God is the rock of my heart e. i. A sure strong and immovable foundation to build upon Though the winds may blow and the waves beat when the storm of death cometh yet I need not fear that the house of my heart will fall for it s built on a sure foundation God is the rock of my heart The strongest child that God hath is not able to stand alone like the Hop or Ivy he must have somewhat to support him or he is presently on the ground Of all seasons the Christian hath most need of succour at his dying hour then he must take his leave of all his comforts on earth and then he shall be sure of the sharpest conflicts from Hell and therefore its impossible he should hold out without extraordinary help from Heaven But the Psalmist had armour of proof ready wherewith to encounter his last enemy As weak and fearful a child as he was he durst venture a walk in the dark entry of death having his Father by the hand Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death I will fear none ill for thou art with me Psa 23. Though at the troubles of my life and my tryal at death my heart is ready to fail me yet I have a strong cordial which will chear me in my saddest condition God is the strength of my heart And my portion It s a Metaphor taken from the ancient custome among the Jews of dividing inheritances whereby every one had his allotted portion as if he had said God is not onely my Rock to defend me from those tempests which assault me and thereby my freedom from evil but he is also my portion to supply my necessities and to give me the fruition of all good Others indeed have their parts on this side the land of promise but the Author of all portions is the matter of my portion my portion doth not lie in the Rubbish and lumbar as theirs doth whose portion is in this life be they never so large but my portion containeth him whom the Heavens and Heaven of Heavens can never contain God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Not for a Year or an age or a million of ages but for eternity Though others portions like Roses the fuller they blow the sooner they shed they are worsted often by their pride and wasted through their prodigality that at last they come to want Quicquid praeter deum possideas non poteris dicere quod pars tua sit futura in sâ— ulum De deo solo dicit fiâ—â—lis Pars mea deus in seculum Muscul in loc and surely death always rents their persons and portions asunder yet my portion will be ever ful without diminution and first without alteration this God will be my God for ever and ever my guide and aid unto death nay Death which dissolveth so many bonds and untieth such close knots shall never part me and my portion but give me a perfect and everlasting possession of it The words branch themselves into these two parts The parts of the Text. First The Psalmist Complaint My flesh and my heart faileth me Secondly His Comfort but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Or we may take notice in them 1. Of the Frailty of his Flesh My flesh and my heart faileth me 2. Of the Flourishing of his Faith But God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever According to the two parts of the Text I shall draw forth two Doctrinal truths Doct. 1 1. Doct. That Mans flesh will fail him The highest the holiest mans heart will not ever hold out The Prophet was great and gracious yet his flesh failed him Doct. 2 2. Doct. That its the comfort of a Christian in his saddest condition that God is his portion This was the strong water which kept the Psalmist from fainting when his flesh and heart failed him I begin with the first The 1. Doct. man is mortal That mans flesh will fail him Those whose spirits are noble will find their flesh but brittle The Psalmist was great yet death made little yea nothing of him like the Duke of Parma's sword it makes no difference between great and small this Cannon hits the great Commanders as well as the Common Souldiers like a violent Wind it plucks up by the roots not onely low Trees but also tall Ceders They who lye in beds of Ivory must lye down in beds of earth Some Letters are set out very gaudily with large flourishes but they are but Ink as the other Some men have great Titles Worshipful Right Worshipful Honourable Right Honourable but they signifie no more with Death then other men they are but moving earth and dying dust as ordinary men are Worship Honour Excellency Highness Majesty must all do homage to the Scepter of this King of Terrors When Constantius entred in triumph unto Rome and had along time stood admiring the Gates Arches Turrets Temples Theaters and other magnificent Edifices of the City at last he ask'd Hormisda what he thought of the place I take no pleasure in it at all saith Hormisda for I see
thy immortal soul against the coming of the bride-groom When thou diest thou throwest thy last cast for thine everlasting estate thou shalt never be allowed a second throw An Error in death is like an Error in the first Concoction which cannot be mended in the second Where thou lodgest that Night thou dyest thou art hous'd for ever That work which is of such infinite weight and can be done but once had need to be done well God hath given thee but one Arrow to hit the mark with Shoot that at randome and he will never put another into thy Quiver God will allow no second Edition to correct the Erratas of the first therefore it concerns thee with all imaginable seriousness to consider what thou doest when thou diest One would think thou shouldst take little comfort in any creature whilst thy eternal state is thus in danger Augustus wondered at the Roman Citizen that he could sleep quietly when he had a great burden of debt upon him What rest canst thou have what delight in any thing thou enjoyest who owest such vast sums to the Infinite Justice of God when he is resolved to have full satisfaction either in this or the other world When David offered Barzillai the pleasures and preferments of his own royal Palace he refused them because he was to die within a while How long have I to live that I should go up with the King unto Jerusalem Let thy servant turn back that I may dye 2 Sam. 19.34 35 36. i. e. Court me no courts I have one foot in the grave my glass is almost run let me go home and dye Without controversie thou hast more cause to wink on these withering comforts and to betake thy self wholly to a diligent preparation for death The Thebans made a law That no man should build a house before he had made his grave Every part of thy life may mind thee of thy death Mortibus vivimus Senec. The Moralist speaks true Thou livest by deaths thy food is the dead carkasses of birds or fish or beasts thy finest rayment is the worms grave before t is thy garment Look to the Heavens the Sun riseth and setteth so that life which now shineth pleasantly on thee will set how much doth it behove thee to work the work of him that sent thee into the world while day lasteth that thou mayst not set in a cloud which will certainly prognosticate thy foul weather in the other world Look down to the Earth there thou beholdest thy mother out of whose womb thou didst at first come and in whose bowels thou shalt ere long be laid The dust and graves of others cry aloud to thee as Gideon to his Souldiers Look on us and do likewise O trim thy soul against that time If thou risest up and walkest abroad in the streets thou seest this house and that seat where such a woman such a man dwelt and lo the place which knew them shall know them no more they are gone and have carried nothing with them but their godliness or ungodliness If thou liest down thy sleep is the image of death thou knowest not whether thou shalt awake in a bed of feathers or in a bed of flames but art certain that shortly thy body shall lye down in the grave and there remain till the resurrection Look on thy companions thou mayst see death siting on their countenances its creeping on them in the deafness of their ears in the dimness of their eys nay it s posting towards them in the very heighth and Zenith of their natural perfections Look on thy own house of clay death possibly looks out at thy windows however it looks in at thy windows thou wearest it in thy face thou bearest it in thy bones and doth it not behove thee to prepare for it Naturalists tell us that smelling of earth is very wholesom for consumptionate bodies O Reader a serious thought of thy death that thou art but dust would be very wholsom for thy declining and decaying soul Hard bones steept in vinegar and ashes grow so soft that they may be cut with a thread Give me leave for one half hour to steep thy hard heart in such a mixture possibly it may be so softned through the operation of the Spirit with the Word Drexel Eternit that thou mayst become wise unto salvation It s reported of one Guerricus that hearing these words read in the Church And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years and he died All the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years and he died And all the days of Enos was nine hundred and five years and he died And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty nine years and he died Gen. 5.5 He was so strongly wrought upon by those words And he died And he died that he gave himself wholly to devotion Friend if thou hast any dram of true love to thy soul and its unchangeable condition in the other world the consideration of death would make a deep impression upon thee But that I may awaken and rouse thee while there is time and hope and then help and heal thee I shall in the prosecution of this Exhortation First Speak to somewhat that may be perswasive Secondly Offer to thee somewhat that is Directive First I shall offer thee some thoughts which may quicken thee to a diligent provision for this time Motives 1 Death will come certainly First Dost thou not know that Death will come certainly As the young Prophet said to Elisha Dost thou know that the Lord will take thy Master from thy head to day 2 Kings 2.3 Reader Dost thou know that the Lord will take thy soul out of thy body and send it to the unknown regions of the other World where thou shalt see such things as thou never sawest hear such things as thou never heardst and understand such things as thou didst never understand Possibly thou wilt answer me as Elisha them I know it hold your peace But truly I am ready to urge it again being assured that thy knowledge is as Cicero speaks of the Athenians like artificial teeth for shew onely thou dost not yet know it for thy good Therefore give me leave to inforce it still Dost thou know that God will bring thee to death and to the house appointed for all the living Dost thou know that thy ruddy countenance will wax pale thy sparkling eyes look gastly thy warm blood cool in thy veins thy marrow dry up in thy bones thy skin shrivel thy sinews shrink nay thy very heart strings crack And hast thou provided never a cordial against this hour Dost thou not read in the writings of God himself That no man hath power in the day of death and there is no discharge in that war Eccles 8.8 No man hath power either to resist deaths force or to procure termes of peace The greatest Emperor with the strength of all his
be found who are more foul but Death will pluck off their masks present them with a true glass in which all the spots and dirt and wrincles in the faces of their hearts and lives will be visible Men flatter them often but Death never flattered any It is observable that Haman the day that he died was called and named according to his desert the Adversary and Enemy is this wicked Haman Hest 7.6 Haman probably had many a Title given him before Some had stiled him Haman the Great Haman the Magnificent Haman the Prince Haman the Vertuous all before nick-named him but when he comes to dye t is Haman the Enemy t is wicked Haman then he is called by his proper name Since he was born he never heard his right name till now The Enemy and Adversary is this wicked Haman So it may be in thy life time thou art stiled Great or Gracious because in place higher then others but when Death comes those gaudy colours will be washt off and thou shalt hear Not the King of Heavens Favourite but his Fool when thou art nigh thy execution as he was it will be not the Worshipful but the Wicked Haman Satan will then play hardest upon thee with his biggest gâ—ns when his time is but little his rage is greatest This is his hour and the power of darkness As the Turkish Emperour when he hath blunted the edge of his Enemies weapons and wearied their arms with thousands of his ordinary Souldiers then falls on with his Janizaries the pride and power of his Kingdom When thou through pain of body and perplexity of mind art least able to resist then the Devil cometh with his fiercest assaults If on thy death-bed thou shouldst think of turning to God he hath a thousand ways to turn thee off from such thoughts When there is but one battel for a Kingdom what wounds and work what fighting and striving is there When the Devil who knoweth thee to be his own already hath but a few hours to wait on thee and then thou art his for ever be assured he will watch by thy sick bed night and day and if all the power and policy of hell can prevent it neither cordial shall benefit thy body nor counsel thy soul Will not this be a trying hour to thee when the cloath shall be drawn and thy bodily comforts all taken off the Table will not death search thee to the quick when those Theives in their frightful vizards all thy sins in that Night will break in upon thee As the Elders of Samaria said of Jehu when he sent to them to prepare and provide to fight with him Two Kings stood not before him and how shall we Adam and Angels could not stand before sin it laid them both low and how wilt thou Beleive it those that have been Lions in peace have carried themselves like Harts in this War Brutus whose blood seemed as warm and to rise to as great a degree of courage as any since the Roman Consuls yet when Furius came to cut his Throat he cryed out like a Child Heathen who saw nothing almost in Death save rottenness and corruption accompanying the body who lookt no farther then the Grave have esteemed Death the King of Terrors The Terrible of Terribles and have been frighted into a Feavor upon the sight of its forerunner But Death is not half so terrible to a moral Heathen as t will be to thee O wicked Christian thou knowest that thy Deaths-day is thy Dooms-day that the Ax of Death will cut the down as fuel for the unquenchable fire that as soon as thou art carried from the Earth thou art cast into Hell Thou presumest that thou shalt behave thy self like a man in the onset with this Enemy but I dare be the Prophet to foretel that thy courage will be less then a Womans in the issue for man man dost thou not know as Pilate said to Christ that Death hath power to kill thee as well as to release thee it can send thy body to the grave and thy soul to the place of endless misery and desperation Fifthly The misery of the unprepared Fifthly Dost thou not know the misery of every carnal man at death In thy life time thou doest the Devils work and when Death cometh he will pay thee thy wages sin at present is a Bee with honey in its mouth but then the sting in its Tail will appear and be felt now thou hast thy savoury Meat and sugered draughts but then cometh the reckoning Some tell us that sweet meats though pleasant to the taste are very heavy in the stomach Sure I am the sweet morsels of sin which now thou feedest so merrily on will then lye heavier then Lead on thy heart and be more bitter then Gall and Wormwood Thou mayst see now and then in this World through the floodgates some drops of wrath leaking in upon thy soul but when Death cometh the Flood-gates will be all puld up and then O then what a torrent of wrath will come pouring down upon thee Here thou sippest of the Cup of the Lords fury but then thou shalt drink the dregs thereof The pains which thou sufferest here are onely an earnest penny of thy eternal punishment It was a cruel mercy which Tamberlane shewed to three hundred Lepers in killing them to rid them out of their misery but Death will be altogether merciless and cruel to thee for it onely freeth thee from the Goal to carry thee to the Gallows t wil deliver thee from Whips but scourge the with Scorpions its little finger will be infinitely heavier then the loyns of this miserable life When God saith to Death concerning thee as Judas to the Jews concerning Christ take him and lead him away safely who can tell the mockings buffetings piercings scourgings the cursed painful and shameful eternal death which will ensue Suppose for thy souls sake in earnest as Turannius did in jest Componi se in lecto velut examinem a circum stante familia plaugi jussit Senec. de Brevit vitae cap. ult who would needs be laid in his bed as one who had breathed out his last and caused his whole family to bewayl his death that thou wert ascending up to thy Chamber whence thou shouldst never come down till carried on mens Shoulders betaking thy self to thy dying bed Thou lookest on thy body and beholdest deaths Harbinger Sickness preparing his way before him O how thy colour comes and goes at the sight of this Ax which the hand of death hath laid at the root of thy tree of life Like the Locust thou art ready before hand to dye at the sight of this Polypus Now thou art laid down on that bed whence thou shalt never rise more Thy next work is to seek for some shelter against this approaching storm thou lookest upward and seest that God full of fury whom thou didst many a time dare to his very face and
2 Sam. 23.5 Mark how the pious King draws all the Wine which made his heart glad in one of his last hours from this Pipe Death is one of the sowrest things in the World and such things require much sugar to make them sweet David found so much honey in the Covenant that therewith he made Death it self a pleasant a desireable Dish If you observe the beginning of the Chapter you will find that his end was near Now these be the last words of David But this this was the quiet and ease of his heart that Gods Covenant with him was everlasting and without end As Death is famous for its terror being King thereof so also for his power it brings down the mighty Princes and Potentates of the Earth Cant. 8.6 Samson was but a Child in Deaths hands hence we read when Scripture would draw strength in its full proportion and length As strong as Death but as strong as Death is David knew it could not break in sunder the Covenant between God and him nor dissolve the union betwixt his Saviour and his soul The firmness of this Covenant being sure footing for faith to stand on is that which puts life into a dying Christian As Death though it parted the soul and body of Christ parted neither of them from the divine nature they were as a Sword drawn by a man the Sword is in one hand separated from the Sheath in the other hand but neither of them separated from the man so though Death break the natural union between the beleivers soul and body it cannot break the mystical union between Jesus Christ and the soul therefore Saints are said to sleep in Jesus 1 Thes 4.14 And truely by the vertue of this Cordial this Covenant they are so far from flying back at the sight of their Foe Death that they can look him in the face with courage and confidence See how they triumph over him as if he were already under their feet O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy Victory 1 Cor. 15.57 58. The sting of Death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God which hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Hark they speak as Challengers daring their disarmed enemy to meet them in the field and they speak as Conquerors being assured through the Captain of their salvation of the victory before they fight Epiphanius faith Epiph. lib. 1. cap 33. that Adam was buried in Calvary where Christ was crucified Sure it is that Christ at Calvary did somewhat which made the Christians bed soft and easie that whereas it would have been a bed of Thorns he turned it into a bed of down and thereby the beleiver comes to lye on it so contentedly and to sleep so sweetly and comfortably By this time Reader I hope thou understandest the necessity and benefit of this relative change With this Covenant thou art armed Cap a pe with armour of proof with the righteousness of Christ which is law proof death proof and judgement proof and leavest Death wholly disarmed and naked Without this thou hast no Weapons and findest Death a man of War In the forequoted place thou seest that sin is the sting of Death and the strength of sin is the Law The Law binds the soul over for disobedience to its precept to its malediction and punishment passeth a sentence of condemnation already upon the creature and beginneth its execution in that bondage and fear as flashes of the unquenchable fire which seize on men in this life Rom. 7.6 John 3.18 Heb. 2.14 And as sin hath its strength from the law the law making it so powerful to curse and condemn so Death hath its strength and sting its venome and vertue to kill and damn to destroy soul and body for ever from sin Sin makes Death so deadly that its the poyson in the cup which makes it so mortal and loathsom a draught Thy work and wisdom therefore is as the Philistinos when they heard that the great strength of Samson the destroyer of their Country lay in his hair were restless till they had cut it off and became weak so now thou hearest wherein the strength of Death the great destroyer and damner of souls consisteth to be unquiet night and day to follow God up and down with sighs and sobs strong cries and deep groans for pardon of sin and to give thy self no rest till thou attainest an interest in this Covenant through Jesus Christ Pious Job though not in thy case was for this cause exceeding importunate for a sense of this pardon And why dost thou not pardon mine iniquity and take away my trasgressions for now shall I sleep in the dust and thou shalt seek me in the morning and I shall not be Job 7. ult He cryeth out as one fallen into a deep dirty ditch or one whose house is fired Water Water for the Lords sake to clease this defiled soul and to quench this scorched conscience Lord Why doth the messenger who useth to come post to me a poor condemned Prisoner with a pardon lingring so long Alas I wish he may not come too late But what is the reason of this importunity for expedition Why Job in his own thoughts was going to appear before his Judge and he durst not venture without a pardon in his hand for now shall I sleep in the dust The child did not dare to go to bed at night till he had asked his Father Blessing and begd and obtained forgiveness of his disobedience in the day Nothing in the whole creation can pacifie the conscience awakened with the guilt of sin and frighted with the fear of death but a pardon in the blood of this Covenant for want of this it was that the Heathen were either desperate or doubtfull in their deaths and their Orator ingeniously confesseth that notwithstanding all the Medicines they could gather out of their own Gardens the Disease was still too strong for the Remedy But a plaister spread with the blood of Christ and applied by faith to the sore is a soveraign and certain cure Faith in Christ is such a Shield that under its protection a Christian may stand in the evil day of Death keep his ground and secure himself from all the shot which the Law Satan or conscience can make against him I am the resurrection and the life He that liveth and beleiveth in me shall live though he dye Joh. 11. Willet Hexapl. in Levit. c. 11. The Death of the King of Saints is the onely comfort and help against Death the King of Terrors It s a strange property which some report of the Charadrion that if any man have the jaundise and look on the bird and the bird on him the bird catcheth the disease and dieth of it but the man recovereth Christ took mans disease and dyed that all who look on him with an eye of Faith might recover and live
heart of man Isai 32.24 Is thy body sick thy soul is sound and so long all is well The inhabitants shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquities Is thy life in danger If thine enemies kill thee they cannot hurt thee they will do thee the greatest courtesie they will do that kindness for thee for which thou hast many a time prayed sighed wept even free thee from thy corruptions and send thee to the beatifical vision When they call thee out to die they do but as Christ to Peter call thee up to the Mount where thou shalt see thy Saviour transfigured and say Let us build Tabernacles O 't is good to be here Though Saul was frantick without a Fidler and Belshazar could not be chearful without his cups yet the Philosopher could be merry saith Plato without musick and much more the Christian under the greatest outward misery What weight can sink him who hath the everlasting armes to support him What want can sadden him who hath infinite bounty and mercy to supply him Nothing can make him miserable who hath God for his happiness Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord. O Christian thou maiest walk so that the world may know thou art above their affrightments and that all their allurements are below thy hopes In particular the Doctrine is comfortable against the Death of our Christian Friends and against our own deaths First It is a comfort against the death of our friends God is a godly mans portion therefore they are blessed who die in the Lord without us and we are happy who live in the Lord without them It s a comfort that they are happy without creatures what wise man will grieve at his friends gain In the ceremonial law there was a year of Jubile in which every man who had lost or sold his land upon the blowing of a trumpet had possession again The deaths-day of thy believing relation is his day of Jubile in which he is restored to the possession of his eternal and inestimable portion Who ever pined that married an Heir in his minority at his coming to age and going to receive his portion Their death is not paenall but medicinal not destructive but perfective to their Souls It doth that for them which none of the ordinances of God nor providences of God nor graces of the Spirit ever yet did for them It sends the weary to their sweet and eternal rest This Serpent is turned into a rod with which God works wonders for their good The Thracians wept at the births of men and feasted at their funerals if they counted mortality a mercy who could see death only to be the end of outward sufferings shall not we who besides that see it to be the beginning of matchless and endless solace A wife may well wring her hands and pierce her heart with sorrow when her Husband is taken away from her and dragd to execution to hell but surely she may rejoyce when he is called from her by his Prince to live at Court in the greatest honours pleasures especially when she is promised within a few days to be sent for to him and to share with him in those joyes and delights for ever Some observe that the Egyptians mourned longer for they mourned 70 dayes for old Jacobs death then Joseph his own Son and the reason is this because they had hopes only in this life when Joseph knew that as his fathers body was carried to the earthly so his Soul was translated to the heavenly Canaan I would not have you ignorant concerning them which are asleep that ye sorrow not even as others that have no hope 1 Thes 4.12 As they are happy without us for God is their portion so we are happy without them We have our God still that stormy wind which blew out our candles did not extinguish our Sun Our Friend when on his or her death-bed might bespeak us as Jacob his Sonnes I die but God shall visit you I go from you but God shall abide with you I leave you but God will find you he will never leave you nor forsake you Reader If God live though thy friends dye I hope thou art not lost thou art not undone May not God say to thee when thou art pining and whining for the death of thy relations or friends as if thou wert eternally miserable as Elkanah to Hannah Am not I better to thee then ten Sons Am not I better to thee then ten Husbands then ten Wives then ten thousand worlds O think of it and take comfort in it 2. It s comfort against our own deaths Secondly It is comfortable against thy own death God is thy Portion and at death thou shalt take possession of thy vast estate Now thou hast a freehold in law a right to it but then thou shalt have a freehold in deed make thy entry on it and be really seised of it It s much that heathens who were purblind and could not see afar off into the joys and plesures of the other world the hopes of which alone can make death truly desireable should with less fear meet this foe then many Christians Nay 't was more difficult to perswade several of those Pagans to live out all their daies then 't is to perswade some amonst us to be willing to die when God calls them Codrus could throw himself into a pit Plut. in vit Vtic. Ca. that his Country might live by his death Cato could against the intreaty of all his friends with his own hands open the door at which his life went out Platinus the Philosopher held mortality a mercy that we might not alwaies be lyable to the miseries of this life When the Persian King wept that all his army should die in the revolution of an Age Artabanus told him that they should all meet with so many and such great evils that they should wish themselves dead long before Lysimachus threatened to kill Theodorus but he stoutly answered the King that was no great matter the Cantharides a little flie could doe as much Cleombrotus having read Plato of the Souls immortality did presently send his own Soul out of his body to try and taste it The bare opinion of the Druides that the Soul had a continuance after death made them hardy in all dangers saith Cesar and fearless of death Câ—s lib. 6. de bell 6. Christians surely have more cause to be valiant in their last conflict and it s no credit to their Father that they are so loth to goe home The Turks tell us that surely Christians do not believe Heaven to be so glorious a place as they talk of for if they did they would not be so unwilling to goe thither It may make the world think the child hath but could welcome at his Fathers house that he lingers so much a broad certainly such bring an ill report upon the good land Christian