his Lungs spent his Breath macerated his boâ—y beating his brains and eating his bread in a worse â—â—eat than that of his brows breaking his sleep burning as in a Feaver of Zeal for God's Honour and the Gospels furtherance and bringing in of stubborn and gainsaying Sinners to Christ weeping in secret and vexing his righteous soul for the evil conversations and froward dispositions of men surely such a one may sadly yet safely say I die daily Or yet again is it Paul the chosen Vessel once a notorious Persecutor now an eminent Saint once a Blasphemer a cruel blood-sucker under whose Tyrannous Agitations many died daily Martyrs for the Truth of Christ once mad against the Church with too much zeal again reputed mad with too much Learning sometimes a Boanerges in his thundering Comminations then a Barnabas in his Consolatory Rhetorick such an one as hath experienced all the methods of the Christian Calling and the perils and persecutions attending that envied Cause such a one as had been in the Deeps by Soul-affliction 1 Cor. 12.2 and in the heights of the third Heaven by Rapture and Revelation one who might glory to the utmost even to the degree of his Apostolate or Saintship as to his excellency in Labours Faculties Gifts or Graces This is he who affirms of himself I even I die daily Now if we find him in this mortified posture considering his Eminency which might be so far doubted as that it put this holy man upon his Oath to attest it sans dispute he may be believed he died daily in his meaner and more ordinary capacities if he was so busie about dying as an Apostle we conclude him so too as a Tent-maker If he died daily as a Saint as the chief of Sinners much more It is enough to ground a President in the case and to render it an acquirable faculty and to determine it the Epitome or Brief of Practical Christianity To die daily But is not this Durus Sermo may we not with Nicodemus in such a case 〈◊〉 60. â— say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How can these things be Can a man die whiles he lives Such sayings are Spirit not Letter Mystery not Demonstration This is a kind of dying which consists in Action not in Cessation in labouring not in rest from Labours Such as in Jacob's expression Gen. 48.21 Behold I die yet he had much to do and 't is the story of another Chapter before he gave up the Ghost noting there is a way of dying for good men before they expire To die in the Text may have a five-fold sense 1. To be in continual jeopardy of death in the foregoing Verse for we are subjected to death every moment by sentence on Adam's sin vers 22. we are under the statute of Mortality in our best and most vigorous strength and sufficiency whiles our Breasts are full of Milk and our Bones full of Marrow we have the sentence of death in our selves and through fear of death Job 21.24 are all our life time subject to bondage we live but as condemn'd persons under reprieve and life being but a span every Inch and Barley-breadth of time is but a respite of the divine patience protracting the Date for our better perfecting our Duty we are sure we carry deaths enough within us as to give our Bodies themselves the denomination of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being incident to deaths stroke as open to deaths sting every moment Nor youth nor strength Rom â— 24 nor wisdom nor wealth nor power nor parts nor sufficiency nor sanctity can exempt nor prevent nor redeem from it And in weakness sickness and old age we are so under the sentence as we are not far from the season of death Thus because of the daily Incidencies it is prudential and pious to reckon upon the daily event And if the Heathens defined life to be continua mortis contemplatio the continual meditation of Death Christians with S. Paul should turn it into diurna expectatio a daily â—â—ing expectation and that 's one sense of the Text. 2. I die imports the vicinity of death Gen. 50.24 Jos ph said I die i. e. I must shortly go hence So Joshua This day I go the way of all the earth Josh 22 â—â— He reckoned his death for that day which happened not long after So Job computes to day Job 16.22 When a few years come I shall go to the place from whence I shall not return Our years which are the largest measure of man's time are but few by Moses his cast Psal 90.10 yet he makes days the Dividend though seventy years be the Quotient of man's life And David reckons by days noting that the longest life is but a day of life the Morning of Youth and Noon of Strength Job 9.25 Job 7.1 and Night of Age. Lord how swift is the revolution As a Post or the swift Ships as the day of an Hireling This holy David thus expresseth I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth Psal 88.15 3. I die is as much as to say I am willing to die It is my indifferency as to the time or manner or place but if it were left to my choice I would desire to be dissolved that I might be with Christ The present Tense is rendred in the Optative Mood In matters of Faith by faith things hoped for are made present Heb. 14.1 and become the matter of Prayer and Option A good Christian is a Voluntier for the Grave Phil. 1.23 'T was S. Paul's choice and Simeon's Prayer Luke 2.29 Having Christ in his Arms who had been so long in his hopes the old Expectant thought it a burden to live longer our Apostle always longing to go hence and seeming long first that which is so much in his expectation is frequent in his Option and that which is so much in option is in daily action and such actions as have a direct tendency to fruition Death naturally considered cannot be the object of Election because it is enmity to nature and no man rationally desires his own dissolution nor death penally considered cannot be the object of man's choice but as the dying Jesus hath unstung it and conquered its Malignity and destroyed him that had the power of death and consecrated Interitum into transitum a passage from earth to Heaven and Introitum the dark Entry to the Mansions of Bliss so to die bodily is a desireable benefit and Grace turns its necessity into election and brings inevitable destination into daily exercise We look for death and so with submission to God's will we long for it not only as a cessation from sufferings and sin and sorrows but as our Translation to eternal life our Convoy to Christ our Change our Removal and we daily labour and give all diligence to be found of Christ Jesus in peace And Job 14.14 all the days of our appointed time we wait till our change come 4. I die imports the Apostles fitness for death Then is a Christian fit to die when he is furnished for a better life and
into security and spiritual deadness whiles life is only lent us and the days of life are lengthned to us only in reference to the fitting and better furnishing us to die at last why do we not put our selves into the daily expectation of and preparation for that which shall shortly put an end to us and our days and duties and all We have daily preparations and appurtenances for those very things which represent our death our journeying our apparelling our sleeping and why not for our dying too We need it much and it is as necessary for us to die daily is to die once we have abundance of sins and corruptiâ—ns to subdue of cares and crosses to manage of Gifts and Graces to improve a great Task and but a little time and it is necessary if we were so convinced to be daily â—â—ing that upon which eternal life and death depend it were no great matter if we had but one death that of the body to forethink of and it were needless to multiply the evil of dying one day by acting it every day for all could not prevent it though we may be the better qualified for it but there is the second death which calls for the preventives of daily mortification lest we die eternally Whoso dies daily when he goes hence no more to return shall carry a good conscience with him for an evil conscience is a worm that never dies and leave a good name behind him and that is very long lived Prov. 12.7 every man is hugely unwilling that his good name should die we are naturally ambitious of being thought of when we are gone those that have not living Monuments to perpetuate them affect to have dead if Absalom have not a Son he will erect a Pillar yet when we have done all time eats all out at last there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten here 's a project then for a lasting Memorial Enoch walked with God and was not for God took him his walking with God did not exempt him from dying daily but engaged him in it and â—is not being here below was his blessedness and his whole story is upon record though in a small Character to the everlasting praise of his Faith Heb. 11.5 It is the Glory of the Christian Life to be daily under the Cross and as Christ once for all died on 't Luk 9.12 so for us daily to bear in our bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus Gal. 6.17.22 who passed to his Glory through the straits of daily sufferings till he finished all upon the Cross of his deadly Passion Et moriendo vicit he conflicted all his life by daily dying he conquered by his death once for all 2 Cor. 4.10 11. Thus by a lively faith in the Holy Jesus we encounter with and overcome our quotidian deaths our afflictions in pursuance of a better life we are in deaths oft Psa 44.22 and slain all day long as it were by piece-meal under the tyranny and troubles of a wordly life and yet are alive unto God and our selves yet it is a kind of death to be deprived of those comforts which are the life of our lives but if it be for the Lords sake in his way and for his ends it is a kind of daily Martyrdom to be accounted as Sheep for the slaughter This then is an excellent means to make our names to be Heirs to our Lives that we live at the rate of this Mystery Eph. 3.9 as in that Fellowship of it always bearing about in the Body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our Body for we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh Lo here a Communion betwixt the dying Jesus and dying Christians in the sense and scope of the Text in his Death and Resurrection The Lord Jesus died in the Body so must we he once we always he bare his dying in the Body patiently and exemplarily on the Cross we must bear it about his dying was by Crucifixion ours by a holy and spiritual Necrosie or Mortification his new life was the manifestation of his Victory and it is manifested in our mortal bodies by new obedience So then our blessed Jesus can best give the rule of dying daily who died for us not only for our Ransom but for our Pattern to satisfie for us by dying and to exemplifie the dying Mystery to us and therefore he redeemed us from death only as to its curse and left us a method of cure and comfort in dying wherein else can death be our gain unless it become our Faculty and daily Trade and if persons bungle in their Calling they lose credit and comfort and custom and profit and all and turn Bankrupts in Religion so as we have need to study this Mystery seriously and practise it sedulously for it is by those that have experienced it a hard work to die both in the body and out of the body Nevertheless it is feasible else it had never been given us in precept or purchase or pattern no doubt that which was done by Christ and S. Paul and many others their succeeding Disciples may in proportion be done by us if we resolvedly set about it Let me give you some Incentives by way of consideration 1. He that dies daily can on no day die suddenly I consider that man is sure that he shall not die suddenly and therefore if Heaven be worth securing it were fit that we should reckon every day the Vespers of Death and therefore that according to the Rites of Grace the day be begun and spent with Religious Offices And if uncertainty of condition be an abatement of felicity and spoils the good we possess no man can be happy that doth not secure his felicity by an habitual and living piety for since God hath not told us when or where or by what means we shall die is it not certain he intended we should be daily ready for that whereof we are in jeopardy every hour A wise man therefore supposeth himself always upon his Death-bed and such a supposition is like making of his will he is not the nearer death for doing it but is the readier for it when it comes and he that daily dies bequeaths his Soul to God his Body to the earth and his Goods to the uses of Righteousness Holiness and Charity S. Jerom said well He deserves not the name of a Christian who lives in such a state in which he would not die And indeed it is a great venture to be in an evil state of life because every day and minute of it hath a danger and therefore such a succession of Actions in every one of which he may as well perish as escape is
will dwell in us long though it have not Dominion Like a rebellious Tenant Rom. 7.17 it keeps possession in spight of the owner till the House be pulled down ever his Head True the Body of Sin hath in the Regenerate received its deaths wound but it is not quite dead there is not the most sanctified Soul but hath some remainders of Corruption left in it enough to require our daily Conflict which God in his wise providence permits for the trying and exercising and humbling of us and for the making his own rich Grace in renewing his pity and multiplying his pardons so much the more exceeding glorious You find now that dying is a Duty and it is as necessary as our Bread this is daily in our petition as it is daily in our need Dying ought to be daily in our practice as it is daily at our Doors We had need to set death before us under the easiest most familiar and feasible considerations as the days of a mans life come about quickly and one of those days is the Boundary of our Cares so let it be of our diligence so to number them as to apply our hearts to this wisdom of dying daily That which must be of necessity once should be admitted into our frequent account and exercise Let us look upon dying as the Christians Business and not as the Creatures Curse and labour to attain the Art oft that we may bear the painful stroke the better The day will come ere long when it will be in vain to say I have no mind to die or I have no leisure or I am not ready not yet I 'll think on 't What if Esay's Message to Hezekiah were sent thee â— King 20. â— Set thine house in order for thou shalt die and not live Wouldst thou not rather live and die too Heb. 2.13 Luke 12. â—â— 'T is possible you see but what if it should be said Hâc nocte then Donec cognominatur hodie had sounded better Die whiles it is called to day thou fool for this night thy soul shall be taken from thee To die once is our Destiny and to die daily our Duty why should we not bring them into our familiar acquaintance the day of dying is not far from us by dying daily we bring it to our hand 't is in our natures why should it not be so much in our expectations as to be daily in our exercise The spirit of God every where speaks of it in reference to the Saints in the most comfortable and grateful expressions as of that which we have daily in our use and observation We ascribe this to the influence of the dying Jesus who hath so embalmed yea and cloathed Mortality by the dress of Holy Language that there is even a Sweetness Beauty and Blessing in it when a man hath worn a Suit of Apparel a great while even until it be thread-bare or it becomes foul and unseemly would he not be glad to put that off and get a new Garment on his Back therefore death is called an uncloathing 2 Cor. 5.2 3 4. a putting off the Flesh and in answer to that corporal Divesture the spiritual disapparelling is so also called Eph. 4.22 a putting off the old man with his deceivable lusts and there is no hurt in that we are willing to change and shift daily When a man hath tired himself all the day at his work would he not gladly go to Bed and our sinful course is so laborious and wearisome as that it is never well with us till we come to our rest and that 's no where to be had but in Christ Matth. 1â— 28 Do we not betake our selves to our rest every Evening therefore our death is called our sleep and if we daily need our sleep 1 Cor. 15.20.51 why are we not daily solicitous for our rest and refreshment in Jesus under these apprehensions the Holy Spirit would have us bury all hard thoughts of Dying and that we would familiarise it into our daily endeavours so to practise how to die to day that we need not fear to die to morrow the main reason of the terribleness of Death is that Mortals look on it at a greater distance than it is and it is of a more ghastly and formidable aspect to those that are strangers to it And indeed what Israelite is not apt to run at the sight of this Goliah the fear of dying is natural and so far from being evil that it was incident unto the Son of God who was heard in that he feared Christianity serves not to destroy but rectifie nature and Grace regulates this passion in us and corrects its exorbitances never intending to root it out And this is the method of Grace by daily exercise to master this fear though we cannot avoid it Whiles my fear apprehends â—ust terror in the face of death let my Faith carry me to the crucified Jesus who hath both overcome and sweetned it let me in the exercise of that Faith daily set my self against sin and world and flesh and Devil and the terrors of Death disband It is an excellent Christian Temper always to dwell in the Voysinage of the Grave as we do in our frailty so should we in our faith and hope and humble preparations lie at deaths door and though nature is loath to long for the Grave because she holds dissolution her greatest enemy for what can she abhor more than a not being yet Faith perswades that to die is gain Would we not carefully trade every day in that which is lucrous Phil. 1.21 and profitable Let us therefore come into S. Paul's practice of daily living so as dying may be advantageous we have fair respite given us in life which at best is but a span God might shorten it into an Inch but that he lengthens the day in order to further our work and that which is sanctified by the dying Saviour for our cessation is required as our uncessant Employ 'T is a woful Conversion that we read The sting of death is sin and again The sting of sin is death both meet in man to make him miserable death could not have stung us neither had it been at all in the world had it not been for sin and sin though in it self extremely hainous yet were not so dreadful if it paid not so horrible Wages How do we owe our selves to the Mercy of our Saviour who hath freed us from the evil of both having pulled out the sting of death that it cannot hurt us and having taken such course with the sting of sin which is death that instead of hurting it shall be exceeding helpful and is translated into our daily duty and benefit Into what a safe condition hath the Lord of Life put us as that we may daily be exercised about sin and death without dread or danger O let not the patience and sparing Mercies of God be longer abused by us